Content about New York City

According to Open City Projects, Manhattan developed so quickly that there was little time or effort put toward adjusting the grid plan. One of the side effects of this was the fact that the main blocks were rendered impermeable, since the plan made no provision for subdivision by alleys or lanes. If you are familiar with Manhattan, you’ll know that this can make travel up the island difficult, since the rectangular blocks are oriented lengthwise between rivers, divided by just a few north-south avenues.

The Municipal Art Society of New York (MAS) hosts MAS Summit After Dark. Part of the urban planning-and-advocacy organization’s third annual MAS Summit for New York City, the two-part evening event highlights NYC’s architecture and urban design. 

Candy Chang, an urban planner, artist, and designer, has been helping neighbors understand each other in new and enlightening ways. Making use of a wide variety of community activators such as chalkboards, sidewalk stencils, and street art stickers, her ideas aren’t just innovative but also artistic and moving.

Executive Director of City Parks Alliance, Catherine Nagel, was asked recently why building and maintaining parks was so important, given all of our other obvious public and urban needs, and considering how costly it can be to fund such projects. Her response: “With the urbanization of our planet, people living in these dense environments — this is kind of obvious — need clean air to breathe, clean water to drink. Their children need places to play. We have the researchnow. All the new health studies about open space have been significantly helpful. There is growing recognition that proximity to parks has a direct impact on how healthy a community and its residents are.”

For nearly two centuries, New York City has led the way in its commitment to providing parks and green space for all residents. From the great historic Central and Prospect Parks, to the revitalized Bronx River Greenway to the catalytic High Line Park, the city’s innovative approaches to park development and partnerships can be adapted by all great cities. This coming July, city park planners, designers and visionaries, will have a chance to experience New York City’s parks like never before at the International Urban Parks Conference! Presented by City Parks Alliance, the event development committee for this year’s Greater & Greener conference promises a highly interactive program to include mobile workshops, a volunteer day, weekend tours, and receptions in great parks. 

New York City is now one year in with their Road Map for the Digital City, the city’s plan to make New York the world’s leading digital city. Are they on to something big? Were their first year ambitions realistic? The process is definitely underway, but more challenges exist.

A walkable city is a distinct sign of a livability community. Think about the speed of traffic or the presence of businesses on the streets you love walking on. Is your neighborhood actually walkable? How would one determine and illustrate the walkability of a city or town?

If you’re walking through New York City’s Chinatown and spot an out-of-the-ordinary cart, you’ll be looking at one of Hester Street Collaborative’s latest projects devoted to using design as a tool for social change.

This past summer in New York City, Nathan Maton, Dan Henry and Limor Schafman began to ponder the idea of creating a DCWEEK Street Games Fest after attending the Games for Change conferences. The creative trio realized that DC needed this kind of dynamic event combining fun, gameplay and exploring the city. Now that DCWEEK is upon us, organizers are in search of great games to bring this vision to life!

Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently said that there is no longer a “Ground Zero” in Lower Manhattan. The mayor is right: the World Trade Center site has been a construction hub for more than half a decade. In this same spirit, New York’s political and business leaders should stop saying that the city is “repairing” or “restoring” its skyline, language that obscures what al-Qaida terrorists took—permanently—from New York ten years ago.

In March 2011, Mayor Bloomberg, Speaker Quinn, and City Planning Commissioner Burden released Vision 2020: The New York City Comprehensive Waterfront Plan. Produced by the Department of City Planning,Vision 2020 is a comprehensive analysis of New York’s 520 miles of diverse waterfront and a strategic framework for the waterfront, waterways, and water for the next ten years. Five experts will discuss the plan, the steps for implementation, and the challenges that lay ahead on the waterfront and the waterways.

This year Come Out & Play will be holding a Field Day of exciting new outdoor games on Governors Island in New York City on July 16. The Field Day is being run in partnership with the River to River Festival.