This week, America’s most overrated filmmaker, Steven Soderbergh, gets booted out of the arena by the country’s most underrated great filmmaker, Walter Hill.

The simultaneous release of Hill’s Bullet to the Head and Soderbergh’s Side Effects perfectly contrasts the art of genre filmmaking with the pretense of art filmmaking as genre. After a decade off, Hill returns to cinema with a Sylvester Stallone action movie that streamlines moral complexity and aesthetic mastery while Soderbergh pretends another exploration of topical issues while dully manipulating thriller clichés.

Side Effects’ story of medical malfeasance involves a pill-giving psychiatrist (Jude Law) and his waif-victim patient (Rooney Mara)—the girl with an insider-trading monkey on her back. Really, it’s much less interesting than a law-breaking hitman forced to regulate his conscience in relentless tests of his manhood. The former is schlock, the latter is art—if you appreciate the depth and creativity of kinetic, poetic narrative. That legacy has always inspired Hill’s artistry.

Soderbergh’s Traffic, Erin Brokovich and Magic Mike reigned over an era of cynical banality, while Hill’s sharp, inventive technique seen in The Warriors, Geronimo and Undisputed went unappreciated (and underground in TV projects like Deadwood and Broken Trail). Bullet to the Head is an exhilarating revival of efficient, expressive storytelling while Side Effects combines Psycho trick-casting and deceptive plot devices to disguise indifference to its characters’ moral crises.

Soderbergh is callous about “the culture,” offering an insincere money and class critique as shallow as his underlit videography. Hill’s critique is inherent in the efficacy and splendor of his action and montage. Fanboys raised on CGI won’t notice the difference, but true movie lovers will thrill to it (and to dialogue like “You had me at ‘Fuck you’”—beat that, Tarantino).

Soderbergh replaces the topical, medical subject of Nick Ray’s Bigger Than Life with nihilistic cynicism while Hill explores post-9/11 ideas of conflicted morality: Stallone gives a new iconic performance as a man at odds with the law, and Hill distills his story in the most exuberant American kinetics of the past few years.

If Side Effects is Soderbergh’s last film (as promised), give him an urgent farewell. Bullet to the Head’s excitement inspires a “welcome back” for Hill.

Bette Dewing

“Together we can change the face of our culture” was the subtitle chosen by editor Allen Houston for my previous column. Allen, who left this company shortly after that, chose a lot of good headlines in his two-plus years editing the paper, and we thank him and wish him great success in his new workplace.

But I regretted my main headline choice—“Unnatural Disasters the Worst,” about the school massacre that made America weep—because such unnatural disasters are more preventable than the “natural” kind like superstorm Sandy. The cultural climate needs changing in either case, by continuing the work to overcome the causes and help the afflicted, especially those alone in their loss. It’s the business of the media too, to keep government’s feet to the fire; in a recent edition of the Daily News, for example, concern with Sandy’s countless victims was found only in the letters to the editor.

Ah, I shouldn’t say “only.” Letters to the editor often have insights that get to the heart of the matter better than other reports. And thankfully, a resident of Peter Cooper Village shared a letter to the editor by local psychologist Richard Orbe-Austin about the emotional toll felt by residents there. Even though losses were minor compared to the massive kind felt elsewhere, they were substantial enough to cause emotional problems for 20 to 30 percent of the residents. They are the ones who often “suffer in silence, since others have moved on with their lives.” Elders often lack work communities. The psychologist urged residents to look out for vulnerable neighbors. And while the 1-800-HELPLINE resource was included, I thought of Democrat Hubert H. Humphrey’s belief that “the impersonal hand of government can never replace the caring hand of a neighbor.”
Don’t misunderstand; I think Humphrey would be appalled at the unconscionable delay in getting federal relief to superstorm Sandy victims. But he would also be concerned that “social service hands” increasingly take the place of caring hands of neighbors, civic and faith group and even family members. There just isn’t time to give “caring hands.”

