Public Realm
Policy Paper: A Partnership Agenda for the Public Realm
Prepared by the Public Realm Working Group
Alexandria Sica and Ellen Goldstein, Co-Chairs
NYC BID Association | December 2025Executive Summary
New York City’s Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) are among the City’s most effective and enduring public space partners. They maintain plazas, activate corridors, and invest millions annually in clean, safe, and vibrant streets. Over the last decade, BIDs have assumed more responsibility for the public realm, often at the behest of city agencies and frequently performing tasks previously assumed by local government. Doing so requires significant additional staffing and financial resources. The BID Association, and individual BIDs, have worked closely with the city to better define our responsibilities and reduce liability exposure. But core issues remain, such as poor coordination between agencies with public realm responsibility, complex approval processes, and continued liability exposure across city agreements. This discourages BIDs — especially those with smaller budgets — from taking on additional public realm projects.
An energized and well managed public realm is key to building a strong economy for an equitable and enjoyable city that is also on par with other global cities.
It is our hope that the next administration prioritizes and commits to a strong partnership between BIDs and City agencies. We believe we have a venerable common goal: working together to deliver the best public space experience for New Yorkers effectively and efficiently.
1. BID Contracts and Agreements
BIDs maintain, manage and program the DOT pedestrian plazas and city parks, oversee Open Streets, install Street Seats, and clean, maintain, and activate commercial districts throughout the city for the use and enjoyment of the public. The work improves the quality of life for every person passing by. But this responsibility has come with often untenable liability exposure, and many BIDs have been sued and had insurance costs increase exponentially.
As a self-insured entity, the City assumes liability for public use of public space; however, when BIDs are asked to manage public spaces for the public, the BIDs are required to purchase insurance and cover potential liabilities. Shifting liability to a non-profit maintenance partner has created a two tiered system where only BIDs who can afford this extra liability can meaningfully participate.
The BIDs worked successfully with DOT and the Law Department on improving the liability and indemnification language in the DOT Plaza Agreement. However, BIDs still operate under an array of separate agreements with an array of agencies. City Hall promised the BIDs that all maintenance, management, and operations agreements would include language that protected the BIDs from excessive liability exposure for doing work on behalf of the city, but this has not happened.
Recommendations
Citywide Policy Directive: Require all agencies (SBS, DOT, Parks, DCLA, etc.) to recognize BIDs as partners, not contractors or licensees, in the management of public realm assets.
Protection from Excessive Liability:
Short term: Ensure that protective language akin to the DOT Plaza Agreement is included across all City agreements governing BID-managed spaces.
Long term: protect the plazas and other public realm activations through the City’s self insurance to the greatest degree possible.
2. Empower the Chief Public Realm Officer
BIDs advocated for years to create a position at City Hall to oversee the city’s entire public realm agenda. Creating the position of Chief Public Realm Officer (CPRO) was a step forward in recognizing the importance of coordinated public realm management. However, the position as currently configured lacks sufficient authority, budget, and staffing to impact the City’s sprawling public realm agenda and the many agencies that touch it. As a result, agency silos persist and BIDs face inconsistent guidance and duplicative oversight.
Recommendations
Establish a Dedicated Office of the Public Realm with an independent budget and staff, empowered to convene all agencies that manage or regulate public space (DOT, DSNY, Parks, SAPO, LPC, DCLA, DOHMH, NYPD, etc.).
Centralized Policy Coordination: Empower the CPRO to coordinate and have decision making authority with regards to any policy that touches the public realm, including street furniture, vending, permitting, enforcement, and placemaking.
Event & Activation Portfolio: Transfer oversight of temporary and permanent public space activations and events (currently fragmented among SAPO, DOT Franchises, DOT Art, DPR, etc.) to the CPRO for streamlined management.
3. Comprehensive Curb & Sidewalk Management
City agencies currently add street elements and draft rules regarding their placement and management without any comprehensive review of the overall streetscape. Multiple agencies have siting and enforcement responsibility for elements like vendors, e-scooter docks, charging stations, and package lockers, with no coordinated, holistic view of the impact on pedestrian flow, adjacent storefront operations, or space constraints.
Recommendations
Citywide Curb Access Strategy: Develop a framework for well-functioning sidewalks and streets that coordinates all uses of the curb and sidewalk so all demands are balanced.
Pedestrian Experience Standard: Require all new installations - permanent and mobile/temporary - to meet minimum pedestrian clearance, accessibility, safe and design criteria.
Public Realm Officer Oversight: Empower the CPRO to review and approve new curb uses for consistency and safety.
