Claire Weisz

27 May 2020

NYLON #17

The Future of Retail & Public Space in New York

WXY Studio

Public space is / was infrastructure for retail

© New York Times

Canal Street Then

© AMNY

Canal Street Now

© 6ft

Union Square Market Then

© NY Eater & Daily News

Union Square Market Now

COVID has temporarily reshaped how we use

Public Space

© New York Times

Open Streets

Retail Clusters

Manhattan contains the highest density of retail establishments.

A few other prominent clusters include:

• Roosevelt Ave in Queens • Bushwick/Williamsburg • Ditmas Ave. in Brooklyn • Fordham Road in the Bronx • St. George in Staten Island

Open Streets

Open Streets play a complementary role to existing retail clusters.

In some cases they directly overlap or are adjacent:

• 34th Ave & Roosevelt Ave in Queens • Berry St. in Williamsburg; • Atlantic Ave. in South Richmond Hill

The city can continue to co-locate open streets with an eye toward retail recovery in these local commercial hotspots.

Sidewalk Widths

The need to continue to expand the Open Streets Program is clear, the citywide sidewalk width average is 7.2 ft.

Sidewalks within 5min walk to Open Streets are 8.5 ft wide on average.

Open Streets up to now do not really address the issue of narrow sidewalks.

Retail Clusters & Residents Gone

These places with high concentrations of retail activity in Manhattan experienced drastic proportions of residents leaving the city:

• Central Park East and West • Gramercy/East Village)

This suggests that along with the retail that attracts tourists and of!ce workers, smaller retailers that serve residents may be particularly hard hit.

Retail Clusters & Remaining Population

These non-CBD retail hotspots still have considerable population density:

• Fordham Road, Grand Concourse (Bronx) • Bushwick, Flatbush, Coney Island

(Brooklyn) • Flushing, Corona, Elmhurst (Queens)

The retailers in these places may now serve an outsized role as residents may be more con!ned to their neighborhoods for shopping.

Local is essential

© New York Times

Inwood Post-COVID

© New York Times

Jackson Heights Post-COVID

© New York Times

Demand for Take Out

Demand for Deliveries

© New York Times

Investing Locally

Public Realm Toolkit

Public Realm Toolkit

Public Realm Toolkit

What are essential experiences?

© People Magazine

© NY Eater

© Battery Park Conservency

Claire Weisz

27 May 2020

Thank you