Parks

For better and worse, the Parks Dept. seems to be popping up quite a bit lately. In July, Parks was spotted clipping locks and seizing bicycles in Forest Hills, Queens. And last week the agency revoked employee parking permits for Central Park's East Drive. This week, a tipster sends along this Aug. 6 e-mail sent by Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe, pictured right, to Parks Dept. employees.

Sheridan Swap is a new blog covering the Mother of All Livable Streets projects -- the long-running campaign to convert one mile of little-used highway running along the Bronx River into affordable housing, parkland, greenway and economic opportunity for one of the city's most beleaguered neighborhoods. The blog is run by the Southern Bronx River Watershed Alliance. The state, it seems, is getting ready to weigh in on the merits of the project:

A Curbed tipster sent along this photo of the "controversial" new bike lane going in along E. 90th Street.

As we reported yesterday, starting Monday, August 6, Car-Free time in Central Park will be increased by one hour in the morning on the Park's West Drive. Here are the details from the Dept. of Transportation:

Mayor Richard Daley has been aggressive in transforming Chicago into a more livable city, cracking down on sociopathic motorists, encouraging traffic-calming, promoting bicycling and paying attention to the nitty gritty environmental impacts of street design. The Chicago Tribune recently reported on the Mayor's latest effort to fund citywide park-improvements projects using revenues from city-owned parking garages:

On Tuesday afternoon the Parks Dept. seized dozens of bikes parked at the Forest Hills train station