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

Connectivity: Let’s Get Together [Part II]

Perhaps we privileged it by including “Wouldn’t it be great if there were an easier way to get from Queens to Brooklyn?” as one of our sample ideas, but New Yorkers really took to the idea of better-connecting the only two boroughs to share a landmass. You can read a full list of their ideas on that subject here, but as we were sifting through the results we noticed an interesting, related trend. Mass transit aside, Connectivity-related ideas in the two boroughs at the tip of Long Island were mostly focused on connecting neighborhoods by removing existing physical barriers.

In Queens, Ange from Woodside proposed that the borough’s notorious Queens Boulevard be turned into one long, continuous public space scaled for pedestrians and cyclists, and “serving as a connector and safe route between neighborhoods.” Out in Maspeth, another Queens resident suggested that the LIE trench be decked over so that the neighborhood could be “connected, not divided by highways.” Farther out, Mike from Douglaston thinks it would be great if the Cross Island Expressway were closed and turned into a waterfront park, linking the neighborhoods along Little Neck Bay with one continuous green space.

Down in Brooklyn, Raymond from Bensonhurst called for neighborhoods along the Gowanus Canal to be better linked with a system of greenways and bike paths. Martin from Ditmas Park suggested a footbridge at Albemarle Road to connect the east and west parts of his neighborhood. Chris from Park Slope would like to see the BQE buried in North Clinton Hill to create better connectivity for pedestrians, and another Park Sloper named Sam suggested that Grand Army Plaza be better-designed to connect the Slope and Prospect Heights to Prospect Park (a sentiment shared by Dina on the Heights side of the plaza).

[Click here to read Part I, which focuses on citywide trends in connectivity.]

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!