First things first. David Yassky's status update beats what we've seen from Marty Markowitz, hands down. And if anyone in the City Council can credibly claim the mantle of bike advocate, it's Yassky: a steady voice in support of a car-free Prospect Park and forceful proponent of the Bikes in Buildings Bill. But this gesture of solidarity would sure feel a lot stronger if Yassky had stood with cyclists trying to preserve safety improvements on Kent Avenue, instead of giving his signature to the parking chauvinists attempting to roll back those advances.
A zoning change that would provide better bike parking options in new buildings is wending its way through the city's public review process, which means 59 community boards have a chance to vote on it. The Queens Gazette reports from the goings on at CB1, which encompasses Astoria and Long Island City:
"I see no purpose to this [zoning] text change," said Community Board 1
chairperson Vinicio Donato. Board 1 voted down the zoning amendment, 25
to 8 (one abstention). The bicycle parking proposal is being voted on
citywide by all community boards. After the boards' vote, DCP will hold
a public hearing in January and the City Council has the final vote.
There you have it. Even after hearing a City Planning presentation explaining how better bike parking options would reduce congestion, improve air quality, and boost public health, Donato -- who has chaired CB1 since 1975 -- claims not to see the point of providing secure places for people to put their bikes. His stance may have no binding authority, but Donato's board is assumed to speak for the community at large.
Note that CB1's zoning and variance committee did approve the bike parking measure. The whole situation is reminiscent of the Vernon Boulevard bike lane discussion last summer. Back then, CB1 refused to put the measure to a vote in a general meeting, opting instead to send a letter of opposition to DOT and local electeds.
We've seen determined activism from the Inwood and Washington Heights Livable Streets Group gradually pay dividends in northern Manhattan's CB12. Transportation Alternatives' Queens Committee has been just as active in western Queens. Will persistent local support for livable streets start to sway CB1?
NYU's Brennan Center for Justice just published an update of the famous 2004 report that described in excruciatingly precise detail just how deeply lousy New York State government has become. I haven't had the chance to read it yet but the title of the 2008 edition pretty much sums it up: "Still Broken."
New York’s government is still a secretive, boss-driven,
anti-democratic disgrace.... Legislative leaders, especially Assembly Speaker Sheldon
Silver, have had “a stranglehold on the flow of legislation at all
stages of the legislative process.” Most members have little say. Committees are run like shadow puppet theaters. Details about
legislation are hard for the public to get, unless they subscribe to a
bill-drafting service for $2,250 a year.
Last Sunday in New York, the Street Memorial Project organized a ride in memory of the 14 bicyclists and more than 100 pedestrians killed by cars in the city in 2008. You can see the StreetFilm about the ride here.
In Portland, OR, they marked a much happier milestone this New Year's. That's because 2008 was a year in which no cyclists died on that city's streets. Streetsblog Network member Bike Portland talked with the Portland BOT's "chief traffic safety guru," Greg Raisman, to get some insight into why and how it happened.
In an interview with Bike Portland's Jonathan Maus, Raisman makes the point that safe streets are by no means just good for bikers and pedestrians:
All traffic fatalities are a symptom of the same disease. It’s equally sad and tragic if a person is killed while walking, biking, or driving. It also appears that the conditions that make it safer for the most
vulnerable make it safer for everyone. As roads become safe enough that a child can safety walk or bike to their friend’s house, the roads also become safer for driving to that friend’s house when you have to.
His attitude is inspirational.
Elsewhere on the network, Car Less Ohio reports on Columbus's efforts to become the "best bicycling city in the country," Greater Greater Washington posts on how urban bike trails aren't just for recreation, and The Transport Politic updates the banks/transit financial mess.
Yesterday New Yorkers gathered on city streets to honor those killed while walking or biking in the past year. Organized by the Street Memorial Project, three rides and one march converged at Delancey and the Bowery, where Rasha Shamoon was struck and killed while biking home this August. Streetfilms' Elizabeth Press files this account of the tribute to 14 fallen cyclists and more than 100 pedestrians who lost their lives.
