Community Board One - REJECTS the DOT's Chatham Square Reconstruction Plan

On Dec.9th 08, Community Board One's Seaport / civic center committee voted to REJECT the DOT's plan for Chatham Square's reconstruction.
DOWNTOWN EXPRESS NEWSPAPER's Julie Shapiro Article :


Board backs Chinatown’s opposition to Chatham Square plan

By Julie Shapiro

Before Community Board 1 could decide what they thought about the proposed Chatham Square redesign, they had to make a more fundamental decision — whether to let the Department of Transportation even present the plan.

Paul Hovitz, a C.B. 1 member, said the plan sounded like a fait accompli.

“If that’s the case,” added John Fratta, chairperson of the Seaport/Civic Center Committee, “we don’t need a presentation. We’re sick and tired of the D.O.T. ramming plans down our throat and the hell with the community.”

After continuing in this vein for about 15 minutes, the committee ultimately decided to listen to the presentation. They then unanimously disapproved the plan.

The city wants to spend $50 million to reconfigure Chatham Square, a congested seven-way intersection. The plan would align St. James Pl. with the Bowery and Worth St. with E. Broadway, effectively cutting Park Row out of the intersection. Park Row was closed after 9/11 to protect One Police Plaza, and the new plan assumes that it will remain closed long-term.

Fratta mentioned the uniformly negative response the project received at a public forum in Chinatown last week as a main reason for opposing the plan. He is particularly concerned that the city is turning part of Park Row into a park and promenade, which he sees as “just a way to dress up keeping Park Row closed. It screams to the community, ‘We’re keeping Park Row closed whether you like it or not.’”

Hovitz questioned whether it even makes sense to turn Park Row into a park if it is supposedly a dangerous area. “You’re inviting people to picnic and hang out in a minefield that is a potential attack zone,” he said incredulously.

Jeanie Chin, from the Civic Center Residents Coalition, pointed out that Park Row is still open to buses, and under the new plan, buses traveling from the Bowery to Park Row will have to make two additional turns at traffic lights.

“That will jam up the traffic as the buses turn,” Chin said, adding that it is very hard for the new double-length buses to make turns. “It makes no sense.”

Josh Kraus, who works for the D.O.T. Lower Manhattan borough commissioner’s office, said only 10 to 20 buses per hour would be slowed down, while many more vehicles moving through the square would be speeded up.

Joe Lerner, a committee member, said the D.O.T. removed an M-21 bus stop at Frankfort and Pearl Sts., saying the double-length bus could not make a left turn. It is inconsistent for the city to now say a double-length bus can easily turn left onto Park Row, he said.

Community board members also criticized the city for not doing enough community outreach. Seth Myers, from the mayor’s office, countered that the city has been speaking to the community since 2004. After some back-and-forth on that fact with Chinatown residents in the audience, State Sen.-elect Daniel Squadron stepped in.

He diplomatically praised the D.O.T. and the city for doing community outreach at higher levels than in the past, but he also said the outreach “needs to be ramped up now.”

Squadron added that any plan that makes the Park Row closure permanent is unacceptable.

The committee initially wanted to pass a resolution encouraging the city to hold off on the project until they do more community outreach. But since Myers said the city was planning to put the current plan out to bid early next year, the committee decided to take a stronger stance and oppose the project.

During the presentation, Myers tried to highlight the city’s flexibility on some landscaping details. The plan for the Park Row promenade is to install cherry trees, but if people want other kinds of trees, the city is open to listening, Myers said.

Ann DeFalco, a committee member, shook her head. “That’s the least of our worries,” she said.


Julie@DowntownExpress.com

Brooklyn Bridge refurb. NOT linked to Chatham Square Redo

Finally, the community board should not accept the inherent linkage proposed between this [Chatham Square reconstruction] and the Brooklyn Bridge project. In other words, we should not hold this community, in a way, hostage, so that the Brooklyn Bridge work can be completed. (APPLAUSE) That (Brooklyn Bridge project) should not drive this decision making process [to start the Chatham Square reconstruction].

Councilman Alan J. Gerson

Where's John?

We've heard from Councilman Alan Gerson (see posting below for his transcript) and we've heard from Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (see his transcript below) who have both weighed in on Chatham Square. Their message is united with the Chinatown community : "we reject this plan" "it needs more community input" "Open Park Row".

