New Articles on Urbanism in New York

The New York times published not one, but two excellent pieces this week that explore the transformative power of deprioritizing cars and prioritizing pedestrians and bikers on our streets. Although New York likes to think of itself as a great city like Paris, London, or Vancouver, New York has fallen dramatically behind on improvements to the urban space. I liked these two pieces because they harness our imagination to show how small improvements (a repainted street, a bike bridge) could help shape the city in which we all deserve to live.

Diagram showing how space that’s currently devoted to cars could be shifted to create more space for pedestrians (nytimes)

Diagram showing how space that’s currently devoted to cars could be shifted to create more space for pedestrians (nytimes)

A diagram of a complete street - with room for pedestrians, bikers, buses, shared transit (taxis), and cars (nytimes)

A diagram of a complete street - with room for pedestrians, bikers, buses, shared transit (taxis), and cars (nytimes)

Pre street improvements (nytimes)

Pre street improvements (nytimes)

Post improvements (nytimes)

Post improvements (nytimes)

I’ve Seen a Future Without Cars, and It’s Amazing - Farhad Manjoo

This is an amazing piece and worth checking out for the powerful graphics alone. I am a firm believer that simple and intuitive graphics (backed up with data and best practices) are one of the simplest ways of advancing the cause for a better city. When people oppose zoning changes or bike lanes, I optimistically believe that deep down they share our mission - a better city - but lack the vocabulary and institutional knowledge required to imagine the potential positive effects of the improvement and the possible negative ramifications of not improving anything. Graphics like this are going to start great conversations - I can’t wait to see where they lead.

I was very interested to see the that the url slug for this article was “ban-cars-manhattan.” The idea of banning cars is one that very few urbanists prescriben to… but one that is often thrown in our faces when we propose changes to the city. Giving the NYTimes the benefit of the doubt, I’d like to think that this was simply the most convenient way of abbreviating this longer headline. But my cynical side thinks the editors were being intentionally inflammatory to attract tens of thousands of angry comments!

New York as a Biking City? It Could Happen. And It Should. - Michael Kimmelman

This article explores a remarkable plan for a 425-mile system of protected bike lanes throughout New York City that was proposed by The Regional Plan Association (boring name but awesome work!). Protected bike lanes are one of the best and cheapest ways to encourage more people to use their bikes to get around. And as has been demonstrated by cities like Paris, the COVID pandemic is a huge opportunity to grow these bike networks. This was my favorite quote from the article:

Getting through this whole crisis depends on city leaders’ capacity to think ahead, not hunker down. Robert Moses, New York’s storied planning czar, plotted during the depths of the Depression so he could be ready when the money materialized. Whatever else one might say about Moses, he knew how to get stuff done.

Although it’s funny to find inspiration from a reviled planner like Robert Moses, in this he’s right. Now is our time to plan the city we aspire to live in - tomorrow we’ll make it happen.

Some of my favorite things in June

This has been a hard few months for everyone. I don’t need to reiterate everything that’s weighing on us - you already see it in the news, on tv, and in your social media feeds. Everything feels extremely important these days: the necessity to stay indoors to prevent the spread of COVID, the importance of protest against the murder of Black Americans by the police, the desire to support struggling local businesses and restaurants, and the deep craving for life to return to some kind of normalcy. We are pulled in every direction every day and how we choose to invest our energy is entirely dependant on our own calculus. My equation will look different than yours - and that’s ok. It’s important for me to note unequivocally that Black Lives Matter. But I’m not yet sure how I will bring this advocacy into my life. I have been reflecting on my values and I look forward to sharing more about how I intend to express them in my life and in the world.

