Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about Urban Planning

Transit-Oriented Development in Jersey City

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Last week Alec posted a vision for transit-oriented development that was met by the Streetsblog commenters with less than universal enthusiasm. While we are on the subject, I submit a vision being acted upon that I find close to ideal. Here we see Jersey City, specifically the two blocks of Newark Avenue between Erie Street and Christopher Columbus […]

Traffic: A Social Problem Not a Design Problem

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Before the commenters begin giving DOT its well-deserved pounding in response to my previous post, I offer this provocative excerpt from David Engwicht’s book, "Mental Speed Bumps: The Smarter Way to Tame Traffic." Let me be frank. Traffic is first and foremost a community problem and residents have no right expecting politicians, engineers and planning […]

Buses and Atlantic Yards

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BrooklynSpeaks on Atlantic Yards and Buses: The Atlantic Yards project, despite sitting adjacent to the some of the best transit connections in the city, hasn’t been planned with transit in mind. A real transportation plan would look very different. It would push people away from driving cars that clog the streets by reducing parking on […]

Connecting Urban Design and Public Health

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Public-Health advocate Richard Jackson, author of "Urban Sprawl and Public Health: Designing, Planning, and Building for Healthy Communities," argues in this month’s Metropolis Magazine that the way we build cities and neighborhoods is a major source of illness. When did you first start to make the connection between the design of our national landscape and […]

Transit-Oriented Development Forum

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Norman "The Human Tape Reco’der" Oder cranks out a nice report on this week’s Transit-Oriented Development forum at NYU for his blog, Atlantic Yards Report: Though the symposium conspicuously avoided controversial developments like Hudson Yards and Atlantic Yards, Jon Orcutt, executive director of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign offered a caution in the Q&A period. "There’s […]