Both Councilman Gerson and Speaker Silver have been in constant contact with community leaders on Chatham Square's reconstruction, and they vowed to continue a dialogue.

Notably absent from this discussion is Councilman John Liu, the Chair of the Transportatin Committee of the City Council.

John Liu, as Chair of Transportation, was there to hear testimony on illegal placard parking rampant in Chinatown, but on this issue he is silent and perhaps deaf.

Consider this the first of many "Shout outs" John.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver on Chatham Square:

Testimony of Assemblyman Sheldon Silver
Community Board 3 Public Hearing
Regarding The Proposed Chatham Square Redesign
Tuesday, December 2, 2008


Good evening, I would like to thank Community Board 3 along with Boards 1 and 2 for sponsoring tonight's hearing.

I have been at the forefront of the fight to re-open Park Row since it was first closed after the tragic events of September 11th. Since then, I have worked with my colleagues in government, local residents and community leaders to re-open Park Row and was one of the lead plaintiffs in the original lawsuit
filed against the City to reverse the decision to close this vital lifeline to the Chinatown community.

After 9/11, Chinatown was one of the hardest hit communities economically in New York City and the closure of Park Row has been a major obstacle in the process of rebuilding and revitalizing the area. Prior to September 11th, Park Row served as a major thoroughfare that connected Chinatown to Lower
Manhattan. Scores of workers and tourists frequented this area throughout the day and especially at lunchtime. The partial re-opening of Park Row to bus and pedestrian traffic was a step in the right direction but is clearly not enough.

Now, the City is proposing to take steps that make the re-opening of Park Row more difficult by narrowing the roadway and investing funds to make this closure into a permanent condition. In light of the vast public outcry opposing the Park Row closure and its clear negative impact upon business and residents of Chinatown and surrounding communities, I oppose the City's Park Row Promenade proposal as well as the expenditure of any public funds for so-called mitigation measures which fail to bring about the full re-opening of Park Row.

I am also deeply concerned about aspects of the Chatham Square Reconfiguration and the timing of any major reconstruction in this area. With so many small Chinatown businesses suffering due to both the economic downturn and the closure of Park Row, they can ill-afford two plus years of construction and roadway closures that would further disrupt their daily business activities. Many groups have indicated that this project is being pushed through far too quickly and without sufficient community input. I urge the City to re-consider their Chatham Square / Park Row plan in light of the concerns raised here and elsewhere regarding this proposal.

The residents of Chinatown and Lower Manhattan continue suffering from increased traffic congestion, decreased air quality and delayed response times for emergency vehicles caused by the closing of Park Row. We need to ask ourselves whether the proposals being put forth by the City tonight adequately address these issues.

I want to make sure the voice of my Lower Manhattan community is heard. While I understand the need to protect our public safety, I believe these measures must be balanced with the needs of residents and businesses in the area.

Park Row must be re-opened for Chinatown and the surrounding communities to experience their full and complete revitalization. I look forward to continuing to work with the local residents, community leaders and my colleagues in government until the day we can announce that Park Row has finally been re-opened.

Blog to Blog

The following is a post from another blog : Politics as Puppetry
The author took the time understand the CCRC point of view, for that we're thankful.
Read on:

"Streetsblog posted its own call to action about today’s hearing on remodeling Chatham Square which, when read in the context of CCRC’s much more detailed analysis, just seems a little flimsy, and flippant at that - Streetsblog groups local response under generic ‘opposition’, and pushes for the present plan as handed down by NYC DoT and friends, despite the fact that the main opposition seems to be from folks who don’t oppose the project, but rather oppose doing it NOW.

This case, and the recent rise of anti-bike lane activism in Brooklyn reveals how certain ‘green’ policies can work as a kind of class warfare, with the New Urbanist trend being only the latest of many architectural salvos for the city delivered from on-high by city administrators to the unwashed/ignorant residents, unable to see the social benefits of a overhaul of their street life. Honestly, I’m not even totally convinced of the utility of green streets - transportation is a sizable but not immense part of CO2 emissions, and the green-streets improvements feel increasingly like a form of social control purpetuated by New York’s ascendent young, mobile and wealthy urban class with its ‘green’ mores (notably different from a serious environmentalism).

Not to say that ‘livable streets’ policies won’t work, but rather to say that they’ll work better if done in collaboration with the residents of those streets. Instead of putting out calls for ‘advocates’ to descend on hearings to support “green here, green now.”

