PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Leslie Davol, Executive Director of Street Lab, on Public Space Activation
1:50:41
·
126 sec
Leslie Davol, Executive Director of Street Lab, testified about the importance of public space activation and the need for venues to share culture in neighborhoods. She emphasized the significance of the Open Streets program and advocated for its support.
- Davol highlighted Street Lab's 10-year experience working with communities across New York to activate public spaces.
- She stressed the need for venues, particularly in neighborhoods lacking plazas or available storefronts, to facilitate cultural sharing.
- Davol advocated for ongoing weekly activities in public spaces, rather than solely focusing on large events or festivals.
Leslie Davol
1:50:41
Hello?
1:50:42
Thanks.
1:50:43
Yeah.
1:50:43
So I'm Leslie De Ball.
1:50:45
I'm the cofounder and executive director of a nonprofit called street lab that's been around for a little over 10 years now, and we have grown We are we have long been working with communities all across New York.
1:50:57
We're a city wide organization to help activate public space, driven by community desires and ideas.
1:51:05
And I I work right now at the intersection of all these agencies that we're talking about, SBS, DOT, and Department of Cultural Affairs.
1:51:13
I've gotten some grant funding over the years from all three agencies.
1:51:17
And what I see, what I think is actually the the single most thing.
1:51:20
Important thing that you all could encourage the city to do is to support the Open Streets program because what I see as a real need is simply a venue.
1:51:31
We all know that there is so much culture in our neighborhoods, in the big institutions, in the organizations, in the businesses themselves, and what they have to offer in terms of sharing culture publicly with free activities.
1:51:46
And those groups need funding, but there's also people who do it in the course of their daily lives to their neighbors offering culture, sharing culture with their neighbors.
1:51:57
And a venue is the single most important thing that I have seen is so important.
1:52:02
Not all neighborhoods, as you know, have plazas, not all neighborhoods have storefronts.
1:52:06
We've heard about the challenges of working with landlords.
1:52:10
Public space is available.
1:52:11
I'm not saying it has to be turned over permanently 247.
1:52:15
For events.
1:52:15
I'm also not saying that we should have big events and festivals all the time.
1:52:20
Festivals are wonderful, but what I have my organization has been supporting is the ongoing weekly activities.
1:52:28
That are maybe smaller in scale, you know, a drawing station set up with with beautiful high quality art materials, you know, for people to come by and draw and share their talents and look at other people drawing and and share who they are.
1:52:40
We have all kinds of programs that we're supporting groups with.
1:52:44
And I'd love to see more support for OpenStreet.
1:52:46
Thanks.
