Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Conversations about Creating a Culture of Activity: Profiling the people, places, programs, and policies that help to promote a culture of activity within our communities.
Note: This transcript was exported from the video version of this episode, and it has not been copyedited
00:00:00:02 - 00:00:07:21
John Simmerman
Talk a little bit about the current situation and your analysis of where you're at with your new mayor.
00:00:07:24 - 00:00:29:23
Sara Lind
Yeah, well, I was honored to sit on the transportation Transition Committee for mayor of Danny. So I got to see from the inside that this is real. You know, they weren't just words on a campaign trail. I think he and his team are very serious about pursuing these kinds of changes and improvements, and I think we've seen it, too.
00:00:29:24 - 00:00:42:26
Sara Lind
I was I'm really excited about Flynn as the Dot commissioner. He knows his stuff. He's not a politician. He's someone who wants to see change made and who really believes in this. So I'm very excited about that.
00:00:42:27 - 00:01:07:13
John Simmerman
Hey everyone, welcome to the Active Towns Channel. My name is John Simmerman and that is Sara Lind, co-executive director of Open Plans in New York City. We are going to be diving into the details of this wonderful parent organization and the great work that they are doing there in New York City. But before we do that, I just want to say, if you're enjoying this content here on the Active Towns Channel, please consider supporting my efforts by becoming an active town's ambassador.
00:01:07:14 - 00:01:24:01
John Simmerman
Hey, super easy to do right here on YouTube. You can just click on the join button right down below, or you can navigate over to Active Towns. Click on the support tab at that top of the page. And there's several different options, including becoming a Patreon supporter. Patrons do get early and ad free access to all this video content.
00:01:24:02 - 00:01:31:13
John Simmerman
Okay, without further ado, here's Sara Lind.
00:01:31:15 - 00:01:35:13
John Simmerman
Sara, thank you so much for joining me on the Active Towns podcast.
00:01:35:15 - 00:01:37:20
Sara Lind
Thank you for having me,.
00:01:37:20 - 00:01:44:19
John Simmerman
Sara, I love giving my guests just a really quick opportunity to introduce themselves. So who the heck is Sara?
00:01:44:21 - 00:02:06:26
Sara Lind
Yeah, well, I'm the co-executive director of Open Plans. I've been here for about four and a half years. A little more than that. And it open plans. We work on creating a livable, people centered city. We're based in New York City, so we focus on New York City. But what we work on applies everywhere. Yeah, I love the work we do.
00:02:06:26 - 00:02:27:28
Sara Lind
I love trying to create cities that center humans. I have two kids that I'm raising in New York City, and I often think of them when I think about the work I'm doing, both the city I want them to experience right now, and the city I want to leave for them and for all future New York City residents.
00:02:27:28 - 00:02:48:26
John Simmerman
I love it, I love it, I love hearing origin stories. To what led you to this sort of work, and wanting to be passionate about transforming the built environment and transforming the cities. And we'll talk a lot about streets and public realm and all that. What's that origin story for you?
00:02:48:28 - 00:03:12:07
Sara Lind
Yeah, I think there's two, and the deeper one is I grew up in a sort of mid-sized city in Wisconsin, where I could walk and bike to school and to little shops, and then my family moved us to a very car dependent place, and I hated that. You know, and I got back to cities as quickly as I could.
00:03:12:08 - 00:03:30:13
Sara Lind
But I think that that sort of brief interregnum of being totally car dependent really made me feel like I want to live in a place where I don't need a car. But then more specifically, when my kids were little and I had one on her little scooter and one in a stroller, we were walking down West End Avenue.
00:03:30:14 - 00:03:58:02
Sara Lind
We got the green light. We entered the intersection and a cab just decided to make the left as quick as he could and almost hit us. It really, I think any parent knows that you will put up with things yourself that once you see them happening to your kids is an absolute no. And so it brought out that mama bear in me and made me realize how much our streets, you know, impact us and that we deserve better, both from a safety perspective.
00:03:58:03 - 00:04:13:10
Sara Lind
But also, you know, as I sort of said before, as a livability issue. And so I started to get more and more involved in my local community, joined my community board. I actually ran for office and then came to open plans. And it's really become my passion.
00:04:13:13 - 00:04:24:20
John Simmerman
That's fantastic. Now going back to the Wisconsin days, that little walkable community that you were in at that point, what city was that or what town was that?
00:04:24:21 - 00:04:41:16
Sara Lind
Yeah, it's called Beloit, Wisconsin. And definitely the whole thing. It's not walkable, but, you know, it's like that kind of thing where in those kind of cities there's a little area where as a kid you can bike to school. There was a little kind of shopping street I could bike to, and I could bike to my friends houses.
00:04:41:16 - 00:04:42:21
Sara Lind
So, yeah.
00:04:42:22 - 00:04:55:00
John Simmerman
And then when you made that move, when your family made the move and you were in, not as much of a walkable environment. Was that like a prototypical North American suburban context in Wisconsin.
00:04:55:00 - 00:05:07:08
Sara Lind
Still, you know, cul de sacs, you know, just spread out lots. A very nice neighborhood, right? It was in some ways an upgrade. Some will say.
00:05:07:10 - 00:05:36:22
John Simmerman
Yeah, some would say that. And I like to emphasize too, that, you know, cul de sacs are not evil. They, they create like a car light environment for the people who are fortunate enough to actually live in the cul de sac. What it does is it puts pressure on active mobility, circulation. Unless you have cul de sacs that are actually penetrated by active mobility infrastructure and pathways.
00:05:36:22 - 00:05:58:08
John Simmerman
In one of the things that I interviewed, the mayor, former mayor of Davis, California, and we talked a lot about how what they did with their off street network of pathways was making sure that they have connectivity to the cul de sacs and through the cul de sacs, out to the open spaces and green spaces and to the schools and to the parks.
00:05:58:08 - 00:06:15:25
John Simmerman
And so it's not like they're there. That model is, is inherently evil unless you it takes you a mile to get to your best friend's place, who lives literally across the fence from you on the other side of the other cul de sac. So.
00:06:15:27 - 00:06:37:11
Sara Lind
You know, it's funny, I we're working in New York City on low traffic neighborhoods, which is something that cities around the world have. No city in. North America really has it. There's a few, like, little bits and pieces in a couple cities. But, you know, one thing about low traffic neighborhoods is that they are kind of like a cul de sac, right?
00:06:37:13 - 00:06:59:01
Sara Lind
You're taking City Street and almost creating something that is like a suburban called a sack. But the thing that makes this just exactly what you were saying is that cars can't go through, but every other active mode can go through. You can walk through it, you can bike through, you can scoop through. So it's very similar in that sense.
00:06:59:07 - 00:07:04:10
Sara Lind
It's giving the workers a little bit of that quiet, you know, street feel.
00:07:04:18 - 00:07:17:27
John Simmerman
Yeah. And and in fact on your I think literally today the, the low traffic neighborhood post went out. Yes.
00:07:18:00 - 00:07:19:24
Sara Lind
Oh letter about it.
00:07:19:25 - 00:07:28:26
John Simmerman
Yeah. A newsletter just went out recently about it. We've got the every month should be bike month. But then a recent newsletter.
