New York City officials envision turning Fifth Avenue into a grand boulevard

Rave News

NEW YORK (AP) — Manhattan’s famed Fifth Avenue luxury store is about to get a major makeover.

New York City officials this week unveiled a plan to transform the central portion of the avenue between Bryant Park and Central Park into a more pedestrian-focused boulevard.

They recommended doubling the size of the sidewalk, reducing the lanes from five to three and adding seating areas and hundreds of trees and planters, among other improvements.

Our vision is to emulate iconic pedestrian and shopping boulevards such as the Champs Elysées in Paris.

“As we celebrate the 200th anniversary of one of the world’s most famous streets, New Yorkers can look forward to a new Fifth Avenue that will restore its Its former glory as a pedestrian mall “This visionary design reverses a century-old trend of car priority and will transform our overcrowded thoroughfare into a spacious green corridor for shoppers and workers, tourists and New Yorkers alike, and on Fifth Avenue. Everyone uses it.

The plan will cost more than $350 million and will be paid for through public and private financing, according to Mayor Eric Adams’ administration and the Future of Fifth Partnership.

Officials say the project, the first major redesign of the avenue, could pay for itself in less than five years through increased property and sales tax revenue.

But some transportation advocates have raised concerns, saying the plan doesn’t adequately consider the needs of the public bus system or the city’s many cyclists.

A public meeting on the plans will be held later this month, with construction likely to begin in 2028.

Officials said Fifth Avenue is about 100 feet wide and has only two 23-foot-long sidewalks, even though pedestrians make up 70 percent of the corridor’s traffic.

Officials said an average of about 5,500 pedestrians pass through the neighborhood every hour, with that number rising to 23,000 an hour during the holidays.

“People around the world consider Fifth Avenue a premier destination for walking and shopping,” Meera Joshi, the city’s deputy mayor for operations, said in a statement. “But its legendary reputation means its sidewalks are already reaching their capacity, handling more people per hour in peak season than Madison Square Garden.”

The Fifth Avenue plan is one of other ambitious plans unveiled by road city officials this week.

They also proposed capping parts of the Cross Bronx Expressway, a major highway that cuts through the Bronx.

City officials say the proposals would create parks and green space along covered highways and help restore urban neighborhoods hollowed out by expansion of the state highway system and suburban development.

“This is a historic opportunity to right the wrongs of the past and reconnect the community again,” Joshi said.

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