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The first day of school! Is it your unofficial start to fall? Or just an unofficial return to dangerously, annoyingly high levels of traffic? Today as city kids flood back to school, our streets will be flooded with cars transporting them. This makes the streets around schools far more dangerous than the city average, especially in low-income communities of color. What's more, many schools have little or no outdoor space for students because all our street space is dedicated to cars. Our youngest New Yorkers deserve a better environment to learn and grow!

Here are ten things the City can start doing now that will help:

1. Simplify the process for getting an Open Street for a School, which currently requires a long online application and several letters of support. Adopting a more straightforward system (Seattle only requires filling out a simple request form) would allow far more schools to apply. 
2. Sammy's Law now allows the City to establish "slow zones", reducing speed limits to 10 miles per hour in designated areas, and we should proactively designate these near schools. These zones also use traffic-calming infrastructure and would make streets near schools much calmer and safer.
3. Rather than relying on schools to apply to school streets themselves, DOT should proactively establish them at a selection of schools throughout the city, prioritizing communities that are especially in need of safer streets and public space.
4. Prioritize semi-permanent swinging gates at Open Streets for Schools, which are standard on school streets in Paris. They're safer and eliminate the need to set up and remove barricades every day. 
5. More storage for bikes, scooters, and other micromobility would provide students, parents, and educators with the convenience they need to travel to and from school on these devices.
6. Pedestrianize streets running between two school buildings or between co-located schools. Baruch did this on 25th Street, between Lexington and Third Avenue, and it's a very popular plaza with students. 
7. The Department of Education’s Citywide Wellness Policy could explicitly leverage the Open Streets program to reach goals in outdoor learning, physical activity, arts and culture, and active transportation.
8. The City should proactively install micromobility lanes on the streets that students and educators use to get to school, and enhance those lanes with traffic safety improvements, to care for current riders and encourage more. 
9. The DOE should reform their parking placard program which provides teachers, administrators, and other school employees with free permits for on-street parking, incentivizing driving to work.
10. Instead, teachers, administrator, and other school employees should be given public transit discounts like students receive.

We got to talk to the Times about why we love school streets & why we help schools across the city apply to this free program. It's the latest installment of the Street Wars series & we're thrilled they're celebrating this invaluable program!

As former Open Plans intern Henry Mei wrote his thesis on his hometown public space, the 34th Avenue Open Street in Jackson Heights, his conversations with neighbors revealed new insights about how public space shapes our lives.

This fall, join fellow NYers in a virtual meeting with your Council Member to push for lifting parking mandates, making way for safer, more walkable streets. Sign up now & we’ll give you everything you need to advocate effectively.

🐘 100 life-sized elephant sculptures are migrating over to the Meatpacking District this Friday, September 6, transforming the neighborhood into a stunning showcase of art & a powerful message about human-wildlife coexistence. Honor the elephants' arrival & join them for a blessing of the herd on Friday at 4:00 PM.

👗 Join 120 Marcus Meets Malcolm for a fabulous night of style & glamour as they host their 2nd Annual Fashion Show: A Love Letter to Harlem on Saturday, September 7 at W 120th Open Street at 7:00 PM. 

🚇 Join Riders Alliance this Sunday, September 8 for a Citywide Canvassing Day at one of the 23 stations where crucial accessibility upgrades were halted because Kathy Hochul paused congestion pricing.

🚲 Learn to ride a bike at Flatbush Nostrand Junction BID’s Junction on Wheels event at Hillel Plaza on Sunday, September 8. There will be free bike repairs, helmets, stickers & a bike raffle. Be sure to drop by & say hello at our table!

🌱 Volunteer and join NYC H2O and the NYC Parks Department as they remove invasive plants from the path around the Ridgewood Reservoir on Sunday, September 8 from 10AM to noon.

🚴🏾‍♀️ Grab your phone, a helmet & a water bottle and join the East Brooklyn Bike Club and Citibike for a weekly community bike ride. The Citibike Ride Series are hosted every Wednesday at 5PM this month. Free Citibike vouchers for all riders.

🚼 Calling all parents, caregivers, grandparents, babysitters & little ones! Join Transportation Alternatives, Kids over Cars & Riders Alliance on Saturday, September 14th from 10AM to noon at Hoyt Schermerhorn Station for a stroller march for more accessible subways & congestion-free streets.

🧺 The Longest Table returns for its third year! Be part of Chelsea’s beloved new tradition & join us at this communal potluck on Sunday, October 6 from noon to 2PM at West 21st Street.

Open Plans |  377 Broadway, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10013-3907

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