For what might have been solely a fleeting interlude of sanity, Broadway within the Garment District loved a respite this month from colonization by drug addicts and predatory vagrants.
An “experiment” that cheered retailers, workers and buyers alike cleared the so-called “pedestrian plazas” from West thirty sixth Road to West forty first of addict- and “homeless”-magnet seats and tables for about 10 days.
The large query is: How lengthy will the embrace of widespread sense, civic order and public security final?
The city ideologues and bike zealots who assume they know what’s greatest for our streets may be taught one thing from the plaza fiasco, in the event that they cared to take heed to folks whose lives had been adversely affected by their hostile takeover of public property.
Like another parts of Broadway, the Garment District blocks had been chopped up by the Division of Transportation to scale back auto lanes from 4 to at least one or two to make room for bike lanes, Citi Bike racks and — worst of all — ugly, cheaply paved plazas full of pretentious artworks equivalent to final winter’s sea-urchin-like “Residing Lantern.”
No sooner had been the blocks warped just a few years in the past to go well with their designers’ fantasies of “open streets” (i.e., streets nearly impassable to automobiles) than — guess what? — the cheesy “furnishings” was seized by drug sellers and addicts and psychos.
Metropolis Corridor, the DOT and its bike-loving peanut gallery cheered the so-called “Broadway Boulevard Plazas” that ruined companies and scared off regular, law-abiding buyers and strollers.
The nonprofit Garment District Alliance, which manages them, crowed about goofy artwork it put in on them.
In an consequence that was apparent to all however ostriches, the plazas grew to become an eastward extension of the squalor, habit and menace within the West 30s round Penn Station and Madison Sq. Backyard.
The creeps held sway day and night time.
Shops and small eating places had been besieged by shoplifters and their prospects intimidated.
However two weeks in the past, anyone with authority to take action (it’s not clear precisely who), yielded to retailers’ complaints — and to widespread sense.
As an “experiment,” the tables and chairs had been yanked from the flooring and bundled up in yellow tape on the plazas’ edges.
The plazas seemed naked — however they had been rid of the menace and depravity.
Overjoyed store and workplace workers shared their delight with The Submit.
A wholesale/retail govt with workplaces on Broadway who didn’t want to be named stated, “Ninety-eight p.c of individuals listed here are joyful with out the seats.”
He stated the plaza seating made life hell for purchasers who got here to his workplaces and his workers.
Kartic Paul, an assistant supervisor at Duane Reade at 1430 Broadway, stated, “When the chairs had been there I noticed folks placing needles in themselves. On a regular basis, morning and night time.
“Now I see an enormous enchancment. The bums should not right here and there’s much less crime.”
“The shoplifting was loopy, too,” Paul informed us. “They sat outdoors consuming, they usually’d come proper again in. The cops would take them out, they usually got here again two hours later.”
Jessica Tanez, a supervisor at Starbucks at 1411 Broadway, stated, “We had a number of homeless and mentally disturbed folks residing on the chairs. We needed to shut down our lavatory. They’d are available in and use it for medication.”
She stated that determined junkies had been nonetheless attempting to make use of seats that had been tied up — as I noticed for myself on a twilight stroll.
“They have to be taken out utterly,” Tanez stated.
The web site for the Garment District Alliance, which had no less than a hand within the non permanent seat elimination, boasts it’s “working arduous to create enticing and hospitable public areas” and cites the plazas’ “seasonal plantings and road furnishings.”
The alliance didn’t reply to requests for remark as to how lengthy the plazas can be with out their seats. A supply stated it’s “working with town and different stakeholders, and there are ongoing conversations round this.”
The best resolution can be to place Broadway again to the best way it was earlier than plazas.
Since that isn’t going to occur, the most effective we are able to hope for is “plazas” with out seats — or with extra cops than criminals and foolish sculptures.