Several recent Times pieces aired research on how elders with disabilities, especially, are the most vulnerable in times of disaster, including fire-caused deaths and injuries. But, while never forgetting the massive needs of superstorm Sandy victims, attention must be paid to traffic calamities, too. Charles Komanoff’s Streetsblog reported recently that five pedestrians were killed locally in four days of the holiday season, mostly as a result of the deadly “turning into a crosswalk” circumstance. How disastrous that government, whose first duty it is to protect the public, still ignores Komanoff’s 1998 manual “Killed By Automobile,” which has all the stats to support this hazardous “turning violation” claim, along with ways to prevent them. So here’s praying a copy recently given to the East 79th Street Neighborhood Association will prompt this highly effective 25-year-old civic group to make it their number one mission.

While Betty White’s TV program Off Their Rockers features elders playing outrageous pranks on youthful strangers encountered in an urban street setting, real-life collisions between elderly pedestrians and vehicles are no laughing matter. So we should heed Jim Battaglia’s call for “a video camera to be mounted above and on the rear wheels of a bus or truck to supplement the regular rear-view mirror which might not give an adequate view of pedestrians.”

Change can be accomplished if enough of us try—meeting the massive needs of Hurricane Sandy’s victims and overcoming traffic behaviors that routinely claim the lives and health of innocent victims with little or no media coverage. And we sure could use a leader like Martin Luther King Jr., whose birthday we celebrate Jan. 21.

dewingbetter@aol.com

Upper West Siders are particularly susceptible to injury from speeding vehicles, Sladkus believes. With large numbers of children and elderly residents living around cars and trucks that, as she says, use neighborhood avenues as their own personal highways, residents frequently find themselves in danger of being hit.

“Under 30 miles per hour, you have a much better chance of surviving a collision,” she explained, citing statistics from a UK Department of Transportation study that found pedestrians’ chance of survival in getting hit by vehicles moving at 20, 30 or 40 mph to be 98, 80 and 30 percent, respectively. Slow cars by 10 mph, Sladkus contended, and the city would save numerous lives.

Based on recent accident reports, there are still plenty of lives in New York to be saved. The State Department of Motor Vehicles noted that 143 pedestrians were killed in NYC crashes last year. While this number reflects recognized progress in the city’s pedestrian safety in the past decade (traffic fatalities dropped 35 percent from 2001 to 2009, according to the city’s Department of Transportation), it also underscores work that remains to be done: In 2009, DOT reported Manhattan has four times as many pedestrians killed or severely injured per square mile than New York’s other boroughs. Pedestrians accounted for over half of the city’s total traffic fatalities.

To combat speeding, the DOT recently approved 13 “neighborhood slow zones” that reduce speeds in small residential areas to 20 mph. The department launched a pilot slow zone in the Claremont section of the Bronx last November, and following its success, designated 13 new zones around the city in June after receiving over 100 applications for designation from communities. In addition to lowered speed limit signs, the program installs on-street markers and speed bumps in the zones to ensure drivers get the message.

Originally, Sladkus says, the UWSSR thought about submitting an area or two on the Upper West Side for designation in the slow-zone initiative. As she scoped out different neighborhoods, however, she realized that wasn’t enough. “I felt really ethically wrong to say, ‘I want this one five-by-five-block area rezoned, but leave everything else alone,’ ” so she sent a proposal to DOT for a slow zone that encompasses the entire Upper West Side.

DOT has already rejected the request. According to Sladkus, the department said they were interested in opening a few slow zones around local schools, but could not pursue a neighborhood-wide reduction. (West Side Spirit contacted DOT for comments on the rejection, but they did not provide any statements as of press time on Tuesday.)

Sladkus is undaunted. “It’s a traffic engineering challenge,” she said of the proposal, recognizing that it will not win DOT’s approval unless she can demonstrate significant support from the community. Currently she is sending fliers to local schools and senior centers to gauge interest in speed reduction, and seeking endorsements from politicians, community groups and local leaders.

One supporter, Coalition for a Livable West Side President Batya Lewton, has hired a traffic consultant to review the criteria the DOE used to reject UWSSR’s proposal. “We need to analyze the rationale that DOT has used to exclude the Upper West Side,” she said. “There is no excuse for not reducing speed limits here. Is truck traffic more important than people’s lives?”

