Open streets open question.
The de Blasio administration is at risk of squandering its impressive open streets initiative just as it is supposed to be made permanent failing to fill the vacuum created as community groups are struggling with material costs, volunteers are drifting away and car owners are moving to reclaim the few metaphorical inches of space that the city repurposed for healthy recreation during the COVID pandemic.
The mayor last year said his open streets program a haphazard collection of roughly 70 miles of street segments across all five boroughs would be a permanent addition to the streetscape. But the mayor has never defined what shape that permanent open space would take and how it will be fostered so that it doesn’t merely rely on thousands of volunteers setting up and removing barricades every day, replacing them when they are vandalized or damaged by car drivers, and dealing with hostilities from motorists who don’t understand the program.