New Plaza..

[shadowkat]

Almost forgot to post this. Above, hopefully you can see it - I snatched it from FB, is a photo of our newly painted plaza on Beverly and MacDonald Avenue. This is in front of where I catch the subway, my pharmacy, and the fruit and vegetable store in the cross section of Little Bangladash, Little Russia, and Little Poland. I live about six blocks east of this plaza. It's a five to ten minute walk from my apartment.

They decided to turn the street that is between the Fruit and Vegetable store and the Pharmacy into a plaza. Mainly because school children were crossing there, and families were walking along it, while you'd have to deal with trucks, buses and other vehicles attempting to go down this narrow one way street. Or worse, trying to park in front of the stores along it. Making it difficult to cross.

So as a safety measure, to clean up the litter, and make the community a nicer space - they painted the street with a lovely or brightly colored mural and are putting in planters.

I think they went the cheap route. What they should have done is put in a plaza - with raised concrete, additional trash receptacles, and built in planters, trees and landscaping. That way no one can use it as a street ever again. The painting is kind of a mess. There's footprints of purple and pink paint all over the sidewalks, and it kind of blends in together.
Also they had two people doing it for a while - and all they did was chat.
Lots of chatting, not much painting - so it took three days.

That said? I'm happy about it. My city is wisely cutting on the car traffic and promoting pedestrian traffic. More and more roads are being cut off or changed into walkways, green space and plazas. The subways, ferries, buses and train lines are being expanded. There's more money and emphasis on infrastructure and public transportation, and less on parking and roads.
It's making for a safer, cleaner, less expensive city in various respects.
NYC is among the few places in the world in which you can literally go miles without driving a car. There's taxis, car services, trains, subways, buses, etc. It's a glorious place to live.

Comments

[yourlibrarian]

Yeah, could have been more developed but I agree that it's a space improvement for the area.

[shadowkat]

They probably wanted to do more - but couldn't afford it - so did what they could to improve the space and pollution levels. Also provide the Bengali community - who craves an outdoor space to meet and congregate - with one. I'm certain they pressured their elected officials to get the city to provide one. (That's how it happens - I know this because I work for a State Agency and see it.) They really needed one - they crowded the sidewalks on summer and spring evenings. The men mostly, and a lot of women and children. All in their cultural clothing, white sheaths and hats for the men, and colorful dresses for the women.