Vitajte*
And welcome to this newsletter.
It's where I (John Surico) talk each month about cities & all their discontents: streets, environment, energy, cultures, people, food, form, etc. This month, we cover:
- The rise of the ‘super speeder’;
- Parks funding reform (cont.);
- Black Future Month;
& much, much more.
Super speeders
Ask any expert about what causes traffic fatalities, and undoubtedly you’ll hear something about speeding. They’re the culprit behind a third of them—but we know this already, right? If you have loved ones who have perished in a car crash—or have seen any movie or TV show (of which there are so many) where someone gets hit—there’s usually someone who’s going way faster (illegally so) than they should be. So if you want to save lives, folks will need to slow down.
Now, there are lots of ways to do that. We can design our streets better—stats show that everything from stop signs and traffic lights to street trees and curb extensions help. We can ask cops to do it—and they, of course, do. (Except that can lead to some really adverse outcomes.) We can install ‘speed governors,’ which is technology that turns off engines if they’re going too fast. Or we can use automated enforcement, perhaps better known to us here as speed cameras.
All of that is happening, but speed cameras have emerged as the policy du jour for cities everywhere. Because proponents argue that they’ve got a lot going for them: they’re ‘race-blind,’ unlike police officers (and humans, in general); they catch way more than a roving traffic enforcement agent does; and they do, in fact, work: most studies show that speed cameras actually get drivers to watch the odometer more. In New York City, which has the largest automated enforcement system in the country with over 2,500 cameras live (and counting), research shows most drivers don’t get more than a ticket or two, and sites saw nearby reductions of up to 30 percent.
But something else is afoot, too. NYU’s Marcel Moran, one of the best transportation researchers in the country, reached out to me with eye-popping data about a new class of drivers: ‘super speeders,’ or folks who are clocking 100+ tickets without consequence. The findings say something larger about the systems designed to keep us all safe—and where more can be done.
Read all about it in my latest piece for Bloomberg CityLab.
Shelf life
I dedicated a fair amount of last month’s Streetbeat to the publication of the report I co-authored with Center for an Urban Future (alongside Eli Dvorkin, the Center’s policy and editorial director) about 20 ideas for funding New York City’s parks and open spaces. That’s because: a) we worked on it for almost a year; b) there’s a lot to say about all 20; and c) we’re genuinely excited about its release. Parks are at this crucial juncture in New York City, where they’re more popular and needed than ever before, but also facing budget cuts that will zap maintenance dollars. Our report came out right in the middle of that news cycle (which was not planned!), and as a result, it’s hit a nerve.
I mentioned the premiere coverage in The New York Times in January, but the coverage hasn’t stopped. It was written up in Planetizen and Gothamist. It was shared by influential policy and advocacy organizations, both in New York and nationwide. (Because, surprise: this issue isn’t limited to just Gotham.) And it packed the room of our policy forum in early February, where over 300 people tuned in, either in-person or virtually. You can watch the full video of the event here. (For me, the greatest glee was being written up as the journalism-professor-turned-moderator in The Washington Square News, NYU’s student newspaper where I was once opinion editor.)
But now the real work begins, of ensuring that this doesn’t end up being yet another policy report that ends up on a shelf or coffee table somewhere. That means meeting with key policymakers who can draft legislation in City Council or Albany; penning follow-up op-eds and commentaries that keep some ideas in the public conscience; and presenting our report to interested parties citywide. We’re seeing some ideas pick up steam (and that Gothamist article has more details), and March is budget hearing month. So I hope to be back here soon with more news, whatever it may be. Ideally it’s more green for green.
OSA: City as convener
Again, in these off-season months, I’ll be focusing this section less on the admin work that we’re doing behind the scenes at the 31st Ave Open Street Collective, to ensure that our fifth (!) season is a knockout when we return in late April. (But we did redesign our newsletter, if you’d like to follow us there.) That said, I’d like to shift attention to Open Restaurants, which is somewhat adjacent.
First, to catch readers up: Open Restaurants is the pandemic-era outdoor dining program that New York City launched to allow restaurants to operate under Covid restrictions. Plenty of other cities enacted a similar framework, but New York’s was—and still very much—unique for its sheer scale: at its peak, over 12,000 restaurants were participating, with structures set up either in the roadway or on sidewalks. And, in turn, it transformed the streetscape—and, more importantly, New Yorkers’ perception of it, creating a wholly new use for curbside space that, otherwise, had been reserved primarily for car parking.
These pandemic-era programs, which flattened pre-Covid bureaucracy, have disappeared in many cities; as restrictions lifted, so, too, did folks’ apparent appetite for rethinking curb space. But last year, New York City made theirs permanent, rebranding it as ‘Dining Out NYC,’ the nation’s largest program of its kind. New rules, which go into effect this month, will dramatically change its look and feel: roadside setups will have to be more flexible and less cabin-y, and roadside structures won’t be allowed from November to April. (Sidewalk seating, however, can stay year-round.) Now, the story to watch is whether restaurants, which are not thrilled about the regulations, will play along.
But what I want to talk about here is something that has gotten little press thus far in the program’s rollout. Restauranteurs argue that the new rules will make the program cost-prohibitive—structures that have to be set up, broken down and stored somewhere each year, all just to do it again in a few months, will undoubtedly run a hefty bill. So basically, if the city wants this to work and not get embarrassed should restaurants bail en masse, they’ll have to figure out ways to lower the price tag immediately.
