The de Blasio administration has done very little to speed the pedestrianization of Broadway that started under his predecessor, but nonetheless was very quick to put its own spin on a bold vision put forth for the street by a well-funded business group last week.
The Union Square Partnership had unveiled a $100-million plan to remove cars from the Union Square-14th Street area and create almost 100,000 more square feet of public space. The plan did not come out of the city’s Department of Transportation.
Nonetheless, the DOT’s Manhattan borough commissioner, Ed Pincar, heralded it in a press release, saying it “aligns with DOT’s Broadway Vision plan to complete a [2.5-mile] pedestrianized corridor from Columbus Circle to Union Square.”