4. Quality of Life in Public Spaces
The city should be immensely proud of the enormity of public spaces it has created in the past 15 years. The pedestrian plaza program in particular completely reimagined how we allocate space so we maximize it for people and not cars. However, being responsible for these places entails more than just arranging furniture, cleaning, and producing programming.
BIDs share responsibility for ensuring everyone has a positive experience and for the care of individuals in crisis in the areas we manage. On the former, enforcement is inconsistent, and spread across agencies that do not coordinate. BIDs are left to manage illegal vending, safety concerns, and sanitation without sufficient City support. The number of individuals in crisis in our public spaces has grown significantly; services are provided via multiple contracts with different providers and not coordinated. Because our teams are on the ground every day and know who is living in crisis on our streets, BIDs can be important partners in identifying individuals, providing information, and helping to connect community members with services and support.
Recommendations
Create Multi-Disciplinary Teams of service providers and city agencies that work together to better connect unhoused individuals in crisis with care and reduce the amount of time between identifying an individual in crisis and connecting that person with housing.
Create a Public Space Enforcement Unit under DSNY or NYPD supervision, trained to handle vending, sanitation, and pedestrian obstructions collaboratively with BIDs.
Allocate PEP Officers to Plazas through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Department of Parks and DOT, with priority given to high-traffic areas managed by BIDs.
5. Streamlining and Facilitating Public Programming
The City has asked BIDs to program and activate an array of public spaces. However, the city’s approval and permitting processes for things like food kiosks, Street Seats, and special events are excessively complex and time-consuming, particularly for small BIDs.
Given our existing city agreements and accountability, BIDs should be considered as “trusted partners”, capable of self certifying events and subject to more streamlined approvals overall.
Recommendations
SAPO self-certification: Where BIDs operate under a maintenance or management contract with the City, events sponsored by those BIDs should be approved via a simple self-certification process that limits permit costs. This would include events like free public concerts, wellness events, art installations etc.
Streamline Subconcession Approvals by creating a user friendly template BIDs can use to reduce lengthy legal reviews that delay the ability to launch new concessions in a timely manner.
Utility Coordination: Utility connections are required for many public events and subconcessions; DOT should help facilitate and reduce the cost of installing utility connections in public plazas via a pre-approved utility connection protocol, modeled after the Parks Department.
Flexible Food Rules: Currently, plaza food kiosks must meet the DOHMH criteria for brick and mortar restaurants, which is unfair and adds significant time and cost for our subconcessionaires. Plaza kiosks should be reviewed under standards similar to food trucks.
Year-Round Operation Option: Allow Street Seats installations to remain in place year-round to justify investment costs.
Flexible Permitting: Create “general permits” allowing BIDs to activate Open Streets during predetermined hours without reapplying, and create clear guidelines for small-scale events, temporary art, and placemaking projects that can be self-certified by BIDs.
6. Advancing Equity Across BIDs
There are now 77 BIDs across all five boroughs contributing to the City’s vibrancy. Some BIDs have large budgets and multiple staff members dedicated solely to public realm management, but many smaller BIDs have budgets under $1 million and operate with minimal staff. To ensure that every neighborhood can benefit from well-managed public spaces, these smaller partners need dedicated funding and capacity support.
Recommendations
DOT Public Realm Catalog: Develop a catalog of pre-approved, affordable, and durable furnishings (benches, planters, lighting, etc.) available for direct purchase, possibly with subsidies.
Furnishing Reuse Program: Allow smaller BIDs to repurpose furnishings from larger districts without requiring additional PDC or LPC approvals.
Targeted Funding: Create a Public Realm Equity Fund to help under-resourced BIDs maintain plazas, streetscapes, and activations.
7. Future Innovation in Placemaking
Opportunity
The City is reportedly developing new application processes for temporary and permanent public realm amenities. This effort should be guided by BID input and aligned with the principles of flexibility, equity, and partnership.
Recommendation
Collaborative Development: Include BID representatives in the design and pilot phases of new placemaking application systems.
Unified Platform: Integrate all public realm requests into a single digital portal, connected to MyCity, for ease of tracking and transparency.
Conclusion
The next administration has an historic opportunity to modernize New York’s public realm governance by empowering the Chief Public Realm Officer, reforming agency processes, and recognizing BIDs as indispensable civic partners.
By standardizing agreements, simplifying approvals, and investing in equitable support, the City can foster cleaner, safer, and more vibrant streets that reflect the full energy of New York’s neighborhoods.
A true partnership model, built on trust, coordination, and shared accountability, will make New York City’s public realm stronger, fairer, and more resilient.