Is it any wonder that there have been 809 reported crashes on that one-mile stretch since de Blasio took office, injuring 36 cyclists, 39 pedestrians, and 129 motorists, killing three pedestrians? in Sheepshead Bay and convinced the city to install more parking there. Former Councilman Chaim Deutsch ( recently sent to jail for tax fraud) blocked a bike lane on Emmons Ave. were in a Business Improvement District - which is like a mini version of an Office of Public Space Management - the unsafe conditions would have already been fixed.Īnd the city’s failure to seize space from car drivers has only emboldened local politicians who believe they are burnishing their street cred with constituents by boasting of adding parking to their neighborhoods (reminder: free parking encourages car ownership and use, which leads to death and pollution). can be made easily instead of playing out this way: Everyone grumbles for years before finally organizing a block association, which then has to advocate to local councilmembers, who then have to take it up to some agency, which then has to study the issue and then hold public hearings, and then put in a requisition that will take years to be completed. As a result, simple improvements, like long-sought bike corrals on chaotic W. Those agencies aren’t focused on individual local streets. That’s why the city needs to rethink public space entirely, with a new office, perhaps called the “Office of Public Space Management.” More bureaucracy? No, just better bureaucracy.Ĭurrently, multiple agencies have overlapping control of public space: the Department of Transportation oversees the roads the Parks Department controls parks and many plazas sidewalks are controlled by a hodgepodge of private landowners a growing number of Business Improvement Districts manage large commercial districts the Sanitation Department, the Police Department, the Department of Finance and several other city agencies also exert their authority. Its flaw? No specific streets have been identified, meaning that the next mayor would have to fight each battle at the community board level. Transportation Alternatives has promoted a plan to reclaim 25% of the city’s roadway space from drivers, and, in doing so, create roughly 13 Central Parks’ worth of public space. We don’t need to surrender we need to control our streets.
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