Comments on: Streetfilms: “We’re New York, We Can Lead”

By: Maria

Maria — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 15:19:35 +0000

Indeed, Transportation Alternatives and Queens and Bronx neighborhood groups did incredible work in getting NYC DOT to finally reduce vehicular Level of Service in favor of traffic calming measures on Avenues of Death like Queens Blvd and the Grand Concourse. DOT never would have done these changes, which Iris now touts all over the place, if T.A. hadn’t hammered and hammered and hammered.

Streetsblog should go and try to dig up local paper headlines from the Queens Blvd. fight so that people can remember better how utterly resistent Weinshall and Primeggia were to the ped safety measures that she now brags about.

By: someguy

someguy — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 14:59:02 +0000

fact check: pedestrian deaths in NYC have been steadily, and significantly, declining for the past few decades. someone is doing something right, so let’s give some credit where it’s due.

By: gecko

gecko — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 13:15:57 +0000

There should be a towards zero death initiative right now. We do not need a slow motion response to an emergency situation. The remedies should be clearly spelled out and the city government be held immediately responsible. As a city and a nation the fact that we can’t respond to this emergency, or the genocide in Darfur, or the severe privation and hardship that a third of the people on this planet live in is a clear indication we are unable to act when the situation calls for it though we have the complete means to do so. This goes way beyond being immoral. It is extremely dangerous and just plain stoooopid.

By: SenorSwanky

SenorSwanky — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 22:22:26 +0000

what, the incredible new greenstreet at 1st ave & 20th st (highlighted in her speech at boro president stringer’s conference way back when) isn’t visionary enough for you? how cynical of you to imply that all of that progressive talk was only to mollify her and her deputy commissioners’ bosses! you must be a bleeding heart, stinky cheese eating eurotrash, the type that vandalizes our subway system.

By: JK

JK — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 22:08:56 +0000

The mayor’s legislative office reviews all proposed legislation and upcoming hearings with Dep mayor for gov relations Kevin Sheekey, and in this case probably with Doctoroff since he has DOT in his portfolio. So, it’s assumed that DOT’s position has been vetted by a number of people close to the mayor before going public. If the administration has a better idea than 199, they might be more comfortable separating data collection from policy goals for instance, they had a chance to say that to council. Did they? Nobody’s posted what DOT said beyond the “There’s no traffic problem in the CBD” comment.

By: nobody in particular

nobody in particular — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 21:35:13 +0000

I think the limited “vision” that DOT recently has acquired has come from above DOT. I don’t believe Iris has any inherent vision, judging from her knee-jerk resistance to anything remotely visionary.

By: ddartley

ddartley — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 21:10:24 +0000

I was always skeptical about Streetsblog’s optimistic (and friendly) use of the phrase “Iris Weinshall Renaissance.” The thought that 999,000 cars instead of a million means there’s no problem is 20th Century thinking. I don’t think she deserves the bashing she sometimes takes in comments here, but she’s clearly not a visionary. Wouldn’t it be exciting if the DOT boss was?

By: Glenn

Glenn — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 21:01:54 +0000

Breaking news – late on a Friday as per usual for the NYPD.

The new police parade rules are now published: http://www.nyclu.org/nypd_parade_permits_pr_012607.html

50 is the new number that now triggers a permit.

By: JK

JK — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 19:25:03 +0000

Can Streetsblog post Weinshall’s testimony? Did she really only talk about CBD traffic stats at a hearing dedicated to the need for traffic info beyond the CBD? Is she being quoted out of context?

This is not consistent with the new,improved, renaissance era DOT that the advocates and these pages have been writing about.

By: anon

anon — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 18:33:57 +0000

Who’s having the Iris pinata party?

How can the city’s talk about sustainability be taken even slightly seriously when it keeps putting Iris out there with these know-nothing/do-nothing messages?

By: Linda

Linda — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 18:32:06 +0000

AND, if the Commissioner’s stats are true then if the city was already doing better data collection then they might be able to identify WHY fewer cars are entering the CBD: Are more people on transit? Bicycling? Carpooling? Is the strange mysterious smell from NJ keeping drivers from going to NYC? (Okay that one is a joke)

The $$$ issue I understand (City Hall needs to fund DOT more) but give me a break “public imagination”? If she walked around the streets more often she’d realize that walking thru cars sitting in your crosswalk is not an imagination.

By: Credibility Gap

Credibility Gap — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 18:19:31 +0000

How very ironic that Commissioner Weinshall, in a bravura head in the sand performance, opposing Intro 199 made the case for it.

In response to valid City Council concerns about traffic clogged streets she cited declining traffic in Manhattan’s Central Business District as evidence that the city does not have a traffic problem. But it is utterly obvious to most New Yorkers that first: Manhattan south of 60th street is only a very small part of the city. Second: there is a significant and growing traffic problem in large parts of every borough. Third: Citing statistics about Midtown does not answer questions about Queens.

The fact that the DOT does not have data to speak to public concerns about traffic in Queens (seen Queens Boulevard lately?) or Brooklyn (Flatbush look OK to you?)should be alarming to a City Hall purportedly concerned about creating a “sustainable” future or a livable now.