When New York Governor Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency for the New York City subway system in June 2017, it was official–and some would argue, long overdue–recognition that one of the world’s largest subway systems was in a desperate state of disrepair. While the declaration gave urgency to addressing the immediate needs of the subway, it also crystallized a realization among the more than 20 million residents of the metropolitan area that the dependable and efficient movement of people and goods into and around New York is fundamental to the city’s economic, social, and environmental health. Whatever other concerns we may debate about the future–whether housing affordability or resiliency or even the soul of New York–all ultimately rest upon the city’s capacity to be able to move us where we need to be when we need to be there, to keep the city open and accessible to all New Yorkers.

Open House New York announces the launch of The Moving City: Transportation Infrastructures of New York, a yearlong series of tours, panel discussions, and other events that will deepen and inform public understanding about the future of transportation in New York City. It is a particularly fraught moment, as the aging infrastructures of the last century collide with the technological disruptions of the current one. How can those infrastructures be reimagined and rebuilt for the 21st century? How will technology continue to transform the ways New Yorkers move around the city? What does this moment offer for reimagining the design of our transportation systems with the same level of ambition and innovation that New York brought to its street grid and subway system and highway network?

New York’s future depends on radically rethinking its transportation infrastructures for a new century.

With The Moving City, Open House New York hopes to broaden one of the most critical conversations of our generation and ignite the city’s imagination for what New York’s transportation future could look like.

See the full schedule of tours and programs below, and please join us for the launch of The Moving City with the first of a series of Transportation Conversations, beginning on July 9 with Tom Wright, President and CEO of the Regional Plan Association, and Sarah M. Kaufman, Associate Director, NYU Rudin Center for Transportation. Click here for more information about that event and to make reservations. The Moving City is made possible with an award from the National Endowment for the Arts and matching gifts from our 2019 Spring Benefit Donation Challenge supporters.