Summer in the Square for July 18

Expanded pedestrian space and more cycling lanes are central to a planned redesign of Manhattan’s Broadway between E. 17th and E. 21st streets, city officials announced on Monday.

The changes are subject to public outreach — but Department of Transportation officials said they could mimic a change to other areas of Broadway between Union Square and E. 50th Street, where crews in recent years have added more pedestrian plazas, outdoor dining space and wider crosswalks designed to keep pedestrians safe from crashes.

DOT officials also said they’re considering adding a two-way bike lane between E. 17th and E. 21st streets, which already has a one-way southbound lane for cyclists.

The city earlier this year completed an overhaul of Broadway between E. 25th and E. 32nd streets, adding more space for pedestrians, another two-way bike lane and other infrastructure designed to make motorists drive slower.

“This next phase of Broadway Vision will provide the same kind of vibrant public spaces connecting Union Square and Flatiron, just like our administration is doing with incredible success across the entire city,” Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement.

The latest planned improvements are just north of Union Square — and just south of where a taxi driver jumped a sidewalk last year, sending several pedestrians to the hospital.

Our new managing agent: Pierre Zarzour pzarzour@akam.com

212-986-0001 ext 169

his assistant: Jillian Rothenberg, jrothenberg@akam.com  ext 181

his boss: Alexis Kaminoff, akkaminoff@akam.com, ext 145

Akam VP: Michael Basile, mbasile@akam.com, ext 113

Don’t be fooled by its name. The new $850-per-night boutique hotel The Twenty Two is actually located at 16 East 16th St. It will also feature a restaurant and a members-only club. Another upscale addition to the area.

Next week (November 21 to November 25), DOT approved street connections to underground utilities on Fifth Avenue and 13th street will continue. Superstructure work will continue at cellar, 1st, and 2nd floor levels. Sidewalk sheds will continue being erected around the perimeter of the site. The project will be closed on Thanksgiving Day, 11/24, and open for work on 11/25 and 11/26, weather pending. The following week (November 28 to December 2), we will continue superstructure concrete and slabs. Street utility connection work will continue.

What: LGBT History of the East Village:
A Walking Tour
When: Sunday, June 26
12:00 – 2:00 P.M.
Where: meeting location available upon registration
Cost: free; reservations required
RSVP: rsvp@gvshp.org or 212-475-9585 ext. 35

Co-sponored by the Lower East Side History Project

Back in the 1880s queer and transvestite bordellos opened on the Bowery not far from the theaters where, 80 years later, Andy Warhol staged transvestite musicals for gay audiences. The East Village was home to the pre-eminent gay artists of the 20th century—Allen Ginsberg, Andy Warhol, Taylor Mead, William S. Burroughs, Quentin Crisp, Klaus Nomi, Keith Haring, among many more. On this walking tour, we will explore significant sites of gay history, along with the artists, writers, and musicians whose contributions dovetailed with LGBT culture. (More information)

An urban planner who has been looking around for ways to make the city more pedestrian-friendly (and to open up more space for protesting) wrote “Union Square could be greatly enhanced by following through on a 2010 plan to pedestrianize Union Square West. Also pedestrianizing University Place would be a bold step that could link Union Square and Washington Square Park, merging two vital public spaces into a permanent platform for open expression.”

That would certainly change the neighborhood.