BREAKING NEWS:
The City Council will hold a two-part hearing on congestion pricing on Monday, March 24th at 10 am and 6 pm.
Can you help us generate thousands of last-minute letters on Saturday? Click here!
Can you show up at 10 am on Monday to help pack the room? Click here!
Can you attend the 6 pm evening session and testify? Click here!
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| With only two weeks left to pass congestion pricing, we need you to act now. |
Articles and Actions
Events and Alerts
T.A. in the News
- "Enforcement is the most essential piece of this entire effort, and if the police do not start ticketing and towing the cars of workers who abuse their permits, then none of this amounts to anything," said Wiley J. Norvell, the communications director for Transportation Alternatives, a group that has pushed for reform of the placard system.
No Parking Spot? Here Are About 142,000 Reasons, New York Times, 03/06
We Need Your Help to Pass Congestion Pricing
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T.A. already took to the subways. With two weeks left, we are heading to the streets for one last push.
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There are 12 days left to win congestion pricing. After that, NYC takes a pass on the $354 million provided by the federal government to cover the transit expansion necessary to put congestion pricing in place.
To ensure that a future with fewer cars, well-funded public transit and more livable streets doesn't slip away, T.A. is pulling out all the stops. We are hitting the streets this Saturday to generate THOUSANDS of letters to the elected officials who represent us.
We need dozens of organizers to join this historic effort. We need you! From Flatbush to Broadway to Steinway to Fordham Road, our teams will make this last critical push to put constituents in touch with as-yet undecided elected officials and help win congestion pricing. If you need more of a reason to pitch in, we can pay $15+ per hour for your efforts. We need you to help put pricing over the top and set the green street revolution in motion.
Take Action: Two Ways to Pass Pricing!
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Letter Writing Day of Action
Saturday Event
When: Saturday, March 22nd, 11 am-5 pm
What: We'll be setting up tables and roving the streets with clipboards getting folks to write and sign letters to their electeds in support of less congested streets and better transit.
Where:
- Brooklyn: Crown Heights, Park Slope, Fort Greene, Williamsburg, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Bushwick
- Queens: Astoria, Sunnyside, Jackson Heights
- Bronx: Soundview, Fordham Road, University Heights
- Manhattan: Harlem, Lower East Side, Washington Heights
RSVP here with the neighborhood(s) in which you are able to help or contact Wiley at wiley@transalt.org or 646-873-6008. Please also attend the Thursday training (see below).
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Thursday Training
When: Thursday, March 20th, 6:30-7:30 pm
Where: T.A. Office, 127 West 26th Street (10th floor)
What: Get briefed (as well as fed and paid!) on the main talking points and outreach strategies for Saturday. Meet your teammates and pick up materials.
Special City Council Hearings
Council Hearing Morning Session
When: Monday, March 24th, 10 am
What: Pack the hearing, smile for the cameras, listen to testimony
Where: City Hall
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Council Hearing Evening Session
When: Monday, March 24th, 6 pm
What: Pack the hearing, testify in support of pricing
Where: City Hall
And if you haven't already done so, please send a pro-congestion pricing e-letter to your legislators.
Taking Back Columbus Park(ing lot)
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Take Back Columbus Park(ing lot).
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For years, the blocks around Brooklyn Borough Hall have been the site of some of New York's dirtiest parking abuse. Just last week, New York City Councilmember Lew Fidler was twice caught parking improperly by the
Daily News. The distinguished gentleman from Canarsie first heard it from an anonymous advocate who left a note on his windshield when he parked on a subway grate, and again from the News when he parked in
Marty Markowitz's parking lot Columbus Park, which is right outside of Brooklyn Borough Hall.
If this weren't enough to get your blood boiling, the Daily News revealed this weekend that Fidler is lobbying on behalf of a group of judges who are planning to sue the City for removing a curb-ramp they use to drive their cars onto Columbus Park's pedestrian walkway. Despite a brand new parking lot for judges a few blocks away and dozens of curbside spaces reserved for their special use, the judges are intent on maintaining their door-to-door driving commute, even if it involves crossing pedestrian plazas and parking on parkland.
