An urban planner named Andrea

AWESOME! atlasobscura: Delivering a dinosaur to the Boston...

Mon, 06 May 2013 15:13:04 -0400

AWESOME!

atlasobscura:

Delivering a dinosaur to the Boston Museum of Science - Arthur Pollock - 1984

Garbage crisis in 1987. What are we doing now to deal with New...

Mon, 06 May 2013 15:12:07 -0400

Garbage crisis in 1987. What are we doing now to deal with New York’s waste?

Also, ready to be friends with Lowell & Tommy, along with Sal the mafia captain; such visionaries.

“Everyone had a problem getting rid of their garbage.”

Welcome to New York.

Via wnyc.

Ebbets Field. Never forget. #irepbrooklynnow wnyc: Today’s the...

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 23:44:32 -0400

Ebbets Field. Never forget. #irepbrooklynnow

wnyc:

Today’s the 100th anniversary of the opening of Ebbets Field. Brian Lehrer just posted a collection of vintage photos from the Brooklyn Public Library collection - share your stories on fb.

Pretty dope. Santo Domingo has a subway? laughingsquid: An...

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 23:43:33 -0400

Pretty dope. Santo Domingo has a subway?

laughingsquid:

An Interconnected Map Showing All the Subways in North America

Awesome, as usual.

This will surely be the most exciting thing at the APA...

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 23:40:50 -0400

This will surely be the most exciting thing at the APA Conference by like x2000000!

untappedcities:

Untapped Cities to Present on The Digital City at APA Chicago Conference http://bit.ly/ZilRPi

This is so rad!! Taking informational street signs to a new...

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 10:54:25 -0400

This is so rad!! Taking informational street signs to a new level.

ryanpanos:

JAY SHELL’S “THE RAP QUOTES” via Juxtapoz

Multidisciplinary artist, Jay Shells, has recently been creating legitimate looking signs containing rap quotes that reference specific locations in New York. After compiling over 30 signs, Shells set out installing these signs in the locations mentioned in the quotes. The artist has quoted many well-known rappers such as Jay Z, Mos Def, Kanye West, Gza, Nas, Jeru the Damaja, DJ Premier, and many more. Check out others via The Rap Quotes.

How Gays (in Manhattan, in 2002, apparently) see New York....

Sat, 09 Mar 2013 11:17:30 -0500

How Gays (in Manhattan, in 2002, apparently) see New York.

Via The Standard.

Well, this is shaping up to be a significant day in New York...

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 12:16:46 -0500

Well, this is shaping up to be a significant day in New York City history…

Happy 100th Birthday, Grand Central!

You are beautiful and elegant and functional and grand at one century old!

In Memoriam: Ed Koch Today we remember former New York City...

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 12:00:23 -0500

In Memoriam: Ed Koch

Today we remember former New York City Mayor Ed Koch.

In one of the most comprehensive obituaries I have ever read, The New York Times wrote:

His image on television, his high-pitched voice on the radio, his round shoulders and gangly arms and baggy pants, and especially his streetwise gusts of candor — saying what people said over the dinner table in Queens, the Bronx and Brooklyn — gave New Yorkers the illusion that he was a rumpled, familiar acquaintance.

For planners, he has a special place in our nerdy hearts, for championing his “Housing New York” plan, which restored over 200,000 units, many in formerly abandoned buildings in distressed neighborhoods. Koch’s plan significantly reduced New York’s homeless population and played a crucial role in neighborhood revitalization across the City.

As the Times so sweetly puts it:

Mr. Koch is survived by New York itself, as an old friend put it a few years ago.

2013: WELCOME! About a month late, but never a dollar short, we...

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 12:39:06 -0500

2013: WELCOME!

About a month late, but never a dollar short, we kick off the new year (soon to be Year of the Snake) on everyone’s favorite urban happenings blog with an exciting announcement!

I published an article! YAY! Read it! I promise it is not that boring!

Happy Birthday, RoMo! Yet another Sagittarius of note,...

Tue, 18 Dec 2012 21:51:46 -0500

Happy Birthday, RoMo!

Yet another Sagittarius of note, (in)famous urban planner Robert Moses was born on this day in 1888. One-hundred twenty-four years later, his legacy lives on in the completely transformed functionality and face of cities.

Love him or hate him (I’m still deciding), Moses changed the trajectory of urban development in New York, bringing us many of our most beloved bridges and grand public pools.

A champion of the automobile, despite accounts that he himself did not know how to drive (oh, the ultimate irony!), RoMo advocated for the construction of New York’s many expressways and parkways. These highways often bisected neighborhoods, isolating communities and creating urban blight.

RoMo is perhaps best remembered for his rivalry with the most adorable and feisty neighborhood advocate of all time: one Jane Jacobs, who battled the mighty planner against his effort to build an expressway across Manhattan. As we know, Jane won. Because ladies rule (and have more foresight!).

