The sidewalks surrounding Central Park were designed to help you escape. Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, the landscape architects behind the landmark, proposed in their 1858 planning document to plant a plush line of trees to separate the sidewalk and the road, “for the purpose of concealing the houses on the opposite side of […]
Read MoreTag: Sidewalks
In the Fight Over N.Y.C. Sidewalks, Tree Beds Are the Smallest Frontier
Over 660,000 trees line the streets of New York City, and the beds around them take up more than 400 acres, according to a city estimate. While many people just walk by the rectangular openings in the sidewalk from which the trees spring — or, worse, use the spaces as trash cans and doggy litter […]
Read MoreThe ‘Chicago Rat Hole’ Is the City’s Latest Tourist Spot
Winslow Dumaine was heading to a store on Chicago’s North Side when he saw it: a hole in the sidewalk on Roscoe Street with an uncanny resemblance to a rodent. Mr. Dumaine, who is an artist and comedian, said the hole represented two themes often present in his work: morbidity and whimsy. “Had to make […]
Read MoreThe Path to Reducing Pedestrian Deaths Is Steep but Straight
Last year, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association, more than 7,500 pedestrians were killed while walking on U.S. roadways. Between 2010 and 2021, in fact, pedestrian deaths rose 77 percent, from an annual total of 4,302 to 7,624. These increases represent 40-year-highs for pedestrian fatalities. There are no numbers yet, for 2023, but a […]
Read More