Sladkus mentioned that she doesn’t think reduced speed limits are the be-all, end-all solution to ensuring pedestrian safety, nor that the limits could be enforced by the NYPD’s current lax approach. She asserted, though, that better use of technology like speed cameras and red light cameras could reduce violations without further burdening cops.

As for a final solution, she admitted, “I envision a city that’s very, very different and not car-centric at all.” But she sees progress as incremental. “Let’s deal with the safety crisis that we have right now,” she said.

Photo courtesy of Wiki Commons.

Midtown in Motion, a traffic system unveiled by Mayor Bloomberg and Department of Transportation (DOT) officials in July of last year, will be expanded due to its initial success in congestion reduction.

The first phase of Midtown in Motion saw a 10 percent increase in travel speeds, the DOT announced in a press release yesterday. The results won the NYC DOT a transportation technology award from ITS America, for creating a model for other cities as well as minimizing pollution.

The system’s success comes from its ability to relay traffic conditions to city traffic engineers in real time. The initial phase included various microwave sensors, video cameras and EZ pass readers. Real-time traffic information allows controllers to immediately identify issues and adjust patterns, avoiding bottlenecks and promoting the ability of drivers traveling at a constant speed on avenues to hit all green lights.

“The service area will more than double in size to include Midtown from 1st to 9th avenues and from 42nd to 57th streets,” the press release explained. “This state-of-the-art equipment is also more weather-resistant and tamperproof, and requires less maintenance than previous generations, which could only be adjusted based on time of day, leaving no ability to respond to crashes, construction, or special events.”

The expansions will cost $2.9 million, with funding provided by the City and New York State.

“When Midtown moves, New York City moves,” said DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan of the project’s success. “While every New Yorker talks about beating the traffic…we’ve taken decisive steps towards managing it more effectively.”

—Alissa Fleck

Proposed changes to West 70th Street and West End Avenue.

Last week, the city’s Department of Transportation unveiled the long-awaited results of a comprehensive traffic study of the Upper West Side. Manhattan Borough Commissioner Margaret Forgione presented the DOT’s data and plans to the community at a forum hosted by City Council Member Gale Brewer and Community Board 7, who initially pushed for the study.

The DOT first began collecting data on the Upper West Side in 2006. The study aimed to primarily address pedestrian safety, double parking, congestion, enforcement and truck traffic. Within the study area (from West 55th to 86th streets, between Central Park West and the Henry Hudson Parkway), the DOT conducted pedestrian counts at 26 locations and manual turning movement counts at 42 locations, looked at automatic traffic recording information for 18 spots, clocked travel speeds along 12 corridors, analyzed accident data for a four-year period and conducted a parking survey. The end result is a slew of recommendations, some simple and some more complex, to improve both traffic flow and safety on the Upper West Side.

Many of the DOT’s recommendations focus on ways to slow traffic at intersections and allow pedestrians more time to cross the street at some notoriously dangerous spots in the neighborhood. At the intersection by P.S. 199, where the DOT earlier had installed two speed humps at the adamant request of parents concerned about their children crossing the street to get to school, the new proposal suggests doing even more to calm traffic at West 70th Street and West End Avenue. The plan would create three neckdowns on corners of the intersection, as well as putting striped channeling to visually narrow the road and slow vehicles before they approach.

“What we’d want to do is pick the items that have been the most concern to the community board, and also the items that are fairly easy to implement, and prioritize those at the transportation committee, so that we can try to have some quick successes,” Forgione said after the meeting.

The DOT will be collecting feedback on their report, and residents can write to DOT as well as to Community Board 7 to share their thoughts and weigh in on what the first priorities should be as far as making changes based on the study. Some things, like those that require only a day’s work and some paint, can be done right away.

Other proposals, like ones that involve changing traffic lanes, moving bus stops, installing curb extensions and creating pedestrian medians, will take more time and are not necessarily going to happen automatically. Some residents at the meeting expressed dismay over the suggestions that eliminate or limit parking spaces, for example, and others weren’t convinced that changing traffic patterns would have the desired effects.

“The more complex the solution, sometimes you need to be a little more deliberative about making a move, but there are some things in this study that I think you heard tonight that everybody agrees are both a priority and readily doable,” said Mark Diller, chair of Community Board 7. He said that he hopes to usher through some of the easiest and least controversial measures swiftly, but knows that other measures will require more time and feedback.

