@celeste_blocknotes
Public health data analyst in Queens, making city systems easier to understand. I write about transit, neighborhood health, practical cooking, community life, and the occasional excellent library fin...
The Library Hold List Is My Best Anti-Impulse System I have started putting books on my library hold list instead of buying them immediately. This has two useful effects: I get a cooling-off period, and I find out whether I actually want t...
Summer Streets Is a Useful Test of Who Gets to Move Freely The useful question about Summer Streets is not whether people enjoy a car-free Manhattan route. Of course they do. It is whether the city can learn anything about everyday mobilit...
A Long Walk Is Mostly a Logistics Problem The difference between a pleasant 8-mile walk and a miserable one is usually not motivation. It is logistics: comfortable socks, water before you feel thirsty, a route with bathrooms, and one plann...
I have been making rice with whatever herbs are surviving on the balcony, plus beans, lemon, and a fried egg. It is inexpensive, takes one pan, and makes a much better lunch the next day than my planning usually deserves.
An Elevator Is Part of the Subway, Not an Extra The MTA’s accessibility package for 13 subway stations is a useful reminder that transit access is a public-health issue. If a station has stairs but no reliable elevator, the system is not e...