The Arches’ new expanded public space features more seating and new trees. Image Credit: NYC DOT.
On November 18, 2024, the New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) announced that New Yorkers now have access to more public space on the Manhattan side of the Brooklyn Bridge. It builds on last year’s opening of “The Arches,” a stretch of public open space adjacent to the Brooklyn Bridge, announced in honor of the 140th anniversary of the Brooklyn Bridge’s 1883 opening. The space’s name refers to the adjacent 53 arches along the bridge.
The two announcements and expansion of public space set the stage for a potentially much larger reimagining of the vast underutilized area on the Manhattan side of the Brooklyn Bridge, which some hope will become a project spanning nine acres from City Hall to the East River. Whether that bigger vision — advanced by the nonprofit Gotham Park and embraced by some in city leadership — becomes reality will depend in part on the outcome of a federal grant application the city has submitted and what kind of commitment to the project Mayor Eric Adams decides to make.
The newly opened area covers a third of an acre located south of Park Row, north of Rose Street, and to the west of the previously opened portion. The space served as a contractor staging area for the last decade, supporting over $1 billion in Brooklyn Bridge restoration and cleaning projects. The area includes more than a dozen tall shade trees — including oaks, elms, and Japanese pagoda — and sixteen park benches. Gotham Park, the nonprofit, is the designated “plaza partner” already helping steward some of the space that has been opened to the public, while it advocates for the next phases. The previously opened section included a skatepark, basketball, shuffleboard and pickleball courts.
Currently, the largest sections of space have yet to be re-opened to the public and are mostly used for parking and construction staging. In September, the City Department of Transportation applied for relevant federal grants offered by the United States Department of Transportation under the Reconnecting Communities Pilot program. This program funds projects that aim to “reinstitute community connectivity.” According to its November announcement, the City Department of Transportation was preparing a local engagement process consisting of community board meetings and visioning sessions to help shape the future plan.
“For the last decade, NYC DOT crews have worked hard to restore the iconic Brooklyn Bridge, creating a cleaner, brighter, and safer bridge to last us another century,” said DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez, in a statement on the November announcement. “Now that this critical restoration is nearing a close, we are returning another portion of ‘The Arches’ to the community. For residents of and visitors to lower Manhattan and Chinatown, even small public spaces are precious – and we will continue working with the community to open even more of the Arches in the months ahead.”
In order to do that, Gotham Park is asking Mayor Adams to make a roughly $200 million city capital commitment to advance progress on the larger “The Arches/Gotham Park” vision. According to Rosa Chang, the group’s co-founder and president, that city investment would fund things like renovation of exterior open spaces, adding nature-based resiliency measures, renovation of interior spaces of the Bridge for public uses like restrooms, library and retail space, and community rooms, and the expansion of the stairway from the Brooklyn Bridge Promenade to connect the bridge’s 10 million annual pedestrians to local business districts including Chinatown and the South Street Seaport.
“The Arches/Gotham Park is Mayor Adams’ opportunity to create a legacy-defining, once-in-a-lifetime, world-class adaptive reuse public space project in the heart of New York City impacting generations to come,” Chang told CityLand. Within a half-mile, she said, are “over 47,000 residents…with extreme racial, age, and economic diversity.” The hope, she said, is “that Mayor Adams will go all-in” to “build the world-leading public space that New Yorkers deserve.” Chang and other proponents of the vision are closely anticipating Mayor Adams’ preliminary budget for next fiscal year, due in January, and his 2025 State of the City speech, expected before March.
Along with Commissioner Rodriguez, the project has a champion in the Adams administration in Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi. During a recent podcast appearance, Joshi spoke about all of the federal infrastructure money the Adams administration has been winning in competitive grants and highlighted the Reconnecting Communities application for the Lower Manhattan project at the base of the Brooklyn Bridge. She spoke of reconnecting neighborhoods and the chance to take the space, “open it up and bring it back to that wonder that it once was, where there was a champagne store and a library and all kinds of public activation. So that’s one of our fun ones that’s in the pipeline.”
Later in the interview Joshi cited the project as one of two (along with rebuilding the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway) that she is especially committed to. “I mentioned opening up the space underneath the Brooklyn Bridge on the Manhattan side,” she said. “I have a particular fondness for that. We’ve seen what Brooklyn Bridge Park looks like on the other side, we can have a beautiful and mini version of that on the Manhattan side.”
At the time of the November announcement, Joshi put it into the larger context of open space in the city’s densest borough: “Public space in Manhattan is precious – every acre counts for the people who live, work in, and visit our bustling metropolis,” she said. “Where better to continue to deliver peaceful, elevated public space than a stone’s throw from Chinatown, in the shade of one of our city’s most iconic landmarks, the Brooklyn Bridge. While we have miles to go to complete our whole vision for this area, we are also grateful to be able to celebrate the wins and welcome New York to an area too long cordoned off, a new refuge for fun and relaxation.”
By: Chelsea Ramjeawan and Ben Max (Chelsea is the CityLaw intern and a New York Law School student, Class of 2025. Ben is the Executive Editor and Program Director of the Center for New York City and State Law at New York Law School.)