00:07:28:28 - 00:07:32:02
Sara Lind
There was that that's that is the newsletter that talks.
00:07:32:04 - 00:08:01:12
John Simmerman
That is the one where it talks about that. And you're absolutely right. You're utilizing traffic diversion. You're utilizing modal filters to create lightens, low traffic neighborhoods. And folks will recognize that terminology from London and many of the boroughs around London, their boroughs. Right. They also call them Burrows. Right? Yeah. Yeah, I know I'm talking New York City, but they also call them boroughs.
00:08:01:13 - 00:08:28:04
John Simmerman
And yeah, Lambeth is one of them. And I've been on the street filming there in, in London, what they look like in person and yeah, just phenomenal how you can create that traffic calmed environment and you can transform streets into places for people once again, because you don't have as the, the, the Brits like to call it, you don't have the rat running, you know, where you got, you got the cut through traffic.
00:08:28:07 - 00:08:29:07
John Simmerman
Yes, yes.
00:08:29:08 - 00:08:38:07
Sara Lind
No I, I like rat running. It's so evocative. But I think in New York City we have enough of the rat running around.
00:08:38:08 - 00:08:59:26
John Simmerman
Yeah. You literally have rat. Yeah, yeah. Well, we'll talk about that later. Yeah. I want to stick with Wisconsin for just one more minute to to understand a little bit about the context of some of your background. Now, I know that you went to the University of Wisconsin, where you at the Madison cabinets or a different campus. You were at Madison.
00:09:00:03 - 00:09:28:20
John Simmerman
The reason why I wanted to emphasize that, yeah, is Madison happens to be one of our only, well, one of only a handful of of truly stellar, walkable bike communities. Prototypical college town, like a Davis that we mentioned earlier, like Boulder, like Fort Collins. How much of being there in that environment do you think we're in? Those early years kind of shaped the fact that you're now in the heart of doing this?
00:09:28:22 - 00:09:45:07
Sara Lind
Yeah, absolutely. I again, we we moved right before I started high school. So to that small town. So the time when you really want to be able to get out and about with your friends, you know, I didn't have a driver's license. I was stuck. And then I moved to college, and it was suddenly, you can get anywhere.
00:09:45:08 - 00:10:06:12
Sara Lind
You be anywhere. And yeah, I mean, Madison is an amazing city. I absolutely loved it. I wanted to be in a much bigger city. Obviously I'm in New York, but I mean, for people who want a mid-sized city, I think it's amazing. And yeah, definitely, I moved from there to I went to law school in Chicago. So step up to even a bigger city and, and, you know, now I'm here.
00:10:06:12 - 00:10:25:25
John Simmerman
So yeah. Yeah. Let's talk a little bit about that journey to because I too have spent some time living on the lakefront there in Chicago. And so I saw that about your history. And I'm like, oh yeah, cool. We can nerd out about Chicago a little bit too. But because that's also formative in a little bit of your background.
00:10:25:25 - 00:10:37:27
John Simmerman
So you went you got your, your your law degree and then you're in the midst of, you know, arguably, you know, you've got New York and then you've got Chicago. So yeah.
00:10:37:28 - 00:10:39:17
Sara Lind
Yeah, it's San Francisco. Yeah.
00:10:39:18 - 00:10:40:03
John Simmerman
Yeah yeah.
00:10:40:03 - 00:10:59:06
Sara Lind
Yeah yeah, definitely. I lived I, you know, I lived down in Hyde Park when I first year of law school, and then I moved up to sort of the Gold Coast area, lived in Lakeview, lived uptown. And the thing about Chicago is there might have been a year or two when I didn't have a car, but I almost always had a car.
00:10:59:06 - 00:11:19:19
Sara Lind
But, you know, you don't have to use it. It's easy to, for example, you know, have a night out, go out for dinner, and you could take the train versus, again, in a supercar dependent place. You end up driving for those. I mean, I can't tell you how common it is in Wisconsin for people to drink and drive, for example.
00:11:19:22 - 00:11:33:28
Sara Lind
It's so crazy and dangerous, you know, but it's just not an option for so many people, right? I think that's something that's not even talked about that much, but is sort of crazy, except that it is in places that are car dependent.
00:11:34:02 - 00:12:00:01
John Simmerman
Yeah. Yeah. Well, and the insanity to that we, you know, even have parking minimums for bars. Yeah, exactly. You know, and so and speaking to that and I had the honor of having Donald Shoup on a couple of times here on the channel. And in fact, I probably recorded one of the last episodes with him just before he passed away.
00:12:00:02 - 00:12:33:02
John Simmerman
But that's a big part of what you all do with open plans and what you probably really got your teeth cut on in in law school tool is policy. So a lot of what we do from a policy perspective, whether it's land use policy or parking minimums policy that starts to dictate what our built environment looks like, speak a little bit to that, and then we'll shift gears and really get into the nitty gritty of what you'd like to share about open plans.
00:12:33:04 - 00:12:57:04
Sara Lind
Yeah. Well, first of all, I will say I'm an absolute policy wonk. You know, I went to University of Chicago for law school, so that says a lot about it. And I love the policy work we do here. And yeah, it's it's absolutely the the laws and the regulations and systemic structures put in place end up impacting our lived experience in every conceivable way.
00:12:57:06 - 00:13:16:19
Sara Lind
Nothing that we experience, both from a livable cities or any other perspective, isn't shaped by policy. And so to really be able to make change, you know, you have to play in that sandbox. But, you know, but it's one piece of the puzzle, we like to say at open plans that we kind of have a three part strategy.
00:13:16:20 - 00:13:45:19
Sara Lind
There's the deep research that we do, which I think has to inform everything, but is not as fun. Right. But like is very important. Then there's the policy work we do advocating for law changes, for regulation changes, and then there's just the organizing work that is just a critical piece of that puzzle. You have to get grassroots support from people in the affected communities, and you have to listen to them and reflect what it is that they want.
00:13:45:21 - 00:14:05:09
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah. And I'm going to pull up the staff page here. So there you are, the co-executive director. And then right below you there is Lisa Orman, your co ed, as it were. And you speaking of policy, that's how you started out within the organization. You were the policy director correct.
00:14:05:12 - 00:14:31:08
Sara Lind
Yeah that's right. And Lisa actually hired me. So and actually I will say the story I told earlier about almost getting hit by the cab that turned. Yeah. Right across the corner was Lisa Orman standing handing out fliers for a community board meeting. And I had never obviously met her before. And I thought, well, this lady's got something, something going on here.
00:14:31:09 - 00:14:41:03
Sara Lind
And five years later or so, she convinced me to join the community board. And then a few years after that, she hired me here. So she is she is definitely part of my origin story.
00:14:41:09 - 00:15:16:00
John Simmerman
She is part of your origin story. And I would imagine that joining that board, getting engaged and involved. And I'd love double entendres. People who tune in to the channel frequently know that. I like to say this a lot is that I love double entendres, and even with the name Active Towns. I'm not just meaning that we're like, it inspires us to be physically active in all of that, but also active from the sense that people who walk and bike and are are out there in our environments.
