Parks
Streetsblog Basics
Will the Parks Department Let Another Sinkhole Swallow the Greenway?
Remember the sinkhole in the Hudson River Greenway that took almost a year for the Parks Department to fix? Now there's another one.
June 4, 2015
Car-Free Parks: The Anticipation Builds
When City Council members Mark Levine and Helen Rosenthal withdrew a bill that would have made the entire Central Park loop car-free for three summer months, the assumption was that City Hall was preparing to lead on the issue.
May 22, 2015
Eyes on the Street: State DOT Squeezes Van Cortlandt Park Greenway
The walls are closing in on people who walk or bike on the Van Cortlandt Park greenway in the Bronx. A state Department of Transportation highway construction project has narrowed the shared bicycle and pedestrian path to just four feet, while leaving adjacent car lanes and a golf cart path almost entirely untouched.
April 21, 2015
Will City Hall and DOT Finally Commit to Car-Free Parks This Summer?
Spring is here, and that means the loops in Central Park and Prospect Park are increasingly crowded, with cyclists, joggers, and walkers squeezed by rush-hour traffic. Will the de Blasio administration finally make the parks car-free this summer?
April 21, 2015
Creating Safer Streets Linking the South Bronx to Randall’s Island
The South Bronx neighborhoods of Port Morris and Mott Haven are a stone's throw from 480-acre Randall's Island, but a ring of highways and industry separates residents from all that parkland. Now, the New York Restoration Project (NYRP) is working with local advocates and health researchers to create better walking and biking connections between the South Bronx and Randall's Island, taking advantage of a long-planned greenway segment set to open this summer.
April 14, 2015
DOT Safety Plan for Corona’s 111th Street Faces Uphill Battle at Queens CB 4
A dangerous street that Corona residents have to cross to get to Flushing Meadows Corona Park is in line for a serious traffic-calming plan, complete with a two-way protected bike lane [PDF], but local community board members are balking at the proposal.
April 6, 2015
The New Plan to Connect Downtown Brooklyn to Its Waterfront
Starting in the 1930s, entire city blocks in Brooklyn Heights, Downtown Brooklyn, and DUMBO were razed for expressways and parks. Today, this jumble of on-ramps and disconnected green space separates Brooklyn's waterfront from its downtown core. A new public-private initiative, called "The Brooklyn Strand," seeks to knit these disjointed areas back together.
March 18, 2015
Hudson Square Plaza Revamp Leaves Shared Space Street for Another Day
A plan to convert a two-block street on the border of Soho and Hudson Square into shared space is going to sit on the shelf -- for now.
February 6, 2015
Eyes on the Street: Un-Plowed Bikeway on Parks Department Turf
Most of NYC's bridge paths and protected bikeways seem to have been cleared well in the aftermath of this week's snowstorm, judging by the lack of snowed-in bike lane photos in the Streetsblog inbox.
January 29, 2015