Since January 1, 2017, when Governor Andrew Cuomo led the celebration to open the Second Avenue Subway, much has happened. A pandemic undermined subway ridership, Governor Cuomo resigned, and a new governor and mayor took office. And now the second phase of the Second Avenue Subway has begun. This will provide the next chapter of the wonderful book by Philip Mark Plotch’s on the Second Avenue Subway, Last Subway: the Long Wait for the Next … <Read More>
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Commentary: Annette Gordon-Reed: On Juneteenth
Annette Gordon-Reed, our friend and colleague for 17 years at New York Law School, has just published On Juneteenth (Liveright 2021), a personal and readable story of her growing up in Texas in the 1970’s. Gordon-Reed grew up in Conroe, Texas where her family regularly celebrated Juneteenth. Gordon-Reed was the first Black child to integrate a White elementary school in her city. Through her personal story Gordon-Reed annotates and re-calibrates the conventional story of slavery … <Read More>
COMMENTARY: Learning from Bryant Park, a book by Andrew Manshel
A new book recalls the glory of Bryant Park before the Covid-19 shutdown: the movable chairs, the green grass, magazine racks and ping pong tables, shady paths and, most of all, the large numbers of people enjoying Bryant Park.
COMMENTARY: Mail-In Ballots Put the November Elections at Risk
Large numbers of people will vote by mail-in ballots this November because of Covid-19. Everyone should be concerned about the impact of mail-in ballots on democracy.
COMMENTARY: Bike Safety: Engineering, Education and Enforcement
The City aggressively attacks unsafe conditions for bike riders on the City’s streets and avenues, but less successfully attacks unsafe behaviors of bike riders. Unsafe conditions can mostly be engineered away, but unsafe behaviors require changes of a cultural nature. The City in 2019 experienced 28 bike rider deaths and more than 4,000 bike injuries. So far 2020 has experienced more bike injuries than in 2019. To make the City safer for bike riders, the … <Read More>
COMMENTARY – Subway Warning Signs: Make Them Tougher
The number of persons killed by contact with subway trains is truly alarming and, worse, consistent year to year. The victims include persons with severe mental problems and drug and alcohol addiction on the one hand, and, on the other hand, adventuresome youths who see romance and challenge in the subways’ dark tunnels, speedy trains and endless tracks. All the deaths are tragedies.