HELL’S KITCHEN — A public plaza has replaced a former parking lot next to a Hell’s Kitchen intersection.
"The Canoe" — a public space with umbrella-topped tables, chairs, benches and greenery west of Ninth Avenue at West 36th Street — marked its grand opening with a ribbon cutting ceremony on Friday.
The name was easy to choose, Hudson Yards/Hell’s Kitchen Alliance executive director Robert Benfatto explained.
“It looks like a canoe,” he said.
Councilman Corey Johnson allocated $22,000 for the plaza, as part of a City Council initiative supporting emerging Business Improvement Districts like HY/HKA, he said at the ceremony.
For years, police used the space as a parking lot for their cruisers, Johnson and Benfatto said.
The plaza opens several years after Community Board 4, HY/HKA and other organizations began working to reclaim the area for public use.
The space, which is open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. seven days a week, will eventually showcase a public art sculpture, Benfatto said.
“The first day we put [the chairs and tables] out, we had 10 people sitting at them. It was as if they were always there,” he said. “We hope people use it — to eat, to relax.”
