I’m a big fan of my fellow Chinese lady who sells $2 noodles at the corner of Elizabeth and Hester Streets, and I have a new appreciation for all the drama she has to endure as a street vendor in NYC. As the graphic designer for one of the Making Policy Public projects, I’m working closely with The Center for Urban Pedagogy and The Street Vendor Project to create a fold-out brochure distilling NYC’s complex vending laws into something accessible. At least 4000 copies will be distributed to street vendors as a useful resource and made available to others as an advocacy tool for policy reforms. Good times! Because many of NYC’s street vendors are immigrants, we’re making the rules as pictorial as possible and translating the rest into Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, and Spanish. It’s been fun illustrating everything and here are some more shots of the work-in-progress:

I went to the Street Vendor Project’s monthly meeting yesterday to get feedback on the brochure and check out the scene…

One guy has already been fined $1000 this month for minor infractions like parking his cart too far away from the curb. As a comparison, a parking ticket is $65. Also, city officials are proposing that vendors can never leave their cart (who needs bathroom breaks?) and that all vendors must display an unobstructed 36″ x 18″ sign that shows they’ve got the appropriate licenses. This would take up serious space on their size-restricted tables. Vendor and board member Larry McDonald said, “Forget about your goods. You’re going to be selling the sign!”

This is Girly. She’s 97 and lives in Chatsworth in Durban where she and her neighbors got their righteousness on and fought eviction through community mobilization. “The landlord shut our water off and we said no sir!” You go girl. She showed me her apartment - entrance room, bedroom, and kitchen - which she shares with her son and daughter-in-law. Her son’s leg was bit off by a shark when he went fishing ten years ago. The fishing rod now hangs on the wall in her entry room. That’s some hardcore wall art.

Portrait of Girly and her late husband when they got married

Her building complex in Chatsworth

Side of the building. The local kids wrote their names and nicknames, which include $Drean, Spider, Pie, DK(DarkieKid), and Joel

And then I saw this - Bush! I asked why that was written on the building. Did George W make it onto their wall of fame or shame? The residents all laughed and said it was just another nickname of one of the kids. No Bush supporters here! They all laughed hard.

Near the huge informal market hoopla at Warwick Junction in Durban, South Africa. More important than addresses or sometimes even store names… I hear 0828339060 sells hot vests!

Seeing a road called Street in Bucks County, Pennsylvania made me feel a little bad for this road. Ah to be a road namer! Give me the job! The names of the planets! Who wouldn’t feel a little more wordly on Neptune Avenue? The names of colors! It would be like driving through a box of crayons. The names of the months! You could say things like “I’m a half year away.” The names of vintage media! Vinyl Road would be hot property for a booming night scene.

Is Street Road so nondescript and unmemorable that the namers couldn’t fall back on a single tree species? Is it so sorry that giving it the historic figure treatment would have sullied Washington’s good name? Or was the street-naming team in such a rut or so anxious to get out of the meeting that this was all they could muster. Oh leaders of Bucks County, you’ve squandered a moment of opportunity and now your citizens will forever suffer, driving in cars on roads called streets in towns whose names I’ve already forgotten.

James Reeves and I have come up with a new project called The Important Project that addresses political issues through research, writing, and design. Right now we think elections, chalkboards, and people are important. This may change. Check it out, read about important things, and add your thoughts to fun surveys and polls!

Spitball fights with first-graders, drug-addled road trips, and the local crazies on the way nowhere: these are the unfortunate images that come to mind when I think of the bus. Although I’m a New Yorker who hasn’t driven a car in seven years, I still think it’s icky to ride the bus and so does most of America. Gas prices continue to rise, yet surveys show that most people would rather carpool, cut back on driving, and crawl naked across broken glass before considering a ride on the “loser limo.”

Why do so many Americans, including myself, view the bus as a last resort? Part of low ridership stems from limited routes and long transit times, but most of all, the bus makes people think of poverty, old people, and other unsexy things. If we hope to see a day when our towns are denser and cars aren’t a requirement, the bus system needs to sell us a better image.

With all the grumpy drivers out there, the conditions for a renaissance in bus ridership are favorable. The Federal Highway Administration found that nearly 70% of Americans want to expand public transportation and less than 40% want to build more roads. Subways are cool, but they cost lots of money. Buses are cheaper and if enough people are attracted to existing lines, the system can expand to become Curitiba wonderlands and then some. Urban planners, city officials, and transportation organizations simply need to put on their marketing caps. If the President of Buses asked me what to do, I’d say these four things:

1. MAKE ME THINK OF THE FUTURE
Remember the old advertising saw: you sell an idea, not a product. Buses are old technology, but a superficial makeover can make me feel like I’m riding something progressive, clean, and future-forward. Paint your buses a bold color. Create a classy logo. Design your signage, website, and ads so you look like a witty modern transportation system instead of a lame community access television program.

2. REMIND ME THAT I’M RIGHTEOUS
Bring on the spin. I don’t want to ride the bus because I’m poor. I want to ride the bus because I’m promoting cleaner air, less congestion, denser communities, and sustainable living. The Truth campaign made not smoking a righteous action against big tobacco companies (and 22% of the decline in youth smoking is credited to their work). Feast on the bus’ environmental benefits and make riding a socially-conscious affair. A clean air campaign emphasizes that bus users are not people who can’t have cars, but people who don’t want cars.

3. KEEP ME IN MY COMFORT ZONE
I don’t have to learn how to use the airport and I shouldn’t have to learn how to use the bus. A good system should be discernible within seconds and expose no difference between the habitual user and the first-time tourist. Create consistent and logical signage, coherent timetables, and accessible maps. Make it clear how I pay before I step onto the bus. Clarify the relationship between bus lines and other local forms of transportation so I can integrate it into my happy transportation world.

4. CELEBRATE THE ROMANCE
Milk the social benefits people score from public transportation. Craigslist.org features a popular “Missed Connections” section containing messages from people who felt a little spark during their commute and hope to find their commuter crush across the interweb. What does this mean? Public transportation is chock full of cute girls and cute boys! Cars are not! Facilitate these fantasies on your site and you’ll make drivers seem like the losers who stayed home on Saturday night.

Nice, France

Johannesburg, South Africa (paired with standalone signs)

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Helsinki, Finland

Different ways street signs are integrated into existing infrastructure - buildings, sidewalk curbs, telephone/electric poles…

until next tram lines arrive. Signs in Helsinki’s tram stops - and totally accurate!

CUP’s Making Policy Pubic collaborators page is up… look Ma, I’m on the interweb!