It's a new year, and around the Streetsblog Network people are posting their 2014 retrospectives and resolutions for the year ahead.
Kristen Jeffers at The Black Urbanist shares these thoughts to kick off 2015:
Remember this picture of me? I was playing on a B-cycle demonstration bike on the street that I helped paint, to have an open streets event there. Yet, from then to now, not just in Greensboro, but in many other cities, the streets haven’t been so open. In fact, many have been hostile. My wish is that we can start looking at people on our streets, not as threats, not as people to shake money out of, not as places to speculate our real estate futures and to shoot to kill, but as places where we can celebrate our achievements and what it means to be human. I might be wishing this every year, but I’m going to get us started there. If we block the streets in 2015, I pray that it’s to have a party, be at peace and be better neighbors.
Elsewhere on the Streetsblog Network: The Urbanist wraps up its first year covering Seattle with a look at its 10 most-read stories of 2014. Greater Greater Washington celebrates the opening of a new car-free bridge that improves walking and biking access to the Rhode Island Avenue Metro station. And Bike Portland writes that the city's evolving bike culture bodes well for the future.
Ben Fried started as a Streetsblog reporter in 2008 and led the site as editor-in-chief from 2010 to 2018. He lives in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn, with his wife.
Temporary license plates exist so that people who buy cars can drive them before receiving metal plates. But drivers found another use for them during the pandemic: buy a temp tag on the black market and you can keep your car anonymous and off the books.
A passing car’s passenger assaulted cyclist David Colburn on Wednesday while he was riding his bike on San Pablo in Oakland. The passenger “…leaned out a window to intentionally smack me in the head.”
Instead of endless promises to fix America's "crumbling roads and bridges," filmmaker Andy Boenau argues we need to talk about our crumbling minds and bodies — and how our autocentric infrastructure approach contributes to them.
