NYC, Livable Streets Initiative Win TreeHugger “Best of Green” Awards

Times Square in its controversial lawn chair phase. Photo: Wikimedia/CC

After placing eighth in Bicycling Magazine’s bike-friendly cities list earlier this week, New York got some bragging rights today, taking home top honors in TreeHugger’s “Best of Green” awards. New York got the nod for best pedestrian city, with the pedestrian projects in Midtown putting the city over the top with the TreeHugger judges.

TreeHugger didn’t have this category last year, so I think the big news is simply that they’ve created it. What’s nice about this publicity is that it’s making the connection between sustainability and the pedestrian environment, which NYCDOT commish Janette Sadik-Khan pointed out in response to the award. “Walking is second nature for New Yorkers,” she said, “but not everyone realizes
it’s one of the reasons New York is the greenest big city in America.”

And now for some strutting… For the second year in a row TreeHugger has given the award for best transportation advocacy to the Streetsblog and Streetfilms crews. On behalf of the folks in San Francisco, LA, and Capitol Hill, we say thanks. A big ovation also goes out to all the Streetsblog Network bloggers who are raising the profile of sustainable transportation issues across the country. Well done everyone.