Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about Public Space

Dancers perform in front of Mayor de Blasio in a video promoting the city's Open Culture program. Photo: Mayor's Office

OPINION: Let’s Make the Open Culture Program Permanent

By Jimmy Van Bramer | Nov 3, 2021 | No Comments

We must codify in law the pandemic-era program that has brought art, music, and dance to our streets.

The Department of Sanitation has been promising for two years that New York will get some below-grade trash containers. We're still waiting. Photo: Marvel Architects and Recycle Track Systems, in partnership with Sam Schwartz Engineering and HR&A Advisors

Sanitation Dept. Urged to Get Garbage out of Pedestrians’ Way

By Eve Kessler | Oct 8, 2021 | No Comments

Nineteen months after 'Clean Curbs" was announced with great fanfare, not a container has been sited anywhere. The next mayor ought to get cracking.

(from top) Sara Lind, Robert Green and Carl Mahaney have joined Open Plans.

Open Plans Brings on Three New Hires in Fight for Livable Streets

By Eve Kessler | Oct 4, 2021 | No Comments

Policy wiz Sara Lind, marketing guru Robert Green, and advocate Carl Mahaney join the push for a people-centered city.

Planters and furniture on the NoMad Piazza Pop-Up. Photo: File

Enjoy Another Pedestrianized Part of Broadway — for a Month Only!

By Eve Kessler | Oct 1, 2021 | No Comments

A 'pop-up' plaza in the Flatiron District will help restaurants, but safe-streets activists want more.

"Oscillation," a temporary installation, acts like a Theremin, a musical instrument that plays different pitches and sounds as people move around it. The result?: spontaneous dance parties and jam sessions. It appeared on Water Street in downtown Manhattan from late February to mid-April 2020. Photo: Savannah Lauren

OPINION: ‘Playable’ Cities Are the Next Public-Space Frontier

By Ryan Swanson | Sep 22, 2021 | No Comments

How everyday infrastructure and street furniture can stoke human imagination — and contribute to residents' well being.

Cramped: pedestrians will get more room as part of a sidewalk expansion on Lexington Avenue between 42nd and 51st Streets. Photo: Julianne Cuba

Pedestrians Will Get More Space on Cramped Lexington Avenue … In 2024

By Julianne Cuba | Aug 27, 2021 | No Comments

The city's ongoing systemic discrimination against pedestrians is slowly being remedied. Up next: A key Midtown corridor where walkers outnumber drivers more than four to one.

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