00:15:16:00 - 00:15:37:04
John Simmerman
We're also active in the way, in the sense that we get engaged within our communities, because you see the world in your community through a different lens when you're traveling at walking speed or biking speed. And so I like to say that active towns, yes, it's physical activity and mobility and active lifestyles, but you're also active and engaged and involved.
00:15:37:04 - 00:15:43:25
John Simmerman
And I suspect that that's probably a little bit of the story of why you decided to run for office, too.
00:15:44:00 - 00:16:07:00
Sara Lind
Oh for sure. Yeah. You know, when you join your community board and you start to see how the sausage gets made? For me at least, I really wanted to participate in that at a higher level. You know, I think that obviously I ran for office because I wanted to win. But even aside from that, running for office is a really impactful way to get a message out.
00:16:07:00 - 00:16:19:01
Sara Lind
And I ran partly because I didn't see anyone else running who was talking about these very issues, and I really wanted to make sure that they were part of the conversation.
00:16:19:06 - 00:16:44:18
John Simmerman
Right? Yeah. First and foremost, thank you. Thank you for running. And thank you for for doing that exercise. And yes, you're trying to win, but at the same time, you're trying to force the other candidates to change their message and the things that are being talked about. Clearly, you didn't win. Otherwise we'd be talking with a city council member at this point, potentially.
00:16:44:20 - 00:16:50:02
John Simmerman
But do you think that you may run for office again at some point in the future?
00:16:50:04 - 00:17:00:03
Sara Lind
Not in the near future, for sure. It's draining. You know, I have two kids, I think I think I'm glad I didn't win for my kids sake.
00:17:00:10 - 00:17:01:26
Sara Lind
Three kids sake.
00:17:01:28 - 00:17:14:06
John Simmerman
Talk a little bit about that program, though, because I think you were engaged with a program that was very intentional about trying to get more women elected to city council.
00:17:14:08 - 00:17:47:10
Sara Lind
Yeah. So before I ran for office, I ran an organization called 21 and 21. And the origin of that is that a after the 2017 New York City Council elections, there were 51 council members and 11 of them were women. So in New York City in 2017. Yeah, yeah. And so the organization was founded by two of those female council members who were going to be term limited and wanted to make sure that in the 2021 election cycle, at least 21 women were elected to the council, 32 were.
00:17:47:12 - 00:18:02:03
Sara Lind
So we did a great job. But yeah, I spent a, you know, a year going around the city, meeting with potential candidates, encouraging women to run for office. And then I sort of thought to myself, well, maybe I should put my money where my mouth is and do this myself.
00:18:02:10 - 00:18:27:00
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah, I suspect that we might end up talking politics a little bit later, but we'll, we'll shelve that for for now. Let's shift gears. Let's talk about the organization. Walk us through the origin story of this organization and and how long has it been around. And yeah, it's I know a little bit about it, but I won't share that.
00:18:27:00 - 00:18:33:15
John Simmerman
I'll let you kind of do that. And then we'll go back and forth just a little bit. So who was the plans.
00:18:33:16 - 00:19:00:27
Sara Lind
So the origin story goes back and it's a little convoluted. We were founded over 20 years ago with a focus on livable cities, but to a certain extent more from an open data perspective. And the idea that the government should share more data so that citizens can know what's happening and advocate for change. We don't really do any open data work anymore, although New York City has much better open data now.
00:19:00:27 - 00:19:32:07
Sara Lind
So I would argue that we were successful, but at the same time also Streets blog and Street films were founded under the same umbrella. And so Street's blog is probably well known to most viewers of this, but a transportation news site and then Street Films sounds like Clarence has been on here many times. So also a beloved figure in the movement making, you know, movies, traveling around the world talking about showing people.
00:19:32:08 - 00:20:00:25
Sara Lind
Actually, I was going to mention I've never been to the low traffic neighborhoods in London. I've never had the experience you had of being able to walk around in them and see what they feel like. But people like Clarence and yourself make videos and it helps you feel what it feels like if you can't get there yourself. I think it's it's a really important and impactful part of advocacy, because people can't always believe it until they see it, and not everyone can see it themselves.
00:20:00:27 - 00:20:29:07
Sara Lind
So it was Street Squad and Street Films for a long time, and there were various sort of projects, streets, Renaissance and a few other little projects around the city. And then in 2018, we really ramped up the advocacy work of the organization. That's when these men joined, and then I joined in 2021, and we now have 15 people on what would be called sort of the advocacy staff.
00:20:29:09 - 00:20:36:24
Sara Lind
And we're a umbrella open plaza as an umbrella organization that includes an advocacy staff, streets blog and street films.
00:20:36:28 - 00:21:05:15
John Simmerman
I love it, love it. And what's nice about that, too, is it creates a structure, a parent sort of structure that helps content creators like myself and Clarence. It gives, you know, he's he's able to have have an organization that helps, you know, that he's under that. You know, I can't tell you how impactful and helpful that probably is for him.
00:21:05:18 - 00:21:10:28
John Simmerman
For myself, I'm I'm it's me, myself and I.
00:21:11:01 - 00:21:13:13
Sara Lind
Know nobody else. And I'm.
00:21:13:13 - 00:21:34:13
John Simmerman
Fortunate and privileged enough that I can do this. And it's kind of kind of like being semi-retired, because I certainly don't make enough money to make a living at it. Your campaigns that are outlined right now, so looks like you've got about 6 or 7 campaigns out here. We talked about low traffic neighborhoods. I'm delighted to see that school streets are out there.
00:21:34:14 - 00:21:39:20
John Simmerman
Why don't you just kind of tick these off real quick and say a few words about each of these?
00:21:39:21 - 00:22:01:06
Sara Lind
Yeah, sure. So curbside dining obviously originated during the pandemic, when New York City started to allow the curbside dining structures and people eat on the street. We were huge advocates and proponents of making that pandemic era program permanent, which the city council did. But they made the program seasonal so that restaurants have to take down their structures over the winter.
00:22:01:06 - 00:22:30:25
Sara Lind
And we've seen participation in the program drop precipitously because restaurants don't have anywhere to store. It is too expensive. So our current campaign focuses on amending that law. When we talk about curb management, it's a huge, obviously issue. New York City Dot actually just created finally sort of an office of Curb Management. But the basics of it would be historically or for the last 60 years, we have used the curbside space almost exclusively for the free storage of private vehicles.
00:22:30:25 - 00:22:43:18
Sara Lind
And there are just so many other uses for that space, and it needs to be repurposed for that space, and it needs to be. Well, there I am, and it needs to be managed well.
00:22:43:24 - 00:22:45:09
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah.
00:22:45:09 - 00:23:04:25
Sara Lind
This video is a great example. You know, a lot of these double parked cars could be in a loading zone. If they're dropping things off the trucks like that. You've seen some blocked bike lanes and bus lanes there and that video. So we work a lot on automated enforcement to make sure that people don't park illegally in those lanes.
00:23:04:25 - 00:23:12:13
Sara Lind
And they can be used effectively. So there's there's a huge amount within that bucket. But that's sort of the basic outline.
