Streetfight: Handbook for an Urban Revolution

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

As NYC's Transportation Commissioner, Janette Sadik-Khan managed the seemingly impossible and transformed the streets of one of the world s greatest, toughest cities into dynamic spaces safe for pedestrians and bikers. Her approach was dramatic and effective: she rewrote the rule book and involved local artists in a radical approach to city planning. In Streetfight, Sadik-Khan writes about the struggles she faced while making her approach work, and how it is now being implemented.

Reviews

"No one has done more in less time to rewrite the future of New Yorks streets."Reclaim

An inspiring read The sort of book that should be read by every officeholderBut it is also a read for the rest of us. Anyone whose memory is longer than a New York minute who can remember when New York wasn't the pedestrian and bike friendly envy of cities the world over.
The Huffington Post

Janette Sadik-Khan is like the child that Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs never had: an urban visionary determined to reshape the streets of New York, but with an abiding concern for the health of neighborhoods and the safety of their residents. If you care about the future of cities, read Streetfight.
Michael Bloomberg, former New York City Mayor

Cities are where innovation, creativity and the unexpected happens, and Janette has helped make ours, New York City, safer, more livable and more profitable all at once. I watched these exciting changes happen, but the really interesting part is how she managed to implement these changes quickly and cheaply. Thats where other cities can use this as a manual for change on issues like health reform, education and the arts. This, then, is not just a book about transportation.
David Byrne, musician, artist

This book is an urban epic as audacious as the changes Janette Sadik-Khan made to the map of New York City. She is a superhero for cities and an inspiration that streets built to human scale arent impossible, but merely awaiting those who dare.
Jan Gehl, Urbanist, architect, author

To create safe and inclusive cities, being a visionary is not enough. You must also be an advocate, a communicator, a doer and, perhaps most importantly, a street fighter. Janette is that person and this is a book that provides the proof of the possible for citizens and their elected leaders everywhere.
Enrique Pealosa, Mayor of Bogota

"Sadik-Khan's work will serve as a guidebook to city planners and traffic engineers everywhere, and motivate disenchanted urban dwellers to urge local politicians to make their cities more liveable."
Booklist

[A] bicycle visionary.
Frank Bruni, The New York Times

Sadik-Khan manages to be equal parts Jane Jacobs and Robert Moses.
New York Magazine

If [Robert] Moses had owned a pink fingernail of [Sadik-Khans] beguilement, he might have scored a bridge across the Atlantic.
Esquire

[Sadik-Khan is] an urban visionary who cuts through the gridlock.
Slate

This is a feel-great read for those of us who love cities, especially as pedestrians and bicyclists. Along with local efforts, the book contains wonderful examples of national and global reclamation projects. The good news comes in daily as examples of successful street rebalancing projects continue to mount from all over the world, and advocacy groups that push for these changes grow and strengthen. . . . Fortunately for all of us, [Sadik-Khan] was wildly successful.
UrbDeZine San Francisco

Author Bio

Janette Sadik-Khan is one of the world's foremost authorities on transportation and urban transformation. She served as New York City's transportation commissioner from 2007 to 2013 under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, overseeing historic changes to New York City's streets-closing Broadway to cars in Times Square, building nearly 400 miles of bike lanes, and creating more than 60 plazas citywide. A founding principal with Bloomberg Associates, she works with mayors around the world to reimagine and redesign their cities. She chairs the National Association of Transportation Officials, implementing new people-focused street design standards that have been adopted in 45 cities across the continent. She lives in New York City. Seth Solomonow is a manager with Bloomberg Associates. He was the chief media strategist for Janette Sadik-Khan and New York City's transportation department under Mayor Michael Bloomberg. A graduate of Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, Solomonow has written for The New York Times and his hometown newspaper, The Staten Island Advance. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. From the Hardcover edition.