Manhattan Community Board 2 unanimously endorsed January 20, 2011, the city's plans to make Astor Place and Cooper Square more pedestrian-friendly public spaces but amended its resolution to provide the seating be removed at night, according to a January 21, 2011 article at streetsblog.org by Noah Kazis.

According to the article, "the plan includes a new 8,000 square foot pedestrian plaza at Cooper Square, a plaza replacing one block of Astor Place below the cube sculpture, widened sidewalks, 113 bike racks, 64 new trees, and thousands of square feet of new plantings and environmentally-friendly permeable surfaces."

"At the meeting," the article continued, "Jeanne Wilcke, the president of the Downtown Independent Democrats, requested a delay to 'fine tune' the plans, which has been in the works for about a decade, worrying about the traffic effects of narrower streets and the management of the new public spaces. Another speaker, Marty Tessler, demanded that the plan's hard-surface open space be replaced with landscaping in order to keep too many people from gathering there. 'We are hopeful that we will not be subjected to the street performers and all that,' he added."

The article said that the Grace Church School announced at the meeting that it would "take the responsibility for maintaining the new Village Plaza, which will be in front of their new high school." "We think it's going to be beautiful," said the school's representative, the article said.

"The sole request for a substantive change came at the request of Community Board 3. They wanted the seating at the southern end of the project to be removed late at night, a condition which CB 2 agreed to. 'They were concerned about noise for the elderly people' in nearby senior housing run by the Jewish Association for Services for the Aged, said transportation committee chair Shirley Secunda," the article said.

"Wow! Good forbid people should gather in a public space in the city. Where the hell do these people think they live? Nome, Alaska?!?!?," Andy B from Jersey commented, adding "And those 'evil' street performers! God forbid my ears should have to endure the sounds of a jazz saxophone or classically trained violinists. Give me a Motor City serenade of honking car horns any day over that!"

Some members of the Astor Place Task Force committee of Community Boards 3 and 4 have said that plans by the city to redesign parts of the Astor Place and Cooper Square intersections in the East Village were, according to an article by Albert Amateau in this week's edition of The Villager, "an invitation to crowds of noisy drunks from neighboring nightlife venues to hang out until the early hours."

The article said that members of the task force "were appalled last week at the city's proposal to include public, 24-hour seating in the redesigned spaces.

City designers and agency officials have called the plan "an extraordinary opportunity to green, soften and beautify" a harsh intersection."

The redesigns would transform Cooper Square at the intersections of Bowery, Fourth Avenue, Astor Place and Lafayette and East 8th Streets.

Under the project, Astor Place between Lafayette St. and Cooper Square (Fourth Ave.) would be closed to vehicles and incorporated into the new plaza. Decorative paving would mark the route of the former road segment.