At a time when the City is finally reigning in government worker parking abuse, it's time to take Columbus Park back. Borough Presidents, judges and now Councilmembers have shown they can't be trusted to park within the law. We need to let them know that parking rules apply to everyone and that one car in Columbus Park is one car too many!
A Ninth Avenue Renaissance?
On March 5th, Manhattan Community Board 4 voted unanimously to support the addition of roughly 37 "parking swaps" along Ninth Avenue, from 36th Street to 56th Street and as needed on other to-be-selected portions of Eighth Avenue. The parking swaps, modeled after the one on
Bedford Avenue and North 7th Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, will re-appropriate underused parking spaces along these avenues to better accommodate bikers, walkers and transit-takers.
With these watershed swaps coming and a cycletrack already in place, Ninth Avenue is fast becoming New York City's premiere livable avenue, and Manhattan Community Board 4 is gaining a reputation for groundbreaking progressive planning.
If you want to take advantage of the progressive planning tide that's sweeping across NYC and work on bringing parking swaps to your neighborhood, contact Caroline at bike@transalt.org.
Bike Month Cometh
Bike Month NYC is right around the corner, so make sure your two-wheeler is tuned up and your friends are ready to ride! And if you have an idea for a bike month event--a ride, a tour, a romp or whatever else you can think of--be sure to submit it to the Bike Month calendar at
bikemonthnyc.org/register.
On-line registration will be open until the last week of May.
NYC Century Bike Tour: Register to Ride and Win!
Registration for the
2008 NYC Century Bike Tour is officially open! This year's ride is on Sunday, September 7th, so mark your calendars. If you register before March 31st, you're eligible to win a
Fuji Track Bike (56 cm Matte Black).
Visit NYCCentury.org for more information about the tour.
Feedback
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Eyebeam is hosting a new exhibit that surveys artists, designers, architects and engineers about sustainability, and presents their responses.
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Feedback, a sustainability themed art exhibit, is on display at
Eyebeam, the art and technology center in Chelsea. Meant to inspire discussion and action, the projects include public art installations, industrial designs, sustainable energy solutions and software tools, such as Fred Benenson's
Committeecaller.com, a website application which helps people target elected officials over the phone.
Transportation Alternatives got the opportunity to set a livable streets agenda for one of the available telephones in the exhibit, giving visitors an opportunity to ask City Councilmembers to support measures that will cut traffic and improve the safety and quality of walking, bicycling and public transit in New York City. Check it out and make a call.
March 13th-April 19th
Closing reception: April 19th, 3 pm (free)
Eyebeam Gallery
540 W. 21st St. (between 10th and 11th Avenues)
Manhattan
A Vision of the Upper West Side
On Monday the 24th, Columbus Avenue BID President Barbra Adler and Project for Public Spaces Vice President Phil Myrick will present the findings of the BID's comprehensive Community Vision Statement to Manhattan Community Board 7's Green Committee and members of the Parks and Transportation Committees. If you live on the Upper West Side and support better biking, walking and transit, it is critical that you
let Community Board members know. To explore the BID's project,
click here (PDF).
Monday, March 24th
7 pm
250 West 87th Street, 2nd Floor
Manhattan
Spring Forward
So we're a little late to remind you about Daylight Savings Time, but there are other good reasons to spring forward this year.
Registering for the NYC Century might get you hopping, or maybe it's remembering to tune up your bike for fair weather cycling.
If you're not a T.A. member, every season is a smart time to join, but spring is an awfully sensible time to jump to it. You get discounts at over a hundred local bike shops, reduced registration fees for the NYC Century Bike Tour, four issues of our award winning magazine, Reclaim, and the knowledge that your member fees are going to support better biking, walking and public transit in New York City.
