Category Archives: Current

Spoke Up at the Hotel Pennsylvania

by John Massengale Posted on May 13, 2021

CNU NYC is part of the Empire Station Coalition that Governor Andrew “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 Coalition … Continue reading →

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We Built This City To Walk And Stroll

by John Massengale Posted on July 17, 2020

“What if we treated historic districts historically, making the cars accommodate the city, rather than the other way around?”

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My Recent Op-Eds

by John Massengale Posted on June 8, 2020

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 →

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“I feel like it’s 1968,” says every reporter on CNN and MSNBC watching the protest marches.

by John Massengale Posted on June 7, 2020

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 →

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A Chicane Is Not A Shared Space Place

by John Massengale Posted on October 22, 2019

A space is only a place if people want to be there. The chicane shown above is for traffic calming, not placemaking. Putting that another way, it’s a product of traffic engineering, not a piece of urban design. I understand … Continue reading →

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My New York Times Op-Ed: “There Are Better Ways to Get Around Town”

by John Massengale Posted on May 29, 2018

New York City Streets for People After the Congestion Zone May 15, 2018 (link) The debate continues over how to make New York City’s streets less crowded, safer and better for people as well as cars. Some, like Gov. Andrew … Continue reading →

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Introduction to the 1st Annual Jane Jacobs Award at the Met Housing Council

by John Massengale Posted on December 19, 2016

Jane Jacobs wrote 12 wide-ranging, brilliant books. In them she wove together ideas about cities, city life, politics, economics, and social and cultural issues, so it’s hard to succinctly summarize her contributions to tonight’s topic of affordable housing in New … Continue reading →

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Occupy Broad Street

by John Massengale Posted on September 16, 2016

THE BROAD crossroads where Wall Street and Broad Street come together is a beautiful space, fully the equal of medieval European plazas. Today, post-911, it’s closed to almost all traffic, because the New York Stock Exchange sits at the southwest corner of the … Continue reading →

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NYC DOT Shared Streets: Lower Manhattan THIS SATURDAY

by John Massengale Posted on August 11, 2016

THE NYC DOT’S SHARED STREETS: LOWER MANHATTAN will take place Saturday, August 13  as part of the annual Summer Streets program. Frankly, it looks like the weather will not be good, but the rain will come and go, and this … Continue reading →

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Quote of the Day: “A uniquely frightening moment in American life”

by John Massengale Posted on July 20, 2016

“It is the essence of fascism to have no single fixed form—an attenuated form of nationalism in its basic nature, it naturally takes on the colors and practices of each nation it infects. In Italy, it is bombastic and neoclassical … Continue reading →

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