Comments on: The 2008 Streetsie Awards, Part 3

By: Joan

Joan — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 20:19:12 +0000

Belated thanks and “aw shucks” – because the credit for our advocacy work on transportation equity truly belongs to the stalwart members of COMMUTE! http://prattcenter.net/commute.php , who carve out the time from the many issues they work on to bring their home communities, and the electeds who represent them, on board the BRT bus. And here at the Pratt Center, the hard work gets done by Elena Conte, Organizer for Public Policy Campaigns, and by our former colleagues Michale Amabile and Justin Kray, who made the maps that make the case. Uh-oh, I hear the ‘get off the stage’ music playing…

By: b.nyc

b.nyc — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:23:32 +0000

How is Gansevoort Plaza a success? The installation presents an obstacle course of ill-placed balls, slabs, planters, and constant line of traffic for pedestrians crossing 9th. It’s also hideous. Bring back the open flow of the triangle by omitting the useless clutter.

By: Paul Newell

Paul Newell — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 23:44:20 +0000

Thanks Streetsblog, for the award and all your efforts in 2008. We may not have achieved everything we wanted last year, but I think New Yorkers began thinking about real, systemic transit solutions for the first time. That alone is a victory.

Looking forward to working with you all in 2009 and beyond.

Happy New Year!

By: Heffron

Heffron — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 23:05:58 +0000

Looks like I’m in good company with Teresa, here’s to 2009

By: teresa toro

teresa toro — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 18:01:38 +0000

Thanks, Streetsblog! We’ll see what 2009 brings — it will include my plans to continue pushing the city for smart transportation planning for Williamsburg and Greenpoint.

By: Eric McClure

Eric McClure — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 15:05:33 +0000

Jay-Z? That couldn’t be the same Jay-Z fronting for the building of a basketball arena with tons of parking spaces and no real transit plan in Prospect Heights, would it?

Better recount those ballots.

By: Cap'n Transit

Cap'n Transit — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 07:21:04 +0000

on your trike … then I suggest you STFU.

Classy. Where do you get off commenting on someone else’s blog and telling the other commenters to Shut the Fuck Up?

If it really is impossible for emergency vehicles to get through, I’d expect we would have heard something from the fire department by now.

The loading zones are precisely the point. Sorry to mess up your false dichotomy.

By: Liam Patrick

Liam Patrick — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 06:59:03 +0000

Granddame,

I ride through the Grand Street lane daily and I live in the area. How is the Grand Street lane a safety nightmare? Oh wait it’s not…. There’s simply no space to double park illegally in the bike lane anymore. I think I’m gonna cry.

By: Urbanis

Urbanis — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 06:58:40 +0000

Inwood and Washington Heights Livable Streets are honored by the mention!

By: Granddame

Granddame — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 06:20:51 +0000

Cappy,

Evidently, you’re misinformed regarding the installation of the bike route on Grand Street. There was no public hearing held, the community was blind sided by it. Whether or not there are 24 hour loading zones are beside the point; the street is choked and is virtually impassible by emergency vehicles at times.

Soho, believe it or not, is where people iive. If you’re merely passing thru on your trike, then you don’t really know the situation. Unless you’re willing to put in some time with the DOT to help, then I suggest you STFU.

By: Cap'n Transit

Cap'n Transit — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 04:31:53 +0000

The bike lane on Grand Street doesn't affect his charmed life, for the rest of us living on Grand it''s a nightmare, to our sanity and safety.

A nightmare that could be brought to an end with a few 24-hour loading zones, right? But you won't ask for the loading zones because you don't want to inconvenience a few overnight parkers? And you'd rather scapegoat "the cyclists"? Good luck with that. This nightmare is of your own making, and you have the key to ending it. Stop scapegoating and start looking for real solutions.

By: Granddame

Granddame — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 04:08:46 +0000

Florent is rather like Soho’s Evita. He hails from a petit bougeoisie French background, a loft in Soho bought and paid for by his parents. His restaurant was backed by the same, and ran for years, completely cash based at a cut rate rent.

Florent has had his struggles, however they have never been financially based, so don’t cry for him New York.

The bike lane on Grand Street doesn’t affect his charmed life, for the rest of us living on Grand it”s a nightmare, to our sanity and safety. He doesn’t get that the Grand Bike lane is a disaster for the community because he lives high above and far away from what it reeks for the everyone on Grand Street.

Where was Florent in the struggle with the Gansevoort Hotel? Oh that right, he doesn’t sleep near there, and his little boite got the run off from the hotel filling his coffers.

Spare us the accolades to him, he’s a relic of the 80′s and La Gamelle. He’s as uniformed and ignorant as his heroine, Christine Quinn when it comes to what is good for the community.

By: Larry Littlefield

Larry Littlefield — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:22:52 +0000

“Seriously, I wonder what the big issue in the coming year will be?”

The worst economy of our lifetimes. I say that optimistically, hoping 2010 will be better.

How does livable streets fit in? The bicycle as a way of life that is less expensive, but not less desirable, and makes its riders winners and not losers. Because a lot of people are going to be feeling like losers.

Leave aside the environmental and community benefits. It is a health club without a membership, and a low-cost transportation system that is the fastest up to three miles where parking is an issue and viable up to 10. And it has low public capital costs, and zero public operating costs.

Virtually all political proposals to “reduce the cost of living” are costs to subsidize something (generally while increasing its cost) and shift it to someone else. The bicycle really does cut the cost of transportation and health care, public and private alike. If the environment has been the hook for some, and oil prices for others, home economics is the hook for 2009.

Take it from a legendary (among those who know me) cheapskate. Learn to cook your own meals. Don’t live in more space than you require. And don’t live in a place where you have to drive to work.

By: Susan Donovan

Susan Donovan — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 19:30:37 +0000

I’d like to thank the academy, my husband and our two wonderful cats….

Seriously, I wonder what the big issue in the coming year will be?

By: Jessica Roberts

Jessica Roberts — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 17:34:31 +0000

I’m from Portland, and believe me, we’re jealous of JSK!!! We’ve got good electeds and good bureaucrats, but they haven’t delivered all that much on-the-ground stuff in the last few years. The notable exceptions are indeed notable (green bike boxes, a brand-new colored bike lane through the heart of our biggest transit center, and we do encouragement programs like SmartTrips and SR2S like nobody’s business), but our bike network has hardly even grown in the last 3-4 years. We envy the promise to build 200 miles of bikeway in just three years, your THREE Summer Streets (we got one), your 35% bike modeshare growth (we only had 28%), your separated bike lanes, your public plazas reclaimed from cars, and your model Sustainable Streets plan…and most of all I am wowed and humbled by the pace of change and the 180-degree change that JSK represents. Gil Penalosa says that sometimes it’s easier to go from bad to great than good to great, and I think NYC my be the proof of that.