Just a few weeks ago, the Meatpacking District's Gansevoort Plaza was an urban wasteland.  Cars and cabs pealed through the area without regard to their surroundings, creating dangerous conditions for pedestrians and cyclists.

In 2005, PPS met with local community leaders to develop a vision for the area.  Recently, several simple changes were implemented that have changed the streetscape.

Photo by Lily Bernheimer 

Traffic has been significantly slowed and pedestrians now have a place to sit in this now-bustling neighborhood!

Previous Posts:

Eve on the Street: Gansevoort Plaza Open for Business [Streetsblog]
PPS Projects: Gansevoort Plaza [PPS Transportation Projects] 

     Photo Credit (left): Lily Bernheimer

The NYC DOT appears to be moving ahead with changes that will make Gansevoort Plaza, a massive intersection at the heart of the Meatpacking District, into a comfortable pedestrian area.

While everyone is wondering how the space will shape up in the long-run, comment postings on Streetsblog show that there is no shortage of good ideas. Recommendations from readers range from the installation of a central fountain to allocating the space for a green or flea market.

Related Posts:
Community Vision for Gansevoort Plaza [PPS Project Experience]
Meat Market Traffic Patterns [The Villager]

Streetsblog reports on the changes that have been taking place along Columbus Avenue on the Upper West Side in Manhattan. PPS worked with the Columbus Avenue Business Improvement District (BID) to develop a new vision for a 15-block area last year. Some of the improvements suggested include improved parking management, higher quality design materials and more amenities for pedestrians.

The findings of the BID's comprehensive vision will be presented by Phil Myrick to Manhattan Community Board 7's Green Committee and members of the Parks and Transportation Committees on Monday, March 24th at 7pm. The meeting will take place at 250 West 87th Street, 2nd Floor.

Download the BID Vision Report here.

As part of a project Providence, RI, PPS lead a workshop of over 100 city officials, business owners, residents and representatives of nonprofit groups about potential improvements to the city's central plaza, Kennedy Plaza.

"All over the world, people are coming back to these great squares. Once you've got a great square, the rest of your city is going to fall into place," said Kent. He and PPS envision a Kennedy Plaza that is ringed by shops, full of attractions and serves as the hub for a different kind of transit system, one based on trolleys or trams.

The StreetStars series focuses on the heroes and organizers in our communities who are fighting constructively for livable streets.

Christine Berthet, co-founder of Chekpeds (the Clinton/Hell’s Kitchen Pedestrian Safety Coalition), worked with TA and PPS, and was instrumental in organizing the Ninth Avenue Renaissance.

Come to "Streets as Places", PPS's new training seminar, and learn how Placemaking can build great streets and great communities.

The course will introduce participants to new ways of thinking about streets as public spaces. It is intended for anyone who is interested in creating a great street, including transportation professionals who want to learn more about how streets can help to build communities, civic and elected officials who realize that greater economic impact can result from changing the way that roads are designed, and citizen activists who understand that the time to change is now.

Presentations and discussion will center on how streets, roads, and transit facilities can be designed and managed to benefit communities, in addition to serving mobility needs. Practical tools for assessing a variety of street typologies and case studies of cities which have moved beyond solving mobility problems to community building will be presented, and participants will be encouraged to discuss their own projects as well as share experiences and ideas with each other.

The training session will include a walking tour and discussion of some of the recent street improvement projects in New York City, an on-site Placemaking street audit, seminar-style lectures, and open discussions about current transportation issues and challenges facing cities today.

For more information and to register, visit the event homepage.

Project for Public Spaces Vice President, Ethan Kent, writes about Melbourne's successful new public space development, Federation Square, and a Placemaking training course that he helped lead, which included many city staff, local developers and "place managers."

 

Three urban planners from PPS visited Churchhill County and Fallon, NV, in an effort to inventory and assess local gathering places and destinations around town. 

Phil Myrick, vice president of PPS, and Elena Madison, assistant vice president, presented a list of sites they felt could be better utilized in Fallon. The team, which also included farmers market expert David O'Neil, toured downtown and the county and polled local residents on needed changes or additions to bring people together and to the downtown area.

Local politicians - lawyers among them - will be staging a mock trial Saturday on whether to set free a wooden bench near the Surrey Central SkyTrain and bus loop in Surrey, British Columbia.

The idea for the bench trial came about after public spaces guru Fred Kent, President of Project for Public Spaces, toured Whalley and spotted the bench, encaged by an iron fence, and marveled at the waste.