00:23:12:19 - 00:23:18:00
John Simmerman
Fantastic, fantastic. And the next up is the daylighting intersections. Another one of my favorites.
00:23:18:01 - 00:23:45:12
Sara Lind
Yeah. We've been working for several years to get more daylighting in New York City. And this is a great example of the the organizing work I mentioned. We have gone around to dozens of community boards. That's Emily, our community board organizer. She has been to countless community board meetings all over the city. And and we got dozens of community boards to pass resolutions asking for daylighting in their districts.
00:23:45:12 - 00:24:02:08
Sara Lind
And that really put a lot of pressure on the mayor, on the city council, and on the Department of Transportation to take up the issue. So I think it's it's indicative of how much organizing matters. And you can't get policy pass without people power.
00:24:02:15 - 00:24:18:02
John Simmerman
I love it, I love it. And then next up is is the low traffic neighborhoods. We mentioned that earlier and talked a little bit about that. Is there anything additional that you want to mention about the Low Traffic Neighborhoods campaign specifically?
00:24:18:04 - 00:24:45:16
Sara Lind
I'll just say, I think this is the the next transformative infrastructure project, and I think it really has the ability to transform a neighborhood and a city. We see in London that now that there are so many of them all over, it really has reduced driving and created a whole network of neighborhood streets, and even one will be beneficial.
00:24:45:16 - 00:25:02:22
Sara Lind
But when we can really scale them, I think it's going to change New York City. And we are taking that same approach that I mentioned with daylighting, going around to community boards. We've been really advocating with Dot, and I think this has momentum in New York City. And so watch this space. I think there's some exciting stuff to come.
00:25:02:25 - 00:25:30:24
John Simmerman
Yeah, it reminds me a little bit too of like the superblock, the Super NEA's in Barcelona, where it's a nine block by nine block grid. And in between, you know, you have your circulator road around it. I think there's still at 50km/h. They really need to bring that down closer to 30km/h. But the, the the streets that are in that area are traffic calmed.
00:25:30:25 - 00:26:00:15
John Simmerman
They have diverted. They're more along the lines of like 15km/h or right around seven miles per hour, ten miles per hour speed limit. And then when you link these together, like to to your point is that you can transform a neighborhood. Yes. But then you can transform an entire community into traffic calmed, people oriented places. And I think that that's just the beauty of that is just it's astounding.
00:26:00:15 - 00:26:04:18
John Simmerman
So yeah, you're going to have to get to to London to be able to experience that.
00:26:04:20 - 00:26:23:12
Sara Lind
I'll say one more thing about it that I think is powerful is that it benefits everyone, you know. So I would argue that a bike lane benefits everyone too, but it's a it's a little more tenuous. The connection, I mean, so, you know, in New York City, we have people who drive their cars, who park their cars, who are resistant.
00:26:23:13 - 00:26:42:20
Sara Lind
Things like a bike lane. But this benefits everyone who lives in the neighborhood, whether you have a car or not. You know, we're not taking away your ability to drive. You just might have to take a slightly longer route. So I'm really excited about the way that this is a very community focused effort, and I think that's going to help it get through.
00:26:42:20 - 00:27:10:01
John Simmerman
I think part of that, too, is marketing issues. That's a challenge that we have. I've gotten to the point now where I hate even calling them bike lanes. I hate even calling it a cycle network, because when you really look at communities that have done a fantastic job of creating a network, an entire network of all ages and all abilities, facilities, you you notice that it's not about the bikes.
00:27:10:01 - 00:27:45:00
John Simmerman
I mean, this is about human mobility and safer streets and people oriented places in the public realm. And, you know, you'll notice this, especially in the Netherlands, that you know, that mobility lane, that active mobility lane is also where people in wheelchairs prefer to be, where adaptive cycles are there for people with mobility challenges. And so, yeah, I think part of it is the fact that it still gets kind of couched as bike lanes for the bike people.
00:27:45:02 - 00:28:09:27
John Simmerman
And that's part of our challenge. It's it should really be seen as is much more all ages and abilities, mobility network. And it's part of what I like to call the redundancy of mobility networks, where you've got your walking mobility network, you've got your rolling mobility network, you've got your transit mobility network, and then you've got your driving mobility network.
00:28:09:27 - 00:28:32:18
John Simmerman
And that's another great thing that the Netherlands does quite well, is you have the redundancy of those mobility networks as well as the integration of them. So you'll see 40 to 50% of people showing up to a train station via bike, you know, and you're like, oh yeah, this is amazing. Where not only is it redundancy, but it's also integration.
00:28:32:19 - 00:28:36:03
John Simmerman
Okay, let's shift gears to public space management.
00:28:36:06 - 00:28:36:20
Sara Lind
Yeah.
00:28:36:20 - 00:28:39:07
Sara Lind
So this one is a little bit.
00:28:39:07 - 00:29:05:12
Sara Lind
More policy but but really impact on the ground. So what we're talking about here is the fact that, you know, right now in New York City and many cities around the country dot, the Department of Transportation manages the streets with a focus towards cars. Right. They fill the potholes, they repave the street, but they don't manage the space with a view towards the public.
00:29:05:12 - 00:29:45:24
Sara Lind
And so, for example, you know, if you want to put out a planter with some flowers, they won't maintain it that a private party has to do, you know, they will pick up a certain amount of trash. But if your neighborhood needs more trash collection, form a block association or a bit. So this is really about the idea that having livable, beautiful, well cared for, its space that people want to linger in requires active management, and we need to set up the structures within city government to allow that to happen, both by the city directly, which is like a mindset shift.
00:29:45:25 - 00:30:11:04
Sara Lind
You know, it's not just about filling potholes, it's about maintaining the space for people. And then also by the rules that the city sets up. You know, it's so hard right now in New York City, at least for private actors to activate space. You know, it's this blog wants to throw a party, and the city quoted them $25,000 for a permit to close one block for a few hours.
00:30:11:06 - 00:30:22:13
Sara Lind
That's the kind of thing that we're talking about here. Like it needs to be easier for private people to manage and activate space, and the city needs to take a more active role as well.
00:30:22:15 - 00:30:50:04
John Simmerman
I love it, I love it, yeah. So, you know, we again my mug of streets are for people. Let's make it easier for the people to take over that space and and throw a party, have some fun, maybe get together with a table and have an interview in the middle of the street. Why not? My second favorite initiative that has really emerged over the last five years has been school streets.
00:30:50:04 - 00:31:27:06
John Simmerman
I've had the honor and privilege of documenting school streets in Paris, and some of the beautiful things that have been able to transform there, and it's been just astounding to see the power of what happens in that street in front of a school. And even better, if you can make it permanent in Ghent. You know, Clarence and I were there for velocity, and we were able to document he did a beautiful film about the pop up school street installations that they do every morning there during school, and volunteers come out and scramble and do this.
00:31:27:06 - 00:31:49:19
John Simmerman
But then you go over to Paris and they've made them permanent and you're like, oh my gosh, this is like a little mini park for the kids. I was there on a Saturday filming, and it was just so cool to see family and the kids taking advantage of this newly created public space, like what we just talked about in front of a school.
00:31:49:20 - 00:31:56:04
John Simmerman
Talk a little bit about school streets in New York City and what open plans is trying to do with this?
