Local residents will start to see changes in Straus Square during the next several weeks, as the neglected area at East Broadway, Rutgers Street and Canal Street begins to look more like a full-fledged pedestrian plaza. The changes were outlined last night at a meeting of Community Board 3’s Parks Committee.
As previously reported, the community board has already approved the closure of a one block section of Canal Street alongside Seward Park. Last night’s presentation before the parks panel dealt with design and programming aspects of the plan. Seward Park is about to undergo a $6.4 million renovation as part of the Parks Without Borders Program. The idea behind the Straus Square changes is to make the plaza feel like it’s an extension of the park.
The New York City TD Five Boro Bike Tour, the nation’s largest annual charity cycling event, is back for cyclists this summer on Sunday, August 22, 2021
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10 things to know about the latest filing
This week marked the massive information dump the New York City Campaign Finance Board calls “the filing deadline.” There are enough tidbits and storylines to last us politicos two months until the next one on May 21, but here are 10 things that immediately stood out.
Adams has the money
With $7.6 million on hand, Eric Adams is the undisputed money king of the mayoral race. Scott Stringer is in a not-so-distant second with $6.85 million. Andrew Yang raised an impressive $2.14 million in just two months, but he won’t be eligible to receive his $4.73 million in expected public matching funds until April 15 at the earliest.
You listened he didn’t.
Exactly one year ago this week, Mayor de Blasio urged New Yorkers to “bike or walk to work if you can” to reduce the spread of the coronavirus, setting in motion a sharp increase in bike commuting, but comparatively little city action to protect those vulnerable road users and strengthen their numbers beyond the pandemic boom, advocates say.
Sarah Pitts
Since that day March 8, 2020 at least 215 people died from traffic violence, including more than 25 cyclists and more than 70 pedestrians. One of those victims was 35-year-old Sarah Pitts, who was killed while biking past a notoriously dangerous Brooklyn intersection in September, during the bike boom. Pitts’s brother told Streetsblog that the city failed New Yorkers like his sister, a new cyclist.