Eating Through Streetscapes: Food, Frontage, and Public Space in NYC

Event Pass Type	Price	Quantity
In-Person - Student with Valid ID	FREE	0 1
In-Person - General Public	$15.00 USD	0 1

Dining in New York City is not contained within the walls of restaurants. It extends across curbs, plazas, sheds, loading zones, and street corners, shaping how people move through, gather in, and experience the public realm. From produce markets and food carts to delis, outdoor dining structures, and commercial corridors, food businesses play an active role in the life of the street.

Please join the AIANY Civic Leadership Program to explore the relationship between food establishments and NYC’s streetscapes, asking how restaurants, vendors, public agencies, BIDs, and designers influence the shared spaces where food and public life meet. Featuring a long-table format inspired by both the dining table and the street itself, participants will consider how frontage, curb use, sidewalk activity, regulation, sanitation, and public-space management shape the city’s food scene.

Bringing together voices from public realm stewardship, small business support, food vending, restaurant ownership, and design, the event will examine what happens when the street becomes an extension of the dining room, kitchen, market, and storefront. The conversation will ask who benefits from these spaces, what tensions emerge, and how NYC can better support a food landscape that is publicly minded.

Leading the event from this year’s CLP cohort are Harry Abrams, Jess Mitchell, Samira Mohamed, and Sherry Aine Te.

Speakers:
Zaxx Abraham, Project Manager, Neighborhood Planning Team, NYC Department of Small Business Services
Kyle Gorman, Director of Public Realm Programs, Operations, and Partnerships, NYC Department of Transportation
Ana Gross, Project Manager, Neighborhood Planning Team, NYC Department of Small Business Services
Aakanksha Jain, Senior Urban Designer at WXY
Nina LoSchiavo, Chief Operating Officer, Lower East Side Partnership
Alexis Luna, Senior Urban Designer, WXY
Andrew Marcus, Director of Neighborhood Planning, NYC Department of Small Business Services (SBS)
Brady Rice, Economic & Community Development Director, Lower East Side Partnership
Maithri Shankar, Design and Marketplace Program Manager for Dining Out NYC, NYC Department of Transportation

About the Speakers:
Zaxx Abraham, Project Manager, Neighborhood Planning Team at the NYC Department of Small Business Services (SBS), works with community-based organizations on commercial revitalization projects that aim to create thriving streetscapes across all five boroughs of New York City.

Kyle Gorman, Director of Public Realm Programs, Operations, and Partnerships at the NYC Department of Transportation, where he oversees citywide initiatives that reimagine streets as inclusive, people-centered public spaces. He leads programs including Open Streets, Plazas, Street Seats, Programming, and the Public Space Equity Program, supporting operations across more than 300 public spaces and managing a $15 million annual budget. Kyle has worked at NYC DOT for over a decade, completing his Master of Urban Planning at Hunter College while advancing within the agency, and has played a central role in launching and scaling the Open Streets program during the COVID-19 pandemic. His work focuses on translating policy into practice through program design, operations, and cross-sector partnerships that support long-term stewardship of the public realm.

Ana Gross, Project Manager, Neighborhood Planning Team at the NYC Department of Small Business Services, works alongside nonprofit partners on local economic development initiatives to help them create thriving neighborhoods. Among her portfolio of work, she manages merchant organizing and public realm grant projects in neighborhoods across New York City and has led over $1.3 M in investment in East Harlem.  Previously, she worked at LISC as an Assistant Program Officer on the Economic Development Team.

Aakanksha Jain, Senior Urban Designer at WXY, has professional’s experience spanning urban design, architecture, and public realm design. At WXY, her work focuses on street infrastructure, urban visioning, public space, and greenway design in New York City and across the U.S. Her recent work includes the BQE corridor visioning, NYC’s Greater Greenways initiative, and downtown alley improvement projects. Aakanksha approaches cities with equal parts curiosity and pragmatism.

Nina LoSchiavo, Chief Operating Officer, Lower East Side Partnership, is the organization’s first in-house creative and has evolved her work over time to include the full spectrum of LESP’s service delivery. LoSchiavo is responsible for executing key initiatives for programming provision and guiding workplace strategy and operations in the fields of marketing, creative, community engagement, and public space management. She manages LESP’s community partner contract with Essex Market that deploys more than 400 public programs annually.

Alexis Luna, Senior Urban Designer at WXY, where he focuses on public engagement, citywide visioning, and streetscape improvements. His work explores how urban design and architecture can create more equitable and accessible public spaces, with a particular interest in food access. At WXY, Alexis has worked on projects including Dining Out NYC, BQE Vision North and South, Alliance for Paseo Park, the Mayor’s Office’s Rapid Bus Corridor plan, and, currently, City Grocery Market in East Harlem. He is a 2021 Urban Design Forefront Fellow and a founding member of the urban grower and garden advocacy group Share Shed NYC.

Andrew Marcus, Director of Neighborhood Planning at the NYC Department of Small Business Services (SBS), manages SBS’ portfolio of commercial revitalization grants and place-based planning projects that aim to strengthen and revitalize the streets, small businesses, and community-based organizations that anchor New York City neighborhoods. Among his diverse work, Marcus and his team launched the city’s first Public Realm grant in 2025, which provides funding to nonprofits to develop creative ways to enhance the public realm in commercial districts through lighting, public art, and wayfinding.

Brady Rice, Economic & Community Development Director, Lower East Side Partnership, leads initiatives that enhance quality of life, support local businesses, and activate public spaces across the district. With a focus on sanitation, public realm improvements, and economic development, Rice works closely with merchants, residents, and City agencies to keep the neighborhood clean, vibrant, and welcoming. Through projects like Open Streets and waste containerization, Rice helps address the everyday challenges of streets that serve as places to dine, gather, do business, and move through the neighborhood. He brings a hands-on, community-first approach to supporting the Lower East Side’s restaurants and storefronts while keeping shared public spaces accessible and inviting.

Maithri Shankar, Design and Marketplace Program Manager for Dining Out NYC at the NYC Department of Transportation, played a key role in launching the permanent program following the success of the temporary Open Restaurant program at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. She leads the planning and implementation, including developing design standards, application standard procedures, facilitating outreach, and engaging with various government and private stakeholders in the city.  She is a placemaking specialist with a multidisciplinary background in architecture, community engagement, and public space management. With extensive experience in both the United States and India, she has a passion for shaping inclusive, sustainable urban environments through creative and strategic interventions.

About the Civic Leadership Program
The AIANY Civic Leadership Program (CLP) is a six-month mentorship and training program designed to develop design professionals into civic leaders. Eight selected participants will gain hands-on experience engaging with municipal agencies, community organizations, and local stakeholders through development sessions and a public event. The program fosters skills in communication, public speaking, community outreach, and consensus building, empowering participants to navigate and influence the civic process effectively.