Streetsblog New York City

We’ve got a late addition to the calendar for our Boston-area readers. Streetsblog founding editor Aaron Naparstek, currently a Loeb Fellow at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, will re-unite with Clarence Eckerson tonight for an evening of Streetfilms screenings and discussion. An hour of Streetfilms will be followed by a Q&A with Clarence and Aaron led by GSD Professor of Urban Planning Michael Hooper.

I’m not sure exactly what’s on Clarence’s set list, but hopefully he’ll follow through on the promo and screen some classics from the traffic-calming Sasquatch era.

The details, in case the graphic is giving you trouble:

Streetfilms Movie Night:
Documenting the Livable Street Movement. Moving Beyond the Automobile.

Monday, September 19, 6:30 to 8:00pm.

Piper Auditorium
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
48 Quincy Street, Cambridge

Streetsbloggers are encouraged to come out this Wednesday and join Clarence Eckerson and Kim Wiley-Schwartz from the Livable Streets Initiative, along with Amanda Gentile from Brooklyn Green Team and author Elizabeth Royte, for a panel discussion after a screening of the "No Impact Man" documentary.

In case you're still unfamiliar with No Impact Man, here's the official film promo blurb:

Author Colin Beavan, in research for his next book, began the No Impact Project in November 2006. A newly self-proclaimed environmentalist who could no longer avoid pointing the finger at himself, Colin leaves behind his liberal complacency for a vow to make as little environmental impact as possible for one year. No more automated transportation, no more electricity, no more non-local food, no more material consumption … no problem. That is, until his espresso-guzzling, retail-worshipping wife Michelle and their two year-old daughter are dragged into the fray. Laura Gabbert and Justin Schein's film provides a front row seat into the familial strains and strengthened bonds that result from Colin's and Michelle's struggle with this radical lifestyle change.

And here are the event details:

WHEN: Wednesday, September 16, 7:20 p.m.
WHERE: Angelika Film Center, 18 W. Houston St. (at Mercer St.), Manhattan
COST: $12.50 adults; $9 for seniors and children

I haven't seen the movie yet, but I am so hoping for a Jeff Klein cameo.

This week's events make Halloween seem like a long time ago, but it was only last Friday when Clarence Eckerson, on a west coast jaunt for Streetfilms, shot this video of Critical Mass in San Francisco. Some think it was the city's biggest mass ride ever. Clarence offers a possible explanation:

With monthly rides under attack in some cities, it is interesting to see the tactic that San Francisco takes. The police department is practically hands off, and the ride is very peaceful and non-confrontational. Even drivers and spectators don't seem to mind the action.

"So," Clarence wonders, "why can't it be the same in NYC?"

Streetfilms' Clarence Eckerson, Jr. just returned from Boulder, Colorado -- recent recipient of the League of American Bicyclists' Platinum award for bike-friendliness. He writes:

Boulder "gets it" big time -- bicycling is important to its residents. So is a healthy walking and green living environment. But please note: this is not a car-free utopia -- the vast majority of residents own cars. The difference here is there are many safe and convenient options available (transit, walk, bike, etc.) and its denizens can choose the way they want to go.

Inter-modal transportation is highly encouraged, there are many types of bus passes available, and the city is constantly looking to the next way to improve their streets.

Streetfilms will soon be posting videos from the visit. In the meantime, here's more from Clarence.  

Streetfilms is celebrating its first-ever foreign language translation with this video, of last year's (Park)ing Day, subtitled in Spanish. Clarence Eckerson says to expect three more Spanish subtitled vids to be posted in the coming weeks.

And speaking of (Park)ing Day, the 2008 event is just a couple of weeks away. Volunteer or reserve your spot today.