Councilman Alan Gerson's Testimony re: Chatham Square redo

Testimony of Councilman Alan Gerson
Date: 12/2/2008 at P.S. 124
Place: Public Hearing organized by CB3, CB2 and CB1

Transcribed by: Geoff Lee
All punctuation and edits, i.e. ( ), [ ] ..., are added to maintain context


... The plan [to reconfigure Chatham Square] at this stage has many, many very positive and very significant elements and I believe it manifests a significant step forward in the overall planning of this ... community. I believe this plan holds significant promise, with the elements here, that we can work on and build upon, with adequate and full community input, to attain the best possible plan that works for pedestrians, that works for traffic, that works for residents, that works for businesses, that works for culture, that works for our mission of a great future for our community which we fundamentally all share. But, I also feel emphatically that we are NOT at that point yet.

This plan is very much a work in progress, including its most fundamental elements involved in concerned aspects of the streetscape and its alignment. I believe it is way too premature for this community and this community board to take a position. I believe it is even too premature for the City to, at this stage, ASK the community board to reach a position or to approve this plan at this stage. (APPLAUSE)

[Reasonable period time]

As a matter of process, as strictly a matter of process, this is the first time many of us, most of us, if not all of us - have seen this level of detail on this proposal [for Catham Square reconstruction]. Many of us have been involved in previous consultations over the years, many of us have NOT been involved, but I do not think any of us - certainly few of us - have seen this level of detail, and this is a lot to digest.

Once it [the Chatham Square reconfiguration] is accomplished, it will have an impact on our community for generations. It is critical that we believe in a community process of full input - that this community be given the opportunity to digest, and to register its input. This can be accomplished thoroughly, without going on forever. This is not a delaying tactic, this is an approach, not a tactic, of community input, asking for a reasonable period of time, weeks or a few months, to respond to something that is going to impact us literally for all of our remaining time.

I think the community board and our office should work together with all of the community and the City administration to make sure we have an expedited but thorough, thorough process of input, building on what we have seen tonight.

So, I urge the Community Board not to approve this plan on this evening, but rather to allow the process. (APPLAUSE)

[Issues for Consideration]

Finally, there are serious issues of content which still need to be addressed, and which cannot be adequately entertained and evaluated tonight. Brian (Ketcham) raised plenty of that.

(1) The issue of assurance that this will not foreclose the possibility for the opening of Park Row down the line if security conditions allow it. (APPLAUSE)

(2) The issue of the business community that will be directly impacted by a multi-year construction project. We need, at the very least, to have a business mitigation plan in place in advance. I have asked the City for that plan. To their credit, the made a comittment to that, but they have not put together that plan as of now, and that plan should be put together BEFORE, not after, approving this [Chatham Square reconfiguration].

(3) Park Row improvement - to make it more pedestrian-friendly and more environmentally sound including, once and for all, making the barriers quieter .... so they don't inflict noise pollution. Improving the Park Row entrance, improving the streetscape of Park Row ... can proceed immediately, and should proceed, without delay from the rest of the process.

Finally, the community board should not accept the inherent linkage proposed between this [Chatham Square reconstruction] and the Brooklyn Bridge project. In other words, we should not hold this community, in a way, hostage, so that the Brooklyn Bridge work can be completed. (APPLAUSE) That (Brooklyn Bridge project) should not drive this decision making process [to start the Chatham Square reconstruction]. The explanation for the linkage ... is the concern that there will be multiple weekends, 12 weekends in 19 months when traffic will be diverted, inbound traffic from the Brooklyn Bridge to the Manhattan Bridge, and that is not a good time to have construction ongoing in this Chatham [Square] area. That is not an adequate reason for two reasons: 1) This (Brooklyn Bridge) work, in all likelihood, can be proceed in a fashion ... to avoid the conflict, or 2) other mitigation can be put in place, (i.e.) traffic agents, if it comes to that. This community has lived through and survived far more disruption over past years than 12 weekends of inbound traffic. We should not short-change our future because of that one particular construction project (the Brooklyn Bridge project).

I urge us to work together - the community, the Community Board - with the administration - let's build up the good elements, but let's not feel rushed or constrained, and let's have a full process, a full community input, and come up with the best possible plan that works for all of us - We can do that.

Thank you very much.

