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No Exit, Upper West Side Style
Over on the New York Times's City Room blog, Sewell Chan reports on opposition to the July 8 closing of the West 72nd St. exit ramp from the West Side Highway, a move that has been fought in court for years by neighborhood activists. The off-ramp is being demolished at the request of the Extell Development Company, which is constructing the massive Riverside South residential complex, to enable the extension of Riverside Boulevard, the complex's main street. Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer has tried to make the case that poses a security risk, issuing a statement that said, in part:
July 5, 2007
General Motors Goes Hollywood
New York Times film critic Manohla Dargis points out that the good guys in Transformers are mostly fashioned after GM trucks and SUVs. In her review, Dargis calls the film "part car commercial and part military recruitment ad." She also notes that while the Transformers originated as a toy in Japan, curiously none of these robots turns into a Toyota:
July 3, 2007
One’s Inner SUV Driver
This is the third essay from Alex Marshall, who has written extensively on transportation issues as a journalist and author. He is a senior fellow at the Regional Plan Association, where he edits the bi-weekly Spotlight on the Region newsletter.
July 3, 2007
Take Back the Streets, for the Kids
An article in Sunday's New York Times discussed the decline of stickball and other games on city streets:
July 2, 2007
No Love for One-Way Proposal in Jackson Heights
Congestion in Jackson Heights: The DOT needs some new ideas
June 29, 2007
Just What India Needs: The $3,000 Car
The Sierra Club points out that in India, there are currently about 7 cars per 1,000 persons (as compared to nearly 500 per 1,000 in the US). With the advent of the $3,000 car, that is surely about to change. The Independent's Andrew Buncombe reports:
June 28, 2007
Carpetbagging Drivers Head to North Carolina for Plates
On his frequent runs and bike rides around his Jackson Heights neighborhood and nearby Corona and Elmhurst, Will Sweeney recently started noticing something strange: a lot of license plates from North Carolina. Sweeney writes:
June 27, 2007
Auto Insurer Creates Traffic Mayhem With Gasoline Give-Away
Sean Roche of Newton Streets and Sidewalks sends along a good one:
June 25, 2007
Book Review: Twenty-Three Years to Save the Planet
When George Monbiot, the popular columnist for the UK's Guardian newspaper, gets interested in something, he digs and digs until he's found what he's satisfied is the truth. Monbiot is interested in global warming, and presents in Heat: How to Stop the Planet from Burning (U.S. Edition: South End Press, May 2007) a heavily footnoted 215-page brisk and compelling case for why we should all be very worried. This is probably the clearest and broadest book yet published about global warming, with doses of skepticism, inquisitiveness, sobriety and optimism. Every Streetsblog reader should read it. More important, every Streetsblog reader should get it into the hands of five Streetsblog non-readers and ask each of them to do the same.
June 25, 2007