Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about Jackson Heights

Times’ Ped Plaza-Bashing Queens Reporter Enjoys Using Queens Ped Plaza

By Brad Aaron | Jun 8, 2012 | 16 Comments

What is it with the New York Times and the Jackson Heights pedestrian plaza? Yesterday, the paper published a piece by Sarah Maslin Nir on a mugger in the plaza who was tackled to the ground by witnesses. It’s a good story — two of the good Samaritans were missionaries up from North Carolina, another […]

The Jackson Heights Plaza Is Growing on Some Local Merchants

By Noah Kazis | Apr 11, 2012 | 8 Comments

A package of enhancements and adjustments to the new pedestrian plaza on 37th Road in Jackson Heights — the object of a high-profile backlash from a group of local merchants this winter — is winning over some of the skeptics. DOT has placed new planters and seating to spruce up the plaza and give it more color, […]

Jackson Heights Public Plaza, Thursday Afternoon

By Ben Fried | Mar 23, 2012 | 9 Comments

Courtesy of Clarence Eckerson, Jr., here are some more scenes from the Jackson Heights pedestrian plaza that don’t fit the New York Times’ preferred narrative. Clarence says he passed through the plaza three times yesterday and it was bustling each time. On a Thursday. Related posts: The Jackson Heights Plaza Photo the Times Doesn’t Want […]

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 […]

Unlocking the Potential of the New Jackson Heights Plaza

By Ben Fried | Feb 10, 2012 | 16 Comments

Earlier this month you might have noticed a few press accounts about merchants in Jackson Heights who think a new public plaza on one short block of 37th Road is crimping their bottom line. The plaza is actually part of a much broader plan to improve street safety, speed bus trips, and reduce traffic congestion […]

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