Nine Ways to Transform New York into a City of Great Places

[chuck!]

The project for Public Spaces, based in New York, has published a report called Nine Ways to Transform New York City into a city of Great Places I think it's great. New York City was ravaged by destructive Urban Renewal projects in the 50's and 60's and is just beginning to recover. This report talks about ways to really build on NYC's well known public spaces to make them really people-friendly. Most of NYC's planners are still stuck in the "car is god " paradigm, and need new inspiration.

[chuck!]

Hmmm. I guess people on this forum like to discuss skyscrapers (especially the WTC), big hair, and other nonsense. Not that that is all people talk about.

But hey, here's a report on real ways to make NYC better!!! What do you all think about these ideas???

[orulz]

I'm not that familiar with New York (only visited) but from what I have seen I get the impression that pedestrians are not treated with the priority that they should be. From what I've read (quotes from public officials, articles, etc) there seems to be an underlying fear that if traffic capacity is reduced in any way whatsoever the city will cease to function and people will flee. The authors of this report seem to know better. New York will not lose its appeal, and people who had used their cars will adjust and instead make use of other options.

Many sidewalks in New York seem way too narrow. The city could dedicate a greater percentage of the right-of-way width to sidewalks in a bunch of places, constraining vehicular capacity - and therefore resulting in a more liveable New York (less noise, less pollution, more walkable streets.

I also love the idea of converting 'bonus plazas' into usable, welcoming public spaces. There certainly are a lot of these modernist monstrosities scattered around Manhattan. Is this a new idea or has this been tossed around before?