00:31:56:07 - 00:32:20:10
Sara Lind
Yeah. So the first picture on the left here is on 34th Avenue, which is not just school streets, a, you know, marquis space generally in New York City. But part of it is this really a large number of different schools along the corridor. And they have these school streets. And you can see here it's just kids are able to leave school.
00:32:20:13 - 00:32:41:21
Sara Lind
And you know, when I when my kids were younger and I picked them up from school, it would be like a tiny crowded sidewalk and everyone's sort of like elbowing around each other. And the kids kind of want to keep playing, but you just can't. And here it's like they can kind of spill out of the school and and be on the street together and linger and, you know, cement friendships.
00:32:41:21 - 00:33:13:09
Sara Lind
And we see at the school streets we work with, you know, caregivers and parents can linger as well and build those relationships that support their children together. And we've seen a lot of community organizations come on to the school streets to offer services. It's really beautiful. And then obviously throughout the day as well. A lot of schools use this because so many schools in New York City don't have a place for kids to be outside, and sometimes even to be active at all.
00:33:13:09 - 00:33:43:07
Sara Lind
We work with some schools that have no gymnasium or no auditorium, and they end up using the street, their school street, for recess, for active movement. And we know there's so much research that that really benefits kids socially and academically as well as physically. So yeah, I agree with you. I think this is just an amazing development. And, and and we love it in terms of what we're trying to do.
00:33:43:09 - 00:34:08:04
Sara Lind
It's sort of tactical and strategic. Tactically, we work with schools around the city to help them apply to the program and to help them run their school streets. The program is just difficult. Schools are overwhelmed, so they really benefit from having our assistance more long term and strategically. We want the program to expand. And as you mentioned, we want these streets to be permanent.
00:34:08:04 - 00:34:22:01
Sara Lind
We want these to be plazas. No more of this moving out of barricade in the morning. Let's make these true plaza blocks that are permanently there that can just become these beautiful, like you said, almost park like spaces.
00:34:22:06 - 00:34:47:25
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah. I was just in New Zealand to documenting a couple of different school street installations, one which is a sort of quasi permanent installation. I think it's a long term ongoing pilot project, and then one where a principal just took it under her own wings to to say, we got a problem here. We this drop off situation is insane.
00:34:47:26 - 00:35:22:00
John Simmerman
We need to mobilize. And so she applied lighter, quicker, cheaper initiatives, including volunteer volunteers, including some of the older children, to do some of the traffic management plan, and as well as some permanent changes, especially like with traffic calming in on the streets around there. So what I bring this up just to say that, you know, we've mentioned Ghent, we've mentioned Paris, I've now mentioned to New Zealand, we're talking New York school streets.
00:35:22:00 - 00:35:58:24
John Simmerman
Is it I mean, this is global. This is a global movement, which is kind of astounding and mind blowing for me in the sense that this is part of the challenge with car culture is that it has spread like a virus around the globe. And so we're not alone in North America and in the United States trying to make our streets around our schools safer so kids can walk and bike and not feel like they're taking their lives into their hands when they're just trying to get to school.
00:35:58:24 - 00:36:07:14
John Simmerman
And the biggest irony is that the biggest threat is other parents trying to get kids to school.
00:36:07:16 - 00:36:08:24
Sara Lind
It's insane.
00:36:08:26 - 00:36:18:08
Sara Lind
I hate that, you know, the US really was the super spreader of the virus of car culture. So we have to lead to fix it, although we certainly are not.
00:36:18:14 - 00:36:19:24
Sara Lind
Yes.
00:36:19:26 - 00:36:24:06
John Simmerman
Street topia. What's street topia? Upper West side.
00:36:24:07 - 00:36:55:08
Sara Lind
Yeah. So when I was talking about the history of open plans and the the more advocacy oriented work that we've done has historically been on the Upper West Side. In the 2020 tens, we did a lot of work on the Upper West Side. And so although our advocacy has expanded citywide, we still have this kind of specific project focused on the Upper West Side where we think about we think about it as sort of a little laboratory for our big ideas and kind of how do we dig in and get them actually implemented on the Upper West Side.
00:36:55:10 - 00:37:30:14
John Simmerman
Interesting. So for those of us who are not from New York, and I've only visited once in the dead of winter many, many years ago during one of the polar vortex that was I think it was like ten ten inches of fresh fluffy snow and bitter bitter cold. Talk a little bit about the Upper West Side. I mean, we all kind of know about Times Square and how that got transformed into amazing public space.
00:37:30:15 - 00:37:42:16
John Simmerman
Back in the Bloomberg administration under Jeannette Sadiq Khan. Talk a little bit about the Upper West Side. What is the dynamic there and what are the challenges?
00:37:42:18 - 00:38:08:17
Sara Lind
Well, first of all, I will say you have to come back and visit New York in late September, the perfect time of year in New York City, the Upper West Side I live there also is right by Central Park between Central Park and the Hudson River, and it is one of the densest residential neighborhoods in the country. So about 200,000 people in a you know, I don't know the area, but it's small and it's a fully a grid.
00:38:08:18 - 00:38:39:18
Sara Lind
So we have five north south avenues, and then it's about 40 east west blocks. It's a family friendly neighborhood. So there are a lot of families with kids, a lot of schools, a lot of parks. And it's a very engaged neighborhood. So the generally one of the highest voter turnout in the city. For example, when I was on the community board, we regularly had community board meetings that were overflowing with people coming to want to make their voices heard.
00:38:39:20 - 00:39:02:16
Sara Lind
So it's a great place to work because there is so much engagement and also sometimes a difficult place to work because there is so much engagement. But no, it's wonderful. And I think it's a really it's a good laboratory for this work because it is so dense still that, you know, it's when you put in a bike lane or a bus lane, you are making a trade off.
00:39:02:18 - 00:39:27:07
Sara Lind
Right? And you know, if you want to put a loading zone, there's people who park on the street. So that's going to be a challenge. But it's also so transit rich. There are five six however you want to count it. Train lines that run along it, busses on every avenue, multiple crosstown busses, and only about 28% of the people in the neighborhood have access to a vehicle.
00:39:27:07 - 00:39:32:13
Sara Lind
So it's the perfect place for these kind of transformations to take place.
00:39:32:15 - 00:39:55:27
John Simmerman
I love it, I love it, I have our little open streams or open plans B-roll film queued up. Let's give our voices a break. Let's play this a little bit. We'll play it one time through, all the way through. Then I'll turn the volume down. I'll play it a second time, and we can do a little reaction, and we can press pause if we need to.
00:39:56:00 - 00:40:08:10
John Simmerman
But this will be a nice way for us to verify whether we've missed anything from going through our campaigns. Okay, let's hit play.
00:40:08:13 - 00:40:16:24
Featured Video Voiceover
What makes New York City so electric? Its connectedness.
00:40:16:26 - 00:40:48:08
Featured Video Voiceover
But what stands in our city's way? The din of chaotic vehicle traffic, streets that struggle to function properly, that endanger or loved ones that discourage walking, cycling, and so many more ways of moving through our lives. The scarcity of joyful gathering places, a city map drawn without the diversity and technology its people deserve. But maps can be redrawn.
