As Spring Blooms, Comptroller Lander Aims to Expand Open Streets

 

In a new report, Streets for People, unveiled on a popular Open Street in Jackson Heights, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander advocates to strengthen and expand the Open Streets program with concrete steps that the City should take to ensure open streets are a vibrant fixture of New York City’s urban landscape, and that all communities can have access to them.

“Open Streets breathe life into our neighborhoods,” said Comptroller Brad Lander. “Across the five boroughs, every kid knows the joy of being able to play safely in the street when it’s closed for a block party. Open Streets turn that fleeting summer joy into safer spaces for kids to play, neighbors to gather, outdoor dining to thrive, even students to learn. But small volunteer groups cannot sustain the work to successfully operate open streets without more resources, support, and clear guidelines from the City. At a time when City Hall’s lukewarm support could close the Open Streets program, let’s expand it, let’s support it, let’s help resolve conflict when it arises – and let’s make public space available to all.”

During the early pandemic years, the City created hundreds of car-free open streets throughout the five boroughs – an unprecedented expansion of pedestrian and open space in New York City, for recreation, for outdoor dining, for culture, and for schools. However, the Comptroller’s analysis finds that the number of Open Streets dropped from its peak of 326 locations in 2021 to 202 locations in 2023. New investments from the New York City Department of Transportation (DOT)’s Public Space Equity Program modestly reversed this decline in 2024, but open streets remain unevenly distributed across the city: there are more open streets in Manhattan alone than in the Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island combined.

Comptroller Lander proposes increasing funding, providing robust technical assistance and support for open streets partners in engaging communities, and cutting the red tape to ensure that the program can thrive.

Open streets have been proven to provide a host of benefits for local communities. The Comptroller’s Office conducted interviews with 36 community groups, business improvement districts (BIDs), schools, and public realm experts to assess these benefits:

• Improving street safety: Open streets improve traffic safety by significantly reducing crashes and injuries and building public support for redesigning streets with permanent safety improvements. Local enthusiasm for the Berry Street open street led to the transformation of Banker’s Anchor into a protected plaza and the creation of a two-way bike lane.

• Boosting local economies: The foot traffic from open streets also supports local businesses: a DOT report found that restaurant and bar sales on open streets were 19% higher than pre-pandemic levels, while nearby areas saw a 29% decrease in sales.

• Creating new outdoor learning and play spaces with School Streets: One Brooklyn public school started a bike education program on its open street, which resulted in the percentage of second graders who can ride a bike jumping from 35% to over 90%.

• Enhancing public safety, increasing access to free public services, and strengthening community relationships: By activating public space with programming, open streets have allowed partners to host events that create welcoming public spaces and cultivate community connections. Open streets have offered opportunities for nonprofits and City agencies to provide childcare services, nutrition education, farmer’s markets, clothing distributions, and workshops to assist people with school enrollment, housing, and language learning.

Key Challenges

While open streets have transformed public spaces across the city, partners still face significant challenges establishing, maintaining, and programming open streets.

• The Open Streets program does not have a dedicated budget or funding source. The City, instead, funds and executes the program through a patchwork of ad hoc procurement mechanisms, making it vulnerable to budget cuts and scope reductions.

• Community engagement is left solely to Open Streets operators with very little support from the City. When the City does not provide organizations with the resources and support to navigate and address community concerns, even minor opposition led to sites shutting down.

• The Open Streets program does not adequately invest in early-stage capacity building to identify potential program partners nor offer help to apply to create new open streets, hampering the program’s expansion.

• The Open Streets program provides insufficient support to even the most well-resourced partners, resulting in burnout and unsustainable operations. Inconsistent and declining amounts of City funding from year-to-year create instability for partners, some of whom opted to leave the program altogether.

• The process for securing permits from the NYC Street Activity Permit Office (SAPO) is expensive, slow, opaque, and inflexible, posing a major bureaucratic barrier for partners seeking to activate their open street with programming.

• The process of reimbursing open streets operators is extremely slow and difficult to navigate. Operators reported waiting two years after they submitted their invoices to get reimbursed, making it difficult to financially sustain their operations. Other operators struggled with the paperwork required to access funding and only received partial reimbursement for Open Streets-related purchases.

Global Examples 

Many of New York City’s international peer cities—from Barcelona, Bogota, to Montreal—have their own versions of open streets by temporarily or permanently restricting vehicle traffic on streets. Cities across the globe have successful public space management programs with resources for early-stage capacity; financial and political support from City leaders; regular data collection and impact evaluations to build support for the program; transparent processes for community engagement; and the design and implementation of high-quality infrastructure upgrades. These global best practices inform the Comptroller’s recommendations to reform the Open Streets program.

Recommendations 

Comptroller Lander proposes 12 recommendations across three key priority areas to expand the Open Streets program and better support partners, rooted in global best practices and the guidance of New York City’s public realm experts.

The City should expand and reform the Open Streets program by: 

1. Setting a goal to create at least one open street in every neighborhood.

2. Establishing a clear, transparent process for community engagement with robust support for Open Streets operators in order to address community concerns and improve design and implementation.

3. Partnering with community organizations and neighborhood groups to scale up block parties and other temporary events.

4. Providing technical support for the envisioning, planning, and designing of capital projects.

DOT should offer partner organizations robust financial support and technical assistance by: 

5. Increasing citywide funding and support for Open Street operators through new requests for proposals (RFPs) to secure and expand technical, operating, and programmatic assistance.

6. Making it easier for Open Streets partners to access funding.

7. Baselining operational funds for Open Streets to ensure the continued longevity of the program.

The City should cut red tape to strengthen management by: 

8. Reforming the burdensome reimbursement process to ensure Open Streets partners can more easily receive public funds.

9. Reforming the onerous Street Activity permitting process.

10. Developing an Open Streets Handbook.

11. Empower the Chief Public Realm Officer to oversee interagency coordination.

12. Conduct regular evaluations and publicly track data on open streets usage, economic impacts, and progress toward expanding and pedestrianizing open streets.