Streetsblog New York City

In existence for just a few weeks now, the pedestrianized Corona Plaza has the makings of a livable streets success story. Check out this time-lapse video from DOT depicting the evolution of a new community space.

DOT went before Queens Community Board 1 on Tuesday to propose a pedestrian plaza at the intersection of 30th Avenue, 33rd Street and Newtown Avenue. The audience at the meeting was split on the proposal, but CB members were not: They voted against the plaza 25 to 7.

Since the board rejected the plaza, which would have cost $75,000 to install, the location will be receiving three smaller, but permanent, curb extensions at a cost of $400,000. The project could begin as soon as spring 2013. Legally, community boards serve only an advisory role, but DOT representatives said at the start of the meeting that the agency would not install the plaza if the community board voted against it.

Plaza supporters had formed Friends of Newtown Plaza to advocate for a community board “yes” vote, but the plaza was opposed by Council Member Peter Vallone Jr., who favored a smaller intervention that would have preserved through traffic (which DOT had previously rejected). Local business interests, including the 30th Avenue Business Association, were also vocal in their opposition.

Newtown Plaza was the site of DOT’s first one-day demonstration plaza on the last Saturday in August. At the event, DOT staff surveyed passersby about their preferences for the location. Support for the plaza was overwhelming, with 96 percent saying they would like a permanent plaza. And the vast majority — 88 percent — said they got to the plaza by walking. Most respondents came from the immediate neighborhood or adjacent zip codes and cited safety, cleanliness and public space as their top priorities. Few respondents identified parking as a priority.

A plaza would also have helped address the lack of public space in Astoria. According to DOT, city guidelines call for a minimum of 65 square feet of open space per person. Queens has 206 square feet per person, while Astoria has only 16 square feet per person.

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The intersection of 30th Avenue, 33rd Street and Newtown Avenue was the site of DOT’s first-ever one-day demonstration plaza. Will it get a permanent public space enhancement?

In June, DOT presented two options for this location: three curb extensions at a cost of $400,000, or the plaza at a cost of $75,000.

So far, Council Member Peter Vallone Jr. has sided with a group of vocal business owners who oppose the plaza. But tonight, the plaza will be up for a vote at Queens Community Board 1, and the dynamic could change.

A strong showing of neighborhood support for the 78th Street Play Street helped sway Queens CB 3 to support a car-free block in Jackson Heights in 2010. Public support for the Astoria plaza could shape the outcome of this project, too.

Merchant attitudes toward pedestrian plazas also have a way of changing after seeing the results in practice. Business owners who started out opposing the 37th Road plaza in Jackson Heights were eventually won over, and announced last month that they would help maintain what they now call “Diversity Plaza.”

Tonight’s community board vote is advisory but figures to factor strongly in DOT’s decision-making process. The meeting starts at 7:00 p.m. at 25-22 Astoria Boulevard. Stay tuned for coverage here tomorrow.

Something special is happening in Corona, Queens. Last week, Streetfilms visited Corona Plaza — the city’s newest car-free space, next to the 103rd Street stop on the 7 train — and found it already packed with families, children, and shoppers.

This plaza has been in the works for many years, and the local community has taken ownership of it immediately. Volunteers help in locking up the tables and chairs at night and assist in cleaning the space themselves.

The area previously had no public seating whatsoever, which is astonishing considering the dozens of restaurants nearby. Now it is a magnet for people, especially kids, who give the place a vibe that feels different than most other pedestrian plazas. To watch parents sit calmly while their children play would have been unheard of before the street was reclaimed from traffic and parking.

It hasn’t been open a week yet, and Corona Plaza is already a popular gathering spot. In the next few days, Streetfilms will be posting a video about the new plaza featuring Council Member Julissa Ferreras. In the meantime, enjoy some more photos of the plaza getting lots of use over the weekend courtesy of Clarence. “It was almost like a mini Summer Streets,” he said.

Facing a small but influential opposition to a permanent plaza in Astoria, DOT installed a one-day demonstration on Saturday to give neighborhood residents a sneak peak of how the street could be transformed. The demo, a first for DOT, was installed before Queens Community Board 1 votes on the proposal on September 11.

Throughout the day, people were taking breaks in the moveable chairs, kids were playing hopscotch, and residents were giving feedback to DOT.

Freida Raemer, 80, lives nearby and was walking down 30th Avenue when she came upon the demo plaza. She said that she would use the plaza if it’s installed. “Sometimes you want to take a little rest.”

DOT has put forth two options for the intersection: three curb extensions at a cost of $400,000, or the plaza at a cost of $75,000. If the plaza is built, DOT would work with the Central Astoria Local Development Corporation to maintain the space. Council Member Peter Vallone, Jr., siding with some businesses who don’t want to see the plaza get built, has said he opposes the plaza option.

