A court has blocked–for now–the use of the Union Square Park pavilion as a privately run restaurant. “Opponents object to what they see as the privatization of park space and insist the city needs approval from the state legislature before moving forward. The new ruling lets the city renovate the Pavilion and rehabilitate the bathrooms, but halts plans to lease it out for a restaurant.”
Gothamist has links to all the latest news.
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.
The corner of 4th Ave. and 13th St. is vacant once again.
Next week (April 11 to April 15), Contractors will continue to excavate earth and rock, and load out material. We will continue to underpin both adjacent buildings with DOB approval of our means and methods. Drilling of tie-backs, lagging and sheeting around the perimeter will progress as well. The following week (April 18 to April 23), we will continue rock excavation and loading out, as well as underpinning both adjacent buildings, lagging and sheeting.
Survey says: Union Square (across from Whole Foods) is the sixth noisiest spot in NYC. See the entire list here.
Next week, 03/11/2013 – 03/15/2013 Material and equipment deliveries and installation work will continue on all floors inside the building. Roof work, work on the new sidewalks around the building, dismantling of the exterior construction hoist and related exterior building work will also continue.
The following week, 03/18/2013 – 03/22/2013 Material and equipment deliveries and installation work will continue on all floors and roofs. Sidewalk work and dismantling of the exterior construction hoist and related exterior work will also continue.
We anticipate the take down of the 14th Street sidewalk shed to begin within the next 2 weeks.
Wondering how CitiBikes are deployed around town at this very moment. This cool interactive map has live data. See it here. And you can even see how other bike share programs around the world are doing too.