Upper West Side Streets Renaissance

Friday, February 15^th, West End Avenue @ 81^st Street: The brisk winter morning air was no match for the third grade students of The Calhoun School as they unveiled their new “No Idling” sign to a packed crowd of parents, teachers, and community members. 

The permanent sign, mounted to the school’s street-side fence, was the culmination of the students’ crusade to educate parents, bus drivers, delivery truck drivers and neighbors that idling engines contribute to air pollution.  Before today’s event, the students had conducted an innovative, highly scientific air quality experiment to help them better understand how pollution exists in the air they breathe. The third graders posted index cards smeared with Vaseline throughout the school and outside on the street. The results were so dramatic, with the outsides samples having turned dark from soot, that the students knew they couldn’t stop there—drivers in the area needed to know that idling engines were significantly degrading the air quality. Armed with their information, the students wrote letters to their Head of School, the Mayor’s Office, and community leaders, and the new sign was on its way to becoming a reality.

The students’ efforts certainly paid off! At this morning’s ceremony a representative from the Mayor’s Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability was on hand to formally congratulate all the students and school in their environmental work. (Of course, the UWS Streets Renaissance team was represented as well.) The morning ended with the students singing the classic Joni Mitchell song “They paved paradise and put up a parkin’ lot.”

There was a distinct buzz floating through the halls and auditorium of the New-York Historical Society on the evening of January 28th. Nearly 300 people had gathered to hear Streetsblog’s Aaron Naparstek moderate a panel discussion featuring seven all-star change-makers from across the city. As panelists provided practical, inspiring lessons about how to transform the public realm, it was almost possible to hear the gears turning as hundreds of minds began to collectively imagine the change they could bring to their city.

At the reception afterwards the noise was much more literal as the same hundreds ate, drank, and brainstormed in the Society’s Great Hall. New connections were made, and more than a few exciting new projects were conceived as the guests swirled merrily through the space. Also on hand were plenty of NYC Streets Renaissance advocates and staff, dispensing advice alongside an educational exhibit highlighting the possibilities for a more livable Upper West Side.

Most importantly, the Streets Renaissance (both on the UWS and city-wide) gained many new adherents as the gathered New Yorkers began to picture a safer, greener, and more livable future for their own neighborhoods.

If you couldn’t make it out on the 28th, or if you just want to look back on a great party, please check out StreetFilms’ awesome wrap-up video. And as always, stay tuned to this page for news about other fun activities coming to the UWS, including the inaugural Bike Movie Night, being held at the JCC in Manhattan on Feb. 20th.