Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about Development

Billyburg’s “New Domino” Mixes Parking Disaster With Bike-Ped Benefits

By Noah Kazis | Mar 4, 2010 | 27 Comments

The New Domino development proposed for the Williamsburg waterfront made headlines last week when a Brooklyn Community Board 1 committee voted against enabling its construction. This privately financed project is worth a close look because it exemplifies how developers can embrace certain livable streets goals while ignoring the big picture of traffic. It’s the kind […]

Community Benefits Agreements: What Do They Mean for Livable Streets?

By Noah Kazis | Feb 26, 2010 | 6 Comments

A rendering of the CBA-mandated walkable development slated for the Longfellow neighborhood of Minneapolis. Image: UrbanWorks Architecture. Last week, Comptroller John Liu announced plans to convene a task force to study and issue recommendations about community benefits agreements in New York. While details on the task force are still forthcoming, the renewed public attention on […]

The Next New York: How NYC Can Grow as a Walkable City

By Noah Kazis | Feb 22, 2010 | 12 Comments

In the last eight years, Amanda Burden's Department of City Planning has rezoned 20 percent of New York along relatively transit-oriented lines, while simultaneously promoting quasi-suburban projects at prominent sites and maintaining parking minimums that erode the pedestrian environment. In other words, the planning department is promoting growth in the right places, but enabling the wrong kind of development. So in the next four years, will New York's planners adopt more sustainable practices or continue the status quo?

The Next New York: How the Planning Department Sabotages Sustainability

By Noah Kazis | Feb 19, 2010 | 18 Comments

The Argyle, a new arrival on Brooklyn’s Fourth Avenue, is close to transit but cedes the ground floor to parking rather than retail or even a stoop. Parking requirements throughout New York compromise walkable development. Image: Brownstoner. This is the second installment in a three-part series on the reshaping of New York City and its […]

In Third Term, Bloomberg Must Align All Agencies With PlaNYC

By Ron Shiffman | Nov 19, 2009 | 2 Comments

We continue our series on the next four years of New York City transportation and planning policy with today’s essay by Ron Shiffman. Co-founder of the Pratt Center for Community Development and a professor at the Pratt Institute’s Graduate Center for Planning, Shiffman served on the City Planning Commission from 1990 to 1996. Read previous […]

Congress Set to Double the Size of Sprawl-Centric Home Buyer’s Tax Credit

By Elana Schor | Nov 4, 2009 | 11 Comments

Photo: US Department of Agriculture The $8,000 tax credit for new home buyers — which was wracked by fraudulent claims after its creation as part of the nation’s economic recovery effort — is on the verge of a significant expansion by Congress. Just how much will the tax credit mushroom thanks to the deal reached […]

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