Fourteenth Street looks very different depending on which block you’re on: In the Meatpacking District, there are pedestrian plazas with plantings and chairs. There’s the park in Union Square and then there’s in-between.

“I think we need more beauty around here,” Stacey Turabelidze, a student at The New School, said. “There’s a lot of trash.”

What You Need To Know

The 24-month redesign process for 14th Street kicks off this month, with the first of many public workshops

The DOT is starting the redesign of 14th Street with $2 million from the city and borough president, and a combined $1 million from the Union Square Partnership and the Meatpacking District Management Association

Once the design is complete, there is $9 million to begin implementing it immediately

In 2019, the city Department of Transportation made the street a busway, restricting most cars except for local deliveries from trucks and pickups and drop-offs. There’s been mixed reaction to it.

Larry Yakoubov is a barber at Barber Buddy Barbershop and says that since then, business has gone down.

“Because there’s less cars, less traffic, and everybody’s avoiding coming through this way,” Yakoubov said. “They take the little roads to go through.”

The DOT is hoping to revitalize the corridor with $2 million from the city and borough president, and a combined $1 million from the Union Square Partnership and the Meatpacking District Management Association, which says the DOT is starting the process to redesign the street.

There is a lot of foot traffic on 14th Street, as well as several empty businesses. People along the corridor believe a redesign could help fill those empty storefronts.

“It’ll make the neighborhood more nicer,” Yakoubov said. “Green is always a good idea.”

“I think in terms of just pedestrian traffic, yeah, it could work — a plan like that,” area resident Robert Fisch said. “I mean, it would stimulate more restaurant growth.”

The idea is to bring bike lanes and more pedestrian and seating areas all along the route — like between Fifth Avenue and Seventh Avenue, where there are many “For Rent” signs. But there’s also concerns that adding seating will create other issues.

“There’s going to be more than the elderly that’s going to sit there,” Sheila Washington said.

“Then if homeless people are camped out on them, what’s going to happen to the people who want to sit there?” Fisch asked.

LeFrancois, with the Meatpacking District, says that hasn’t been the case in other areas of the city.

“Our colleagues in Hudson Square actually just released a huge study that they have seen vacancy rates plunge along Hudson Street where they did their complete redesigns,” LeFrancois said. “So, I’m very optimistic.”

Once the design is complete in about two years, there is $9 million to begin implementing it immediately.