The Daily News, Gothamist, and the Village Voice also covered the day's events. Speaking to Rasha Shamoon's sisters, Saba and Suhair, the Voice's Roy Edroso brings home the need for tougher NYPD traffic enforcement and more thorough investigation of fatalities:
Suhair hopes that the memorials will "change police
protocol" in bike accidents, she said. "Nine out of ten times they
assume it's the fault of the rider. And that's not how it is... they
should talk to other people in the area if they're willing to give a
statement, and take more caution at the scene and not just move things
just because traffic gets backed up," as they did in her sister's case,
which she feels adversely affected the investigation
"It was really hard to get answers" about the accident,
said Saba's husband Jeff. He said that, in the reports the family saw,
the police only took statements from the driver and two of his friends,
and there were "no consequences" to the driver as a result of the
investigation.
The reinstalled detour sign on Kent Avenue. Photo via Gothamist.
The controversy over the new bike lanes on Kent Avenue in Williamsburg (which recently resulted in the ouster of livable streets activist Teresa Toro as chair of the CB1 transportation committee) was chronicled in the New York Times over the weekend:
New York City has created more than 100 miles of bicycle lanes in recent years to encourage and accommodate the number of people who, compelled by a desire to preserve the environment or preserve their bank accounts, have taken to getting around on two wheels.
But the effort to turn the city into a place that embraces bicyclists has clashed with a long-entrenched reality — New York is a crowded, congested urban landscape where every patch of asphalt is coveted.
Gothamist has been following one of the most surreal aspects of the Kent Avenue drama—the ups and downs of the very unofficial "detour" sign pictured above, part of the anti-bike-lane campaign. On private property, it advises drivers that school buses will block the street and the bike lane while picking up and dropping off children. As of Dec. 31st, it was back up. As Gothamist writes, "The big question now is whether the city cares enough to step in and take it down."
As Inauguration Day gets closer, talk on the Streetsblog Network is turning back to the stimulus bill being pushed by the new administration. On Saturday, President-elect Obama once again talked to the nation about how he wants to pump federal dollars into infrastructure spending. And once again, while he singled out roads and bridges as worthy of investment, the words "transit" and "rail" never passed his lips. Should we be worrying about this? Or are we trying to read too much into these highly stylized YouTube pronouncements?
The stimulus won't ignore transit entirely, and some funding for rail and bus projects will likely be in there. The bigger concern is the politics — if Obama keeps leaving rail out when he describes
fundamental national priorities, it's going to be that much harder to make the policy changes we embarked upon in 2008 stick. At some point Obama is going to have to use the bully pulpit to help Americans see that rail must become a much more central part of our transportation and economic policy. It would be good if he did that at the outset of his administration.
Instead I am hearing reports that policy change will come later in 2009 when the Transportation Equity Act (TEA)
comes up for reauthorization.
[T]he fight over whether to spend more of the stimulus on highways versus
mass transit may also come down to the interests of those making
asphalt versus steel.
One thing is clear: There's a lot of advocacy work to be done for sustainable transportation in 2009. If you haven't already, go over to Transportation for America's site and sign their petition urging the new administration to make smart choices with the stimulus funding.
Of course, reading the stimulus TEA leaves isn't the only thing the network is doing. Sustainable Savannah has a terrific piece on the American car addiction, the WashCycle is following a story on police surveillance of bike-lane advocates, and getDowntown reports on how churches in and around Ann Arbor, MI, are asking for better transit.
Movement of the Year: This year we saw cities across the U.S competing to run the first, biggest and best Bogota-style Ciclovia events. San Francisco debuted Sunday Streets (after local activists sat Mayor Gavin Newsom down in front of Streetfilms' Ciclovia video and sold him on the idea), Portland and Chicago both called it Sunday Parkways, in south Florida it was Bike Miami and, of course, New York City experienced the phenomenal Summer Streets.
Best International Transportation Concept: The huge success of Paris's Velib has made it so that if you are a big city mayor and you want to be considered "green" you've got to have a public bike-sharing program in the works.
National Policy Idiots of the Year:Texas Gov. Rick Perry opens the rebuilt Katy Freeway proclaiming 18 lanes of "freedom" while Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin whip Republican crowds into a "Drill, baby, drill!" frenzy.
Maybe There is Hope After All Award: Obama dismisses Clinton and McCain's gas tax holiday "gimmick"
one week before the Indiana and North Carolina primaries and with gas
prices hovering somewhere around $4 -- and people still vote for him.
Welcome to the Future Award:Atlanta motorists used Twitter to locate service stations that haven't run out of gasoline.
