These Greenwich Village Streets Are Open For Social Distancing

GREENWICH VILLAGE, MANHATTAN — Several blocks in the Village opened to pedestrians and cyclists on Saturday to help with social distancing during the coronavirus crisis.

Sections of Jones Street, University Place and MacDougal Street closed to cars and opened to foot and bike traffic as part of Mayor Bill de Blasio's Open Streets plan, which has opened more than 30 miles to pedestrians and cyclists since it was announced in April.

The streets in Greenwich Village will be managed by the Village Alliance and the local precinct.

Streets opened Saturday in the latest phase of the plan also include a section of Greenwich Street in Hudson Square, a stretch of Avenue B in the East Village and a few more blocks in Chelsea. Three streets in the Meatpacking District opened in an earlier stage of the program.

Here are the Greenwich Village streets that have opened:

• Jones Street between Bleecker and West Fourth streets, .09 miles
• University Place between 13th and 4th streets, .41 miles (open from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Sundays)
• MacDougal Street between 4th and 8th streets, .15 miles (open from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Sundays)

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The new open streets are part of the city's goal of eventually opening 100 miles of streets to give New Yorkers social distance-friendly outdoor spaces to roam.

The mayor's office claimed in a news release Friday that the additional streets bring the city past its goal of opening 40 miles of streets by the end of May, but the city's tally includes nine miles of temporary protected bike lanes announced last week.

Not including those streets, the newly-announced locations bring the citywide total to only 34 miles.

City Hall first reached its agreement with City Council — which was pushing a plan to force the city to pedestrianize streets — in late April.

It came after a bill introduced by the City Council during the body's first remote meeting proposed opening up 75 miles of city streets for pedestrian use. Other elected officials have proposed opening 16 streets on Manhattan's west side and opening up Broadway from Union Square to Central Park.

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