Opponents were also out collecting signatures against the plaza on Saturday. Kat Valiotis, who lives on Newtown Avenue and works for Alma Realty, which is one of the businesses that opposes the plaza, said that she supports plazas, but that a plaza on her street would create unbearable traffic congestion. Valiotis also noted that the neighborhood has a park, Athens Square, a few blocks away at 30th Street.

But Antigone Babalas, carrying her 6-month-old girl down the street, said the neighborhood could use more public space. “The other park is always crowded,” said Babalas, who also has a 4-year-old boy. The Parks Department has identified Astoria as one of the 10 neighborhoods with the least amount of open space in New York. Looking at Newtown Avenue, Babalas said it might make a nice plaza. “It’s not a very busy block,” she said.

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A pedestrian plaza that garnered support from local business, a unanimous vote at Queens Community Board 4 in June, and the backing of City Council Member Julissa Ferreras is being installed in Corona. The project is on the site of a service road that functioned as a parking lot for moving trucks. Now the space is host to planters and movable chairs, where people are already relaxing. Installation should be complete in the next few days. Later this year, DOT will meet with community members to evaluate the plaza. If the project gets a thumbs-up, DOT will begin working on a long-term redesign.

Business owners in Jackson Heights have done more than just take over maintenance of the plaza on 37th Road. They’ve rechristened it “Diversity Plaza,” and they staged a community celebration that concluded on Monday to mark Eid-ul-Fitr, the breaking of fast at the end of Muslim holy month Ramadan. It seems the plaza was anything but empty that night. Eid Mubarak to all!

For nine months now, Philadelphia’s awesome new public space “The Porch” has been flying under the nation’s livable streets radar.

Installed by 30th Street Station as part of a larger PennDOT undertaking, the project reclaimed asphalt from cars and devoted it to people. The Porch provides a great place to meet up, and it shows what American cities can achieve at major transit hubs when they strive to create great public spaces.

The planners of The Porch looked to New York City’s Times Square for inspiration, and there might be something for NYC to learn in return as the city considers transforming parts of Vanderbilt Avenue outside Grand Central Terminal into pedestrian spaces.

The crowded streets of Corona, Queens will receive a welcome infusion of public space this July, thanks to the New York City Department of Transportation’s plaza program. With wide-ranging community support, DOT will close a block of  service road between National Street and 104th Street to traffic and fill it with plants, tables, chairs and bike racks [PDF].

Corona Plaza is already a popular neighborhood space; the area is used for holiday gatherings and a weekly greenmarket. But it lacks basic amenities like public seating, and an existing strip of parkland is cut off from local shops by the service road. Local merchants — sometimes a skeptical constituency when it comes to pedestrian plazas — believe the plaza will be a boon for business. Corona CAN, a volunteer network of local business owners, has written in support of the plaza, and its members have convinced the larger Queens Economic Development Corporation to formally sponsor and maintain the new space.

“This plaza is the heart of Corona and the engine of Roosevelt Avenue,” said Ricardi Calixte, neighborhood development director at Queens EDC. “This will get people to actually hang around the area more, frequent the businesses more. It’s going to bring so many more people to the plaza that the businesses will gain more from all the business they bring than they lose from a few parking spaces.”

Support for the pedestrianization plan came from across the community. Community Board 4 voted unanimously in support of the proposal at a meeting last Tuesday, according to the Queens Chronicle.

City Council Member Julissa Ferreras is also a supporter. “It’s so we have a nice place to sit and a place to be proud of,” Ferreras told the Chronicle.

The Queens Museum of Art, which testified in favor of the plaza at the City Council last year, will provide programming for the new space.

In Corona, losing a few parking spaces didn’t concern the business community. “Right now, the parking spaces are not really being used by customers of local businesses,” explained Calixte. Many of the angled spaces are filled by large moving trucks, which Calixte argued actually hurt merchants. “When these trucks are parked in the plaza, they pretty much block the view of all the businesses in the plaza,” he said.

Construction on the plaza should start with temporary materials mid-July, taking a week to complete. DOT will come back to community members later this year to assess how the pedestrian plaza is functions. If everyone likes what they see, a permanent design for the plaza will follow, with construction perhaps taking place in fall 2013 or spring 2014. Calixte said he’s already looking forward to weighing in on the long-term design of the space. “We expect this plaza to succeed.”

[Editor's note: This post originally stated that the new pedestrian plaza would be located on a block of 41st Avenue. The site is actually a service road for Roosevelt Avenue. The post has been amended.]