But despite all this draining complexity, I find bright highlights in life . There are things on the internet that made me laugh, smile, cry, and think. I wanted to share a few of the things that I’ve found interesting this month. If I can get my act together, I would like to share some of these highlights monthly! Here it goes:

  • Transit, Density, and COVID. When COVID exploded in New York, many online commentators were quick to blame the city’s density and the transit system. Although this line of thinking quickly took over the internet and produced a seemingly endless series of takes on the “death of the city,” the assumed correlation between density and COVID risk was frankly wrong. Just look at cities like Tokyo or Seoul. Both have transit networks larger than New York. Neither shut down their transit networks during the pandemic, and - combined - these cities had a tiny fraction of New York’s case counts. What really caused the explosion of cases in New York was the failure of the government. So as people reconsider their commutes and how they get around, they shouldn’t be scared of transit. To learn more, read “Fear of Public Transit Got Ahead of the Evidence” by Seth Solomonow and Janette Sadik-Khan (the visionary director of NYC DOT who pedestrianized Times Square and other major urban spaces in the city).

 
Even though transit is safe, we should continue to invest in advanced bike and pedestrian infrastructure. I’ve loved the photos from Paris showing the extraordinary expansion of bike lanes in the city. (From Emmanuel on Twitter)

Even though transit is safe, we should continue to invest in advanced bike and pedestrian infrastructure. I’ve loved the photos from Paris showing the extraordinary expansion of bike lanes in the city. (From Emmanuel on Twitter)

 

  • The CHOP. For a while, it seemed like Seattle would have it’s own counter culture neighborhood. Despite how it was shown on the national media, the CHOP (Capitol Hill Occupied Protest) was a fascinating and mostly harmless experiment around collective action. As a firm believer that the streets are for people, I was excited to see citizens claiming the space that was theirs; But as a supporter and advocate for Black lives, I was a little confused how this occupation advanced the BLM cause. Regardless - judging by the number of “what’s going on with CHOP?” texts I got from out-of-towners, this protests generated tons of fascinating discussion among family and friends. Unfortunately, it seems like the CHOP is going to have a sad ending. There are shootings almost every night and even the protests most ardent activists seem to be losing steam. For the sake of the residents, and the larger BLM movement, I hope that the physical presence of the CHOP is cleaned up safely and its revolutionary ideas live on in other mediums. For their amazing coverage of the protests, I want to give a HUGE shout out to my favorite local news source - the Capitol Hill Blog.

  • The BNet Newsletter. If you like weird stuff on the internet, you’ll love this twice-weekly newsletter. I have been a fan of Brian’s since he was writing at New York Magazine. Come for the meta-philosophical discussion of memes and internet culture, stay for the weird tik toks and technology updates. One of my favorite recent issues was about how the K-Pop Stans ruined the Trump rally. Besides the fact that this was a wonderful, fascinating story in itself - hooray for teens expressing themselves and flexing their strength using technology! - Brian’s write up provided a ton of context about how this group of young people distinguishes themselves on the internet. If you need a laugh, check out this twitter thread of some of the videos that tik tok users created to spread the devious plan. Sign up for BNet and enjoy!

Biking in Europe and America

I will be the first to admit that I am a coward on my bike. I rarely get in the saddle unless the weather is impeccable and once I’ve started pedaling I stick as close as I can to the safest, most-protected bike lanes… preferably the ones in parks or greenways, as far as I can get from cars. I especially love the Burke-Gilman trail here in Seattle. Not only is it extremely well-protected from the city - it’s also very flat and easy!

 
Biking in Copenhagen

Biking in Copenhagen

 

All that being said, I’ve had wonderful experiences biking in Scandinavian cities like Copenhagen and Oslo. Not only do these cities have wonderful pedestrian and bicycling infrastructure, they seem to have a totally different civic philosophy around biking.

I recently read a wonderful piece by Dan Kois, How I Learned to Cycle Like a Dutchman. In the article, he describes how he and his family adapted to the bike lifestyle during a 3-month visit to the Netherlands. Although it took them a few weeks to adapt, Kois learned how to navigate the unspoken rules of the road. Eventually, he even learned to trust the cars, buses, and trucks around him, knowing that almost every one of those drivers was also a bicyclist themselves. Kois describes these psychological differences between biking in Europe and biking in the United States with phenomenal insight. I hope we can learn to bike more like the Europeans!