On May 2, 2025, I read an article by Matthew Sedacca on Curbed titled There’s Traffic-Cone Drama on Vanderbilt Avenue. This article had been published one day before I read it on May 1. Vanderbilt Avenue is a long avenue in Brooklyn, New York City. To the best of my recollection it had not yet featured in any New Leaf Journal articles, although I walked down part of it within the last few weeks.
I took this photo of the intersection of Vanderbilt and Myrtle Avenues on May 4, 2025, while walking back from a trip to Williamsburg, Brooklyn. This intersection, which is the border of Brooklyn neighborhoods Clinton Hill and Fort Greene, is about five blocks outside of Vanderbilt open streets. The ominous black tower in the background is the tallest building in Brooklyn.
For our purposes, the beginning of Mr. Sedacca’s local report will suffice for my story:
Saskia Haegens was getting things in order for the May launch of the Vanderbilt Avenue Open Street. They, along with other organizers, had put in requests to the city’s Department of Transportation for the usual slate of equipment to close off the strip to traffic and entice pedestrians to come hang out: dozens of French barriers and an assortment of tables and chairs. And, just like last year, they also asked for 100 traffic cones. But when city officials dropped off the supplies in April, there were only 30 of them.
Open Streets is a program wherein neighborhood associations can gain approval to shut down stretches of the street to vehicular traffic (there is apparently also a similar Summer Streetsprogram, but I will use Open Streets as a catch-all term). It makes sense that traffic cones are part of the formula. The Curbed article tries to get to the bottom of why the City is apparently not meeting traffic cone requests at several Open Streets locations. Some organizers state that the City implied to them that there is a traffic cone shortage. The City denies any such shortage and states that it has changed how it allocates traffic cones. I have no hot take on the dispute. But my story turns on the idea that there could be a traffic cone shortage.
But before we get to my story, allow me a brief digression as I am wont to take.
Open Streets is more plausible in some places than others. For example, Vanderbilt Avenue Open Street area, covering Atlantic Avenue to Park Place, is wide, has many shops, and, save for the end near Park Place, is a decent enough walk from Prospect Park. This is not an endorsement and I will note that there are many reports of opposition from community stakeholders – but a simple recognition that I can understand how someone may make the case for it. There are other locations that make no sense at all. Take, for example, Montague Street Open Streets in scenic Brooklyn Heights. Montague Street is the main commercial street of New York City’s first historic district – albeit it has declined since 2020. Montague between Clinton and Hicks Streets has been an Open Streets location the past few years. It leads right into the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, a 1/3 mile walkway with a striking view of the Manhattan Skyline across the East River. Why in the world would anyone want to spend time and money shutting down Montague Street to throw a up a few chairs and tables when people can just walk 3-5 minutes to the Promenade? (Judging by the turnout I witnessed at Montague Open Street on May 11, 2025, it appears that many passers-by answered my question by availing themselves to the Promenade or even Brooklyn Bridge Park, which is also close by.)
Now back to the main topic.
On May 1, 2025, I was walking down Montague Street. There was some road work being done in front of the long-standing Lassen & Hennigs deli (on 114 Montague Street between Henry and Hicks Streets). There were two trucks. One of the working trucks was slowly backing up. There were two traffic cones in its path. I watched it slowly crush not just one, but both traffic cones — both in slow motion.
So for anyone is wondering where all the traffic cones went, they were destroyed on the then-future site of Montague Street Open Streets 2025.
I am the Brooklyn-based administrator, editor, and main author of The New Leaf Journal and The Emu Café Social. By day I am a legal research specialist and writer. I write about my interests in my articles which include, but are in no way limited to, anime, current events, feeds and feed readers, Linux and open source, philosophy, plants, reading, video games and visual novels, and walks in Brooklyn.
NYC Open Streets Traffic Cone Shortage
Anecdotes CommentaryNicholas A. FerrellOn May 2, 2025, I read an article by Matthew Sedacca on Curbed titled There’s Traffic-Cone Drama on Vanderbilt Avenue. This article had been published one day before I read it on May 1. Vanderbilt Avenue is a long avenue in Brooklyn, New York City. To the best of my recollection it had not yet featured in any New Leaf Journal articles, although I walked down part of it within the last few weeks.
(Not long before I took the above photo, I documented a BLOB DYLAN tag and dry Christmas Tree in Williamsburg, both of which were turned into articles. Counting an article centered on a Manhattan Skyline photo I took later that same day, we now have four articles featuring photos taken on May 4, 2025.)
For our purposes, the beginning of Mr. Sedacca’s local report will suffice for my story:
Open Streets is a program wherein neighborhood associations can gain approval to shut down stretches of the street to vehicular traffic (there is apparently also a similar Summer Streets program, but I will use Open Streets as a catch-all term). It makes sense that traffic cones are part of the formula. The Curbed article tries to get to the bottom of why the City is apparently not meeting traffic cone requests at several Open Streets locations. Some organizers state that the City implied to them that there is a traffic cone shortage. The City denies any such shortage and states that it has changed how it allocates traffic cones. I have no hot take on the dispute. But my story turns on the idea that there could be a traffic cone shortage.
But before we get to my story, allow me a brief digression as I am wont to take.
Open Streets is more plausible in some places than others. For example, Vanderbilt Avenue Open Street area, covering Atlantic Avenue to Park Place, is wide, has many shops, and, save for the end near Park Place, is a decent enough walk from Prospect Park. This is not an endorsement and I will note that there are many reports of opposition from community stakeholders – but a simple recognition that I can understand how someone may make the case for it. There are other locations that make no sense at all. Take, for example, Montague Street Open Streets in scenic Brooklyn Heights. Montague Street is the main commercial street of New York City’s first historic district – albeit it has declined since 2020. Montague between Clinton and Hicks Streets has been an Open Streets location the past few years. It leads right into the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, a 1/3 mile walkway with a striking view of the Manhattan Skyline across the East River. Why in the world would anyone want to spend time and money shutting down Montague Street to throw a up a few chairs and tables when people can just walk 3-5 minutes to the Promenade? (Judging by the turnout I witnessed at Montague Open Street on May 11, 2025, it appears that many passers-by answered my question by availing themselves to the Promenade or even Brooklyn Bridge Park, which is also close by.)
Now back to the main topic.
On May 1, 2025, I was walking down Montague Street. There was some road work being done in front of the long-standing Lassen & Hennigs deli (on 114 Montague Street between Henry and Hicks Streets). There were two trucks. One of the working trucks was slowly backing up. There were two traffic cones in its path. I watched it slowly crush not just one, but both traffic cones — both in slow motion.
So for anyone is wondering where all the traffic cones went, they were destroyed on the then-future site of Montague Street Open Streets 2025.
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Nicholas A. Ferrell
I am the Brooklyn-based administrator, editor, and main author of The New Leaf Journal and The Emu Café Social. By day I am a legal research specialist and writer. I write about my interests in my articles which include, but are in no way limited to, anime, current events, feeds and feed readers, Linux and open source, philosophy, plants, reading, video games and visual novels, and walks in Brooklyn.