In order to foster ideas on how to reclaim 9th Avenue from Lincoln Tunnel traffic, the Clinton/Hell's Kitchen Pedestrian Safety Coalition (CHEKPEDS) sponsored a six month community input process designed by Project for Public Spaces.

Community Board 4 will hold a vote tonight on adopting report findings as "the official community vision." If that happens, the report will be incorporated as community input in the federally funded engineering study of entrances to the Lincoln Tunnel.

Speeding is down at an intersection in Ramsey, NJ, where temporary traffic calming devices were installed at the end of last month.

Modifications to the corner were just one of the changes suggested by Project for Public Spaces during a study of the streets around a train station that opened in 2004.

Fred Kent believes that you can have the most attractively built community in the world, but if people don't come together to mix in public spaces, it's just dead space.

His theory is that attractive, non-automobile dominated public spaces layered with multi-use functions will pump vitality back into communities that have become too isolated.

On Tuesday, May 22nd, Cynthia Nikitin, Vice President with Project for Public Spaces (PPS) in New York City, will speak in Cleveland Heights, OH on the topic "Main Street at Work: Shaping Neighborhood Commercial Centers around Places." The event will be held at Forest Hill Church, 3031 Monticello Blvd. (corner of Lee Blvd.) at 7:00 p.m. Free parking is available behind the church.  

In her talk, Ms. Nikitin will discuss how the key to revitalizing neighborhood commercial corridors and retail districts is to re-imagine them as a series of dynamic linked destinations, managed as a whole. Examples will be presented of downtown neighborhood main streets that have turned themselves around by reorienting around the notion of "Place."

As a seasoned project director of PPS, Cynthia Nikitin has more than 20 years of experience in public art administration, public space management and programming, creating transit centers as public spaces, civic buildings as community assets and facilitating workshops for community and transportation professionals to add greater value to communities with public space projects. PPS is an international non-profit organization that creates the public spaces that build and sustain communities.

The lecture, which is free and open to the public, is jointly sponsored by FutureHeights and the Cleveland Chapter of the Ohio Planning Conference. For more information, call (216) 320-1423 or email info@futureheights.org.

For more information, download the event flyer here.

PPS is working with neighborhood associations, community boards, and the Manhattan Borough President in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of New York City, to address traffic, pollution, and the degradation of street life on 9th Avenue.  Thor Snilsberg presented PPS's report to the community, which included three proposed redesign plans for 9th Avenue based on community feedback gathered at a series of workshops.

Project for Public Spaces worked with the Town of Poughkeepsie and Vassar College to develop traffic calming recommendations and other improvements to Raymond Avenue and the Arlington Business District.

Construction was completed in the Spring of 2007, and a portion of Raymond Avenue now features a roundabout, medians, and new crosswalks.

Photo © Otto Yamamoto

For more on this project and additional photos, click here.

PPS led a Placemaking workshop in Solana Beach, CA, on March 17. Participants focused on areas around Cedros Avenue and Highway 101. Suggested improvements included wider sidewalks, more crosswalks on Highway 101, and sitting areas around the pedestrian bridges.

The event was filmed and will be a part of a documentary produced by University of California, San Diego Television, and is due out in September.
 

PPS is working with the Grand Army Plaza Coalition in Brooklyn, NY to help improve the area for pedestrians.  PPS held a workshop attended by 50 community members and discussed a vision for the dangerous plaza.

This video of the workshop from StreetFilms.org features PPS's Kathleen Ziegenfuss and Ethan Kent.

This interview with Fred Kent appeared in the February 2007 issue of Urban Land:

"As an internationally known advocate for public spaces, Fred Kent, founder of the New York-based  Project for Public Spaces (PPS), sees cities - and the people who inhabit them - through the measured senses of an urban provocateur."

Although New York prides itself on its public life, New Yorkers inhabit a public realm that pales beside what it could become. "After working in cities around the world, we've developed a rich understanding of public spaces that begs to be put to use back in our home town," explains PPS President Fred Kent. "New York can benefit from our experience and become an even greater city in the 21st century."

Museum Mile Festival, 5th Avenue 

Read this special issue of PPS's newsletter Making Places, which includes the city commentary, New York great public spaces and hidden gems, and the places that provide the biggest opportunities for improvement.

Listen to Fred Kent discuss what makes a great waterfront on San Diego's KPBS.

At a public meeting in Tempe, AZ, PPS Vice President Phil Myrick recommended that the city create a network of pedestrian walkways to connect the area's destionations.

