NY DOT head Janette Sadik-Kahn spoke in Los Angeles earlier this week to a adoring crowd, with advice on how to make room for bikes and pedestrians.
Christopher Hawthorne marvels at the power Sadik-Kahn is allowed to wield in New York, and wonders what a strong leader might accomplish at the L.A. DOT.
He writes, "In her most striking comment at Occidental [College, her alma mater], Sadik-Khan said that because her department controls more than 12,000 miles of city sidewalk, she thinks of herself as "the leading real estate developer in New York."
That notion has profound political as well as architectural implications for cities like Los Angeles, where we have for too long thought of our boulevards solely as conduits for car traffic."
FULL STORY: Critic's Notebook: New York has the edge in learning to share the road
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