Re: Transportation and Infrastructure Budget Hearings and Fully Funded Open Streets Program

 

Dear Council Member Brooks-Powers,

 

We, the undersigned Open Streets volunteer committees and coordinating organizations, call on the City to fully fund the Open Streets program by allocating $48 million over the next three years to expand DOT and the City’s capacity for supporting Open Streets and directly fund the organizations operating these programs. 

 

NYC DOT’s Open Streets program has been transformative for NYC neighborhoods. It has empowered communities all over the city to reimagine our streetscape and create new public open space. It has allowed community-based organizations to make our streets safer, provide free programming, daily maintenance, outdoor dining, and support for local businesses. That landscape spans Business Improvement Districts (BIDs), schools, arts and cultural nonprofits, restaurants, and groups like ourselves, which are entirely volunteer-run. The program has resulted in many tangible benefits such as economic development and direct reductions in crashes and injuries along Open Streets corridors.

The economic benefits of Open Streets are well documented. For example, Open Streets correlate with “considerably lower [vacancies] than their surrounding neighborhoods as a whole” according to a Department of City Planning report released in 2024. Various other City-run studies over the past several years have shown similarly positive findings, including a 2022 report on the Fifth Avenue Open Street that revealed the program generated an additional $3 million in spending along that corridor and a 6% increase in spending on adjacent corridors. Another DOT report from 2022 found Open Streets corresponded to a 10% increase in new business during the pandemic compared to a 20% contraction on non-Open Street corridors.

These benefits have been routinely emphasized by City Hall. “Open Streets were an essential part of our city’s economic recovery, and they will continue to be a core part of our city’s future,” said Mayor Eric Adams, in 2022. “The research is clear that Open Streets bring more people to our city’s public spaces, more business to our city’s stores, and more jobs to New Yorkers.” DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez echoed similar sentiments: “The data is clear: When we give more space to people walking and biking, business thrives,” he said, in 2023. The city directly reaps these economic benefits, enjoying higher tax revenue thanks to Open Streets.

 

The Open Streets program makes our streets safer. By creating temporary open space, pedestrian plazas, shared streets, protected bicycling corridors and implementing traffic calming, crashes and injuries are greatly reduced along Open Streets corridors. This was first noted on the 34th Avenue Open Street in 2021, where injuries dropped dramatically compared to pre-Open Streets numbers. Similar trends have been seen along other Open Streets corridors across the city, like Berry Street in Williamsburg, which saw a 71% reduction in injuries since its transformation, and Underhill Avenue in Prospect Heights, which saw injuries plummet following the implementation of an Open Street.

These benefits rely on the work of volunteer organizers who provide countless hours of free labor every week and stretch small Open Streets reimbursement grants — at most $20,000 per year, and usually far less — to run robust community programs. Not only is this DOT reimbursement grant only a fraction of the funding required to run these Open Streets programs, volunteer organizations often have to wait up to a year to receive reimbursement for monies they have paid out of their own pockets, further threatening the program’s equity and sustainability. We are all running bare-bones budgets today — a properly funded program  would require at least 10 times the current funding allocation. 

While the Open Streets program is a sensational and innovative approach to transforming our streets, relying on provisional equipment and volunteer labor is not a sustainable arrangement. To ensure long-term stability for Open Streets sites, they need to be implemented with infrastructure, initially via “light-touch” streetscape changes — paint and planters — and ultimately via capital infrastructure work. Infrastructure investments reduce the amount of labor required to run the Open Streets, and thereby reduce operating costs. Critically, these redesigns solidify street safety improvements gained by the Open Streets program. However, many of the promised street improvement projects and capital redesigns have been stalled, due to lack of staffing and resources at DOT, as well as interference by the Adams administration. It is key that the City provide DOT with the funding, resources, and staffing required to realize this work. 

 

Furthermore, funding needs to go directly to the community partners operating the Open Streets and should be significantly increased. Volunteer community organizations have taken on the brunt of the work executing Open Streets programs — everything from planning, fundraising, daily operations, community programming, communication and outreach, and site management. The limited funding and decreases in funding that have occurred over the years jeopardize the continuity and future of the program — funding pressure is already leading to downsizing (see e.g. Vanderbilt Avenue) and the disappearance of Open Streets programs.

Similar initiatives in other cities around the world receive substantially more funding. For example, Montreal recently committed to extend their pedestrianized street program for another three years through 2028. This investment allocates $12 million to pedestrianize streets, including up to $700,000 that is directly available to each merchants association running one of these programs. This amount — more than 30 times the amount being provided to NYC Open Streets partners — aptly shows the value of these programs and the level of investment NYC should strive for.

A similar investment in Open Streets in NYC would likely produce incredible outcomes — substantial benefits for local businesses, reduced traffic injuries and improved air quality, reduced health care costs, and community programs and enrichment that have widespread socioeconomic benefits. Therefore, we urge the Council to fully fund the Open Streets program. To reiterate, the specific areas of need are as follows:

• Staffing DOT positions that support Open Streets work
• Directly funding community organizations that operate Open Streets
• Fast-tracking the implementation of street improvement work on Open Streets corridors.

 

Sincerely,

 

34th Ave Open Streets Coalition, Queens — City Council District 25

31st Ave Open Street Collective, Queens — City Council District 22

Caldwell Enrichment Program (Jennings Street), The Bronx — City Council District 17

Decatur Block Association (E 194th St and E 195th St), The Bronx — City Council District 15

Evelyn Place (b/w Aqueduct Ave E and Grand Ave), The Bronx — City Council District 14

Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council (Vanderbilt Avenue Open Street & Underhill Plaza), Brooklyn — City Council District 35

Fort Greene Open Streets Coalition (Willoughby Avenue), Brooklyn — City Council District 35

Hall Street Open Street, Brooklyn — City Council District 35

Park Slope Plaza, Brooklyn — City Council District 39

5th Avenue Open Streets (Park Slope Open Streets), Brooklyn — City Council District 39

North Brooklyn Open Streets (Berry Street), Brooklyn — City Council Districts 33 & 34

Friends of Cooper Park (Sharon Street & Maspeth Ave), Brooklyn — City Council District 34

Troutman Open Streets (Troutman Street), Brooklyn — City Council District 34

Canal Street Merchants Association, Manhattan — City Council District 1

Loisaida Open Streets Community Coalition, Manhattan — City Council District 2

FABnyc (East 4th Street Open Street), Manhattan — City Council District 2

Park to Park 103 (West 103rd Shared Street), Manhattan — City Council District 7

West 111th Street Block Association, Manhattan — City Council District 7

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