Noah Kazis
Noah joined Streetsblog as a New York City reporter at the start of 2010. When he was a kid, he collected subway paraphernalia in a Vignelli-map shoebox.
Before coming to Streetsblog, he blogged at TheCityFix DC and worked as a field organizer for the Obama campaign in Toledo, Ohio. Noah graduated from Yale University, where he wrote his senior thesis on the class politics of transportation reform in New York City. He lives in Morningside Heights.
Recent Posts
What Does American Exceptionalism Mean For Livable Streets?
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Rush hour in Copenhagen. Photo: Complete Streets Coalition Is the United States exceptional? It’s a question that’s bedeviled activists and historians alike since the country was born 234 years ago this Sunday. It’s also a question that’s been bugging Barbara McCann, the executive director of the Complete Streets Coalition. She’s been at Velo-City, a bike […]
Telling the Story of Chicago, One Train Stop at a Time
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The Train Stop Guide website would allow you to rate and describe every train stop in Chicago. Image: Carfree Chicago. It’s amazing how much a strong transit system can reshape the city around it. And not just through the physical changes that transit brings, but the mental ones too. A transit system can reshape the […]
HUD Chief Preaches Livable Communities at Conference on Cities
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HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan. Photo: Wikimedia. At least among cabinet secretaries, US DOT chief Ray LaHood has become something of a livable streets rock star. His forceful and public support for cyclists and pedestrians and his dedication to safe driving have earned him the praise of many. By comparison, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun […]
Chicago Takes Tentative First Step Toward Bike-Sharing
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A pilot station for Chicago’s proposed bike-sharing program, on display a couple of weeks ago. Photo: vizcha via Flickr Public bike-sharing is coming to yet another American city. The concept, first proven in Lyon, France and made famous by Paris’s Vélib, offers members easy access to public bikes at stations across a city. With bike […]
Seeing the Street as a New Cyclist
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The de Maisonneuve bike path in downtown Montreal, which new cyclist Michael Shenker now avoids in favor of a different, calmer route. Photo: Carnotzet via Flickr. It’s no secret that the road looks different over handlebars than it does over the dashboard. When cycling most city streets, you see your surroundings differently: at a different […]
Dodd’s Livability Bill Earns Praise from Local Governments
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With financial reform nearly complete, the Senate Banking Committee turned its attention today to one of Senator Chris Dodd’s (D-CT) next priorities, the Livable Communities Act. Local government came out strong for the initiative to promote sustainable and integrated regional planning, with representatives of the nation’s cities, towns, counties, and regional planning organizations testifying in favor. Among committee members, […]
Streets for Walking, Part 2: Dan Burden on Building Support for Change
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Burden leads a workshop helping a hospital in Calgary design its pedestrian space. Photo: Dan Burden. Last week Streetsblog spoke to walkability expert Dan Burden about how new design guidelines for urban streets can replace the suburban, car-oriented standards that have become the norm throughout America (read the interview here). Burden has been advocating for […]
Making Streets for Walking: Dan Burden on Reforming Design Standards
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A template for an urban street in "Designing Walkable Urban Thoroughfares." Source: Claire Vlach, Bottomley Design & Planning. One of the foundational documents in our country’s history of car-centric street design is what’s known as the Green Book. These engineering guidelines, which have been published in various editions by the American Association of State Highway […]
Rev. Jackson Joins Labor, Enviro Groups in Call for Transit Funding
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At a rally yesterday headlined by Rev. Jesse Jackson, a new coalition of labor unions and environmental organizations stood together to demand more funding for transit agencies across the country. With service cuts afflicting bus and train riders in dozens of major cities, the "Keep America Moving" coalition is focused on securing funds to maintain […]
Smart Parking Policy Makes a Difference, Even in Livable Streets Utopias
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The evidence keeps mounting that smart parking policy is an essential tool in the fight to curb traffic. A new study of two German neighborhoods indicates that managing the supply of parking can make streets more livable, even in places that already have great infrastructure for transit, walking, and biking. Eliminating mandatory parking minimums, the […]
A Fresh Look at American Sprawl
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There’s only one Concrete, WA, but concrete and asphalt are the welcome mats for towns across America. Image: Gord McKenna/Flickr. American advocates for livable streets know that our addiction to the automobile is almost without peer. We know that we’ve given our land to driving lanes and parking lots and our air to exhaust fumes. […]
National Survey: Driving Down in 2009, Sustainable Transport Up
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NHTS data from 2001 and 2009 shows a major increase in sustainable transportation. Image via Mobilizing the Region. Between 2001 and 2009, the share of trips that Americans made in cars dropped by more than four percent, with walking, bicycling and transit use picking up the slack, according to new data from the U.S. Department […]