Urban Design

Okay, so the question comprising the title of this post sounds naive enough to border on rhetorical. But in light of the city's current development climate, it takes a stronger resolve than mine to read "Power Broken," by NYU's Thomas Bender, without wondering which side of the fence to come down on.

We reported yesterday that noted Danish urbanist Jan Gehl will soon be surveying New York streets with an eye toward improving them for human use. Gehl has been working in Sydney, Australia as of late, and an essay he wrote for the Sydney Morning Herald offers insight into what he may be looking for here in the city.

Workers on a DOT truck reconfigured a traffic signal in front of P.S. 200 in Queens on Friday.

The mother and grandfather of James Rice.

DOT plans to simplify a dangerous Queens intersection where a school teacher was killed last December.

Yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg announced that the city would today issue a Request for Expressions of Interest (RFEI) for firms "with the ability to perform all or most of the services required to design, implement, operate and maintain a congestion pricing program." Though RFEI submissions will not constitute actual bids for contract, the city is hinting that the firm eventually chosen for the job will be selected from the RFEI pool -- assuming congestion pricing clears city and state lawmakers, of course.

DOT plans to build a physically-separated two-way bike lane on this one block stretch of Canal Street at the foot of the Manhattan Bridge. The project also includes pedestrian safety fixes.

A buffered section of Manhattan's 8th Avenue bike lane.