9th Avenue Renaissance

Construction of Piazza de Meatpacking is Underway

Dept. of Transportation street design projects are moving incredibly fast these days. Only a few weeks ago the City announced that, in response to long-standing community requests, it would create a new public plaza, buffered bike lane, and major pedestrian improvements at that big, crazy intersection in the middle of the Meatpacking District.

By Aaron Naparstek

12:38 PM EDT on July 12, 2007

Dept. of Transportation street design projects are moving incredibly fast these days. Only a few weeks ago the City announced that, in response to long-standing community requests,
it would create a new public plaza, buffered bike lane, and major pedestrian improvements at that big, crazy intersection in
the middle of the Meatpacking District.

Work has already begun. Yesterday, (in the middle of a driving rain storm) Ben Kabak, author of the Second Avenue Sagas blog, snapped the photo above, and these too.

It’s not too pretty right now but when it’s all done it’s supposed to look something like this:

Aaron Naparstek

Aaron Naparstek is the founder and former editor-in-chief of Streetsblog. Based in Brooklyn, New York, Naparstek's 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. He was also one of the original cast members of the "War on Cars" podcast. You can find more of his work on his website.