Survey: Flatiron NoMad District Is Cleaner and Safer Than a Year Ago

(New York, N.Y.) – Residents, employees, students, and visitors in Manhattan’s Flatiron NoMad district find the area to be cleaner and safer than a year ago, according to results from a new survey. The annual community survey, conducted by the Flatiron NoMad Partnership between January 3 and February 3, 2023, was completed by a record 1,095 people—a 63 percent increase in participation from 2022.

Fifty-nine percent of respondents said the district was cleaner than it was a year ago, with 32 percent saying it was the same and just nine percent saying it was less clean. Seventy-four percent agreed that the district was “clean of trash, graffiti, stickers and bills”—up from 69 percent in 2022. Meanwhile, 43 percent said the district was safer than the previous year, while just 14 percent thought it was less safe.

Eighty-five percent of respondents approved of the Partnership, which provides sanitation, beautification, public space management, safety, homeless outreach, marketing, and public events.

“We’re grateful to everyone who participated in our community survey,” said James Mettham, President of the Flatiron NoMad Partnership. “It’s gratifying for our hardworking team, including our sanitation and safety workers who are on the streets every day, to see that our stakeholders notice and appreciate the results of their efforts. We look forward to using the feedback from this survey to make our district even more welcoming, safe, and vibrant in 2023.”

The majority of people who completed the survey were neighborhood residents (662), followed by visitors from other New York City neighborhoods (169); employees in neighborhood offices (134); employees of neighborhood retailers, restaurants, and service businesses (30); tourists from outside the city (15); commercial property owners or managers (11); and students (10).

Fifty-eight percent said they come to the Flatiron NoMad district every day—up 10 percent from the 2022 survey. The increase aligns with the neighborhood’s residential growth, as well as data tracked by the Partnership showing that employees have returned to district offices with greater frequency in the last year.

In January 2022, the Partnership expanded its BID boundaries to encompass all of NoMad to the north, 20th Street to the south, and seven more blocks of Sixth Avenue to the west, nearly doubling its service area. Its impact in the expansion areas was reflected in the survey results, as two-thirds of people from those blocks, specifically, said the district was cleaner. Forty-three percent of expansion respondents perceived homelessness to be less prevalent than the year before and 33 percent perceived no difference.

The survey also found strong support (85%) for redesigned and pedestrianized streets, like the NoMad Piazza pedestrian plaza on Broadway from 25th to 27th Streets, which the Partnership and the New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) created in 2022, enhancing outdoor dining at adjacent restaurants, attracting new businesses, and providing new space for cultural programming. In 2023, the Partnership and DOT will continue streetscape improvements in the district. On March 12, 2023, the Partnership joined DOT and Mayor Eric Adams to announce the next phase of the city’s “Broadway Vision” plan in NoMad, with work commencing immediately to create new public spaces and make streets safer between Madison Square Park and Herald Square.

The survey reinforced the longstanding popularity of the neighborhood’s public spaces, with 94 percent of respondents reporting they used public seating in Madison Square Park. Many also said they used seating in the Flatiron Public Plazas (69%); Broadway and 22nd Street (48%); and NoMad Piazza (39%).

When asked to choose which of the Partnership’s streetscape, beautification, and placemaking efforts they would like to see more of in Flatiron and NoMad, survey participants’ most common selection was street trees (66%), followed by public art installations (59%), festive lighting (57 %), sidewalk planters (57%), open streets (53%), curbside trash and recycling containers (50%), sidewalk benches (38%), and outdoor dining (38%).