Comments on: Brooklyn’s Myrtle Avenue Renaissance http://www.streetsblog.org/2007/10/30/brooklyns-myrtle-avenue-renaissance/ Covering the New York City Streets Renaissance Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:07:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Harry Hood http://www.streetsblog.org/2007/10/30/brooklyns-myrtle-avenue-renaissance/comment-page-1/#comment-39432 Harry Hood Wed, 31 Oct 2007 19:03:06 +0000 http://www.streetsblog.org/2007/10/30/brooklyns-myrtle-avenue-renaissance/#comment-39432 Albeit a small step, this is the kind of project that needs to be replicated thousands of times throughout all 5 boroughs. For decades, property owners have pandered to the needs of cars and slowly degraded a number of everyday sites like this gas station. Jane Jacobs described these concessions to cars as “nibbles” where “no one step in this process is, in itself, crucial. But cumulatively the effect is enormous." For NYC to truly become a great city it will require more than top-down innovation from the Mayor or DOT, it will take acceptance, buy-in, and contributions from everyday people. In this case, gas station management deserves credit for their willingness to trade asphalt for tree pits because street trees may actually be an inconvenience to their customers. Small incremental improvements like this don’t get a lot of attention or grab many headlines, but I’m sure that savvy streetsblog readers are familiar with Jan Gehl’s tremendous success “incrementally” improving Copenhagen. Reclaiming a couple parking spaces often goes unnoticed, people are not as likely to fight against it, and hopefully in the long run they forget how convenient it was to park their car on the sidewalk and see the public values in the shade that cools them as they wait for the B54 bus. Albeit a small step, this is the kind of project that needs to be replicated thousands of times throughout all 5 boroughs. For decades, property owners have pandered to the needs of cars and slowly degraded a number of everyday sites like this gas station. Jane Jacobs described these concessions to cars as “nibbles” where “no one step in this process is, in itself, crucial. But cumulatively the effect is enormous.”

For NYC to truly become a great city it will require more than top-down innovation from the Mayor or DOT, it will take acceptance, buy-in, and contributions from everyday people. In this case, gas station management deserves credit for their willingness to trade asphalt for tree pits because street trees may actually be an inconvenience to their customers.

Small incremental improvements like this don’t get a lot of attention or grab many headlines, but I’m sure that savvy streetsblog readers are familiar with Jan Gehl’s tremendous success “incrementally” improving Copenhagen. Reclaiming a couple parking spaces often goes unnoticed, people are not as likely to fight against it, and hopefully in the long run they forget how convenient it was to park their car on the sidewalk and see the public values in the shade that cools them as they wait for the B54 bus.

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