 | Summer Streets a Success! | The Oil Drum: Local | Home Buyers Demand Short Commutes, Efficient Homes (with Backyards, Parking, Lots of Square Feet) |  |
Streets: Utilitarian Corridors or Livable Public Space
Posted by Glenn on November 18, 2008 - 10:28pm in The Oil Drum: Local
In just the last year and a half, Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan has begun a dramatic transformation of New York City's streets from mere utilitarian corridors into livable public spaces.
This is no happy accident. It took advocates (and bloggers!) years and years of hard work to make this possible. Only three years ago Mayor Bloomberg proudly stated that traffic was a side effect of the city's growing vitality. Now he's leading the charge on putting into place practical ideas that make the city less dependent on automobiles, more livable, more desirable and inviting to new families that would otherwise choose to live in exurban developments.
This may seem like just a feel good story about something that just increases quality of life for some people in NYC that doesn't have much implication for the rest of the country, but consider this: As the Commissioner states, NYC is planning on a million new residents over the next 20 years. Think about how many square miles of suburban/exurban development that will save for farming. Think about how many fewer cars will be produced if those million people come to NYC. What if every city across the country were a more desirable place to live, work, play, shop than its surrounding suburbs?
As we think about our future, we will need to be very conscious of how we can make low energy consumption urban areas more desirable than high energy consumption suburban areas.
Personnel
Classic posts
Archives
- November 2008 (1)
- August 2008 (1)
- July 2008 (4)
- June 2008 (4)
- May 2008 (3)
- April 2008 (1)
- March 2008 (1)
- February 2008 (2)
- January 2008 (2)
- December 2007 (4)
- November 2007 (4)
- October 2007 (6)
The Oil Drum: New York City archives
- September 2007 (3)
- August 2007 (2)
- July 2007 (3)
- June 2007 (8)
- May 2007 (1)
- April 2007 (8)
- March 2007 (2)
- February 2007 (3)
- January 2007 (5)
- December 2006 (5)
- November 2006 (12)
- October 2006 (10)
- September 2006 (9)
- August 2006 (14)
- July 2006 (15)
- June 2006 (11)
- May 2006 (18)
- April 2006 (35)
- March 2006 (14)
- February 2006 (13)
- January 2006 (12)
- December 2005 (17)
- November 2005 (13)
- October 2005 (25)
- September 2005 (36)
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Great video. The more our policy makers move to green alternatives the better. You mention that this is just a feel good story and I would suggest that it is. As you mention they are "planning" on another million people. This is unacceptable. What sort of time frames are these people thinking? 50 years? 100 years? We have to start "planning" to reduce this population not cater for its increases.
I am relatively new to TOD however have done a lot of research into Peak Oil. I am still bewildered as to why more people do not see the coming situation. There is two main pieces of information that easily show our current oil situation. The graph of past discovery peaking in the 1960's and declining ever since and the Megaprojects Analysis. Put those together and you have the basis for a very nasty situation. Combine that with an unsustainable monetary supply that requires growth to pay the interest, a capitalistic environment that requires growth where resources are not well allocated due to its competitive nature and a population explosion it does not take a rocket scientist to work out our current predicament.
I am currently in the process of trying to convince family and close friends to move out to a property and start re-skilling.
I personally think video is the best means for communicating peak oil. Currently I am looking to show the following to those that I want around me:
Can I ask other TOD'ers to suggest what they see as the best of the best when it comes to this topic?
Thanks in advance.
I personally think video is the best means for communicating peak oil.
Can I ask other TOD'ers to suggest what they see as the best of the best when it comes to this topic?
Don't forget Oily Cassandra:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAPf9V3_li0&feature=related
Cute, sexy, and informative.
As for NYC, it's good to see some sanity rising up after the scorched earth years of Giuliani's radical pro-car, anti-pedestrian and bicycle campaign.
I, like you, think these people are delusional yet.
From the introduction:
.
This dream might come true, but I doubt the citizens of the most cities will like the mechanism by which this transition occurs.
"I am currently in the process of trying to convince family and close friends to move out to a property and start re-skilling."
I wish you Good Luck. People around me are finally starting to wake up because of the economic collapse-in-progress but it is too little, too late in most cases (lost job and very few options left open to them).
