Ya-Ting Liu
@yating_liu
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Chief Public Realm Officer @NYCMayor | raising 3 boys with @cinemist | opinions expressed here are mine alone
Joined April 2011
We partnered with Mastercard to look at how pedestrianizing 11 blocks of 5th Avenue last holiday season impacted the local economy. Guess what? It drove an estimated $3M in additional spending with merchants seeing a 6.6% increase in sales.
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Public transit is the lifeblood of NYC and traffic is choking our city streets. Congestion pricing is the only policy that can tackle both in an equitable and comprehensive way. The general fund, PMT, existing taxes that go into MTA are unsustainable, not enough, or regressive.
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YES PLEASE >>>>“In Paris, freight trucks enter the city at night and deliver packages to smaller warehouses near homes. In the morning, bikes and electric vans haul them to people’s doorsteps.”
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Disappearance of car traffic has also laid bare the gross inequality of mobility in cities. Somehow cars are the only ones who can move with abandon while everyone else is asked to sacrifice safety, convenience, time. Returning to this will be an epic policy failure of cities.
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A lovely reminder that with vision and intention, NYC can transform the built environment into something wonderful.
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It’s never too early to teach kids about the benefits of congestion pricing.
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My first job in nyc policy and advocacy was on a campaign to get council and Albany approval for congestion pricing. The year was 2007 and Mayor Bloomberg announced the big idea as part of PlaNYC2030. 17yrs later it’s finally in effect! Congrats to all who made today possible!.
Congestion Relief Zone tolling is now in effect. Learn more:
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talking to other parents at school drop off about why nyc needs congestion pricing
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Climate change is here. We are still arguing about parking….
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🚨mad max fluffy road (aka corgi in a backpack) has met his competition
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“I don’t want to say no one should drive those vehicles.” Why not? Isn’t this exactly what we should be saying as a city?
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“Anyone who pretends that eliminating tailpipe emissions means we can ignore all the other negative externalities that come with more auto-mobility is selling you snake oil.”
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*Why your commute is going to make climate change worse*. There, I fixed your headline.
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An EV monster truck is still a monster truck. These have no business on city streets.
What’s better than a second all-electric supertruck? Nothing. Introducing the #GMCHummerEV SUV. Reserve yours now.
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To all the folks who worked tirelessly to make congestion pricing happen in NYC >>> WE. DID. IT.
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A city designed by women would have:. ✅ more public toilets.✅ more public transit .✅ more places to sit.✅ more spaces for children to play.✅ less cars . In other words, a MUCH BETTER PLACE.
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West coast fires wreaking havoc on NYC metro region’s air quality. Our incrementalist response to the climate emergency is killing us all. #ClimateCrisis.
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public transit.
Am donating $100M towards a prize for best carbon capture technology.
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every school should have this.
This is outside PS 149 at 3pm. Yes #OpenStreets have cut down on noise & air pollution. Yes they have fostered friendships & strengthened community but the most important thing is they have made our streets MUCH SAFER. That’s priceless. Now more please across the city. #NYC25x25
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I’m proud to join @NYCMayorsOffice as Chief Strategy Officer on DM for Operations Meera Joshi’s team. From 5 borough containerization pilot to historic commitment of nearly $1B for safer streets, we are just getting started! #GSD #CarFreeNYC #EarthWeek2022
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Thank you, Mayor, for the opportunity to advance your vision for beautiful, vibrant, and inclusive public spaces throughout the city. It’s an honor to serve alongside so many talented and passionate public servants across city govnt who care deeply about this work. 1/2.
Our city’s public spaces are too important to fall through the cracks of bureaucracy, and now they won’t. As someone who knows how to think big and #GetStuffDone for New Yorkers, Ya-Ting Liu is the right person to serve as the city’s first-ever chief public realm officer.
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“Every three days on average, a car kills another pedestrian.” Replace “car” with any other object that kills a person every 3 days and ask yourself if we would tolerate it?
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Smart move to ask bus riders stuck in traffic if they support congestion pricing.
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Until drivers who speed, park on sidewalks, use fake placards, fail to yield to pedestrians, and park in bus lanes ALSO receive a NYPD crackdown that comes with $500 ticket + confiscation of their vehicles, targeting e-bike delivery workers is unjust policy that Mayor can stop.
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thank you M57 bus driver who saw us running down the block and waited for us to board🙏
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“Hidalgo has remained adamant that the lifting of lockdown restrictions and the return to workplaces must not signal a return to a streetscape dominated by cars.”
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The only quote you need to take away from this courtesy @galeabrewer:“Who the hell needs an apple in 15 minutes?”
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Your daily reminder that every single occupancy vehicle choking up city streets and slowing down buses is a policy failure.
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Nah, let’s ban both.
In Opinion. “Cars kill about as many people as guns, and we don’t ban them! No, but automobiles are actually a model for the public health approach I’m suggesting,” writes @NickKristof.
