Car-Free Parks

The Prospect Park Youth Advocates get some well-earned star treatment in this Streetfilm from Robin Urban Smith. They spent the summer gathering data and collecting signatures for a car-free park, culminating last week with a rally at City Hall. Now we see what it takes to mount a 10,000-letter petition drive: resourcefulness, persistence, and the self-possession to wear a leaf costume with aplomb. Bravo to Farah, Oswald, Selena, and Michael.

Youth advocate Oswald Bowman kicks things off at yesterday's rally for a car-free Prospect Park.

If you'll be in Lower Manhattan this afternoon, don't forget today's action by Prospect Park Youth Advocates, who will be delivering postcards to City Hall signed by thousands of New Yorkers who'd like to see the Brooklyn park go car-free. Though Mayor Bloomberg seems to be keeping an open mind on the issue, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz is not impressed. Reports the Daily News:

Having spent their summer working for a car-free Prospect Park, four young Brooklynites are taking their message to the mayor on Monday. And they'll have plenty of backup.

August is here, and while New Yorkers are enduring another summer of rush-hour traffic whipping through the city's flagship parks, some excellent advocacy is bolstering the case for going car-free. Look at the work being done by the Prospect Park Youth Advocates, high school students who are spending their summer vacations gathering data and putting together petitions. Here's youth advocate Michael Cheng describing a recent foray to the Prospect Park loop drive:

It seems elitist "green" types aren't the only ones who think city parks should be reserved for people. A passage from this week's New York Magazine feature "Who Owns Central Park?" reveals that regular Joe business execs recently warned Mayor Bloomberg of the economic consequences of a city so dominated by cars.

If you've ever wondered how Aaron Naparstek and Clarence Eckerson whiled away the hours before the advent of Streetsblog and Streetfilms, here's your answer. They donned cheeseheads and Hummer suits while role-playing in support of a car-free Prospect Park. Clarence has been hanging on to this proto-Streetfilm for some time (it was shot in 2002), waiting for the right moment to spring it on us. With the push for a car-free Central Park and Prospect Park gaining steam as summer approaches, not to mention the launch of the Livable Streets Network two days ago, that time is now.

A study released this week by Transportation Alternatives undercuts the claim that closing Central Park's loop drive to cars would increase traffic on the streets of Harlem. To the contrary, findings indicate that loop entrances on 110th street at Malcolm X and Adam Clayton Powell Boulevards "act as traffic magnets," drawing vehicles onto neighborhood streets from more appropriate routes like the FDR, Harlem River Drive and the West Side Highway.

Ken Coughlin, occasional Streetsblog contributor, long-time coordinator of Transportation Alternatives' Car-Free Central Park campaign and all-around mensch suffered a heart attack on Saturday. T.A. board member Jeff Prant and executive director Paul Steely White visited Ken at St. Lukes Roosevelt on the Upper West Side on Sunday. They say he's in relatively good spirits and will undergo triple bypass surgery tomorrow.