Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about Plazas

Watch NYC Reclaim Its Streets With the Swipe of a Finger

By Brad Aaron | Jan 31, 2014 | 1 Comment

If you didn’t spend at least some of your Friday ogling this post on the Architect’s Newspaper Blog, you’ve been missing out. A/N Blog overlaid before and after shots of 25 Bloomberg-era NYC street transformations, allowing readers to “slide” between views. “With little more than paint, planters, and a few well-placed boulders, Bloomberg and former […]

Ped Plazas in Low-Income Neighborhoods Get $800,000 Boost From Chase

By Stephen Miller | Nov 26, 2013 | 8 Comments

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 […]

Eyes on the Street: Reading in Ozone Park’s New Plaza

By Stephen Miller | Nov 25, 2013 | 3 Comments

The intersection of Liberty Avenue and 101st Avenue sits on the border of Cypress Hills, Brooklyn, and Ozone Park, Queens. A few blocks from the A train and surrounded by small businesses, it’s a natural hub for the neighborhood, but the road configuration gave over large areas of the angled intersection to cars. Last year, […]

DOT Cuts Community-Endorsed Harlem Pedestrian Space for Double Parking

By Stephen Miller | Nov 21, 2013 | 20 Comments

A big new pedestrian space next to a busy Harlem park, installed last summer as part of a community board-backed traffic calming plan, is being scaled down by the agency that created it. Why the change? DOT says it’s responding to complaints that the original design created too much space for pedestrians, and not enough […]

De Blasio: “Transportation Determines Opportunity, Livability, Biz Climate”

By Stephen Miller | Oct 24, 2013 | 17 Comments

On WNYC this morning, Brian Lehrer posed the best transportation question of the 2013 mayoral campaign, asking Bill de Blasio, “Have you thought about transportation as one of your tools to fight inequality?” Here’s what the mayoral frontrunner said: Transportation determines opportunity, livability, business climate. For many people, the absence of affordable transportation, in outer-borough […]

“Vision Zero,” or Zero Vision? De Blasio Says “Jury’s Out” on Midtown Plazas

By Stephen Miller | Oct 23, 2013 | 40 Comments

Bill de Blasio, who adopted an aggressive street safety platform during the Democratic mayoral primary, reverted back to a livable streets skeptic at last night’s mayoral debate. The mayoral frontrunner claimed “the jury’s out” on the city’s popular Midtown pedestrian plazas, which among other benefits have led to dramatic reductions in pedestrian injuries. Republican candidate Joe […]

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