APSUN: ISTAR OPEN TO REVISE NORTH ASBURY BEACHFRONT PLAN

Asbury Park’s boardwalk is a thoroughfare through the city north to south. It must be (and feel) safe and accessible for everyone, from the residents of the senior tower to the children from every neighborhood in the city. We’re confident that iStar realizes that they are partnering with the city for the long term, and will foster a good relationship going forward by being engaging and transparent throughout the development of the waterfront.

An excerpt from a letter to iStar from Save Asbury’s Waterfront:

Like iStar, Save Asbury’s Waterfront (SAW) supports a planning process that will provide a community-based vision for the redesign of the public improvements at the north end boardwalk area, Fisherman’s parking lot and Bradley Cove. Specifically, SAW seeks to foster and encourage appropriate development along Asbury Park’s waterfront that will:

1. Maximize social inclusion and provide access for all residents and visitors

2. Recognize current coastal development guidelines and practices

3. Be sensitive to biodiversity, wildlife habitats, pollution and other environmental concerns

4. Be transparent during all phases of planning and implementation

CHERIPKA SAYS LONG-TERM VISION INCLUDES SOLUTION TO BRADLEY COVE SITE

Read about it:

http://asburyparksun.com/istar-open-to-revise-north-asbury-beachfront-infrastructure-plan/

November 20, 2018November 19, 2018

VisionZero Day Of Action: Attention to Preventable Traffic Deaths

On Sunday, November 18th communities across U.S., and around the globe organized for World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims.

Asbury Park has thankfully not had traffic deaths that other larger cities have had. Let’s not wait until a tragedy happens to implement traffic calming measures all over the city, and #slowthecars.

NOVEMBER 15, 2018 | BY VERONICA VANTERPOOL

Every day 100 people will die in U.S. in preventable crashes. How is our community doing? Yesterday Sunday, November 18th was World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims #WDoR2018 to honor those who lost lives. We join VisionZero Network and urge action for #VisionZero.

November 19, 2018November 18, 2018

What is Tactical Urbanism? An International Movement

“Cities around the world are using flexible and short-term projects to advance long-term goals related to street safety, public space, and more.”

APCSC and other Complete Streets advocates believe that streets are for people. We know that even with best intentions cities sometimes miss opportunities, or are financially challenged to effect changes away from car-centric streets. We can get creative to make streets into places for people: for health, for social well-being, for the environment, and for economic benefit.

Tactical Urbanism is all about action. Also known as DIY Urbanism, Planning-by-Doing, Urban Acupuncture, or Urban Prototyping, this approach refers to a city, organizational, and/or citizen-led approach to neighborhood building using short-term, low-cost, and scalable interventions to catalyze long-term change.

Learn about it:

http://tacticalurbanismguide.com/

November 19, 2018November 18, 2018

Post-Turkey Day Bike Ride

LIGHT UP YOUR BIKES AND RIDE! Meet up on Tuesday, 11/27 at Springwood Park 6:30pm. About an hour spin around town. Get creative with lights!

November 18, 2018November 17, 2018

The #MeToo Movement And Street Infrastructure

This article is about Seattle, but we can substitute: Asbury Park is working to “advance its most prominent public asset — our streets — toward a bold vision for inclusivity across gender, race, ability and class by making it safe, efficient, and intuitive for all modes of transportation to access…” every part of the city. Walking and biking offer a barometer — and a proving ground — for women’s belonging in public space.”

It’s time Seattle planners listen to women who walk and bike

by Claire Martini November 12, 2018

Siblings Aly and John Gagnon ride LimeBike using bikes near Pioneer Square in Seattle, Washington on Tuesday, August 8, 2017.
(Matt M. McKnight/Crosscut)

The #MeToo movement enables women to speak out about injustices faced behind closed doors. But injustice can also hide in plain sight, stemming from something as basic as the way streets are built.

Safety is paramount. While planners focus on delivering miles of bike lanes and sidewalks, women’s calculus is more complex: “Women and girls have to account for threats and realities of gender-based violence in public—on public transportation, in schools, in workplaces, in parks, on streets,” writes urbanist Tiffany Lam. Women, trans, femme, non-binary cyclists and particularly people of color experience racial and gender discrimination while biking (according to a study in Portland),while shouldering concerns about parenting, appearance, personal safety and harassment. Recognizing that “human infrastructure” supports would-be cyclists, many communities organize rides, skill workshops and education programs; we need leaders in access and mobility at every level of our city, from living rooms and classrooms to City Hall.

November 18, 2018March 17, 2019

It’s About A Better City

It’s about a better city, not about riding bikes or walking, or certainly not a “war on cars”. Many people (or most) who ride bikes and walk also drive a vehicle. We’re all in this together. Asbury Park is finalizing the Asbury Park Bike and Walk Master Plan which will create a network for safe walking and bicycling .

“…a few separated routes through a large, still car-dominated city and region don’t create a viable choice in how to get around for people aged 8-80. For people of both genders and all ages to choose a mode of movement a system or network is needed – complete, connected, efficient, predictable, and safe in both perception and reality.”

It’s Not About The Bike Or Car —It’s About Better Cities

OCTOBER 8, 2012 | BY BRENT TODERIAN

“I don’t consider myself a ‘cyclist.’ Calling myself that would seem as odd as calling myself a walker, a transit-rider, or a driver. I’m someone who loves living in cities, who has studied how cities work all of my adult life. Really, I’m a citizen.”

November 17, 2018November 15, 2018

Think Bicycles Don’t Belong On The Road?

