GGW suggestion on making 90 bus line primary on its streets: bus on top, tunnel below?

While I haven't written for awhile, I have been thinking about things at a bigger scale, which will come out in some of the next entries.

As I get older, I become a little less doctrinaire, and given that in the US 92% of all trips are by car, I've resigned myself to having to accommodate them.  This is less the case in DC than SLC--which is the epitome of sprawl--but it's still an issue in DC.

Even though in DC on the major routes, bus riders make up a significant amount of the total people "throughput" on the street--e.g. on H Street NE, at least pre-covid, 40% of people throughput was by bus, via 300 bus trips, it's tough to corral automobiles, especially because most of the city, except the core is shaped by the automobility paradigm ("DC as a suburban agenda dominated city," 2013).

BeyondDC suggests in a GGW post, "One change to transform DC travel: Make the 90 bus truly awesome," that because the 90 bus line is the only major crosstown route, its uniqueness means that it should get priority on its streets.  

This is a problem because at many points the street is super narrow for an arterial

While it's unique as a crosstown route for buses, the same goes for the route in terms of motor vehicle traffic. 

And while I think the proposal is meritable, it's probably too controversial to ever get approved.

Not that my counter proposal is any easier....

In "Tunnelized road projects for DC and the Carmel Tunnel, Haifa, Israel example--tolls" (2011) and "DC and "city repair" of the urban grid," (2020) I suggest that a series of DC streets be "tunnelized and tolled" to separate commuter traffic from local traffic.  

It would facilitate faster travel for commuters--helping to maintain the relevance of Downtown as a regionally significant commercial district--it would also reduce the negative effect of commuter traffic on residents and neighborhoods.

Flickr photo by Elyse Horvath.

The 90s busline roadway could be brought into that proposed underground road network.  

It could get great urban design treatment on the surface where the bus would still run, because of frequent stops, while the tunnel would focus on satisfying longer trips.

With the tunnel, the surface street could become a kind of transit/sustainable mobility mall, at least in certain sections, using my Signature Streets model, the My Figueroa project in LA, etc..  

And you could run articulated buses to increase capacity.

Spitalerstraßße transit mall, Hamburg, Germany.  

Bi-articulated buses (3 sections) are allowed on the street

Image by BeyondDC.  50 foot road right of way with bus service in the middle of the street

Florida Avenue NE Streetscape Improvement (2nd Street NE to H Street NE)

I finally figured out how to ride buses in my greater neighborhood in Salt Lake City

Salt Lake City and the core of the County have decent transit, although it's best in the light rail transit shed which I don't live in.

The problem for me is that my mobility mindset is really shaped by the bike and point-to-point movement, that is going directly from origin to destination.

While there are a bunch of bus lines serving my area, and I can get within 5 miles pretty easily riding buses--since my congestive heart failure I am not supposed to drive, and I don't have the stamina to bike--mostly I get driven places.

The problem with point to point thinking is when bus routes aren't point to point.  In the eastern side of the city, the University of Utah Union is a key bus transfer point.  (The campus is also served by 3 light rail stations, and students get free transit access as part of their ID cards.)

But I only know the routes as they are, where I go to and from.  But there are bus stops for two major routes within a few blocks of my house and one of those routes takes me to my hospital.

UTA transfer ticket.

But when the line "breaks" and deviates from the main road, I get hyper and off the bus, to walk to the place where I know I can transfer, back to a different main road.

But it's really hard because of CHF, so I have to stop a lot and rest.

Saturday, after doing this to come back from the 9th and 9th Festival, I realized that my point to point approach doesn't work up here, that it's significantly easier if I go with the flow and when the bus route deviates to go to the University of Utah, so should I, because I can still catch the transfer bus there, and I won't need to walk as much.  It will also shorten many trips for me in terms of time, even if the distance is longer.  From the University website:

A new transit hub, located in front of the Union, will accommodate more frequent UTA bus service coming to campus. The Transit Hub construction project includes: 

• Expanding the bus stop and staging area 

• Relocating the ADA stalls to the pay lot 

• Creating a new entrance to the Union pay lot, which will be located at the north end.  each week.

Being less focused on point to point makes it easier to go to my primary hospital if I have to and other places.  Many of my primary destinations are within a 5 mile distance, and if you use the online transit trackers, pretty easy to get to and from.

Boommates -- Seniors living together (from Bloomberg)

Call them “boommates.” 

