Eyes on the Street

A pedestrian plaza that garnered support from local business, a unanimous vote at Queens Community Board 4 in June, and the backing of City Council Member Julissa Ferreras is being installed in Corona. The project is on the site of a service road that functioned as a parking lot for moving trucks. Now the space is host to planters and movable chairs, where people are already relaxing. Installation should be complete in the next few days. Later this year, DOT will meet with community members to evaluate the plaza. If the project gets a thumbs-up, DOT will begin working on a long-term redesign.

Business owners in Jackson Heights have done more than just take over maintenance of the plaza on 37th Road. They've rechristened it "Diversity Plaza," and they staged a community celebration that concluded on Monday to mark Eid-ul-Fitr, the breaking of fast at the end of Muslim holy month Ramadan. It seems the plaza was anything but empty that night. Eid Mubarak to all!

Although the project covers only half to the distance initially proposed thanks to foot-dragging by the local community board (the other half may be implemented next year), safety enhancements along 19 blocks of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Boulevard are in place and giving pedestrians more room to cross the street. When complete, the boulevard between 134th and 153rd Streets will include left turn lanes, wider median pedestrian islands, and one less through lane in each direction. With current nighttime speeds averaging 50 mph, the road diet will have an impact on calming the avenue's deadly traffic.

The construction barriers are down and the tables and chairs are out on Allen Street in Chinatown. While there's still some planting and other work left to be done, the public spaces are already magnets for people. The median bikeway on the three-block stretch between Hester and Delancey is also open and rideable again.

Thanks to @J_uptown for tipping us off to this transit enhancement in the making (and providing the Seinfeld-inspired headline). The fresh sidewalk addition here is a bus bulb for Select Bus Service on First Avenue. When it's in working order, bus drivers won't have to pull over to the curb to pick up and drop off riders, and passengers waiting for the bus won't have to share scarce sidewalk space with passersby. There are ten bus bulbs coming to the SBS route on First Avenue, and two slated for Second Avenue.

Streetsblog reader and former Manhattan Community Board 2 standout Ian Dutton has hit upon a low-cost way to keep the Bergen Street bike lane clear of NYPD squad cars. The short piece of Bergen between Sixth Avenue and Flatbush is routinely blocked by the 78th Precinct's vehicles, so Ian took advantage of some idle Con-Ed construction posts (they had been left by the curb during some utility work) to clearly mark off the bike lane. The markers went down on Monday and they kept the squad cars out at least until Wednesday evening. Today Ian reports that Con-Ed is using the cones to direct traffic away from a cut in the street, and the separation is gone -- for now.

Construction on Midtown protected bike lanes continues apace. Reader Hilda Cohen sends in the above shot from Ninth Avenue, where she says "contractors are out marking lines between 47th and 39th."

Clarence files these photos of a dual-purpose street reclamation in Queens.