Parking Placards

Boy, the parking squat post really seems to have hit a nerve in the comments section. In some ways, it is not surprising. Working and writing on these issues for a few years now I have found that New Yorkers are increasingly supportive of the idea of creating better pedestrian, cycling and bus facilities. Yet, when you point out that, very often, the best ways to translate this support into action involve making it even more difficult, costly and inconvenient to drive and park private automobiles in the city than it already is, the support quickly evaporates, no matter the potential benefits.

Oil Drum points to a recent spike in motorist insanity on Staten Island this week: A retired Port Authority cop out with his wife, pulls in to a strip mall to pick up some Chinese food. An ex-NYPD detective jumps out of his car and guns the guy down in a barrage of 17 bullets. Why? He had been driving too slowly. Add to that, a crash on the Brooklyn-bound side of the Verrazano backing up traffic for miles and a car plowing into the front of a house, and it's just another day in Shaolin.

The other day, the NYC Department of Transportation unveiled a proposal to build a new pedestrian-only plaza with tables, benches, greenery and bike racks in Downtown Brooklyn along two blocks where Willoughby and Adams Streets intersect. According to a New York 1 report, the bottom two floors of the city-owned building at 345 Adams will also be opened up for retail use. The Metrotech Business Improvement District will be responsible for managing the new public space. Here's an overhead plan sketch: