New York City’s Open Streets plan fails to address
the complicated future of urban transportation
COURIER LIFE, AUGUST 7-13, 2020 23
OP-ED
BY DANNY HARRIS &
BETSY PLUM
Four months ago, traffi c engineers
in major cities around
the world were asking themselves
the same questions: How
does a crowded city, reliant on
underground trains, function
in an airborne pandemic?
What would happen if everyone
started to drive instead?
Predicting carmageddon,
forward leaning cities got out
ahead of the problem. From
London to Los Angeles, mayors
discouraged driving by offering
ambitious new alternatives.
In Milan, it was Strade
AperteI. In Paris, Corona Cycleways.
But across the globe,
the idea was the same: close a
network of streets to cars and
open them to people, bikes
and transit. City residents responded
with enthusiasm and
these safe, connected car-free
routes fi lled with people. Bicycle
sales boomed, and would-be
rail riders shifted to the bus instead.
In New York, under growing
public pressure, Mayor de
Blasio followed suit -- sort of.
To date, he has put traffi c restrictions
in place on about 67
miles (of a promised 100 miles)
of city streets to create space
for recreation, “pop-up” bike
lanes, and outdoor dining.
When the program launched,
bike and bus advocates were
hopeful that the program
would give New Yorkers safe,
above ground transit options
during the pandemic. It didn’t
take long for those hopes to
be dashed. On paper, the program
appears ambitious. But
on closer inspection, New York
City’s Open Streets are more
like “roads to nowhere.”
An analysis of the city’s
Open Streets -- the existing
ones, the promised ones, and
the ones quietly dismantled --
found that unlike global peers,
New York’s Open Streets program
created not a network
for safe, car- (and subway-)
free travel, but a disconnected
series of public space islands
with management challenges.
The current approach fails to
address the complicated future
of urban transportation.
Pocket parks and spaces for
al fresco dining are nice, but
they cannot prevent gridlock
or kickstart our economy in
a meaningful way. These improvements
-- and to be sure,
many Open Streets installations
are infi nitely better than
what they replaced -- should be
fi nishing touches on top of a
connected system to keep New
York moving -- not the lone
small answer to an enormous
problem.
Consider what awaits us.
New York City’s congestion
pricing program is on hold.
Subway ridership is down signifi
cantly while car traffi c is
nearly back to pre-pandemic
levels, with more to come as
the city reopens. We can’t begin
to fi ght back against this
mounting congestion with the
tools we’ve been given. Half of
the city’s Open Streets are just
0.16 miles or less in length,
and more than a quarter of
them are located within or adjacent
to a park. Worse, Open
Streets had been concentrated
in wealthier, whiter neighborhoods
until a wave of Black
Lives Matter protests got the
City to bring Open Streets to
lower income communities of
color.
Plans for “pop-up” bike
lanes remain shockingly inequitable:
54 percent of “popup”
bike lanes are planned
for Manhattan, which already
had half of New York City’s total
protected bike lane mileage.
Staten Island and the
Bronx will receive 0 miles
each.
Despite these shortcomings,
by all accounts Open
Streets appear well-attended
and appreciated by the grateful
New Yorkers who can access
them. Their attendance
alone makes a strong case for
their potential, but there are
other indicators, too. Yes, private
car traffi c is up while total
transit ridership has fallen,
but bus ridership surpassed
the subway for the fi rst time in
50 years, and bicycling is also
booming. Even Citi Bike use
is only down 6 percent from
this time last year, despite the
city remaining largely closed.
Buses and bikes can help preclude
the “carmageddon” that
transportation planners predicted,
but only if New York
City broadens its goals for
Open Streets.
Our streets have always
been conduits for our health,
our mobility, and our economic
resilience. If New York
City can reimagine these
spaces as connected car-free
networks for moving people
by bus and by bike, reopening
restaurants, retail, cultural
institutions and schools,
and redistributing space in a
crowded city in a way that is
equitable, then we can reclaim
our future.
Danny Harris is executive
director of Transportation
Alternatives and Betsy Plum
is executive director of Riders
Alliance.
Closing the digital divide can help NY get back to work
BY SHARON SEWELL-FAIRMAN
Rosendo Mercedes was
laid off from his position as
a Wireless Retail Sales Manager
when the pandemic hit.
Unsure of what to do next, he
found himself in a situation
with which almost a million
people in New York City could
suddenly relate.
Luckily, Rosendo quickly
found support from workforce
development nonprofi t
BronxWorks and their virtual
CUNY-certifi ed training
course, which qualifi ed him
for a Financial Counselor position
in BronxWorks’ Jobs
Plus team. His journey is a
microcosm of what is necessary
to help displaced workers
qualify for available jobs.
While we spent the fi rst
few months of the pandemic
actively investing in and supporting
the healthcare industry
to help those impacted by
COVID-19, we also need to actively
invest in helping those
who experienced job loss or
wage cuts if we want to keep
underserved communities
from falling further behind.
The nearly 5 million new
jobs made available across
the country in June, and the
skills needed to obtain them,
look drastically different than
the job opportunities from a
few months ago. The National
Skills Coalition reports that
jobs now require more digital
skills than ever before, but
nearly one-third of workers
lack that expertise. It’s no secret
that we’re dealing with a
jobs crisis, and we need to upskill
workers who are out of
work or facing the impact of
wage cuts.
National pre-pandemic unemployment
rates were historically
low. Still, 800,000 New
York City residents lived in poverty.
Today, that number is 1.4
million, and a disproportionate
number of them are people of
color. I’m glad Mayor de Blasio
is expanding access to broadband
internet for these communities.
However, taking the
next step to equip job seekers
with the digital skills needed
for in-demand jobs is crucial
for securing sustainable employment.
The pandemic made reskilling
and upskilling unemployed
and underemployed populations
more urgent than ever. It
also exposed the lack of digital
literacy among the frontline
workforce training fi eld who
help bridge the gap between
job seekers and employers, offering
a pathway out of poverty
into employment. In order to
adequately help job seekers, we
need to fi rst invest in upskilling
our workforce training professionals.
My team at Workforce Professionals
Training Institute
(WPTI) supports approximately
1,000 frontline workforce professionals
a year from nearly
250 workforce development organizations
in NYC, including
BronxWorks. Through consultations,
training and systems
building, the workforce training
industry supports the infrastructure
that connects job
seekers to employers.
On top of equipping job seekers
with digital skills and engaging
with employers online,
workforce trainers have also
moved all of their predominantly
in-person training sessions
online. To prepare these
frontline workforce professionals
for the post-pandemic job
market, WPTI partnered with
Grow with Google to provide
lessons on Google Suite. The
demand for training was high.
Enrollment quickly reached
the session’s 50-person limit
with nearly 200 people joining
a waitlist.
As much-needed public
funding comes through to support
this industry, it needs to be
fl exible to allow the workforce
training sector to adapt to the
new needs of employers and jobseekers.
Like many other industries,
we’re actively perfecting
our post-pandemic services.
When assessing what the
workforce development system
needs to address all of
these challenges, we can draw
a parallel to the healthcare industry.
When the pandemic
hit, there was a much-needed
urgency around supporting
the infrastructure needed to
provide healthcare workers
with adequate PPE and treatment
information. As NYC’s
unemployment rate hovers
near numbers not seen since
the Great Depression, we need
to act to close the digital divide
in the workforce development
sector to connect individuals
like Rosendo to stable employment
opportunities.
Sharon Sewell-Fairman is
the Executive Director of the
New York City Workforce Professionals
Training Institute
(WPTI), the leading provider
of learning, consulting, and
systems building to New York
City’s workforce development
organizations and practitioners.