Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about Public Space

The Jackson Heights Plaza Photo the Times Doesn’t Want You to See

By Ben Fried | Mar 19, 2012 | 14 Comments

Gotta hand it to the Times for some devious photo editing in today’s Metro section. Check out the barren seating and shuttered storefronts in the shot that accompanies Sarah Maslin Nir’s two-sides-to-every-story piece on the new Jackson Heights plaza. That plaza must really be a failure, right? Except, if you wait until the stores actually […]

Eyes on the Street: Foot Traffic Pours Into Jax Heights Plaza

By Ben Fried | Mar 12, 2012 | 18 Comments

Reader Marcus Woollen submits this picture of the Jackson Heights pedestrian plaza on 37th Road taken yesterday afternoon. This is the same plaza that some local merchants have described as “a graveyard” and “a ghost town.” What they don’t realize, apparently, is that they’re sitting on a gold mine of foot traffic. Someone just has […]

Flushing Transpo Project Boosted Safety While Curbing Congestion

By Noah Kazis | Mar 5, 2012 | 7 Comments

It might not be as bold or attention-grabbing as the overhaul of Times Square and Herald Square, but a set of changes made to New York City’s third-busiest pedestrian intersection is having its own quiet success. In Downtown Flushing, a 2010 project that expanded sidewalks, daylighted dangerous intersections, and introduced numerous turn restrictions is boosting […]

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Do You Have Car-Free Streets? A New Resource for North American Ciclovias

By Carolyn Szczepanski | Mar 1, 2012 | No Comments

Pop quiz: Where was the first ciclovia? I bet you said Bogotá. But, surprisingly, you’d be wrong. Sure, the Colombian city is widely credited with popularizing the concept of ciclovias, which temporarily close streets to cars to liberate the roads for people. For several hours every Sunday, more than a million citizens in Bogotá take […]

Unhealthy “Foods”: Huge Whole Foods Parking Lot Will Discourage Walking

By Noah Kazis | Feb 28, 2012 | 19 Comments

The proposed Gowanus Whole Foods is moving forward after eight years of planning and debate, following a vote by the NYC Board of Standards and Appeals today. With it will come a 248-space surface parking lot: a semi-suburban design plunked down amidst some of Brooklyn’s most walkable neighborhoods. According to new research by University of […]

Don’t Let Cuomo Greenwash His Cars-Only Tappan Zee Bridge

By Noah Kazis | Feb 24, 2012 | 8 Comments

Governor Andrew Cuomo may have axed plans ten years in the making to build transit across the Tappan Zee Bridge, but hey, at least he promised to consider turning the old structure into a park, right? During a cabinet meeting Wednesday, Cuomo promised to study turning the current Tappan Zee Bridge into a walkway across […]

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