Yesterday was Earth day. It was also the three-year anniversary of Mayor Bloomberg’s announcement of PlaNYC 2030. Financial and political obstacles have impeded progress on many of the 2009 goals — of the 127 initiatives proposed on Earth Day 2008, only 51 have been entirely completed. Some see this as a “failed dream.” Others consider the shortfalls acceptable in light of all that has been accomplished so far. Meanwhile, Gotham Gazette cautions us against all the political rhetoric, arguing that the implementation of the plan’s “transit-oriented development” is actually increasing New Yorkers’ reliance on cars. But things can’t be all bad — Fast Company has included New York, and its urban farms in particular, in its list of 12 cities across the nation enacting the best ideas for the cities of the future.

In this week’s feature, Vishaan Chakrabarti discusses Curitiba’s Bus Rapid Transit system, pioneered by architect-mayor Jaime Lerner. Curitiba’s transformation is a direct precedent for transportation innovation in Ahmedabad, India, which Meena Kadri chronicles in Places. Kadri quotes planner Shivanand Swamy, who led the research team behind Ahmedabad’s BRT system, as noting that “dedicated lanes are the key to making a bus system smooth and speedy — a real alternative to private vehicles.” Our own transit planners agree: the Department of Transportation is moving ahead with a plan to add pedestrian plazas, reduce private vehicle traffic, and improve bus efficiency (using dedicated lanes) across 34th Street. Besides, according to New York Magazine’s Intelligencer, transportation reform is the key to a lasting legacy: let Bloomberg take over the MTA and find out if they’re right.

Subway etiquette posters by Jason Shelowitz

Taking over the MTA in a different manner is the “Metropolitan Etiquette Authority.” The MEA is the invention of Jason Shelowitz who is waging a public art campaign about public etiquette on the subway. Posing as official MTA notices, his posters request better etiquette under the categories of nail clipping, noise pollution, physical contact, hygiene, and more. In New York Magazine’s brief interview with Shelowitz, the artist explains that while the signs may be illegally posted, at least he is using removable double-sized tape so that they remain impermanent and leave no residue behind.

Speaking of public art, this week Shepard Fairey completed his new mural on Houston and Bowery. Wooster Collective caught Fairey on site as he continued working and interviewed him about the mural, his upcoming show at Deitch Projects, and why New York is the best place in the world for street art. Flavorwire features a different kind of street art in “Up There,” Stella Artois’ charming short film on the art of hand-painted billboards in an era of printed vinyl ads (embedded above).

Atlantic Yards opponents are feeling conflicted this week as Daniel Goldstein, founder and now-former-spokesperson of Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, agreed to sell his apartment to Forest City Ratner for $3 million. City Room reports that with Daniel Goldstein’s agreement to sell his condo in Prospect heights, the “last man standing in front of the Atlantic Yards bulldozer has stepped aside.” This a few days after another headlining hold-out, Freddy’s Bar and Backroom, announced plans to close up their Dean St. digs and move to a new location.

The Roundup keeps you up to date with topics we’ve featured and other things we think are worth knowing about.

Yesterday’s protest of the Atlantic Yards groundbreaking seems to have received almost as much media attention as the groundbreaking itself – one eye-witness estimated the press-to-protester ratio outside Freddy’s bar as nearly 1 to 1. And we admit, we were so taken with the bobbleheaded masks that we failed to assess what this groundbreaking actually means in the context of a project where the meaning of each projected dollar or job is hotly contested. Thankfully, Atlantic Yards Report, as always, presents a measured and comprehensive account of the events that took place yesterday both inside and outside the tent.

This week brought news that the city is taking the reins of the Brooklyn Bridge Park project from the state after years of struggles and delays while the two sides attempted to partner on the development. The city is now considering ways to bring new funding streams in — including an idea to bring a Floating Pool back for permanent installation.

The New York Times opened its “Taking Questions” series to inquiries about the Gowanus Canal’s designation as a Superfund site. Answering is Jack S. Nyman, the director of the Steven L. Newman Real Estate Institute at Baruch College, CUNY, who initiated a study in 2009, to be released next month, entitled “Reconsidering Gowanus — Opportunities for the Sustainable Transformation of an Industrial Neighborhood.” Questions are closed, but the three part post of Nyman’s answers is worth a read.

The New York Times reports that the city has finally agreed to a settlement with workers whose health was damaged while cleaning up the wreckage of the World Trade Center after September 11th.  The survivors will be allowed access to a $23.4 million insurance account. The decision comes as a relief for many, but for others it was too little, too late.  One of the main witnesses is already dead from cancer tied to the toxic fumes at the site.

On Tuesday, NYCDOT submitted two projects to provide safer bike and pedestrian connections on the Manhattan side of the Williamsburg Bridge. The proposals include the addition of new curbside bike routes that circumnavigate around the treacherous Delancey Street, and a raised, planted center median on Bowery between Canal and Division Streets, which would alleviate the congestion of the highly trafficked highway while providing safer crossways to pedestrians. Both proposals were approved by the CB3 committee.

As you’ve probably noticed from the ads littering the landscape of the New York streets, the census season is upon us.  This season is not quite like the others, though — this decade’s census is largely being promoted by local governments instead of the feds. As Governing magazine notes, this sets up a new dynamic and new incentive to stand up and be counted.  Local municipalities stand to gain thousands of dollars in federal funding for each additional person counted.  To paraphrase a recent Prince Street subway ad, the census will deliver better healthcare, better education and even better transportation to New Yorkers.  The census is still hiring and pay starts at $18.75/hr for census taker.  Count and be counted.

