Hazon worked with the Upper West Side Streets Renaissance Campaign to advocate for a more “livable street” network for the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

Our Vision for Livable Streets

Hazon believes people make a city great, and that they can make it green. With the majority of the world’s 6.5 billion human beings now living in cities, building healthy, livable, and affordable urban environments is critical to the mission of today’s global environmental movement. And as a highly urban people, Jews have a particular stake in greening our cities. Yet, so many of the world’s great cities dedicate too much of their precious, limited public space – their streets – to motor vehicles rather than people, resulting in congestion, air pollution, noise, oil addiction and greenhouse gasses that contribute to global scorching. In cooperation with Transportation Alternatives’ Streets Renaissance campaign Hazon worked with synagogues and other Jewish institutions to redesign our communities, beginning with Manhattan’s Upper West Side (UWS), around streets that are friendly, inviting, and safe for pedestrians, bicyclists, and public transportation. The initiative enlisted a number of synagogues to advocate plans for redesigning their blocks with traffic-calming features, bicycle lanes and secure parking, street furniture, and plantings. Other improvements could include extended and elevated crosswalks, more efficient parking patterns, and swapping parking places for mini-parks. The design framework for the livable Streets initiative is handsomely laid out in the “Blueprint for the Upper West Side.”

Community Involvement

Since people and institutions are generally inclined to stick with the status quo, through our Upper West Side Livable Streets initiative we worked with rabbis, environmental and social-action committees, and other synagogue bodies to change perspectives on our currently automobile-dominated streets and see them as community assets that favor people over vehicles and enhance the quality of our environment. Hazon provided inspiration, resources, and some technical assistance to synagogues and other institutions for developing Livable-Streets proposals and building community consensus and support for the proposals. Hazon relied on community volunteers to survey businesses on Amsterdam/Columbus to gather data that would be necessary for defending the placement of the lanes on these avenues, and to find support from local businesses.  In order to educate people in the community and to get them involved, Hazon also lead Street Treatment Tours of the various types of bike lanes in Manhattan. Hazon worked with Upper West Side synagogues for help with tasks such as surveying the immediate street environment to determine what improvements are desirable and achievable, explaining and promoting the proposal both within the congregation (or school, etc.) and in the neighboring community, and presenting the proposal to the Community Board.