MAYOR ADAMS HIGHLIGHTS IMPROVEMENTS TO PUBLIC SPACE FOLLOWING APPOINTMENT OF CITY’S FIRST-EVER CHIEF PUBLIC REALM OFFICER

 

“Realm of Possibility: 15 Ways NYC is Improving Public Space for New Yorkers” Outlines Efforts to Elevate Existing Public Spaces, Create New Ones, and Cut Red Tape for Partners  

New York City Mayor Eric Adams today released a new report highlighting capital improvements and policy changes the Adams administration has made and continues to make to improve the public realm over the last year, following his appointment of the city’s first-ever chief public realm officer, Ya-Ting Liu, as he delivered on a key 2023 State of the City commitment. The report highlights the ways in which New York City is improving how people experience public space; speeding up delivery of new spaces for rest and leisure; and cutting red tape for the city’s private partners, who are instrumental to maintaining and activating the city’s public spaces. These initiatives also are key to the revitalization of New York’s economy, building on the recommendations of the “New” New York Panel to invest in beautiful, permanent public spaces and to establish the chief public realm officer position to provide a centralized and holistic approach to public realm policy, stakeholder engagement, and coordination of public realm projects. 

 

“At the heart of our mission to make New York a more livable city is our work on public spaces,” said Mayor Adams. “Our parks, plazas, sidewalks, streets, and more are our shared front yards. These spaces are what make New York City the greatest city in the world: they’re where we play, where we form community, and where we engage with each other and our shared city. We’re making those spaces even better every day and transforming what it feels like to be outside in New York.” 

 

“New York isn’t always the easiest city, but our public spaces are part of the glue that keeps people here, adding living space and literal breathing room outside of our small apartments,” said Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi. “Investing in our public spaces is one of the most crucial duties of this administration, and thanks to the leadership of our mayor and our chief public realm officer, Ya-Ting Liu, they are thriving. Forty new football fields worth of public space, the nation’s largest permanent outdoor dining program, fewer and better sidewalk sheds, and parks and plazas with more music and art — it’s a realm of possibilities out there.” 

 

“In the ‘New’ New York Plan, we called for the creation of the city's first-ever chief public realm officer and, as this report showcases, the city's public realm is under the deft and creative management of Ya-Ting Liu,” said Deputy Mayor for Housing, Economic Development, and Workforce Maria Torres-Springer. “Our public spaces are among our greatest assets, and they must be actively planned, developed, and maintained over the long run so that New Yorkers continue to stay connected to the outdoors and each other, while supporting small businesses, residents, and visitors alike.” 

 

“New York lives are best lived outdoors — especially as it gets warmer out, our parks and plazas create the vibrancy and excitement that New York City is famous for,” said Chief Public Realm Officer Liu. “The Adams administration is making key investments in the public realm, to improve the resident and visitor experience certainly, but also to be better partners to the organizations that program and maintain our public plazas — so that ultimately a walk around any neighborhood in New York is one filled with joy and public art.” 

 

“Our streets are our largest network of public space — that's why we've been reimagining our roads for everyone, through the creation of the nation's largest permanent outdoor dining program, expanded Open Streets, and the record-setting amount of new bike lanes, plazas, and other pedestrian spaces across the five boroughs,” said New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez. “This work helps enrich communities, makes our streets safer, and allows small businesses to thrive. It's an honor to deliver world-class public spaces alongside New Yorkers and our sister agencies.”   

 

“Parks make New York a healthier and more livable city. As the steward of more than 30,000 acres of public parkland, we know that investments in open space are a critical tool to build communities, enhance safety, and protect our city from the increasing threats of climate change," said New York City Department of Parks and Recreation (NYC Parks) Commissioner Sue Donoghue. "From planting a record number of trees to building new bathrooms, this report spotlights the many ways in which this administration is delivering on making our infrastructure serve all New Yorkers.” 

 

“Investments in our parks and plazas don’t just make New York City more livable — they drive our economy and fuel our city's small businesses,” said New York City Department of Small Business Services (SBS) Commissioner Kevin D. Kim. “SBS is proud to have a partner in Ya-Ting Liu, our city’s first chief public realm officer, and in Mayor Adams, who have both made revitalizing New York City’s public spaces a priority of this administration. I always say that investments in our neighborhoods aren't just dollar signs next to numbers, but represent real, tangible benefits for every New Yorker, no matter where they live and work.” 

 

“The shared streets, sidewalks, and public spaces used by all New Yorkers are our city’s greatest underutilized resources,” said New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) Commissioner Jimmy Oddo. “Mayor Adams understands that investing in our public realm will help unlock these spaces, further cementing New York’s status as the nation’s premier city to live, visit and to start a business. The initiatives being implemented across the administration, under the coordinating efforts of our seemingly tireless chief public realm officer, Ya-Ting Liu, work together to create a positive impact on this city both in the short-term and for generations to come.” 

