What 3 days at Open House New York taught me

Stand clear of the closing doors please!

I heard those seven words multiple times over the course of my time at Open House New York, October 18-20, 2024 (and during the launch party on October 17). What an incredible opportunity to criss-cross the city I love by subway, bus and miles upon miles walked.

The moment my friend Mary Jane Reilly told me about OHNY, a nonprofit whose marquis event is a 3-day period in October when participants have the opportunity to visit places that are often limited-access in the city, I was hooked. I knew I would build a trip around the next OHNY I could get to.

Technically, I did nine OHNY events. I’ll share a list at the end of this post, but I want to highlight three of the most memorable experiences.

Walking the Cross Bronx Expressway

“This walking tour along 2.5 miles of the corridor offers a peek into the past, a conversation about the present and an imagining of the future of the Cross Bronx Expressway,” said the summary of the walk on the website that presented the 240+ options available to OHNY participants. (Many events were absolutely free. Some were free but ticketed. Others were ticketed with a nominal cost of $6.) Here’s the full description.

Walking the CBE was the absolute first ticketed event I tried to get. I worked in the Bronx for almost three years (1989-1992). I’ve been a vehicle passenger on it many times. Wayne and I were on it in our car earlier in September as we worked our way back to Florida from Connecticut (not one of our finer moments as a married couple trying to parse Google directions!). I love the Bronx, but I can’t claim to really know it.

Reading “The Power Broker” by Robert Caro piqued my interest in understanding the effects of the Cross Bronx Expressway on the borough’s history. A complete chapter of the book discussed how Robert Moses, power-hungry and immune to the damage it would do to generations, essentially cut the Bronx in two, razing neighborhoods and planting the seeds of a variety of transit, urban planning and environmental issues that are still playing out today.

The leader of our tour was Liz Hamby, Director of Civic Engagement, New York City Department of City Planning. Our group traversed the neighborhoods adjacent to the Cross Bronx Expressway, seeing signs of the CBE’s intrusion (such as buildings with no windows because walls were sheared off), doing interactive activities (yes, 10 adults did take a silent moment then all utter what they had heard in unison (beeps, cars screeching, etc.)), seeing more parks than I would have predicted and looking at a beautiful former synagogue, discussing the various ways it has been used as a faith center over the past decades (it now is home to a different denomination whose congregants drive into the Bronx to worship there). (The Bronx’s Jewish community was among many harmed by displacements related to the CBE.)

Note: Please visit this site to learn more about efforts to reimagine the Cross Bronx Expressway.

Seeing the Billion Oyster Project

I was giddy to get to take the Billion Oyster Project walking tour on Governors Island. The Billion Oyster Project, which I originally learned about through my work at SmartBrief, is an effort to restore New York Harbor by 2035 by cultivating oysters (here’s one article about the process) that are then placed throughout the harbor to help clean the water. In addition to its efforts to clean up the waters around New York City via oysters, the BOP is connected to The Harbor School, a public high school on Governors Island that focuses on marine science and technology. It also has a partnership with restaurants that collects shells from diners’ oysters and uses them in the project.

Touring the Mother Clara Hale Bus Depot

Yes, yes, it’s “just” a bus depot but this was technically my first OHNY stop (if you don’t count the launch party), and it did not disappoint. I loved the bus part (and all of us really relished going through the bus-sized car wash in a bus). But as a fan of LEED buildings and sustainable infrastructure, I also loved learning about its development (and the community’s role), its green roof, the way it uses reclaimed water to wash the buses, the fact that the roof’s surface is white to reflect the sun, the sessions held with neighborhood occupants to generate feedback and the tiny details (like the fact that having a bike rack at a building is “low hanging fruit” for LEED certification).

Everything else

Here are the other Open House New York activities I enjoyed:

I volunteered at the launch party at the United Palace (love that place!)

A Super Sidewalk talk (through OHNY, Urban Omnibus and Chekpeds) that explained efforts to make sidewalks in Hell’s Kitchen (and surrounding areas) safer for drivers, pedestrians, cyclists and businesses.

A visit to the Sky Farm LIC. This is a rooftop farm that is a partnership with the Variety Boys & Girls Club in Queens. The students learn about farming; there’s a produce share they and their families can participate in and wow … the view!

A visit to Great Performances, a catering organization that has such a cool backstory (and an equally cool social service project, the Sylvia Center, that educates young people and families through culinary programming).

Time spent at Castle Williams on Governors Island. This is a defensive work on Governors Island that is a part of the National Park Service. It has been used for so many things, from defending New York Harbor from the British in the early 1800s to serving as offices for the Coast Guard in the 1970s.

Closing thoughts

Everything about this trip was memorable. The activities tied right in to my constant curiosity about how things work, especially in a city I love so much.

A kind OHNY volunteer, Justin Dinks, took this picture as we were sharing our impressions of the Cross Bronx Expressway walk. I talked about how, at my age, I grew up with certain stereotypes about the Bronx’s safety. And there were major issues in the South Bronx between 1970 and 1980. I ended up working in the Bronx from 1989-92, and I’m so grateful for my time there, but the places where I spent my time were in a relatively tight circumference, and I lived in Manhattan. The afternoon helped me see the borough in a different light.

I also shared how I wouldn’t be able to shake a conversation our group had with a resident in the Bronx while we were taking the walk. She was angry — who was this group of strangers bunched up and talking about her neighborhood? One of our members tried to explain Open House New York, but it was difficult to distill the purpose in a quick response, especially when she was clearly skeptical. “This is MY neighborhood,” she said, pushing her child in a stroller. I’m not sure I could have allayed her fears. Maybe trying to talk it out would have made things worse. But I hope participating in something like Open House New York builds bridges rather than imposing boundaries. (Also, it’s a very New York City thing, I think, that a resident challenged us … in many places people may just shrug their shoulders and mind their own business.)

The weekend started off with “stand clear of the closing doors please.” It ended with me looking forward to seeing which ones will open in the future …

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