Coucou*
And welcome to this newsletter.
It's where I (John Surico) talk each month about cities & all their discontents: streets, environment, energy, cultures, people, food, form, etc. This month, we cover:
- Cleaning up urban waterways;
- Barriers to managing public space;
- Making cities more fun;
& much, much more.
Seine it all
Ange and I return to New York this week, with our minds and hearts very much full from our time in Paris. It’s been a delightful voyage. And I’m still in sheer awe of a city that resumed its summer holiday in what felt like minutes after the Olympics concluded. The Games, to me, reaffirmed Paris’ place at the forefront of modern cities; a place that can host a mega-event with grace—its transit, shared spaces, housing, and cultural destinations—and then vacation right after. Et voilà. (I promise you, my French is getting better.)
But one of the questions—or, really, jokes—we heard the most while we were here was: “Are you gonna swim in the Seine?” The central waterway, which briefly became a militarized maze for the opening ceremony, holds this sort of enigmatic role amongst Parisiens: a hallmark of the city’s couture, amidst the backdrop of the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, and many footbridges—Instagram fodder á la carte—yet also a public health punching bag. Decades of pollution have rendered the inquiry of a dip self-fulfilling: nobody would actually swim in the Seine.
That is, until recently. In anticipation of the Games, France undertook what I’d describe as a herculean effort to finally clean up the River Seine and return it to its heydays of chic public bathing. And, call me crazy, but I think this is a good (!!!) thing—frankly, it made me seriously ponder what this would mean for New York, an island metropolis quite literally surrounded by water that most experts deem dangerous to dunk your head in for more than a minute. Oof.
So yes, Ange and I swam in the Seine. AMA, for New York Magazine’s Curbed.
Green tape
It took me some time to set aside Pavlovian impulses left over from journalism school to bail from anything the minute I felt like my objectivity was in question. I started to get involved in local organizing back in 2017, like participatory budgeting and green space advocacy. The pandemic was an accelerant: when the world is burning, a spectator role feels like a privilege. That ultimately led me to the 31st Ave Open Street—something I had previously only written about—and three years later, as its chairperson, I definitively have no regrets to report.
That said, one of the ways I justified stepping over the line of objectivity was telling myself that I should be an active participant in the worlds and processes that I talk about so often, rather than just a outsider looking in. It’s this idea that I’d write more knowledgeably if I actually did the damn thing. That has produced lots of lessons learned, and perhaps the most important one? (It’s a shocker.) Government is too often a barrier, not an catalyst, to citizen action.
For 31st Ave, the teams at NYCDOT we work with are trying their darnedest to see Open Streets thrive, but we inevitably hit bureaucratic brick walls that make it near-impossible to run the program as volunteers who are not well-resourced, backed by business interests, or have extensive experience with public sector work. We’re not alone, of course; this sentiment is shared by folks across the parks and open space spectrum. City Hall continues to be overly hesitant with legal reviews, overly liable with insurance costs, and overly restrictive of fundraising capabilities. At the same time that the city’s public space portfolio is growing at an unprecedented clip, from its streets to its waterfront, it’s relying on private entities to step up and steward them more than ever before—but then making it mind-numbingly difficult to actually do that. Argh, it is frustrating.
Untangling this subject, if it’s not already clear, is near and dear to me. So I was thrilled to pen some research on this topic—how to let people manage parks and open spaces—alongside Eli Dvorkin at Center for an Urban Future. Check it out.
Parks by the numbers
When I first started researching parks at CUF back in 2017, we wanted what felt like a baseline data point: how old was each park in New York City, and when was the last time they received any sort of renovation? For that work, which ended up becoming A New Leaf, we had to do most of the number-crunching ourselves. NYC Parks could give us a list of each property, but we had to dig up the age and last major upgrade for all 1,700 of them. (Average: 73 years old; 1997.) What about headcount? Before digitization, that was tough to find, too. So we dispatched a research assistant to the municipal archives to blow the dust off of some records. (Full-time staffing has essentially halved since the 1970s.)
In short: data was limited. But this is the case for countless parks agencies, and it’s not totally surprising. You don’t have to watch Parks and Rec to know that the work of parkies is historically underfunded. These agencies struggle to keep up with the backlogs of basic maintenance needs, let alone basic data needs. An environment where park upkeep is one of the first items to get cut when times are tough isn’t exactly one where technocracy thrives.
Thankfully, that’s changing. Since 2017, NYC Parks has doubled down on tracking their assets—the new Vital Parks for All plan is, in part, a numbers game for policymakers to better understand the real value of green spaces (and, ideally, fund them more). But another trend emerging is the effective leverage of what’s known as visitation data, where cities are improving their capabilities to pinpoint just how exactly people are using a park through anonymized GPS data. And when you’re strapped for cash, that information goes a long way.
Trust for Public Land, a nonprofit that does some of the best research and advocacy work on parks in the U.S.—I cite their economic benefits study of NYC parks all the time—is helping agencies get there. And a little while ago, they asked me to write about a few of those efforts underway. Hope you can dig in.
