Privately Owned Public Space

After a long absence, the legally required public bench at Trump Tower’s privately owned public space is finally back in place. Together with the previous removal of two sales kiosks that had illegally occupied the POPS for years, this marks a long-sought successful outcome to efforts by the Department of Buildings, APOPS|MAS, and media reporting to secure compliance with the space’s applicable legal requirements.

David Dunlap writes for the New York Times about the plan to encourage retail infill in the POPS arcades for 17 buildings in the downtown Water Street neighborhood. The City Planning Commission approved with few changes the original proposal. The City Council will hold a public hearing and potentially vote on the amendment in the coming weeks.

376 Broadway, at the southeast corner of Broadway and White Street, paid $12,000 in penalties for three zoning violations related to its privately owned public space. The Department of Buildings issued the violations in October, 2015, citing a failure to provide required plaques, to maintain required vegetation, and for using the public space to display seven motorcycles being sold by the adjacent Harley Davidson store. A recent visit by APOPS shows a plaque has been posted, efforts to provide vegetation, and the absence of motorcycles on the public space.

Katherine Brenzel for The Real Deal reports on a land-use zoning application to the City Planning Commission from the Alliance for Downtown New York, a downtown BID, that would permit 17 buildings in the Water Street area to fill in 110,000 square feet of ground-floor arcade space with retail. In return, the owners would upgrade their plazas, including the addition of chairs, tables, and planters. Roblox Hack Free Robux

Matt Chaban of The New York Times reports that, following a hearing before New York City’s Environmental Control Board on a Department of Buildings-issued notice of violation of a City Planning Commission special permit regarding the intrusion of two sales counters and the removal of a required bench in Trump Tower’s privately owned public space at 725 Fifth Avenue, the Trump Organization expects to remove the sales counters and reinstall the bench in the next two to four weeks. At the hearing, Michael Cohen, Executive Vice President of the Trump Organization and Special Counsel to Donald J. Trump, stated that the company could not locate documents to support the installation of the counters and the bench removal. APOPS’s Jerold Kayden was sworn in by the ECB Hearing Officer, but the need for additional testimony did not arise.

Kayden pens a Boston Globe op-ed about the recovery of the little bench that could.

Anne Kadet of The Wall Street Journal reviews a number of indoor POPS and other indoor public spaces, including 60 Wall Street, 601 Lexington Avenue, the Sony space at 550 Madison Avenue , Trump Tower at 725 Fifth Avenue and the David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center at 61 West 62nd Street.

APOPS Founder and President Jerold Kayden recently discussed the role of POPS and public-private partnerships on a panel entitled, “Whose Public Space? Security and Access” at the Creative Cities: Re-framing Downtown conference, hosted by the American University in Cairo. Panelists addressed how public space is defined by context, culture, and politics. An article in the Cairo Observer, describing the conference, concludes from Kayden’s talk that “Whether publicly or privately owned, one cannot ‘design’ a space for public protest. Spaces of protest are taken, not made.” To read Mia Jankowicz’s full article for the Cairo Observer, click here.

Giacomo Bianchino of The Saturday Paper reports on the dwindling access to public space in Sydney as private interests outbid the wellbeing of local citizenry. Bianchino argues that the development of Sydney’s harbor demonstrates a trend toward “government-owned private zones,” created as a means of attracting tourism over improving the city for locals. The article cites Jerold Kayden’s work on privately owned public space for its argument that what determines publicness in a city is not necessarily who owns the land, but by legal rules governing public accessibility. Click here to read more.

Wall Street Journal’s Josh Barbanel reports on hearing before New York City’s Environmental Control Board reviewing alleged violation of legal requirements governing the Covered Pedestrian Space at Trump Tower, 725 Fifth Avenue.  A Department of Buildings inspection during the summer found that two sales counters were encroaching on the POPS and a required bench was missing.  At the request of the Trump representative, the hearing was adjourned until January 28, 2016.