The "window of opportunity" to voluntarily "transition" is closing very, very fast.
(BTW, slartobartfast, please do not steal the Heart of Gold again, we don't have the energy to chase you across the galaxy anymore.)
Got it covered. I'm parked at Milliways with a Vogon destructor fleet.
I lived for many years in NYC and have a very big soft spot for the Big Apple. I just sent this link to the mayor of my current city, Hollywood Florida. Who knows maybe someone in our local gov't might be looking for a new idea or two.
New Yawk, New Yawk, my kinda town. It used to be a) interesting, b) dangerous and c) have bus- swallowing potholes. Times have changed. Now, NYC is another version of Disney World @ Orlando ... YUK! What happened to all the porno, the crack?
Anyway ... I suppose somebody has some sort of idea how all that food is gonna get into the middle of town when farms are all thousands of truck miles away. Feeding 5-7 million New York City people is hard now ... what will it be like in ten years?
60 years ago, Long Island and northern New Jersey were agricultural. Seafood was plentiful from New York Bay and off the coast of Long Island.
I suspect NYC will be walkable and pleasant at some point in the future, but the food issue needs to be addressed NOW! The city needs to start working with New York State and neighboring states to set aside farmland and insure there are agricultural products - as New York City addressed its water supply by purchasing their watersheds. A hard- headed approach is required; 20 million people live in the New York City metro area. Only a small percentage of that number can be supported by local agriculture.
Importing agricultural products can be done if a) NYC becomes a full- functioning port as it was ... 60 years ago; b) it can develope products to SELL other than Wall Street Montes c) it can create a marketplace that can accomodate the greatest need. New York will always have a lot of people - maybe not 20 million - but goods will have to be distributed. It is hard to take 100lbs of potatoes on the subway on a hand truck.
Right now, the New York and New Jersey Port Authority runs a container and roll- off operation that is mostly centered in Elizabeth and Newark. The city itself is a host for a number of cruise ships. The Newark port sees the usual mega ships, yadda yadda; some visionary needs to figure out how to accomodate smaller ships and make a port less dependent upon tractor- trailers.
New York used to make stuff; linotype machines, metal working machines, office machines, pianos, housewares, clothing, radios, records, books ... most of these businesses have been run off by real estate speculators. The factories are now 'Luxury Lofts'. If New York can make things again, its citizens can buy whatever they want having some products to sell in return! They can pull the clipper ships right up to the docks and load them up!
There were many diffeent markets in New York in years past, enough so that merchants and ordinary folks could get what they needed without having to drive to Bergen County and go to a mall. There is room for improvement, here.
Having said all this, NYC has a real transit problem;
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/19/nyregion/19transit.html?ref=nyregion
60 years ago, Long Island and northern New Jersey were agricultural. Seafood was plentiful from New York Bay and off the coast of Long Island.
Los Angeles County was the most productive agricultural county in the nation in the 1940's. It will be interesting to see what agricultural areas will be paved over in the future as our population continues to blossom and bloom.
As the Commissioner states, NYC is planning on a million new residents over the next 20 years. Think about how many square miles of suburban/exurban development that will save for farming.
As Crocodile Dundee so beautifully put it: "New York City must be the friendliest place on earth".
how all that food is gonna get into the middle of town when farms are all thousands of truck miles away
Two proposals on the table.
One is an electrified rail tunnel (likely freight only) under the Hudson Ocean to Brooklyn/Bronx (forgot which). Rail connection to food distribution center is a major selling point of plan (fewer trucks traveling through town).
The other is by CSX railroad. DC to Miami, three tracks (4 tracks DC-Richmond), grade separated. Two tracks at 50 to 60 mph, one at 110 mph. Florida fruits and veggies @ 100 mph on electrified track. Switch to night/mid-day/week-end service on Amtrak's NEC into NJ, connect to new tunnel.
When it comes to water, another essential, NYC is in GREAT shape with completion of 3rd water tunnel. Good, clean water delivered (up to 5 or 6 stories high) with zero pumping energy, just gravity. Almost no small towns or farms can say as much.
AFAIK, 3rd tunnel can supply current population alone, or tunnels 1 + 2 can do it alone. Redundant, but also higher efficiency with 3rd tunnel because of less frictional losses (lower water speeds because more total cross-sectional area).
