Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about Op/Ed

Going Nowhere Fast

By Sarah Goodyear | Mar 26, 2007 | 22 Comments

This weekend’s City section of the New York Times featured a mind-blowing essay by children’s-book writer Sarah Shey about her habit of taking her one-year-old son out for drives in the city — drives with no destination or purpose in mind, in which she crossed and recrossed the Brooklyn Bridge endless times. Shey, who is […]

Mayor Bloomberg at the Crossroads: Who Will Run DOT?

By Aaron Naparstek | Mar 20, 2007 | 13 Comments

With DOT Commissioner Iris Weinshall set to depart city government in three weeks, sources say that Mayor Michael Bloomberg is close to announcing her replacement. The Mayor’s choice will have a profound impact on day-to-day neighborhood life as well as the City of New York’s long-term future. Though the DOT commissioner job search has barely […]

The Iris Weinshall Legacy: Queens Boulevard

By John Kaehny | Mar 2, 2007 | 6 Comments

"What became clear to me in this discussion was that the engineers were thinking from the motorists’ viewpoint." — Iris Weinshall, New York Newsday, April 29, 2001 A long walk across Queens Blvd. at Grand Ave., Elmhurst, circa March 2001. Photo: Jeff Saltzman Departing Department of Transportation Commissioner Iris Weinshall often cites the pedestrian […]

A Weekend Subway Ride With Robert Moses

By Aaron Donovan | Feb 26, 2007 | 15 Comments

I entered a turnstile in the Financial District on Saturday, bound for the Upper West Side. The 2 train was running on the east side and the 3 wasn’t running at all below 14th Street. So I went instead to the A and the C platform. The C train wasn’t running, period. With the C train out and the 2 and 3 trains […]

Parochial Thinking Amid Ominous Signs

By Aaron Donovan | Dec 12, 2006 | 1 Comment

The Committee to Keep NYC "Congestion Tax Free." Front row, left to right: John Corlett, Automobile Club of New York; Ray Irrera, Queens Chamber of Commerce; Council Member David Weprin; Lobbyist Walter McCaffrey; Joe Conley of Queens Community Board 2. Ominous warnings relating to energy consumption have come recently from people on both ends of the political spectrum. The free-marketeers at […]

Sacrificing Central Park to Appease the Traffic Gods

By Ken Coughlin | Nov 22, 2006 | 11 Comments

The Dept. of Transportation’s 2005 study showed there is no need to eliminate car-free hours during the holidays. So why did they do it this year? Every November, year after year, the city sends two contradictory messages to motorists. On the one hand, it urges all those coming to the city during the holiday season to use […]

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