Image (c) Andrea Bloom / The State Press

PPS facilitated the first meeting of the Ninth Avenue Renaissance project in Hell's Kitchen, New York, attended by over 130 members of the community. The project will focus on transforming Ninth Avenue from a traffic-choked, polluted highway, to a community-oriented Main Street.  Aaron Naparstek brings us his take on the meeting on Streetsblog.

PPS staff members Fred Kent, Cynthia Nikitin and Ethan Kent traveled to Dubai to train a group of the city's leading real estate developers in Placemaking.  The largest city in the United Arab Emirates, Dubai has experienced explosive growth in recent years, emerging as the region's financial and cultural capital. Ethan explores the transportation situation in the rapidly growing emirate in this entry on Streetsblog.

Congratulations to the San Jose/Guerrero Coalition to Save Our Streets, co-recipient of the 2006 Grand Award, given by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission in San Francisco.

The Coalition of neighborhood activists successfully transformed a dangerous 6-lane arterial into a traffic-calmed street with wide medians, safe pedestrian crossings, and bike lanes. PPS worked with the Coalition to create a Neighborhood Plan, to further redevelop the neighborhood's streets into great public spaces.

Read more about PPS's work with the San Jose/Guerrero Coalition to Save our Streets here.

Less room for cars translates to more room for bicyclists. (Photo: Noah Berger)

PPS worked with a community-driven initiative to transform Gansevoort Plaza, a broad, chaotic intersection of Ninth Avenue and Gansevoort Street, into a thriving piazza. The Greater Gansevoort Urban Improvement Project (GGUIP) is quietly emerging as one of New York City's most promising Streets Renaissance initiatives.

 

Toni Gold, a Senior Associate of Project for Public Spaces, applauds CT Governor Rell's establishment of an Office of Responsible Growth, and also asks if the move is a sufficient step towards meaningful smart growth policies.

The Indianapolis Cultural Trail, a pedestrian-and-bike path linking Downtown cultural districts, will take a big leap forward today with the announcement of a $15 million donation allowing construction to begin next year.

PPS looked at cities and trails around the world and helped the project team work through design, engineering and programmatic issues, encouraging the city to build an on-street bicycle network to compliment the trail, and think of the entire street as a public space. Andy Wiley-Schwartz, Vice President of PPS, said of the trail, "There's nothing really exactly like it." The closest thing in the United States is in Boulder, Colo., where a bike-and-walk trail system was developed in the downtown area, he said.
 

PPS is seeking a Transportation and Placemaking Project Manager in its transportation line of business. Candidates should have experience in several of the following areas: transportation and land use planning and/or policy, TOD,  transportation facility design, public participation and facilitation, community development, redevelopment and real estate development  market analysis. The selected candidate will report to the Vice President for Transportation and work with other VPs, project associates and interns on a range of planning, research, and marketing projects, including land and community development projects and general and specific plans for communities, cities and counties.

Read more about this position at: http://www.pps.org/info/aboutpps/jobopenings

Several dozen people converged on New Glasgow this week to learn how to change their communities from places they couldn't wait to get through to places they didn't want to leave.

Reduce traffic volume and make room for happier citizens, urged workshop leaders from the New York-based Project for Public Spaces. Kathy Madden, Cynthia Nikitin, and Kathleen Ziegenfuss trained about 50 provincial politicians, municipal planners, librarians and others interested in community development, in simple low-cost techniques to revitalize neighbourhoods.

"After months of public consultation, the City of Mississauga is unveiling its vision for the revitalization of public spaces in and around downtown Mississauga, with particular focus on new parks and public spaces in the City Centre.

The City has been working with Project for Public Spaces (PPS) -- a non-profit organization which specializes in working with cities to create and sustain lively public places -- to draft a concept plan that will see the City Centre develop into a vital community destination with programs, people-friendly settings, and social and economic rejuvenation. The plan is built on the principles of "Placemaking" - creating successful public spaces through access, activities, comfort and sociability."

 

In an era when cities and towns are changing rapidly, public spaces are the key to reviving civic engagement.  Fred Kent and Benjamin Fried look at how one city is making it happen, in the September 2006 issue of Municipal World.

 

Project for Public Spaces worked with community members in Elmira, NY, to gather ideas for rejuvenating a section of railroad viaduct and creating an identifiable gateway for the city. The city has submitted an application for federal funding for the project.

