Park Slope Plaza: A Kid-Centered Street Experiment
PS 372 is an inclusion school in the Gowanus neighborhood that is building community and independence through bike to school and bike education. During summer school at PS 372, rising 5th graders in teacher Emily Stutts' class learned about journalism. Later in the summer Emily attended "Remaking the Streets" course through the EIT Urban Mobility program, Technical University of Munich, and a Dutch organization, Humankind. In preparation for her travels and studies, Emily embedded discussions and writing assignments with students alongside the Remaking the Streets workshop learning tasks. Together, the class wrote a journalistic style article about the Park Slope Play Street (now called Park Slope Plaza) next to JJ Byrne Park at 5th Ave that was presented for the Remaking the Street program. The class conducted surveys that were used as a model for students to do their own surveying as part of individual students' journalism projects. They also visited the plaza during a neighborhood walk. This article and the accompanying photos were co-created with the students and spotlights their ideas and efforts about streets for people, especially children.
On a hot July night in Brooklyn’s Park Slope, you’ll find many families relaxing on benches and lawn chairs in the middle of 4th Street. They’re in front of a big, portable screen watching the film Bend it Like Beckham, chosen for this family movie night in celebration of the 50th anniversary of Title IX. While some participants’ eyes are glued to the screen, you can see some of the younger children just running around and playing freely. That’s just what they are meant to do on this street experiment called the Park Slope Plaza.
The website describes the Park Slope Plaza as “a beautiful car-free Pedestrian Plaza that helps neighbors grow community, business thrive, students learn and people relax.” The campaign to turn this corridor into a plaza was organized by Park Slope resident Kathy Park Price, a Brooklyn organizer with Transportation Alternatives. According to Price, who spoke at a recent Transportation Alternatives activist committee, the cul-de-sac at 4th Street and 5th Avenue has gone through various states of car-free design since the 1950s. But it became a hot topic in the 2010s, due to push and pull between local families of the “stroller capital of Brooklyn” and the teachers of the adjacent middle school, MS 51, who were using the street for parking during the school day. (The curbs on this block were not and are not designated for teacher parking - there are allotted spots on the adjacent streets allocated only for Department of Education employees to use during school hours.)
Though the issue had been simmering for some time, the COVID-19 pandemic brought things to a head. The Plaza became an ad hoc Open Street and a source of relief for many families enduring isolating lockdowns indoors, allowing parents and children to get outside for fresh air and safe socialization. It was that experience that prompted Price to launch her campaign for a permanent car-free plaza. From the start, students were placed front and center in the campaign. According to an Instagram post on the Park Slope Plaza account in September, they’d heard word that “the principal has been talking very enthusiastically about how the school community will benefit from the added public space!” A separate post on October 6 highlighted a salsa class that the middle school hosted during the school day in the public outdoor space. It was immediately clear that students from the school could use more safe, car-free space adjacent to their school.
Another local school, PS 372, also spoke up in support of the Park Slope Plaza. In promotional videos from the Plaza campaign, Price’s own children, PS 372 students, can be seen helping repair benches and rollerblading joyfully along the stretch. PS 372 teacher Emily Stutts joined the campaign; she explained the Plaza campaign to students and interviewed them about their thoughts. Students who hadn’t visited the Plaza liked the idea and expressed desire to go there. After Stutts organized a field trip to the location during the school day, students weighed in further. One child had design suggestions - he felt the block would be better served with more interactive components such as movable ramps for skateboarding. Other children expressed a general desire for better streets for playing in their neighborhood, with elements like a Slip ‘N’ Slide. Those ideas call the vakantie straat to mind, a popular pandemic street experiment in Rotterdam in which neighborhoods repurposed car parking to build small park areas with water play elements, beach chairs & umbrellas, bouncy castles, and greenery.
Taking such inspiration from The Netherlands would be fitting for the Plaza, which has drawn its inspiration from another Dutch street activation - the woonerf, or “living street.’ As of now, looking at the Plaza during the day, it is mostly empty. Brightly painted picnic tables fill the space amidst several planters. But more robust design and programming, like a living street, could consistently engage more children and families to the space. More programming would also possibly draw more positive attention to the Plaza, shifting the focus away from the lost parking and towards the joyful activity, much like the aforementioned movie nights have done.
One way in which the campaign organizers have highlighted the element of joy is through their lollipop petition campaign. By calling the cul-de-sac a “lollipop”-shaped street and using that as their symbol for the plaza, they’ve been able to create a strong visual brand to the campaign that is evocative and playful. When canvassing the streets for signatures for the Department of Transportation (DOT) to permanently pedestrianize the street, organizers carried inflatable lollipops, passed out rainbow-swirled lollies to kids, and hung signs with the giant symbol front and center in local business windows. Walking through the neighborhood, it’s clear that many businesses indeed support the change with Park Slope Plaza signs hanging in nearly every shop front. And the campaign has momentum - they have gained nearly 1,000 signatures in support of this goal and have now reached the stage where the DOT is gathering community survey feedback about making the street a permanent car-free zone. Until a permanent plaza is implemented, the
community has called for “an immediate interim pedestrian plaza at 4th Street at 5th Avenue with barriers, tables and seating, trees and plants, and bike racks.” Much of that interim plaza plan has been implemented using movable metal barriers, brightly painted picnic tables, and planters in the space every day.
It’s nice to feel the neighborhood coming together to support this common cause. Even businesses blocks away, who may not directly interact with the Plaza, recognize the benefits to a car-free space for kids, families, and all pedestrians. And the successful kid-focused approach of the campaign shows that advocates can center joy and fun in efforts to reclaim public space. With so much local community support, compared to opposing teachers who drive in from outside neighborhoods further away, this begs an important question about who should have ultimate control of neighborhood streets and can set an important precedent for the streets of NYC.