Coverage in Downtown Express - Chatham Square "Hearing"

Defying the shouts, city says full speed on Chatham Sq.
By Julie Shapiro

Two-and-a-half hours into Tuesday night’s hearing on the redesign of Chatham Square, the Department of Transportation revealed that it wasn’t a public hearing at all.
“We’re moving ahead with the Chatham Square project right now,” said Luis Sanchez, Lower Manhattan borough commissioner for the D.O.T.

That was not what the crowd of Chinatown residents wanted to hear.

“Boo,” they shouted. “Boo.”
“You were not honest from the beginning,” one audience member said. “This is a fait accompli.”
“This is not a public hearing if the decision has already gone through,” another called out. “This is a sham.”

The city’s proposed redesign of Chatham Square drew more than 100 angry Chinatown residents to P.S. 124’s auditorium Tuesday night. The city wants to reconfigure Chatham Square, a complex intersection where seven streets come together, based on the assumption that the closed section of Park Row, one of those streets, will never reopen. Park Row was closed to traffic after 9/11 to protect Police Headquarters.

The city’s $50 million plan for Chatham Square would directly connect E. Broadway to Worth St. and the Bowery to St. James Pl. The project includes a park in Chatham Square and a greened promenade along Park Row. A ramp would run along Park Row up to One Police Plaza, connecting Chinatown to Chambers St. and a subway entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge stop. Finally, new bollards and security booths would replace the unsightly temporary ones that currently block Park Row.

The city’s proposal is several years old, but it has not undergone a thorough public review until now. It follows years of frustration Chinatown residents have felt toward the city over the closure of Park Row and the parking placard abuses by police and court officers. A state judge ruled several years ago that the police had illegally taken over a public park, and engaged in “heavy-handed” tactics with Chinatown residents.

Some of the advocates acknowledge many of the changes would be for the better, but they are concerned already-struggling small businesses would not survive a long construction period. Josh Kraus, from the D.O.T., said in an interview last week that the project could take three years, but at this week’s hearing officials said it would be two-and-a-half years.
Residents did object to some aspects of the plan Tuesday night. They worried that the street reconfiguration would make the closure of Park Row permanent, and they questioned why the changes needed to be made now.

“The city feels this is a vital and long overdue project,” replied Seth Myers, from the mayor’s office. “Sure there are tweaks, we’ll see what we can do, but it’s really imperative for us to keep on our schedule.”

The city wants to move forward with the first phase of the project, the street reconfiguration, almost immediately, bidding the contract next month and starting work by next summer. The reason for the hurry is that the first phase of Chatham Square needs to be complete by the time work on the Brooklyn Bridge starts in the middle of 2010, the D.O.T. said. During that work, the Brooklyn Bridge will be closed for 12 weekends spread over a year and a half, with traffic routed onto the Manhattan Bridge and through Chatham Square.

The community and elected officials had one united message for the city Tuesday night: Slow down.

“This is a lot to digest,” City Councilmember Alan Gerson told the residents. “This will have an impact on the community for generations…. It is way too premature for the city to ask the community to take a position.”
Gerson said the plan has positive elements, but he also listed many concerns, including the future of Park Row and the impact on small businesses.
A representative of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver read a statement raising the same concerns and urging the city to reconsider the entire plan.
A D.O.T. spokesperson said later “further delays will not make Chatham Square any safer or less chaotic.”

At the meeting, Brian Ketcham, a traffic analyst hired by Community Board 3, praised the overall design but said he needed more information on pedestrian safety.
“If Park Row is going to stay the way it is — closed — it’s a pretty good project,” he said.
Ketcham had several suggestions, including an extra left-turn lane approaching the Bowery, which he said would cut travel time in half. Ketcham ran his own computer models of the intersection and found that even with 30 percent more traffic than the D.O.T. projected, vehicles still flowed smoothly.
“There’s hope,” he said.
Philip Habib, the city’s traffic consultant, had few details to offer on pedestrian safety but he said it was one of the project’s top priorities. The problem with the current intersection is that vehicles have to make too many turns, which increases the danger to pedestrians, he said. The new intersection will have more vehicles traveling in straight lines, reducing conflicts with pedestrians.

