Preserving Our Rich Street Life

From its beginnings following the Civil War, Park Slope has been a community of diversity, where people of different means and ethnicities and beliefs have come in contact while shopping on Fifth and Seventh Avenues, walking to school or house of worship, enjoying Prospect Park, and traveling by streetcar and bus, the old Fifth Avenue El and the subway. It’s a place where one can walk everywhere, and in the course of that walk run into neighbors and friends, taking the time to stop and chat.

Park Slope’s street life is one of the neighborhood’s finest assets. The Livable Streets Committee seeks to improve the use, safety and quality of the streets, sidewalks, and streetscape of Park Slope, in cooperation with neighboring communities, in ways that enhance street life and safety for all users.

Successful Livable Streets initiatives have been spun off in recognition of their success. For example, the very successful March 2010 public forum, “The Future of Fourth Avenue,” and the energy that followed gave rise to the Civic Council’s Forth on Fourth Avenue Committee (which has now launched as an independent community organization). In January 2012 the Civic Council, together with Park Slope Neighbors and the Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council, held a neighborhood forum on the city’s Neighborhood Slow Zones initiative.

In March 2015 the Livable Streets Committee held a community workshop to help develop the Civic Council’s advocacy for livable streets going forward, focusing on four areas: Aging in Place, Independence of the Disabled, Public Art, and Streets / Sidewalks / Curbsides / Streetscape. To find reports from the Civic Council’s workshops on livable streets, please follow these links: 2015 Workshop, 2009 Workshop.

 

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