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Cars don’t shop and dine. People do. “restaurants and bars on the most successful Open Streets reported stronger sales than those on similar commercial streets with car traffic — and in some cases, did better than they did before the pandemic”
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Just noticed these barriers are up at Fulton Station to prevent people from sitting down. Unwelcoming public spaces are the worst.
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.@NYCTSubway this hero conductor on the uptown 1 train was dropping announcements via 🔥🔥🔥 rhymes. Had the entire car smiling!I didn’t catch his name but we were all cheering him on. cc:@TWULocal100
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MTA: Please give us 60 miles of busway. Mayor BDB in June: Nah, I’ll do 20 miles instead. Mayor BDB in Dec: Actually here’s 0.8 miles.
Mayor de Blasio’s plan to quickly install 20 miles of “busways” across the city to help move essential workers during the pandemic has gone up in smoke. The city DOT has built just 0.8 miles of new busways. The mayor vowed the street redesigns.
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This was always solvable policy issue that did not require police harassment and confiscation of e-bikes used by immigrant workers. It took a pandemic, but here we are.
BREAKING: @NYCMayor suspends e-bike crackdown during Coronavirus crisis, as he asks delivery workers to be on the front lines keeping everyone fed.
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First subway ride since March lockdown. I’m thinking about all the incredible people at @NYCTSubway @NYCTBus @MTA @TWULocal100 who kept this city moving through its darkest days. Thank you.
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The story is about a Manhattan woman in her 30s who recently traveled to Iran but look at all these asians in chinatown. Why media, why?
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"Reducing car dependency is fundamental to creating safer streets, and that begins with reducing city-subsidized free or reduced-price car storage, a.k.a., on-street parking."
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Each new detail from the weekend’s horrific crash reveals that we have zero tolerance for crime and violence except when it’s being perpetrated behind a steering wheel. If you refuse to normalize this, rally with @TransAlt 👇.
CITYWIDE CALL TO ACTION: . RECLAIM #deBlasiosStreets FROM CARS. TOMORROW: 5:30PM. UNION SQUARE NORTH. Join in community after weekend of carnage and preventable death of 3-month-old. No more statements. We demand IMMEDIATE ACTION NOW to restore the promise of #VisionZero.
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can’t think of a better ad campaign for congestion pricing.
About 50 to 100 cars so far stopping traffic on 5th Avenue. Many with flags, chanting and beeping in support of the president. Some are without masks. Organizers said more are on the way from Ronkonkoma, Long Island @NY1
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Vehicles don’t shop, people do. 👇.
Lancaster, California, spent $11.5m creating a pedestrian-friendly downtown. In just four years, it attracted $130m private investment, doubled its downtown tax revenue, created 48 new businesses and 800 new jobs, and road injuries decreased by two-thirds. Cities are for people.
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8 yr old at subway turnstile for first time since March: Will I get it on the first try?. 8yr old passes turnstile: Yup, still got it.
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We are doomed. “in April, U.S. sales of pickups surpassed automobiles for the first time ever—about 112 years, give or take. Trucks and truck-based sport-utilities now account for roughly 70% of new vehicles sold in the U.S.”
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Shout out to New Jersey, who doesn’t get the same hype as her neighbor, but has emerged as the country’s standard bearer for progressive policies:.-millionaires tax.-raising gas tax.-legalizing marijuana .-automatic voter registration.
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Dear Marcia Kramer, 58% more NYC pedestrians killed this year and none of them were the result of e-bikes. #bikenyc #VisionZero.
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“If you take a private vehicle into the zone south of 60th St., you pay. Period.” Someone put this on a T-shirt, tote bag, sticker and coffee mug and take all my money.
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NYC: We are a magical exceptional unicorn and we're doing everything we can. London: .
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Everything I know about making big ideas happen I learned from working on congestion pricing on and off since 2007. A big congrats to the countless number of people who have worked tirelessly to make this happen. Less traffic, more funding for public transit - let’s go!.
It's a historic day: Today, the MTA Board voted to approve the toll rates for the nation's first congestion pricing program. This program will reduce traffic in Manhattan's central business district, reduce pollution, and provide critical funding for transit improvements.
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Another transformational project by @NYC_DOT that will improve mobility and safety for all.
Already heavily used by delivery cyclists, the busy thoroughfare will be getting a new parking protected bike lane — significantly wider than the typical protected six-foot-wide bike lane in Manhattan. Read more about the redesign:
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for every "fleeing NYC story" there should be 5 more of these
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🤯 “Late last year, the government removed some 700 parking spaces from the city centre, replacing them with benches, bicycle docks and more pavement.”
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Can he also visit the congestion in Manhattan’s central business district below 60th street? 🙄.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is traveling to New York City to visit the Hudson rail tunnels Monday, DOT says.
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you can do it @NYCPlanning.