00:40:48:10 - 00:41:23:16
Featured Video Voiceover
We can unlock the city's potential for equitable space and equitable living, for connection and gathering building spaces that bring neighbors together, supporting healthy families and a healthy planet, encouraging businesses with walkable streets, transforming curb space, making New York City more mobile and more accessible, and connecting communities with their government to reclaim the city for what matters. Neighbors, visitors, people.
00:41:23:19 - 00:41:42:12
Featured Video Voiceover
We know that New York City is more than the sum of its parts. When its people come together, the city becomes more than its streets, sidewalks, plazas, parks, paths.
00:41:42:14 - 00:41:53:08
Featured Video Voiceover
It becomes a home.
00:41:53:10 - 00:42:08:10
John Simmerman
I love it, I love it, and as I mentioned, we'll play it a second time through and just sort of comment a little bit about what we just saw in the context of what we've already talked about. Anything that bubbles up right away for you.
00:42:08:13 - 00:42:31:04
Sara Lind
Oh, I just think visually and emotionally the juxtaposition is so strong. I will admit, I haven't watched this video in a while and gosh, these scenes were seeing that are just chaotic. And then later you see the beauty that can exist. It's just I can't imagine how anyone could want the car clogged streets if they really thought about the two options.
00:42:31:04 - 00:42:33:16
Sara Lind
How could anyone make that choice?
00:42:33:19 - 00:42:52:20
John Simmerman
Yeah, I'm going to pause on on this image right here of the trash piling up along the the sidewalk here and again, infringing on this public space. And, you know, we mentioned the rat running earlier. And part of the biggest challenge with our little.
00:42:52:20 - 00:42:53:22
Sara Lind
Furry friends.
00:42:53:24 - 00:43:20:10
John Simmerman
Is that we do have this bizarre relationship with trash. And I know that the curbside trash situation, we've got some bright lights. We know that we have some solutions that are slowly getting rolled out. And I remember several years ago, I think Mark Gordon was like super, super passionate about trying to fix this issue. And, and he and Clarence went to, to Europe and went around several different locations.
00:43:20:12 - 00:43:43:19
John Simmerman
And Clarence and I would, would geek out and film trash pickup in the Netherlands and just the beauty and the simplicity of, oh, yeah, no, you don't have trash bins hanging out, you know, just willy nilly, and you don't have piles of trash like this, you know? Sarah, why? Why are we talking about trash?
00:43:43:21 - 00:44:11:16
Sara Lind
Yeah, yeah. No, it's one of the kind of campaigns that I didn't mention under curb Management. I'm laughing because I was with Clarence when he filmed this particular video. Yeah. And it's it's still a problem, but we are experiencing a little momentum. As you mentioned, we have some containerized trash pilots happening in New York City. And the current chair of the transportation committee, Shaun Abreu, has committed to expanding that citywide.
00:44:11:16 - 00:44:31:02
Sara Lind
So very exciting. I'll go back a little bit to my history. You know, I went to law school in Chicago and lived there for many years. And Chicago has alleys and they have dumpsters. And you don't see trash when you're walking down the street. And when I moved to New York, I was baffled. I could not understand what was happening.
00:44:31:07 - 00:44:51:10
Sara Lind
But it is interesting because when you talk to, you know, longtime or lifelong New Yorkers, there is sort of a take it for granted approach. You know, that's just the way it is. And it's hard to get people like I sort of said before to say, oh, it could be different and it could be better, but I think we're we're making progress on that front.
00:44:51:13 - 00:45:15:18
Sara Lind
You mentioned the rats. I always like to say it's no surprise we have a huge rat population. When we set out a feast for them every night in our garbage bags on the sidewalk, which can also be addressed with organics. And I'm a huge fan of curbside compost collection. Put in a hard, you know, hard plastic container. But but it's not just about the rats, you know.
00:45:15:19 - 00:45:36:28
Sara Lind
It really is about the public space we saw in that video. You know, a woman with a stroller having to literally navigate around a huge mountain full of trash bag recycling and that. But still, you know, people in wheelchairs, it's hard to navigate the sidewalks that I don't think you can see it in that video, but that particular pile of trash was even going into the bike lane, you know?
00:45:37:00 - 00:45:43:22
Sara Lind
So it really is a problem that impedes on our public space and how people can enjoy walking around the city.
00:45:43:25 - 00:45:44:25
Sara Lind
Yeah, yeah.
00:45:44:27 - 00:46:21:13
John Simmerman
The other thing that came to mind from this video, when we were looking at it, and to your comment that you made about just. The insanity of this, the insanity of the car having so completely taken over public space in an environment where in actuality pedestrians far and, you know, far out number the cars and it's just insane that still in what's what year is this this 2026 still in 2026.
00:46:21:14 - 00:46:50:21
John Simmerman
We allow the car to dominate the space. We've got some pretty exciting advances in news along that front as well. With the decongestant pricing model coming in place and helping, you know, sort of traffic calm. Talk a little bit about that. I know it's not one of your main campaigns, but I'm sure you all are cheering on the sidelines with this.
00:46:50:22 - 00:47:10:20
Sara Lind
Yeah, we were part of the coalition, so we definitely worked on it alongside the leaders of the coalition for many years and still are part of it as as we kind of wind down some of Trump's crazy lawsuits. Yeah, I mean, it's working, right. Like that's the that's the top line here within the zone is down. Emissions are down.
00:47:10:21 - 00:47:36:28
Sara Lind
Noise complaints are down. Crashes are down, speed is up. So obviously that's not the the thing I care about most. But if you are a car commuter, your commute is shorter with congestion pricing or congestion pricing. So I think it's working for everyone. It's a model I hope other American cities will adopt it. I would love to see it expanded within New York City or other kind of similar approaches.
00:47:36:28 - 00:47:40:13
Sara Lind
Tried like a low emission zone, which London has done as well.
00:47:40:15 - 00:47:41:08
Sara Lind
Yeah, yeah.
00:47:41:08 - 00:48:10:00
John Simmerman
And I think to your point there too, is that okay. Great. So we've the de congestion pricing attempt, this is working and we see fewer vehicles. VMT has gone down. It could be an issue could be a problem. If speeding becomes even more of a challenge. Well we can handle that because the image on screen here is where we have some bus only priority zones.
00:48:10:00 - 00:48:43:08
John Simmerman
And you know, that's the biggest challenge is get our transit, get our busses, get our streetcar lines out of traffic. You know, it's no good if you're transit is is being hampered by other cars, other gridlock. And so you know we can start. If you bring in your VMT down into the city, then you can get strategic and then you can go and implement some of the lightness and some of the other traffic calming measures to bring the temperature, the speed down on those streets.
00:48:43:08 - 00:49:21:20
John Simmerman
And guess what? With fewer vehicles, your net speed will probably actually be better. In other words, let's not use the word speed. Let's use travel time. Your travel time is going to improve, but your overall speed is going to be kind of what it was before, which was averaging probably 10 to 15mph. Guess what? We want you closer to that target of 15 to 20mph, which is a much healthier, much safer speed for for motor vehicles to be traveling in an urban environment.
