NYC Department of City Planning

The plan will address community concerns including affordable housing, open space, transportation safety, and economic development. On April 24, 2019, Department of City Planning Director Marisa Lago released the Bushwick Neighborhood Plan Update. The plan was created in response to the neighborhood’s rapid development, population growth, resident displacement, and lack of affordable housing from an increase in market-rate construction. (more…)

Map of proposed project site for the Bronx jail at 745 East 141st Street. Image Credit: NYC CPC

The four jails are set to replace Rikers island by 2027. On March 25, 2019, the City Planning Commission certified the City’s application for four borough-based jails as a part of the City’s plan to shut down Rikers Island. The four jails – in Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn – will have a total of 5,748 beds and a capacity of 5,000 inmates. The additional 748 beds will be used to account for taking occupied cells out of service for repairs, separating inmates based on gender or sentenced versus non-sentenced or other space needs. (more…)

Casa Celina will offer 200 senior affordable units in the Soundview section of the Bronx. Image credit: NYC HPD

There will be over 350 affordable units for seniors between the two projects. On March 11, 2019, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) and the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) announced the selection of partners for the development of two 100 percent senior affordable housing projects in the Bronx and Brooklyn. The projects are a part of HPD’s Senior First strategy, a three-prong strategy to ensure safe and affordable housing for seniors in New York City. (more…)

U.S. Rep Shirley Chisholm. Image credit: Thomas J. O’Halloran, U.S. News & World Reports. Light restoration by Adam Cuerden

Nominations sought to honor a woman committed to social reform and justice. On November 30, 2018, First Lady Chirlane McCray, Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen, and the Department of Cultural Affairs announced the selection of U.S. Rep. Shirley Chisholm, the first black Congresswoman and the first woman to seek the Democratic presidential nomination, for a City-funded monument at the Parkside entrance to Prospect Park. Rep. Chisholm’s monument will be the first monument under the She Built NYC initiative is which seeks to commission public monuments honoring the New York City women who changed history. (more…)

About the Event

Open Space Dialogues: Parks & Transportation is the kickoff panel of the 2018-2019 Open Space Dialogues series. Expect an evening of provocative presentations created by New Yorkers for Parks and New York Law School. Leaders of the city’s public realm will share and respond to ideas about the spaces New Yorkers hold in common, answering questions like:

-How can transportation system improvements yield more open spaces?

-What opportunities does a transit crisis present for change in the public realm?

-What does the future of public realm inter-agency and public-private partnership cooperation look like? (more…)