Many Chinatown residents agree with the city that the current intersection is unsafe, but they have a different solution: Move Police Headquarters out of Lower Manhattan and reopen Park Row, easing flow of traffic through Chatham Square.
When Police Commissioner Ray Kelly was asked by Downtown Express last week if there was a chance the street would ever reopen, he was doubtful.
“It is a security risk,” Kelly said. “It’s clearly a target…. To have a street that borders directly on Police Headquarters is problematic.”

Sanchez, from the D.O.T., promised that if Park Row reopened, “we would do whatever we needed to do to make it work” with the new street configuration.
The biggest objection to the plan Tuesday night was that small businesses would not survive the construction.
“Chinatown is fragile economically right now,” said Geoff Lee, a Chinatown activist. “We cannot handle it.”
Susan Chan, owner of Manhattan Florist at 87 Bayard St., said the Chatham Square construction would be a deathblow to her business.
“Fortune 500 companies can’t make it,” she said. “What makes you think a three-person company can make it?”

Chan runs her business with only one employee. Her husband helps out part-time, on top of his full-time job. As Chan spoke of leaving her 2- and 3-year-old children at home to come to the meeting, she appeared near tears. She said she never would have shown up if she’d realized the city was not going to listen.

The city pointed to the Lower Manhattan Development Corp.’s Small Firm Assistance Program as a potential solution. Under the program, small businesses on streets closed by public construction can apply for up to $25,000. The program, implemented earlier this year, has a number of eligibility requirements and a $5 million cap.

One problem the community highlighted was not with the design itself, but rather with communication. The project’s design was not available online until last week, and many people said they needed more time to respond to it.

After the city made its presentation Tuesday night, Paul Lee, a former Chinatown business owner, was the first member of the public to speak. He advised the audience, “Be loud!”

Steven Wong, a Chinatown resident who spoke next, appeared to take the advice, as he shouted into the microphone and refused to surrender it when his allotted two minutes were up.
“You’re here to listen to some decision that’s already been made, and they tell you it’s a public hearing?” he boomed. “They forgot — this is America.”

As the hearing wore into its third hour, tempers grew short. Several people stood to shout down speakers from the city and community board. A row of four police officers stood on the side of the auditorium but did not forcibly remove anyone.

Community Board 3 ran the hearing, which was co-sponsored by Community Boards 1 and 2. C.B. 3’s Transportation Committee will discuss Chatham Square and likely pass a resolution at its meeting Dec. 10. Board 1 and Board 2 may also weigh in separately. Sanchez, of the D.O.T., would not promise to follow the community boards’ direction if they urged the city to delay the project.

Several utilities are already doing test boring in Chatham Square to confirm where their lines are located. The work should finish next week, Sanchez said.
Sanchez said repeatedly that the overall project design is nearly finalized, but the piece that is still flexible is the open space.

Landscape architect Dale Schafer, from Thomas Balsley Associates, presented renderings inspired by contemporary Chinese design. Cherry trees would line the Park Row promenade, a green space dotted with splashes of red in the form of benches and other details. Where the path slips beneath Police Headquarters, the tunnel would have red-hued walls and ceiling.

Several speakers complimented the city for leaving Chatham Square’s Kimlau Memorial Arch in place, a structure dedicated to Chinese American soldiers. But others were concerned about the plan to move the Lin Zexu statue to its own plaza at the mouth of Park Row. Zexu was a Chinese scholar and official during the Qing dynasty in the 19th century.

Robert Lee was one of the last residents to speak at Tuesday’s three-and-a-half-hour hearing.
“The city just needs to wake up,” he said, “and realize that you cannot just bulldoze over our community.”
Julie@DowntownExpress.com

Ring of Steel Reinforced with Concrete in Chinatown

For many living near Chatham Square it sometimes feels as though they are in a militarized zone. While even the United Nations and FBI headquarters have public vehicles pass by them daily, One Police Plaza is ensconced behind its security barrier, soon to be "hardened" even further.

