But where there are councilmembers who are opposed to Livable Streets changes at all levels (just think of all the villains of the congestion pricing debate), Alan has been generally favorable to changes that de-emphasize vehicle travel and instead lead to safer and more pleasant pedestrian and community spaces. He's very rarely in the "enemy camp," even if it wasn't until the very end that he formally got on board with CP.

In the big picture, Alan might have disappointed us with an 11th-hour swing-and-a-miss, but I'd argue that the majority of the other members are more serious impediments to a more livable city.

The job of council members is to advocate for the public interest even when that interest is in conflict with the narrow, often conservative, views of entrenched stakeholders. That's called leadership. Having the council abdicate their responsibility by demanding and then deferring to "community involvement" is disappointing. Bike lanes, better streets and better public spaces are city wide issues that demand actual leadership not the limited vision of community boards. That community boards feel left out of the process reflects the obvious fact that they're invovlement in these issues has not been helpful to the planning process by demanding, counter to the interests of the city and the goals of DOT, more space for cars. If the council wishes to side with those community boards it should say so rather than simply passing the buck.

This is not the way to build consensus and good will with people that are inherently interested in supporting livable streets.

And the way to build consensus and good will with cyclists is by immediately screaming "get this bike lane off my street!" and ignoring any changes that would make the bike lane work?

The bill would require greater Council and community input on any major street reconfigurations

And how does this bill ensure that the entire community will have input, not just the cranks and professional NIMBYs?

I managed to sneak some ideas into the sections I worked on.

My word! Isn't that illegal?

the link to "Hell's Kitchen parking boom" is broken.

I don't like cops from Mineola patroling the streets in Soho anymore than some snot-nosed activist from Williamsburg dictating where bike lanes should be put in my neighborhood.

The moniker NIMBY has all sorts of connotations, and the least of which is racist. Congrats to the genius bar of Streetsie.

Keep it up Sean! It is OUR neighborhood and our backyard. BITE US!

All well and good given the magnitude of what he did compared with the magnitude of what has come out since, in business and government. He was only guilty of the near-ubiquitous sense of entitlement of the political and executive classes.

Hopefully somebody will eventually go to jail.

FYI, the 1989 City Charter requires that the Department of City Planning coordinate the production of a strategic plan for the whole city, the "Strategic Policy Statement," and that the City Planning Commission oversee one for physical city issues, the "Planning and Zoning Report," every few years. I know this because back in the day I was assigned to collect data and write a couple of sections of both.

Only one Planning and Zoning report was written before it faded away, but I worked on two SPS. The main work of the SPS consisted of trying to figure out what the Mayor's stategic plan actually was, based on speeches and trying to get information from direct appointees, buttressed by the data at hand. But I managed to sneak some ideas into the sections I worked on.

There was one interesting moment for the Planning and Zoning Report. The head of DCP at the time had decided he didn't want to try to work with the Commission to produce another one. Then on the day it was due, then City Comptroller Alan Hevesi, now drawing a huge tax-free pension while in jail, called to ask where it was. This of course led to a frenzy of activity for those further down in the bureaucracy like myself, pulling together information to be used in case it was needed, followed by a "never mind" -- the typical sequence.

I saw the dust fall onto these documents as they spooled out of the laser printer, so if (as is likely) the are no longer produced it is probably no loss. Government is apparently about deals, favors and interests, not about plans. And what matters, I finally came to understand, is the budget, with most of the big decisions made by the state.