Streetfilms Screening & Conversation with “Gridlock” Sam Schwartz!
Clarence Eckerson Jr & “Gridlock” Sam Schwartz, photo Matthew Capowski/Hunter College
On December 3rd, I was invited by Hunter College and Sam Schwartz to present an evening of Streetfilms showing off some of the newest and boldest street designs in Paris, London, Montreal and Stockholm. So that means wonderful things we’ve been covering for years like school streets, daylighting, low traffic neighborhoods (LTN) and pedestrianized business areas.
Sam and I had some really fun banter and flashbacks plus ample interesting Q&As from the audience of over 100 at the Roosevelt House. It was a nicely-paced evening with lots of dialogue. Below you can watch the entire presentation but to skip directly to the presentation and hear me and Sam, use this: https://youtu.be/UGnZVR9-tuM?si=1aa5p51Vi9TwTugf&t=2666 (or if you play the below embed start at 44:26 in!)
Let me just mention that over the years, Sam has been in at least a dozen Streetfilms and many of those were about pushing NYC to do congestion pricing and some on better streets featuring protected bike lanes. However there were some really fun Streetfilms too, for instance check out Sam in this mega-cool moment celebrating the 100 year anniversary of the Queensboro Bridge (shhhh, not mentioning the other name for it.) This was frequently one of the coolest things about my job - getting invited to fun invite-only stuff like closing a major bridge for a few hours. (And my wife is in the video too!)
Anyway, see below for some selected photos from the event. I was so honored so many NYC long-time greats were in attendence. And thank you to Kelly McGuinness, the Sam Schwartz Transportation Research Program, the staff of the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College, Daniel Culklin and to Matthew Capowski who took all these nice pictures below in the gallery.
Clarence Eckerson Jr & “Gridlock” Sam Schwartz, photo Matthew Capowski/Hunter College
