STREETSBLOG NYC—Sunday was a celebration by and for the people of Jackson Heights as the 34th Avenue open street — the city’s self-proclaimed “gold standard” of car-light spaces — was officially co-named “Paseo Park.”
The name isn’t new, of course, the Department of Transportation has been using that name for the stretch between 69th Street and Junction Boulevard ever since it started transitioning the open street into a more permanent configuration with plaza blocks (totally car free) and other features to reduce the impact of cars on a street with six schools.
Speaker after speaker praised the current design, the result of years of volunteer work by people setting out barricades every morning and taking them in at night, plus other volunteers who advocated for the permanent design.
Many remember what the roadway was before the pandemic. “People used this road as a speedway to get to somewhere else,” said Luz Maria Mercado of the Alliance for Paseo Park.
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