SHARED SPACES
SHARED SOLUTIONS
New York City is not doing enough to create and maintain equitable public spaces.
Let’s change that.
Currently, multiple agencies are accountable for managing New York City's public realm. Functionally, this creates a lack of coordination that results in missed opportunities. Each agency or department works within their own silos, unable to build upon each other's work and develop multiple public benefits. This isolation creates conflicts for determining who is responsible for maintenance and design, and exacerbates inconsistencies and inequities. Most importantly, this has profound real-world impacts on public space and vulnerable communities throughout the city. We need a new way to integrate our thinking on these critical areas. Our public spaces are better when we think about them together.
In 2022, APSL was founded with a central charge to advocate for the appointment of the City's first central public realm position. As a result of this work, Ya-Ting Liu was appointed the City's inaugural Chief Public Realm Officer in 2023. In the year since Liu was appointed, she has proven the benefits of having central, visionary leadership dedicated to our public space. Tasked with aligning the City's many disparate and diverse goals, Liu has been a staunch advocate for public space progress. With her support, New York City has passed a historic outdoor dining program, expanded 5th Avenue's popular holiday Open Street, reopened, and reactivated the Manhattan public space beneath the Brooklyn Bridge with the creation of Gotham Park, and installed new people-centered amenities in the Flatiron District as part of the larger Broadway Vision plan to rebalance Broadway from Union Square to Columbus Circle. These marquee projects have shown on a grand scale what's possible for the city's public realm and demonstrate Ya-Ting Liu and the Adams administration's dedication to rethinking the way New Yorkers use streets and sidewalks as public space. Yet there is more work to be done to care for and activate our public spaces across all five boroughs with an inclusive and equitable focus.
The Alliance for Public Space Leadership came together out of the heightened awareness of the pandemic when New Yorkers realized the critical importance of our public open spaces for health and wellbeing. The progress we as a city have made is impressive. Our vision for ensuring the public realm delivers the greatest good of all New Yorkers will drive us forward to find deeper and more innovative collaborations of all kinds to achieve a more livable and equitable city. The Alliance Leadership will continue to support and push the City to develop a long-term and holistic vision for how to harness the potential for public space for everyday New Yorkers.
What is the “public realm”?
The public realm in the broadest sense encompasses all publicly accessible exterior spaces. Composed of streets, sidewalks, parks, plaza, waterfronts, natural areas, and more, this system of public spaces represent roughly 40 percent of the city’s land mass.
Open space is a more narrowly defined term for publicly accessible parks, playgrounds, waterfronts, and plazas used primarily for leisure, play, or sport, or that is set aside for the protection and enhancement of the natural environment.
“When walking down a New York City street, the average person doesn’t experience public space in terms of jurisdiction. But, unfortunately, that is the approach historically taken when planning and building the public realm.”
— Mitchell Silver, Former NYC Parks Commissioner
Photo Acknowledgments
Open Streets Union Square | Source: Flickr, New York City Department of Transportation
A kiss in Bryant Park | Source: Project for Public Spaces
People Walking on 34th Avenue Open Streets | Source: Open Plans, Modifications: Photo Flipped.
Bethesda Fountain in Central Park | Source: Flickr, John Cunniff.
Bryant Park | Source: Project for Public Space.