With the first US bike-share system starting up just a short Amtrak ride away in Washington, DC, you know it wouldn't take long for the Streetfilms crew to make the scene. This week, Elizabeth Press, Clarence Eckerson and Robin Urban Smith took the already-popular SmartBike DC for a spin, and talked to local citizens, advocates and Alice Kelly of the District Department of Transportation, who hints at a possible expansion of the 120 bike fleet:

"Knowing what we know now, of course, we would have launched it bigger. But when we were initially thinking about this we really weren't sure how popular it would be. The rising cost of gas and the ever-increasing green attitude of everybody is now showing us that yes, the city will support a broader program."

Conditions could hardly have been better for Saturday's Summer Streets debut, and New Yorkers responded, turning out in droves to enjoy a car-free route from Lower Manhattan to Central Park. Of course, Clarence Eckerson was on hand to capture this historic livable streets event for Streetfilms. He offers this testimonial:

We'll spare you the 200 adjectives we could list about how transformational it was, for it was beyond anything on the printed page. The general consensus was that the event succeeded beyond even the most hoped for expectations and would pass even the most pessimistic of measuring sticks. A page has been turned, clearly there is no doubt: the future will hold many more large scale street openings for pedestrians, cyclists, runners, children, dog walkers, dancers, and any other reasonable livable space use.

If you missed it this week, take heart: early forecasts for Saturday call for partly cloudy skies with a high in the mid-80s.

Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg Brooklyn was de-motorized and opened to the public this Saturday for a new event called Williamsburg Walks. Streetfilms' Clarence Eckerson was there and he's already churned out a nice three-and-a-half minute video to give you a sense of the event.

If you want to check out Williamsburg Walks for yourself, you still can. Saturday's noon to 7 pm event was the first of four pedestrian-only Saturday's on Bedford Avenue, through August 9. That also happens to be the first day of the big "Summer Streets" event along Park Avenue in Manhattan (7 am to 1 pm), if you're looking to make a multi-borough day of it.

Clarence described the event as "quiet, safe, relaxing, and human" and says he'll be returning without a camera next time so he can actually enjoy it as well (Can you actually detach that thing from your hand, Clarence? I'll believe it when I see it). Streetfilms' also notes: "This was not a street fair in any sense of the word." The generic sausage and tube socks vendors were nowhere to be seen. Rather, this was an opening up of the street to the neighborhood. It was an event that allowed merchants, residents and visitors to enjoy other uses for their shared public space than the storage and movement of motor vehicles. And why not?

We can't set this one up any better than Mr. Eckerson himself, so without further ado:

At just about any public gathering I go these days, there's usually at least one person who will come up and give me an enthusiastic "Bike Box!", based upon our earlier, popular Streetfilm. In my heart I hoped there would one day be a sequel to Bike Box, and it all came together last week while in Portland at the World Car-free Conference. Earlier this year, Portland's Office of Transportation installed many high visibility bike boxes that are filled in lime green to help cyclists avoid right hook collisions. (Note: NYC now has a few green ones as well.)

What we were unprepared for was being stopped by random cyclists who wanted to lend their collective "Bike Box!" exclamations. So watch and see all the fun improv as it flows.

Clarence and the Streetfilms crew are also looking for homegrown bike box videos to feature in the Streetfilms sidebar. To participate, post a vid of bike boxes in your city on YouTube and tag it "streetfilms."

Bike Box!

In New York, "Summer Streets" is set to debut this August. In Portland, they just held "Sunday Parkways" for the first time. Streetfilms' Clarence Eckerson, in town for the Carfree Cities conference, captured the action and picked up a few pointers for other cities planning to launch car-free events:

It was like a giant community block party with walkers, bikers, joggers, bladers, families, and pets filling the 6 mile course.

There were plenty of fun activities in four northeast parks that were linked by the circuit, which was opened to bikes and pedestrian traffic only from 8 AM to 2 PM. For cities planning their own Ciclovias, here are some things I liked about Portland's event: knowledgeable volunteers, lots of fun chalk messages on the ground, easy to follow directions, lots of music & entertainment, and a huge number of bike stations for bike repair.