Stringer repeatedly used the word "collaborative" in his speech last night, a quality that he implied the Bloomberg administration lacks. "There is a troubling view taking hold that to set high standards and achieve good outcomes, we must rely on a closed, top-down model of government," he said. If New York had allowed that attitude in the past, he said, "there would be a highway through SoHo."
Instead, Stringer suggested, "leadership is about constantly widening your inquiry and circle of concern." He offered his work surveying local business owners along the Columbus Avenue protected bike lane as his first example of this strategy in action. "This new partnership will show us the way to support bike lanes that respect drivers, pedestrians and business owners, just like my office did on Columbus Avenue with Gale Brewer," he said.
Stringer's decision to include his approach to bike lanes in the State of the Borough and to tie it to a broader campaign theme suggests that the implementation of his working group model for street redesigns will remain a top priority in coming years.
Turning to issues beyond the control of the mayor, Stringer also called for the creation of a national or regional infrastructure bank to fund transportation projects based on merit. New York needs to reclaim its heritage as "a place that tackles big projects on time and on budget," he urged. To that end, he's holding a conference with Congressman Steve Israel on the infrastructure bank idea next month.
Noah joined Streetsblog as a New York City reporter at the start of 2010. When he was a kid, he collected subway paraphernalia in a Vignelli-map shoebox.
Before coming to Streetsblog, he blogged at TheCityFix DC and worked as a field organizer for the Obama campaign in Toledo, Ohio. Noah graduated from Yale University, where he wrote his senior thesis on the class politics of transportation reform in New York City. He lives in Morningside Heights.
Sixty people died in the first three months of the year, 50 percent more than the first quarter of 2018, which was the safest opening three months of any Vision Zero year.