The Bronx

What could be worse than replacing neighborhood parks with private parking decks, built with the specific intent of increasing car trips by the tens of thousands through a community already suffering from so much disease-causing pollution that its nickname is "Asthma Alley"?

Mayor Bloomberg and a P.S. 21 student at yesterday's Safe Routes to Schools announcement in the Bronx.

Here is a vehicle up in the Bronx that is too large for its driveway. So its owner just takes the sidewalk.

In the aftermath of last weekend's 5,000 rider Tour de Bronx, I thought it might be worth revisiting the the Department of City Planning's August 2006 Bronx Harlem River Bicycle and Pedestrian Study. The study identifies a number of specific ways to carve out space for cyclists and pedestrians and help neighborhoods of the South Bronx get better connected to the Harlem River waterfront. Though it doesn't recommend any ways to actually reduce motor vehicle traffic, there is some good stuff in here. More:

Sunday morning was the Tour de Bronx. An estimated 5,000 riders took to the streets. The highlight of the ride was the trip along a car-free Sheridan Expressway.

I had dinner last Saturday with a couple of people at Enzo's Cafe on Arthur Avenue after a day spent helping prepare the route for the New York City Century bicycle tour, which this year will be sending twice as many people to the Bronx as it has in the past.

Car-Free Sunday on the Grand ConcourseA Clarence Eckerson, Jr. StreetfilmRunning time: 3:58 - 12.35 MB, QuickTime

The Post had a story yesterday reporting on the last ditch effort to stop the Yankee's bad plan to build a new stadium with fewer seats for us Yankee fans but dump more traffic and emissions on the already suffering low-income neighborhoods of the south Bronx. Here's how the Post characterizes opponents of the plan:

Saturday, July 29, 2006, at the Jesup Avenue bridge over the Cross Bronx "Expressway." I called 311 to get the city to tow that abandoned car away, but the operator needed an address or an intersection to locate this vehicle. An address would be a stretch, and the computer didn't accept "Jesup Avenue and the Cross Bronx 'Expressway'" as a known intersection.