'Open Boulevards' Coming To NYC Streets, De Blasio Says

NEW YORK CITY — A radical reshaping of New York City's streets during the coronavirus crisis is about to go a step further.

The city will set up 10 "Open Boulevards" across the five boroughs, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Wednesday.

The concept will be familiar for New Yorkers who wandered out of their pandemic cocoons and onto newly designated Open Streets dedicated for pedestrians, bicycles, dining and virtually everything but a car.

"Open Boulevards takes the concept of Open Streets and supercharges it — multiple blocks in a row filled with restaurants, with performances, with community activities," de Blasio said. "Great for the neighborhood, great for tourists too."

Open Streets are here to stay — introducing Open Boulevards. #StreetsWeek (!!!) https://t.co/LSIsUac4co pic.twitter.com/rKbUeW0bWM
— NYC Mayor's Office (@NYCMayorsOffice) May 12, 2021

The 10 new Open Boulevards will be an experiment to this year to see if wider stretches of people-focused street spaces will work, de Blasio said.

Open Streets and its sister program Open Restaurants themselves were experiments, although ones borne out of immediate necessity. New Yorkers in the pandemic's early days needed spaces to exercise and safely social distance, as well as dine outdoors without overwhelming fear of spreading the coronavirus.

De Blasio initially showed lukewarm enthusiasm for the concept, but as it boomed in popularity he became an open streets evangelist.

He is poised to sign legislation on Thursday that makes Open Streets permanent, and likely will do so soon for the Open Restaurants program as well.

“What we’re doing here is taking something that will be permanent — Open Streets — and something else that will be permanent — Open Restaurants — and we’re taking a bigger approach with the Open Boulevards and creating these focal points where people can go on for multiple blocks and really experience the joy of this,” he said.

The city's department of transportation selected the Open Boulevards stretches based on areas that already demonstrated success, said Jee Mee Kim, its chief strategy officer. She said part of that involved identifying parallel routes for traffic.

DOT officials will see how the boulevards work this summer, she said.

“I don’t see why we couldn’t … contemplate rolling it out on a permanent basis,” she said.