Jackson Heights Life

Where is it?

As I noted in the JH Transportation Study thread, the city often starts with a low-cost, quick-to-implement temporary design, and then does some outreach before settling on a more permanent design. 

They painted the street today.  Hopefully some seating will arrive soon, but don't expect anything fancy to start with.

Big step forward: Granite blocks and tables and chairs, hooray!   

It may just be one block, but I think this is a big win for us.  We don't have much other public space (other than Travers Park and Unanue Triangle at 83rd St.), so even a small addition makes a big difference.  The idea of converting street space into public space is relatively new in New York City, so it's worth stopping for a moment to savor the achievement.  I think this has the potential to become an important focal point and gathering spot for the community.  With imagination and civic engagement, it can even be beautiful.

My only regret about the plaza is that the Eagle Theater didn't last long enough to see this day.  A public plaza and a revitalized movie theater would have been a spectacular combination.

For someone like me who spent every week in the old Earle Theatre(now the sad old Eagle) watching Saturday morning serials and then as I grew up older foreign films, the forlorn state of this surrounding area is heartbreaking. For those who never knew the Earle it was a little gem with a dark  green and crystal thirties lobby and a devoted audience. As I recall it was the smallest of the theatres in Jackson Heights both the now gone Boulevard and the hanging in there Jackson both had double or triple the capacity with only the Colony on 82nd St having anything like the intimacy of the Earle. The once great Earle is now the dead, dying decrepit Eagle with the area around it similarly uncared for.

So if  there is a moral arc to this story  not only would there be a pedestrianised islet at the descent to the subway, providence might also allow for the Earle to be revived and become if not exactly its former self at least a cleaned up and welcoming venue for films and community events. Is there even a slight hope that something like that might happen?

I happened upon the pedestrian plaza yesterday, and took the opportunity to have lunch there. We bought award winning street food on 73rd and B'way, and shared our table with an old Sikh guy. It was very pleasant. I'm glad it's there. Hopefully the trees will come soon.

A heads-up though...the business community is against it, and has printed vinyl signs saying so, and vowing to return traffic to the area. I think that is a normal first response-hopefully they'll come around. Next time I go to kabob king, or the street cart, I'll mention that I'm there because of the plaza being available to sit in.

Closing off that block of 37th Road was also part of reducing the number of possible turns and helping traffic flow on Broadway, 73 and 74 Streets.  The plaza is an added benefit of simplifying traffic patterns.  Some of the merchants comments don't make sense, although  I have concerns about vendors taking over the plaza and hurting their businesses.  Residents have paid a high price over the years for all of the non-local traffic that descends on our community.  Residents' favorable assessments need to be taken into consideration and are a very large part of the equation as well.