Our work at NYC School Streets

Street Lab works with public schools in low-income neighborhoods in NYC to transform streets directly adjacent to the schools into car-free pedestrian spaces that support the health, safety, and happiness of kids, families, and residents. This work is part of our New Public Spaces initiative and involves activation and programming, as well as deep support with permits, planning, outreach, community engagement, and operations. And the impact is remarkable: teachers, students, and administrators are becoming stewards and champions of these new community spaces for the whole neighborhood.

We began this work with two schools in 2021, building on the idea that neighborhood environments can have a profound effect on people’s lives and that many areas lack safe space to gather. And the work has rapidly emerged as our most impactful initiative to date—these new public spaces are providing urgently needed solutions for safer drop-off and pick-up, while also creating dynamic new spaces for community-building, after-school activities, and learning outside school walls. Schools have tremendous potential to be a source of positive change for neighborhoods, and involving students in the development and improvement of their streets is giving them a chance to lead those changes.

A map of NYC with dots located mainly in the Bronx and Brooklyn. The label reads "Current" with street names and "Potential" with street names.

Over the next few years, we want to grow this work, continuing to support nine schools during the 2024- 2025 school year while getting started with an additional 16 more that have reached out for similar support. Our goal by 2027 is to add an additional 25, bringing the 
total locations we impact to 50. Similar work has been undertaken in Paris over the past five years, and through conversations with both the NYC Dept of Transportation and NYC Dept of Education, city agencies are poised to try and achieve similar results, with a model that is distinctly tailored to these NYC neighborhoods.

Support this effort!
A view of students chalking in front of a school.

“The open streets have created a space for us to thrive as a community here at PS32, while we celebrate health, wellness, and one another! ….You can see, hear and feel the joy that has been created! And the best part is—we created it and can keep on creating it!”

Anna Goldman

Movement and Mindfulness Teacher, PS 32 (Belmont, Bronx)

A group of students posing together on the street.
Students putting together a wooden bench on a street.
A teen reading a book on a wooden bench on the NYC street.
Students playing on a school street.
Logo that reads New York City DOT

Thanks to our school streets partner NYC DOT

Kids playing in the street.
A view of backs of students sitting on wooden bench.
Students jumping on an obstacle course set.
A woman reading to children on the street.
A child looking at a planter with a magnifying glass on the street.
A view of teenagers playing with colorful lego blocks on the street.
Kids playing on the street with an obstacle course.

BronxNet covers one of several Open Streets that Street Lab helped create next to NYC schools in 2022

Updates about our work at NYC School Streets:

Kids Take the Streets

Kids Take the Streets

Opening up a street for play is a powerful way to get kids engaged in improving their neighborhood. Street Lab is piloting new Open Streets with five public schools in the Bronx and Brooklyn, and extraordinary results are already coming in—students are now leading the...

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Creating Open Streets next to NYC Public Schools

Creating Open Streets next to NYC Public Schools

Since Fall 2021, Street Lab has worked with seven public schools in the Bronx and Queens to pilot and launch Open Streets adjacent to the schools as part of our New Public Space initiative with the NYC Department of Transportation. Temporarily opening streets to...

read more
A view of children playing on the street and chalking on the ground. The button on the top right corner reads "Returning Partner."