Surging costs for housing and other expenses are prompting baby boomers to take on roommates. A Harvard study estimates that almost a million Americans over age 65 now live with unrelated housemates ("NYC's Rent Surge Drives 86-Year-Old to Move in With a 'Boommate'"). 

To make ends meet, an increasing number of those 65 and older are choosing shared housing arrangements, helping save money in an era when many have fallen behind on retirement savings and there’s increasing concern about a loneliness epidemic.

... Versions of these shared living setups have existed for years, but they’re increasing in popularity as a surge in prices for housing, and pretty much everything else, coincides with the baby boomer generation entering retirement. There were 58 million Americans ages 65 and older in 2022, up from 43 million in 2012, according to Harvard’s JCHS. And a record 4.1 million Americans will turn 65 this year and every year through 2027, data from the Alliance for Lifetime Income shows. 

Even though inflation has cooled, senior adults are struggling to afford costs that have skyrocketed the last few years. In 2021, more than 11 million were cost-burdened, meaning they spent more than 30% of their household income on housing. While many retirees own their homes outright, others are stuck with high mortgage or rent payments. 

... In New York, rent has shot up 33% from pre-pandemic levels, and nationwide that figure is about 30%. For homeowners, increased costs for taxes, insurance and utilities have surged 26% since 2020. 

“We've seen an increase in older adults who are carrying mortgages on their primary homes including among people who are 80 and over,” said Jennifer Molinsky, a project director at Harvard’s JCHS. “And for those folks and for renters the cost burden rate is much higher. There's a much greater struggle with affordability. As we have more and more people in their eighties and over, that's a time when incomes really can't necessarily keep up with housing costs.” 

Revitalization in a distressed residential-industrial neighborhood: Pullman, Chicago, Illinois

I came across an interesting case study by the Chicago Business School, The Pullman Historic District: A partnership in place-based community investment, about the revitalization of the distressed neighborhood of Pullman, in Chicago.  

The effort was sparked by Park Bank, a locally focused community bank ("It shouldn't be a surprise that big banks are more comfortable dealing with large businesses | Community banking"), and its community development corporation which was doing a lot of housing rehabilitation.  It was also very much committed to community organization and involvement.

In planning, most cities use a 4 to 7 step ladder to summarize the economic health of a neighborhood: distressed, emerging, transitioning, and healthy.  Pullman is distressed.  The closure of various industrial businesses over the past decades decimated its economy.

With the Great Financial Crisis in 2008, the community bank was acquired by US Bank, which decided to continue to commit financial and technical assistance resources to the revitalization program in Pullman.

Main Administration Building of the Pullmans Palace Car Company, 1893. From a publicity brochure published by the Pullman Company. Pullman Company Archives of the Newberry Library, Chicago, Illinois.

Pullman was an industrial community, known for being the home of the Pullman railcar operation, which finally went kaput in 1955, although it manufactured cars elsewhere into the 1980s, and was later absorbed by Bombardier.

The community bank developed a plan to redevelop an old industrial site, which was complicated because of its size, community needs, and contamination.  

Historic Pullman homes come in a variety of different styles and sizes throughout the neighborhood. NPS Photo/Stephanie Schneider.

The original intent was to build retail and housing on the brownfield site, but wrt housing they realized they didn't need to build more, but instead should be focused on rehabilitation and re-occupancy of existing housing.

Just before the acquisition, the community bank received $50 million in New Markets Tax Credits, which passed to USB.  To meet self-dealing strictures, they spun off the CDC and gave the NMTC to it, which provided vitally needed capital.

At the time, Walmart was the only retailer interested. which was controversial, but people got a store and entry level jobs.  A community benefits agreement provided other inducements, as did the creation of a community center (eventually taken over by the parks department), and two light industrial facilities, for a total of about 1,200 jobs.

Like in DC at the time, when Walmart was expanding to cities. I ended up writing many entries on the issue:

-- "Walmart: in the city, vs. of the city," 2011
-- "Lessons from Walmart's foray into DC," 2011
-- "Wal-mart plays hardball with DC," 2013
-- "What community benefits are supposed to be versus what people think they are about," 2013
-- "More Walmart in DC," 2013
-- "6Ps, Walmart in DC and "I hate to say I told you so"," 2014
-- "Lessons from Walmart's foray into Washington, DC," 2011
-- "Piling on City Council for Walmart," 2013
-- "I hope for Aspen Hills' sake that Montgomery County is smart enough to learn from DC's planning errors with regard to Walmart's entry," 2012

-- op-ed piece, Washington Business Journal, "Temper Walmart glee with planning") 

While the case study lauds the Walmart as using an architectural style sympathetic to the local historic architecture, it looks a lot like the one on Georgia Avenue in DC.  At least the DC one has underground parking exclusively, rather than a big parking lot in front.  Vague historic aesthetic, nothing particularly specific.

