Public Space
Top Categories
How Does the Threat of Police Violence Affect How You Use the Street?
When the news came out yesterday that a Staten Island grand jury had failed to indict officer Daniel Pantaleo for killing Eric Garner with an illegal chokehold, like many people I found the outcome difficult to comprehend. With clear video evidence showing that Pantaleo broke NYPD protocol and a coroner's report certifying that Garner's death was a homicide, this grand jury should have reached the conclusion that had eluded grand jurors in the Michael Brown case in St. Louis County: There should be a trial to determine if Pantaleo had committed a crime. But apparently that's not how our justice system works.
December 4, 2014
City Begins to Reclaim Space for Pedestrians at Fordham Plaza
The multi-year project to improve Fordham Plaza in the Bronx -- a critical transit hub -- entered its latest phase yesterday with the groundbreaking for a bigger and better public space for pedestrians.
August 28, 2014
Eyes on the Street: Bliss Plaza Shines Under the 7 Train in Sunnyside
Two weeks ago, Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer cut the ribbon on Bliss Plaza, a new public space created with a few simple changes to the area under the 7 train viaduct at 46th Street and Queens Boulevard. Clarence sends these photos of the plaza in action this weekend: A nicer sidewalk surface, a few planters, and some moveable tables and chairs were all it took to turn this spot into a people magnet.
August 11, 2014
How One-Day Plazas and Bike Lanes Can Change a City Forever
This post is part of a series featuring stories and research that will be presented at the Pro-Walk/Pro-Bike/Pro-Place conference September 8-11 in Pittsburgh.
July 29, 2014
William H. Whyte in His Own Words: “The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces”
When I first got started making NYC bike advocacy and car-free streets videos back in the late-1990s on cable TV, I didn't know who William "Holly" Whyte was or just how much influence his work and research had on New York City. A few years later I met Fred and Ethan Kent at Project for Public Spaces. I got a copy of Whyte's 1980 classic, The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces, which in its marvelously-written, straightforward style is the one book all burgeoning urbanists should start with.
July 25, 2014
How a Non-Profit Housing Developer Brought Safer Streets to the South Bronx
When the Women's Housing and Economic Development Corporation, known as WHEDco, was founded in 1992, the dark days of arson and abandonment in the South Bronx were still fresh in people's minds. The organization set out to build new housing in a devastated neighborhood -- and decided to take a broader view of community development by also looking at employment, nutrition, crime, and education. When WHEDco's latest development, Intervale Green, opened in Crotona East in 2009, its residents identified another major need: safer streets.
July 24, 2014
In Harlem, Bradhurst Plaza Supporters Struggle to Change Status Quo
Manhattan Community Board 10's transportation committee ended months of foot-dragging this week by backing a road diet for Morningside Avenue in Harlem. It's not quite a brand new day at CB 10 though: A community effort to convert a short, irregular block into a public plaza still has an uphill climb at the Harlem board. While there's a substantial local coalition backing the project, a cadre of outspoken opponents use the existing street as a drop-off zone for their apartment building and don't want to see any changes.
May 16, 2014
Eyes on the Street: Jackson Heights Triangle Turns Into a Plaza
Sometimes, it's the little things that make a big difference. Manuel de Dios Unanue Triangle provides a speck of green along Roosevelt Avenue in the packed Jackson Heights neighborhood, but for years, there was nowhere to sit.
May 5, 2014
Jan Gehl Joins Advocates to Talk Public Plazas in Low-Income Neighborhoods
Ask a New Yorker about the city's plazas, and they're likely to first think of Times Square. While the city's marquee pedestrian space gets most of the attention, there are dozens of neighborhood-scale plazas across the city, with dozens more in the works in communities requesting them from DOT. Not all local groups have the financial might of Midtown Manhattan behind them, but there is still a need to maintain and support these spaces. Without city funds or donations, it can be hard to keep a good thing going -- or to get it off the ground in the first place.
February 6, 2014
Ped Plazas in Low-Income Neighborhoods Get $800,000 Boost From Chase
Under cloudy skies this morning at Corona Plaza, elected officials and community members gathered to announce an $800,000 contribution from the JPMorgan Chase Foundation to help fund the upkeep of pedestrian plazas in low-income communities. The funds are going to the Neighborhood Plaza Partnership (NPP), a program of the Horticultural Society of New York that works with merchant associations and non-profits to maintain plazas in neighborhoods including Corona, Jackson Heights, East New York, and Ridgewood.
November 26, 2013