NEW YORK—Manhattan’s famed luxury store row Fifth Avenue is in line for a major makeover.
New York City officials unveiled a plan this week to transform a central portion of the thoroughfare between Bryant Park and Central Park into a more pedestrian-centered boulevard.
They propose doubling the size of sidewalks, reducing traffic lanes from five to three, as well as adding seating areas and hundreds of trees and planters, among other improvements.
The vision is to emulate iconic strolling and shopping boulevards such as the Champs-Élysées in Paris.
“As we celebrate the 200th anniversary of one of the most famous streets in the world, New Yorkers can look forward to a brand-new Fifth Avenue that will return the street to its former glory as a pedestrian boulevard,” Madelyn Wils, interim president of the Fifth Avenue Association, which runs the local business improvement district, said in a statement. “Reversing the century-old trend of putting cars first, this visionary design will transform our overcrowded avenue into a spacious and green corridor for shoppers and workers, visitors and New Yorkers, and everyone on Fifth.”…