Best Hopes for NYC,
Alan
First impression? Nice legs.
There, I said it...now the rest of you guys don't have to feel like deviants for thinking it...
Yummy
Ms. Sadik-Khan is on several rumor lists for Secretary of Transportation.
"This may seem like just a feel good story about something that just increases quality of life for some people in NYC that doesn't have much implication for the rest of the country, but consider this..."
Yes, and please consider this too (from "the ;little alpha-penis-who-can-drive" over at LATOC).
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB122688356681132117-lMyQjAxMDI4MjE2...
Good luck New Yorkers - and other megatrops. But it looks like we will all be a day late, and a dime short.
One modest step forward for cyclists and pedestrians, two giant leaps backward for commuters.
Link to Plan
Sustainable Streets
Not a lifelong resident, but having lived on the upper west side, and ran an International import business on the lower east side, for about 5 years during the Crack Heyday in the early 1980's, and during those years, daytripped to most every part of the city to explore, I have an idea what NYC is. Sooooo,
This "Plan" is a very well done, polished, organized, professional waste of taxpayer money. It is a Hospice program to attend to a dead and dying way of life for 10 million people.
What are these people in government really doing? What the hell are they thinking? Clearly not about a reality of adding a few more million people to an unsustainable way of living. NYC will be a killing zone as this society unravels.
This city, like so many others, would not exist, were it not for the massive taxpayer subsidies, taken by force, from the citizens outside of it. Cut off the subsidies and it will die a quick death. Anyone, with even the slightest idea as to what is coming, would be wise to beat feet out of there. This fairy tale of a Utopian "Plan", will do nothing to save NYC.
But hey, it looks good.
Not from NYC, so I can't argue your on the ground knowledge. But I think cities are key to any kind of a sustainable future. It just won't be possible for everyone to have an idyllic plot of land to live off the grid (even if we die back 60%).
The economies of scale possible from population density are valuable. Making cities more bike/ped friendly will be necessary.
True, population densities do provide an economy of scale. Rail transport being one of many that NYC has, but, NYC is not the self sustaining type of old European city most have a fantasy of. There is, so to speak, too much of a good thing. The population density of NYC is a Cancer, gone out of control. It's not about how much "money" is sent out of NYC, it's about how much energy it sucks back in, and where that energy comes from.
Energy, is the issue.
Suburbia is the "energy sucking sound", not NYC.
Looked for link (forgot to benchmark it), but NYC uses 1/4th the electricity/capita of average Suburbanite. (US urban areas average half of Suburbia). Minimal water pumping certainly helps NYC (Phoenix uses about 20% of it's electricity for water pumping).
NYC and New Orleans were (pre-Katrina #s) tied for fewest miles driven (VMT) by residents of any US cities. So minimal liquid fuels as well as electricity.
Bringing 1 million in from Suburbia (and abandoning a few suburbs) would save significant amounts of energy.
Best Hopes for NYC,
Alan
How much energy went into just the 3rd water tunnel for NYC? But that's the past. It's not even about the present Alan, it's about the future, as this webby site details so well with the numbers and future forecasts for energy. Abandoning a few suburbs will not solve this problem. Creating sustainable communities out of the rubble will. Large, super dense populations singing and holding hands while they truck in the food? Yup...
Well, let's see, where would I rather be when the electricity goes out for a few months?
NYC? NOLA? LA? Maybe not so much....
Katrina was but a small taste of some bitter drink, some might say. I did not care for it. Homo Rapiens have a tendency to go animalistic, very quickly.
Best hopes for staying alive...I will, hope you do, but those in NYC or NOLA will have a tough row to hoe....
A TBM (tunnel boring machine) in that size range would use about 15 MW (when not down for cutter replacement, jams etc. TBMs might operate 15% of the time). Figure for a couple of decades. Add concrete lining, chlorine wash, tailings removal, etc.. All told trivial within the context of this great city.
Service life in centuries, perhaps millennium.
New York gets 2 GW from their half of Niagara Falls, New York is a major buyer from HydroQuebec (and they want to develop more hydro and wind power), New York has decent wind potential (best on East Coast from vague memory) and smaller hydro.
If electricity is limited, it makes sense to use it in the most efficient and most productive places. NYC is certainly the most efficient (4x Suburbia) and economically the most productive. NYC could bring back light manufacturing (once half of USA clothing was sewn there (vague memory). The port will remain, and the railroad access.
