Reconnecting Grand Army Plaza

11:08 AM EDT on July 24, 2007

One of the most ambitious New York City Streets Renaissance projects currently underway is the Grand Army Plaza Coalition's initiative to re-conceive New York City's biggest, most chaotic traffic rotary into one of the city's finest public spaces.

A couple of weeks ago GAPco hosted a "Livable Streets" forum at the Brooklyn Public Library to present findings from a community workshop conducted in March. The big idea? Reconfigure traffic to allow the fountain and arch to connect directly to the front of Prospect Park, as depicted above. The Brooklyn Papers reported:

Grand Army Plaza could be transformed from an intimidating,speeder-friendly highway in the center of Brooklyn to a calmer trafficcircle under a revolutionary plan that continues to gain speed of itsown.
At a meeting last week at the Brooklyn Public Library’sCentral branch, a citizens group presented its most fully drawn plan toreconfigure the plaza and reconnect the landmark Soldiers’ and Sailors’arch with the entrance to Prospect Park, creating a safe, car-freewalkway (see map).
Currently, the circle is a mess of misleadingcrosswalks and dangerous traffic islands that separate park users fromthe recently restored Bailey Fountain and Arc de Triomphe-inspiredCivil War monument in the center of Grand Army Plaza.

Thanks, in part, to GAPco's work, captured in this StreetFilm, the Dept. of Transportation is
already forging ahead with short-term pedestrian and cyclist
improvements around the dangerous Flatbush Ave. and Eastern Pkwy.
intersection.

Below is an aerial shot of the Plaza as it is currently designed. Note the six lanes of one-way traffic running along each side of the interior circle and the intimidating crossing between the Prospect Park and the Arch.

Aaron Naparstek

AARON NAPARSTEK is the founder and former editor-in-chief of Streetsblog. Based in Brooklyn, New York, Naparsteks journalism, advocacy and community organizing work has been instrumental in growing the bicycle network, removing motor vehicles from parks, and developing new public plazas, car-free streets and life-saving traffic-calming measures across all five boroughs. Naparstek is the author of "Honku: The Zen Antidote for Road Rage" (Villard, 2003), a book of humorous haiku poetry inspired by the endless motorist sociopathy observed from his apartment window. Prior to launching Streetsblog, Naparstek worked as an interactive media producer, pioneering some of the Web's first music web sites, online communities, live webcasts and social networking services. Naparstek is currently in Cambridge with his wife and two young sons where he is enjoying a Loeb Fellowship at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design. He has a master's degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and a bachelor's degree from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Naparstek is a co-founder of the Park Slope Neighbors community group and the Grand Army Plaza Coalition. You can find more of his work here: http://www.naparstek.com.

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