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Working to Reclaim Public Space for the Public Good on the UWS

What if you could help decide what the UWS's streets looked and felt like? (Whispers: you can.)

The incessant din of the status quo can too often drown out the joyful chorus for change. But lately, we’ve been hearing those beautiful harmonies loud and clear.

Since sharing our UWS Livable Streets Priorities earlier this year, we’ve socialized with supporters, presented to community boards, and had dozens of conversations with people ready for human-centered streets and eager to help make them happen.

And we've got an easy way for you to join in.

Take this quick survey and let us know which livable streets ideas most resonate with you and which campaigns you might want to get involved with.

The survey is just a few questions and will take less than 2 minutes, we promise. And there's no commitment on your end. The info you provide will help us gauge interest, focus our resources, and follow up with actionable next steps for this who want to do more.

Need some convincing and encouragement that you're not alone and there’s momentum for positive change out there among your friends and neighbors?

Take the call for a Bike Network... Our vision for a protected, high-comfort bike lane and Complete Street on West 72nd St has received over 340 signatures of support with more than 2,000 letters sent to elected officials and DOT decision makers. This particular corridor is a no-brainer and should have been a bike connection long ago. We're not there yet, and it's just one link in a door-to-door network, so there's lots of work still to do.

Look at Low Traffic Neighborhoods... The Transportation Committee at Community Board 7 unanimously passed a resolution in support of the concept earlier this month, and Community Board 9 passed a similar resolution at their General Board meeting last month. What these resolutions show is an undeniable eagerness for streets that prioritize people over traffic and community over cars. LTNs are an effective and low-cost way to get there, and spreading the word with your neighbors is a great place to start.

And let’s talk about School Streets... Community Districts 7 and 9 are woefully behind when it comes to supporting kids with car-free streets near their schools. Recent data from Paris, where there are now nearly 300 built-out, car-free school streets, shows that the benefits to kids and communities are too great to ignore. And we’ve been hearing from more and more parents who are excited to organize their schools to get it done.

Add your voice to the chorus. Tell us which of these ideas matter most to you (maybe it’s all of them), and you'll be helping us help you help make them happen.

Livable Streets News You Can Use 

Do you (or someone you know) have a passion for livable streets and love talking to people? We might have the just job for you (or them). We’re hiring a community organizer to help spread the word about our campaigns and support grassroots efforts for livable streets on the UWS. Details and application requirements are at the link.  APPLY / SHARE >

Wins in the livable streets fight are often small and scarce. But sometimes they’re big enough to transform a block, change the city, or even influence the world. Once a year we get together to honor a few of the people behind these big wins; those whose political courage, bold visions, and hard work made them possible. Come celebrate with us, and them.  GET TIX >

Earlier this month we had the chance to share our excitement about Low Traffic Neighborhoods with the CB7 Transportation Committee. And guess what? They were excited too! A resolution asking the DOT to identify areas in the district for an LTN pilot passed unanimously and now heads to the full board for a vote next month. Check out our presentation if you missed it.  WATCH >

Stay Informed, Take Action, Make Change

 ✅  SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS: CB7 Public Safety Survey 

If you live, work, or frequent the UWS, the Community Board 7 Public Safety Task Force would like to hear your thoughts. We’d be remiss if we didn’t point out that the greatest statistical risk to everyone’s safety while in public is from motor vehicles. If you’re like us and want that to change, keep it in mind when filling out the survey and make sure to highlight that threat to safety where applicable. The survey should take just a few minutes to complete.

✅  ATTEND A WORKSHOP: Learn How to Start a Block Association 

Block Associations are a small-scale form of civc organizing that can have an outsized impact on your community. Council Member Gale Brewer’s office is co-sponsoring a workshop, along with the Upper West Side Coalition, to help explain what a block association is, how to organize one, and how to be effective once you've done it. The workshop will be held on Thursday, April 30, 6 PM - 7:30 PM at Goddard Riverside Community Center (593 Columbus at 88th St). RSVP at the link.

✅  VISIT OUR TABLE: Upper West Side Town Hall

We'll have a table at Council Member Gale Brewer's Town Hall this coming Monday 3/23. Stop by before the event to chat with us about local livable streets issues and fill out your livable streets score card. | Monday, March 23, 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM (doors at 5:15 P.M.) | Theater at John Jay College 524 West 59th Street

Items of Interest

🔘  Any way you count it, America is a deadly outlier in street safety.

🔘  Robot cars, and their overhyped safety claims, are truly not the answer. 

🔘  Speaking of the Big Tech hype machine, there’s an obscene amount of money sloshing around in the robot car world, which really makes you wonder.

🔘  Especially when the likely result of abundant AVs would be more cars and more driving. 

🔘  No worries though, there's a solution to robot traffic: robot traffic cops (melting face emoji).

🔘  Meanwhile, in Ireland, active travel is making car trips disappear, which is a sustainable and socially beneficial way to improve safety.

🔘  And in Paris, the years-long effort to increase cycling and reduce car use has resulted in faster firefighter response times.

🔘  On the subject of cars are bad for cities, downtown highways continue to be an enormous economic boondoggle.   

🔘  In a backwards trend for livable places, oversized U.S. cars are making a play for the U.K.

🔘  Hopefully, in London at least, drivers of urban tanks will have to pay more for the risks they pose.  

🔘  Given those risks, maybe these obscenely large vehicles should come with a warning label — for the driver.  

🔘  And finally, famously car-centric San Diego added bike lanes to a busy commercial corridor, and ridership more than doubled in four years. Good things are possible.

Happenings in and Around Local Streets

💃 Jody Sperling/Time Lapse Dance | Fri/Sat, Apr 24-25 | 7:00pm 

Celebrate the 25th Anniversary season of frequent open street and public space performer Jody Sperling/Time Lapse Dance with a world premier. Sea Change is a poetic reimagining of humanity's relationship with water in the wake of rising sea levels. Pay What You Can tickets at the link. New York Society for Ethical Culture, 2 W 64th St, Adler Hall

🚧 Columbus-Amsterdam BID Open Street | Saturdays, June 27 - October 31

It's never too early to get excited about the neighborhood's Open Streets. This year, the Columbus-Amsterdam BID will open a stretch of Amsterdam Avenue for four months, starting in late June. You know what else is happening in June? The World Cup. Maybe those things are related ;-) Amsterdam Avenue, 106th St to 110th St 

Pass it On

“If we're not designing with empathy in mind, we're designing ourselves out of the system. And eventually it catches up with all of us.”

— Melissa and Chris Bruntlett, authors of Women Changing Cities, on why a focus on care, not cars, is the recipe for creating livable and inclusive places. 

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