Marathon day:

It's always a good idea to have knowledge of what streets are closing, and when. For the best traffic overview click here: Gridlock Sam's Daily News Traffic Page, especially on weekends, especially today.

For an even more detailed look at street closings and the course overview visit here: NYC. gov's ING New York Marathon course description

Shift Shots

Before looking at the regular shift shots, I'd like to thank Bob who writes Taxitales, and Two Steps Back, for leaving me a link for a page with hundreds of pictures of old New York dating back more than a century ago, one guy on the Wired New York Forum posted all of them: New York in Black and White. 

Some famous photographers names include Walker Evans, Alfred Stieglitz, Weegee, Berenice Abbott, et-cetera, et-cetera. The images really lead me to compare and contrast the different layouts of city streets, how our grid has or hasn't evolved to our traffic conditions today. Before the automobile people were more dependent on the trolley , the subway, and el. The streets were narrower and more bridges, for example, the Brooklyn Bridge, would have train cars as well as horses and then horse-less carriages. The bus depot once looked like a large diner, and was adjacent to Penn Station. Penn Station of course is now just a basement in Madison Square Garden. The Port Authority Bus Terminal is now at least 8 times the size of the Greyhound Bus Terminal, and west of Times Square. It also appears that traffic got bad in the mid-30's. It is extremely interesting stuff. 

I suppose there were plenty of negatives too, where are the women? And why did the men always wear work clothes and bowler hats? Different times, different times. Also all that horse-manure lying around couldn't have been healthy. 

Greenpoint, Brooklyn

TriBeCa

Midtown

Shots from 6/28/08

 

Attention Saturday Morning Drivers:

From 7am to 1pm you will be confronted with this wall of happiness. From the Brooklyn Bridge to 72nd Street; Laffayette, then 4th Avenue, then Park Avenue will all be closed. And 72nd Street will be closed between Central Park and Park Avenue. All major street crossings will remain open, but be prepared for multitudes of bicyclists and pedestrians crossing when the light is against them.

This is a trial program which will be tested August 9th, 16th, and the 23rd. 

I'm on both sides of the fence on this one. It sounds like a wonderful idea, but right through the middle of the city, has any other city done this before? I know Cambridge Massachusetts is one example, however they close  Memorial Drive, a major road with only a few cross-streets in an un-congested area, also they close the drive sundays and not saturdays. 

I think it is a bit much to imagine that cutting circulation of traffic right in the middle of Manhattan can work on any day of the week. I hope that when examining this plan, city experts had examined the effects on traffic from the 5 boro bike tour, and the New York City Marathon.

Frankly I love the idea, but I'm pretty pessimistic on the income I will be making. I'll make sure to tell all my friends to take out their bike, their inline skates, and their skateboards, in hopes that maybe someone can enjoy the day. 

The Map!

Totally sorry, but this map is even better, than the ones I mentioned before. 

Click on the link, then click on specific sections for detailed street names and neighborhood distinctions.

District Profile Map

The only problem with this, is that certain zoomed in neighborhood maps are turned upside down, and clockwise, etc.. etc..

A good neighborhood map

I think I found one finally:

Department of City Planning: City of Neighborhoods

Click a zone number to see the neighborhoods within. There are still a bunch of neighborhood names not mentioned, but its pretty decent.

The best map I've found for a specific borough was here: Queens Boundaries

This is the best map I could find for Manhattan: NYC, Manhattan

Half of Brooklyn, is known only to the veteran New Yorker, and not very well I might add, so there are no good maps specifically for this entire borough. The only maps I could find for Brooklyn only cover the left side of it.