On Thursday, City Council voted (39-8) to make the Open Streets program permanent — even after the pandemic.
The bill has moved on for approval by Mayor de Blasio, who has already signaled support of the program.
According to various media accounts, Open Streets will be overseen by the Department of Transportation or local community organizations that can apply to manage the programs in their neighborhoods.
In addition, roadways included in Open Streets will be up for annual review, at which point the DOT can recommend permanent design changes to streets, such as the construction of pedestrian plazas.
Per
Gothamist:
Currently, there are around 235 Open Streets locations comprising around 70 miles (there are roughly 6,000 miles of roadway in New York City). Only about 50 of those locations are managed by a local partner, like a community nonprofit or a restaurant; the rest are technically managed by the NYPD and the DOT, and are essentially neglected.
In the East Village, Avenue B between Sixth Street and 14th Street is hosted by the
Loisaida Open Streets Community Coalition, which continues to add programming. (For instance, they teamed up with the 14th Street Y for
a series of fitness classes between 13th Street and 14th Street on Sundays and Wednesdays in May.)
With this legislation passed, I'm excited for the future of open streets. That doesn't mean there aren't still challenges ahead. City agencies must now take greater ownership in these efforts and swiftly respond to people who have committed vandalism and physically and verbally threatened open streets volunteers. We need Mayor de Blasio to expand on the $4 million he committed in this year's budget to open streets operations and to start sending out his new City Cleanup Corps workers into communities to help keep open streets barriers set up and our streets free of trash.
Photo from Saturday by Stacie Joy
