NYC Streets Renaissance with Jan Gehl
Tuesday night it was standing room only as hundreds turned out for the NYC Streets Renaissance's event with Jan Gehl at the Jewish Community Center on the Upper West Side.
Here we present a very brief recap featuring many voices in the community and sound bites of what some Upper West Siders would like to see happen on their streets.
This was such a great event. Thanks to the NYC Streets Renaissance Campaign for organizing it.
I asked Jan Gehl afterwards to compare his experience in NYC to the other cities he's worked in. He was hugely positive. He said NYC has a far more active civic culture. He couldn't believe the number of civic groups and organizations (read: NYC Streets Renaissance, Transportation Alternatives, TimesUP!, etc) that exist in the city. He was amazed at the enlightenment of philanthropists and the New York business community (it's private donations that are paying for his consulting work to the city). To my surprise, he also said the political leadership of the city is far more forward-looking and progressive than their counterparts in London. London's progress, in his opinion, is a result of one figure -- Ken Livingstone -- and the catalyzing effect of the 2012 Olympics.
All in all, he was glowing about NYC. He said how welcome he felt, how receptive the city was to his ideas, how impressed he was that the city's politicians are determined to get the ball rolling before Bloomberg's tenure is up.
Mark Gorton, Paul Steely White and Janette Sadik-Khan, in addition to thousands of citizen volunteers, deserve a lot of credit for turning around the city's transportation policies.