Council Member Brewer said that she’s happy that the community can move forward with an abundance of data to back up their concerns.

“To the credit of DOT, they now have some facts—who’s crossing, where the traffic issues are—and that was the first step,” Brewer said. “This has been a really collaborative process; this is like the sixth or seventh meeting I’ve been to on this process, so this is not done in isolation.”

The full presentation is available online at www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/about/westside.shtml.

Bikers ride through Central Park.

A new shift is about to once again change the battling dynamic between vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians traveling through Central Park. In the coming weeks, the Central Park Conservancy and the Department of Transportation will be jointly presenting a plan to community boards 7 (Upper West Side) and 8 (Upper East Side) outlining their plans to permanently change the 72nd Street transverse, also known at Terrace Drive. The plan will reduce the number of cars on the road while allowing for an increased number of bicycles.

While the idea of more bikes on the park’s roadways might raise the ire of some local residents, the plan was actually conceived as a way to encourage cyclists off the pedestrian and shared paths and back onto the road.

“The purpose of this plan—developed in conjunction with DOT and Parks Department—is to encourage bicyclists to use the drives instead of interior pedestrian paths,” said Dena Libner, spokesperson for the Central Park Conservancy. “More bike access on the drives, we believe, should help in accomplishing this.”

Currently, the drive accommodates two lanes of vehicle traffic and one bike lane, with a fence between the bike lane and the pedestrian path on the south side. Each vehicle lane is 11 feet wide, with a three-foot buffer between the cars and the eight-foot-wide bike path.

The new plan will create wider buffer zones, with the intent to allow more bicycles and keep pedestrians safer, and allow bikers to travel both east and west on 72nd Street. Two lanes of traffic will become one single 11-foot-wide lane, with a four-foot shoulder on the north side and a four-foot buffer on the other, separating the cars from the double bike lanes. Each bike lane, divided by a dotted line, will be slightly narrower than the previous one, at seven feet wide each.

The DOT has already conducted a traffic study to determine the Loss of Service (LOS) rate that will result in narrowing the road for drivers.

Right now, an average of about 500 cars travel on Terrace Drive during the morning peak hours of 8–9:30 a.m., with an average delay of 9.8 seconds. Using this as a benchmark, the DOT estimates that the LOS level will be a “B” on an A-F scale, with A being the current condition and F being the worst possible, meaning the changes will produce “reasonably unimpeded traffic with average travel speeds about 20 percent less” than current, with an average delay of 13 seconds for the same number of cars.

In other words, if the projections hold, cross-park car trips may only be held up by an additional 3.2 seconds, on average, as a result of this change.

The Parks Department and the Conservancy have implemented several changes recently to address the increasing numbers of cyclists crossing the park on a daily basis as well as the safety concerns of pedestrians who don’t want to share paths with bicycles zooming past. Earlier this year, the park debuted a newly shared path for bicyclists and pedestrians to cross the park at 96th Street, in answer to bicyclists demanding safer cross-park routes. It faced some severe opposition from both East and West Side community board members, but so far has not caused major controversy in action.

While the CPC will be presenting the plan to the community boards and listening to feedback, the new configuration is already slated to switch over in the coming months and is designed to stay.

“This change will be permanent,” Libner confirmed. “We expect more cyclists to use the drive for cross-park commutes and travel, and pedestrians to be able to navigate interior paths with greater ease.”

As part of their effort to improve pedestrian safety, the DOT has responded to the urgings of Soho residents, community advocates, and government officials and will add “Don’t Block the Box” markings and signage for Broome Street to its 2012 contracts.

The “Don’t Block the Box” campaign, which will encompass Broome Street along the intersections of Mercer, Greene, Wooster, and West Broadway, is a combination of signs and conspicuous “zebra-stripe” pavement designs inside pedestrian crosswalk “boxes.” The area has long be cited as a dangerous thoroughfare during peak traffic hours, due to its access to the Holland Tunnel, and cars are lined up along the street often blocking pedestrian crossings.

(Photo courtesy of Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer’s office.)

