Financial District

A nice-sized pedestrian space is shaping up in the Financial District, thanks to the Downtown Alliance, City Council Member Margaret Chin, and Community Board 1.

For people in cars, the Financial District is a slow-speed maze. For everyone else, it is one of the city's most transit-rich destinations. Despite this, most of the street space in the area is devoted to cars.

Clarence snapped these photos of painted sidewalk expansions on Water Street, where DOT and the Downtown Alliance are working to revitalize street life in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. The top photo shows one end of the newly car-free Coentis Slip, between Water and Pearl Street.

Citi Bike station installations began in Bed Stuy about ten days ago, working west through Fort Greene and Downtown Brooklyn. Now, with about 60 stations installed, bike-share has crossed the East River, the Citi Bike Twitter feed informs us that the system's first Manhattan installation has gone in at Cliff Street and Fulton Street in the Financial District. The system is scheduled to launch next month, and thousands of New Yorkers have subscribed since annual memberships went on sale Monday.

With painted curb extensions expanding the pedestrian realm on Broadway and Whitehall Street in the Financial District, public space projects are now expected to spread around the corner to Water Street. The area is also on track to receive a first-in-the-city rule rule change making it easier to host public events in privately-owned off-street plazas.

Late last week, DOT completed the installation of gravel epoxy sidewalk extensions in the Financial District along Broadway and Whitehall Street, from the area surrounding the famous bull statue south to an existing plaza between Pearl and Water streets. The additions feature planters and flex-post to keep drivers out, but no seating.

At least two pedestrians were pinned by a pickup truck used as a movable security barrier on Broad Street near the New York Stock Exchange at approximately 1:30 p.m. this afternoon. One of the pedestrians, an unidentified 70 year-old man, has died. NY1 is reporting that the victim was a NYSE security guard who was eating lunch when the crash occurred.

Pedestrians at the southern-most tip of Manhattan are getting a lot more space to walk, thanks to a DOT proposal [PDF] first reported by DNAinfo last week.

With two days until the City Planning Commission votes on the parking-heavy Riverside Center mega-project, the commissioners had a chance yesterday to ask any final questions about the project before the vote. As it happened, they didn't bring up parking at that section of the meeting, but parking was a hot topic elsewhere on the commission's agenda, including a pair of requests for special permits to build more parking below 60th Street.