To put into scale the jobs issue, the peak employment of the Pullman manufacturing plant was 10,000.  And there were many other businesses in the area, like International Harvester. So today, they have recaptured fewer than 20% of the jobs when the community was successful.  This is the reality of urban deindustrialization, either:

• closure of businesses
• consolidation of businesses with employment reduction
• replacement of workers with capital
• businesses moving out of cities 
• layoffs and tiered wages ("How the American South Drives the Low-Wage Economy," American Prospect)
• businesses moving overseas.

This is why I get angry when Republicans say "Democrats destroyed cities."  Elected officials didn't make those decisions.  And why spending upwards of $200 million on community improvement doesn't seem to have immediate effect.  From the study:

Place-based investing seeks to create positive economic and social returns in a given geography—say, a neighborhood: Pullman—through a coordinated influx of capital and development. The idea is layered: financial investors will see financial returns; “social” investors will see financial returns and community impact; and the community will benefit from economic development in the form of jobs, access to goods, services, housing, and quality of life. 

According to CNI10, the investments it spearheaded in Pullman between 2010 and 2019 brought $350 million dollars into the community, leading to the development of more than a million feet of commercial, industrial, and recreational space; creating 1,500 permanent jobs, a 43 percent increase for the area; and leading to a 136% percent rise in residential property values. Jennifer Bransfield—now the organization’s chief operations officer and general counsel— indicates that a majority of this investment occurred within a single census tract.

National Monument.  In 2015, the Pullman manufacturing site was designated as a national monument, the Pullman National Historic Park.  Planning document.

Evaluation.  The case study discusses the difficulty of evaluating the success of the funding.  Time, causality, and replicability are issues.

My point would be that as a distressed community, revitalization will take decades, especially given the nature of the types of vacant land, which cost extranormal amounts to come back online.

It presented Census data, which finds the area is still losing population and wage growth is stagnant.

Lessons.  "Don't drip money." Invest large amounts.  New Markets tax credits can be a good capital source.  The area has a logistics hub opportunity, brownfield site attracted other funding sources.

Future.  Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives, the re-branded CDC, is now working beyond the Pullman neighborhood, is developing a microenterprise funding initiative, and developing its capacity to invest and help other areas grow.

Planning relevance.  I think this project is a good example of my "best practice revitalization planning" approach, including the elements:

• a robust plan
• an implementation organization
• funding
• serendipity -- jumping on opportunities, like the National Monument
• recognition of the length of time required to execute the program

Revisiting: Need for social marketing initiatives around installation of neighborhood traffic calming initiatives: Salt Lake City

In June I wrote "Need for social marketing initiatives around installation of neighborhood traffic calming initiatives: Salt Lake City," about animus about a traffic safety initiative in my neighborhood.  I made the point that car-centric people don't understand how imprinted they are with automobile dependence, and their unwillingness to consider other modes (walking, biking, transit) and users, in this case all the kids who live in the vicinity of this oversized intersection.

But I also made the point that the City Transportation Department could have handled outreach a lot better--basically they didn't do any.  I sent a pdf of the blog entry to the Department Director, and they responded.

These are photos of a couple of outreach devices they deployed, including a signboard in the roundabout and a flyer dropped off at area houses.

And just this week, the City Transportation Department continued to refine the street markings, in keeping with the idea that the roundabout is a prototype, a test.

Quote of the day: cars and pedestrians

There's an article, "Push. Pray. Walk: After yet another death, should Toronto replace these dangerous pedestrian crossovers?," in the Toronto Star about pedestrian crossings--not full traffic signals--and how there are plenty of close calls, and deaths from time to time. I like this particular paragraph.

Much of Toronto’s pedestrian infrastructure — and this goes for bike infrastructure too — was seemingly designed with the idea that the city’s drivers would have some baseline level of aptitude and care. Maybe that was always naïve. Maybe driver behaviour has just gotten worse in recent years.

Either way, the aptitude and care aren’t there.

The first paragraph called out to me, but these are good too.

