In Charge of the Outside: New York City's First Chief Public Realm Officer Ya-Ting Liu on Communication, Compromise, and Aiming Toward Your North Star
By Julia Gamolina
As the first Chief Public Realm Officer for the City of New York, Ya-Ting Liu is responsible for coordinating across city government, community organizations, and the private sector to create extraordinary public spaces across the entire city and continue to drive the city’s economic recovery. Liu brings over fifteen years of policy, community organizing, coalition building, and government affairs experience to the role. In her interview with Julia Gamolina, Liu talks about the importance of concise communication and being able to synthesize many different perspectives, advising those just starting their careers to show up in person and engage with their city.
JG: You are the first ever NYC Chief Public Realm officer -- this means so much to me personally because when my family and I immigrated to Toronto in the late 90s, we came with a lot less resources than we thought we would, and spent a lot of our family time in spaces that were free to access -- public parks, the Toronto harbor, etc. I can't state enough the importance of this aspect of city life and would love to know why now is an important time for this position.
YTL: Thank you for sharing you and your family’s story—it's a powerful reminder of how vital public spaces are for creating belonging and opportunity for everyone, regardless of their background or resources. Public spaces—parks, plazas, streets, sidewalks—are the heart of urban life. To me, public realm is the secret sauce of great cities.
Planners, urbanists, and advocates have long called on city government to focus on public realm issues and policies. However, coming out of the pandemic, business improvement districts, major employers and real estate developers also joined the chorus in calling for a point person and team at City Hall focused on improving the city’s public realm in commercial corridors and beyond. In 2022, Governor Hochul and Mayor Adams commissioned the New New York Panel, a broad and diverse cross section of civic leaders and industry experts and tasked them with creating a list of recommendations that would reverse the downtown doomsday scenario. One of the recommendations was “create director of public realm position within City Hall.” I was appointed this role in 2023.
What does it mean to you to be the first?
When I shared this news with my family, my twelve-year-old son promptly noted, “Mom, you’re in charge of the outside? How does that work?” At first it felt daunting and overwhelming. How do you carve out a defined portfolio and articulate a set of priorities from a vast portfolio? However, being the first in this role was also freeing because there is no playbook. I can define what this role can be and dream big about the possibilities.
I am very proud of the things we have accomplished in the last twenty-one months with a small but mighty team. We passed council legislation to create the country’s largest outdoor dining program with new and improved design guidelines for roadway and sidewalk dining. We’re working with council on a package of legislation that would overhaul the scourge of scaffolding that never seems to come down once it goes up. We have also announced some exciting public space projects like opening up nine acres worth of public space under the Manhattan side of the Brooklyn Bridge, transforming twenty blocks of Fifth Avenue into a world-class pedestrian boulevard, and dramatically expand public space footprint in Chinatown by expanding Kimlau Plaza. In 2025, stay tuned for more exciting announcements from our team!
The Arches is 9 acres of soon-to-be-open public space under the Manhattan side of the Brooklyn Bridge. Courtesy of Gotham Park/ Snohetta.
Yes, I’d love to hear more about the $350 million plan to transform 5th. I've walked many of the boulevards New York is taking example from -- the Champs Elysees was particularly memorable as the first time I ever traveled by myself was to Paris.
Fifth Avenue is getting a major makeover! This is one of the most iconic boulevards in the world and should be a place that feels welcoming, accessible, and vibrant for everyone. The plan to transform Fifth Avenue into a grand pedestrian-friendly boulevard is a bold step toward reimagining how we experience our streets. Taking inspiration from the world’s most memorable boulevards, like the Champs-Élysées in Paris, Fifth Avenue is pedestrian-first, with expanded sidewalks, more seating, tree-lined streets, and safer crossings. The goal is to make it a space where people can linger, enjoy public art, shop, and dine—essentially creating a world-class experience for residents and visitors alike.
These spaces are good for people, and they are good for business too! We’ve already seen strong data that supports this. During the holiday season, when Fifth Avenue was closed to cars on the weekend and turned into a pedestrian-only space, there was a significant economic boost for local businesses with the surge in foot traffic and people spending more time exploring storefronts and dining. A report showed that Fifth Avenue saw $3 million in additional spending at businesses along pedestrianized streets. The most recent Storefront Activity in NYC Neighborhoods report confirms this trend: open streets and public space improvements positively affect economic activity and led to less storefront vacancies overall.
This project is about much more than beautification; it’s a statement about the future of New York’s public spaces. Streets should work for people first, creating both social and economic value while enhancing the city's livability.
New York City is transforming 20 blocks of Fifth Avenue into a world-class pedestrian boulevard from Bryant Park to Central Park. Courtesy of the NYC Economic Development Corportation and Future of Fifth Project Team.
Now let's go back a little bit —you studied natural resources and conservation at Berkeley, and then went on to a Masters in Planning at MIT. What were you hoping to do in the world with both?
For as long as I can remember, I have always been motivated by public service and a desire to leave this world a little better after I leave it. I was big into environmental science and conservation during my undergrad years. I spent a summer as a park ranger at Yosemite National Park and joined Peace Corps Nepal to do conservation work. I found many kindred sprits at urban planning school, people who were interested in the complexities of policy making and the built environment. When I reflect back on my time at UC Berkeley and MIT, I think both institutions instilled in me the confidence to ask questions first and not rush to judgement. This skillset has served me well throughout my career because it allows me to understand a variety of perspectives and appreciate the emotions involved in decision making.