Police Headquarters "Ring of Steel" in Lower Manhattan is reinforced with concrete in Chinatown. Not satisfied with taking away the 400 car Municipal Garage pre 9/11 and delivering hammer blows to the local economy and neighborhood after 9/11 by:
* Shutting down Park Row, parts of Pearl and Madison Streets, Brooklyn Bridge exit ramp to Chinatown
*Forcing thousands of residents, visitors and deliveries to two buildings next to Police Headquarters to go through a "security check point" in order to stop with a vehicle in front of their own doors.
*Taking away a local park next to Police Headquarters for a parking lot which was returned to the community through a CCRC lawsuit.
* Rerouting MTA bus routes to the outer edges of Chinatown until Mayor Bloomberg restored them shortly before his re-election campaign.
* Taking over every foot of sidewalk/street/crosswalk/bus stop for government permit parkers until a CCRC campaign forced the city to perform a DOT study to determine the number of existing government placards, as the abuse was so out of control that the city was clueless. The city sat on the study results for over a year until the threat of a FOIL action shortly before the congestion pricing vote when Mayor Bloomberg revealed there were 70,000 government issued permits. Further outcry outted the true numbers several weeks later which showed there were over 140,000 government permits -- most of them in Lower Manhattan. This figure in fact showed only the legal government issued permits -- the numbers did not include the tens of thousands of fake permits issued by government workers' unions and did not include the tens of thousands of permits, real or fake, that government workers had copied for their relatives and best buds. This rampant abuse forced visitors and truck deliverers to Chinatown and Lower Manhattan neighborhoods to circle endlessly creating traffic congestion, air pollution, delays in emergency vehicle response times and disgust/mistrust of city government and the adminstration. And it killed the Chinatown businesses near the Civic Center until the CCRC worked with Community Board#3, an American Red Cross grant and a local film maker to document the extent of the abuse.

Now the death blow arrives at the holidays in the form of a Chatham Square Reconfiguration Plan that purported to improve traffic and pedestrian safety. The December 2nd "hearing" was an announcement after the fact that the "Big Dig" had already started and there was nothing that the community could do to stop it. No surprise to hear that there was not s shred of paper evidence or statistics to support pedestrian safety studies. Stay tuned for a detailed analysis of all these expensive traffic engineers' Chatham Square design proposals -- from those of us who have lived on these streets for over a century. After all, these DOT traffic experts dug up Chatham Square less than 10 years ago for almost two years -- did they come up with a better plan last time? Just take a look at the plaza they built in front of East Broadway preventing northbound traffic on St. James and Oliver Streets from making a right turn without going unnecessarily onto the Bowery. More to come.....

Say What?!

Translation equipment was made available to all who needed it at the CB3 hearing on Dec. 2nd.

Much effort was put into this consideration and it was very well received.

Spanish, Mandarin and Cantonese translation was offered and it made a difference for a good number of attendees. Hopefully CB3 meetings in Chinatown will always have this necessary service.

Dig it?

More test pit digging. Already the traffic has been building up as test pits are dug in preparation for the Chatham Square reconstruction.

More than $20B in developments dead or at risk of never seeing light of day

Here's a GREAT article about the City's numerous projects that are drastically scaled back or eliminated altogether because of the ailing economy.

DOT Says Chatham Square Redo needed 'cause it's not safe, oh really??

According to a 2004 article in the Villager newspaper Canal street is one of the most dangerous streets to cross in the City!

Hmm.... cyclists know this, pedestrians know this, CCRC knows this and I'm guessing more than one person in DOT knows about this BY NOW!

In 2008 - 2009 what's on the priority list for DOT fixes? NOT Canal street. That's going to remain as unsafe as ever. Instead $50 million dollars suddenly became available to improve Chatham Square, citing safety concerns. Chinatown leaders and businesses have been complaining about accidents on Canal St., Bowery, Alan St. for years and not much has been done.

So what's the hurry with the Chatham Square's redo if it's not even on the list of the most unsafe intersections in NYC? We keep hearing about how unsafe it is, but surely when it comes to ACTUAL accidents, ACTUAL deaths, actual suffering Canal street, Houston Street, 6th Ave., has this part of the City beat hands down.

Clearly the D.O.T. planner who did the last Chatham Square design had a great sense of humor because he left us with bicyle-ramp planters and a traffic configuration he drew on a napkin five minutes before his meeting with the contractors. I think what Chatham Square needs is a gallows from which to hang the moron who designed it the last time.

I know how dangerous Chatham Square is, I bike through it, drive through it and walk through it every single week. Thanks to the failed design we're left with, and the closing of Park Row Chatham Square can definitely use improvement, no one's arguing that the DOT screwed it up, the fact of the matter is however, that there are more accidents on Canal Street than Chatham Square. See the Villager article here.

