—Systemic change begins with personal change—
Jim is the Queens chair for the local advocacy group Transportation Alternatives. A long-time safe streets activist, Jim regularly devoted time to volunteering after work, and in 2020 he had more time on his hands than ever.
The Open Streets program was about to start. Mayor de Blasio had delegated responsibility to the Department of Transportation and local police precincts. In many neighborhoods, the police partnered with a local BID to take over daily management of the streets. The 115th Precinct and local BID lacked the staff to clean the street and move the barricades each day.
Jim helped jumped in: "We'll do it!" He and members of his community advocated for safe streets in their home of Jackson Heights for years, and recognized that this was a special moment in time. Eager to show that the community could manage 34th Avenue without police presence and determined to make their local Open Street a success, they called a dozen local groups – including Queens Transportation Alternatives and the Jackson Heights Beautification Group. They formed the 34th Ave Open Streets Coalition and made it work.
The Coalition's first goal was to make people feel safe and welcome using 34th Avenue. Next, they focused on making the Open Street permanent. Now that they have achieved both of these milestones, their next goal is to fortify the streets around schools to protect children on their way to and from school. And after that?
"After making the streets safer, we want an interconnected network, so that theoretically you could hop on your bike, your skateboard, push the wheelchair, go for a walk through all of New York City and stick to an Open Street network, never having to worry about violence from cars, and be able to safely get to your destination, whether you're a jogger or walker or a cyclist," Jim said. "That would be the dream."
After reading about 34th Avenue in Queens and watching the video linked below, I had to ride to see it. Over a mile of a once congested street was transformed into safer, quieter places people enjoyed, especially kids. There are three schools along the route. The kids can come out and play. I met Jim there, felt inspired to do something similar near me, and invited him to the podcast. He talks about what made it possible, what's happened since it started, resistance, celebration, and more. After we recorded, we walked around my neighborhood and he showed what streets would work best to start the program with. I'm already starting to act. Before we overbuilt streets for cars, people did fine without cars. Once built, people adjusted their lives, forgot how things worked before, and claim they have no choice to drive. They act like this privilege and addiction helps the poor it impoverishes or people who can't walk everywhere whom it traps. The answer is to change our environment so cars aren't so necessary. People can adjust back. Please listen to my episode with Jason Slaughter of the video series Not Just Bikes for more advanced city changes. The U.S. is sorely lagging.