OSA: Back to School
In lieu of a dispatch from Queens this month, where the 31st Ave Open Street is in peak summer activity mode, here’s an ode to the ‘school streets’ of Paris before I go. Nearly 300 ècoles across the city are bookmarked by these colorful outdoor spaces, and they share a signature style: an outsized icon of the parent and child; manicured curbside gardens; games painted onto beige-ish gravel, a notably different shade than grey asphalt; and a sense of playful tranquility. The design is striking in its simplicity—perhaps what our streets would look like if kids had their way. Another 95 are set to premiere by 2026.
Bright Side: Gaming the City
An idea I’ve been toying around with a lot lately is this concerted push to make cities fun. Fun, to me, is the wonder of a place; this limitless feeling of awe and exploration. How do we create spaces and infrastructure that enable that more in us—and, in effect, help us quite literally enjoy our chosen homes more? As a society, we’ve collectively decided to do this for kids, with playgrounds and other ‘play spaces’. But we forfeit this responsibility the minute someone hits puberty; outside of parks and libraries, fun often comes at a cost for adults.
I started to notice that here in Paris. It was apparent with how the Games were digested at a local level: fêtes les Jeux (parties of the Games) were held in a number of public places, where anyone could come and watch a gigantic TV screen showing a nonstop stream of Team France competing—all while eating croissants, drinking wine, and enjoying the many games set up for all ages and abilities. It was apparent, too, with the Seine: Paris Plages (or Paris Beaches), a program that’s been around since 2002, set up zip-line, kayaking, and other free programs along the city’s waterways, using recreation as a way to catalyze this conversation around access. And it was apparent in the ‘school streets’; as mentioned earlier, it’s not every day you see gravel inked with hopscotch or designed to mimic a running track that any passerby can participate in.
But a recent visit to Zürich, Switzerland, leveled up the game. Not too long after arriving, we found ourselves at the Stadthaus (or City Hall), putting down a deposit for a set of keys. This then opened up doors across the city that led to ‘archaeological windows,’ these whimsical, Wonkaesque passageways through tunnels and down shaft-ways that seemed to transpire out of thin air where visitors could witness firsthand excavated sites like the city’s medieval sewer system, its original Roman wall, and a castle’s foundations. Each locale had an exhibit ready for whoever could find it. And it was all entirely for free—you just have to give the keys back eventually. (A shout-out to our hosts Shirley and Mau—hey guys!—for knowing that this even existed.)
The second day we were there, we visited a mini-golf course tucked away between industrial sites. (That, for the life of me, I can’t find a link for–which is honestly kinda rad.) Anyone is welcome to grab a putt and start playing on a course that looked like it was plucked from an early Tim Burton flick. One hole was made entirely of bathroom materials—the actual hole was a bathtub drain. Another, crafted by refugees, was meant to foster teamwork: whoever you’re playing with has to balance your shot on a pinball-like table in order for it to drop into the hole. Every par had some theme to it, all using up-cycled materials and designed by artists. (At night and on weekends, the course hosts DJs and drinks.) And, again, all for free—which, in Switzerland in particular, is something.
I think what attracts me so much to this idea of fun, apart from having an actual blast, is that it feels remarkably prescient. At a time when our urban lives can feel increasingly unattainable, cities should be doing everything they can to make the experience of being there worthwhile—and even, dare I say, enjoyable. Our common spaces can, and should, be these blank slates to foster community joy. And, hey, maybe they could learn a thing or two from the playground.
On the Radar
The Best NYC Books of All Time (Untapped Cities)
When so much of your job involves consuming the news cycle, it’s nice to try a different diet when it comes time to pick up a book. For me, the same goes for cities—my days are dedicated to reading and writing about issues like street design, public space, climate readiness, and other urbanist stuff. (I’m also co-authoring a book on these topics, lest I forget.) So by nightfall, I’m tapped out. This often leads to a complete 180 on my own personal reads, which places me somewhere in the realms of the less real or tangible: sci-fi, fiction, history, or, most recently, my first John Le Carré novel. It feels good to take a break.
I do this a lot with New York City. The city has woven such a mythic aura around itself, it’s always riveting to read writers who somehow create something entirely new with it, markedly outside of the usual circuits. (Yes, I have read The Power Broker. No, I have not listened to the 99 Percent Invisible series on it.) So when Untapped Cities asked if I could contribute to their book list of favorite NYC reads, I tried to think of a handful that both fit the bill and transport us.
Streetbeat Gig Board
The New York Climate Exchange, a new climate think tank, is looking for a senior innovation associate (and other positions, too). (New York, NY)
Open Plans, a preeminent livable streets org in New York, is hiring a senior organizer and social media associate—applications due soon! (New York, NY)
Join the team of Via, the transit tech and mobility powerhouse, as their managing editor of strategic proposals. (New York, NY but also worldwide)
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