We can debate the nature of the problem — I tend to think one root cause is a driver education system that licenses too many people without adequate training — but regardless, the response from city hall needs to be about emphasizing infrastructure that protects and separates pedestrians and cyclists from cars. That means red lights that enforce a stop instead of crossovers that are treated as optional, and concrete barriers instead of paint.

A lot of drivers aren’t going to like that — they already complain that there are too many traffic lights and lane restrictions as it is — but the reality, I fear, is that road safety measures that rely on driver responsibility are banking on an unrealistic expectation. Toronto’s bad drivers have shattered that basic trust too many times.

Chicago sports stadium funding request, therefore Crain's Chicago Business runs special section

See "Framework of characteristics that support successful community development in association with the development of professional sports facilities" and "Good quote on arenas and stadiums as "performing arts centers" attractions for cities" and "Follow up: arenas and stadiums as "performing arts centers" attractions for cities: experience versus retail." 

I've been meaning to write about this in terms of Salt Lake.  The State Legislature forced the City to acquiesce to a team and related entertainment district for the basketball and new hockey teams.  Many residents are up in arms, blaming City Council and the Mayor, when they were faced with fait accompli.

My biggest problem with it is the failure to get a transportation demand management program focused on getting people to the games by transit.  Plus the teams are winter-based.  Will there be a good program to activate the space in the summer and fall?

Main article

About 80% of projects get public money.

-- "Are stadiums a smart use of taxpayer money?"

1.  The argument that there aren't many net financial benefits.

2.  Velocity of requests leaves little time for thoughtful consideration

For many in Chicago, the pace of discussion around the Bears' latest lakefront proposal, in particular, is moving too fast for the plan to be thoroughly evaluated. 

“When we think about how long a neighborhood park can take, the years grocery stores take, the thought that a project of this scale could just pop up when all these other projects have to go through rigorous analyses, just feels like jumping to the front of the line,” says Gin Kilgore, interim executive director of the nonprofit Friends of the Parks, which has concerns about building on the lakefront, wanting to keep the area “open, clear and free.” These same concerns led to the filing of a lawsuit against filmmaker George Lucas that prompted him to move the development of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art from Chicago to Los Angeles, as well as an ongoing debate on the construction of the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park. 

“Everything’s been roughshod," says Chicago Ald. Scott Waguespack, 32nd, who was surprised when Mayor Brandon Johnson voiced his support of the Bears' proposal in April, and that the conversation has not yet been brought to the City Council.

3.  Threat of relocation to get funding.

4.  Stadiums increase team valuation.  But localities rarely get any benefit from their "investment."

“As a public policy position, we’ve taken the position that we will invest and give public taxpayer dollars to men’s teams, but we’ve never done the same for women’s teams,” Leetzow says. “Men’s teams have gotten a head start by about 50 years. The question for us as a culture is, are we going to do the same for women’s teams?” Leetzow believes that women’s teams can see the same valuation growth with the same “seed money" that men's teams receive.

5.  Soccer teams don't have the same access to public funding.

6.  Especially women's teams. 

-- "Soccer teams in a league of their own when it comes to stadiums"

“If we're going to build a stadium, we will privately finance. I’m not comfortable taking public money. Stadiums, in general, are not great investments,” he says. “They are big, expensive, costly to maintain and sit empty most of the time.” Given that Illinois already has high taxes and strained budgets, he says he wouldn’t consider adding to that public burden. Other MLS teams have successfully privately financed new stadiums, including the Nashville SC. Its Geodis Park is the largest soccer-specific stadium in North America.

-- "Consider stadium financing models that also benefit distressed communities"

This article is making an equity argument that the teams should be paying a set portion of revenue back to the city, also for achieving projects around the city.  And that there should be no pass on paying out.

-- "Harris Poll: Bears having a hard time moving the ball on public support for a new stadium"

-- "Never put a cemetery or stadium on valuable real estate" by economist Allen Sanderson

Years of research and a plethora of data, some of which I have conducted and submitted myself for professional publication, all point in one direction and to one conclusion: Sports facilities, regardless of activity or league, whether publicly funded or paid for privately, do not constitute a good investment for the sponsor. 

The closest one could come to an economic “wash” would be an arena that is home to an NBA and NHL franchise, plus the periodic concert, convention or other activity. By far faring the worst is a standalone NFL stadium that is used 10 days a year. As I testified a few years ago in New York, when then-Jets owner Woody Johnson wanted to move his team to the Hudson Yards area on Manhattan: “Hudson Yards is a valuable piece of real estate. There are only two things you never want to put on valuable property: a cemetery or a football field. Everything else is negotiable.” 

