Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about Public Space

City Launches “Public Plaza Initiative” at DUMBO Pocket Park

By Aaron Naparstek | Aug 10, 2007 | 21 Comments

Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan launched New York City’s new Public Plaza Initiative with the opening of a new pocket park in DUMBO yesterday. "A short time ago, this was a barren parking lot," Sadik-Khan said. "But people immediately filled up this space as the green came in. That speaks to the hunger and demand that […]

Paint a Parking Lot, Put up a Paradise

By Aaron Naparstek | Aug 9, 2007 | 1 Comment

New York City Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan unveiled DOT’s new Plaza Initiative in DUMBO, Brooklyn today. The press conference took place at the Pearl Street Plaza, a triangular pocket park that only a few weeks ago served as a parking lot and illegal dump. This afternoon the Plaza was filled with people eating lunch, taking […]

New Blog Focuses on Tearing Down the “Highway to Nowhere”

By Aaron Naparstek | Aug 6, 2007 | 7 Comments

Sheridan Swap is a new blog covering the Mother of All Livable Streets projects — the long-running campaign to convert one mile of little-used highway running along the Bronx River into affordable housing, parkland, greenway and economic opportunity for one of the city’s most beleaguered neighborhoods. The blog is run by the Southern Bronx River […]

Melbourne, Australia After a Decade of Focus on Public Spaces

By Ethan Kent | Aug 2, 2007 | 20 Comments

With apologies for my carbon footprint, I recently returned from a working tour of eight cities Down Under. The trip included an invitation to Melbourne to work with the staff of the city’s successful new public space development, Federation Square, and to help lead a Placemaking training course that included many city staff, local developers […]

Famed Danish Urbanist Jan Gehl in Town to Consult on PlaNYC

By Alex Marshall | Aug 2, 2007 | 8 Comments

The Urbanist Musketeers: Alex Garvin, Jan Gehl and Fred Kent in Copenhagen, Denmark, Sept. 30, 2006. Jan Gehl, the famed Danish urbanist, is in New York City this week where, sources say, he has been hired as a consultant for Mayor Bloomberg’s PlaNYC program. At a presentation to the board of the Regional Plan Association […]

Fear and Loathing on the Upper East Side

By Aaron Naparstek | Aug 1, 2007 | 17 Comments

A Curbed tipster sent along this photo of the "controversial" new bike lane going in along E. 90th Street. In the last week or so, the New York Times, the Sun, Gothamist and Curbed have all run stories about the City’s plan to build new bike lanes across the Upper East Side and the community […]

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