Enter the ‘Dining Out NYC Marketplace.’ Essentially, the city has created a system where companies that craft street furniture (i.e. chairs, tables), modular setups (i.e. movable barricades, planters), and ready-to-go storage (i.e. valet service, Ikea-like assembly/disassembly) can apply to be certified ‘sellers.’ The restaurants, acting as the ‘buyers’ in this situation, can then browse through and select options that work best for their respective ‘streetery.’ The idea is that makers can both scale their products and compete against each other, which, if capitalism goes according to plan, should lower costs for restaurants.
Yet what I think is so striking about this idea is the role that the city is assuming here. The outdoor dining program, at its core, serves businesses and the customers who eat there. (I’d argue that it serves everyone walking by, too, as it enlivens public space à la Jane Jacobs.) But with the new ‘marketplace,’ that ecosystem grows more inclusive of small businesses and entrepreneurs, allowing for healthier, more equitable growth. And it follows a core tenet of Mariana Mazzucato, a thinker over at my alma mater of UCL, who argues that governments are uniquely positioned to be ‘market creators.’ (I’ve mentioned her work here before.) The government entity in this case—the city’s transportation department—has the capability and reach to connect individuals and businesses that few, if any, have. And as Mazzucato shows, that’s when we see innovation.
More to report soon.
Bright Side: Wind-wind-wind
I think most city observers have had their eyes on Paris for some time. Mayor Anne Hidalgo continues to transform the French capital, with a massive buildout of bike lanes and car-free spaces; new policies, like SUV fees and noise cameras; and projects that once seemed crazy, like a clean and swimmable Seine and forests under the Eiffel Tower. To be frank, Hidalgo is really just returning Paris to what once was, for anyone who has sidled a wall while a car came barreling down a narrow rue. But her team is doing it at a pace and ambition unlike anything we’ve seen in the modern age. And a lot of that is in anticipation of the Summer Olympics in a few months, which will bring millions of people and eyeballs to the city. (Los Angeles, we’re lookin’ at you for 2028.)
I could go on and on about Paris—and I will soon, hopefully with more to say—but I’d like to dip underground for this month’s bit of good news. Paris, like any other city, is trying to figure out how to exist on our rapidly warming planet, which will take both mitigation (reducing its causes) and adaptation (living with it). That includes figuring out ways to multiply the use and function of existing systems to hit a bunch of new purposes, like emissions reduction. I’ve called it multi-purpose infrastructure here before, but ‘value stack’ also applies.
And here’s another novel attempt: at the Miromesnil subway station, the city replaced the turnstiles with wind turbines for two days. So every time you clocked into the Métro there, you generated a little bit of power that could be used elsewhere in the system. In that trial period, 27,000 people sent the turbines twirling, which created enough energy to power the signs in the station there.
Now, that’s not a ton of energy—especially for what we’ll need in the coming years, to power our homes, buildings, vehicles, and the like. But it gets us thinking about what could be possible if we started to shift the entirety of our built environment towards a commonly shared goal. Turns out: a whole lot.
On the Radar
The Great Cities Duology, by N.K. Jemisin
Even though I try to celebrate them in any way I can, designated ‘history’ months—like Women’s History Month (March), LGBTQ+ Pride Month (June), Latinx Heritage Month (September), etc.—have always felt dated to me. Like these terms that we learn when we’re kids, as something that has happened and is all fine and dandy now. It almost feels like an absolve for people to not think about the current situation, and our own complacency in, say, systemic racism or a cisgendered world, when all of these histories—women’s liberation, Latinx rights, queer culture—are living; ongoing struggles on a battleground with frontlines forever in flux, especially right now.
So when it’s Black History Month (February), I’m drawn to things like Afrofuturism, or imagining a future where Black culture is leading history, rather following it. The most mainstream encounter folks have with Afrofuturism is likely Black Panther or any of Sun Ra’s music (he’s often treated as its godfather of sorts), but I think the best talent out there right now is N.K. Jemisin, who wrote the eponymous collection of short stories, entitled “How Long Til’ Black Future Month?”
Jemisin is the first person to win the Hugo Award—which is like the Pulitzer for science fiction—for an entire series (The Broken Earth trilogy), which cemented her as one of the best writers of the genre. I just finished Book One, but where I really think Jemisin shines is her latest work, the Great Cities Duology. I’m biased because of the plot: the five boroughs of New York City are each their own entity—in fact, all of the world’s major cities are people, who embody their places’ energies and powers (and have regular meetings in Atlantis). In a critique of urbanism today, the cities are battling the Woman in White, a tentacle-spawning creature that appears to us as a gentrifier hidden behind a shell LLC. She harnesses the far-right’s frustration with the advancement of civic rights and ‘woke’ culture to tear apart New York City at its seams (and, subsequently, other cities as well). And I will stop there because I’m verging on spoiler territory.
Anyway — Jemisin has an incredible way of allowing us to dream of what the future can be when our society finally makes space for all to thrive, which is exemplified in the books’ titles: The City We Became, and The World We Make.
Streetbeat Gig Board
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Cities need foresters, and Philly is on the hunt for one. (Philadelphia, PA)
The Parking Reform Network, which is pushing to end mandatory parking minimums nationwide, is in need of a policy director. (Remote)
If you love the SummerStage in Central Park, then this job as the director of arts production and operations at City Parks Foundation is for you. (NYC)
ProPublica does some of the best investigative journalism around, and they’re hiring an immigration reporter to join them. (NYC or remote)
Walk San Francisco, one of the preemient advocacy groups for safer streets in the Bay Area, is filling a big ol’ bunch of positions. (San Francisco)