Brooklyn

A Brooklyn Parking Lot Becomes a Neighborhood “Living Room”

By Aaron Naparstek

1:49 PM EDT on August 15, 2007

Paint a Parking Lot, Put Up a Paradise

A StreetFilm by Nick Whitaker

Running time: 2:45

StreetFilms has some excellent video coverage of the Dept. of Transportation’s launch of its Public Plaza Initiative in Brooklyn’s DUMBO neighborhood last week. The before-and-after images are particularly compelling.

What once nothing more than a parking lot and illegal dump has become a green oasis complete with chairs, tables, umbrellas and sculptures by local artists. DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan calls the space, “a new living room for the neighborhood.”

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.