Jason Varone
Jason Varone battles the streets everyday during a 9 mile commute on his bicycle from downtown Brooklyn to the Upper East Side. In addition to his efforts on Streetsblog, he is an artist making work related to the environment and technology. Examples of his work can be found at www.varonearts.org.
Recent Posts
Residential Parking Permits Spotted in PlaNYC Documents
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Today’s Crain’s Insider reports: Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s PlaNYC 2030 documents reveal the Bloomberg administration has dropped its opposition to residential permit parking, which allows only neighborhood residents to park during business hours. Plan documents say it could be introduced in areas that complain of commuters parking there to avoid the proposed $8 Manhattan congestion fee. […]
New York Magazine Casts a Cynical Eye on “Bloomtopia”
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New York Magazine’s Chris Smith, who calls congestion pricing a trojan horse, suspects fewer cars and more trees may be a "green screen" for mayor Bloomberg’s real estate development agenda: Mayor Bloomberg’s Earth Day speech compiled 127 ideas for making the city more "sustainable" by 2030. But congestion pricing has dominated the conversation ever since. […]
Who Wants to Drive Into a City That’s Under Water?
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Elizabeth Kolbert, author of the outstanding Field Notes From a Catastrophe, covers climate change for the New Yorker. In this week’s issue, she takes up congestion pricing and Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s 2030 plan: The case against congestion pricing is often posed in egalitarian terms. "The middle class and the poor will not be able to […]
Meet the Cloggers
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The Daily News reports that most drivers to be affected by Bloomberg’s congestion pricing are from the Upper East Side and Queens: If Mayor Bloomberg wants to discourage New Yorkers from driving to work, he could start with his own neighbors. The upper East Side has thousands of residents who drive to jobs in Manhattan […]
Ken Livingstone on Congestion Pricing in New York
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In his most recent article for the Guardian, London mayor Ken Livingstone applauds Mayor Bloomberg’s plan to introduce congestion pricing in New York City: New York is now to get congestion charging modelled on London’s successful scheme. Isn’t it about time the naysayers admitted they were wrong? Retail sales in central London are far outperforming […]
Black Clouds Over China
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The balloon says: Drive one day less and look how much carbon dioxide you’ll keep out of the air we breathe. While the Chinese economy is booming, the skies above its cities are blackening. China will actually pass the United States as the world’s biggest source of greenhouse gases this year. The World Wildlife Federation […]
Streetfilms: Little Legs for Green Streets
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Little Legs For Green Streets A StreetFilm by Clarence Eckerson Jr. Running Time: 2 minutes 41 seconds This Streetfilm celebrates the students at P.S. 321 in Park Slope who are going green. The entire school participated in an Earth Day walk-a-thon to raise money for Transportation Alternatives, Amazon Watch, and Added Value.
PlaNYC: Foster the Market For Renewable Energy
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One interesting case study in the mayor’s plan is the real-time pricing of electricity. According to research done at Carnegie Mellon University, Americans would save nearly $23 billion a year if they shifted just 7% of their usage during peak hours to less expensive times – the equivalent of the whole nation getting a free […]
Zero Carbon is the Goal for Woodstock
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Randolph Horner, renewable energy developer, on the roof of town hall Mayor Bloomberg is not the only one going green. Woodstock, New York wants to be America’s first carbon neutral city by 2017. The Telegraph reports: Woodstock town hall’s large flat roof is blotted out by 112 solar panels – an early manifestation of the […]
The Ultimate System: Free Mass Transit and Congestion Pricing
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WABC’s John Gambling spoke with Michael Bloomberg this morning. In anticipation of the Mayor’s Earth Day speech, they discussed everything from congestion charging to light bulbs. Below are some highlights from their conversation; you can download to the entire show here. On congestion pricing: If you were to charge, and I’ll let you know on […]
Decongestion in Cities Around the World
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GOOD Magazine profiles five innovations in urban transportation that you don’t find in America, yet. Josh Jackson reports: Cities around the world are leaps and bounds ahead of America when it comes to issues of urban transit. Though this country is woefully lagging, it’s a rare example of when falling behind actually works in your […]
Grand Plans for Brooklyn’s Iconic Public Space
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In all of the uproar over DOT’s various transportation proposals for Park Slope last month (One Way? No Way! and 9th Street) this Grand Army Plaza project managed to slip beneath the radar. That’s too bad because it’s a really thoughtful and detailed piece of planning work that will help connect neighborhoods and improve the […]