 

“The creation of the chief public realm officer position was a key initiative from the ‘New’ New York Panel, and I am thrilled to see this recommendation in action with the release of this new report,” said New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) President and CEO Andrew Kimball. “The report underscores the importance of Ya-Ting’s leadership and the work she has undertaken to improve our public spaces and quality of life for New Yorkers. The projects she has spearheaded have been critical to the city’s economy by bolstering the public realm, encouraging back to office work, and building neighborhoods around those offices where New Yorkers can live, work, learn, and play.” 

 

“Public space is essential to a great quality of life in New York City,” said New York City Department of City Planning Director and New York City Planning Commission Chair Dan Garodnick. “From Dining Out NYC to improved access for privately-owned public spaces, and more, we’ve been proud to work with Mayor Adams and Chief Public Realm Officer Liu to move full speed ahead on planning for a cleaner and greener tomorrow, one where every New Yorker has a chance to relax in our wonderful outdoor spaces.” 

 

“The importance of our great public spaces took on new meaning during the pandemic and New Yorkers value them now more than ever,” said “New” New York Executive Director B.J. Jones. “The Adams administration, with the incredible leadership of Chief Public Realm Officer Liu, is working across agencies with valued partners like Business Improvement Districts and park conservancies to make New York City’s public realm the place where people want to be.”  

 

Improving the Way People Experience Public Space

• Implementing the nation’s largest — and best — permanent outdoor dining program. Dining Out NYC represents one of the most significant efforts of the last decade to reimagine the city's streetscape by creating vibrant public spaces that improve quality of life for New Yorkers while simultaneously continuing to accelerate the city's economic recovery by supporting workers and small restaurant owners. The new program, implemented by DOT, draws on lessons learned from the temporary outdoor dining program created during the COVID-19 pandemic, which saved 100,000 jobs across the city but led to quality-of-life issues as a subset of restaurant owners were unable to maintain their temporary outdoor dining setups.  
• Removing longstanding sidewalk sheds. Through the "Get Sheds Down" plan, the Adams administration is working to expedite the removal of sidewalk construction sheds and scaffolding while reimagining the future of pedestrian protection in New York City. The administration is working alongside the New York City Council to amend the rules and grant DOB greater enforcement powers to ‘Get Sheds Down,’ and advancing proposals to re-imagine a new, more attractive sidewalk shed for the future.  
• Planting more street trees at lower costs. Street trees keep neighborhoods cool and improve the health of communities — but like other city construction projects, they can be cost- and time-intensive to plant. NYC Parks has already planted 15,000 trees, including approximately 12,000 street trees, this fiscal year — the highest total in eight years — and is on track to plant 3,000 more by the end of June. The city has also cut tree planting costs by 7 percent from Fiscal Year 2021 to Fiscal Year 2023, with further reductions anticipated in Fiscal Year 2024. By 2027, NYC Parks expects to plant a tree in every viable location in the most heat-vulnerable neighborhoods. The city is also launching an in-house tree planting team to reduce costs and speed delivery.  
• Delivering more public restrooms citywide. Through “‘Ur In’ Luck,” over the next five years, NYC Parks will build 46 new restrooms and renovate 36 existing restrooms, adding to New York City’s nearly 1,000 existing public restrooms. At the same time, the city is making wayfinding to the city’s public restrooms easier, just in time for summer by introducing a new Google Maps layer that New Yorkers can activate on their phones to easily find the locations of every public restroom operated by a wide-range of agencies and civic institutions citywide. NYC Parks has also added changing tables to every feasible public restroom in the city’s parks — three years ahead of schedule. 
• Prioritizing curb and street space for best public use. With the explosion of home deliveries and growing range of transportation modes on city streets, curb space has become increasingly sought after, competitive, and chaotic. The "Curb Management Action Plan" includes 10 concrete steps to better design and manage the curb lane to reflect the increasingly wide range of needs of residents, workers, visitors, business owners, and all New Yorkers. Additionally, DOT expanded the popular Summer Streets program to all five boroughs for the first time in its 15-year history, and the city launched new holiday-themed public space events, such as the Fifth Avenue and Halloween open streets.
  

