Streetbeat, Vol. XVI
On reimagining Park Avenue, the future of Open Streets, and a tourism recovery.
Welcome back to the newly renovated Streetbeat! We’re glad you could make it.
Spring is in a hyper-charged bloom here in New York, as the ‘reopening’ was, of course, not a ticker tape parade down Fifth Avenue, but rather, a cautious easing out of mask guidances paralleling a street life on steroids, more vibrant than anything I can remember in the decade I’ve lived here. With it comes a baseline optimism the city sorely needs right now. And we can thank science for that: increasing vaccinations have brought the infection rate down to its lowest level in months. (Breaking: that is, in fact, good news.)
So wherever you’re reading this: be safe, be well, and when you’re able, get the damn jab.
Now… where were we?
P stands for Park (Ave)
I don’t know where I was when I learned that Park Avenue—one of Manhattan’s most iconic thoroughfares—actually used to be a park. A linear, walkable strip of green right down the middle, where people could sit or stroll. The avenue arose from decking the shed for trains headed into the then-new Grand Central, with a name birthed out of a marketing pitch: ‘Come live on Park Avenue!’ This is hard to believe until you see the photos.
Like most of our streets, that all changed with the advent of the automobile. But now, with the century-old shed in need of renovation, the city is thinking of bringing that spirit back. And after the pandemic, with the desire for open space at record highs and offices keen on attracting workers back, it may just happen.
That said, I was delighted to be back in The New York Times (with a page-long spread in the National section!) this month writing about the potentially transformative project, the avenue’s history, and what it means for the Big Apple.
Give it a read! (And, also, shout-out to Planetizen for covering!)
To the graduating class of 2021
In early May, I held the final class of NYU’s ‘Advanced Reporting: The City’ in the very sunny Tompkins Square Park, with five students arriving in-person and three calling in on Zoom through my iPhone, which was affixed onto a tripod with scotch tape. (At least we had bagels and schmears?) It felt like a fitting end to a tumultuous semester, one surrounded by what can feel like an endless news cycle of grief. But my students, all of whom dawned their purple graduation robes this month, relented. They had their junior and senior year upended in ways that none of us could’ve imagined at their age, and yet… they relented.
On that note, it gives me great pleasure to present their final capstones: 3,000-word magazine-length features—after a month and a half of reporting and editing—that span a breadth of issues facing our cities and society. On the future of bodegas. On how New York City can build (trains) again. On Shanghai’s emergence as a center of contemporary arts in China. On NFTs and the changing value of art. On the sustainability of community fridges. On the role of modular design in the housing affordability conversation. On the future of retail. And on a COVID-19 memorial, and what that would look like.
Please — give ‘em a round of applause.
Talkin’ transit
Made another media appearance this month, this time with Ryan McManus on his podcast ‘The Commute.’
McManus is the CEO and founder of SHARE Mobility, which helps companies support more sustainable transportation through rideshare and Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS), where all modes are available to you on an app. In our hour-long discussion, we covered the dissertation research I did for UCL on ‘last mile’ solutions; how the media covers these issues (and how, I think, that’s shifting); and (a personal fave!) behavioral change. It was a nice long transit geek out!
Tune in if you can.
Open Streets’ next act
When the pandemic hit the U.S. last spring, one of the most common streetscape changes to arise in cities nationwide in response were ‘Open Streets.’ (Other monikers include ‘Slow Streets’ or ‘Shared Streets,’ depending on the city.) Block off streets from vehicular through traffic to allow urbanites with less space to spread out a bit. Cycle, walk, maybe even take part in a yoga or Zumba class. The idea itself is simple. But in a country that defined car culture, it was radical.
Fast forward a year. As we entered America’s second pandemic spring—this time with caseloads on the decline—Open Streets have returned, albeit with mixed results. In Washington, Secretary Pete thrilled urbanists by labeling similar schemes infrastructure, and the topic of permanence post-pandemic is increasingly prevalent. (In New York, which had the most extensive program in the nation, Mayor Bill de Blasio signed the program into law earlier this month.)
So: what’s next for them?
In my latest feature for Bloomberg CityLab, I bopped around New York City, visiting Open Streets in three boroughs and speaking to advocates. (Disclaimer: I help organize my local, on 31st Avenue, which we have big plans for this summer.) I also spoke to reps in Denver and San Francisco, to find out what’s working and what’s not. The answer: accessibility, equity, and programming.
Find out more here.
Ask the Hoteliers
A few weeks ago, New York Magazine editor Alexis Swerdloff reached out to ask if I’d be interested in writing on a topic I don’t often cover: tourism. Specifically: how New York City’s hotel industry experienced its worst year on record, and what its hopes were for a supersized recovery.
