Institute collects ideas for improvements

A New Yorker can dream, right?

The Institute for Urban Design is soliciting ideas from city residents about how specific places in all five boroughs can be improved—and suggestions have ranged from the agricultural to the fantastical.

According to Brendan Crain, program coordinator at the Institute, over 250 submissions have been received so far. On the Upper West Side, residents have asked for empty retail space to be filled with mom-and-pop businesses, and in West Harlem requests have been placed for an open-air market.

Those suggestions are in line with typical concerns in the neighborhood. West Harlem residents have often called parts of their neighborhood a “food desert,” and Upper West Side residents—with the advent of complexes like Columbus Square—have both bemoaned and celebrated the increase in chain stores like Michael’s and Sephora.

But other suggestions were more whimsical: a hot air balloon ferry to take commuters from Brooklyn to Queens, for example.

Residents can submit suggestions during the first stage of the project, called By the City/For the City, through this Saturday, April 30.

“We’re asking New Yorkers to submit anything from very local things, from dangerous intersections, to rundown parks, to transportation across the city,” Crain said. “We wanted to try to gather a really wide range of ideas from people all over the city to gather sites.”

Whether or not the open-air markets—or hot air balloons—would ever become reality is less certain. The proposals will be compiled in a publication that will be a part of Urban Design Week in September, but the Institute has no specific plans to implement the proposals.

Still, Crain said the competition could spark interest in making real changes.

“It’s an ideas competition,” he said. “But hopefully, things could evolve.”

The Institute, an organization which offers lectures and publishes criticism of urban design, wanted a more community-oriented approach than other design competitions, in which local support is solicited only at the end of a project.

“We’re assuming that the sites that have the most community support and interaction … will be more likely to draw attention in that [second] phase,” Crain said.

As for other ideas, Upper West Side resident Daniel Cuff said “more green space” would be nice, and Harlem resident Paul Oviero said better bike paths are a necessity in Manhattan. But other suggestions go beyond urban design—like Harlem resident Victor Martinez’s one request for his city.

“Friendlier cops, ones that you’re not afraid of,” he said.

gina.lee@columbiaspectator.com