The year 2007 may prove to be one of the most important years in the storied history of New York City's development. In a future timeline of urban advances, it might be printed in as big a font and as bold a type as 1811--when the grid system was adopted--or 1904--when the I.R.T. subway opened. The text adjacent to 2007 could say something like "the start of livable streets," or "the bike boom begins," or "congestion pricing kicks off." It may turn out that all of those descriptions may suit 2007. The real question is, in hindsight, will they?

Call Brooklyn the "crater" metro area.

Brooklyn has the most unresolved complaints for potholes and sinkholes in the five boroughs, according to the city Department of Environmental Protection.

There are 394 "open street situations" that have yet to be resolved in Brooklyn, said DEP spokesman Ian Michaels.

That's more than double the number in Manhattan, which has 177 unresolved complaints. The Bronx has 168, Queens has 97 and Staten Island has just 13.

A host of conditions led to the borough's bumper crop of road craters.

Brendt Barbur was riding along on his blue Bianchi Supersport one day four years ago when a car door opened suddenly and knocked him into the path of an oncoming bus.

The Manhattan resident, 33, suffered a sprained neck, a dislocated shoulder, a broken jaw and a torn meniscus in his knee. But the strangest thing, he recalled, was the reaction of the people around him.

Testimony of Noah Budnick, Projects Director, Transportation Alternatives

Hello, my name is Noah Budnick. I am Projects Director for Transportation Alternatives, the advocates for bicyclists, pedestrians and sensible transportation. Today, I will focus on Intro 192, which would change the law regarding reporting street and sidewalk defects.

A colorful flying circus of bicyclists will take to NYC streets to celebrate Earth Day and call for safer streets, cleaner air, and less reliance on the automobile.

Cyclists will ride en masse counter clockwise around Central Park's lower loop and then exit the park at E. 72nd Street. The goal of the cyclists is to draw attention to the environmental benefits of cycling and the destructiveness of the automobile.

Saturday, December 12, 1998, 9:30 AM

Cyclist will meet at City Hall park at 9:30 am and travel up Centre Street to Union Square

On Saturday morning cyclists armed with clipboards and a vision of safer, smoother streets will document all of the dips, cracks and wheel-grabbing grates they encounter on Center street. During the event, called Operation Hazard ID, cyclists will complete forms describing the size and location and category of each defect on this popular cycling route. The group will travel north on Centre Street from City Hall to 14th Street.

Saturday, March 13, 1999, 9:30 AM

Cyclists will meet at the southwest corner of 14th Street and Fourth Avenue

Cyclists will meet on the Manhattan side of the Manhattan Bridge,
Sunday August 11 at 9 am

On Sunday morning, cyclists seeking to rid lower Manhattan of street hazards will gather with their bikes, clipboards and cans of spray paint to scour a section of Chinatown, Little Italy and Two Bridges that are bicycle thoroughfares to the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges. Along the way, they'll map sunken manhole covers, broken sewer gratings, uneven pavement and jagged construction plates, and they'll send their findings to the Department of Transportation.