Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about SoHo

Pop-Up Café Expansion Faces Critical Community Board Vote Tonight

By Noah Kazis | Mar 24, 2011 | 18 Comments

When DOT installed its first “pop-up café” over a few parking spaces on Lower Manhattan’s Pearl Street last summer, the 14-table public seating area helped increase business by 14 percent at its two sponsoring restaurants. With New York City still recovering from recession and much of the city starved for public space, DOT has moved […]

Canal Street Report Recommends Wider Sidewalks, Smarter Parking

By Noah Kazis | Jan 6, 2011 | 3 Comments

Canal Street, to put it mildly, is due for a makeover. The street is clogged with traffic from the Holland Tunnel and the un-tolled Manhattan Bridge. Pedestrians jostle for space on the packed sidewalks, and they’re especially at risk of getting hit by a car, according to the city’s Pedestrian Safety Study. Fortunately, the funds […]

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. […]

Livable Streets Foe Unmasked as Mini-Madoff

By Ben Fried | Mar 27, 2009 | 7 Comments

MacPherson claims he’s innocent. Earlier this week Suffolk County prosecutors charged Donald MacPherson, proprietor of a Manhattan S&M dungeon, with orchestrating a $50 million mortgage fraud out in Southampton. If, like me, you have only a fleeting familiarity with the subterranean torture fetish community, you’re probably wondering, "Who is Don MacPherson?" Well, in addition to […]

Eyes on the Street: A Guerrilla Message to DOT

By Brad Aaron | Feb 13, 2009 | 3 Comments

This stencil appeared on the corner of Manhattan’s Duane and Greenwich Streets late last month. Our source tells us the message — "DOT what will it be, traffic light or dead like me" — stems from years of fruitless neighborhood efforts, as documented in this Streetfilm from 2006, to persuade the agency to install a […]

Sean Sweeney: Soho Must Be Preserved for SUVs

By Ben Fried | Dec 17, 2008 | 42 Comments

Sean Sweeney, the one-man show known as the Soho Alliance, has been sending this video around to the media, continuing his quest to preserve Soho streets for the convenience of motorists. What we basically have here is a careless truck driver butting grilles with a sociopath behind the wheel of an SUV. Sweeney’s conclusion: Give […]

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