Most Inexplicably Popular Streetfilm: "Hal (and Kerri) Grade Your Bike Locking." It's a smash hit with 24,000 views since being posted at the end of April...
Best Livable Streets Rap Video: "Bikes on Board" by Louisville, Kentucky bus mechanic and m.c. Mr. Theo and his back-up singers, the TARCettes.
Best Public Service Video: Transport for London's "Awareness Test."
America's Baddest Livable Streets Activists:Los Angeles's Crimanimalz.
It turns out the 405 and Interstate 10 are somewhat practical bike
routes during rush hour. When is someone going to try the BQE with a
camera on their helmet?
Coolest New Web App: New York City cyclists get their own online route mapping service with Ride the City.
Professional Athlete of the Year: Baltimore Orioles pitcher and regular bike commuter Jeremy Guthrie.
Most disturbing photo: Paul "The Fixie Flasher" White bikes over the Brooklyn Bridge.
NIMBY of the Year: All in all, it was a tough year for the not-in-my-backyard crowd. Despite their occasional protests, New York City's streets and neighborhoods continued to improve for pedestrians, cyclists and bus. Still, there were some standouts:
Manhattan Community Board 4 member Allen Roskoff wins an honorable mention for arguing that Chelsea's gay community would no longer "feel at home" on 8th Avenue because of DOT's new, separated
bike path plan.
In Windsor Terrace, Randy Peers, Alvin Berk and Assemblyman Jim Brennan earn special commendation for trying to argue that routing motor vehicle traffic through Prospect Park is actually good for the environment.
City Council candidate Isaac Abraham and some members of South Williamsburg's Hasidic community also win an honorable mention for their contention that the new bike lanes on Kent Avenue -- installed with overwhelming Community Board approval following a painstakingly inclusive, decade-long community-driven process to create a Brooklyn waterfront greenway -- would bring too many scantily clad women through the neighborhood. Abraham showed the kind of leadership he'd bring to the Council when he urged his fellow motorists to harrass and endanger Williamsburg cyclists.
But the hands-down winner of our coveted NIMBY of the Year award is Sean Sweeney of the SoHo Alliance. With bike, bus and public space improvements proliferating throughout Lower Manhattan, Sweeney had a busy year trying to maintain his neighborhood's traffic-choked status quo. Though his protests of the Prince and Grand St. bike lanes have gone nowhere (thusfar), he managed to kill "the Department of Tyranny's" proposal for a car-free Prince Street weekend trial project, in part, by raising the ominous specter of neighborhood streets overrun by mimes. Well played, sir! You may disagree with Sweeney but you've got to respect him for being a hardworking neighborhood activist. He's also sporting enough to mix it up in the Streetsblog comments section. For all of that and, I'm sure, much more in 2009, Sean Sweeney (below) is our NIMBY of the Year.
Saddest Excuse for Journalism: When it came to the two biggest
transportation stories of the year -- congestion pricing and the MTA's
canyon of a budget gap -- New Yorkers were not particularly well served
by their local media. Of all the reporters that accepted Richard Brodsky's populist claptrap as gospel or zeroed in on $30,000 in travel perks for the MTA Board as the agency stared down a $1,200,000,000 deficit, Fox 5 reporter John Deutzman stands out. Deutzman is the brave soul who ambushed MTA chief Lee Sander
while he was getting a shoe shine at Grand Central and peppered him
with questions about his personal commuting habits. Just when you
thought the level of discourse about MTA finances had already reached
rock bottom.
Most Memorable MTA Moment:MTA Board member David Mack,
a well-to-do Long Island real estate developer, essentially says that
mass transit is an "inconvenience" fit for "common people" -- with a
New York Times reporter in the room.
Most Disappointing City Agency: Amanda Burden and the Department of City Planning win for their laissez faire attitude on Brooklyn's "New Fourth Avenue and their near total lack of attention to parking policy, particularly in Hell's Kitchen.
Most Schizophrenic Bloomberg Administration Moment: Three months after his transportation agency rolled out its Sustainable Streets plan, Mayor Bloomberg endorsed a big box store and 2,300-car garage for Manhattan's west side.
Best Policy Paper That You Probably Didn't See Because They Released it at the End of August:Suburbanizing the City,
Transportation Alternatives report studying the impact of off-street
parking requirements on traffic congestion. Conclusion: "If New York
City maintains current parking policies, the traffic generated by the
addition of new off-street spaces will likely exceed a billion miles
per year by 2030."
