sustainableflatbush.org

Have I mentioned that I’m a huge fan of New York City’s Department of Transportation Commissioner, Janette Sadik-Khan? (Answer: yes, you’ve mentioned it.) She’s more like a rock star than a public official. She bikes to work, is a great speaker, and has traveled to cities all over the world in search of best-practice ideas for improving our streets and transportation systems.

Yesterday Sadik-Khan gave a talk at the Municipal Arts Society to unveil a new strategic plan for 2008 and beyond called “Sustainable Streets”. Many people were unable to attend because the reservations were at capacity a week before the event (it’s that rock star thing). Fortunately Clarence Eckerson of Streetfilms was able to wangle entrance for himself and his camera to record the event for posterity:

Streets

Thanks Clarence! You rock too!

Several weeks ago I was filmed for an episode of A Walk Around the Blog, a series that profiles Brooklyn bloggers as part of the news magazine program Brooklyn Review that airs on Brooklyn Independent Television. We checked out the neighborhood (by bike, of course!), spoke about some of Sustainable Flatbush’s past, present and future exploits on Cortelyou Road, and visited the Gardening Committee’s planning meeting.

Here’s something I love to see: ordinary people cycling in the snow, photo courtesy of Copenhagen blog Cycleiciousness.

When discussing the possibility of New York City becoming a truly bike-friendly city, one of the most common reasons offered for why This Could Never Happen Here is “The Weather”. Well, check it out, folks:

Moi, en hiver, photo by [Zakkaliciousness].

I maintain that NYC’s biggest obstacle to becoming a Bicycle Utopia has nothing to do with temperature or precipitation. As our Copenhagen biking blogger friend points out:

“Snow isn’t slippery when you’re just riding straight. And on a segregrated bike lane, you don’t have any other traffic to worry about.”

YES. It’s The Bike Lanes. Give Us Real Bike Lanes With NO CARS In Them.

… and just had to share:

Flatbush Gardener has a piece on Making Brooklyn Bloom, this Saturday at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden…

Streetsblog, Brooklyn Junction and Brooklyn Streets, Carroll Gardens on transit upgrades proposed in the recent State of the MTA address. Of particular interest is the idea of converting a “lightly used Bay Ridge freight line into a subway service that would run in an arc from southern Brooklyn to Queens to the Bronx”… yes locals, those are the tracks down by Avenue H…

This video illustrates why so few plastic beverage bottles get recycled in New York State, and why we need to update the Bottle Bill to change it…

Copenhagen Cycle Chic gives us the lowdown on Everyday Bike Culture…

Reclaimed Home on being Cheap and Green or, How I Learned to Get Past the Green Hype and Love Craigslist…

Streetfilms brings us more Livable Streets lessons from Bogota, Colombia: pedestrian-friendly streets, miles of bicycle paths, and free outdoor recreation for all…

A slice (and a sketch) of NYC subway life from Ami Underground…

I just signed a petition urging the folks at Google to include “Bike There” directions in their Maps:

The feature would take into account actual bicycle lanes from the locality being mapped, and it would automatically plan a route for a bicyclist, possibly even providing the cyclist options for either the most direct route, or the most bicycle-friendly (safest) route.

I have often wished for this very thing when using Google Maps; including cycling directions is also a great way to promote bikes as a mode of transport.

Folding Bike at the bistro; photo by Keka

My signature was number 6872, and they’re coming in from all over the globe. Add yours to the list!

Sustainable Flatbush has just endorsed a new report on NYC energy policy and climate change response from Sierra Club NYC Group. The report praises PlaNYC while declaring that we need to go much further in order to address the increasing pace of climate change along with energy volatility:

Government sustainability initiatives may have greater success when framed as responses to energy volatility than to climate change. In the short term, expanding capacity margins through energy conservation will make the City more resilient to volatility, while expediting PlaNYC initiatives. In the long term, we need to push discussion far past PlaNYC’s current goals, and start building a post-petroleum economy now.

The good news is that a national project to make clean energy cheap can restore domestic manufacturing, create millions of jobs that can’t be outsourced, and stimulate the economy, while improving our quality of life and mitigating climate change. New York City’s leadership can help make such policy actions a reality, while ensuring a better future for our citizens. What’s the next step for New York City?

Here’s a link to the summary version (the whole report is 50 pages long!).

Enrique Peñalosa, former mayor of Bogota, Colombia and a legendary figure in the Livable Streets movement, speaks here with transit activists Commuters United for Transportation Equity (COMMUTE). If you care about our city’s future and particularly the mobility of low-income New Yorkers, have a look.

A cargo bike like this costs a month’s salary for some.

CD vendor on two wheels.

I previously visited Recife and Olinda in 2005, and for some reason it feels like there are more people riding bikes now… my imagination? perhaps. But bikes make a lot of sense during Carnaval, when streets get closed to traffic, buses get re-routed, and many vendors carry their wares (and visitors their companions) on two wheels.

There is also a sizable majority of the population who cannot afford cars and must rely either on public buses or walking (and the occasional horse), to get around. Bicycles would seem like a good alternative for the brave (see below) who can come up with cash to purchase one. I’m not sure what the going price for regular bicycles is (one cargo bike we saw apparently goes for 300 reais – around $170 US at current exchange rates – which for some people represents an entire month’s salary, but a good investment considering how much it can carry). I saw some bikes even in the most hilly areas of Recife (which tend to be low-income communities) though not many in Olinda, a beautiful historical town with colonial architecture and semi-vertical winding cobblestone streets.

Everyday riding on the main streets here is not for the faint-hearted, as buses careen by at about 50 mph and cars clear their path by beeping their horns as they zip through the scattering pedestrians. One person also told me that a woman riding alone will get robbed of her bike pretty quickly, and whether that is true or not I saw almost no female cyclists.

P1010102, originally uploaded by Sustainable Flatbush.

Cargo bikes are very big here, carrying everything from huge bottles of water to sounds for the party!

Okay, so I’ve been a rather bad blogger for a week or two, but I have a really good excuse: I’m in Recife, Brazil for Carnaval!

Needless to say it’s crazy here (in a good way), but I have a few photos to post that are relevant to the sustainability discusssion… here they come!