By Sebastian Sopek
Located at the intersection of three Queens neighborhoods (Elmhurst, Corona and Rego Park) lies Queens Center Mall. This shopping destination attracts many from around the borough, city and from outside the city. The mall is, in theory, very accessible: it is right off the M and R trains at Woodhaven Blvd Station and is an easy drive via the Long Island Expressway. Modernist improvements in the 1950s carved out the pre-existing street grid, with extra space adjacent to the expressway used for ramps and parking lots. Facilitated through de-mapping 60th Avenue between 92nd and 94th Streets in 1954, the direct route leading straight down to Queens Blvd was blocked by a slope with cars swerving on top and a vacant lot for their storage. People could use the sidewalk to access Queens Blvd and the subway station there by walking on 59th Avenue to the north, but, hoping to avoid a long and indirect route, they have created their own path through the lot over time.
Ease of pedestrian mobility should take into account the natural order of how humans move about a space, with efficiency valued highly. Desire paths are unplanned, physical manifestations of ideal mobility: a path is visibly present and worn from foot traffic, but deviates away from the pre-established path meant for such travel. Desire paths are often strewn throughout college campuses where there are large, grassy open spaces and students tend to move from building to building in a repetitive pattern. Desire paths are not always in a straight line, they are the product of how the environment influences an individual. They are “instances wherein individual interests and desires collectively, but independently, make imprints on the social landscape over time.”
Some desire paths are simple, like the one above: people cut the corner across the grass instead of taking the longer route along the built sidewalks. People are willing to muddy their shoes or risk an uneven walking surface in favor of the faster route. Others are more complicated, like the one leading from the western end of the Queens Center Mall parking lot as you walk inward. The nearby twenty-story office building attracts hundreds of commuters each morning heading from the train as the building serves as office space for the New York City Police Department (NYPD), New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and ConEdison, among others. Adhering to official routes, the sidewalk means people would have to walk an additional two blocks more than is needed and, understandably, the majority choose not to, turning instead to walk through the parking lot. This means passing by dead rats, spillage from restaurant waste, turned-off lights, and the danger of sharing a road meant only for cars and commercial trucks delivering goods. On the weekends, the lot is jammed with cars of people visiting the restaurants and the pileup can resemble people walking through a maze of moving metal. Among those issues, drivers looking to make a shortcut may drive through the lot from end to end, and oftentimes, I have observed many cars moving at speeds higher than the city limit. To prevent this, a gate has been installed on one end as well as in the center but that gate has made traversing through on foot even more of an inconvenience.
A variety of neighborhood uses lie beyond the parking lot. Co-op buildings line one side of Junction Blvd, with the larger LeFrak City apartments on the other, in addition to a post office, a supermarket, and several local food establishments. The ground floors of the co-ops contain medical, dental and pharmacy services. The parking lot stands out as a rather unusual feature, zoned as C8-1, which is what many gas stations and transportation storage and maintenance facilities fall under, while the surrounding blocks are that of higher residential densities R6 to R8.
Prior to 2013, the parking lot was closed off fully as it was used for mall parking with no restaurants at all. There was, however, a dedicated space for people to walk between the fence and parked cars from one end to the other. Upon the reconstruction of the lot with three new restaurants—Olive Garden, Longhorn Steakhouse and Fogo de Chao—the space was absorbed as part of the new parking lot and now people must walk within the roadway. Some years back, an improvised garden path was created on the end by the subway, dubbed the Elmhurst Sculpture Park. It featured miniature sculpture replicas and alternative art along with a few benches that lined the desire path trampled into the grass.
I seemed to be the only person looking to create a kind of formal walkway here, although I suspected I may find some allies. Last year, I created a flyer with a code to scan for people passing in the vicinity of the parking lot to fill out a brief survey on how they feel about the idea. This effort yielded sixty-one responses over about a week and a half, with 92% either supporting or strongly supporting the idea. One survey respondent found it difficult to cross the lot with a stroller when the gates are down; others noted that the cars have to maneuver around pedestrians, and that weathering combined with rats and trash make for an unpleasant walk.
