SOFTENING THE GRID

One of the biggest impediments to changing our city is how hard it is for people to imagine changes before they are implemented. Hopefully this helps.

All images by:

Park Ave

This avenue used to be a park, and could be again...

School Streets

Zohran has promised a school street outside every school, with greenery. A quieter, safer, more welcoming environment for the city's kids that encourages families to walk or ride to school.

59th Street

Out of the 4 streets adjacent to Central Park, only 1 has a protected bike lane. This is important because the loop inside the park is only 1 way and does not facilitate transportation on the surrounding streets or access to the park. A lane on 59th St. would also feed the Queensboro Bridge, allowing easy access to both the park and bridge for residents.

Times Square

The city famously began the pedestrianization of Times Square years ago. Now it's time to finish the job. This may be the most obvious place for it anywhere in the world.

31st Ave at 31st Street

This bike boulevard is one of the nicest in the nation, but it has one problem. A "rat run" was left between 31st and 33rd street that incentivizes drivers to cut through the bike boulevard to get to a highway shortcut. This must be fixed with a 1 block long pedestrian plaza like this, to restore the boulevard's main goal: reducing traffic volumes to prioritize pedestrian and micromobility movements.

Loading Zones

Currently, the lack of loading zones in NYC leads directly to a host of problems. Rampant double parking, chaotic street movements, slow and costly freight operations, etc. Every block needs 2 or 3 loading zones carved out of the existing car parking. These should be heavily enforced.

31st Street

A recent, very misguided lawsuit, has temporarily stopped work on this bike lane and pedestrian safety project once again until it can be appealed. The judge seemed to give some credence to the idea that FDNY will have trouble operating on the street due to the parked cars. So let's visualize the obvious solution... no parked cars at all.

Alternate reality Queensboro Bridge

This one is a bit more fanciful, and not likely to be a serious plan anytime soon. Just illustrating how the world might have been different if Robert Moses had instead built for people that live in the city instead of suburbanites driving in.

Failed Robert Moses Projects

For the exact opposite... some examples of how NOT to build a city. If these failed Robert Moses Projects existed today people would fight to justify them the same they do all the rest of our stupid, destructive car infrastructure...

Grand Central Viaduct

Janette Sadik-Khan wanted to pedestrianize the viaduct above Grand Central, the nation's second busiest train station. This is a layup for the next Commissioner

5th Ave

Eric Adams watered down the original capital plan for 5th Ave, getting rid of the bike lane in favor of another car lane. It's time to revert that and make a world class street.

Walkways over the Hudson

Maybe in 2026 New Jersey can be a big boy state, stop the highway expansions, and start building pedestrian and micromobility crossings across the Hudson

The Queens Greenway

This is a visualization of the greenway proposed by DOT for Western Queens, that might finally unite the residents of Astoria and Long Island City with this stretch of the water.

West Side Highway Conversion

Highways have no place in modern cities, and need to be removed or converted to normal city streets.