Amsterdam Avenue Working Group

 

 

Running the length of the Upper West Side, Amsterdam Avenue is the backbone of this neighborhood.  It is a nexus of the

community, providing shopping, eating, walking, and essential services.  But it stops far short of the green, healthy boulevard that it could be.  Come together with other with other members of the community in envisioning a new path for Amsterdam Avenue in which it can serve not just the needs of drivers, but the needs of

the neighborhood.

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Design Corner:

 
Hello, Upper West Side Street Advocates!

As many of you know, the folks here at Transportation Alternatives, The Open Planning Project, and Project for Public Space have been quite busy laying the groundwork for an amazing 2008.

Building on the momentum of the Upper West Side Street Renaissance’s November ’07 campaign launch, we’ve held various community events, including January 28^th’s wildly successful panel discussion and outreach reception, Streets Renaissance: How You Can Transform New York City Streets. This great event, like the many others we’ve hosted around the neighborhood, continued the work of building a true community-led movement for livable streets on the Upper West Side.

Over the course of the next two months, the Upper West Side has a chance to make choices that will have impacts not just for all of us, but for our children.  We challenge you to add your voice to this crucial discussion.  The Working Groups need to prepare for a series of design charrettes, taking place in mid-April, by exploring ideas, discussing their merits, and ultimately crafting vision statements about how our streets can best be improved.

This process is much more straightforward than it might appear.  To create a vision statement, you simply need to:

• Identify how your street doesn’t work

• Isolate specific examples, e.g., dangerous, over-crowded intersections

• Investigate design and policy options that address your specific concerns

Guided by these documents, urban design and planning professionals will work with you to create viable blueprints for livable streets during the design charrettes.  These blueprints will then be a valuable resource that you can present to your elected officials, community members, local businesses and city agencies as evidence of the benefits of a Complete Street.  Other communities around the city have pursued this same strategy, and won safer, greener, and more livable streets for their community.  For one recent example, check out the work of a group of committed Hell’s Kitchen neighbors at the 9th Avenue Renaissance website.

What happens next is up to you.  Over the coming months, Working Group members and chairpersons will have to decide how they want to share and exchange ideas. You can take advantage of the existing Working Group home pages (great forums for discussion which easily allow you to post project tasks and share results), or plan targeted meetings to discuss key developments in your work. And if you need us, the UWS Streets Renaissance staff is always on hand to help locate spaces for meetings, answer questions and provide necessary resources. 

So, log on, create your profile and begin sharing ideas!  And of course, don’t forget to watch for fun, relaxing Campaign events like the upcoming Bicycle Movie Night on February 20th--See the Events Calendar on the top right for more information.

Timetable For 2008:

February-April: Create Vision Statements for Working Group Charrettes

April: Working Group Charrettes! Date TBA