Good morning. It’s Tuesday. We’ll find out about new recommendations for the roads that loop through Central Park. We’ll also look at data showing that one in eight students in the city’s public school system was homeless last year.
There are more than 50 traffic lights in Central Park. The nonprofit group that manages the park wants them gone. The nonprofit, the Central Park Conservancy, is issuing a report today that says what parkgoers already know: “The vast majority of park users pay little attention” to those lights. The report reflects findings from a yearlong study of how people use the drives, the six miles of roads that loop through the park. They are the sometimes-contested territory of bicyclists, pedestrians and runners — and horse-drawn carriages that clip-clop along. And pedicabs, too. “The chaos of the city is encroaching into the park by way of the drive, and the whole purpose of the park is not to be the city,” said Elizabeth Smith, the president and chief executive of the conservancy. She said the study focused on safety and accessibility after a survey found that pedestrians felt that runners and cyclists “were going faster in the park than they previously had been, and that was unnerving.” The survey, which drew more than 10,000 responses, indicated that pedestrians and cyclists were almost evenly represented: 48 percent of people on the park drives were pedestrian, 45 percent were cyclists and 3 percent had powered devices like scooters and mopeds. Of the cyclists, slightly less than one-third zipped along at high speeds, while 58 percent went at what the report described as a “conventional” pace. A vast majority of the users are local. Nearly 70 percent of park users live in New York City, and 65 percent go into the park more than once a week, according to the survey. Removing the traffic lights is merely a “medium-term recommendation” in the 79-page report. One of seven “near-term recommendations” is making the space on the drives more consistent in size and appearance. The report notes that the drives vary from 22 feet to 42 feet from one curb to the other and that the widths are inconsistent for different users along the way. It calls for consistency — 10 feet for a pedestrian lane, and 10 feet for each of two adjacent bicycle lanes. “It’s going to be so much safer,” Smith said. Smith said the realignment would begin next summer, with the pedestrian lane remaining on the left side of the pavement, as it is now. The report says the pedestrian lane should have its own distinctive color scheme throughout the park. The city’s Department of Transportation has committed to repaving and “restriping” the drives, according to the conservancy. Another near-term recommendation calls for a grooved “rumble strip” to prevent cyclists from drifting into the pedestrian lane. Smith said there would be two lanes to the right of the grooved strip, one for medium-speed bikers, the other for those pedaling faster. The report also suggests improving the flow of pedestrians in the park by directing people to the underpasses that run beneath the drives. They would not have to dodge the cyclists there — and the cyclists would not have to dodge them. And it suggests turning space now used as sidewalks on the 86th Street transverse into bike lanes, partly to move delivery bikes out of the bike lanes on the drives. Deliverers trying to go across town through the park often end up on the drives because the four transverse roads “don’t really accommodate bikers,” she said. As for the traffic lights, Smith said they were “remnants of a time before,” meaning the time before 2018, when the park was declared off-limits to cars. The report noted that the city’s Department of Transportation would have to go along with the recommendation to remove the lights. The report calls for a “small-scale pilot project in one section of the park,” which will allow officials to see if anyone notices that the traffic lights have been taken away. WEATHER Today will be sunny, with a temperature in the high 50s and a light breeze. Tonight will be partly cloudy, with a temperature in the high 40s and a light breeze. ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING In effect until Nov. 28 (Thanksgiving Day). The latest New York news
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We hope you’ve enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times. 1 in 8 public school students was homeless last year
A record 146,000 public school students in New York City did not have permanent housing at some point during the 2023-24 school year, as the city coped with a continuing housing crisis and an influx of migrants. That meant that one in eight students was either living in a shelter or “doubled up” with friends or family, according to Advocates for Children of New York, which works to support children from low-income families. The group released figures based on data from the New York State Education Department. “These numbers are staggering,” said Christine Quinn, the chief executive of Win, the city’s largest operator of homeless shelters. “They are, quite frankly, an indictment of all parts of our city that this many children are living in shelter.” The 2023-24 school year was the ninth in which the city had more than 100,000 homeless students. Advocates for Children noted that children who were in kindergarten nine years ago were now old enough for high school. But absenteeism is a problem. The group said that half of the students in temporary housing and 67 percent of those in shelters were chronically absent, meaning they missed at least one of every 10 school days last year. Most families who end up in a shelter stay for about a year and a half, said Jennifer Pringle, a director at Advocates for Children of New York. A spokeswoman for the city’s Department of Education said in a statement that homeless students were a “continued priority.” The statement said that the department had long provided “transportation and access to counseling as well as access to food, clothing and hygiene supplies.” METROPOLITAN DIARY Spring Break
Dear Diary: I came to New York for spring break in 1961. I had a room at the Sloane House Y.M.C.A. and then upgraded to an apartment on the Upper East Side thanks to a friend of a friend. I caught the Modern Jazz Quartet at the Village Vanguard, missed Leontyne Price at the Met and saw a Tom Mix movie at the Museum of Modern Art. On my last night in town I was coming home late from seeing Edward Albee’s “The American Dream.” Heading east across Park Avenue, I encountered two older women bundled against the chill and waiting for the light to change “Can I help you ladies cross the street?” I asked. “Yes, young man,” one said. “That would be very nice of you.” “Where are you headed so late?” I asked. They pointed to a small bar on the corner and suggested that I join them. We entered and took seats at the bar. I don’t remember what we ordered, but I do recall that the bartender seemed less suspicious of me when I paid for the round. “Aren’t you up a little late?” he asked the women. “What brings you out?” “Well, we went to bed a little early tonight,” one of them said. “Then we woke up and wanted a drink. “But Eleanor had hidden the liquor so good we couldn’t find it,” she continued. “So we had to get dressed and come out for a drink.” — Thorns Craven Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and read more Metropolitan Diary here. Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B. P.S. Here’s today’s Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here. Makaelah Walters and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at nytoday@nytimes.com. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox.
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