Programs and Services
Streetscape and Beautification
Lincoln Center, the nation’s celebrated home to the performing arts, has competition. To the delight of biped audiences, hummingbirds and butterflies now perform in local green spaces.
Until the BID came into the picture, Lincoln Square’s public spaces were a barren refuge for weeds and litter. As the BID saw it, the spaces needed a nurturing hand--one that wouldn’t “plant and run”. Consequently, soon after the BID’s 1996 founding, work began on Broadway’s 10 litter-strewn and weed-filled malls, the center islands running from 60th to 70th Street separating northbound from southbound traffic.
Though the city looks very different post pandemic, on a typical day, pedestrians enjoy well-manicured green spaces and our neighborhood’s urban gardens while perched upon 1964 World’s Fair benches that the BID installed with support from the old Mayflower Hotel. The Lincoln Square BID’s highly motivated Clean Team keeps the Broadway Malls looking good with the assistance of a dependable crew from the Goddard Riverside Community Center, a caring Upper West Side social service organization. The Goddard Riverside Green Keepers work Monday through Friday from 8:00am to 10:00am removing litter from the Broadway Malls (from the north side of West 60th Street to the South side of West 70th Street).
The BID contracts with a landscaping company and works collaboratively with the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation - together we are responsible for the year-round well-being of Lincoln Square’s public parks, the Broadway malls and end beds from 60th – 70th Street, 70 planters, and 18 urns. Shrubs and perennials that do not thrive are quickly replaced.
Our long-term goal remains: to achieve a sustainable and beautiful balance of shrubs, perennials, annuals, and bulbs. Our constant goal is to create an atmosphere of harmony and delight and share it with Lincoln Square’s residents, workers, students, theater patrons, shoppers, diners, and tourists. Even throughout the COVID-19, we have stayed focused on and committed to our robust beautification initiatives to ensure Lincoln Square’s public and green spaces do not fall back into the barren and weed-filled spaces they once were. Our unwavering beautification efforts play an incredibly crucial role in maintaining a sense of community and encouraging economic recovery.
Following over 15 years of the BID’s advocating for renovations and submitting designs to City agencies, our two small parks on Broadway-- Dante Park at 63rd Street and Richard Tucker Park at 66th Street-- are now beautifully renovated and accessible to all. The New York City Parks Department performed the successful makeovers of both parks, and the BID continues to maintain them.
Shady Dante Park’s transformation, completed in September 2013, began with the inclusion of such safety- conscious features as new pedestrian crossings and easy-to-walk-on smooth paving stones. Richard Tucker Park’s record-setting renovation took just a month to complete.
During that time, the park’s uneven cobblestones, a safety issue for everyone, were replaced with specially hewn granite that is compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
In 2016, the fence at Dante Park was removed, and the park’s northern tip has been expanded as part of the New York City Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Lincoln Square Bowtie project. Richard Tucker received some pedestrian safety enhancements as well – temporary neckdowns are in place to help with the overflow of pedestrians exiting the 66th Street/Lincoln Center subway station.
Additionally, in August 2018, DOT installed a trench drain in Dante Park to help alleviate ponding around the park and in the bus stop on Broadway. And in February of 2020, at the BID’s request, DOT placed large granite blocks to Dante Park's tip near our tables, chairs, umbrellas, and planters for added pedestrian safety.
All’s well and beautiful with our parks. For those with a desire to linger, our two parks are furnished with moveable tables, chairs and umbrellas. As tables and chairs age, the BID replaces them for safety and aesthetic reasons. Both parks play a major entertainment role in the BID’s free events schedule throughout the year. Holiday lighting and programming as well as free summer concerts fill the parks with lively entertainment.
The BID’s seasonal beautification efforts are Lincoln Square’s gift to its residents, workers, students, theater patrons, shoppers, diners and tourists.
We want everyone in our neighborhood to personally experience the beauty of the changing seasons. In light of COVID-19, the BID commissioned Linnaea Tillett, founder and principal of Tillett Lighting Design Associates, along with her brother, Seth Tillett, to create a temporary lighting installation in the ten Broadway Malls between Columbus Circle and 70th Street that converges in Dante Park. Tumbling Brights, a procession of ten ethereal figures, illuminated the Broadway Malls from December 2020 through February 2021 and were symbols of hope, resilience, and community solidarity. This installation will continue to be part of our holiday lighting program and we will expand on it as we are able.
Click here to read more about the special holiday lighting installation.
A generous list of sponsors, including residential buildings, property owners, and non-profit organizations, fund the Lincoln Square BID’s Streetscape and Beautification Program. Please join us so that we may continue dressing Lincoln Square in beauty.
Support the BID’s beautification mission with a corporate sponsorship or an individual, tax-deductible gift. Click here for more information or call us at (212) 581-3774.