“Pop-up” Civic Design: How paper, props, imagination, and YOU can fix Brooklyn’s ugliest subway station at 4th Ave/9th St hub -- Think light, color, storefronts, art, amenities, street theater, fun!
We will host a "pop-up" event to reignite neighborhood imagination about rider amenities and street-level improvements at the 4th Ave/9th St Station transit hub. In a one-day action in November, we’ll set up a fantasy shadow station, using props - temporary lighting, wayfinding signage, discussion boards, big visuals, and pretend “street furniture” - to play with and capture improvement ideas.
Over 13,000 people use this transit hub daily. Despite a delay-burdened subway restoration focused on safety and repairing a lovely arch over 4th Avenue, the street level station area is dark, dirty, drab, boarded-up and uninviting. Signage is poor to non-existent. Vague plans to rent commercial space are stalled - people scurry away from the shadows of the station. The transit entry point to Park Slope and Gowanus should not be dreary and confusing.
This civic action is a first step to inspire the MTA and other city agencies to improve this transit hub. With your support and ideas, we can show local politicians and city agencies that there is broad community support to “do better” at 4th Ave/9th St.
FOFA (Forth on Fourth Avenue, a committee of the Park Slope Civic Council), Park Slope Neighbors, Arts Gowanus, Fifth Avenue Committee and a growing list of community groups are partners in this project. We need more partners - we need you! Please help by making a donation of any size and joining our growing list of supporters to “Fix this Public Space -- 4th Ave/ 9th St!”
For more information about the work of Forth on Fourth Ave (FOFA), check out http://parkslopeciviccouncil.org/fourth-avenue/.
Build interest in the project through publicized prop-making workshops with community partners. For one day in November, participants install prop components, posters, way-finding signs and paper discussion boards to create temporary “fantasy station” at the 4th Ave 9th Street location. Encourage distribution of ideas from event via local media, social media, and list serves. Work with local agencies and elected representatives to schedule subsequent date(s) for public forum on station status and dialogue about ways to implement and support ideas for improvement. (Ideally we will have a date for a public forum that we can advertise on the day of action.)
The 4th Ave/9th St transit hub is a spot where several subway lines, two bus lines, and a bike lane converge across a busy traffic intersection in Park Slope/Gowanus in Brooklyn. Thousands of pedestrians, including transit commuters, cross this roadway and it is a DOT-designated Vision Zero priority area for “Safe Pedestrian Access to Transit.” As the residential and business population of South Slope and Gowanus area grow, there is even more need to support transportation options that that go beyond a focus on personal vehicles. We believe that better street-level design of the subway station, partnered with planned work by NYC DOT, can improve safety and make the area more pedestrian and commuter friendly.
The critical issue of lack of handicapped access at the station is not directly addressed by this project scope because of the scale of capital monies needed to resolve it. However, we believe that as attention is paid to station enhancements, that problem needs to remain in the forefront of community discussions.
