Manhattan's Park Avenue to lose traffic lanes for wider pedestrian promenades
A busy section of Manhattan's Park Avenue would look more like its namesake under a plan floated by Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Wednesday.
The city transportation department released new designs for an overhaul of the street north of the MetLife building up to East 57th Street that would widen its pedestrian medians by removing a traffic lane in each direction.
The department released two visions for the street: One would focus on making pedestrian promenades, while another would add a winding bike path in the middle of the street, similar to the Allen Malls on the Lower East Side.
"With this new redesign, we are putting the 'Park' back into Park Avenue and upgrading Midtown Manhattan by providing residents and visitors alike with more usable public space," Mamdani wrote in a statement.
A century ago, Park Avenue's medians were 56 feet wide and had walking paths and rows of greenery. That changed in 1927, when they were narrowed to accommodate more car traffic. Now, the medians are just 20 feet wide - and the redesign would more than double their space.
City officials said the project would coincide with the MTA's $1.7 billion rehabilitation of its crumbling Grand Central Terminal train shed, which sits beneath Park Avenue.
The MTA is preparing to rip up the street to repair the shed, and transportation officials said that since the current medians will be removed, it's a once-in-a-century chance to build a modern street from scratch.
Jamie Torres-Springer, the head of construction at the MTA, said that the city is cooperating with the MTA's timeline.
"We are thrilled to incorporate these public realm improvements as we rebuild the train shed, but our agreement is very specific: the city's work cannot slow down our infrastructure repairs," Torres-Springer said.
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