Ming Pao News coverage of Chatham Square Hearing

World Journal Coverage of Chatham Square Hearing last night

Sing Tao Newspaper coverage of Councilman Gerson's comments on the Chatham Square plan

Great coverage in the Chinese newspapers about the Chatham Square Hearing last night

Chinatown outraged at D.O.T. and City Hall

This pretty much sums up the emotions of Chinatown residents, community leaders and businesses at last night's Chatham Square Reconstruction "hearing" hosted by Community Board 3.

CCRC Gets the word out

Peter Hui of 1480 Radio interviewing Susan of Manhattan Florist on Bayard St. about her feelings on the Chatham Square reconstruction.

Ti Hua Chang from Channel 9 News resports on Chatham Square today

Ti Hua Chang interviewed members of CCRC as well as business owners and residents about Chatham Square's proposed reconstruction.
The entire segment airs tonite Dec. 1st 08 at 10:pm on Channel 9 news, and will be accessible from the Channel 9 News website.

"....we certainly have a lot of practice right now"

Those are the words of Josh Kraus of the Dept. of Transportation referring to the way the City and DOT has "had a lot of practice" in minimizing disruptions to communities. Downtownexpress.com Volume 21, Number 29 The Newspaper of Lower Manhattan Nov. 28 - Dec. 4, 2008

Perhaps by "practice" he is referring to the way they simply dressed up the concrete barricades all over the Wall St. district. It does take a lot of "practice" to do what they do.

NYC has gotten to the point where construction takes SO long to complete that it seems strangely normal to have artists (paid for by The Downtown Alliance and of all places the M.T.A for gosh sakes!) at a cost of $100,000.00 paint "art" on what is supposed to be TEMPORARY crash barriers that surround construction sites. HOW INSULTING IS THIS!?

Rather than just make the project move faster, in their infinite "wisdom" the City and non-profits have figured out a way to pacify the public and shift our attention away from the fact that THEY'RE TAKING TOO DAMN LONG TO FINISH WHAT THEY STARTED !

It should come as no surprise then when the businesses and residents in Chinatown grimace at the thought of starting one of the most expensive and disruptive reconstruction projects at the most vulnerable intersection in Manhattan during one of the WORST times in our economic history. Those poor bastards near Wall St. have been begging for the streets to be finished, and instead got "art" painted on what they wanted removed.

The current Mayor and the one before him took great pride in visiting Asia during their time in City Hall. They brought back what seemed to them to be "great ideas" to be dumped on our great City as if to say , "we too can live like Singaporeans if simply make a few changes". Let's tax drivers of cars and trucks!

The Mayor loves to cite London as his inspiration for Congestion pricing, but we all know the idea was spawned from visits to Singapore by both Guiliani and Bloomberg. The very word Singapore conjurs images of caning and dictatorships in the minds of Americans. Better to have said the idea came from London.

I have yet to meet a New Yorker yearning to want to be more Singaporean. In contrast even Madonna wants to be more British.

What the Mayors should have brought back was the practice in Asia where contractors are under strict incentives to finish on time (bonuses) or else they face fines for finishing projects late. Somehow that didn't seem appropriate to import. Instead we got stuck with him pushing for congestion pricing.

Doesn't it make sense to simply have projects finish on time, does that not make for LESS CONGESTION?! and put money into the City coffers.

Instead we have zebra stripes on concrete crash barriers.

And here's the kicker :

"Ms. Berger, the alliance president, said she hoped that one day as many as 60 public sites and 20 private projects downtown could have artistically redesigned barriers." Lovely. Why didn't they think of this sooner? Perhaps a huge tarp over Ground Zero with imaginitive print will further distract us from the fact that it's still a hole in the ground and not a tax producing commerce inducing economic engine onto itself.

Yes, the DOT and the City have a lot of practice in pulling the wool over our eyes when it comes to the way they rush their projects through communities and when they take forever to finish, they literally paint over the problem.

HEY Chatham Square is scheduled (and this is what the are ADMITTING TO) to take three years to complete!

Can't you just see the Chinatown barrier stencils being prepared as we speak with "culturally appropriate" ethnic symbols and imagery intended to "blend and compliment with the local character of the neighborhood" - close your eyes, you can see it too right?

Dragon scales instead of zebra stripes, Longevity - Happiness - and Long Life spelled out in celebration of our Lunar Year - all the things we will wish we had once the reconstruction of Chatham Square began.

Give me a break, don't even think about starting any reconstruction here ! We're on to you. And we vote.