Best City Agency Strategic Plan: It's got to be the Department of Transportation's Sustainable Streets because, as far as we know, no other city agency has a strategic plan.
Most Disappointing City Council Member: Until a few weeks ago, Bill de Blasio was a shoo-in for this category thanks to his refusal to back congestion pricing despite its promise of less traffic and cleaner air for his predominantly car-free constituents. But Alan Gerson made a last-minute surge, taking the lead when word surfaced that he would introduce a bill to give "Council and Community input into street reconfigurations." Gerson had been known to at least show up for a photo-op in support of bike and pedestrian improvements, but has now apparently cast his lot with a livable streets backlash driven by Lower Manhattan's NIMBY contingent.
Bureaucrat of the Year: In just a year-and-a-half, Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan has transformed New York City's Department of Transportation into the envy of city transportation agency officials across the country (OK, maybe Portland, Oregon where the former DOT commissioner was elected mayor isn't envious). In this Streetfilm, Sadik-Khan shows off and explains some of the most recent developments...
Activist of the Year: With so many outstanding livable streets advocacy projects popping up across New York City, it's hard to single out just one community activist for praise. Transportation Alternatives' Queens Committee Chair Mike Heffron did a great job in 2008 organizing activities and drumming up support for livable streets in a borough where it can often be tough to find allies.
Teresa Toro wins a big honorable mention for helping to organize this summer's Williamsburg Walks event, for winning approval for Community Board DOT's Kent Avenue bike lanes and for her years of hard work as chair of CB1's transportation committee. Working on a Community Board can be a thankless task and Teresa did it well.
This year's winner is Florent Morellet. Proprietor of the recently closed Meatpacking District restaurant that bore his name, Florent was a key instigator and steward of the Gansevoort Plaza project, a leading voice for the protected bike paths on 8th and 9th Avenues, an eloquent defender of the Grand Street bike lane
and an important behind-the-scenes political player, in general. Even as he was being priced out of his restaurant of 23 years (rent was going to jump from $6,000/month to $50,000!), Florent continued to work to make his neighborhood and his city better for pedestrians, cyclists and, unfortunately, landlords too.
Favorite Streetsblog Commenter: There's a real glut of worthy candidates for this honor, but we're giving it to "Marty Barfowitz." The deciding factor? It could be the consistently insightful, pull-no-punches mini-essays on topics such as NIMBY opposition to bike lanes and the State Assembly's culpability for killing congestion pricing. Or it could be the pseudonym that appeals to both our outer political cynic and our inner eight-year-old.
Most Effective LSN Member: Honorable mention goes to Dave "Paco" Abraham, whose achievements in 2008 included a successful one-man lobbying effort to sell Duane Reade on the benefits of bike racks. The top spot belongs to Susan Donovan (below), who could be spotted drumming up support for Amtrak funding in a widely read Daily Kos diary, and, in an impressive media coup, leading NY1 through the automobile-clogged sidewalks near Yankee Stadium on game day -- proof that livable streets advocacy and local TV news are a great match.
Best Lenswork: Goes to Jacob-uptown for his photographic documentation of conditions on New York City sidewalks, bike lanes, and bus routes, the best of a bumper crop submitted to the Streetsblog Flickr pool this year.
Most Weirdly Effective and Totally Accidental Online Advocacy Effort:
State Farm pulled one of its TV advertisements from the air after a
Streetsblog-incited Internet mob told them that their attitude towards
bike commuting needed a major adjustment. Here's a description of the ad. And here's State Farm's response.
Best Advocacy Campaign: Michael O'Loughlin and the crew at M+R win a huge honorable mention for the Campaign for New York's Future. Though they weren't able to bring congestion pricing across the finish
line in Albany, the Campaign put together an unprecedented coalition of business, labor,
environmental, public health, religious and community groups and won approval for congestion pricing in City Council, something that many said would be impossible.
Honorable mention also goes to Joan Byron and Brad Lander at the Pratt Center for Community Development for their Transportation Equity Project. The idea of bringing together lower income communities to advocate for better bus service is an absolute no-brainer. But no one was doing it until Joan and Brad stepped in to fill the void.
