Urban Design Week: By the City / For the City Blog

Connectivity: Let’s Get Together [Part I]

The ideas that New Yorkers shared for increasing connectivity in their city generally fall into one of three groups: physical connectivity, and transportation-related connectivity, and social connectivity. Here are some of the most interesting ideas from those groups.

1. PHYSICAL: One Lower East Sider thinks it would be great if the public space along Allen Street were reconfigured and connected with shops along the sidewalk, rather than isolated in the middle of the street. Tristan from NoMad suggested burying the FDR to connect Manhattan to the East River, and one of his neighbors called for the removal of parking lots near Murphy Park with the same goal. Lourdes in Inwood wants to see Dyckman Street’s role as a connection to recreational opportunities for her neighbors highlighted. IfUD Fellow Rosemary Wakeman suggested linking the many arcades in Midtown West to create an urban corridor. Someone also suggested bridging the sole gap in the Aqueduct Walk, which traces the path of the Croton Aqueduct, at Burnside Avenue.
2. TRANSPORTATION: You can see lists of the many great, specific ideas for expanding the city’s mass transportation system here and here. But here are a few that are more open-ended, for your pondering pleasure. Brooklynite Edward would like to see smarter connections between transit lines at Atlantic and Jamaica Avenues. Margaret would like her neighborhood, Snug Harbor, to have better transit connections to the rest of the city, a sentiment echoed by Lee from Castleton Corners, who wants to see a new subway line connecting Staten Island to Brooklyn. Another New Yorker issued an especially open challenge: find a better way to connect Greenpoint to Manhattan and Queens.
3. SOCIAL: New Yorkers aren’t just looking for ways to get from A to B—they’re also looking to connect more with each other. Out on Staten Island, Reza suggested that Charleston should create a memorial to commemorate its history as Kreischerville. Robby from New Springville would like there to be some better way for people to understand connections between the physical and virtual, noting that “the digital world is becoming today’s culture, connecting us in a global way.” In an interesting parallel, Steven suggested a public space around Times Square where people from around the world could share messages with New Yorkers. And while suggestions for physical mass transit connections to the city’s airports were popular, Libby from Brooklyn Heights sees the trip home from the airport as an opportunity for social connections, too, suggesting that there be some way for people to connect with others looking to get home from the airport at the same time as them.

[Click here to read Part II, which focuses on neighborhood connectivity in Brooklyn & Queens]

Have a great design solution for one of the ideas listed above? Click here to register for the By the City / For the City design competition today! Entries are due by midnight (EST) on Sunday, July 31st, 2011. We can’t wait to see what you come up with!