DOT is encouraging people to play in the street, offering 150 bikes and 180 pairs of skates for free rental at tomorrow’s Summer Streets return along Park Avenue, 4th Avenue and Lafayette Street in Manhattan. |DOT|
This coming Saturday marks the return of Summer Streets, the popular car-free event debuted last summer. From 7 AM to 1 PM on the next three Saturdays, Park Avenue, 4th Avenue and Lafayette Street between Central Park and the Brooklyn Bridge will be closed to motor vehicles and opened for people to “sit, walk, ride, relax, dance, play and sing.” Transportation Alternatives will lead group rides from around the city to the event.
The oft-hated lawn chairs in car-free Times Square are falling to pieces, a symptom of their immense popularity. Even after falling through one of the tattered temporary chairs, a Florida tourist still remarked, “This is unbelievable, uh, to be able to sit in Times Square.” Higher quality chairs will be in place by mid-August when the car-free project is expected to be completed. |WCBS|
Although many are eager to critique Times Square’s partially completed pedestrian plazas, Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan says that the full assessment will begin when construction is completed in mid-August, adding, “You wouldn’t want to look at a Picasso that’s halfway done.” |NYT|
Weeks after even the Post stopped wasting words whining about the temporary furniture and plastic bollards in car-free Times Square, the Times mounted their own attack. Susan Dominus critiques the pedestrian space, a work in progress, saying it has “a rough, slipshod feel” and “looks a little unworthy of New York.” It’s the same analysis that could be made of Atlantic Yards, the World Trade Center, as well as every partially-finished construction project in the city. And she has a solution: Read more »
Nearly seven miles of Manhattan streets will once again be closed to cars and opened for people this summer. Summer Streets, returning for three consecutive Saturdays in August, is expected to be announced later today. |NYP|
Tonight, nine of the country’s finest museums open their doors for free as part of the Museum Mile Festival, now in it’s 31st year. From 6 to 9 PM, 5th Avenue will be car-free block party, giving all New Yorkers a better chance to enjoy these art attractions along Museum Mile between 82nd and 105th Street. |Museum Mile Festival|
Andrea Peyser isn’t the only columnist getting ranty about car-free Times Square. Following the Post columnist’s lead, Mike Lupica at the Daily News characterizes the pro-pedestrian project as “Bloomberg’s revenge” for Albany’s failure to pass congestion pricing. Then he calls the new Times Square a homeless shelter after spotting just one person taking a nap. |NYDN|
Car-Free Times Square Panorama
Times Square has always been a photogenic place, but more so now with its newly car-free blocks, the ones Andrea Peyser feels irrationally ranty about. Photographer Jook Leung shot several 360-degree panoramas of the pro-pedestrian project: atop the TKTS booth in Duffy Square and further south at 45th and 43rd Street. Click the images above for a preview but make sure to get the big picture of the new Times Square.
Yesterday, the first business day after the city closed parts of Broadway to cars, traffic still flowed without the disastrous effects that cabbies and drivers ominously claimed would cripple all of Midtown. While its too early to assess the traffic impacts for the inevitable tweaks, the nascent project appears to be a success so far on the human front with more people taking a respite from crowded sidewalks in the new car-free space. |NYT|
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