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April 8, 2022 • Schneps Media
LOCAL NEWS
Delight in the Piazza
BY EMILY DAVENPORT
Love outdoor dining? The
Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership
has brought back its
popular NoMad Piazza Pop Up.
The public space first debuted
on Oct. 1, 2021 and stayed open
through Nov. 14, 2021 on Broadway
between 25th and 27th
Streets, creating a dynamic space
for pedestrians, bicyclists, and
people enjoying NoMad’s thriving
outdoor dining. Designed
in collaboration between the
Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership,
the American Institute of Architects,
New York (AIANY), and
the New York City Department of
Transportation (DOT), the popup
officially reopened on April 1.
“We are thrilled to bring No-
Mad Piazza Pop Up back to Broadway
in time for spring. Last fall,
this serene public space in the
heart of NoMad was a hit with
residents, visitors, and local businesses.
Starting in April, it will
once again provide a model for
how our city’s streets can be reimagined
as vibrant public spaces
for walking, cycling, dining, and
relaxing,” said James Mettham,
Executive Director of the
Flatiron/23rdStreet Partnership.
The pop-up builds off of the success
of the DOT’s Open Streets
program, including the Open
Streets in Flatiron and NoMad that
the Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership
has managed since May 2020.
This time, the Piazza features
more public seating than it had last
fall, along with tables, trees, planters,
and granite blocks forming the
pedestrian intersection entrances.
Non-emergency motor vehicle traffic
will be prohibited.
The Piazza will also complement
outdoor dining on and around these
two blocks of Broadway, including
the DOT’s Open Restaurants program’s
participating restaurants: La
Pecora Bianca, The Smith, Tortazo,
and wagamama. Anita Gelato will
open a new location at 1141 Broadway
this spring and plans to utilize
space on the Piazza.
During the initial activation in
2021, Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership
conducted a public survey and
found that 89% of respondents said
they love the Piazza and would love
it if it came back permanently. The
pop-up spurred tons of economic
activity, supporting the area’s resilience
during the second year of the
COVID pandemic — foot traffic in
October 2021 exceeded pre-pandemic
levels in October 2019, and
one-third of Broadway businesses
saw increased revenue while the
pop-up was active.
Seventeen new businesses
opened or signed leases on Broadway
from 25thto 30thStreets in
2021, with 50% opening during
or immediately following the Piazza’s
initial activation period. Some
noted that the Piazza was an important
consideration when deciding to
lease Broadway property.
The Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership
will manage the Piazza’s
cleaning, maintenance and public
safety. The NoMad Piazza
Pop-Up reflects the Partnership’s
long-term vision of a pedestrianfocused
Broadway corridor through
Flatiron and NoMad.
The Partnership is working with
neighborhood businesses and cultural
institutions to provide light
public programming on the Piazza
this spring.
Programming will kick off with
a ping pong event with SPIN on
World Table Tennis Day on April
6 from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. featuring
open play and pro-level exhibitions.
BY ROBERT POZARYCKI
COVID-19 cases are back on
the rise across the city, particularly
in Manhattan —
but so far, it’s nothing close to the
kind of spike the city experienced
during the holiday season.
According to the city’s Department
of Health and Mental Hygiene,
the city’s 7-day positivity rate
was up to 2.67% on April 1, with
an average daily case total of 1,254.
The increases, however, were slight
compared to a week prior, when the
7-day positivity rate stood at 2.26%
with a weekly average case total of
about 906.
The increase can be attributed to
the spread of the BA.2 subvariant
of the COVID-19 Omicron variant,
which is much more contagious,
though apparently not as potent.
The recent uptick in infections
prompted Mayor Eric Adams on
April 1 to delay by at least a week
his planned discontinuance of the
mask mandate for preschool students
under 5 years of age across
the city. No other preemptive measures
to slow the spread have been
ordered, as of yet, though that could
change depending on virus case volume
in the weeks ahead.
One potentially promising sign is
that the citywide transmission rate
has only grown slightly, not exponentially,
in the past week — rising
from 90.33 cases per 100,000 residents
on March 27 to 105.26 per
100,000 on April 1.
Manhattan continues to have the
highest transmission rate of the Five
Boroughs, at 193.04 per 100,000
Ten communities — six in Manhattan,
four in Brooklyn — saw 100
or more new COVID-19 cases diagnosed
between March 23-29. East
Williamsburg/Williamsburg (ZIP
code 11211) stood at the top of the
list with 153 new cases.
Other local hot spots include
Manhattan Valley/Morningside
Heights/Upper West Side (10025,
149 cases); Lincoln Square (10023,
129 cases); and Chinatown/Lower
East Side (10002, 116 cases).
Three Manhattan communities
saw 7-day positivity rates above
7%: Battery Park City (10282,
7.27%, 12 new cases); Hudson
Square/Meatpacking District/West
Village (10014, 7.26%, 58 new
cases); and Hudson Square/Little
Italy/SoHo/Tribeca (10013, 7.12%,
73 new cases).
The most encouraging statistics
are that hospitalizations and deaths
connected to COVID-19 continue
to drop even as cases tick upward.
The citywide daily hospitalization
total was down to 13 on April 1,
while the daily death total was only
four that same day.
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE FLATIRON/23RD STREET PARTNERSHIP
The NoMad Piazza Pop-Up returned on April 1, 2022.
REUTERS/SHANNON STAPLETON
NoMad pop-up returns to boost businesses and foot traffic
COVID infections still creeping up