I’m involved in an effort at Congregation B’nai Jeshurun, one of the largest and most influential synagogues on the Upper West Side , to develop a plan for greening our street, the 200 block of West 88th Street , between Broadway and West End Avenue . The Environmental Action Hevra, one of several committees in the synagogue’s social justice/social action program, has adopted this as its primary objective for this year. Using the UWSSR Blueprint as our handbook, we’re examining various options, including chicanes to divert through traffic, angled parking to replace parallel parking, secure bike parking, curb extensions, etc. In short, pretty much the whole set of street modifications for a residential side street that are depicted in the Blueprint. We hope to make ours a model block and hopefully to extend the redesign to neighboring blocks.

Before devising a specific proposal to the DOT, which we expect to pass through the Community Board, we plan to build local support by meeting with other residents and businesses on the block to explain the project and its benefits in terms of greater safety for pedestrians and cyclists, cleaner air, reduced noise, and an altogether more pleasant and congenial environment. With a lot of work, we hope to see a proposal before the DOT within six months.

Meanwhile, Hazon (www.hazon.org), an organization that promotes environmental awareness and action in the Jewish community, has recently begun working with other Upper West Side synagogues to promote similar Livable Streets initiatives appropriate to their particular locations, though none are as far advanced in considering such projects as B’nai Jeshurun. They are also being encouraged to show their support for improvements like protected bicycle lanes by sending post cards and signing petitions to Community Board 7 and the DOT. Stay tuned for more developments.

At the last meeting of the Green Committee of Community Board 7 of the Upper West Side we watched a documentary about the transformation of Curitiba, Brazil.  It’s called “A Convenient Truth” and I highly recommend it, though you must not watch the trailer on Youtube which makes it seem like little but talking heads with cheesy music in the background.  

“A Convenient Truth” describes Curitiba’s instituting the best of cutting-edge urban design, and doing so with such speed and executive authority that in one example residents went to sleep beside a traffic-choked noisy nightmare of a main thoroughfare, and woke up to a pedestrianized street with benches and birds singing. The pedestrianized street quickly became a success with business owners (because people buy more when they are strolling than when they are driving by at 30 mph) and residents.  

Here are a couple other examples:  Curitiba took away traffic lanes from cars in order to create one of the most advanced bus rapid transit systems (BRTs) I’ve yet seen. The BRT was much cheaper to build than a subway, and it now moves a huge proportion of the City, cuts down on air and noise pollution, lessens traffic and helps people get from one part of the City to another faster and with less aggravation (less traffic jams and noisy streets).  

Curitiba paid residents of an easily flooded urban lowland to move to higher ground, and then restored the flood plain to a wetland that protects the City from dangerous floods.  The wetland and flood plain became part of a huge park that offers recreation and green space.  

Note that there could be environmental justice aspects to this action: I would like to know what the class was of the residents of the flood plain, and if the City paid the flood plain residents adequately for their dislocation and displacement to other neighborhoods.  If those issues were treated with sensitivity and justice, then this big new park - where people eat their lunches, canoe and picnic while the wildlife habitat filters flood waters safely and saves the city money - is a true accomplishment.  

Overall, A Convenient Truth describes can be done when a government decides to use the best of modern urban design to make itself more livable.          

My friend, Julie Margolies, came to me one day and said, “the intersection near my kids’ school is really dangerous. What can we do about it?” We met on the corner of 95th and Amsterdam and witnessed what it was like to cross this awful intersection. It was especially daunting to cross with a stroller or a young (read: short and hard to see) child in tow. Julie took the initiative to write a letter to Gale Brewer and ask for a Leading Pedestrian Interval and signage to alert drivers of a delayed green. Julie is willing to organize her school and get a petition started. This is the way to ask for change. I hope others will do the same. Thanks Julie!

February 5, 2009

Dear Councilmember Brewer:

I write concerning a dire safety issue in your district that needs to be addressed. As the mother of three young children, two of whom attend The Studio School on 95th Street between Amsterdam and Columbus Avenues, I witness this frightening situation multiple times per day.

As you are likely well aware, the intersection at West 95th Street and Amsterdam Avenue is dangerous for pedestrians. This intersection’s traffic pattern is unusual in that traffic travels west on 95th Street between Amsterdam and Columbus and east on 95th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam. What results is a deadly convergence of traffic in the crosswalk at Amsterdam Avenue. The situation is exacerbated by the facts that 96th Street is a major crosstown thoroughfare, and that 95th Street is a major outlet for cars coming off the West Side Highway.

As I mentioned, my children attend school on 95th Street between Amsterdam and Columbus. We and many other families from our school regularly cross this intersection at Amsterdam Avenue multiple times a day, with young children in tow. Many parents, including me, are often pushing strollers. At busy times of the day, cars routinely block the crosswalk so that pedestrians are unable to cross in the crosswalk and must walk into traffic just to get across the street. Even more frightening, drivers often catapult into the furthest lane of traffic without looking – e.g., a driver coming east on 95th Street wants to continue east on 96th Street and swings into the lane furthest to the right, and vice versa for those traveling west – nearly hitting adults and young children. I have had to stop short with a stroller or pull my children out of the way of cars on more than one occasion when cars suddenly barreled around standing traffic into the lane where I was crossing. Families at our school routinely experience the same, and we are not the only school on the block.

It seems that the situation could be helped considerably by installing a Leading Pedestrian Interval to give pedestrians a head start getting across the street, with signage alerting drivers to the delay for pedestrians. A more ambitious change that would eliminate the problem entirely would be to direct traffic eastbound on West 95th Street from Riverside to Central Park West.

I am confident I can organize other parents to show their support by signing a petition or writing letters, if you think such efforts would be useful to persuade the Department of Transportation to make either enormously effective change.

Thank you very much for your assistance. I look forward to hearing from you.

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.”