Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about Public Space

Eyes on the Street: The Petrosino Square Renaissance

By Ben Fried | Oct 14, 2009 | 7 Comments

Petrosino Square has nearly doubled in size. Photo: Elizabeth Press. SoHo’s Petrosino Square was one of the first places identified by the New York City Streets Renaissance as a prime candidate for pedestrian reclamation. The western edge of the square, defined by Lafayette Street, used to give way abruptly to an inexplicable expanse of asphalt. […]

What Kind of Pedestrian Are You?

By Mathew Katz | Oct 8, 2009 | No Comments

Categories of pedestrians, based on their walking patterns. Courtesy: Norbert Brändle, Austrian Institute of Technology. Part of designing more walkable cities — a goal of this week’s Walk21 Conference — is figuring out how pedestrians actually interact with the space around them, something that seems inherently difficult because of the erratic and unique behavior of […]

AAA Plunges Dagger in the Heart of the New Times Square

By Ben Fried | Sep 25, 2009 | 28 Comments

In a stinging rebuke to New York City’s street safety methods, the latest issue of Car and Travel, a.k.a. AAA New York magazine, serves up a razor-sharp critique of Broadway’s new pedestrian plazas: Newly digitized AAA mag: crazy for cars, mad about pedestrian streets. The “test project,” now four months old, has been criticized by […]

Planetizen Unveils Its Top 100 Urban Thinkers

By Elana Schor | Sep 15, 2009 | 7 Comments

Jane Jacobs. Photo: BusinessWeek She may be experiencing an intellectual reconsideration in some corners, but Jane Jacobs is still a beloved figure for the urban planners and designers of Planetizen. After a month-long online poll that saw more than 14,000 votes cast, the site released its list of the "Top 100 Urban Thinkers" today — […]

The Pedestrian Crush: It Doesn’t Have to Be Like This

By Clarence Eckerson Jr. | Sep 11, 2009 | 24 Comments

Although there is undoubtedly an amazing streets renaissance going on in NYC, there still remain places in dire need of improvement. Every workday, heavily-used areas like the blocks surrounding Penn Station are overwhelmed with pedestrians making their way home via buses, subways, the Long Island Railroad and Amtrak. The sidewalks are so clogged by this […]

Eyes on the Street: A Safer, More Sociable Boulevard Takes Shape

By Ben Fried | Aug 31, 2009 | 11 Comments

A reader sends this view of Pike Street, taken from the Manhattan Bridge bike path late last week. You’ll notice the square of light pavement connecting two mall segments. That’s the intersection with Monroe Street, one of four locations slated for pedestrian plazas in DOT’s most recent plan for Pike and Allen Streets [PDF]. A […]

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