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer was among the politicians who, along with the SoHo Alliance and other community advocates, were intricate in drawing the attention and action of the DOT. At a Jan. 23 rally, President Stringer proposed a three-point plan aimed at simultaneously raising public awareness, and encouraging action from DOT. “When traffic congestion occurs and cars ‘block the box,’ they basically slow down an entire community,” Stringer said.

Additionally, the DOT has confirmed that street crews will begin fixing the broken crosswalks at the intersections of Broome and Green Streets, as well as Broome and Mercer Streets this spring.

While the “Don’t Block the Box” contracts won’t commence immediately (it usually takes about a year to fulfill a contract after it has been added), and the DOT cautioned that not every broken cross-walk may be repaired during this cycle, SoHo Alliance members see these steps as welcome early signs of progress after “nearly two decades of neglect.”

“This neighborhood, which is so vibrant and so exciting, is also being victimized by a traffic situation that is now out of control,” Stringer said. And it seems that the DOT was listening. Although Stringer’s final suggestion (traffic cameras) is still pending approval in Albany, residents of Soho now have reason to feel cautiously optimistic. The coming improvements should afford a clearer path for pedestrians as they venture across Broome Street.

The West 71st Street-Amsterdam Avenue-Broadway intersection can be an obstacle.

It is congested with motor vehicles, bicycles and pedestrians. Cars turn into crowded crosswalks, yellow lights are zipped through and bicycles peddle through a stoplight to get a jump on the idling traffic.

A woman crosses with her baby at West 71st Street and Broadway.

So far, by the count of elected officials in the area, there have been eight accidents at the intersection since the beginning of 2010. There were 25 accidents there in 2009.

Borough President Scott Stringer and Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal held a press conference Aug. 2 at an island in the middle of the “bow-tie” intersection to highlight what they feel has been the Department of Transportation’s slow implementation of safety measures it has been developing for the past year.

“It is a mystery to me that the Department of Transportation has not yet implemented changes,” Rosenthal said. “Seniors are afraid to cross the street.”

Bebe Robinson, whose apartment building faces the intersection, started collecting petitions for the safety improvements.

“It’s very nervous-making,” Robinson said about crossing the street. “You cannot get across safely.”

Stringer and Rosenthal joined residents and elderly pedestrians in calling for the department to increase crossing time, add count-down crossing signals, better signage and more traffic enforcement.

After a 2007 report from Transportation Alternatives that called the intersection the most dangerous on the Upper West Side, Rosenthal said she has been urging the department to address the problems.

“They’ve been studying this for three years,” Rosenthal said.

Stringer criticized the Department of Transportation for being able to quickly install a Time Square pedestrian plaza.

“If we were calling for them to create a plaza on 72nd Street it’d be created in a month,” said Stringer, who just moved to West 71st Street. “Thirty days from now, this district could be a lot less dangerous if they bring to bear the same energy… they have for creating plazas, bike lanes and other things.”

Last August, a taxicab took out a fence on Verdi Square at West 72nd Street and Broadway; Rosenthal went on a site visit with Department of Transportation officials last April. Inspections were expected to be made in 2011.

But Seth Solomonow, the Department of Transportation spokesperson, said safety changes are in the process of being made. A Safe Streets for Seniors plan was presented at a Community Board 7 meeting April 13.

“These changes will augment the steps we’ve already taken, including retiming the signals to allow more time for pedestrians to cross the street and installing a curb extension on the northwest corner of 71st and Broadway,” Solomonow wrote in an email.

As for the damaged fence on Verdi Square, a metal barrier plugs the gap. After the Parks Department took jurisdiction over the repair, they have tried to get the taxi company, Claron, to foot the bill.

But Rosenthal wants the gate fixed as soon as possible.

“Figure out the liability later,” Rosenthal said. “Don’t let that area go unprotected for a year.”

A Parks Department spokesperson did not return a request for comment by press time.

Parents of children who attend schools around West 96th Street say they have tried to make these blocks safer. They have gone to community board meetings and reached out to elected officials with their complaints and recommendations. But nothing has improved. So now the unsatisfied parents and school administrators have joined with a local pedestrian advocacy group to detail the traffic problems. Eight schools are now working with the group Upper West Side Street Renaissance on the “Corridor 96 Project.”

