East SideSenator Liz Krueger Against A Safer Times Square?
Yesterday, much to our delight, the Mayor announced that the pilot project at Times Square, opening a street to pedestrians instead of cars, would be made permanent. However, there are a few people that felt left out of the process and ducked the issue of stating what their opinions were of the safer, more pedestrian friendly Times Square. State Senator Liz Krueger was quoted in the NY Times this morning saying:
“I find it disturbing that nobody outside of the mayor’s office got to take a look at the data or the report before the decision was made,” said State Senator Liz Krueger, who represents the Times Square area. “It leaves one with the suspicion that they didn’t want the public to have time to take a serious look.”
But what do you think of the new Times Square Sen. Krueger? If you had seen the report, would you be against keeping acres of pedestrian space that tamed a dangerous intersection for motorists and pedestrians? Would you be against similar public spaces in your residential areas? What do you think of the play street on 91st Street between Second & Third Aveunes?
Mayor Bloomberg should be commended on his bold leadership in the face of petty arguments over process. We hope that other public officials learn the lessons that putting pedestrians first is a winning strategy.
Update: Sen. Krueger’s Communication Director wrote back to us today:
Senator Krueger told the reporter
that she has always supported the pilot and that she was pleased with
its the success (i.e. increased access and safety for pedestrians,
etc.)But she also objected to the Mayor having refused to release the
report to the public and press before he made the decision to make it
permanent. This is bad government and bad democracy regardless of
the issue or what side of the issue you are on.
In Reply I wrote:
That context was not in the article so it was very concerning that the quote from Sen. Krueger was negative. It left the public impression that she was against the plan.
Just to review a little history. Transportation Alternatives, along with a large group of environmental activists from across the City, made a strong concerted effort over a long period of time to make this happen. They convinced the local BIDs, they showed examples from other cities, they created data on safety, they convinced the mayor to appoint a forward thinking transportation commissioner and they systematically built a strong case for this plan. In fact the criticism of this decisions on the basis of it being top-down is exactly wrong. This is a great case example of a motivated group of citizens activating government to do something in the public interest.