This is a familiar characterization of many people who don’t think bikes belong on the street. This person is a driver who believes that roads were designed for cars and should stay that way. “Bicyclists break traffic law!” “Cyclists don’t pay taxes!” “People on bikes act entitled and run stop signs and disobey traffic signals!” Some of these drivers are aggressive, and even try to frighten people on bikes, intimidating them by buzzing, yelling, honking or even throwing things at them. As your writer I can attest that all of this happens to me frequently. I’m close to being injured or killed by a driver almost every time I commute the 12 miles to and again from my work place.

It can change, with better infrastructure, and more people on bikes.

Chris Cox used to despise cyclists, believing they should get off the roads. Then something changed

Not long ago, Chris Cox used to think bikes shouldn’t be allowed on the road and loathed cyclists. Then, something changed.

Chris Cox November 14, 2018

Cyclists shouldn’t be allowed on the road, I used to think.

They don’t pay registration. Those two-wheeled toys weren’t designed to share the bitumen with “real” transport vehicles like cars, trucks and motorbikes.

It was a perspective that came so naturally to me.

It was my instant reflex response when a colleague told me how he and his mates were terrorised by a motorist on their weekend ride. The driver had tailgated, revved the engine, leant on the horn and finished it off with a drenching with some kind of liquid.

Yet, despite what was a clear example of deliberate and dangerous intimidation by a couple of boofheads in a car, my first reaction was to blame the victim.

November 16, 2018November 16, 2018

It’s Not All About Fire Truck Response Times

APCSC has found that Asbury Park’s Fire Department is coming on board with Complete Streets principles (the concept of the Road Diet is still somewhat a sticking point), but there are still holdouts (and also in our Police Department) clinging to the thinking that it’s all about response times, rather than accepting that faster road speeds lead to increasingly high numbers of traffic related injuries and deaths. It’s about #slowthecars and right-sized emergency vehicles.

Rule 51: Expand the Fire Chief’s Mandate

Rewrite the fire chief’s mandate to optimize public safety, not response times. Replace the 20-foot clear and minimum curb radii with more precise measures. Do not add or keep unwarranted signals in the name of preemption. Size new fire trucks to the community and not vice versa.

By Jeff Speck Nov 12, 2018

Perhaps the most ironic day in the life of every city planner is the one on which she discovers that her greatest opponent in making her city’s streets safer is the fire chief. How this bizarre circumstance has come to occur in city after city across the United States is a veritable morality play on the topics of siloed thinking, the confusion of ends and means, and Murphy’s Law. It goes something like this:

Walkable City Rules, the upcoming book from Jeff Speck. Image: Island Press — “Walkable City Rules” (Island Press)

A faster response time is good, but not at the expense of life safety.

The fire chief’s job performance is typically judged on response time. The fire department’s budget is often based on the number of calls that fire trucks respond to. These two facts conspire to replace a fire chief’s natural mandate, optimizing the life safety of the community, with a much narrower focus: sending out lots of trucks, and getting them to their destinations quickly.

Get the book:

Walkable City Rules by Jeff Speck

November 15, 2018November 14, 2018

Bikes Are Faster Than Cars

Do you commute by bike? Maybe you’ve found out that it’s sometimes faster or almost as fast to get to your destination by bike than by car. And you don’t have to deal with parking! Now look at the trucks and delivery services lumbering along and (double) parked on your city streets. Maybe there’s a faster, more streamlined solution…

Delivery company Deliveroo and the routing algorithm they named”Frank” collected Smartphone data from riders and drivers schlepping meals for restaurant-to-home courier service. Turns out bicycles are faster than cars.

Data From Millions Of Smartphone Journeys Proves Cyclists Faster In Cities Than Cars And Motorbikes

Carlton Reid, Contributor

Red more…

https://www.forbes.com/sites/carltonreid/2018/11/07/data-from-millions-of-smartphone-journeys-proves-cyclists-faster-in-cities-than-cars-and-motorbikes/#210bbffa3794

November 12, 2018November 17, 2018

Save Asbury’s Waterfront Update And Council Meeting Video

City Council meeting November 8, 2018

UPDATE

APCSC members attended the Save Asbury’s Waterfront press conference and city council meeting on Thursday night. We saw a wonderful, shared commitment among Mayor Moor, city council, residents and visitors who love AP to keep our beaches accessible to the public and protected from harmful environmental impact. Whether or not you were able to attend the meeting, I recommend watching the video from 11:00 when iStar’s attorney speaks, through Mayor Moor’s remarks beginning at 51:45. Public comments afterward were a variety of informative, angry, frustrated, and even humorous remarks. No matter the delivery, we’re unified in preserving Asbury Park’s waterfront. The city ordered iStar to cease and desist. Now it’s time to harness the positive energy and get back to the table to discuss an alternative to the existing plans. This is what community is about.

Press conference in front of Asbury Park Post Office 11/8/18

Please see attached Save Asbury’s Waterfront Press Conference 11.8.18 held by the coalition Save Asbury’s Waterfront, prior to the Nov. 8th Asbury Park City Council meeting at which iStar Financial, Inc. presented its Phase 5 Infrastructure plans for the City’s northern waterfront.

After 2.5 hours of public comment requesting iStar to stop construction on the northern waterfront, the City Council ultimately passed a resolution forcing iStar to cease and desist construction and demanded that iStar “come to the table” to amend the 2002 waterfront redevelopment agreements.

We sincerely thank the City Council of Asbury Park for listening to the concerns of its community.

Save Asbury’s Waterfront Press Conf 11.8.18

Audience reaction to order to iStar of cease and desist.

Watch the City Council meeting and iStar presentation:

Asbury Park City Council Meeting 11/8/18 – iStar presentation

For more, check out Asbury Park Complete Streets Coalition on FB and on Instagram @asburyparkcompletestreets