Redesign for Brooklyn's Fifth Ave. Shopping Strip Puts Customers First - Streetsblog New York City

"Talk about paving the way. Park Slope's small business community is working with one of the city's top architecture firms to turn sclerotic and dangerous Fifth Avenue into a complete street with wider sidewalks, safe corners, loading zones and, most important, much faster buses that could be a model for scores of shopping strips across town."

""The core takeaway from the small business community on this strip is that they want a pedestrian- and transit-priority street," said David Vega-Barachowitz, the associate principal and director of Urban Design at WXY, which surveyed the businesses and residents of the area to create the report and its recommendations. "They want to make this a great shopping street that's not double-parked all the time. It's currently a road that doesn't work for anyone, especially people on buses.""

"The section of Fifth Avenue that runs through Park Slope and the South Slope is a business strip that could be the stuff of a glossy campaign video: mom and pop stores dominate, families congregate, cyclists stop at their favorite bar on the way home. It's a halcyon that should be accompanied by the Turtles' "Happy Together." Or is it? The strip is also a victim of the area's growing wealth: According to Census data, the car population of the tracts on either side of Fifth Avenue grew by 15 percent between 2000 and 2023, adding hundreds of new vehicles to a relatively small area. That, plus the explosion in the use of Ubers and apps to get food delivered, has resulted in a congested shopping strip that, as Streetsblog reported in 2018,"

Park Slope small businesses are collaborating with a major architecture firm to redesign Fifth Avenue into a complete street that prioritizes pedestrians and transit. Proposed changes include wider sidewalks, safer corners, defined loading zones, and measures to speed buses. The business corridor has experienced increased car ownership and a rise in app-based driving and deliveries, producing congestion, double-parking, and unreliable bus service. Local merchants and residents favor a pedestrian- and transit-priority street to support commerce, reduce curbside conflicts, and improve safety. The vision aims to create a replicable model for other shopping strips across the city.

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