City Budget Needs $20M For School Streets: Advocates

It’s basic math.

Mayor Mamdani campaigned on a pledge to implement “universal” car-free “school streets” outside every school in the city — and now advocates are calling out his proposed budget for failing to do so.

Mamdani and City Council Speaker Julie Menin should set aside $20 million for the School Streets program — the exact amount Mamdani promised as a candidate for mayor last year, advocates wrote in a letter to the two officials last week.

“Only 71 schools participate in the program, despite New York City being the largest public school system in the United States with thousands of public, charter, and private schools,” the letter said. “Mayor Mamdani’s commitment to provide $20 million of funding dedicated to School Streets is thrilling. Now, it’s time to act on this commitment.”

Streets around schools are significantly more dangerous than streets without schools in front of them. During morning drop-off on school days, there are 57 percent more crashes and 25 percent more injuries per mile on streets with schools compared to streets without schools, and drivers injure almost a dozen people per day on streets around schools on days when schools are open.

Schools have enrolled in the open streets program for years, but the vast majority of the city’s 1,000-plus school simply don’t enroll. The program topped out at 101 schools in 2021. Parents and administrators blamed the stunted growth on the bureaucratic hassle of signing up for the program, which left otherwise eager parents waiting for months on end.

As a candidate, Mamdani praised the School Streets program and promised to beef it up. As the letter from the advocates point out, candidate Mamdani vowed to deliver $20 million per year to the program. His campaign materials said he would automatically enroll every public school in the School Streets program, as opposed to waiting for each school to fill out an application.

To his credit, Mamdani used Sammy’s Law to lower speed limits on streets in front of 800 additional schools to 15 mph, bringing the total number of 15 mph streets to 1,500. He promised to activate the same policy in all of the city’s 2,300 school zones by 2029, but he has yet to use the law to institute a citywide 20 mph speed limit.

Realizing the dream of universal school streets requires more than just funding, however.

Last year, the urbanist nonprofit Open Plans — the parent organization of Streetsblog — noted that universal school streets would require both a titanic reduction in paperwork and Mamdani’s personal willingness to confront the longstanding issue of designated parking for teachers. This is a thorny problem because every single teacher in the Department of Education can obtain a parking placard. But picking this political fight is also a slam dunk for creating open space and connecting more students to parks.

“School Streets are open space,” said New Yorkers for Parks Director of Advocacy and Policy Kathy Park Price. “They give kids room to play, socialize, linger, and decompress instead of crowding onto sidewalks. And because so many schools sit next to or near parks and playgrounds, expanding School Streets across the city is one of the clearest ways we can connect and expand our public space network.”

The letter is the latest heat that Mamdani is taking from open streets advocates. In this year’s executive budget, the mayor baselined $6.4 million per year for open streets between Fiscal Year 2027 and Fiscal Year 2030. That’s more money than Eric Adams gave to the program during his mayoralty, and it gives the Department of Transportation a predictable budget to organize its efforts around.

But advocates are still pressing for more money, including huge increases in the amount of money given to partner organizations that run programming on the open streets and separate funding to create more permanent traffic calming infrastructure on existing open streets.

The mayor’s office did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Speaker Menin said the Council is reviewing the letter.

“Every student deserves a safe route to school and access to outdoor spaces where they can play and learn,” said Council spokesperson Julia Agos. “The Council appreciates the ​advocacy on this issue and is reviewing this funding request as part of our ongoing budget process.”