Yesterday marked the DOT's official opening of the long-awaited improvements to Union Square north and Broadway. The redesign includes four separate lanes across 17th street: a pedestrian lane, a bike lane, a separated lane for cars and trucks, as well as a section specifically for parked vehicles, designed to improve congestion spurred from the Green Market trucks. In addition to the traffic changes, DOT has turned the street into a pedestrian plaza, complete with several of those bright green chairs and tables we've been seeing all over the city lately. more ›

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Now that the MTA has selected Tishman Speyer to develop the West Side rail yards into Hudson Yards, a new period of public scrutiny will begin. The developer's plans will need to go through the city's public review process to rezone the western section, leaving plenty of time for potential modifications and opposition. more ›

The League of American Bicyclists has awarded New York City a bronze medal for bicycle friendliness. League representatives met with Mayor Bloomberg and DOT commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, who sometimes cycles to work, at City Hall yesterday to present the award. Though bronze is the lowest rung on the friendliness ladder, New York City is the only community in the region to be designated a Bike Friendly Community (BFC). more ›

Earlier this month we tried to look at the Triborough Bridge as the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge when Governor Spitzer brought the name change up for consideration. While RFK supporters toss around the obvious "he built bridges" metaphor, The NY Times would like to point out that he also burned them. They suggest that the city stop looking for big names to attach to their structures and streets, and instead look at who built them. As such, they nominate Andrew Haswell Green, "a giant of 19th century urban planning who has been almost entirely forgotten." Since he's not in the running yet, it looks like we're left with a yay or nay vote, so what do you think? more ›

While everyone knows that the proposals five development teams have offered up for the MTA's West Side rail yards are likely to change, the NY Times' architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff made it clear that he hopes they do, with a withering review of the five plans. Noting the great opportunity that developers have, Ouroussoff says the designs "are not just a disappointment for their lack of imagination, they are also a grim referendum on... more ›

A storefront at the corner of Vanderbilt Avenue and 43rd Street (across from Grand Central) may be a window into the future of the West Side Rail Yards. The MTA unveiled an exhibition of the five proposals to redevelop the rail yards on the Far West Side of Manhattan, and the public will get a chance to see the models every day (except Thanksgiving) through December 3. And what's more, the MTA wants the... more ›

This week New York Magazine chose Eric Harvey Brown as their look book subject. We decided to ask him a few questions ourselves, and dig a little deeper - beyond the beard (just a little though). more ›

-- A Jewish gym open on Saturdays? That's a shandeh! more ›

Or at least that's what World Trade Center leaseholder Larry Silverstein promised yesterday, now that he and the Port Authority have agreed on terms that divvy up control of Ground Zero's various components. "I have instructed our construction team to mobilize into the site tomorrow so that we can begin construction of the Freedom Tower immediately," he told the media. The Port Authority says that the eastern section of the WTC site will be excavated by next year, in order for Silverstein to start building his towers (Towers 2, 3, and 4 in the plan). At this point, (Gothamist can barely remember what's supposed to be at Ground Zero, so we've been going back to the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation's website about the WTC site - but we're not sure if all the changes have been updated on it.) more ›

If you are interested in urban planning, architecture, or real estate, The Stamford Review is a great read. It's a scholarly journal that deals with a lot of those issues, published in NYC and Stamford, CT. We got a copy of their spring issue (available as a free download at StamfordReview.com, which contained many intriguing pieces about the limits of growth in our city, and what is going to happen next. Larry Sicular, the editor and publisher of the review, and Jonathan Miller, one of the contributors, were nice enough to answer some of our questions. more ›

Roosevelt Island, pop. 10,000, is in the news again. The small town in the middle of the big city, one of the great urban planning "eh-steps" (not quite a misstep, but close), was last seen in the news scaring Jennifer Connely in "Dark Water." But now its got a political scandal, or the makings of one, to call its very own. more ›

Lisa Selin Davis, Author "Belly" more ›

Elana Levin, Community Organizer & Williamsburg Warrior more ›

It seems like every few months or so there’s a story in the news about how hard it is to produce a show on stage these days – hard to make it profitable, hard to get the audiences. From Broadway to off-off Broadway, it's the same story. Thankfully a few recent shows have done well enough that they’ve returned, or will be, for extended runs. The lucky recipients of this popular demand? more ›

It's Bloomberg time: Let's see...First, Mayor Bloomberg told the City Council to mind its own beeswax and stop "picking-and-choosing" which big chain stores come the town. This refers to scaring Wal-Mart out of Queens (at least for now), saying that Wal-Mart had a right to be in NYC, just as people have the right to unionize or not unionize. This comes as former Secretary of the Treasury Robert Reich wrote a NY Times editorial, "Don't Blame Wal-Mart," and NYU urban planning professors think NYers will want Wal-Mart eventually. Well, of course New Yorkers want good deals and that the face of the city changes all the time, but there's something about fighting a mega-corporation like Wal-Mart that turns some people on. more ›

Gothamist is sad that NY1 called the current High Line state an "eyesore" because there is beauty in their abandoned state...it's simply less accessible to the public. But we're still excited that the High Line will become something the whole city can enjoy. Curbed looked at the four different proposals this week; they are easily accessible via Curbed's Urban Planning category. more ›

- A boulevard between 10th and 11th Avenues up to 39th Street, with more fountains, cafes, and promenades. more ›