(Photo at right courtesy of Joe Linton and LA.StreetsBlog.org)
I often find it helpful to look to precedents when discussing urban design: there is value in learning from the experiences of other cities. However, for the precedents to be as useful as possible, I seek those which have some relevance in terms of historic, physical, and cultural context. I thus often turn to cities like Portland, San Diego, and Seattle for inspiration—West Coast cities roughly the size of Long Beach. One city I usually avoid is New York: it is a much larger East Coast city with no real peers. Many would understandably be skeptical at any attempt to seek inspiration from a world city of such grand scale and density. Today, however, is an exception: I will draw from recent experiences in creating open space in New York for the lessons it might provide us here in Long Beach.
From the creation of new open space to investments in mass transit and bike infrastructure, New York—a city often identified with the grandiose—has recently focused on the human scale. A new initiative called the NYC Plaza Program has sought to transform under-used roadway into pedestrian spaces. Recognizing that the public rights-of-way in New York added up to a tremendous area (equivalent to fifty Central Parks), the city wants to reorient some of this space to improve the pedestrian experience.
Many of the first cohort of new plazas created under this program are located at irregular intersections where multiple streets cross, often at oblique angles. Given that improving the flow of traffic is the ultimate goal of modern traffic engineering, it is hard to believe that in cases where congestion and parking are major issues, a city would remove street parking or reduce traffic lanes. Yet this is what has happened in New York, for the plaza program has originated not from that city’s Parks and Recreation Department, but from its Department of Transportation! In this city, traffic engineers have become key partners in creating open space.
The use of existing public rights-of-way for these new spaces significantly reduces costs (given the incredibly expensive real estate environment of New York). In selecting and developing sites for developing these urban plazas, the city has sought partnership with community groups and nonprofits, which have also assisted with maintaining the completed plazas. But perhaps the most novel aspect of controlling costs has been through their design and implementation.
In many cases, converting under-used roads into pedestrian spaces is not technically difficult: it consists largely of paint, planters, and street furniture. This allows for easy implementation and also means that the conversion can be reversed if needs or traffic patterns change. Instead of removing asphalt, the street surface can simply be painted an alterative color, sometimes to match the sidewalk and in other cases to create a unique aesthetic (even polka dots), which then can be protected from automobiles with heavy planters. The newly-created pedestrian space can then be populated with benches, tables, more planters, and eventually people. In some cases, a coffee or food kiosk is located in the plaza; others feature live performances. Many of the new plazas are located in commercial areas, where they can stimulate economic development while improving pedestrian access. At the same time, these urban interventions help create a sense of place, either by augmenting an existing public space or creating a new one.
From photos, articles, and first-hand accounts, it is clear that many of these new urban plazas have been immediate successes. Such successful examples of these new plazas can eventually be made more permanent with actual sidewalk paving, integrated landscaping, and street furniture. When this happens, it will certainly be easier to find political and community support for such improvements because the plaza is not just a vision on paper, but a physical reality that can be touched and experienced.
The New York City Plaza Program can be adopted in Long Beach: in fact, some ideas along the lines of the New York City Plaza Program have already been tested here. For instance, as part of the 2008 “University by the Sea,” a day-long community learning experience developed by Ryan Smolar and Rachel Potucek in the East Village district (near downtown), an installation called “the Street of Tomorrow” was developed on First Street at Linden Avenue. This installation included a kiosk describing what a “Street of Tomorrow” might include, from sustainable stormwater management to bicycle infrastructure, but the most noteworthy element of the installation was the introduction of a temporary curb extension at the corner of First Street and Linden Avenue. Inspired by a trip to Grand Junction, Colorado, Ryan and Rachel created the temporary curb extension using about 100 potted plants to define its perimeter. The adjacent restaurant expanded its outdoor seating for the day, filling the newly demarcated space with patrons dining and sipping on wine. The day-long pedestrian experiment was so successful that when the time came to repair the street and sidewalks at this intersection, the city installed two permanent curb extensions. These enhancements added over 3,000 square feet of new open space and improved the pedestrian environment of downtown Long Beach, all without sacrificing any on-street parking and with no new impediments to vehicular movement.
There is no need to stop with this success story: numerous other opportunities exist throughout Long Beach to create new public plazas, once again taking a page from New York City itself. For instance, in the Bixby Knolls neighborhood, a portion of Atlantic Avenue’s east lane could be turned over to pedestrians. Norse and Viking Ways on the Eastside would benefit from curb extensions at their respective intersections with Village Road. The access road where Corto Place intersects with Broadway in the Bluff Heights Neighborhood could be reworked to better link nearby stores. The building at the southeast corner of the intersection of 7th Street and Alamitos Avenue is soon to be torn down to improve traffic flow; as part of this work the Armory Park concept could easily be developed in a temporary “proof of concept” fashion, as with the former example of the curb extensions at First Street and Linden Avenue.
These are only a few examples of possible new pedestrian spaces that could be created from streets. In all these cases local residents have relatively few parks nearby, street space that is comparatively underused, and a strong existing base of pedestrian activity. But as in the case of New York City, it will be important to develop these plazas through neighborhood partnerships. For a very reasonable investment and with no need for property acquisition, new urban plazas like these could be developed in neighborhood-based commercial districts throughout Long Beach, providing value for surrounding businesses and patrons they serve. Here is a case where the Big Apple does hold lessons for us, from the other coast.