Alliance for Paseo Park announces summer-long community engagement on future of Open Street / 34th Ave
For Immediate Release – Alliance for Paseo Park, a community-led organization, advocating to turn New York City’s “gold standard” open street into a permanent linear park, is announcing a robust locally led outreach and engagement process to gather feedback for the future of Paseo Park / 34th Avenue Open Street in Jackson Heights. Design-firm WXY will assist in its effort, a complement to outreach already underway by the Department of Transportation, which held its first session outdoors on June 18th, as the City seeks to redesign the open street.
Jackson Heights is home to New York City’s largest and most successful open street, Paseo Park (formerly 34th Avenue Open Street). The City has allocated $88 million in capital funding for improvements to the 26-block long (1.3 mile) stretch, which runs along 34th Avenue from 69th Street to Junction Boulevard.
This locally-led effort aims to reach deeper, gathering community ideas and concerns – via regular outreach on the open street, in living rooms, cafes, shops and other gathering places across Jackson Heights.
Jackson Heights, one of the City’s most diverse and densely populated districts, ranks last in park space and lacks a community center. The creation of a linear park along 34th Avenue Open Street would give the community up to 7.5 acres of park space, quadrupling the amount of public green space.
“I grew up in this neighborhood without access to green space. I could only peek through the gates of the private co-op gardens. Green spaces should be for everyone. It’s crucial that we, as a community, lead this, by gathering as much feedback as possible from our neighbors, reaching every corner of our diverse community with a multi-lingual, multi-level approach,” said Luz Maria Mercado, board chair of Alliance for Paseo Park.
Alliance for Paseo Park is training and deploying volunteer ambassadors from the community to reach out to their friends and neighbors all summer and early fall to gather ideas, hear concerns, and imagine together a better, greener, safer community. Ambassadors will host gatherings and conversations on their own and will have the opportunity to join a series of pop-up outreach events being organized by Alliance for Paseo Park along 34th Avenue.
“We are committed to working together and building consensus with our neighbors, including those who may not share our vision. We believe good design can solve many people’s legitimate concerns and together we can create a space that prioritizes the safety, health and enjoyment of our community, said Dawn Siff, executive director of Alliance for Paseo Park.
Alliance for Paseo Park has hired WXY architecture + urban design, a leading design firm dedicated to community driven processes and meaningful engagement, to help synthesize community feedback for City Agencies. WXY’s past Queens-based community engagement projects include: the Corona Plaza street vendor redesign, the Long Island City Neighborhood Plan, and the Queensway.
“We are thrilled to be working with the Jackson Heights community and Alliance for Paseo Park. The continued transformation of 34th Avenue represents a unique opportunity to rethink our streets as green oases for underserved communities, starting in the district that ranks last in public space per capita. Paseo Park can serve as a model for the evolution of the Open Streets program into a long-term community asset for generations to come,” said Claire Weisz, founding partner of WXY.
The next few community pop-up engagements will be held:
Sunday, July 28, 10am to Noon Paseo Park / 34th Avenue at 78th Street
Sunday, Aug 18, 10am to Noon Paseo Park / 34th Ave - Cross Street TBD
Alliance for Paseo Park will hold a formal indoor community workshop for the Fall.
Date will be announced in the coming weeks.
PaseoPark.org/survey - survey for additional community feedback
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