Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about Project for Public Spaces

LOS and Travel Projections: The Wrong Tools for Planning Our Streets

By Gary Toth | Feb 7, 2012

Gary Toth is director of transportation initiatives at Project for Public Spaces. This post first appeared on PPS’s Placemaking Blog. Would you use a rototiller to get rid of weeds in a flowerbed? Of course not. You might solve your immediate goal of uprooting the weeds — but oh, my, the collateral damage that you […]

Eight Ways State DOT Chief Joan McDonald Can Make New York Better

By Gary Toth | Jan 18, 2011 | 18 Comments

“By building more and more roads, we have made it almost impossible to solve our transportation problems” – Allen Biehler, Secretary, Pennsylvania DOT and Chair, AASHTO Standing Committee on Highways Every state Department of Transportation (DOT) is led by a chief executive. In some states, they’re called the “secretary.” In others, the “director.” In New […]

The New Gansevoort: Pedestrian Godsend, Nightclubber Nuisance

By Ben Fried | Jan 15, 2009 | 26 Comments

A DOT team received a mix of gratitude and derision at Tuesday’s public forum about recent pedestrian improvements in the Meatpacking District, which attracted an audience of about 100 people to the Housing Works offices on West 13th Street. It was an interesting window onto the competing interests now vying to shape what has been, […]

Streetfilms: Interview With the Transportation Engineer

By Ben Fried | Sep 26, 2008 | 5 Comments

In his storied career at New Jersey DOT, Gary Toth played an indispensable role changing the culture of the agency, promoting a place-based ethic instead of the auto-centric transportation planning dogma. Today Toth heads transportation initiatives at Project for Public Spaces, where he has written "A Citizen’s Guide to Better Streets." The book, which will […]

Broadway Boulevard Confirms: People Will Sit in Well-Placed Seats

By Ben Fried | Sep 23, 2008 | 14 Comments

Broadway Boulevard takes center stage in a USA Today story on New York City’s recent pedestrian improvements. Those who questioned whether people would sit in plazas near passing traffic have their answer: Bianca Assim-Kon, 30, was initially skeptical about the plazas. "I saw them doing this, and my co-worker and I (said) all the tourists […]

Placemaking on the Upper East Side

By Brad Aaron | Sep 11, 2008 | 7 Comments

Tuesday evening, Project for Public Spaces held a "placemaking" community workshop for Manhattan’s Upper East Side, featuring PPS founder and president Fred Kent. Streetsblog regular BicyclesOnly was there and files this report. Kent gave a presentation to about 50 citizen and community activists from the East Side regarding the efforts in New York City and […]

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