Saturday, April 19, 2014

Signage that reveals Secret parks

Numerous private enteties have made deals with the city to create Privately Owned Public Spaces.

The original POPS law did not include any obligation to reveal the public aspects of these spaces, so for many of the earliest opened spaces no signage exists that they are public spaces. For POPS opened under amendments to the law ,the signage is generally minimal and is not very visible from the street.

Recently the High Line hotel wanted a loading spot and in return for this said they would add a sign to their garden that  it is public. Here is the garden. See the tiny sign...


 It says Please enjoy our garden.  I suspect not many people passing by will see this sign.

Below is the Archstone Clinton


 The area on the right is supposed to be a public area. there is no signage to that effect. In2011  CB4 complained to the City Planning Commission about  Archstone  not living up to their public space agreement. The last timein 2013  I was there they were still not living up to the agreement.

In these and other 100 other spaces, it's hard to force the owners of the space to live up to their agreements.Or to put up signage where there is no agreement.  But what can be done is to place signage on city property letting the public know that the spaces are public.