Even if readers don’t stay in them often (folks may lean towards Airbnbs or home-stays, maybe), hotels play a pivotal role in urban economies. They’re an immense source of employment, particularly in service-level jobs; in New York, they were the seventh largest job creator in 2019. And that’s not even counting the business and leisure tourism they attract. Furthermore, hotels have long been social havens, a functional space for nightlife, restaurants and other hospitality-driven industries. Which is why this last year was such a sucker punch. (I also wrote about how cities could regain tourism a while back.)
So that said, I ended up hosting a Zoom roundtable discussion for Curbed (now a New York Magazine vertical) with some of the city’s leading hoteliers. It included Vijay Dandapani (the Hotel Association of New York City); Jason Pomeranc (SIXTY Hotels); Marlene Poynder (The Conrad Downtown); and Jay Stein (The Dream Hotel Group). We covered a ton of topics, from the first pandemic spring and the impact of Airbnb to potential regulation and converting vacancies.
Check out our conversation here.
Solutions Corner: An Office of Public Space
This month’s ‘Solutions Corner’ is brought to you by Jackson Chabot, a policy associate at Open Plans, a nonprofit aiming to support more livable streets through tech. Chabot reached out after last month’s newsletter with an idea that has been floating around the New York City mayoral race: an office in City Hall specifically dedicated to the public realm (plazas, Open Streets, parklets, cycle lanes, etc.). From what I’m aware of, it’d be a pioneering concept in the U.S.
With a citywide primary around the corner, his office is sharing details with prospective candidates to garner support. Here’s what it’s trying to solve:
Combatting silos. Think about a pedestrian plaza for a second. This little piece of urban space crisscrosses an amalgam of jurisdictions. A city agency, usually its transportation department, is in charge of building the space itself, if it’s publicly owned. The utility companies have say over the power cords and water mains, underneath or above. A parks department may be needed if there’s a sizable amount of greenery. Emergency services (police, fire) have to ensure safety guidelines. An organization (maybe a business group) is tasked with maintenance. And the list goes on and on.
As it stands, planning processes can be remarkably ‘siloed,’ meaning agencies often do not work in lockstep, causing delay/cost spikes and problems later on. (Something the policy brief I authored recently for Center for an Urban Future extensively detailed.) A centralized office within City Hall would corral these troops under one banner when breaking ground.
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Encouraging smarter planning. If you have a ton of agencies with varying budgets figuring out a singular space, then what results is a piecemeal approach to planning: one-off projects here and there, or dueling visions, but not a cohesive citywide framework. With one interagency office, you could sync up those different approaches and potentially implement measures in a more sustained manner. (e.g. “Each year, we’re going to build X plazas and add X Open Streets.”) Predictability makes for sustainable planning.
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Building more equitably. As governance goes, one-off projects tend to benefit wealthier, whiter communities. Why? Residents there not only have more time to pressure elected officials (which takes a lot of dedication, believe me), but also, their elected officials tend to have more money to allocate to these projects. In cities, the loudest voices can dictate policy, and being loud is a privilege. And then there’s the inherently classist nature of transport planning, which obsesses over utilitarian proposals sited in neighborhoods with high foot traffic (not necessarily a bad idea) but then leaves out neighborhoods on the urban periphery. Which is why we’ve seen bike lanes predominantly rolled out in select (read: white) neighborhoods.
That said, having the proposed office’s Public Space Managers doled out evenly across cities to work alongside local communities would enhance one’s “right to the city,” as championed by sociologist Henri Lefebvre. And maybe help tip the scales towards a more just and equitable home.
Bright Side: Rethinking the parking spot
This last month, I saw: a) an eatery that was housed in a parking garage; b) a municipal lot giving over a sliver of space so a restaurant could expand outside; c) Open Restaurant holders walling off the slim nooks between their dining structures and crosswalks; and d) the above.
With help from Proud Astorian, a local volunteer litter cleanup crew doing great work, we received permission from NYCDOT to let us use a space in a lot they control to house mulch/compost (courtesy of Big Reuse) overnight for a street trees beautification I helped organize. (A personal passion—long live the street trees!) In the COVID era, parking lots have been reconfigured into drive-ins, vaccine centers, WiFi spots, logistics hubs for deliveries, and more. The compost conversion seemed less formal than those, yet just as exciting.
And it got me thinking: what else are we leaving on the table here? If public and private operators think of parking lots as flexible spaces that can help cities achieve greater goals—helping the urban tree canopy, for example, or minimizing all of these damn Amazon deliveries (and with them, their emissions)—then it seems like we’re just approaching the tip of iceberg of what’s possible.
Parklet of the Month: May 2021
Winner: The new Barrio Taqueria in Astoria/Dutch Kills, Queens (New York City).
FKA: 1, maybe 2 parking spots. (And there’s another on the side street.)
AKA: Shopping container chic.
Good thing New York’s Open Restaurants program is not going anywhere, because this doesn’t look easy to move. (Recent news: the program ‘took’ 8,550 parking spots from the city, in exchange for 100,000 jobs. Good trade.)
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Got a parklet you want to give a shout-out to? Submit it here.