The People’s Pocket Park
The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed how we work, live, and interact with our environment. Proximity to outdoor space has never been more beneficial. Urban residents have become increasingly reliant on and engaged in their immediate neighborhoods, with public transit options reduced, socializing outdoors, and increased time in the home. In March, New Yorkers experienced a driverless NYC. With parks closed, we played on the sidewalk and walked in the street. Why, in the past, has unsafe, loud, and polluting vehicular traffic taken over our streets? In the wake of the pandemic, the City of New York must replace car and subway congestion with green infrastructure, such as cross-borough bike transit, bus-only lanes, and pedestrian streets.
NYC’s initial rollout of Open Streets and Open Restaurants is a step in the right direction, but the implementation of these programs and their distribution lack foresight, equity, and proper management. Despite the shortcomings of these government programs, they have displayed NYC’s ability to respond quickly to a social and economic crisis. We must channel this energy towards the longevity of an equitable and sustainable future. Our city is in urgent need of creative solutions and political support that invests in the dignity of our most vulnerable communities.
The People’s Pocket Park (P3) is designed for neighborhoods that have disproportionately borne the brunt of the pandemic as a result of longstanding economic neglect, poor air quality, and a dearth of outdoor space. P3 is a phased prototypical strategy that permanently implements green streets in a manner that is commercially viable, as well as pedestrian and environmentally friendly. Upon installment, each Pocket Park would introduce roughly 4,000 square feet of additional outdoor space available for commercial and public use. The scheme is adaptable to any urban corridor, with the exception of those along a bus route. P3 invites communities to shape their built environments. The People’s Pocket Park provides a space safe for pedestrians with improved air quality that nearby residents can personalize through public programming of their choice.
“The more successfully a city mingles everyday diversity of uses and users in its everyday streets, the more successfully, casually (and economically) its people thereby enliven and support well-located parks that can thus give back grace and delight to their neighborhoods instead of vacuity.” – Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities.
For the vitality of our neighborhoods, a reimagined streetscape becomes critical to ensure passersby feel safe and comfortable, social distancing guidelines are maintained, and local business can continue to operate and flourish. P3 fosters cross community interactions in outdoor spaces.
Project Leads: Nino Boornazian & Madeleine Reid
Climate Urgency in the Built Environment (CUBE) Team: Braham Berg, Matthew Sheridan, Diksha Jain, Abigail Thomas, Natalie Bartfay, Ira Gamerman, Julie Hoffmann, Tom Redstone