“A Perverse Allocation of Public Space on the Upper West Side”

As we lead up to next Tuesday’s big Upper West Side Streets Renaissance workshop with Jan Gehl (have you submitted your RSVP yet?) here is another StreetFilm delving in to the kinds of issues we hope to be talking about.

In this segment, Upper West Siders Mark Gorton and Lisa Sladkus briefly examine just how much of our city’s valuable and limited public space has been dedicated to the storage and movement of motor vehicles and how diminished pedestrian spaces impact our sense of community.

Summing it up in terms that even the simplest hedge fund manager would understand, Gorton says, "We have a
perverse allocation of public space on the Upper West Side and it needs to be
changed."

It doesn’t have to be this way, folks. Come out on Tuesday and work with your neighbors to envision and shape a new direction for New York City’s streets and public spaces:

Tuesday, November 6th, 2007
The Jewish Community Center
334 Amsterdam Avenue at West 76th Street
5:30–7:00 Opening Reception
7:00–8:30 Presentation and Workshop

  • There are a few easy first steps:

    1. Crackdown on businesses that include frequent violations of parking rules or overuse curbside space as part of their business model. Hefty fines and market prices will rationalize this.

    2.Install munimeters on every street, even “residential” side streets. No all day parking unless you “feed the meter” at escalating hourly rates.

    3. Put trash in street, not sidewalk.

    Just a few thoughts. Sorry I’ll miss this great event!

  • c

    Peds: “we were here first.”

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