Jackson Heights is in the beginning stages of a great experiment - 78th Street between 34th Ave and Northern Boulevard is being closed for twenty consecutive weeks to provide a Play Street for children and their families!
Many neighborhood groups, organizations and the NYC Department of Transportation came together to implement this trial which is designed to enhance the already limited amount of public space available in Jackson Heights. Eventually there are plans to move the local green market into the space to allow for even more opportunities for interaction and programming. For the first week Bike New York came out to teach children how to ride a bike.
Streetfilms plans to revisit this program in the Fall to see how it progresses and expands.
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<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Helen Ho:</i> [00:25]
Jackson Heights, if you haven’t heard, is probably the district in
New York City with the least amount of park space ever. </font></p>
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<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Will Sweeney:</i>
[00:34] So it’s sort of a natural fit to have a play street, you know,
an area where people can come and enjoy the public space and not…
and do it safely, and not have to worry about, you know, cars and trucks
and stuff.</font></p>
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<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Speaker:</i> [00:46]
I mean there’s so much pressure on this park here, we have a lot of
kids here and this is all the space we have, you know. </font></p>
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<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Helen Ho:</i> [00:52]
We have to think of creative ways to expand our park, you know.
And so this is what 78<sup>th</sup> Street, our play street today really
is. You know it’s going to be an extension of Travers Park.</font></p>
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<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Will Sweeney:</i>
[01:00] There are no residential buildings on this spot. There’s
a school on one side and there’s a park on the other side, so it’s
sort of a natural fit.</font></p>
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<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Andy Wiley-Schwartz:</i>
[01:06] It would have any major impact traffic wise in the neighbourhood,
and it would have a major impact public life wise and happiness wise
for the neighbourhood. </font></p>
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<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Will Sweeney:</i>
[01:13] The weather’s incredible today. We had great turnout
for our teaching your kid to ride a bike workshop that we’re doing
with Bike New York. </font></p>
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<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Emilia Crotty:</i>
[01:22] Bike New York is a non-profit. We provide education and
events to get more people cycling in New York City, and we’re here
today teaching kids how to ride a bike for the first time. This
season Bike New York has taught about 750 kids and we’re hoping that
by the end of the season, by the Fall, we’ll get to about a thousand
little New Yorkers riding for the first time. </font></p>
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<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Will Sweeney:</i>
[01:44] It’s great. You know we have a green market, people
can buy food and they can come and sit and enjoy it. We want to
learn from what people want to do in the street and see what happens.
We don’t have to worry about cars.</font></p>
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<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Helen Ho:</i> [01:54]
People need places to run, they need places to play, you know, and this
is providing another outlet to do that. </font> <br></p>
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