Noah Kazis
Noah joined Streetsblog as a New York City reporter at the start of 2010. When he was a kid, he collected subway paraphernalia in a Vignelli-map shoebox.
Before coming to Streetsblog, he blogged at TheCityFix DC and worked as a field organizer for the Obama campaign in Toledo, Ohio. Noah graduated from Yale University, where he wrote his senior thesis on the class politics of transportation reform in New York City. He lives in Morningside Heights.
Recent Posts
Car-Dependent States Hit Hardest by Obesity Epidemic
| | 8 Comments
States where more people drive to work face an even worse obesity crisis. Graphic: Noah Kazis and Carly Clark Transportation is a public health issue. As profiled in the recently released report from the Trust for America’s Health, "F as in Fat," obesity rates continue to rise across the nation, increasing the risk of serious […]
What Does American Exceptionalism Mean For Livable Streets?
| | No Comments
Rush hour in Copenhagen. Photo: Complete Streets Coalition Is the United States exceptional? It’s a question that’s bedeviled activists and historians alike since the country was born 234 years ago this Sunday. It’s also a question that’s been bugging Barbara McCann, the executive director of the Complete Streets Coalition. She’s been at Velo-City, a bike […]
Telling the Story of Chicago, One Train Stop at a Time
| | No Comments
The Train Stop Guide website would allow you to rate and describe every train stop in Chicago. Image: Carfree Chicago. It’s amazing how much a strong transit system can reshape the city around it. And not just through the physical changes that transit brings, but the mental ones too. A transit system can reshape the […]
HUD Chief Preaches Livable Communities at Conference on Cities
| | No Comments
HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan. Photo: Wikimedia. At least among cabinet secretaries, US DOT chief Ray LaHood has become something of a livable streets rock star. His forceful and public support for cyclists and pedestrians and his dedication to safe driving have earned him the praise of many. By comparison, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun […]
Chicago Takes Tentative First Step Toward Bike-Sharing
| | No Comments
A pilot station for Chicago’s proposed bike-sharing program, on display a couple of weeks ago. Photo: vizcha via Flickr Public bike-sharing is coming to yet another American city. The concept, first proven in Lyon, France and made famous by Paris’s Vélib, offers members easy access to public bikes at stations across a city. With bike […]
Seeing the Street as a New Cyclist
| | No Comments
The de Maisonneuve bike path in downtown Montreal, which new cyclist Michael Shenker now avoids in favor of a different, calmer route. Photo: Carnotzet via Flickr. It’s no secret that the road looks different over handlebars than it does over the dashboard. When cycling most city streets, you see your surroundings differently: at a different […]
Dodd’s Livability Bill Earns Praise from Local Governments
| | No Comments
With financial reform nearly complete, the Senate Banking Committee turned its attention today to one of Senator Chris Dodd’s (D-CT) next priorities, the Livable Communities Act. Local government came out strong for the initiative to promote sustainable and integrated regional planning, with representatives of the nation’s cities, towns, counties, and regional planning organizations testifying in favor. Among committee members, […]
Fun Facts About the Sad State of American Parking Policy
| | 2 Comments
Surface parking stretches halfway to the horizon in the heart of downtown Wichita. (Photo: Wichita Walkshop via Flickr.) If you haven’t checked out the ITDP parking report we covered yesterday, it’s a highly readable piece of research, walking you through parking policy’s checkered past and potentially brighter future. In addition to describing six cases of […]
To Tame World’s Most Dangerous Traffic, Delhi Turns to Bike Lanes
| | No Comments
(Photo: DaveBleasdale via Flickr) Delhi, home to over 12 million people and the seat of India’s national government, is widely considered to have the most dangerous traffic in the world. As The Guardian wrote recently, traffic safety in Delhi basically consists of "good horns, good brakes, good luck." Nationally, crashes in India killed more than […]