Safari 7 is back! Actually, it never went away. But starting next Thursday you can delve deeper into the 3D maps, drawings and podcasts that illuminate the ecosystems along this urban transect that runs from Times Square to Flushing.

OPENING: THU 7-9PM OCTOBER 15
LOCATION: Studio-X 180 Varick Street, Ste 1610 New York, NY 10014 – 1 Train to Houston Street
EXHIBITION DATES: October 15-December 31, 2009, open to the public Mon-Fri, 10am-6pm

There are other ways to use handheld devices to improve the experience of riding transit, as we learned from the first in a recurring series of transit data meet-ups. And it looks like the MTA, finally, is coming around on its aggressive actions against techies working in the public interest with transit data. After an uproar from the web developer community, a new MTA chief, and a letter from Gale Brewer, the MTA is reversing course and several apps removed from the iTunes store are back on sale.

Whether you’re lucky enough to carry a smart phone or not, it’s getting harder and harder to find live, official information in subway stations, given the extensive staffing cuts in station agents. Often snack vendors and maintenance workers are the only ones around able (though not always willing) to assist and guide riders.

When it comes to the rights of street vendors, however, there is one guy who actually does have the answers. Sean Basinski, who worked with Candy Chang on the fantastic Making Policy Public: Vendor Power! is answering readers questions over at nytimes.com. Check out Part 1, Part II, and Part III.

If you’re looking for holiday weekend activities, don’t forget to explore the streets of the Greenpoint Williamsburg Industrial Zone tonight and tomorrow with Sarah Nelson Wright and the Brooklyn Makes crew. Or, for a Saturday afternoon activity, register your team to take part in a group scavenger hunt that will help populate one of the most trafficked web sites in the world with your photos.

WHAT: Wikis Take Manhattan III, A photo scavenger hunt through NYC for Wikipedia
START TIME: Saturday, October 10 at 1:00pm
END TIME: Saturday, October 10 at 9:00pm
WHERE: Low Memorial Library, Columbia University OR The Open Planning Project, 148 Lafayette (between Broome and Grand)

And while we’re talking photos, if you were inspired by last week’s WNYC/Omnibus meet-up to look up more often when you’re going about your daily business, try next time to find the hidden alphabet in the constellations of forms created by the skyline. Or, just appreciate these wicked cool images, the work of German artist Lisa Rienermann:

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.