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Unlocking the Potential of the New Jackson Heights Plaza
Earlier this month you might have noticed a few press accounts about merchants in Jackson Heights who think a new public plaza on one short block of 37th Road is crimping their bottom line. The plaza is actually part of a much broader plan to improve street safety, speed bus trips, and reduce traffic congestion in Jackson Heights, which neighborhood groups and NYC DOT have been working on for years without receiving much media attention. Now that there's a tinge of conflict, the press is all over it -- an innovative and community-driven transportation project has turned into a story about shopkeepers upset over the removal of 20 parking spaces.
February 10, 2012
PlaNYC Program Will Bring 1,000 Sleek New Benches to City Sidewalks
Joined by East Harlem seniors, advocates and City Council members, transportation commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan today kicked off a program to provide new and improved sidewalk seating.
October 20, 2011
Dan Biederman: “If You Try to Change Things, You Get Opposition”
Here's the second installment of Streetsblog's interview with Dan Biederman, head of the 34th Street Partnership and the Bryant Park Corporation. In the first part of the interview, Biederman discussed reactions to NYC DOT's recent public space projects on Broadway, and why the reality on the ground is much better for Midtown than most press accounts have let on.
August 4, 2011
A Verbal Tour of Midtown With Public Space Maestro Dan Biederman
Before Dan Biederman came to Bryant Park, there were no movable chairs, no free movies on summer evenings, no kiosks selling sandwiches and refreshments. No lunch time crowds and not much in the way of civic life or social activity, either. There was, basically, an open-air drug market in the New York Public Library's backyard.
August 3, 2011
Eyes on the Street: Brand New Pop-Up Café on Sullivan Street
Reader Ian Dutton sends these shots of the pop-up café that just went up at "local" -- a coffee shop on Sullivan Street in SoHo. Ian says owners Craig and Liz Walker worked hard to make this public space enhancement happen. Among other things, they had to bring a crew of supporters with them to Community Board 2 when their application to DOT's pop-up café program came up for a vote. Their bid was the only one of six applications to withstand the onslaught from local reactionary Sean Sweeney.
July 15, 2011
Eyes on the Street: Two Lanes of Ped Space Coming to Chelsea Subway Stop
Construction is underway at the intersection of 23rd Street and Seventh Avenue in Manhattan, where DOT is building new pedestrian refuge islands and a sidewalk extension to provide some extra space around a busy subway station. The intersection, currently in the 99th percentile for severity-weighted traffic injuries in the city, will also have its signals adjusted to give pedestrians more conflict-free time to cross the street. The new plaza extends across two of Seventh Avenue's six lanes on the southern side of the intersection.
April 12, 2011
JSK: Plaza Program Will Expand; Gridlock Sam: Backlash Nothing New
Last night's Municipal Arts Society panel, "Shared Streets: Making It Work," mainly covered familiar ground for those who have been following the city's efforts to repurpose its streets over the last four years. Participants touted the improved bus speeds along Select Bus Service routes, the safety gains where protected bike lanes have been installed, and the economic boost of pedestrian plazas in Times and Herald Square. Two things jumped out at as noteworthy, though.
April 5, 2011
SoHo’s Rejected Pop-Up Cafés Won’t Appear Elsewhere
Last Thursday evening, Manhattan Community Board 2 voted down five of six approved pop-up cafés in their neighborhood, choosing parking spaces over public seating.
March 29, 2011
Pop-Up Café Expansion Faces Critical Community Board Vote Tonight
When DOT installed its first "pop-up café" over a few parking spaces on Lower Manhattan's Pearl Street last summer, the 14-table public seating area helped increase business by 14 percent at its two sponsoring restaurants. With New York City still recovering from recession and much of the city starved for public space, DOT has moved to expand the program. Restaurants were given the option of requesting a café and DOT selected twelve locations from that pool of applicants. The selected locations are concentrated in the Village and SoHo, making tonight's Community Board 2 vote a critical moment for the program.
March 24, 2011