Eric Klinenberg & Julia Day “Sustaining the Joyful City: A New York City Social Infrastructure Agenda” | Vital City

On June 17th, 2026, Eric Klinenberg, Director of the Institute for Public Knowledge, and Julia Day, partner and team director at Gehl Studio, penned a piece for Vital City titled “Sustaining the Joyful City: A New York City Social Infrastructure Agenda.” Read the excerpt below, then click for the full article.

New York City faces an urgent and important question: How can we make the joyful, affordable and communal city real and sustainable? What can urban policy do to help? 

Nearly 20 years ago, New York City took a step in the right direction by reimagining sidewalks and streets. Janette Sadik-Khan and the city Department of Transportation she led released World Class Streets, the city’s first comprehensive public realm strategy, arguing that streets were not simply conduits for vehicles but places for public life. (This was developed with Gehl Studio, where one of us works.) With startling speed and efficiency, New York City pedestrianized Times Square and parts of Broadway, created neighborhood plazas across the five boroughs and built its first lasting physically separated bike lane. The changes — while heavily contested, especially in the early days — validated the principle that streets belong to people, inspired a generation of planners to reimagine the city and sparked a wave of public space development that has transformed the urban environment.

In 2026, however, New York City faces challenges — from climate vulnerability to housing instability, from eroding civic trust to social inequality — that require more than street design. We propose something more ambitious: treating the entire public realm as essential “social infrastructure.” 

Read the full article here.

Photo: Paul Fusco / Magnum Photos