The busy intersection of West 96th Street and Amsterdam Avenue. Photo by Andrew Schwartz

Tila Duhaime, one of the project’s organizers, said 14 volunteers stood on the corners tallying infractions from car drivers. There was plenty of red-light running and failing to yield to pedestrians while making a turn, she said.

“There is that behavior in a lot of places in the Upper West Side, but we haven’t recognized how dramatically bad it is,” Duhaime said. “There was more aggressive driving and instances of aggressive driving on this corridor.”

Like other pedestrian safety initiatives, this one aims to protect those most vulnerable to aggressive driving: seniors and school children.

Julie Margolies, a parent of three with two children at the Studio School on West 95th Street, said pedestrian safety in the area has been a consistent problem.

“I think individuals have tried over the years—individual schools, individual parents—to be heard on this issue,” Margolies said. “It’s great that schools are getting involved because they have teams of parents behind them. Not everyone knows the Byzantine system of local city government.”

The recommendations will eventually be presented to the Department of Transportation after administrators from partner schools and community board members add their ideas as well. Many of the pedestrian safety measures recommended will be relatively simple and low-cost, Duhaime said. Some of the changes the group is seeking include signals that let pedestrians cross the street before cars can turn into the lane, and removing parking spots close to intersections so pedestrians can see around corners.

Crossing guards help, said Amy Winarsky, a parent of a child at P.S. 75, on West End Avenue and West 96th Street. But children who stay after school or who go to weekend events are at risk.

“It’s the children that are responsible for crossing safely when in fact it should be the adults responsible for driving safely,” Winarsky said. “Unless [the city builds] in systems that govern the cars, they’re at risk.”

As a veteran public transit activist and critic who is especially focused on buses, I have qualms about the “select bus” plan for First and Second avenues, as seen in various diagrams displayed by the MTA in the temple’s auditorium. Might all special project funds go instead to help reduce drastic cuts in existing subway and bus service? The hoped-for select bus’s “speedier ride” worries this crusader for safety first. So do designated street lanes for bus riders and cyclists. Will lanes be observed? Will cyclists stop for the light? Stores lament being cut off from curb access. And what about First and Second avenues’ washboard surface conditions, especially for speedier buses, which also have street level doors?

The MTA representatives there didn’t know if the new model of articulated bus will have a quieter climate control system and kneeling step alarm than current models. They didn’t know such toxic conditions have plagued riders and drivers for 11 years, or that some horns are way too loud, and some lighting excessive. Nor did they know whether the new model’s heating and cooling systems would finally be controlled. Like Jean Arthur wryly mused in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, “It’s kind of a curse to be so wised up!”

The providential aspect to this event was finding an invaluable intergenerational action-oriented Passover message on the temple’s information table. Part of a flyer describing a service for “tots,” siblings, grandparents, mothers and fathers also included a mini-sermon with universal application in the prevention of human suffering—yes, in seemingly small matters like the unhealthy, uncomfortable and unsafe bus ride.

“How does God make things happen? With little hands, and big hands. With young hands and old hands. With your hands,” the flyer said.

We must remember this!

Let’s include middle-sized/middle-aged hands. Too often, believers feel praying for someone or something is sufficient. Using our hands to make things happen means using our voices and our pens. The noisy bus might have been quieted had initial protests continued. Does select bus service concern you? The West Side may be next. Make your voice heard on a public level, as in letters to the editor and to me. Sure, it also helps to contact elected officials, civic groups, the MTA and the New York City Department of Transportation’s outreach coordinator for bus rapid transit, Kate Mikuliak, at 212-839-6429 or kmikuliak@dot.nyc.gov.

Also check www.nyc.gov/brt.

But again, most policymakers, including journalists, transit advocacy groups and bloggers, know little about the bus experience because they only take the subway.

Attention must be paid! And yes, to safe traveling conditions for pedestrians who observe traffic laws and bring only themselves into this high-density city. Just a few examples of what all-age hands can do to help bring about a life, health and planet-saving world. Justice would be better served, too. The possibilities are endless when all-age prayers are followed by action whenever possible, not only at Passover and Easter time. 

dewingbetter@aol.com