Another rule of thumb: Take any dollar figure a sponsor — of the Chicago Marathon, NASCAR, a Bears game, Democratic National Convention — gives you for the economic impact of that activity on the Chicago economy. Move the decimal point one place to the left and you’re pretty close.

... Most fans at NFL games are local in nature. They spend their $200 and three hours inside, say, Soldier Field, instead of at a Loop retail establishment or a suburban mall; they don’t stay in hotels. Net benefit to the Chicago economy? Approximately $0.

Revisiting assistance programs to get people biking: 1826 programs

I have always been big on differentiation in analyzing places and programs, but lately I've become aware that I may not be as thorough as I could be.

I've written hundreds of blog entries about bicycling and how to promote it as a real form of transportation, focused on but not limited to DC, which is a perfect city for it.

A big point I make with bicycling is that given the automobile dependency that's been fostered on the US given the predominate land use and transportation development paradigm, is that people have to be assisted in making the shift from driving to mostly bicycling.

Building infrastructure isn't enough.  Even great infrastructure can be empty much of the time.  If anything, that's an indicator that people need help to make the change.

Granted for "biking most of the time" a lot of conditions have to be congruent including distance from origin to destination, topography, weather.

I have a piece, "Revisiting assistance programs to get people biking: 18 programs," and speaking of differentiation what I realize it that it should be organized in terms of mass/district/place based supports versus what we might call individualized and personal biking.

An example might be living in Capitol Hill, DC and riding around on various errands, trips to work, for recreation etc., within your neighborhood, versus living 4.5 miles direct to the University of Maryland.  

Similarly, Capitol Hill has dozens of bike sharing stations, while the route from Takoma Park to University of Maryland does not.  In Manor Park, there are few bike sharing stations, so having your own bike makes the most sense.

==========

That entry updates "Revisiting assistance programs to get people biking: 18 programs," with the addition of more programs, which I have included below, marked by an asterisk, but without adding much in the way of additional text.

This post is written in advance of the next post.

Mass/Place/District

1. Creating "sustainable mobility stores." Relatedly providing support and subsidies to bicycle shops.

3.  Cycling training

9.  Bike sharing programs ought to be an obvious opportunity for promoting cycling take up.

10.  Discounted bike sharing memberships on a means-tested basis.

12.  Campus specific bike share programs.  

Ciclavia in December 2014.  Los Angeles Times photo.

19.** Open Streets Programs/Community Cycling Promotion programs at the neighborhood and community scale, including promotion of biking through affinity groups.  I've written about both a lot but somehow neglected to include this item in this entry.  

Neighborhood and district rides at one scale, whole community rides at the others.  I am always amazed to see photos of such events and say "where did all the bikes come from?"

20.**  Electric bike discount programs.  This has the advantage of "expanding" the size of a district a person is willing to bike it.  Plus may shift people in significant ways from cars.

21.**  Free bicycle share trips to extend transit trips to reaching your final destination.  Columbia SC (bus) transit does this, as does Bogota.

23.**  Bike bus programs.  Most used in conjunction with "bike to school programs" ("I Started a Bike Bus, and You Can Too," Wired, 8 routes for the Montclair Bike Bus in New Jersey, "A cool way to get kids to school -- the bike bus" Boston Globe, ""‘It’s a bit of freedom’: traffic-stopping tech helps Glasgow school’s bike bus on its way"," Guardian).

Bike bus in Brooklyn.  Video at Reddit.

25.** Expansion and Improvement of Trails. I didn't realize until I rode a trail for some distance while mostly being a street rider, how much mental energy is spent while street riding on safety measures and defensive cycling.  Separation from cars encourages more people to bike.  And it lets you "loosen" the mental load.

26.** Bike (sustainable mobility) Festivals.  I've written about college bike weeks and the Bike Rodeo that used to be sponsored by Utah Transit Authority.  Sometimes an Open Streets program includes many of these features.  Obviously it's a way to get people consider sustainable mobility.

More recently, Washington Area Bicyclists Association has sponsored such events for seniors specifically ("Older adult transportation block party").

