At least it is for an educational purpose. In the area of odd and kind of creepy research (not to mention kind of gross for the poor people posted in the bathrooms to observe behavior), some Hunter College undergraduates observed the hand washing behavior of a couple thousand New York City inhabitants. Almost a quarter of them did not use soap when washing their hands, good news for your average public bathroom dwelling germ but bad news for those people. Unsurprisingly, almost 20% of men did not even bother to rinse their hands. Well, what has 1 in 5 New York City men touched before they shook your hand?

Posted by Chris at 03:50 PM in Random, Science | Comments (0)

Transportation Alternatives has a new resource called CrashStat, which gives maps of accidents causing injuries or fatalities to pedestrians in all of New York City. It usefully lists the top ten worst intersections in each borough and the 50 worst intersections citywide.

Posted by Chris at 04:28 PM in Transportation | Comments (0)

Crain's New York Business has an article about how expensive it is to keep a car in New York City - not just Manhattan, but anywhere near the core (parking is probably a bit easier on the fringes but what do I know...). What is needed along with this is a concurrent and coherent strategy to push transit out into the further metropolitan region so that when city people stop driving they are not just replaced with people in cars from the outer counties of the region. Then you will have better air quality, reduced congestion and a more livable region because people are not so concerned about being killed by automobiles every time they leave their house.

Posted by Chris at 11:12 AM in Transportation | Comments (0)

The Gates opened the this Saturday morning in Central Park, my fiance and I went out to see the unraveling of some of the Gates. I don't think I have ever seen so many people in the park at 8:30 AM on a Saturday morning. On many levels, Christo and the Jean Claude have triumphed again, it is an absolutely beautiful transformation of an already wonderful outdoor spaces. In just the first couple hours alone, you could plainly see the power of public art to enliven and transform, as every one was smiling and talking and discovering the new and the old beauty of Central Park.

People are visiting from all over the world just to see this installation. We met a couple from Belgium having breakfast after our walk through the park, and we have a couple friends coming in from California just to see this. The New York City Police Department has even deployed their multilingual officers in the park for the next couple weeks to assist with all the visitors. Mayor Mike is quite proud of this event, and he definitely should be.

Posted by Chris at 10:58 AM in Art | Comments (0)

On the eve of the unveiling of the Gates Project, every one at the New York City Parks Department must be all smiles (and very busy). The Parks Department web site has a great multimedia presentation called the Bronx River Virtual Tour, with highlights of various parks and sights along the Bronx River.

Posted by Chris at 12:17 PM in Art, Planning | Comments (0)

Most people in New York City know that we need some expansion of the subway system. The federal government now seems to really understand - and be willing to help pay for - that expansion. Hopefully the State of New York can find some spare change somewhere and pitch in a bit more for the 2nd Avenue and East Side Access projects, to make sure that the feds keep up their end of the deal.

Posted by Chris at 12:00 PM in Transportation | Comments (0)

The New York Press has an interesting critique of downtown Brooklyn revitalization planning. I am not familiar with the particulars, but I definitely could see mistakes like this being made (or politically accomplished...).

Posted by Chris at 11:41 PM in Planning | Comments (0)

The Federal Highway Administration has teamed up with the Project For Public Spaces and brought out a Context Sensitive Solutions site/resource. It is good to see the lumbering giant that is FHWA the being so visible in its support of contextually planned transportation infrastructure.

Posted by Chris at 12:10 PM in Transportation | Comments (0)

I am not exactly sure of the details, since I do not read Japanese, but this site has the most beautiful and dynamic interface I have seen in a while: fotologue.jp

Posted by Chris at 11:47 AM in Art, Random | Comments (1)

Matt Smith of the SF Weekly poses a very interesting idea: if all the liberal Democratic votes in the last presidential election were concentrated in urban areas, then why not try to expand that base by creating a "cartel" of urban mayors, politicians and urban real estate development interests to expand urban development (without massive taxpayer subsidies) and create more of an urbanized population?

"Whether the means be formal or otherwise, mayors of Democratic cities need to find a way to join together to market their unused or underused land in a way that encourages large developers to create dense urban communities, without demanding a king's ransom in taxpayer subsidies in return. Such a strategy would bring new people into the city, improve the environment by reducing sprawl and gasoline use, and -- and here is the novel part of the plan -- create new Democrats through the shared experience of urban living, all without crippling the urban governments financially, as such projects often do now."

Posted by Chris at 11:34 AM in Politics | Comments (0)