In this clip, Aaron Naparstek of Streetsblog, standing at the intersection of Third Avenue and Baltic Street in Brooklyn where four year old James Nyprie Rice was killed in a crosswalk while walking with his aunt talks candidly about long delayed safety improvements for the area.

Last night, Noah Budnick of Transportation Alternatives was a guest on Brian Lehrer Live, the hour long, weekly talk show on CUNY-TV. Brian and Noah discussed bicycling and transportation issues and during the segment, Brian played three StreetFilms clips!

One of the clips he played was from our Separated Bike Lanes piece which has now been watched a combined 30,000+ times both here and on YouTube.

You can download the Brian Lehrer Live episode FREE via their feed or through Apple’s iTunes. This week’s show is not up yet, but should be available soon.

On another note, director Alfonso Cuarón has put together a fascinating documentary on the DVD release of Children of Men. The Open Planning Project recieved an Additional Footage Provided credit for providing some StreetFilms.

Anyone who lives near Brooklyn’s Grand Army Plaza knows it is a nightmare to navigate if you are a pedestrian or cyclist. And with its proximity to Prospect Park it’s also an area with vast potential for becoming one of the most popular public spaces in Brooklyn.

The Grand Army Plaza Coalition formed in the Spring of 2006 to help improve the area. Community driven, it is a prime example of how the public planning process should work and how the Department of Transportation should support such efforts from citizens to improve their quality of life. After all: no one knows a neighborhood better than the people who live there.

Recently, fifty members of the community met to brainstorm ideas of how to make the plaza safer, more accessible, greener, and people-oriented. The workshop was facilitated by Project for Public Spaces, which specializes in community Placemaking activities.

A few weeks back I happened to be strolling through the Fulton Mall in Downtown
Brooklyn with my camera. I turned onto Red Hook Lane and was amazed by what I
saw. The incredible parking abuses by everyone from government officials to
local dentists represent an unprecedented disrespect for our parking laws and
street space.

I was moved to investigate further, and in my research found out some things
about Red Hook Lane that lend an interesting historical perspective to the
permit abuses there. In this context, the overwhelming disregard for
pedestrians seems even more inappropriate.

Continue reading this entry »

I’d like to think we had a little something to do with this.

In March 2007, The Project for Public Spaces‘ Fred Kent visited Chicago to meet with many of the key leaders in the Livable Streets movement. Kit Hodge, who was a key figure with NYCSR’s birth in NYC, arranged several meetings and presentations - including a very productive, private meeting with Cheri Heramb, the Commissioner of Chicago DOT.

It’s apparent that Chicago is on its way to developing and implementing key strategies that will transform its streets into safer, interactive public places. Just one is Mayor Richard Daley’s Pedestrian Advisory Council of which Heramb is a co-chair. But even more vital is the air of cooperation and openess that exists in the city government to make a good faith effort to work with communities and advocates to change Chicago for the better.

Shoup, here he is!

World-regarded as an expert on parking policy, UCLA Urban Planning Professor Dr. Donald Shoup is the author of The High Cost of Free Parking, a publication so popular among scholars and devotees that he attracts groupies known as Shoupistas at book signings!

According to Dr. Shoup, free parking is the root problem of many of the ills that face our biggest cities. He posits that reforming parking policy will lead to a better pedestrian environment, cleaner streets and air, safer downtown shopping districts, and - yes - even less headaches for drivers trying to find that ever elusive curb space.

In March 2007, Dr. Shoup paid a visit to NYC to enlighten city leaders with his research. Here’s part of a taped chat with The Open Planning Project’s Mark Gorton.

Most advocates believe that two-way streets function better for pedestrians, cyclists, commerce, and livable streets. In fact all across the country, hundreds of cities are changing one-way streets back to two-way.

But in Park Slope, Brooklyn, the NYC Department of Transportation - without any community input or stated reason - has developed a plan to turn two-way 6th & 7th Avenues into one-way corridors for traffic like 8th Avenue. In this StreetFilm, advocates from each of the NYC Streets Renaissance partners show just how much 8th Avenue differs in its street geometry and car speeds and how it would impact neighborhood life on 6th and 7th Avenues.

What’s going on in Park Slope, Brooklyn is a microcosm of the war that is being waged all over NYC: communities with smart ideas, good intentions and the capacity for volunteerism are being completely ignored by the Department of Transportation in the planning process.

Yesterday, Sean and I went out to cover a public planning workshop run by the Project for Public Spaces for the Grand Army Plaza Coalition. About 50 people got up way too early on a Saturday morning to give four hours of their time to walk around and brainstorm how Grand Army Plaza could better function for pedestrians - and serve as a more vibrant space.

It was an amazing example of community-based planning. The energy in the room was electric. The ideas were diverse. People had fun.

And yet with this kind of activist atmosphere, Thursday the DOT is presenting a plan to the same community to turn two-way neighborhood streets into one-way highway corridors. (Streetsblog has the nitty gritty.) People are upset - and rightfully so - since the rest of the country is moving in the opposite direction when it comes to livable communities.

Fear not, we are hard at working cranking out some videos on both these vital newsmakers to post this week. Stay tuned.