Individually-focused

1. Creating "sustainable mobility stores".  Relatedly providing support and subsidies to bicycle shops.

2.  Cycle Borrowing programs.

3.  Cycling training

4.  Bike safety training for children AND YOUTH.

5.  Integrating cycling promotion programs into public recreation centers.  

6.  Other demographic focused cycling initiatives.

7.  Senior cycling promotion programs.

8.  Bikes as tools for improving access to jobs.

11.  Cycle access programs on college campuses and by large employers.

13.  Employer and college-assisted buying programs.

14.  Credit union loans to buy bikes.

15.  Bike donations for children.

16.  Bike bundling programs in public housing.

17.  Donating abandoned and unclaimed bikes to programs serving low income populations.

18.  Short term on-site bicycle provision.

19.** Open Streets Programs/Community Cycling Promotion programs at the neighborhood and community scale, including promotion of biking through affinity groups.  I've written about both a lot but somehow neglected to include this item in this entry.   

Neighborhood and district rides at one scale, whole community rides at the others.  I am always amazed to see photos of such events and say "where did all the bikes come from?"  This item is listed in this section more for affinity groups and community rides.

20.**  Electric bike discount programs.  This has the advantage of "expanding" the size of a district a person is willing to bike it.  Plus may shift people in significant ways from cars.

22.** Secure bicycle parking systems at the city and metropolitan scale ("Another mention of the idea of creating a network of metropolitan scale secure bicycle parking facilities").  Again something I write about a lot that should be integrated into this list.

24.**  Provision of bike lockers and showers in destination districts.  Zoning requirements to build them in office buildings and campuses of a certain size.

25.** Expansion and Improvement of Trails. I didn't realize until I rode a trail for a distance, how much mental energy is spent while street riding on safety measures and defensive cycling.  Separation from cars encourages more people to bike.

26.** Bike (sustainable mobility) Festivals.  I've written about college bike weeks and the Bike Rodeo that used to be sponsored by Utah Transit Authority.  Sometimes an Open Streets program includes many of these features.  Obviously it's a way to get people consider sustainable mobility.

More recently, Washington Area Bicyclists Association has sponsored such events for seniors specifically ("Older adult transportation block party").

New library/community space + 100% affordable housing mixed use building in New York City

The building uses brick and is kind of two buildings, with one set back.  There are 175 AH units, from studios to three bedrooms.

It's in NYC, so of course it's larger than the project in other cities ("Inwood development with public library and 100% affordable housing opens," 6sqft).

In "Opposition to affordable housing in Chevy Chase, DC," last year I wrote about a proposal to rebuild the Chevy Chase Community Center to include affordable housing.

The big example nationally is the Hollywood Library in Portland, Oregon.  It has a library and cafe on the ground floor and 40+ AH units on three floors above.  

This building shows that kind of mixed use is possible, and that the architecture can be reasonably decent.

As the blog entry points out, there have been many attempts to do something similar in DC, but mostly they fail.

In the comments, charlie points out this isn't so cheap and that the West End Library mixed use project--I think it has problems--worked because it is luxury housing.  

An anonymous commenter makes a great point that maybe the best thing this new building could do is to help reformulate the street experience on the East Side, which is pretty much disjoint compared to the West Side.

Both mixed use library projects in New York City prove the point that it's about "transformational projects action planning" ("A wrinkle in thinking about the Transformational Projects Action Planning approach: Great public buildings aren't just about design, but what they do," 2022)focused on the building program and quality architecture rather than a focus on startling "design," and the building not connecting to the community around it, managerial capacity and vision, for which DC had a shortage.  It's full of high quality amenities:

Measuring 20,000 square feet, the library retains its previously offered services, including literacy programs and story times. The library’s open and flexible floor plan makes space for computer classes, a community room, co-working spaces, and quiet reading spaces.

Amenities at The Eliza include bike storage lockers, a shared laundry room, a children’s playroom, a recreation room, a gym, rooftop gardens, an outdoor lounge and terrace with views of the Hudson River, and an on-site resident manager. 

All residences feature energy-efficient appliances. Residents will also have direct access to the renovated library facility and a 10,000-square-foot Activities, Culture, and Training Center (ACTS) for job training. The ACTS Center features a cutting-edge STEM Robotics learning hub, a teaching kitchen, a performance space, a sensory room, and classrooms designed to meet the needs of youth and their families.

The NYC building is the second of its kind.  The Sunset Library and Apartments rebuild was first ("NYC’s first 100% affordable housing development with new public library opens in Sunset Park" 6sqft).  

This project was done by the Brooklyn Public Library, which is a separate organization from the NYPL.

By doing the project as mixed use, BPL stated that the cost of creating the library was half the cost of a stand alone, single use library project.