Public Space

Derek Lake died on June 26 when his bike tripped over a steel plate and fell beneath the wheels of a moving truck in the midst of Houston Street's reconstruction mess. Brad Hoylman, a Village resident, chairs the Traffic and Transportation Committee of Community Board 2. Hoylman talks to Streetsblog about the  Community Board's reaction to Lake's death and its plans to try to prevent similar horrors. And he reminds us that, despite a $30 million reconstruction project that includes no new bicycle amenities, Houston Street is supposed to be a part of New York City's Bicycle Master Plan. 

I recently took this boat, a water taxi, from Red Hook to South Street Seaport. Landing at the Seaport after having just been in Red Hook about five minutes earlier gives one an odd supernatural sense of having been teleported.

Thursday, July 20, 2006 at 2:30 pm New York City Council250 Broadway, 14th Floor Hearing Room (across from City Hall).

"The greatest achievement of New York is the streets," says architect Hugh Hardy. And he says we can achieve richer public places -- if New York's citizens can persuade officials to make those places serve people rather than cars.

Van Brunt and Wolcott Streets. Before paint, July 7. After paint, July 14.

Foreign correspondence from Ethan Kent at Project for Public Spaces:

Not surprisingly, the opening of the popular new Fairway Market in Red Hook, has significantly increased daily motor vehicle mayhem in this formerly moribund corner of Brooklyn.

Sunday, July 30, 11:00 a.m.CANAL STREET EDGE: FROM BUCOLIC TO FRENETIC

TODAY: WNYC, The Leonard Lopate Show