00:49:21:21 - 00:49:53:25
Sara Lind
Yeah. My piece of advice to cities that are thinking about congestion pricing would be have those interventions lined up, try to get them in place even beforehand. I think the one issue with our program is we haven't done enough of that yet. So we've we've got we had a space dividend and we haven't taken advantage of it. So we have what you were looking at before was the 14th Avenue bus way, but 14th Street Bus Way, but that actually has been in place since before congestion pricing.
00:49:53:25 - 00:50:07:18
Sara Lind
We haven't added any new bus ways bustling since congestion pricing started. And so I think we missed an opportunity. And I would just encourage other cities thinking about it, to be sure they're going to jump on that opportunity immediately.
00:50:07:22 - 00:50:08:15
Sara Lind
Yeah, yeah.
00:50:08:16 - 00:50:36:16
John Simmerman
Now, we talked a little bit about, you know, some of the wonderful things that we saw out on the street, the 34th Avenue program. And I think Clarence is working on a documentary, a big street. And we've, we've and see familiar faces in this little clip. There's Jim there. And so this this was huge. That was an absolutely huge development.
00:50:36:16 - 00:51:03:15
John Simmerman
And if I remember correctly, that came out of the pandemic and then just never went away. And you mentioned it before, it's become a de facto school street because of so many streets along that avenue. That's a huge win and a huge case study for other cities in North America to be like rethinking the, you know, the impossible.
00:51:03:15 - 00:51:12:04
John Simmerman
We're not we're going to take this avenue and we're going to remove all of that high speed car traffic for how many blocks?
00:51:12:06 - 00:51:15:25
Sara Lind
Oh my gosh, I should know. But it's many, many, many, many blocks.
00:51:15:26 - 00:51:16:12
Sara Lind
I mean.
00:51:16:13 - 00:51:28:25
John Simmerman
This is not just in front of a street or several or not. Not just in front of a school or several schools. I mean, this is just this is like an ongoing party now.
00:51:28:25 - 00:51:30:18
Sara Lind
Yeah, it's.
00:51:30:20 - 00:52:08:16
Sara Lind
Calling it a linear park because it really has turned into what is basically a park like space. Yeah. It's gorgeous. Clarence's film is going to be really, really great. I've seen clips, so watch out for it. It should be out this summer. I encourage everyone to watch it. Who's interested in these issues? And you mentioned Jim. So I just would say, yeah, this was an open street in the pandemic and open streets from the pandemic were basically, hey, if you've got some neighbors, there's Jim, if you've got some neighbors who want to close off your street to cars and open them to people, go for it.
00:52:08:16 - 00:52:28:02
Sara Lind
The city is not going to help much and they still don't. And so 34th Avenue is a labor of love of Jim and Nuala and their neighbors. And I think the film will really emphasize that. But it does show we need more city support. There could be 34th avenues all over the city, but not every neighborhood has a gym.
00:52:28:02 - 00:52:30:19
Sara Lind
And that's to do this, right?
00:52:30:20 - 00:52:31:09
Sara Lind
Right.
00:52:31:10 - 00:52:58:00
John Simmerman
And I guess the question really is from a policy perspective, that seems not very sustainable to try to like, think of. Oh, gee, how are we going to manage our public realm for the health and well-being and vitality and vibrancy of our economy? We want to we want to rely on, you know, the gyms of the world to, like, show up out of out of the blue.
00:52:58:01 - 00:53:21:09
John Simmerman
No, that's not sustainable. We should be thinking about cities much more strategically and intentionally from a policy perspective. Lean in a little bit to that. What are some of the, I think, really the low hanging fruit that cities should be thinking about where they might be watching this and listening to this and saying, oh yeah, but we're not New York City.
00:53:21:10 - 00:53:37:08
John Simmerman
What are some of the policy things that you think that. Oh, man. Well that's fine. You don't have to be in New York City. You don't have to be Chicago. You can be a, a a smaller town or a smaller city like a Madison, Wisconsin. But you should be thinking about some of these policy changes.
00:53:37:08 - 00:53:55:21
Sara Lind
I think some of this stuff is easier in a smaller midsize city, to be honest. Part of what we talk about when we talk about public space management in New York City is how centralized the Dot is, and therefore how hard it is for them to really get to know and understand local communities. And that's why I think they end up relying so much on local partners.
00:53:55:21 - 00:54:16:28
Sara Lind
So I think if you're a small town and you have a closer relationship with your communities, it might actually be easier. One thing. And so to that point, one of our proposals in the report we put out is actually having what we've called public space management teams on the ground within each what we have as community districts, council district.
00:54:17:01 - 00:54:36:13
Sara Lind
So it's not just that centralized staff that's kind of coming from on high and putting in something. It's it's on the ground. People who can help manage projects and field complaints and field concerns and help with ideas. And I think just empower communities without leaning on them and putting burdens on them.
00:54:36:19 - 00:54:37:24
Sara Lind
Right, right.
00:54:37:25 - 00:55:11:28
John Simmerman
It sounds like what we're saying in and we're on the same page here, is that we need both. We need good leadership, leadership from on high. So that's a little bit of the the politics of this. We need good administration, good staff. We need people who are within the senior level divisions of these departments that are managing, managing these things to be in lockstep with the politicians, their bosses.
00:55:11:28 - 00:55:45:12
John Simmerman
And of course, you know, the the politicians are reporting to us, we're the constituents we're voting them in, and then the lower level staff and then the engaged community and then the advocacy organizations. Somewhere in there, you've got the activists that are kind of edging, edging it along as well. And then you have the community educating and engaging the community and, you know, events, you know, where you're trying to do activities and getting people engaged out there.
00:55:45:12 - 00:56:19:04
John Simmerman
You're doing fun things like Nerd Night, the Future of Queens Streets. Talk a little bit about that concept of of that whole continuum, that dynamic from leadership on high to the staff to the community that has a level of awareness. So, you know, when city staff tries to install street improvements, you know that the politicians say they want and they got elected based on a plan of being able to do certain things.
00:56:19:04 - 00:56:32:09
John Simmerman
And then the next thing you know, there's resistance. And then the politicians get, you know, oh my gosh, we made a mistake. And and they panic talk a little bit about that whole continuum.
00:56:32:09 - 00:57:02:02
Sara Lind
Yeah. It's a whole ecosystem. And it's very self self-referential and self enforcing. You know, you look at like an antidote, mayor of Paris who did get pushed back and pushed through it. You need that political leadership for sure. But yeah, she had to have all of those other pieces of the ecosystem supporting her and so that she felt like, yeah, there's loud voices, but I know on the ground there's support, I know what I'm doing is right.
00:57:02:02 - 00:57:32:25
Sara Lind
And then I also do think I would say, I think that the more that people feel that their government listens to them, the more empowered they feel. And that's, you know, it is that self-reinforcing cycle and it can be virtuous or not. One thing that's interesting about Paris, and that probably helped her put those reforms through, is they have this arrondissement sub local government structure where, you know, each council district has then its own little mayor and its own smaller council.