The winners are the Prospect Park Youth Advocates because no other advocacy campaign employed the Brooklyn Steppers Marching Band to such great effect.
Best Livable Streets Education Initiative: After fifth grader Michael Needham, Jr. was killed by a reckless, speeding motorist while riding his bicycle, P.S. 76 in the Bronx might have decided to discourage students from riding bikes (like this New Jersey high school principal did in May). Instead, P.S. 76 began working bike safety, skills and street awareness into its curriculum. With the help of Bike New York, P.S. 76 implemented a month-long, bike-oriented physical education program for students and their parents and even raffled off a brand new bicycle to one student -- a bold move for school administrators and a fitting tribute to Michael.
Best Celebrity Livable Streets Endorsement: Step aside David Byrne. It's Jay-Z.
Best Out-of-the-Box Transportation Policy Thinking: With regrets to Councilman Lew Fidler and his 9 CARAT STONE Plan, we're going to have to give the award to Charles Komanoff for the Kheel Plan and his Balanced Transportation Analyzer. Honorable mention goes to TOPP's own Mark Gorton, for his four-part Smart Para-Transit opus.
The Old College Try Award: Goes to Paul Newell
for running a Democratic primary campaign challenge against State
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. If nothing else, it forced Shelly to
campaign for the first time in ages, and may have provided the nudge that pushed the Speaker to stop obstructing the traffic-reducing Gansevoort Waste Transfer Station. It'd be great to see a dozen Paul Newell's taking on State Assembly Democrats come 2010.
Biggest Setback: After being approved by an unprecedented civic coalition, the mayor and New York City Council, congestion pricing -- the one policy measure that simultaneously reduces traffic congestion while raising money for mass transit and livable streets -- died in an Albany backroom without even a vote.
How Not to Lobby a State Legislator: Brooklyn State Senator Martin Malave Dilan's car is towed during a congestion pricing meeting with city officials.
Most Sociopathic Elected Official: Bronx State Senator Jeff Klein nearly crushes a cyclist with his black Mercedes and then tells him, "Get your hands off my car, you f*#king a55hole." Unfortunately for Sen. Klein, this particular cyclist happens to run a pretty robust media operation.
Most Disappointing Elected Officials: During the congestion pricing debate, three State Assemblymembers stood out for their enormous potential to exert leadership and their utter inability or unwillingness to do so. Deborah Glick, Joan Millman and Hakeem Jeffries all represent districts that would have overwhelmingly benefited from New York City's congestion pricing plan. Yet, Glick could only find reasons to oppose it. Millman decided she supported it -- two hours after the proposal was killed by her Democratic Assembly colleagues. And Jeffries had the gall to demand increased subway service on the G line three weeks after helping to eliminate the revenue source that might have paid for it. If only New York City were represented in the state Assembly by an aggressive, attentive, self-aggrandizing politician like...
Elected Official of the Year: You've got to hand it to Westchester Assemblyman Richard Brodsky -- he works hard for his constituents and supporters. Unfortunately for New York City's traffic-choked neighborhoods, beleaguered transit riders and asthmatic kids, his constituents are the metropolitan region's wealthiest car commuters and his supporters own a bunch of parking garages in Manhattan. While New York City's legislators rolled over and played dead, Richard Brodsky worked his butt off to make sure that New York City's congestion pricing plan -- a plan approved by the Mayor, City Council and a state commission -- died a quiet death in the Assemly's Democratic conference. Brodsky did incredible damage to New York City in 2008 but he also showed us what effective representation in Albany might look like.
Worst Elected Official: Rochester Assemblyman and transportation committee chairman David Gantt continued his decade-long effort to deny New York City the ability to deploy automated traffic enforcement systems on its streets. He loosened up a little bit though. This year he introduced legislation that would allow counties outside of New York City to use red light cameras -- as long as they purchased the technology from a Swedish firm represented by one of his cronies. Shocking? Not really. Just another day in Albany.
Most Opinions Fewest Solutions Award: From now on, this will be called the Anthony Weiner Award.
Most Moronic Idea From Albany:State Senators Jeff Klein and Eric Adams put on their serious, fighting-for-the-people faces and proposed suspending tolls on New York City bridges and tunnels and giving drivers a $200 gas tax rebate ahead of Memorial Day weekend. Not planning to burn lots of gasoline for your summer holiday? These two have nothing for you.