Contested Streets Screening
 
A free public screening will take place on Saturday, August 26th at Solar 1 in Stuyvesant Cove Park (E. 23rd Street and the East River) as part of their Solar Powered Film Series.

At 8 pm there will be a panel discussion about NYC’s traffic problem and what groups around the city and around the world are doing to fight traffic. The panel will feature:

Alexis Perotta: Senior Policy Analyst, Regional Plan Association 
Ethan Kent: Vice President, Project for Public Spaces
Glen McAnanama: Founder, Upper Green Side and blogger featured on The Oil Drum and StreetsBlog
Matthew Roth: Director, NYC Streets Renaissance Campaign Moderator: Dani Simons: Deputy Director, Transportation Alternatives

At 9 pm there will be a screening of Contested Streets. The screening is free and open to the public. Guests can enjoy delicious refreshments generously donated by the Birdbath Bakery, the city’s first sustainably built and managed bakery; as well organic wine, Brooklyn Brewery beer and other choice treats.

About Contested Streets: Breaking NYC Gridlock

Contested Streets is co-produced by Mark Gorton and Transportation Alternatives. It was created by Cicala Filmworks. The film runs 57 minutes. To watch the trailer, purchase a copy of the DVD or get more information about holding a screening visit www.transalt.org/contestedstreets.

About Solar One

Solar One, the City's first solar powered “Green Energy, Arts, and Education Center” inspires New Yorkers to become environmentally responsible city dwellers.

 
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NYCSR presents "StreetFilms"
Pioneer Theater:  Tuesday, August 29th at 7 PM
Tickets: $9 (Free food and drink following screening)

Pioneer Theater is located at 155 East 3rd Street, NYC  (Between Avenues A & B, closest to A)

Please join us for a 75 minute "StreetFilms," program from the NYC Streets Renaissance Campaign (NYCSR).  "StreetFilms" are an eclectic collection of short video works which highlight many of the transportation problems our city faces and the struggles communities are confronted with in trying to reform their streets into more livable spaces.  The videos highlight many communities, residents and advocates and what they are doing to fight for better conditions for pedestrians, cyclists, and more open space.   We'll also focus on how other cities and countries are doing it better.

Among the dozen-plus works to be shown include "The Sidewalk Nibblers" and "Parking Spot Squat".  All films are directed by Clarence Eckerson Jr.

This very special night will feature a pizza and beverage reception to follow which is included free with ticket purchase.

Advanced tickets are strongly recommended.  To purchase:  http://www.tix.com/Event.asp?Event=64458

Pioneer Theater website: http://www.twoboots.com/pioneer/
 

Crystal Crawford, mayor of Del Mar, CA, attended a presentation given by Fred Kent, President of Project for Public Spaces, and writes this of the experience:

"I was totally impressed by his presentation and struck by the possibilities for Del Mar.  I sat captivated by Mr. Kent’s description of what creates wonderful public spaces while seeing his photographs from around the world demonstrating those very concepts.  I could not help but think about how we could apply these very concepts to the revitalization of Del Mar’s business district and, by doing so, further the principles of our Community Plan."

An interview with Fred Kent, President and founder of PPS, on what it means to create a great place and why the concept of Placemaking has gone international.

Toni Gold, a Senior Associate of PPS, writes this piece in the Hartford Courant on the 50th anniversary of the interstate highway system, and takes a look at what the future of transportation holds.

Flint is a city that was built around cars, yet remarkably, for a city that was planned for everything but people, there are still some great people working to create a genuine "Steets Rennaissance," writes PPS Vice President Ethan Kent in his correspondence to the Streets Blog.

 

PPS staff members Steve Davies, Ethan Kent, and Elena Madison traveled to Flint MI for two days of meetings with city officials, community leaders and stakeholders, and tours of potential sites that could be transformed into vibrant destinations.

PPS will return to Flint for public workshops that will focus on Riverbank Park, and the Flint Farmers' Market, which will take place on July 25 and 26.
 

Watch Fred Kent, President of Project for Public Spaces, give his presentation "Creating a Sense of Place", given in San Diego on March 14, 2006

This presentation and other streaming video programs are available online on UCSD-TV's web site at www.ucsd.tv.

The NYC Streets Renaissance exhibit, Livable Streets: A New Vision for New York, has moved from the Municipal Arts Society to the lobby of 4 Times Square, the Conde Nast Building.

