Friends of Tribeca Traffic Island Frame Bike Event as 'Wonderful' Opportunity

Mayor Zohran Mamdani gives a thumbs up, framed by a sign brought to the 5 Boro Bike Tour by Friends of Barnett Newman Triangle. The tour began at the south end of the traffic triangle. Photo: Richard Corman

The 5 Boro Bike Tour Sunday morning, a giant cycling event drawing more than 30,000 riders and a bevy of city officials, started at Tribeca’s Barnett Newman Triangle [1], White Street and Sixth Avenue. That was good news for the Friends of Barnett Newman Triangle, who are seeking greater public awareness of the traffic island and their campaign to expand the mostly concrete space into a small park.

“It was a wonderful confluence of events,” said Alice Blank, president of the organization, as thousands of riders peddled past the modestly planted island. “With us wanting to support the park and having this fantastic event that’s all about pedestrians and bikers—non-car folk coming together in our very garden—it couldn’t be better.”

The group had created a sign with a triangular opening (their logo features a triangle) to frame the faces of their subjects. “I started the Five Boro Bike Tour at Barnett Newman Triangle,” the sign read. In no time before the tour began, Parks Department Commissioner Tricia Shimamura, City Councilman Christopher Marte and Congressional candidate Brad Lander—all tour participants—mugged for a photo. Blank and fellow Barnett Newman Triangle friend Richard Corman raced to the stage at the south end of the island to catch Mayor Zohran Mamdani exit the pre-event ceremony and get a photo of him in there, thumbs up and all. 

The schematic plan for the island calls for creating a single path with seating surrounded by green space including several trees. The triangle would be expanded to occupy what now are parking lanes on the 6th Avenue and Church Street sides.

Three city agencies, the departments of Transportation, Parks, and Environmental Protection, have joint jurisdiction over the tiny space, making bureaucratic decision-making on the proposal especially challenging. 

Barnett Newman Triangle, named for the famed Abstract Expressionist whose last studio overlooked the island, is unique for being part of both the city’s Green Infrastructure Program (formerly Green Streets), which converts traffic islands into green spaces, and the city’s Plaza Program, which turns underutilized streets into public spaces. An interim improvement may include painting the street to denote the expanded island in order to test the “look and feel” of the larger space. 

“It’s great to be out here in the center of it all, at this little tuft of green,” Blank said, “and hoping for bigger, better days next year, with a very different looking park.”