Awesome Field Notes tonight with @eric.klinenberg as our guest speaker! He spoke about the importance of social infrastructure and the opportunities to build climate infrastructure in our parks… he also had us all rolling in laughter.
Eric’s works uplifts social infrastructure as critical: parks, libraries, and public spaces make cities more connected, healthy, and joyful and democratic.
Eric also showed how climate infrastructure can be led by our parks to cool neighborhoods, manage stormwater, and help cities adapt to a changing climate.
Both are essential, and both are undervalued in New York City.
Thank you so much Eric for speaking!
Tonight’s prompt: How should NYC re-center social infrastructure? Shout out to Field Notes regular Howie Levine for coming up with this question. What would you put on the board?
Rosa Chang who created @gothamparknyc as a neighbor who thought several acres of unused space under the Brooklyn Bridge should be a park and made it so is a public realm legend. It was great hearing from her at tonight’s Field Notes!
Our first Field Notes Field Trip was today! Thank you so much @gothamparknyc Rosa Chang for giving 20 of us a special tour of the park before you spoke to the larger group this evening at our monthly happy hour for people who shape NYC’s parks, climate and public space!
Field Notes celebrates how Rosa harnessed community power to transform overlooked and unused public space into a park, a project shaped by civic engagement, climate awareness, design ambition and a vision for connecting community members.
What a great Field Notes tonight. Huge thanks to Sean Quinn and Kyle Gorman from NYC DOT for an inspiring conversation about the future of our public realm.
So energizing to hear directly from leaders who are thinking deeply about how our streets can be safer, more equitable, and more people-centered. Feeling hopeful about what’s possible when our city invests in and prioritizes livable streets!
A year after congestion pricing, the city tells a different story at street level. Movement feels calmer. Space feels more intentional. It is a reminder that how we design systems shapes how cities feel to live in.
Great to see many Field Noters at the congestion pricing celebration with Mayor Mamdani, Gov. Hochul, Janno Lieber, advocates and electeds!
We saw so many Field Noters there! New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and @nyc_dot Commissioner Mike Flynn announced that NYC DOT will complete the redesign of McGuinness Boulevard!
“For too long, critical street safety projects have been delayed or shelved because of political considerations and backroom deal-making rather than the needs of New Yorkers. Those days are over,” said Mayor Zohran Mamdani. “New Yorkers deserve to be safe no matter how they commute — whether they bike, walk, or drive. That’s why, as one of my first acts as Mayor, my administration is committing to restarting implementation of parking-protected bike lanes on McGuinness Boulevard and complete its redesign. New Yorkers deserve an administration that gets right to work to deliver genuine street safety.”
The new DOT Commissioner’s mandate is to make New York City’s streetscape and public transit the envy of the world! Mike Flynn will make our city more livable, affordable and safer for all New Yorkers… pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers, across the five boroughs! Excited for this new era.
Redesigning McGuinness Boulevard is about designing public space that prioritizes and protects people. Pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers. That’s the livable city Field Notes cares about.
@nyc_dot Public Realm team hosted their first (hopefully annual!) open space partners celebration to build community and recognize the volunteer and local organizations that make our open streets and plaza thrive. We were happy to attend! The work that the public realm unit and partners do expands open space and treats streets as essential infrastructure for an affordable, people-centered city. Let’s see even more investment in the public realm in 2026!
Special shout out to the groups that received awards from DOT:
James Baldwin Outdoor Learning Center
I Am Caribbeing @iamcaribbeing
Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice @official.ympj
Wellington Chen, Chinatown BID
31st Avenue Open Street Collective @31staveopenstreet
Bianka Cypriano, Salsa Stories
Tressi Colon, Marcus Meets Malcolm @marcusmeetsmalcolm
Lonnie Hardy, Caldwell Enrichment Program
Bindlestiff Family Cirkus @bindlestifffamilycirkus
NYC Kidsfest @nyckidsfest
Hive Public Space @hivepublicspace
Street Lab @streetlab
Orisha Wholeness @orishawholeness
The Horticultural Society of New York @thehort
We’re excited that the January Field Notes will feature Emily Weidenhof and Kyle Gorman from the unit. They will share their 2026 outlook for the public realm!
