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UPDATED: De Blasio Commits to 100 Miles of ‘Open Streets’
By Gersh Kuntzman
Apr 27, 2020
This scene, from Oakland, may become the norm in New York, thanks to an announcement by Mayor de Blasio. Photo:
City of Oakland
Updated Mayor de Blasio just did the City Council 33 percent better — he’s committed to opening
up 100 miles of streets for socially responsible recreation during the COVID-19 crisis.
At his virtual press conference this morning, de Blasio said negotiations with the City Council —
which is pushing its own bill for 75 miles of car-free space— have yielded success: 40 miles of
open streets this month, with a goal of 100 miles at an unspecified date in the future of the crisis.
“The City Council came forward with a vision for how we could open up more streets and do it in a
way that’s responsive to the core concerns of the NYPD over safety and enforcement,” the mayor
said. “Over the next month, we will create a minimum of 40 miles of open streets. And as the crisis
continues, the goal is to get up to 100 miles. We will focus first on streets in and around our parks.”
The mayor also said the city would look to “expand sidewalks” and create more temporary bike
lanes.
“We want to do more,” he said. “So the focus here will be to focus on where the need is greatest. ...
The first priority is the places hardest hit and then where it will have the most impact.”
Activists were immediately excited — and knew how to apportion the credit:
“It’s great to see the Council break through on the issue,” said Jon Orcutt of Bike New York, and a
former top DOT official. “We’re very heartened the announcement included some looking-ahead
steps, like more pop-up bike lanes.”
The mayor’s statement still emphasized “enforcement,” which led to the demise of the NYPD’s
initial, 11-day open space program last month, which included the deployment of many police
officers and other employees at each intersection along four short stretches of roadway.
Details were sketchy, but here’s what City Hall just put out in a joint statement with Council
Speaker Johnson:
The open streets will be sourced from five broad categories
up to 60 miles of streets within and adjacent to parks (editor’s note: “within” is a key word, as it
potentially covers scores of miles)
• up to 20 miles of streets identified in consultation with local precincts, in consultation with
community boards and other partners
• up to 10 miles of streets managed by local partners such as BIDs, block associations, or
other civic groups (perhaps a reference to Broadway-style interventions that Streetsblog
previously covered).
• up to 2.5 miles of widened sidewalks
• up to 10 miles of protected bike lanes
The mayor’s latest announcement comes after the City Council expressed its frustration with his
inability to create more open space during the crisis, frustration that took the form of legislation last
week mandating the transformation of 75 miles of roadways into open space — a proposal that
followed the example of other cities, none of which required a large police presence.
But on Monday, Johnson praised the mayor.
“The Council is thrilled our calls for open streets have been answered and looks forward to working
with the administration to give New Yorkers the space they need to socially distance properly,” the
speaker said in a statement. “As the weather gets nicer and this unprecedented crisis stretches on
longer, we need to do everything in our power to keep our neighbors safe and healthy. This
announcement is a great starting point for the ongoing conversation about how we share our public
spaces during this pandemic and in a post-coronavirus future.”
The mayor’s initiative also comes one day after the New York Times editorial board, following
many other outlets, called on the city to create far more open space, especially as the summer
looms. And it follows the mayor’s decision to force hist DOT commissioner, Polly Trottenberd, to
defend the NYPD’s open-space enforcement strategy at the City Council’s hearing on Friday that
featured tandem testimony from NYPD Transportation Bureau Deputy Chief Mike Pilecki (and
inspired the latest Streetsblog sond parody, “Dear Polly”).
And it comes after Johnson threatened to seek the support of Gov. Cuomo to pressure the mayor to
show “leadership on the issue.” | |
