Enjoyed this piece. It’s been great to experience NYC coming back to life, enjoy live performance and the street scene. And my step count, like yours, went up when I was still living in the suburbs but able to switch from a drive commute to transit. But despite the great progress, big barriers to further improvement remain. Some might be less obvious to a visitor. The administration is not delivering on promised and mandated bus lanes and other bus priority measures that could help improve service for commuters without good rail access. On the housing front, even as more supply is built, too much of the new construction creates suburban McMansion size apartments and/or is consumed by non-residents as pied-à-terre.
Thanks, Tom! I agree that big barriers remain, and I hope this didn't suggest that I think everything is hunky-dory. That said, given how so much of the attention New York receives is about what's going wrong (and I've written such pieces, too), it's helpful to remember what's going right, what New York has achieved, and that it's worth fighting for. While the current administration may not be fully up to the task, I know many good people there are working for a better city—I hope I didn't give them short shrift by omission, too!
One thing that is working in my city — Bristol, England — as well in London is to charge for cars to enter the Clean Air Zone. That, combined with parking fees and (hopefuly) better buses, will make inner city Bristol better for pedestrians.
NYC almost implemented a similar scheme in Manhattan, but the governor nixed it on fears of losing suburban voters. The car culture runs deep, and it really takes political will and perhaps better communication to make these changes happen. Good on Bristol, though!
And also I was just in a midtown community board committee meeting where a colleague said, "City of Yes? I hate that name. We should say 'no' more often." May posts like this remind us that we can do better.
Excellent post! An urbanist friend recently posted some photos of Amsterdam on IG where cyclists dominate almost every streetscape. As if that weren't enough to make a NYer jealous, urban swimming in Europe is ever expanding, while in Manhattan we have a tiny and cruel joke of a "beach" where you can't swim because 0.001% of the population can't handle the risk. NYC needs to get on the Kamala/Walz freedom train and start respecting its legacy as a city of the vanguard and risk takers instead of humorless scolds who live to extinguish every whiff of someone having fun. Do we really want European cities to be freer and funner than NYC?
Thanks, Scott! We visited the Netherlands right before the pandemic—that's a country that has figured out how to get people around! Excellent bike infrastructure, plus an amazing transit system. As for swimming...I recall NYC has "floated" the idea of floating pools, but where is there a beach in Manhattan? I once went stand-up paddleboarding on the Hudson and fell into the river twice; refreshing was not the word for it. We used to go to Brighton Beach and the Rockaways, where somehow the water was quite clear and nice compared to the Hudson.
Enjoyed this piece. It’s been great to experience NYC coming back to life, enjoy live performance and the street scene. And my step count, like yours, went up when I was still living in the suburbs but able to switch from a drive commute to transit. But despite the great progress, big barriers to further improvement remain. Some might be less obvious to a visitor. The administration is not delivering on promised and mandated bus lanes and other bus priority measures that could help improve service for commuters without good rail access. On the housing front, even as more supply is built, too much of the new construction creates suburban McMansion size apartments and/or is consumed by non-residents as pied-à-terre.
Thanks, Tom! I agree that big barriers remain, and I hope this didn't suggest that I think everything is hunky-dory. That said, given how so much of the attention New York receives is about what's going wrong (and I've written such pieces, too), it's helpful to remember what's going right, what New York has achieved, and that it's worth fighting for. While the current administration may not be fully up to the task, I know many good people there are working for a better city—I hope I didn't give them short shrift by omission, too!
One thing that is working in my city — Bristol, England — as well in London is to charge for cars to enter the Clean Air Zone. That, combined with parking fees and (hopefuly) better buses, will make inner city Bristol better for pedestrians.
NYC almost implemented a similar scheme in Manhattan, but the governor nixed it on fears of losing suburban voters. The car culture runs deep, and it really takes political will and perhaps better communication to make these changes happen. Good on Bristol, though!
Great post-- couldn't agree more. 💯
And also I was just in a midtown community board committee meeting where a colleague said, "City of Yes? I hate that name. We should say 'no' more often." May posts like this remind us that we can do better.
Thanks, Sachi! As for your community board meeting—oof. But I'm glad you're there to out-yes the naysayers!
Excellent post! An urbanist friend recently posted some photos of Amsterdam on IG where cyclists dominate almost every streetscape. As if that weren't enough to make a NYer jealous, urban swimming in Europe is ever expanding, while in Manhattan we have a tiny and cruel joke of a "beach" where you can't swim because 0.001% of the population can't handle the risk. NYC needs to get on the Kamala/Walz freedom train and start respecting its legacy as a city of the vanguard and risk takers instead of humorless scolds who live to extinguish every whiff of someone having fun. Do we really want European cities to be freer and funner than NYC?
Thanks, Scott! We visited the Netherlands right before the pandemic—that's a country that has figured out how to get people around! Excellent bike infrastructure, plus an amazing transit system. As for swimming...I recall NYC has "floated" the idea of floating pools, but where is there a beach in Manhattan? I once went stand-up paddleboarding on the Hudson and fell into the river twice; refreshing was not the word for it. We used to go to Brighton Beach and the Rockaways, where somehow the water was quite clear and nice compared to the Hudson.
It was great to have you visit! Hope it won't be long until your next trip. We'll keep working to make NYC live up to its full potential.
Great to see you, too! And I'm counting on and rooting for y'all!