The exhibit will focus on a vision for Broadway as a grand boulevard containing more than 20 unique destinations, with Times Square as the most iconic. The exhibit will also examine some of the "Best Practice" models already being employed by the Times Square Alliance to transform Times Square into one of the finest public spaces in the world.

Please join the Streets Renaissance team - PPS, Transportation Alternatives, and the Open Planning Project - and the Durst Organization for an opening reception on Thursday, May 25th, 6-8 pm. Enter the lobby of 4 Times Square on the north side of 42nd Street, near Broadway.

Please RSVP to streets@transalt.org.

"It takes a community to create a great place," advised PPS's Andy Wiley-Schwartz in his keynote presentation at the annual meeting of Elmira Downtown Development in Elmira, NY.

Andy, with Cynthia Nikitin and Nick Grossman, kicked-off the planning process for the Elmira Promenade. Revitalizing the Promenade is part of downtown development plan to create a city center in Elmira.

Toni Gold's latest column in the Hartford Courant raises the bar for a new road policy to put public money to better use.

As immigrants without cars settle in suburban neighborhoods, simply crossing the street to buy groceries is becoming a life-and-death activity.

Project for Public Spaces invites you to its popular "How to Create Successful Public Markets" workshop on May 11-12, 2006 and "How to Turn a Place Around" workshop on May 4-5, 2006 in New York City.

HOW TO CREATE SUCCESSFUL MARKETS www.pps.org/info/ppsnews/markets_training_course

Is a two-day workshop led by our own public market experts Steve Davies and David O'Neil. Cities and towns across the US are rediscovering the benefits of public markets.

At this workshop, you will:

Learn how to start a market in your neighborhood or town; look at case studies and explore the market planning process, including goal-setting, concept development, economic feasibility, management, site selection and design; visit and analyze some of New York's most famous markets -- both indoor and outdoor; and meet other folks from around the country working on a variety of public market projects.

The registration fee covers two days of tuition, including tours, in-depth presentations and discussions, on-site evaluation, case studies, and training support materials. Light lunch and refreshments will be provided on both Thursday and Friday. There is a reception Thursday evening (included) and an optional dinner Friday night (please note, the dinner is not included in the fee.)

Sign up now and join a small, dynamic group of people which in past workshops has included mayors, planning officials, community development officials, neighborhood organizers and market sponsors.

About the instructors:

STEVE DAVIES, as senior vice president of PPS, has directed nearly 500 major projects in the U.S and abroad and is sought out as one of the foremost thought leaders in public markets. He oversees the activities of PPS's Public Market Program, where he currently works on a multi-million dollar grant-making and policy initiative for public markets and farmers markets with the Ford Foundation and W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

A specialist in all phases of market development, DAVID O'NEIL has worked on over 200 market projects around the world and has directed four international public market conferences, the most recent in October, 2005 in Washington DC. David recently published "Reading Terminal Market: An Illustrated History," a beautifully illustrated narrative about one of the country's largest public markets located in Philadelphia, PA.

For more information about the workshop, or to register online now, go to http://www.pps.org/info/ppsnews/markets_training_course

For additional inquiries, please contact Chris Heitmann at 212-620-5660.

HOW TO TURN A PLACE AROUND
http://www.pps.org/info/ppsnews/httapa_training_course

How to Turn a Place Around is a two-day workshop designed for professionals and non-professionals who help shape towns and cities -- from highway engineers and real estate developers to community garden advocates and housing specialists. Based on PPS's 30 years of experience in Placemaking, and inspired by our popular book, "How to Turn a Place Around," the course shows step-by-step our unique approach to revitalization.

During the course, participants will spend two days exploring the principles of making places through walking tours, presentations, case studies, PPS's Place Performance Evaluation Game, and the close examination of several contrasting neighborhoods. The sites will be used to illustrate complexities in making places, encourage a user's point of view, and to provide insight into how public spaces function.

The registration fee covers two days of tuition, including a neighborhood tour, in-depth presentations and discussions, on-site evaluation, case studies, a copy of How to Turn a Place Around, and training support materials. Light lunch and refreshments will be provided on both Thursday and Friday. There is a reception Thursday evening (included) and we will make recommendations for dinner Friday night should you want to continue the discussion (not included in the fee).

To register and for more information, please visit the workshop webpage, www.pps.org/info/ppsnews/httapa_training_course or contact Kathleen Ziegenfuss at 212-620-5660.

