Upper West Side Streets Renaissance

Sometimes we get so used to our surroundings that we don’t even notice small changes.  Whenever a friend sees my baby, I inevitably hear about how big she has gotten.  I don’t even notice.  I see her everyday, and these small changes just don’t register with me.

I had the good fortune of spending last week with my cousin who was visiting from Chicago.  His first trip to the city was about 20 years ago.  Since then, the city has experienced big changes.  Even those who have lived here that whole time notice the difference.  The streets and subways are cleaner, you feel safer, things look nicer.  But, we are going through  another round of changes and these changes are aimed at making city life more enjoyable.  For instance, the bike path along the Hudson is so lovely compared to what it used to be.  It seems like each day another new park opens up next to the bike path, each with its own feel.  Each park is so beautiful and adds such texture (and green) to our city.  My cousin and I biked down from 90th Street to Battery Park.  I can’t count how many times he said, “I never knew New York City was like this.”  I felt so proud that my chosen city could impress my Chicago cousin, as if I had something to do with these changes.  Other small changes are happening:  the pedestrian areas near Herald Square and Times Square have added seating and life to an otherwise car-centric pavement mess.  Likewise, seating and greenery has been sprouting up in random areas around the city.  Some of these changes were referenced in the recent New York Times editorial, “Life in the Slow Lane” (September 18, 2008).

Get out and start noticing the small changes.  Be proud of them.  Get involved in making changes.  This is OUR city, and we need to continue to improve it.  I personally love having my visitors say, “Wow, I never knew your city was so amazing.”

 

Thanks everyone who came out to help officially “welcome” the new bike lane to the community. With food, lemonade, and free bike goodies giveaways, it was a great time.

 Thanks Innovation Bike Shop for Hosting!

 Jean from DEBNA welcoming all

 Bike Raffle

 And the lane is “official.” We promptly all went up the street and told that guy in the van to move…

Future cyclist and T.A. Member!

As New York City braces for the impact of the ongoing financial turmoil on Wall Street, governments, non-profits, commuters and neighborhoods will face a stark choice in the months and years to come. The choice will be whether we will let the lack of financial resources dramatically reduce of quality of life, or if we can find ways to actually improve quality of life with less resources.

The state and city governments, as well as the critical state authorities like the MTA and Port Authority will no doubt face severe shortfalls in tax revenue over the next few years. In times like this, the natural government response is to simultaneously cut services across the board while increasing transit fares and other user fees. At the same time, local non-profit service delivery organizations that could potentially pick up the slack and provide basic services to people in need will be acutely impacted by lower donations over the next few years.

If we allow this downturn to degrade our neighborhoods and our mass transit infrastructure, we will face the negative cycle of the 1970s and 80s all over again - people and businesses will flee the city for the suburbs and choose to drive  to work.

We need to stay ahead of this cycle and start planning for a lower cost, more efficient and livable city. In many ways, getting automobiles off the streets & off the curb and making better public spaces are part of the solution.

Most people in the Upper West Side and indeed the whole city don’t own cars and even fewer rely on their cars on a regular basis. Drivers often have mass transit alternatives or should have as much encouragement as possible to rearrange their home - work situations to rely less on their cars.

Why? Because drivers, particularly those that rely on free street parking are costing this city a tremendous amount of money everyday and are the main impediment to a whole host of street improvements that would cost very little, but would dramatically improve quality of life.

As an example, since today is Park(ing) Day, let’s just imagine a city in which the residents and merchants on each block controlled it’s own curbside space. The building with lots of elderly residents could opt for a space to allow it’s residents easy pick-up and drop-off. The bagel shop on the corner might like the foot traffic from a taxi stand. The grocery store could have an special spot for delivery trucks to load and unload. The medical office could have a spot for the access-a-ride to make pick-ups and drop-offs. And of course some residents would choose to simply extend the sidewalk and make a nice little place to relax. If they could keep the money, I’m sure some buildings would opt for short term parking, but probably at a high rate

What’s the last thing people would like to have right in front of their building? Free overnight parking for anyone to use…

But that’s the collective decision that we seem to have accepted since any one of the above is seen as imposing a “cost” on “local residents” that want to park their car cost free on those streets. But if we were to poll the majority of residents on that block and offer them some rational alternatives that would return a benefit to them - in the form of access for elderly/disabled, less double parking, faster buses, safer streets, lower costs in stores, more cab sharing and more public space - it’s clear that we would have a radically different approach to the allocation of curbside space.

In a time of declining financial resources, there’s a resource right outside our front doors that is waiting to be realized - if only we take back our streets from freeloading drivers.