I brought the plan along with the survey responses to the office of Queens Community Board manager Christian Cassagnol, who was delighted to support the idea and he recommended I get in contact with the restaurant owners as well as the mall property manager in order to highlight the walkway’s benefits. I got in touch with the mall manager who felt it was a good idea, but provided me with a phone number for the owners of the restaurants and parking lot. I emailed Mark Lucaj who was a decision maker within the real estate firm, Mattone Investors LLC. He replied with some follow up questions about who would ultimately be responsible for the walkway but stated that “as long as it does not affect our property or increase our maintenance obligations, I do not see a problem with your idea.”
To build a better connection with the community, I set out with a table set up on one end of the lot to talk with people that were walking through and asked them to write down their opinion on a post-it note. Many seemed to resonate with the idea and the majority of comments referenced their safety because of close contact with moving vehicles. The second-most popular comment was the plea for a more clean and aesthetically pleasant green space through restoring the vegetation along the walkway. A few employees coming from the DEP office were helpful enough to offer their own feedback and leave contact information. I got to speak with David Jonathas from the Green Infrastructure unit, Emile Bensedrine who is an NYC Urban Fellow, Kate Edden who is a Project Manager, Alan Cohn who is the senior policy and science advisor for the Bureau of Sustainability, as well as one that I had already connected with on LinkedIn, Andrea Bianco, an urban planner and city research scientist. The DEP employees as well as some residents said they have been walking here for years and they felt surprised that the city has taken no action to fix this. A big concern noted by the employees on one afternoon was the presence of the pickup tow trucks that circle the lot for hours, with Alan Cohn despising the “tow truck company prowling the yard driving aggressively.” Seen below are examples of the input that was written down by passersby.
I looked into the next steps of making this new walkway a reality. I found that the ownership of the land falls under New York State Department of Transportation (DOT) and any vegetation obstructing the path can be cleared without as much scrutiny. Drainage and engineering challenges may arise as the narrowest point is on a slope, as well as the need to install new lamps for the path. Upon a visit to the DEP office a stone’s throw away, I spoke with an engineer from the Green Infrastructure unit who sternly said that it may require a reconfiguration at the narrow point of the curb and fencing but I did not obtain his name. While there, I left the map and renderings for possible internal posting so that employees of the building would take notice of the plan. I have considered the opportunity to form a local group of residents that are willing to volunteer for cleanup and general maintenance like snow clearing or leaf brushing.
Desire paths like the one by the Queens Center Mall illuminate how we have designed spaces for ourselves that no longer meet the needs of people and their movement. Patterns have shifted and population has changed since the mid-century autocentric use for this area. As hinted by the name, people expressed a desire for safety and some sense of beauty in this residual space– indeed, I have seen people taking an interest as they wander through to pick plants or undertake DIY cleanups. I hope that a recognized desire path can come to fruition as an opportunity to collectively adapt shared space and equitably place diverse land use side by side without casting too long of a shadow.
Growing up in New York, Sebastian has always been intrigued why things, no matter how minute, contribute to the greater everyday urban experience. After studying at Queens College and then Hunter College, he gained an appreciation for the urban planning field. Sebastian is interested in transportation planning, largely due to his long-time obsession with the subway system, although now he looks forward to helping improve bicycle infrastructure all over the United States.
Sources:
Queens (New York, N.Y.). Topographical Bureau | NYCMA Collection Guides. https://a860-collectionguides.nyc.gov/agents/corporate_entities/796
Burnett, Simon, and Annemaree Lloyd. “The Road Not Taken: Locating Desire Lines across Information Landscapes.” Information Research Journal, 2019. https://informationr.net/ir/24-4/colis/colis1911.html
Caro, Robert A. The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York New York: Vintage Books, 1975.
McMahon, Patrick J. An analysis of factors contributing to” walking along roadway” crashes research study and guidelines for sidewalks and walkways. Vol. 1. DIANE Publishing, 2002.
Shaira Shah., and Jill Grant. “A policy guide: Making parking lots and commercial driveways safer for pedestrians.” Unpublished master’s dissertation, Dalhousie University, 2016.
Winterbottom, Daniel. “Residual Space Re-evaluated [Portfolio].” Places 13, no. 3 (2000).
