From NY1:Graziano Lembo owns the Capri Caffe. He says his metal roll down shutters protect his restaurant from vandals and thieves.
"I know New York City's safe, but you can't be 100 percent sure," said Lembo.
But city councilman Peter Vallone says those gates encourage graffiti. He wants to require all new gates sold and installed in the city to be at least 70 percent see through.
"We can really make a difference in the cityscape of New York City. It will make it much more beautiful, much cleaner. There would be 80 percent less graffiti," said Vallone.
31 comments:
When I didn't have my gate down kids took a key and scratched their name in my glass. Its much easier to paint over tags on a gate than replace a window.
Headline this one - "NYC Pol Finds Another Way to Attack Small Business in the Midst of a Recession"
?!?! And how do you expect the store owners to pay for the new gates?
Great idea Vallone! So now people can spray on the glass or carve on the glass. Plus see whats inside if there real curious. Maybe you can donate some fake lead based turf to stick on the roll down gates instead.
Well get back to you Vallone in the Summer when those power plants are running full steam ahead.
Freaking -- everybody commenting on this post needs prozac or a vacation or something.
The guy simply said all new gates should be see 70% through.
Solid gates are really ugly and covered with graffiti ruin a street scape. If a city can mandate everything else about how you should live here why complain about one thing that might actual make the city look better. Besides you need a pretty skinny hand and lots on time to scratch glass that no one will see. A solid gate is a blank canvas waiting for air brushed porn and gang tags.
That's one law that should be passed.
" ... If a city can mandate everything else about how you should live here why complain about one thing that might actual make the city look better. ..."
So, once we allow the moron lawmakers to violate our rights, let's allow them to keep going and go wild with imbecilic laws?
all they need to do is use "transparent aluminum" like they used in Star Trek IV.
/sarc
Excellent! I, and anyone who is involved with graffiti removal in our neighborhoods would love to see this passed.
Store merchants have a duty to the people whose area they serve. Too many of them roll down their graffiti-covered gates and go home to their own neighborhoods, which many times are several towns away. Many of them don't care about the scrawlings on their gates, and believe it or not, many times they don't even know it's there.
I've had store owners show sincere surprise when I volunteer to clean off their graffiti. I've had them tell me, "Oh, that was cleaned up a year ago." They have no clue that it got tagged again months before.
Requiring gates that are 70% is a nice compromise. Some had wanted to eliminate roll downs altogether.
To the poster who wants to know how the store owners are going to pay for the new gates... If he/she re-reads the original post, it states, "all new gates." There is no requirement to pull down a perfectly good gate and replace it with a new style.
Got to hand it to Vallone on this one - absolutely correct!
This is something the both police and anti-grafitti groups have suggested for years.
Pistol Pete goes off half cocked again...that is if he's got one
that's bigger than his pea sized brain!
DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT COSTS TO REPLACE A PLATE GLASS WINDOW THAT'S BEEN ACID ETCHED?
Try applying an anti graffiti coating on your gates instead.
Then they can be easily cleaned.
Or...if you paint your gates silver an easy touch up can be done with a spray can of silver paint if they get tagged!
C'mon Don "junior" Vallone...don't you have some much more pressing issues to deal with like mega over development in your district?
Oh, I see...
you're too much in debted to your developer/real estate friends to risk interfering with any of their ongoing projects!
Graffiti prevention has become this shady pol's prime diversionary tactic.
It's his feeble attempt to lull the public into thinking that he's a man of action.
If Vallone is so hot to stop graffiti he should join the NYPD's vandal squad and give up his current day job!
Roll-down gates are not only a canvas for graffiti vandals, but they are a legal fire hazard. It takes firefighters time to saw through the gates in order to gain access to a fire inside the shop. The gates also block their view and make it difficult to determine how bad a fire has become. Nine times out of 10, it is the property owner, not the business owner, who installs roll-down gates on their premises. Therefore, it should be the property owners' responsibility to replace them. The bill should allow them a period of five years to replace all roll-down gates with mesh gates or similar devices.
Just curious... what would you guys have thought of this bill if Peter Vallone or another one of your so-called "tweeded" politicians wasn't its author?
Then let him pay for it!
The gates that are see-through have tiny little bars...making it impossible, or at least a waste of time for vandals to tag or acid etch. By doing so, you cant see their tags...and that is the whole reason why they damage property, so their names are shown. And this is for NEW gates, so it wont cost the shopkeepers anything unless they are replacing their gates. And just walking past alot of stores, when the gates are rolled down, alot of times they are not right up against the windows, there is often a little bit of space. so it is unlikely that much damage would be done to the windows.
"Then let him pay for it!"
