Active retail, active transit

I was walking around Brooklyn Heights a couple weeks ago and noticed this little entrance beckoning me with a flower seller and food vendors. It turns out it was the Clark Street station for the 2/3 line. A lot of retail for subway stations are underground, and I really liked that this one helped make the entrance inviting before you have to go underground. If you look towards at the back, there's the ticket booth. For people who know this station, maybe it's obvious, but then again, maybe it's something you take for granted. It certainly makes a morning commute much more inviting.

A new public space for Dumbo

Will Dumbo get a new public space in the middle of one of its streets?

The triangle seems to have gotten a whiff of inspiration from the Gansvoort proposal, though there isn't a big blank structure from a bridge there.



There are many intersections like these around New York, and sometimes it does seem that the City has given up making them useful for people and instead turning them over to cars. Now that there's greater community-based interest in reclaiming these space, the challenge is how to make the triangles provide for people without making them all feel the same.