00:57:33:02 - 00:57:50:20
Sara Lind
So a fascinating thing that I learned is that in New York City and this is similar in American cities, we have one council member for every about 160,000 people in Paris at that sub local government structure. It's about one for, I want to say, 5000 about wow.
00:57:50:26 - 00:57:54:15
John Simmerman
Oh man, I didn't realize it says finite. Oh my gosh.
00:57:54:18 - 00:58:18:06
Sara Lind
Yes. Yeah. So when you feel like I know the person and there's only 5000 other people that might be going to them, I actually think they're at large districts, but you get the point, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's an elected official who's really close to me and who I can kind of get on the phone. You know, philosophically, I think people feel more engaged and then they feel more empowered.
00:58:18:06 - 00:58:24:14
Sara Lind
And I definitely think that that probably helped Hidalgo push through big change.
00:58:24:16 - 00:58:49:00
John Simmerman
And what's interesting, too, is Chris and Melissa, you know, just wrote a fabulous book about women leadership. And Mayor Hill was was profiled in there. She made the decision not to run for another term. And, you know, she's like, yeah, no, it's time for others to do that. But she also was very intentional about supporting more women in leadership positions.
00:58:49:00 - 00:59:10:22
John Simmerman
And I suspect that that's exactly kind of what was a little bit part of that was that secret sauce of getting more of those monts leadership positions filled by by women as well. Or at least getting it so that it's not skewed so ridiculously in terms of like what we had talked about before in the olden days when it was it was a boys club.
00:59:10:22 - 00:59:25:12
Sara Lind
So yeah. Yeah for sure. Yeah, she was great. I also do love and elected official who knows when to step down. I'll leave that there for America. I won't say any more about it, but we love an elected official. Is when to step back.
00:59:25:16 - 00:59:52:26
John Simmerman
Yeah. So let's talk a little bit about the future for New York City in this vein. With leadership, I can think back to an election cycle of of past in a certain mile high city where, you know, the mayor was saying all the right things, and yet now there's a huge, you know, feeling like they've been let down and that the streets are not really getting safer.
00:59:53:03 - 01:00:16:02
John Simmerman
Talk a little bit about the energy right now with our our current mayor there in New York City. And, and I know you have to be like careful not to get too many expectations. It's it's very difficult to be an elected official. It's a very difficult to be the mayor of a massive, massive city like a New York City or a Paris or a London.
01:00:16:02 - 01:00:34:19
John Simmerman
But at the same time, just like in Paris, just like in London, you have to have the political will to do the right thing. And I think in both of those cities, those mayors did that talk a little bit about the current situation and your analysis of where you're at, you know, with your new mayor?
01:00:34:21 - 01:00:56:22
Sara Lind
Yeah. Well, I was honored to sit on the Transportation transition Committee for Mayor Mamdani. So I got to see from the inside that this is real. You know, they weren't just words on a campaign trail. I think he and his team are very serious about pursuing these kinds of changes and improvements. And I think we've seen it, too.
01:00:56:22 - 01:01:20:16
Sara Lind
I was I'm really excited about Flynn as the Dot commissioner. He knows his stuff. He's not a politician. He's someone who wants to see change made and who really believes in this. So I'm very excited about that and I think we've started to see things. I mean, to your point, it's not going to be a transformation overnight, but I'm I'm excited about the announcements made and the groundbreaking that have happened.
01:01:20:18 - 01:01:43:09
Sara Lind
There's a there's a sort of I don't want to call it an attitude because that has sort of a bad connotation. But, you know, there's kind of there's been an attitude shift, like there's a little bit of a this is happening and it's going to be great and sorry if you don't like it. So I think that's, you know, we saw with 3430 first Avenue and you know, the kind of like we're going to make it bigger and better than ever.
01:01:43:12 - 01:02:05:19
Sara Lind
So yeah, I would definitely urge advocates to be patient. It's going to take time to do everything we want. That's just the reality of the situation. And maybe we're not going to get everything we want, but I'm definitely willing to give them a year or so to to make some big changes. If there's nothing by then, I'll start to get a little nervous.
01:02:05:19 - 01:02:09:02
Sara Lind
But I think we've already seen things, so I'm optimistic for sure.
01:02:09:06 - 01:02:37:27
John Simmerman
Yeah. And just just to be clear, folks, I mean, there's no magic wand that can just that we can wave that will just take all of this and make this, you know, better overnight. I mean, d congestion pricing notwithstanding, I mean, there's so much of this that's part of our culture. Car culture and motor normativity are so much a part of the United States, the New York City, our major cities, cities around the globe, as we mentioned earlier.
01:02:37:27 - 01:02:54:27
John Simmerman
So, yeah, there's no magic solution that can just, you know, make this all go away and transform them into 34th avenues everywhere. So nor would we want that. What haven't we covered that you want to make sure to share with the audience?
01:02:55:03 - 01:03:17:27
Sara Lind
Yeah, I guess I'll just mention the magic wand sort of reminded me that it's not on our website per se, but we have. We released a report on reducing vehicle miles traveled VMT, and there is a suite, you know, there's a toolbox of tools. Congestion pricing is one of them. Low emission zones or one of them low traffic neighborhoods, bus rapid transit.
01:03:18:00 - 01:03:33:26
Sara Lind
And we didn't cover all the tools in that report. Car report is focused on New York City, really. But so yeah, I guess I would just say that that there's not one magic wand, but there are tools and there's a big box, and we need to be creative and we need to be strategic. But but this is possible.
01:03:33:26 - 01:03:37:02
Sara Lind
We know what to do. We just we need to get it done.
01:03:37:08 - 01:03:58:19
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah. And I just pulled up the website and you do have a resources tab there. So folks pop on over to the Open Plans website. Again that's open Plans website. And then you can click on the resources and pop in in there. Sarah this has been so much fun. Thank you so much for joining me on the Active Towns podcast.
01:03:58:21 - 01:04:00:16
Sara Lind
Thank you so much for having me. That's lovely.
01:04:00:18 - 01:04:16:04
John Simmerman
Hey, thank you all so much for tuning in. I hope you enjoyed this episode with Sarah Lind. And if you did, please give it a thumbs up. Leave a comment down below and share it with the front. And if you haven't done so already, be honored to have you subscribe to the channel. Just click on that subscription button down below and be sure to ring that notification bell.
01:04:16:04 - 01:04:40:22
John Simmerman
And again, if you're enjoying this content here on the Active Towns Channel, please consider supporting my efforts by becoming an Active Town's ambassador. Again, super easy to do. You can just hit the join button right down below here on YouTube, or you can leave a YouTube super thanks or navigate over to Active Towns. Click on the support tab at the top of the page, and there's several different options, including making a donation to my nonprofit advocates for Healthy Communities.
01:04:40:22 - 01:05:00:09
John Simmerman
Or you can become a Patreon supporter. Patrons do get early and free access to all this video content, and you can also buy me a coffee again. Every little bit adds up and really does help a great deal. And with that said, I really need to give a huge shout out to all my current active towns. And again, I simply could not do this without your help.
01:05:00:10 - 01:05:09:28
John Simmerman
Mahalo, new. Thank you very much. Well, until next time. This is John signing off by wishing you much activity, health and happiness. Cheers and aloha.