Tell me about your professional experiences that led up to your current role, and the lessons you take away from each that inform your work now.
I come from a background in advocacy and have experience in the private sector as well, which gives me a unique perspective. As I was learning the way of city government, I learned the importance of asking “why” early on. If something has always been done a certain way, does it have to stay that way? Can it be changed? That mindset is critical in government, where long-standing processes can sometimes stifle innovation and creativity.
My advocacy work has also taught me the value of pushing for a “north star”—a vision of what’s possible—and rallying people around it. Ultimately, so much of this work is about people. Public spaces are for everyone, which means listening to many different perspectives of how we should use and prioritize our spaces and finding ways to have people come together and get to a place of “yes.” It’s about building coalitions, connecting dots, and creating a shared vision. Communication is key – and often I see my value add as being able to effectively tell the story of what we’re doing, why it matters, and the value it brings to people’s lives.
“I learned the importance of asking ‘why’ early on. If something has always been done a certain way, does it have to stay that way? Can it be changed? That mindset is critical in government, where long-standing processes can sometimes stifle innovation and creativity.”
Looking back at it all, what have been the biggest challenges?
One of the biggest challenges in this role—and really, in any leadership role—has been finding and navigating compromise. As the mayor often says, New York City is home to eight million people with eighty million opinions. That diversity of thought and perspective is what makes our city vibrant and dynamic, but it can also make consensus-building incredibly complex.
Take the city’s permanent outdoor dining program, for example. During the pandemic, outdoor dining emerged as a lifeline for restaurants and a transformative way to use public spaces. While many New Yorkers embraced it, others raised concerns—about noise, aesthetics, and how streets should be used in a post-pandemic city. My job was to balance these differing viewpoints while keeping the bigger picture in mind: ensuring the program supports small businesses, enhances street life, and works for all New Yorkers.
How did you both manage through perceived disappointments or setbacks?
Managing through perceived disappointments or setbacks often means reframing them as opportunities to learn and adjust. While the outdoor dining legislation made the program seasonal instead of year-round, we were determined to still ensure this program was easy and accessible in its design and implementation to ensure that as many restaurants could still take advantage of this program. We created a streamlined Dining Out ‘Set Up Menu’ to provide specs for businesses to be able to build their set ups at the beginning of the outdoor dining season and easily take them down and store them at the end of the season. Our customer-centered approach has been essential in ensuring this program is successful.
Ultimately, setbacks are part of the process when you’re working on something meaningful. They’ve taught me resilience, flexibility, and the importance of staying focused on the end goal: creating a city where public spaces truly serve everyone. Each challenge is an opportunity to move closer to that vision, even if it requires taking a different path than originally planned.
NYC’s Dining Out ’Set Up Menu’ offers restaurants a range of options for dining set ups that are safe, compliant, and easy to store. Courtesy of the NYC Department of Transportation.
Sidewalk sheds obstruct pedestrian spaces and impact public safety and access to local businesses. Getting sheds down gives these spaces back to New Yorkers. Courtesy of the NYC Department of Buildings.
Who are you admiring now and why?
The news has been so heavy of late that I found myself asking friends for recommendations for more inspiring or funny content. A friend and colleague recently recommended “Wiser Than Me,” a podcast series from Juia Louis-Dreyfus where she conducts these intimate and hilarious interviews with successful women about the things they things they have learned with age. I’m only about three episodes in and it is exactly the tonic I needed.
What is the impact you’d like to have on the world? What is your core mission? And, what does success in that look like to you?
As I’m looking forward to 2025, my team and I have a list of projects and policy efforts we’re looking to get across the finish line. These goals include getting package of city council legislation that would reshape the way sidewalk sheds are managed in the city passed; advancing Fifth Avenue redesign effort to 100% design so construction can begin in 2028; advancing redesign of Kimlau Plaza in Chinatown; open up 9 acres of public space under the Manhattan side of the Brooklyn Bridge; and see new roadway dining designs next summer.
The Chief Public Realm Officer role was created to serve as a one stop shop to help agencies and partners unstick things, problem solve and ultimately deliver improved public realm experience in the city. If city agencies and partners that work in this space can feel the material difference my team and I have made in their work and projects, then we would have been successful in our mission in making a difference.
“If you made a mistake or had a flop at work or on a project, move on. No one is thinking about it but you. The sooner you can let it go, the faster you can learn what you need to from that experience and move on.”
Finally, what advice do you have for those starting their career? Would your advice be any different for women?
My advice for people starting their career will invariably show my age — in-person beats remote. It is hard to build meaningful and lasting professional relationships and networks if you’re not showing up in person. I don’t care how many Zoom happy hours and trivia games you do with colleagues, nothing beats in-person meetings and connections. Show up in person, that impression will last more than zoom.
Then, no one has time to read long emails. Mastering the ability to synthesize and communicate information in a concise way is a skill that will take you far. Managers are overwhelmed — drowning in emails, meetings, and four other communication channels like Slack, Teams and text. Being able to write and communicate in a pithy manner that conveys the necessary information and recommended action in as few words as possible is every manager’s godsend. Perfect this, and you’ll go far.
Finally, no one is thinking about you. It took me a while to figure this out but once you understand that everyone is really busy thinking about themselves, you realize you don’t need to overthink things or be self-conscious. If you made a mistake or had a flop at work or on a project, move on. No one is thinking about it but you. The sooner you can let it go, the faster you can learn what you need to from that experience and move on.