>
>><http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/11/nyregion/11broadway.html>http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/11/nyregion/11broadway.html
>>
>>July 11, 2008
>>
>>Closing on Broadway: Two Traffic Lanes
>>
>>By
>><http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?ppds=bylL&v1=WILLIAM%20NEUMAN&fdq=19960101&td=sysdate&sort=newest&ac=WILLIAM%20NEUMAN&inline=nyt-per>WILLIAM
>>NEUMAN
>>
>>In a surprising reshaping of the urban landscape, the city is
>>creating a public
>>esplanade along a portion of one of its most prominent streets, Broadway in
>>Midtown, setting aside the east side of the roadway for a bicycle lane and a
>>pedestrian walkway with cafe tables, chairs, umbrellas and flower-filled
>>planters.
>>
>>The esplanade, which the city is calling Broadway Boulevard, will run from
>>42nd Street to Herald Square. Scheduled to open in mid-August, it will
>>change that section of Broadway from a four-lane to a two-lane street.
>>
>>"I'm envisioning it as a public park on the street," said Barbara Randall,
>>the executive director of the Fashion Center Business Improvement District,
>>which is working with the city's Department of Transportation to create the
>>boulevard.
>>
>>The work, which has begun without a formal public announcement, reflects
>>Mayor
>><http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/michael_r_bloomberg/index.html?inline=nyt-per>Michael
>>R. Bloomberg's sweeping vision of reducing pollution and
>>traffic congestion in New York, and particularly Manhattan, by increasing
>>open space and encouraging bike riding and other alternatives to cars.
>>
>>The plan also makes clear that the Bloomberg administration, after losing its
>>bid in Albany for a congestion-pricing plan that would have fought traffic by
>>charging drivers to enter the area of Manhattan below 59th Street, intends
>>to push ahead with smaller-scale initiatives to wrest at least part of the
>>street from cars and trucks.
>>
>>Other recent initiatives from the Transportation Department include banning
>>cars on Park Avenue on three Saturdays in August and exploring a
>>bicycle-sharing program.
>>
>>The new esplanade "will transform all of Broadway, visually and mentally"
>>Ms. Randall said. "People will start thinking of the street
>>differently. They'll
>>start thinking of it as a destination where you can watch the world go by."
>>
>>Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan said that the esplanade,
>>which was designed with the help of Jan Gehl, a well-known urban designer
>>based in Copenhagen who has been hired as a consultant by the city, was
>>part of a larger program to turn underused street space into public plazas
>>in each of the city's 59 community board districts.
>>
>>But Ms. Sadik-Khan acknowledged that there was a special significance
>>when the street was one of the city's most famous thoroughfares.
>>
>>"Broadway is not famous because there are a gazillion cars going through
>>it," she said. "We're trying to have the public space match the name."
>>
>>"It's a really important signal of how we can transform the streets of
>>New York," she added.
>>
>>There are questions, however, about the impact the narrower Broadway
>>will have on Midtown traffic. (Ms. Sadik-Khan said that a two-lane
>>Broadway would be able to handle the traffic flow just fine.) Some
>>workers in the area wondered whether people would flock to dine and
>>relax so close to a busy route's speeding taxis, noisy trucks and exhaust
>>fumes.
>>
>>"They'll have carbon monoxide in their tuna fish," said Corey Baker, 31,
>>who works at a fashion branding company at Broadway and 41st Street.
>>
>>Still, Mr. Baker said that the neighborhood would benefit from more
>>open space and added that he might even use it.
>>
>>"If it was a tourist crowd, then no," Mr. Baker said. "If it was other
>>people grabbing lunch, then it's good."
>>
>>Many people interviewed on Broadway on Thursday were curious about
>>the work, which included newly painted pavement and orange-and-white
>>plastic traffic barriers that had mysteriously appeared on the
>>street in recent
>>days.
>>
>>Ms. Sadik-Khan said that the department was planning to unveil the
>>
>>project closer to its scheduled completion, on Aug. 15. But she said that
>>officials had spent months discussing it with the three business improvement
>>districts and the local community board.
>>
>>She said the city was spending $700,000 to create the string of blocklong
>>plazas from 42nd to 35th Streets. That includes painting the bike lane green,
>>buying the chairs, tables, benches, umbrellas and planters and applying a
>>coat of small-grained gravel mixed with epoxy onto the pedestrian areas,
>>which will set them off from both the street and the bicycle path.
>>
>>The three business improvement districts - the Times Square Alliance,
>>the Fashion Center B.I.D. and the 34th Street Partnership - have agreed
>>to pay for maintenance, which primarily involves buying and maintaining
>>the plants for the planters. They estimate the cost at about $280,000 a year.
>>
>>The planters are a key part of the design because they will be the only thing
>>separating the expanded pedestrian areas from the cars and trucks zipping
>>by.
>>
>>Nevertheless, many people on Broadway on Thursday said they would
>>welcome the new plazas in an area that has a shortage of places to sit
>>outdoors. About the only such place along that stretch of Broadway is
>>Golda Meir Square, a small plaza in front of 1411 Broadway, at
>>39th Street, where folding chairs are set out during the day.
>>
>>On Thursday, there were a couple of dozen chairs, all occupied. Those
>>who could not get a chair sat among the pigeons on the steps leading to
>>a platform with a bust of Golda Meir.
>>
>>Andre Fisher, 54, a clothing manufacturer who works in the garment
>>district, was soaking up the sun in one of the chairs. "I think we've got
>>enough places for cars and not enough places for people to sit," he
>>said, endorsing the idea.
>>
>>Several people wondered about the impact on traffic, but
>>Ms. Sadik-Khan said that it would be slight. In its current configuration,
>>Broadway has two lanes for traffic north of Times Square, widens to
>>four lanes from 42nd Street to Herald Square, and then returns to
>>two lanes.
>>
>>Ms. Sadik-Khan said that the heaviest downtown traffic in the area was
>>on the avenues, not on Broadway. And she said that drivers would learn
>>to adapt.
>>
>>"It's going to be clear if you really want to go downtown and you're in
>>a car you're going to be much better off going down one of the avenues
>>than going down Broadway," she said.
>>
>>The city has already carved out smaller plazas in several neighborhoods.
>>One is at the corner of 14th Street and Eighth Avenue in Manhattan
>>and another on a block of Willoughby Street in Brooklyn, where it
>>intersects with Fulton Street. The city is also working to create more
>>boulevard-like space along a shorter section of Broadway near
>>Madison Square Park.
>>
>>On Willoughby Street, Shakir Thompson, 44, sat on a chair on
>>Thursday studying a textbook on electrical theory. He said he used
>>the plaza daily.
>>
>>"It's nice, it's calm," he said, despite the buzz of nearby traffic. "In
>>the country they wouldn't relate to this. But in the city we have to
>>take what we can get."
>>
>>Daryl Khan contributed reporting.
>>
>><http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html>Copyright
>>2008 <http://www.nytco.com/>The New York Times Company
>>
>>
>>
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>**********************
>Martin Engel
>1621 Stone Pine Lane
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>650:323-1670
><mailto:martinengel@earthlink.net>martinengel@earthlink.net
>**********************
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