BREAKING: Tonight, the South Bend Common Council has passed an ordinance eliminating all minimum off-street parking requirements citywide, making it the largest city in the Midwest to do so.
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How can we ever get to #NYC25x25 if this is the way we build out bike lanes and networks? Community boards have no business determining the fate of critical life saving infrastructure.
A Bklyn CB2 committee just voted 6-2 to reject a 1-block protected bike lane on Navy St that 4,000 cyclists use every day. Shame on you for caring more about 14 parking spaces. @bdhowald & @jess_thurston spoke eloquently, but board members were irrational. @cmenchaca should know.
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“The kids have nowhere to go," Domeus said. "When they close the streets and they bring all these activities on the block, the kids can come out.”
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We need to get moving on congestion pricing, which was approved more than 2 yrs ago! 😑.
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@DanRather @jessiesingernyc Welcome to the resistance. Please do a guest appearance on @TheWarOnCars 🙏.
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“the pedestrian plazas created throughout the city have stood the test of time, proving immensely popular to residents, commuters and tourists alike”
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We’ve been taking transit all week for school. Subways + buses have never been cleaner and mask compliance has generally been great. Thank you @MTA @NYCTSubway @NYCTBus @TWULocal100 for keeping this city moving. #SaveTransit
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We need this from all the candidates for all the offices.
I rode BART today to Oakland, CA. I’m a big believer in public transport & its ability to reduce our carbon footprint. That’s why I’m making investing in public transportation a centerpiece of my strategy for cutting U.S. carbon pollution by 50% by 2030.
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Now do this for SUVs.
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Every inch of street space that prioritizes fossil fuel vehicles is failed climate policy. Happy Earth Day!
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normalize mayors taking public transit as mode of first resort.
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I don’t know how many other cities are doing this but @NYCMayor is opening up all 435 school food sites to both children and adults who are hungry. I’m in awe of the folks who make this logistically possible.
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Every time the Mayor mentions alternate side parking please consider making a donation to @TransAlt @RidersAlliance @nylcv @Tri_State @StreetsPAC @RegionalPlan — no $ amount too small when it comes to fighting for a bolder vision of NYC streets & mobility beyond cars.
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A big debt of gratitude to the advocates, city staff, and elected officials who worked tirelessly on this! As traffic deaths in the US continue to spike, we know what works: automated enforcement and street redesign. Tonight, NYC is leading on both.
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✅ you help reduce air pollution.✅ you help reduce noise pollution.✅ you help reduce traffic and congestion .✅ you help NYC’s recovery.
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Just heard subway announcements in Mandarin for the first time ever. Love to hear it! @MTA @NYCTSubway.
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Remember when airlines got $50B bailout package and spent $45B of it buying back their own stocks? . How is saving US public transit even up for debate?.
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Happy #EarthDay from NYC where 8-9 hour community board debate on *two* bike lanes is the way we take #ClimateAction.
I have spent eight hours of my life listening to people argue about putting paint on the ground on two crosstown streets to make already temporary bike lanes permanent 🤡🤡.
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you can do it @NYCPlanning.
Truly jaw dropping. The City of Berkeley votes 9-0 to eliminate parking minimums and enact parking maximums. The former NIMBY capital of the West Coast is officially YIMBY. Just stunning.
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Eureka! As cities face an onslaught of traffic crashes, congestion, air pollution, and extreme heat, apparently they need be designed MORE around cars, not less. Why didn’t anyone think of this? 🙃
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You love to see it. BIDs are critical partners in the City’s recovery and they are taking a lead to help transform streets for people because they know people spend money to dine and shop, cars don’t.
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My son’s drawing of the subway includes a countdown clock showing 16 minutes till the next train. 😭😭😭#wethecommuters #fixthesubway
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So much respect for @TWULocal100 members working around the clock to keep transit running through every imaginable obstacle thrown their way.
At night, our Maintainers in #Manhattan doing what it takes to hold the line against #CoronavirusPandemic @NYSAFLCIO @CentralLaborNYC @TTDAFLCIO @transportworker because #wemovenyc #Solidarity
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In just over a year, Jersey City Mayor Fulop and his team built 25% of the city’s goal for their entire protected bike lane network. 🤯 What has Jersey City figured out that NYC hasn’t?.
See an excerpt from our @JerseyCity film revisiting how quickly they are installing their bike network. And also the 1st protected bike intersections in NJ! @StreetPlans @bikejc @StevenFulop @Tri_State. See much more in the entire @Streetfilms CLICK here:
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🚨Attention NY transpo twitter: our very own @Veevanterpool has just been announced as Deputy Administrator @FTA_DOT! You truly do love to see it! (the @Tri_State Illuminati is doing all right…just sayin.)
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Maybe dedicated bus lanes can also come into view.
Self-driving transit buses are coming into view.
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Public space under the Manhattan side of the Brooklyn Bridge (aka the Arches) will soon become its own iconic destination!
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