Still, a figure of unparalleled importance in the story of New York’s development: RoMo was a visionary, a fighter, an infrastructure lover, and kind of (?) a babe.

Happy birthday, RoMo!

Another treasure from the Metropolitan Diary.

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 12:55:47 -0500

Dear Diary:

Under the heading of something not to look forward to is the announcement I heard the other week on an Long Island Rail Road train that departed from Pennsylvania Station.

The conductor said, “You are on the painfully local train to Babylon.”

NYT

flavorpill: Get this Queens typographic map poster from Site in...

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 13:56:52 -0500

flavorpill:

Get this Queens typographic map poster from Site in Astoria for $25! Just one of the awesome gifts part of our 50 Gifts from 50 New York Neighborhoods guide.

This is pretty cool, guys!

Oscar Niemeyer = Awesome Today, Oscar Niemeyer left us behind...

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 22:54:08 -0500

Oscar Niemeyer = Awesome

Today, Oscar Niemeyer left us behind after 104 surreally entertaining years. He was a Sagittarius, which should come as a surprise to exactly no one. Objectively speaking, they are the most creative, intelligent and all around awesome sign. Really.

Niemeyer was a pioneer of modern architecture in his native Brazil, and globally when he lived in exile during the Brazilian dictatorship. And he was a bad ass.

Not only did he build the Cathedral in Brasilia basically in the shape of a teepee, among countless other space-agey design accomplishments, he also planned and designed the city of Brasilia.

Brasilia, for those of you who missed the giant, awe-inspiring memo, is designed to have the shape of a bird in flight / airplane.

This man, along with his pal urban planner Lucio Costa, designed and executed a city shaped like a fucking airplane. Who does that? Oscar Niemeyer.

YOLO after all. He certainly made the most of it.

End of an Era: Adieu Off-Duty Lights! Yesterday, the TLC took a...

Fri, 30 Nov 2012 14:30:59 -0500

End of an Era: Adieu Off-Duty Lights!

Yesterday, the TLC took a break from chasing waterfalls to vote to eliminate the off-duty light designation for taxis.

Certainly in my lifetime (28 years next week! Arf.), an illuminated off-duty light on the roof of a taxi has evoked a simultaneous feeling of hope and dread.

Among New Yorkers, the ability to negotiate a ride with an “off-duty” driver is a moment of triumph. Little victories are one of the many charms of living in this city.

What will happen now? The TLC says the elimination of the off-duty designation is to omit the confusion that accompanies it — out of towners and local idiots are thrown by the mixed messages on the roof.

Litmus tests of capability in carrying out the intricacies of every day tasks are a right of passage for all New Yorkers.

What will become of our finely honed rush hour negotiation skills? Sadly wasted as the city dumbs itself down for the less fit among us, losing fares for drivers on their way home in the process.

More at NYT.

YES! This is so rad. I am so excited to take multiple European...

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 13:25:17 -0500

YES! This is so rad. I am so excited to take multiple European trains next month.

c86:

The British Rail Corporate Identity Manual

Iconic British branding and design

"I think the 718 area code would be a good place to spend eternity. In fact, I already have a plot in..."

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 13:14:12 -0500

“I think the 718 area code would be a good place to spend eternity. In fact, I already have a plot in Greenwood Cemetery. It’s right next to Boss Tweed.”

- Former NY Daily News editor and columnist Pete Hamill, talking on the Brian Lehrer Show. Listen here. (via wnyc)

"The too-often self-congratulatory use of smart cities as a predominant paradigm in urban shift for..."

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 13:13:01 -0500

“The too-often self-congratulatory use of smart cities as a predominant paradigm in urban shift for the next decades lacks a wider perspective on how cities work, how cities evolve and how cities are used, enjoyed, governed, developed,…”

- Book. From intelligent to smart cities (via humanscalecities)

Today, in the race to sell out on everything in New York:...

Mon, 08 Oct 2012 02:07:22 -0400

Today, in the race to sell out on everything in New York: Metrocards

Through a booth window, a longtime station agent offered thoughts on the card. “It’s a nice-looking card,” she said, holding one up. The agent, who did not give her full name because the transportation agency had not authorized her to discuss the new cards, then displayed its back face. “Personally, I think the card advertising should be on this side, not this side.”

If the station agents aren’t even down with this then it’s probably a very bad idea, Joseph J. Lhota! Stop being a dumbass.

Oh, yikes! The thing is: if we convince urban areas to become...

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 14:08:00 -0400

Oh, yikes! The thing is: if we convince urban areas to become post-automobile, that will decrease the attractiveness of sprawl. Duh.

humanscalecities:

How cities around the world will sprawl in the next 20 years