PPS is excited to announce to you an exhibit we have just opened at the Urban Center Galleries at the Municipal Art Society. The exhibit Livable Streets: A New Vision for New York is the public kick off of the New York City Streets Renaissance Campaign that PPS is running with Transportation Alternatives and The Open Planning Project.

The experience most associated with New York, and perhaps most loved about the city, is that of the pedestrian--walking city sidewalks, strolling around neighborhood streets--yet we still plan our streets mainly to enhance the speed of the automobile.

We strongly believe that the biggest obstacle--and biggest opportunity--to achieving better public spaces in New York is our streets. The myopic focus of New York transportation officials on moving vehicles has had serious consequences for the city, limiting its potential as a vibrant place where public activity can flourish and all modes of transportation are balanced. The city is now at a point where it can either stay the course of worsening traffic and perilous streets or re-define itself with great public spaces and lively street life. Almost every street in the city can better meet communities' needs for greater accessibility, health, safety, and economic activity.

"If we continue to plan our streets for cars and traffic we will only get more cars and traffic, but if we start planning for people and places, we will get people and places."
-- Fred Kent

The New York City Streets Renaissance Campaign is challenging the city's auto-centric transportation policy at every level, shedding light on the broader opportunities to support great streets and neighborhoods through smart investment in transportation and public space. We are working to connect neighborhood and city-wide leaders with each other and with powerful information and training. We are also getting short-term wins by working with communities to achieve specific street restructuring projects that bring significant benefits to pedestrians, neighborhoods, and the city as whole.

We hope that you will join the many people and organizations who are signing on to express their support for this campaign. You can also tell your stories or seek help for your community here.

And don't forget to attend our exhibit and the many associated events at The Urban Center, 457 Madison Avenue at 51st Street (details below). All of the events are free, however it is recommended that you RSVP to rsvp@mas.org or 212-935-2075.

PPS is very excited to be focusing more of our energy in New York after having successfully reformed transportation policy and practice in other parts of the country. We will be releasing our New York City Commentary (a follow up to city commentaries we have done for London, Paris and Barcelona.) in the coming month.

We hope to see you at one of the upcoming events!

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EVENTS

Neighborhoods and Traffic: How Does Traffic Affect New Yorkers' Quality of Life?
Wed, Feb 15, 6:30 - 8:00 pm

High volumes of neighborhood traffic not only impact our health, but also the bonds that form strong communities. Hear the details of a groundbreaking study that shows how speeding, congestion and other traffic issues affect the relationships residents have with their neighbors, their children and the places they call home.

Karla Quintero from Transportation Alternatives will present the results from the new report Neighborhoods and Traffic. Learn how traffic and street design affect New Yorkers' perception, use and enjoyment of city streets. Karla examines the impact of traffic on New Yorkers' quality of life and confirms Donald Appleyard's findings first published in Livable Streets (1963).

Tom Samuels, leading traffic calming practitioner from Chicago (and former PPS employee), will discuss measures Chicago has taken to reconfigure their roadways and traffic control systems to balance pedestrian safety with traffic flow.

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Better Streets, Better Business: Fiscal Benefits of Better Streets
Thurs, Feb 23, 8:30 - 10:00 am

Todd Litman, founder and executive director of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute, will discuss the economic benefits of creating spaces that favor walking and biking over driving. He will focus on measures city and local businesses can take to set modal targets for biking and walking within the city as well as more specific commercial and retail districts; define the value of walkability in a strong economy and successful retail center and explore a variety of methods that address specific parking problems and encourage more efficient use.

Bruce Shaller, President of Schaller Consulting, will release his groundbreaking new report "The Auto in Manhattan: Necessity or Choice?" It explores the role of automobile travel in Manhattan's economy, and the extent to which current auto commuters have existing transit alternatives. The report has far-reaching implications for how New York's streets are best managed, apportioned and designed.

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Broadway as a Destination: What if We Redefined Broadway Around its Great Destinations?
Monday, Feb 27, 6:30 - 8:00 pm

While Broadway is the proud spine of Manhattan, in reality it is more of a thoroughfare than a great street. Broadway's major crossings create some of the most unfriendly intersections in the city, but these problematic spaces also have enormous potential to become pedestrian-oriented destinations. A panel of local leaders will discuss transforming Broadway into a street with great destinations and more effective pedestrian connections.

Discussion questions will include: Can Broadway become more pedestrian-oriented? How can Broadway better connect and support the destinations it intersects? Can it become a boulevard with amenities and wider sidewalks? Can through traffic be limited? Can traffic be two-way? Can vehicle access be limited, with