One city who the census surely has not benefitted is Detroit. Having lost 50% of its population over the past half century, what to do with the sagging city has been a hot topic of debate lately. Since Detroit became the poster child for post-industrial American city, seeing its population drop from a peak of 2 million to about 900,000 today, no one has known quite what to do with the blocks of valueless houses and factories. An article in Fortune explores a new proposal that calls for letting the city go to seed — literally.  Money manager John Hantz wants to turn broad swaths of suburban neighborhoods into the largest urban farm in the United States and possibly in the world.

At the VOLTA art fair last weekend, artist Jan Vormann showed New Yorkers how to patch up our city’s cracks. With LEGOs. Check out INHABITAT’s slideshow of his charming installations throughout the city.

Image via Inhabitat

The Roundup keeps you up to date with topics we’ve featured and other things we think are worth knowing about.

Protesters gathered outside the NYPD-guarded entrance to the groundbreaking, chanting “Shame On You” at the entering cars.

The group swelled in size as they moved to Atlantic Avenue. The atmosphere was jovial at times, with demonstrators dancing to the music of blowhorns, whistles and tambourines.

Eventually the group spilled into the street, blocking all eastbound traffic.

At NYPD officers’ requests that the group move to the sidewalk, demonstrators retorted with the chant “Where is the sidewalk?” Much of the sidewalk in the area is behind construction fences, leaving only a narrow section of the street on which to gather.

Photos by Andrew Balmer. Balmer is Project Associate for Urban Omnibus and a senior in the Barnard + Columbia Architecture program.

This week we listened to some new strategies to involve community stakeholders in the design of public spaces, strategies tested in the parks of Manhattan’s Chinatown and the Lower East Side. Meanwhile, across the country in LA’s Chinatown, urban planner James Rojas has assembled an interactive city model from legos, blocks and other bright and shiny plastic building materials that recall many of our earliest childhood experiments with design, urbanism and (not) following instructions. At the public unveiling on August 8th, he invites “the public to play and dream about the future of Chinatown. The economic, social, and built environment of Chinatown is rapidly changing and the model will capture that energy through an interactive public participation process.” Legos sound like WAY more fun than the blue drafting dots still popular at many community visioning sessions.

Closer to home, it was a big week for planning resolutions in which the public input was perhaps less playful, despite the zany legacy of one site in question. We’ve been following the debate about the future of Coney Island for some time. On Wednesday, the City Council voted to approve a 27-acre redevelopment plan. Don’t expect the debate to end anytime soon though, negotiations with Thor Equities are still underway. And let’s not forget about Greenpoint/Williamsburg, Flatbush, DUMBO, and Middle Village/Glendale/Maspeth – rezoning plans passed for all, as did an amendment to the city’s Inclusionary Housing Program.

The debate is also still raging around Atlantic Yards, another controversial development proposal we like to check in on from time to time, although it looks like these days fewer and fewer people are showing up to show off rage or support.

Macro-projects will always inspire macro-anger, so for a dose of macro-optimism in a micro-intervention, check out the party at the Putting Lot tomorrow (reviewed in our forum today).

And we hope to see you Monday night at the Brecht Forum for back-in-the-day movie hour. But if the politics of mass transit don’t tickle your fancy, perhaps you’d prefer to see some feel-good flicks on the politics of money instead? If so, join the Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP) for Money Movin’, a look at the circulation of capital on scales large and small, from Wall Street trading floors to pawn shops in South Central L.A. They’ll be screening a selection from Andreas Hoessli’s “Wall Street” (2004) and Lisanne Skyler’s “No Loans Today” (1995).

Images courtesy of Fifth Floor Gallery

The Roundup keeps you up to date with topics we’ve featured, and other things we think are worth knowing about.

The Roundup keeps you up to date with topics we’ve featured, and other things we think are worth knowing about.

First off, save the date: on Tuesday, July 7th, please come and join us and our friends and neighbors, the Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP), for a different kind of SUPERFUND conversation called… “Goo Gone: a live talk show about risk, responsibility and toxins in the landscape.” Panelists will include artist Brooke Singer, environmental justice advocate Anne Rabe, congressional community coordinator Dan Wiley, and other cool cats who will offer new perspectives on the history of the Superfund program, the politics of designation, and the changing legal definitions of toxins, risk, and responsibility. This will be free and open to the public, but space is limited so please let us know if you’re coming by emailing info [at] anothercupdevelopment.org. This will go down at the Old American Can Factory, HQ for both Omnibus and CUP and the site of a recent Architectural League shindig that was off the proverbial hook.  

While you’re down in this neck of the woods, check out the exhibit at Cabinet reviewed in our forum this week.

Speaking of environmentally hazardous canals, Newtown Creek is also near and dear to our hearts. But its peculiar beauty in no way diminishes the huge cost its pollution has wrought on the public health of the area. the Daily News reports on a new study that is looking in to the mysterious ailments that plague nearby residents.

This week we toured some Midtown West megaprojects with Bob Yaro. His arguments for a coordinated approach to intercity transportation recommend that New Yorkers develop a more sophisticated understanding of how New York fits into a megaregional political economy. This point of view echoes Nate Berg’s call, in Planetizen, for a national infrastructure policy. Yaro also has some opinions on other large construction projects closer to home – like the radically reconfigured plan for Atlantic Yards. In advance of the ESDC’s vote on Forest City Ratner’s new, Ellerbe Becket-designed scheme, Yaro opined that ”the horse is already out of the barn.” He was right; the MTA has accepted the developer’s deferred payment proposal.