Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Paul Benson, Designer at Parsons School of Design, on Intro 1138 (Daylighting)
2:49:15
·
124 sec
Paul Benson, an Emmy award-winning designer and teacher at Parsons School of Design, testified in favor of Intro 1138 on daylighting. He shared his experience with the positive impact of daylighting in Williamsburg and emphasized the need for innovation in street safety.
- Highlighted the success of daylighting in reducing injuries on Berry Open Street in Williamsburg
- Discussed the concept of "Jugard innovation" and the need for quick, cost-effective solutions to urban problems
- Emphasized that daylighting works and saves lives, especially important as vehicle collisions are the leading cause of death for children under 14 in NYC
- Argued for universal daylighting to ensure equitable implementation across all neighborhoods, regardless of wealth
Paul Benson
2:49:15
Hello.
2:49:16
My name is Paul Benson.
2:49:19
I live in Brooklyn, New York.
2:49:20
I'm here to speak in favor of 11:38 on daylighting.
2:49:25
I am an Emmy award winning designer.
2:49:28
I teach at Parsons School of Design this semester on innovation.
2:49:33
I'm most proud of my volunteer work in North Brooklyn helping to make streets safer for all, especially those most vulnerable to unsafe streets.
2:49:44
When Berry Open Street in Williamsburg was redesigned, daylighting dramatically reduced injuries for all, drivers, pedestrians, cyclists alike.
2:49:54
I won't talk about the huge effort required over years by hundreds of unpaid volunteers to daylight just 20 intersections and mostly convincing the Department of Transportation that our community wanted the redesign, I want to talk about innovation in general.
2:50:13
In Innovation at Parsons, we talk about how The US used to lead the world in our ability to innovate quickly for little money with scrappy resources we had.
2:50:23
We went to the moon, Model T Ford, I'm talking the light bulb, all the good things.
2:50:29
In India they called it Jugard innovation.
2:50:32
My students tell me in Brazil they have the same thing.
2:50:35
My grandpa calls it tinkering in his garage.
2:50:38
But now, you can see and hear from the Department of Transportation earlier, we're bogged down by processes, formalities and institutional stagnation.
2:50:48
We have a problem, clearly.
2:50:50
The leading cause of death for children in New York City Under Fourteen is being hit by a vehicle.
2:50:55
We have a solution, daylighting.
2:50:57
It works, it saves lives.
2:50:58
What's standing in our way?
2:50:59
You can see it.
2:51:02
The truth now is that richer neighborhoods have more of these.
2:51:06
Poorer neighborhoods have fewer.
2:51:10
Universal daylighting would help us bring more of these to more neighborhoods easier and not fight block by block to make it happen.
2:51:18
Thank you.