Realm Of Possibility - Public Realm

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Realm Of Possibility

Blueprint for Public Realm

Blueprint for Public Realm


Realm Of Possibility: 15 Ways NYC is Improving Public Space for New Yorkers

In a new report, NYC’s first Chief Public Realm Officer Ya-Ting Liu outlines her mission-oriented agenda and priorities for New York City’s public realm. Learn more about the mission and priorities of New York City’s inaugural Chief Public Realm Officer below.

Read more on the Realm of Possibilities.

Improve the Way People Experience Public Space Throughout the City

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1. Implement the country’s largest outdoor dining program

Created in crisis, our city’s outdoor dining program positively changed how we engage with our streetscape; but it’s time for the program to mature—to ensure that it is safe, clean and cohesive and adds to the vibrancy of streetscape.

New, pre-approved kits of accessible and affordable roadway setups will ensure that outdoor dining is equitable across the boroughs and successful in the long term— by creating high-quality, pest-resistant, movable structures, while allowing New Yorkers to continue enjoying New York’s dining scene al fresco.

2. Remove longstanding sidewalk sheds

Sidewalk sheds are necessary to keep New Yorkers safe from unsafe building façades, but they detract from the look and feel of our streetscape. The rules governing sidewalk sheds have incentivized property owners to delay conducting façade repairs, leaving sidewalk sheds covering our sidewalks for extended periods.

The City will advance proposals to ensure the expeditious removal of sheds and reimagine a new, more attractive sidewalk shed for the future.

3. Plant thousands of new street trees at a lower cost

Street trees keep our neighborhoods cool and improve health outcomes, but planting trees on New York City sidewalks, like many other City construction efforts, can be cost- and time intensive.

The City plans to reduce costs and accelerate street tree planting through innovations such as launching an in-house tree-planting team. The City is on track to plant 16,500 street trees citywide in FY 24, with over half planned for the most heat vulnerable neighborhoods.

4. Increase access to public restrooms

When you gotta go, you gotta go. When you can’t find a bathroom, that’s a problem.

The City will install and upgrade approximately 82 parks public restrooms and site 14 automatic self-cleaning toilets across the five boroughs. The City also created a public restroom map to increase awareness of the nearly 1,000 existing public restrooms in New York City.

5. Prioritize our curb space for best public use

Most curbs around the city are dedicated to free street parking, a fact of New York City life that has not been revisited in decades.

The City’s Curb Management Plan will prioritize the use of curb space with maximum public benefit. This will be achieved in part by working with Business Improvement Districts on the "Smart Curbs” initiative, which will rethink curb regulations and programming from scratch.

Deliver More Quality Public Space in Less Time in All Five Boroughs

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6. Create a Public Space Incubator to complete public space capital projects in underserved communities within a 5-year timeline

Far too often, the City’s capital projects take too long to complete and cost more than originally budgeted.

A new Public Space Incubator will expedite the building of public space projects in communities that are most in need, leveraging new capital delivery methods to cut down on both time and costs.

7. Establish a Public Space Avengers interagency team to better coordinate planning and project delivery

In NYC, it is too common to see a road get ripped up by one entity, paved over and ripped up again by another. Better coordination and support for City capital agencies can assist in planning and aligning projects without unnecessary disruption for the public.

The Public Space Avengers, made up of agencies responsible for work above and below ground, will combine efforts to shave off time and deliver projects faster, creating an outsized impact from day one.

8. Ensure privately-owned public spaces are open and inviting to New Yorkers

Privately-owned public spaces (POPS) can be a crucial tool in giving New Yorkers access to public space near where they live and work. But not all of New York City’s 598 POPS are accessible for New Yorkers to enjoy.

The City will support incentives to maximize public space, while ramping up enforcement efforts, including an audit of out-of-compliance POPS in 2024, to keep POPS open for New York.

9. Open more schoolyards to the public after hours

Creating new parks in a dense urban environment takes time: transforming schoolyards to publicly-accessible playgrounds is a key strategy to expand the city’s public space footprint, especially in communities that lack open public areas.

The City will address gaps in access to parks in the highest-need areas by opening more school playgrounds to community members after hours.

10. Establish NYC as the most skate-friendly city in the world

New York City is experiencing a post-pandemic skateboarding boom. Skateparks offer inclusive spaces to perfect skills on inline skates, skateboards, and bikes.

The City will create four world class skate parks in the Bronx and Brooklyn to provide new and improved spaces for New Yorkers to have fun and build community.

Cut Red Tape for City Partners Activating Public Spaces

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11. Establish a Public Space Academy to train partners on best practices

From parks to streets and plazas, the City relies heavily on partners to activate public spaces and bring them to life with creative programming, but there can be a steep learning curve for partners navigating the various rules and requirements.

The City will establish a Public Space Academy to provide technical assistance and resources to Public Space Partners – like plaza partners, BIDs, Open Streets, parks, and community-based organizations.

12. Streamline permitting process for public space activations

The City’s street activity permitting process can be long and arduous; this can especially impact smaller organizers with limited capacity and staff.

The City will work to improve the user experience of obtaining a permit for street activations.

13. Reduce legal and financial burden of Public Space Partners maintaining and activating public spaces

The City often requires partners to take on onerous costs and risks for maintaining the City’s public spaces.

The City will work to revise maintenance agreements for our streetscapes and parks so that partners can focus resources on the maintenance and activation of spaces within their communities.

14. Mobilize a Clean Team to provide on-demand cleaning and maintenance efforts for critical public space connectors

BIDs and other neighborhood organizations provide essential maintenance to commercial corridors across the five boroughs, but there are areas that require additional support to maintain consistently.

A new Public Space Clean Team will provide targeted neighborhood cleanups for spaces that provide critical connections to neighborhoods to ensure all of our spaces are clean, vibrant, and safe.

15. Establish metrics for measuring impact of public space projects and activations

The City has an abundance of data related to the built environment, but none of it is unified to show the economic, environmental, and public health impact of our public space.

The City will seek and leverage public-private partnerships to assess the data to support future investments and ensure we are delivering public space to New Yorkers that need it most.