Rockefeller Center Christmas 2019 I See You Again
Will New Yorkever get Rockefeller Centre right? For the third Christmas since Mayor Bill de Blasio took a one-half-measure — closing 49th and 50th streets — New York's premier public space remains an incoherent mess.
Mayor-elect Eric Adams tin practice better, so that if more strange tourists render next winter, they'll find something besides total confusion.
De Blasio was right, in 2019, to shut off the cross streets nearly the tree from early Nov to mid-January (thank you, sir!). With 800,000 people coming each mean solar day — rivaling the 900,000 people who, pre-COVID, drove into Manhattan beneath 60th Street daily — the crowds no longer fit on the sidewalks.
Christmas 2019 wasmuch better, as businesspeople and shoppers could coexist with people taking pictures. The metropolis also moved the mid-cake crosswalks on Fifth Avenue to the corners, improving pedestrian movement.
But we've had two COVID Christmases to take advantage of sparse crowds to make more than ambitious fixes.
Instead, the urban center and Tishman Speyer, which manages the real estate, make head-scratching decisions.
The urban center'southward transportation section never moved the mid-block crosswalks on Sixth Avenue to the corners, and the NYPDstill uses metal barriers to close them for the flavor.
Giving peopleless room to cross when in that location aremore people around has never made sense. Funneling crowds to cross at the south side of 49th and 50th, rather than letting them cross at all corners, undoes some of the proficient deed of closing 49th and 50th. Information technology re-bunches everyone together.
And at present, the NYPD greets people coming from Fifth Artery with a giant sign warning you to "SECURE FROM THEFT" your wallet and other riches.
If thieves are such a plague, the constabulary should arrest them, and DAs should prosecute them. (The police did arrest 1 chronic thief — just to see him walk free.) The sign makes information technology seem like the metropolis has abdicated its responsibleness to go on visitors rubber.
The urban center also inexplicably litters 49th and 50th streets with metal barriers. The barriers are non directing people any which way. They're only . . . there.
At present, Tishman is borrowing the city's bad habits. For the second year, information technology has blocked the large plaza to the westward of the tree (with, of course, junky metal barriers), rather than secure the tree with a sturdy debate (and guards), which worked fine for 88 years.
So commuters tin can no longer walk mid-block from 51st to 48th streets but must detour to an avenue. It also means you lot tin can't walkthrough 30 Rock on a cold day (y'all can hack this by walking through the J.Coiffure).
Tishman is also creating uncomfortable crowding where none exists. On the east side of the tree, information technology's thrown up two layers of metal barriers to obstruct the view of the skating rink. Why?
On the due south side, information technology's blocked the walking corridor to and from Fifth Avenue so that people who take bought $half-dozen churros tin can sit in a piffling hut and not be bothered by people who don't have $6.
The huts are beautiful (endeavour information technology!), and the overlook churro shelters are a nice idea — simply with three views of the rink blocked, that means people congregate on the north side, which must serve as a viewing expanseand the only due west-east pathway. Block off i view, fine, simply not three out of 4.
Tishman has as well used metal barriers to create a maze on this only usable north side — just considering.
This is uncomfortable, fifty-fifty with a tiny crowd. It won't work at all if we get close to normal crowds next year.
Bryant Park manages to do stuff like cozy eating hideaways without blocking off foot thoroughfares (or erecting abstract metal-bulwark sculptures).
This spatial illiteracy deters people who live and work in the area from spending time there — non a good thing when only a fraction of office workers are back.
Why not spend 2022 redesigning 49th and 50th as permanent pedestrian streets, protected past retractable poles rather than ugly movable barriers? Retractable poles would allow for morning deliveries and, for most of the yr, buses.
So, work with Tishman and restaurants and stores to bring fun to the two streets and official entertainment to crowd out the Elmos while keeping pathways articulate.
And permit people cantankerous 6th Avenue at crosswalks!
Adjacent to murder and mayhem, prettifying Rockefeller Center is probably No. 3,338 on Adams' list.
But making a pleasant space would be easy and inexpensive — and he will demand to boast of an easy, cheap accomplishment shortly enough.
Nicole Gelinas is a contributing editor to the Manhattan Establish'southward City Journal.
Source: https://nypost.com/2021/12/27/new-yorks-rockefeller-center-at-christmas-is-a-mess/
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