Today's Fresh Blogs...

• Bike Parking on Steroids

  Published: July 27, 2007, 2:00 pm

  Tags: Out Of Town, Transportation Policy, Urban Planning, Parking, Street Films, Bicycling

  "Cyclists are so used to doing with scraps and they've been that way for so long that they are shocked when they get anything that satisfies their needs."Barry Bonds may almost have the home run record, but the San Francisco Giants have another milestone that is much more admirable: the first free, convienent, attended bike

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• New Blog Aimed at Tearing Down Bronx “Highway to Nowhere”

  Published: August 6, 2007, 3:38 pm

  Tags: Parks, Transportation Policy, Waterfront, Trucks, Urban Planning, Air Quality, Quality Of Life, The Bronx, Development, Livable Streets, Public Health

  Sheridan Swap is a new blog by the South Bronx River Watershed Alliance. The blog is dedicated to converting the one mile of little-used highway that runs along the Bronx River into affordable housing, parkland, a waterfront greenway and economic opportunity for one of the city's most beleaguered neighborhoods. Why is the campaign picking up

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• Hello, Dolly!

  Published: August 7, 2007, 3:33 pm

  Tags: Urban Planning, Parking, Development, Brooklyn, Traffic Enforcement

  July 29. A Dept. of City Planning placard on the dashboard ensured that the no summonses would mar the windshield of this collector's car. The Porsche, the tipster says, belongs to City Planning Commissioner Dolly Williams. Parking in front of fire hydrants is the least of Williams problems. Brooklyn's sole

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• Emeryville - the Bane of Oakland?

  Published: August 13, 2007, 2:04 am

  Tags: East Bay, Berkeley, Walking, Oakland, Urban Planning

  Tonight I went grocery shopping. Sounds pretty innocent, right? Unfortunately, unless an Oaklander wants to frequent Safeway or the corner liquor store, it’s pretty impossible to do this in Oakland. So I hopped in my car (my first guilt-ridden act of the night) and drove to Emeryville (my second) to shop at Trader Joe’s. Yes, it was

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• For Your Weekend Viewing Pleasure: Portland!

  Published: August 17, 2007, 4:02 pm

  Tags: Out Of Town, Urban Planning, Street Films, Quality Of Life

  Portland: Celebrating America's Most Livable CityA StreetFilm by Clarence Eckerson Jr.Running time: 30:00 StreetFilms videographer Clarence Eckerson Jr. offers the director's cut of his trip to Portland. Clarence made the visit to Oregon last fall, enjoying the hospitality of the Portland Office of Transportation.

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• The Urban Transportation Report Card

  Published: August 20, 2007, 11:30 am

  Tags: Air Quality, Transit, Urban Planning, Parks, Transportation Policy, Livable Streets, Buses, Car Culture, Bicycling, Pedestrian Safety, Public Health, Quality Of Life, Studies Amp 038 Reports

  and Seattle to issue the Urban Transportation Report Card (PDF), which rates these cities' progress on greening their transportation systems. The report notes that transportation accounts for 20-60% of carbon emissions in major U.S. cities, so it is very encouraging that in each city the most significant growth occurred in bicycling,

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• Speak Up for an Accessible Car-Free High Bridge

  Published: August 21, 2007, 1:05 pm

  Tags: Parks, Walking, Urban Planning, Manhattan, Car Free Parks, The Bronx, Bicycling

  In other parks news, as reported on Streetsblog in June, the car-free High Bridge is poised to undergo a long-awaited restoration. Built as part of the Croton Aqueduct, the bridge connects Washington Heights in Manhattan with the Bronx neighborhood of High Bridge, near Yankee Stadium. In April, during his PlaNYC unveiling,

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• Telegraph is Ready to Grow

  Published: August 21, 2007, 9:01 pm

  Tags: Public Transit, Walking, Oakland, Urban Planning, Community

  in North Oakland. The planning commission will soon be considering updating zoning in Temescal, including raising height limits on buildings: To fulfill the goals of the General Plan, it is absolutely imperative that the city bring its zoning in line with what private-sector developers want and need. Currently, every single project in the

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• Central Park 66th Street Transverse Is Unsafe

  Published: August 22, 2007, 1:45 pm

  Tags: Carnage, Urban Planning, Parks, Commuting, Livable Streets, Upper East Side, Traffic Calming, Bicycling, Public Health, Upper West Side, Issues Amp 038 Campaigns

  A Streetsblog reader brings us an update on the case of the cyclist killed last December in the Central Park Transverse, through information obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request. In the documents sent to Streetsblog, it shows that the motor vehicle "struck the bicyclist as both vehicles attempted to merge into the

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• Transit-Oriented America, Part 5: Wrap-Up

  Published: August 24, 2007, 10:18 am

  Tags: Transportation Policy, Out Of Town, Urban Planning, Transit

  Thanks all for reading and commenting on our non-motorized honeymoon travel series (see parts 1, 2, 3 and 4). Below is a table Susan put together to briefly summarize some of our observations on the cities we visited.   Transit Bike

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• Take the NYC Neighborhood Quality of Life Survey

  Published: September 4, 2007, 12:26 pm

  Tags: Urban Planning, Livable Streets, Quality Of Life

  Citizens for NYC, whose mission is to stimulate and support self-help and civic action to improve the quality of life in New York City neighborhoods, invites you to participate in their new Neighborhood Quality of Life Survey.  This is your chance to report on your neighborhood's air quality, capacity for open spaces, its facilities

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• Last Day for High Bridge Survey

  Published: September 7, 2007, 3:08 pm

  Tags: Washington Heights, Walking, Parks, Urban Planning, The Bronx, Manhattan, Bicycling

  In addition to the subway, the Metro-North, and the ferry, baseball spectators should have another non-auto option to get to the new Yankee Stadium: a restored car-free High Bridge. The High Bridge merits attention today not only due to the current parking controversy, but also because it's the last day of the Parks

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• DOT Launches Gehl Street Survey Project

  Published: September 12, 2007, 11:37 am

  Tags: Out Of Town, Urban Planning, Urban Design, Livable Streets

  has retained Danish urbanist Jan Gehl's firm to evaluate city streets and other public spaces. Streetsblog first reported this development as a possibility back in June, when we interviewed Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan. Not long after, we got word that Gehl had been hired by the city as a PlaNYC consultant. DOT is now looking

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• Idiot's Guide to the Hudson Yards Building Bonanza

  Published: September 13, 2007, 11:43 am

  Tags: Manhattan Midtown West Times Square, Real Estate Development, Urban Planning

  The map of the day comes via the Real Deal, which details every major project and land buy near the Hudson Yards. Some we've already discussed, such as Extell's plans for Steven Holl's Towering S (#24) and the McSam Midtown West hotel empire (#11). All in all, a must read to get you up to speed on what will be the biggest construction pit in town.

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• New Look Newsstands Join Bus Shelters on the Streets

  Published: September 13, 2007, 11:40 am

  Tags: City Life, Urban Planning

  So, odds are you're going to run into one of these new newsstands designed by Grimshaw Architects very soon. Fourteen have made an appearance so far, mostly on the Upper West Side. If they look familiar, it's because they're cousins of the new bus shelters appearing everywhere. A Spanish company called Cemusa is putting in 330 newsstands and

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