Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about Car-Free Parks

Central Park Drivers Get Bigger Holiday Gift Than Usual

By Noah Kazis | Dec 6, 2010 | 11 Comments

In what’s shaping up to be a yearly tradition, car-free hours in Central Park have been cut back for the holiday season. Each weekday this month, on the southeast corner of the park drive, the park’s pedestrians, joggers, cyclists, and dog-walkers have three fewer hours of quiet and safety. The stretch of the park drive […]

Central Park Administrator Pushes East-West Bike Routes, Car-Free Park

By Noah Kazis | Sep 21, 2010 | 56 Comments

Central Park Conservancy head Douglas Blonsky wants his park to get a lot more bike-friendly, he revealed at a meeting of Manhattan’s Community Board 7’s parks committee last night. Not only is he working to create shared use paths that would allow cyclists to cross the park east-west safely and legally, he repeatedly announced his […]

Parks Department Vows to Save New Yorkers From Menacing Street Life

By Brad Aaron | Apr 22, 2010 | 22 Comments

Look out! Vendor "congestion" in Union Square Park. Photo: Ben Fried The parks department will hold a hearing Friday on plans to clamp down on what it sees as an unnecessary, untamed incursion into some of the city’s most vaunted public spaces. Of course, we’re talking about art vending. The idea dates back to at […]

JSK’s “98 Percent” Car-Free Central Park Claim Is 100 Percent Wrong

By Ken Coughlin | Mar 9, 2010 | 25 Comments

DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan appeared on WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Show last Wednesday to talk about the agency’s plans to, as Lehrer put it, "spread the Times Square model." When Lehrer invited listeners to call in with their ideas for other streets that should be made car-free zones, "Steve from Manhattan" asked why the Central Park […]

Who Can Make Parks Car-Free? Commissioner Hoving Says: “Benepe”

By Ben Fried | Dec 14, 2009 | 13 Comments

This photo from the Parks Department vault depicts what appears to be a pavement painting during Thomas Hoving’s tenure as commissioner. If New York City had a livable streets hall of fame, Thomas P. F. Hoving would be enshrined alongside heroes like Jane Jacobs. As Parks Commissioner under Mayor John Lindsay, Hoving spearheaded the original […]

The NYPD’s Holiday Gift to Motorists: Central Park

By Ken Coughlin | Dec 11, 2009 | 31 Comments

After introducing some yuletide sanity two winters ago, the city is back to sending a schizophrenic message to New Yorkers this holiday season: Please use mass transit, but if you choose to drive, we’ve made it easier by increasing the hours when cars are permitted on a section of Central Park’s loop road. Only this […]

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