Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about Urban Design

LIRR’s Brooklyn Bunker: More Extreme Than NYPD Counterterror Guidelines

By Noah Kazis | Jan 21, 2010 | 36 Comments

Security barriers mar the Atlantic Terminal sidewalk. Image: Noah Kazis. Brooklyn’s new Long Island Rail Road terminal opened earlier this month to generally positive reviews for its airy interior. Outside the station? That’s an entirely different matter. The Brooklyn Paper called the "sarcophagus-sized slabs of stone" on the sidewalk — which nearly come up to […]

What Kind of Pedestrian Are You?

By Mathew Katz | Oct 8, 2009 | No Comments

Categories of pedestrians, based on their walking patterns. Courtesy: Norbert Brändle, Austrian Institute of Technology. Part of designing more walkable cities — a goal of this week’s Walk21 Conference — is figuring out how pedestrians actually interact with the space around them, something that seems inherently difficult because of the erratic and unique behavior of […]

Planetizen Unveils Its Top 100 Urban Thinkers

By Elana Schor | Sep 15, 2009 | 7 Comments

Jane Jacobs. Photo: BusinessWeek She may be experiencing an intellectual reconsideration in some corners, but Jane Jacobs is still a beloved figure for the urban planners and designers of Planetizen. After a month-long online poll that saw more than 14,000 votes cast, the site released its list of the "Top 100 Urban Thinkers" today — […]

The Pedestrian Crush: It Doesn’t Have to Be Like This

By Clarence Eckerson Jr. | Sep 11, 2009 | 24 Comments

Although there is undoubtedly an amazing streets renaissance going on in NYC, there still remain places in dire need of improvement. Every workday, heavily-used areas like the blocks surrounding Penn Station are overwhelmed with pedestrians making their way home via buses, subways, the Long Island Railroad and Amtrak. The sidewalks are so clogged by this […]

When Dodging Death Becomes a Fact of Life

By Brad Aaron | Aug 19, 2009 | 38 Comments

Lisa Sladkus sent in this photo of yesterday’s mayhem at the 72nd Street subway station. For the second time (that we know of) in less than a week, a yellow cab driver has wreaked havoc on Manhattan streets, terrorizing pedestrians and leaving a trail of destruction. Miraculously, unlike Akim Saiful Alam, the unidentified driver in […]

DOT: Nine New Public Plazas in the Works

By Brad Aaron | May 1, 2009 | 5 Comments

Before and after: Fulton St. and Marcy Ave. Image via DOT. DOT has announced its selections for round one of the NYC Plaza Program, which invites non-profits throughout the boroughs to propose the development of new public spaces. According to DOT, applicants were chosen based on organizational and site-specific criteria, with special consideration given to […]

Show More Stories