Delivering More Quality Space in Less Time in All Five Boroughs  

• Creating a Public Space Incubator to complete public space capital projects in underserved communities within a five-year timeline. Far too often, the city’s capital projects take too long to complete and cost more than originally budgeted. The city’s Public Space Incubator, housed at NYCEDC, is leveraging new capital delivery methods like CM-Build to remove redundant steps from the contracting process, cut down on time and costs, and ensure that New Yorkers can more quickly benefit from the city’s projects. 
• Establishing a ‘Public Space Avengers’ interagency team — made up of the city’s mightiest public realm experts — to better coordinate planning and project delivery. In New York City, it’s too common for a street to get ripped up by one entity, paved over, and then ripped up by another. The ‘Public Space Avengers,’ made up of representatives from the city’s capital agencies, will combine efforts to deliver projects faster. 
• Ensuring privately-owned public spaces are open and inviting. Privately-owned public spaces — operated by private-sector partners who are committed to maintaining these spaces as a part of development agreements — are crucial avenues to give New Yorkers access to public space near where they live and work. Not all of New York City’s 598 privately-owned public spaces, however, are open to the public. The city will support incentives to maximize public space while ramping up enforcement efforts, starting with an audit of out-of-compliance privately-owned public spaces in 2024. 
• Opening more schoolyards to the public after hours in the highest need areas. Transforming schoolyards to publicly-accessible playgrounds after-hours is a key strategy to expand the city’s public space footprint, especially in communities that lack open public areas. The city will seek private funding to unlock additional playgrounds in high-need neighborhoods, prioritizing areas with multiple compounding vulnerabilities: race, socioeconomic status, health, and climate change factors like flooding and extreme heat. 
• Transforming New York City into the skate capital of the East Coast. Skateboarding and other action sports are rapidly growing in New York City, even though there are not enough dedicated public spaces to safely accommodate them. The city has launched its design and public engagement process for four new and enhanced skateparks in Brooklyn and in the Bronx. Mayor Adams announced a $24.8 million investment to build these skate parks as part of his 2024 State of the City address in January.  
  

Cutting Red Tape for City Partners

• Establishing a ‘Public Space Academy’ to train partners on best practices for activating public spaces. The city will establish a Public Space Academy to provide technical assistance to new and existing public space partners — like plaza partners, Business Improvement Districts (BIDs), Open Streets, and community-based organizations. The academy will create a roadmap for public space management by community organizations and identify the city resources available to them. After training, participants will qualify to be considered as “trusted partners,” making it easier for them to secure permitting for street activations. 
• Streamlining the permitting process for public space activations. The city’s street activity permitting process can be lengthy, impacting smaller organizers with limited capacity. The city will improve the user experience of obtaining a permit for street activations by aligning permit requirements across agencies, updating SAPO’s permitting website, and more. 
• Reducing the legal and financial burden on public space partners. The city often requires partners to take on onerous costs and risks for maintaining the city’s public spaces. The city will revise maintenance agreements for plazas and reduce insurance requirements on low-risk activities so that partners can focus resources on helping public spaces flourish. 
• Mobilizing a Public Space Clean Team, mobilized by DOT, to provide additional cleaning and maintenance efforts for critical public space connectors. BIDs and other neighborhood organizations provide maintenance to many commercial corridors, but there are places these partners do not reach — such as step streets, bridge paths, and roadway medians — that provide critical connections to commercial corridors and public spaces in communities. These Public Space Clean Teams will provide targeted litter removal to clean up critical connectors, resulting in more clean, vibrant, and active spaces that communities rely on.  
• Establishing metrics for measuring impact of public space projects and activations. The city has an abundance of data related to the built environment, but none of it is unified to show the economic, environmental, or public health impact of public space. The city will leverage public-private partnerships to assess that data and guide public space investments.

“Street Lab works with communities across New York City to activate and improve public spaces, and I love this sustained focus by the administration on public space and its potential to improve the lives of New Yorkers," said Leslie Davol, co-founder and executive director, Street Lab. “In particular, it is exciting to see local groups and residents becoming more involved in the activation and care of neighborhood public spaces, and this is a critical step forward towards a safer, healthier, more connected future for New York City neighborhoods.” 

 

“The Municipal Art Society has long advocated for comprehensive public realm leadership and is proud to support the chief public realm officer’s work to improve how public spaces that enhance the health and well-being of all New Yorkers are built and maintained,” said Elizabeth Goldstein, president, Municipal Arts Society. “From improving the experience of these places to enabling them to be delivered and activated with more ease, MAS applauds Mayor Adams for taking the bold step of appointing a chief public realm officer and releasing this report in service of creating a more resilient and equitable city.” 

 

"The appointment of the city’s first-ever chief public realm officer has helped New York City prioritize public space and enact historic policy wins that have transformed the livability of the five boroughs," said Matthew Clarke, executive director, Design Trust for Public Space. "Thriving and lively public spaces depend upon forward thinking ideas and strategies. This report sets an important vision for public space as a driver of a healthy New York, and includes essential ideas about cutting bureaucratic red tape, expanding resources, and increasing access to new public spaces in every corner of the city."