Category Archives: Culture
Car Free Brooklyn Bridge – photos and drawings
A Car-Free Brooklyn Bridge Is Possible Images and Illustratons AFTER: Aerial view looking east towards a car-free Brooklyn Bridge. Centre Street and Park Row next to the Brooklyn Bridge are reimagined as an extension of City Hall Park. © 2020 … Continue reading
Take Back The City
On a recent episode of Billions, the New York Attorney General stands on the roof a car in the middle of a New York City street with a bullhorn. Why? Vecause he’s positioned himself near a meeting on the Highline … Continue reading
MSG
Two MSG quotes: “In animal studies, injecting high doses of MSG into the brains of rats made them fat.” – Wikipedia “Through Pennsylvania Station one entered the city like a god…. One scuttles in now like a rat” [under Madison … Continue reading
Spoke Up at the Hotel Pennsylvania
CNU NYC is a member of the Empire Station Coalition that opposes Governor “Demo Dan” Cuomo’s plan to declare the blocks around Pennsylvania Station “blighted,” as part of an urban removal scheme for the area. Yesterday, several members of the … Continue reading
TikTok Urbanism
TikTok Car Free Brooklyn Bridge Car Free Brooklyn Bridge Uncropped
Tales From My Privileged Youth / Palate Cleanser
(NB: If you start to lose interest, jump down to the surprise ending.) I GREW UP in Darien, Connecticut, where my father had a college friend named John Pierpont (“Mr. Pierpont” to me). Mr. Pierpont was a tall, elegant man. … Continue reading
We Built This City To Walk And Stroll
“What if we treated historic districts historically, making the cars accommodate the city, rather than the other way around?”
Tales From My Privileged Youth
I WAS LUCKY. I was sitting around with friends during the spring term of my senior year in college. “I want to go to Europe,” I said. “How can I get a job there?” “Call Franco at the Red Garter … Continue reading
Crain’s New York: Change the Streets & Change the City
My op-ed in Crain’s New York is in the magazine this week and has been online for more than a week. The online version is longer than the print version but is behind a paywall. You can buy access to both … Continue reading
My Recent Op-Eds
New York Times New York Daily News (print) Crain’s New York Business (print) Streetsblog NYC City Limits Many others in local papers and publications like the Berkshire Record and The Patent Trader. For a complete list, click here. Bonus: Two … Continue reading
“I feel like it’s 1968,” says every reporter on CNN and MSNBC watching the protest marches.
In another, less grave context, I wrote about one of my favorite Harvard professors, who back in the 1980s talked about what he thought were connections between the 1960s and the 21st century (see below). Today, like the reporters on … Continue reading
My Streetsblog Op-Ed: If Not Now, When? Changing the Car Culture
“We worked for years to reduce car use. If everybody drives a car, there is no space for people, there is no space to move, there is no space for commercial activities outside the shops.” ~ Milan deputy mayor Marco … Continue reading
Architecture Is Frozen Music
Imagine the following scenario. There are some problems with it, but you’ll get the point. The Berlin Philharmonic has the only sheet music for Mozart’s Requiem. One day, a fire destroys the last 10 pages. Angela Merkel announces that the … Continue reading
Seaside, Battery Park City, the State of Our Streets, and New Urbanism
I RECENTLY spent a week in Seaside, where I was once Town Architect. In honor of Seaside, I’m uploading two essays from Street Design, The Secret to Great Cities and Towns. The first is the opening of the chapter on … Continue reading
Seaside
I RECENTLY spent a week in Seaside, where I was once Town Architect. In honor of Seaside, I’m uploading two essays from Street Design, The Secret to Great Cities and Towns. The first is a general essay on Seaside and … Continue reading
The Way We Live Now
“I am the least racist person you will ever meet.” “No one respects women more than me. No one reads the Bible more than me.” “There’s nobody that’s done so much for equality as I have.” “There’s nobody who feels … Continue reading