We recently had a big 12” snowfall in NYC. Of course ANY snowfall of a few inches bring the sneckdowns (a cleaver portmanteau of "snow" +, "neckdown in the Urbanist world) but these monsters have been icy-solid for over a week with temps not predicted to climb above freezing for weeks...

A few months ago, the Meatpacking District in NYC decided that a loud 60 foot roadway on West 14th Street was too much and thwarted opportunities to get more folks to linger and shop as they passed thru. So they converted it into a green, relaxing promenade and took back 36 feet of roadway filling it with plenty of places for people to pause.