1 In 5 Working Brooklyn Open Streets Are In Park Slope: Study

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — While Open Streets across the city struggle to stay up and running, Park Slope has become one of the only neighborhoods where the open spaces have managed to stay fully operational, according to a new study.

All seven of Park Slope's Open Streets were found to be active in a recent Transportation Alternatives study, which surveyed all 274 streets participating in the Department of Transportation program to see which were operational.

The results turned out to be an anomaly, both in Brooklyn and across the boroughs — only 46 percent of Open Streets citywide and 40 percent in Brooklyn were marked active, meaning at least one volunteer saw barriers up during the streets operating hours, according to the survey.

In fact, given the low number of active blocks in Brooklyn, Park Slope turns out to be home to nearly one in five of the borough's total up-and-running Open Streets.

The success can likely be attributed, in part, to Park Slope's demographics.

Transportation Alternatives found that most of the active Open Streets were in predominantly white, higher-income neighborhoods, especially where there are neighbors who can donate money or time to keeping the open spaces running.

The researchers specifically pointed to Park Slope's ability to raise nearly $32,000 in fundraising for its popular Fifth Avenue program, which accounts for six of the seven Open Street stretches in the neighborhood.

Comparatively, less well-off neighborhoods, like nearby Sunset Park, have struggled to reach similar fundraising goals, the study noted. Only half of Sunset Park's Open Streets were marked operational in the survey.

Park Slope can also likely credit much of its Open Streets' success to the local organization, the Fifth Avenue Business Improvement District, that runs the show.

In Brooklyn, almost all of the active Open Streets were run by a local organization, while only 40 percent of those marked non-operational had a local group offering its resources, according to the results.

Among its recommendations, Transportation Alternatives urged the city to eliminate this disparity by providing enough resources so its agencies, not volunteers, are in charge of running Open Streets.

They made a total of eight recommendations for how the city can improve the program when making it permanent.

"This report makes one thing clear: New Yorkers love Open Streets, and they want to see them succeed,” Trans Alt Executive Director Danny Harris said. “However, Mayor de Blasio has broken his promise to expand the program equitably. All communities deserve Open Streets and the health, climate, and safety benefits they provide."

Note: In at least some neighborhoods, Patch found that the Trans Alt survey may have relied partly on outdated information.

Read More:

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• Park Slope Adds More Blocks For 'Next Level Open Streets' Program
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