There's a critical need and opportunity to guide the development of our waterfront and preserve and enhance our neighborhoods. The neighborhoods impacted include Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, Red Hook and Brooklyn Heights
The city's and state's vision planning process for the Brooklyn Maritime District presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reconnect our historic Brooklyn neighborhoods to the waterfront and create a significant community destination.
This resource guide is intended to inspire local residents to reimagine the full potential of the waterfront and our neighborhood public spaces. The waterfront can become an active destination with pedestrian promenades and active public piers that catalyze local economic development with markets, maker spaces, and cultural activities. However, the opportunity is more than just the waterfront: understanding how each neighborhood can shape its own public spaces is just as crucial.
Each neighborhood should create an identity for its streets and public spaces, defining the types of neighborhood residential and commercial streets they want for the future. In particular, there is a significant opportunity to enhance now-broken east-west pedestrian connections to the waterfront, reconnecting the communities that divided the BQE in the 1950s.
In this changing context, traffic will remain the most significant threat to our neighborhoods if we don't act comprehensively. The development of the Brooklyn Maritime District will likely result in significantly more traffic on top of the snarl of BQE traffic we currently live with.
Neighborhoods need to work together to find ways to restrict through traffic and reduce speeds; activate sidewalk space and convert parking spaces to gathering places and local hubs; bridge the BQE via walkways and community parks; and make interactions safer for pedestrians by designing for increased walking times, fewer turn lanes, and sidewalk bump-outs to reduce crossing distances. It is a big opportunity, but one that can only be realized with a concerted effort by all citizens.
Read more about how cities around the world are redeveloping their waterfronts using an incremental placemaking approach that catalyzes economic development, supports maritime uses, and creates active public spaces:
Wynwood Quarter, Auckland, Australia. We were involved in this project: "In August 2011, ahead of the Rugby World Cup being hosted in Aotearoa, New Zealand, 500m of new public space was brought to life in the form of Silo Park, North Wharf, Karanga Plaza, and the Wynyard Crossing Bridge. This changed the area from being an industrial area closed off to the public, to a new waterfront neighbourhood where people visit, work and live." Read more.
Halifax, Nova Scotia. "It is easy to think of the waterfront as the edge, and the water as a place only for boats, or have barriers to protect people from the water. By thinking of the harbour as the center, a place of connection and experience, you immediately think of new ways to activate it." Read more.
Valencia, Spain. "At the end of 2015, Consorcio Valencia 2007 (CV07) – the public institution managing the harbor – launched a new plan for action based on three fundamental pillars: First, productive activation of an under-utilized space of high historic, cultural and real-estate value: taking advantage of the existing infrastructure to attract innovative economic activity. Next, civic engagement and active participation: opening up to the city. Finally, efficient management: opting for economically sustainable projects which allow the harbor to cover its spending, generate sufficient profit and become economically independent." Read more.
Who we are
The mission of the Social Life Project is to incite a renaissance of community connection in public spaces around the globe. It is based in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. Through our online publication, presentations, campaigns, and catalytic projects, we can create transformative impact on communities everywhere. Our work grows out of more than 50 years devoted to building the global placemaking movement. It is an initiative of the Placemaking Fund, along with PlacemakingX — a global network of leaders who together accelerate placemaking as a way to create healthy, inclusive, and beloved communities.
Fred Kent
Kathy Madden
Fred Kent
Fred Kent
Kathy Madden
Fred Kent
Fred Kent
Jay Walljasper
Fred Kent
Fred Kent
Steve Davies
Fred Kent
Fred Kent
Fred Kent
Fred Kent
Fred Kent
Fred Kent
Fred Kent
Ethan Kent
Fred Kent