As NYC's school year wraps up, we're celebrating the 30+ schools and youth organizations we've helped secure open streets and similar programs citywide. From PS 129's tireless PE teacher Nicole who runs College Point's daily open street like a neighborhood mayor, to PS 134Q celebrating a full year of street-based gym and recess, these school communities are proving that car-free spaces outside schools create opportunities for learning, play, and community building.

New Yorkers famously never agree on anything, but when we asked what they think needs improving about DOT's Summer Streets program, the majority just said they wanted MORE. 91% of respondents want Summer Streets to happen more often, 77% would like extended hours, and 75% favor expanding routes to cover more streets. Summer Streets is so popular it's got the majority of New Yorkers in agreement on something worth celebrating and expanding.

Looking around your neighborhood, you probably assume the drivers on your street are locals, but we've crunched the numbers and found that most are actually just cutting through to somewhere else. In Washington Heights, 88% of drivers aren't starting or ending their trip in the area. Low Traffic Neighborhoods could reroute this traffic back onto bigger roads while preserving resident access, reducing overall traffic by 50%.

Join us Thursday, May 1 at Brooklyn Winery for the third annual Public Space Awards, celebrating New York's public realm and the people who make it thrive. We'll honor five leaders and groups behind the spaces that enrich our city, bringing together veteran New Yorkers and newcomers alike. Discounted tickets are available for young urbanists, with regular tickets available for all other attendees interested in partying with fellow New York enthusiasts.

 This is a HUGE moment for NYC streets. Daylighting, which stops drivers from parking right up against a crosswalk, is headed to City Council for a hearing. If this bill passes, we could be finished leaning into intersections, peering around parking cars, every time we need to cross a street! But we need to show that we want it.

In the heart of Kensington, one of NYC's most diverse immigrant neighborhoods, Avenue C Plaza stands as a testament to community-driven transformation. What was once a neglected asphalt triangle has become a multilingual, multigenerational gathering space where 33+ languages and cultures converge. The Kensington Cultural Council's collaborative stewardship has created a rare truly public space in the neighborhood—hosting everything from Bengali New Year celebrations to multicultural Iftars, ESL classes to youth-led art exhibitions. Their work demonstrates the power of people coming together across difference, especially in moments of struggle and resilience, proving that physical limitations can spark cultural abundance.

The weather is just starting to turn, but New Yorkers have summer on the brain. More than 20 elected officials, in all five boroughs, have now written letters to DOT in support of Summer Streets, the long-running program that opens streets to people for four Saturdays in August. Their letters echo what Open Plans has been urging for years—more weekends, more hours, more streets for people.

In case you missed it, we spent last Friday outside C&B Cafe on East 7th Street, operating a technically illegal curbside cafe. Technically illegal because New York City’s current curbside dining law requires that those spots revert to parking from December to March. We got some great coverage and have launched a campaign to fix the issuesonce and for all. We had a chat with our co-executive director Sara Lind for more on why we care about curbside dining. 

Last week, the Open Plans team shipped up to Albany! Early one morning, my colleagues and I hopped on a train heading north toward a full day of meetings with State legislators. We talked about the importance of Open Plans’ priority bills for the session, including: Universal Daylighting, Automated Curb Enforcement, Speed Limiters for Reckless Drivers, and the Get Around NY Act

This May 1st—May Day—we celebrate not only the spirit of renewal and collective action, but also the people who make our city’s streets and public spaces more welcoming, vibrant, and joyful. We’re excited to invite you to the 2025 Public Space Awards at Brooklyn Winery in Williamsburg.

Looking at the cars in your neighborhood, you probably assume that most are coming to or from somewhere nearby. But actually, a majority is cut-through traffic. These drivers aren’t your neighbors, and they’re not visiting a resident or a local business — they’re just using your small, residential streets kind of like a thruway. In Brooklyn's Community Board 6, it's at 76%! That's three out of every four drivers just using those streets to get somewhere else. 

Think the traffic outside your window is from your neighborhoods? Actually, up to 90% of drivers in NYC neighborhoods are just using local streets as a shortcut. 'Cut-through driving' is turning residential blocks into miniature unofficial thruways and creating chaos, pollution, and unsafe streets for residents.

We have helped 21 community boards pass daylighting resolutions, demonstrating to DOT that New Yorkers want safer intersections and they're willing to trade some street parking to get them. These grassroots efforts are extremely powerful, but our best chance at widespread change is a new bill, now in the City Council, that would mandate New York City daylight all intersections and put items - like planters, seating, or bike racks - in the spots.

Our 2025 Agenda for a Livable City is live! These are the policies we'll be working to get enacted before the year is through. Among a bunch of bills and bright ideas are five priorities we see as the biggest opportunities for making real change in 2025.

New York City’s streets are world-renowned for their culture, vitality and dynamism. But these qualities don’t materialize out of thin air – they’re a product of dedicated leadership and bold imaginations right in our own backyard. It’s this work, day-in and day-out, that builds a more equitable, people-centered future for our city. This year, we’re recognizing seven neighborhood leaders and groups doing the extraordinary, too-often unseen work of creating and caring for spaces in their local communities.