MAS is pleased at the City’s announcement today that the two portions of Broadway around Herald and Times squares closed to vehicular traffic since June of last year are to be made into permanent pedestrian plazas.

The goal of the Department of Transportation (DOT) pilot program was to reduce travel times around Times Square and Herald Square by eliminating the congestion where Broadway meets Sixth and Seventh avenues. This goal was achieved in part, but other direct consequences of reclaiming these streets for pedestrians, including a 35 percent reduction in pedestrian injuries, and the creation of 2.5 acres of new public space in one of the city’s densest neighborhoods, are the most exciting outcomes.

MAS welcomed the experiment when it was first announced last March as a great step towards creating improved, pedestrian-friendly streetscapes, and we congratulate Mayor Bloomberg and Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan today on having taken this bold step.

MAS President Vin Cipolla said, “Making these two new public plazas permanent fixtures of our streets is a fantastic achievement that promotes what Jane Jacobs called the ballet of the sidewalk — the unrehearsed choreography of people moving through the city. It will be of enormous lasting benefit to New Yorkers and the vitality of our city’s street life.”

Originally, the City had discussed extending the closures of Broadway further to the south, but there seem to be no plans at the moment to do so.

To read more about MAS’ advocacy on New York City streetscape issues click here.

This morning, MAS President Vin Cipolla moderated a panel discussion considering how to diversify New York City’s traditionally finance-heavy economy in light of the ongoing global financial crisis.

One of four major topics to be addressed at the conference Thinking Big, New York and London: Heading Back to the Top beginning today, the panel focused on issues germane to the economies of both these cities, including: what urban governments can do to encourage start-up ventures and emerging industries; what the implications are of slowing real estate development; how to sustain cutting-edge arts-based creative economies and niche manufacturing in a future of increasingly high costs; and what the role of landmarks and historic preservation is in that future.

Other topics for examination at the conference, which kicked-off today with a conversation between Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Mayor of London Boris Johnson, are: the future of concentrated financial districts; housing production, affordability and global competitiveness; and, the infrastructure systems that make great cities work. Continue Reading>>

On Tuesday, June 9, nearly 300 New Yorkers — community board members and staff, their supporters, elected officials, and MAS — turned out to rally around community boards and to send a strong message to City Council that the public cannot afford for community boards to take a big hit. As reported last week, community board budgets — currently, at just under $200,000, and not having had a single increase in 19 years — are looking at cuts totaling $35,000 each.

A cut of that magnitude results in a savings to the City of only about $2 million, but impacts the operations of the board to the point where their ability to do the work of the people — ensuring a voice in local decision-making, overseeing essential municipal services, and serving as a place-based provider of constituent services — becomes next to impossible.

Please contact your local council member and urge them to restore the community board budgets: stronger community boards equal stronger communities, and the public can’t afford to take this hit!

To celebrate their 100th Issue, Architect’s Newspaper asked the leaders of the New York architecture and development community what their favorite buildings of the recent past are. MAS President Kent Barwick pointed out the simple but immensely popular Apple Store cube on Fifth Avenue in the plaza of the General Motors Building, for “[giving] back what is so often missing from buildings of that period – people.”

In other news, the Triborough Bridge is officially being named after Robert F. Kennedy next week spurring the need to change hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of road signage. Continue Reading>>

The First Annual Jane Jacobs Forum: Housing New Yorkers in the 21st-Century
Wednesday, November 5, 6:30 – 8:00 p.m.
In announcing his PlaNYC 2030, Mayor Bloomberg said the city must prepare for its population to grow by more than one million residents by the year 2030. Ensuring that New Yorkers have affordable and sustainable places to live is one of the most important goals for the city today.

Urban visionary and activist Jane Jacobs wrote that a strong sense of community is critical in creating dynamic and diverse neighborhoods. But today, it is increasingly difficult for New Yorkers of low and moderate income to  live here. In the midst of these precarios economic times, how can planners, architects, city officials, and developers work with local residents to create affordable homes? How will today’s credit crisis further impact the cost and availability of housing in New York City? What can we do to retain the unique, densely populated, mixed-income neighborhoods that Jacobs favored? Continue Reading>>

New York Daily News reports that Mayor Bloomberg met with City Councilmembers Friday night to urge them to approve the City’s proposed rezoning of Willets Point, Queens – a decision the Council must make by November 13.  To date, the majority of the Council has been vocally opposed to supporting the rezoning without key amendments.  Read MAS’ testimony on Willets Point here.

Meanwhile, the New York Daily News also reports that the New York City Economic Development Corporation has purchased another parcel of land in Willets Point; the largest parcel yet acquired by the City, this is the 4 acre warehouse, the House of Spices.

In other news, the MTA has delayed signing a contract with the Related Companies for their Hudson Yards bid… Continue Reading>>

In its letter to the New York City Council Zoning and Franchises Subcommittee earlier this week, MAS described Hunter’s Point South Queens as an exciting opportunity to put the sustainable neighborhood planning principles laid out by the Mayor in his  PlaNYC2030 into practice.

Representing a precious waterfront area and unique development opportunity for Queens and the city as a whole, MAS believes that any project plans for this area must adhere to transit oriented and sustainable development principles and must preserve significant parts of this waterfront area as park space for active uses that provides access to the water.

The letter is pasted in full after the “continue reading” jump, but to download it as a PDF, click here. Continue Reading>>

Earlier this week, at the MAS panel discussion Solutions for Preserving New York’s Neighborhood Businesses, experts and New Yorkers pondered this and many other complex questions that relate to the increasing threat chain stores and banks are presenting to the survival of local business in the city. Click on the ‘play’ icon above to watch a short video summary of the program and (below) tell us what you think are the causes and solutions to this problem. Continue Reading>>

MillionTreesNYC was launched last year by the Parks Department and New York Restoration Project as a PlaNYC initiative.  This citywide, public-private program has an ambitious goal: to plant and care for one million new trees across the City’s five boroughs over the next decade. By planting one million trees, New York City can increase its urban forest by 20%, offering considerable environmental benefits to New Yorkers. The City of New York plans to plant 60% of these trees in parks and other public spaces. The remaining 40% will come from private organizations, homeowners, and community organizations. MAS is one of many non-profit groups that have agreed to help achieve this lofty goal.

MAS became involved because of our concern that the average street tree has a ten-year life cycle, and we believe it is as important to keep the million trees alive, as it is to plant them. So we are encouraged by the news that the MillionTreesNYC is seriously addressing the maintenance issue and has already put in place tree stewards at all New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) projects, where a large number of the new trees have been planted. Continue Reading>>

Nicolai Ouroussoff, architecture critic for the New York Times, counts Madison Square Garden and the adjoining WaMu Theater as one of New York’s most deserving buildings of demolition.  A previous rendition of the Moynihan Station development plan would have removed these buildings to make way for a brand new train station.  While Madison Square Garden is staying put for now and renovating, there is still the possibility of moving the WaMu theater to allow for a larger, light-filled entrance into Penn Station.  Read more at MAS’ site New Penn Station.

In other news, shuttering the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC), as Mayor Bloomberg suggested last week, could save five million dollars a year Continue Reading>>