There is room for discussion if a post-Peak Oil NYC will be larger or smaller, but there will be a NYC.
You used the phrase "sustainable communities in the rubble of Suburbia". THAT is a fantasy ! The soil is gone, they lack social contact to create viable communities, *ALL* infrastructure was built for unlimited cheap oil.
An Iowa with six, or even sixteen times today's population is certainly possible; with more labor intensive agriculture as a main employer. Sporadic electricity when the wind blows. But Suburbia is a complete write-off. No topsoil (it was scrapped off and sold for post-1970 suburbs), little oil for anyone, and only Boston type walkable suburbs connected by rail to big cities stand a chance.
Best Hopes for NYC,
Alan
It's all fine if you ignore any counter points, Alan.
For instance on soils, lots of people have mentioned umpteen times that raised bed gardening is quite possible, and we are talking about people contributing to their own food, not large scale agriculture.
A lot of your work on rail is very valuable, but there is no need to over-emphasise every point against suburbia to do so.
Raised bed agriculture requires topsoil plus humus in those raised beds.
Where does one get topsoil ? Well, one can buy it. Taken from the latest subdivision development where the topsoil was scrapped off.
Rob Peter to pay Paul.
I was an apartment manager while in school (free rent :-). The barren landscape depressed me (could hardly grow weeds). I was told by an "old timer" that this apartment used to be a cotton field.
I decided to plant a shade tree between semesters. I dug/pried my way down through 2.5 feet of rock fill till I found the cotton field. At least 5 inches of good topsoil covered by rock fill. Not sure why they did not scrape off the topsoil first.
Suburban farming can work in selected spots, but the majority of modern Suburbia I have seen has ruined fertility. And few Suburbanites have the knowledge and skill required for significant food production.
Alan
"This city, like so many others, would not exist, were it not for the massive taxpayer subsidies, taken by force, from the citizens outside of it."
Actually, Citizen_Anarchist, New York City sends $13 billion a year more to Washington than it gets back. It also provides the State of New York with a few extra billions in the same manner. So your statement is demonstrably false as well as offensive.
I don't know, toycritic. Speaking thermodynamically, NYC is importing low entropy and exporting trash and a flow of some dollars. citizen_anarchist's point is fairly straightforward; cities do depend on concentrating the emergy of a much wider area. Consider, for example:
> Correction
>
> In FR Doc. E8-23584, published on October 9, 2008 (73 FR 60008-60048), make the following correction: On
> page 60037, first column, under the heading "D. Executive Order 12988," correct "No State or local laws
> or regulations would be preempted by this rule" to read "All State and local
> laws or regulations that are inconsistent with this rule will be preempted".
A "correction" they are calling it. I suppose.
I think the city/core/power is ripping off the rural/periphery/disenfranchised. By force.
cfm in Gray, ME
Predictions of New York City's demise continue to be premature. The city has been confounding anti-urban bigots for nearly 400 years. It has the misfortune to be the greatest city in a country that hates its cities. This hatred -- so well illustrated in this thread -- is largely based on racism, a perplexity that people from so many different parts of the world can live together amicably, a touch of homophobia, and the difficulty of parking a gas guzzler on our walkable streets. I'd rather die in New York than live in some exurban hell.
That, my dear toycritic, you probably will.
You sound like a government employee of the City.......
This seems like a very appropriate place for the post below, from (from Dmitry Orlov's blog).
Is a Rural Third World town a better place to be than... well, just about anyplace in the First World?
http://cluborlov.blogspot.com/2008/11/poverty-asset-assets-burden.html
A step in the obvious evolution of cityscape; kudos to Janette Sadik-Khan for not only embracing the vision, but doing the hard work to make it a reality. Looking for more good things from her and others of the same genius.
This is great, more progress in NYC to set the example and bar for other US cities.
See this interview with Rohit Aggarwala and Ariella Maron of New York City's Office of Long-term Planning and Sustainability. They speak about the challenges of sustaining a centuries-old city with aging infrastructure and about how the city will accommodate an estimated influx of one million people by 2030.
http://www.sustainlane.com/us-city-rankings/articles/new-york-speaks-q-a...