Why, is the city paying for the roll down gates that store owners put in? No, so since the store owners should put in gates anyway, this law would just make it a different type of gate, and it might even be cheaper.
"Great idea Vallone! So now people can spray on the glass or carve on the glass. Plus see whats inside if there real curious"
Yeah...good point....dont install these gates so people cant see in the store!!!
Are you serious?? Isnt that the whole point of a retail store...so people see your product? And what do you do during the day when people look in the window, you know, if they are real curious, Chase them away with a broom? And heaven forbid if they should choose to walk inside.
i am a store owner i have had the see thru gates in the past , robbers would use the opening to scope the place out , they would bang on teh glass with a stick every night for a week to set off the alarm then they would break into the store the poice would not respond because they thought it was just another false alarm. that is why solid metal gates is the only answer to protect a premise properly. maybe if vallone actually owned and operated a business in the city he represents he would understand the challanges that business owners deal with and the solutions they resort to , to protect there business
I don't understand why people are so worked up... The pols are saying that no one has to run out and replace their old gates unless they want to. I am so sick of looking at the solid gates with grafitti that makes our neighborhoods look like warzones at night. Talk about safety...the grafitti draws more vandals to a neighborhood. There is no proof that the see-through gates are any less safe than the solid ones.
so you guys would rather attack vallone than actually improve our neighborhoods? you'd rather our streets continue to be covered in graffiti, and the jobs of our police and fire fighters remain more dangerous, so you can take more cheap shots? i guess it proves that to some of you, it's more important to attack someone than improve our quality of life.
Vallone should instead be examining why there was tremendous reduction in graffiti during the Giuliani administration and now it seems like there is a huge surge in it. The roll down gates were there during the 1990s and somehow weren't tagged nearly as frequently.
Instead of putting this graffiti thing on the backs of store owners who pay taxes for protection via the police Vallone should be fighting the Mayor for cutting the police force. There should be more police in this time of financial crisis because of the possibility of increased crime due to the fact that people have less money.
i have a 5000 square foot commercial building and pay $59,000 per year in taxes if the city stop cutting down on police i would not have to have full steel gates the police dept does not even respond to commercial burglar alarms it a proven fact i had an attempted break in a year ago the alarms went off and the poice where notified. when i reporter the attempted brek in they advised that there was an alarm call during the night and that the 110pct responded and did not notice anything, the detectives came and we reviewed the video of when the officers advised they responded to the alarm call and the video did not lie they never responded to the call just stated that they did . if it was not for the metal gates that protect my business the robbers would have gained access to the premise . that is why they are needed. also in regards to the fire dept and there saftey my brother is on the job they are equipped with thermal imigang cameras that allow them to detect and tell the extent of a fire thru the gates so that story does not fly about protecting the fdny , if vallone is so worried about the fdny why is he not fighting to keep the staffing levels the same and not close more firehouses
all they need to do is use "transparent aluminum" like they used in Star Trek IV.
good point Mr. Stramm.
"Solid gates are really ugly and covered with graffiti ruin a street scape. If a city can mandate everything else about how you should live here why complain about one thing that might actual make the city look better. Besides you need a pretty skinny hand and lots on time to scratch glass that no one will see. A solid gate is a blank canvas waiting for air brushed porn and gang tags.
That's one law that should be passed."
If the city overegulates, it should regulate more. Effective argument there sporto.
"Store merchants have a duty to the people whose area they serve. Too many of them roll down their graffiti-covered gates and go home to their own neighborhoods, which many times are several towns away. Many of them don't care about the scrawlings on their gates, and believe it or not, many times they don't even know it's there."
Cops and DA's have an obligation to prosecute vandalists. Store owners already pay enough in taxes and face enough regulations and restrictions to have to worry about this crap. And again, you tards want to put these burdens on small business owners during a recession?
Why do we put laws on the books that we'll never be able to enforce?
"Why do we put laws on the books that we'll never be able to enforce?"
To appease the masses and make it look like the tweeders are working!
The only way we can rid grafitti is to make the building owners clean it.
They already have sanitation regs and snow cleaning regs.
The only reason they need these roll-down gates in the first place is that crime is out of control.
When I was a child, merchants used delicate accordion-style gates. After the New York blackout in the 1970's these monstrosities became standard equipment, and after our present financial mess the merchants will probably have to electrify the gates and surround them with a pirahnna-filled moat.
This harassment is what law-abiding merchants get instead of police protection.
Excellent idea, go for it Pete,
I agree with Rick comments, We clean up graffiti all the time in different civic's. It would be less work for the civic members.
good idea!!
B&L
Vallone wants to punish the store owner. Hey Peter how about graffiti laws that punish the punk. Another useless "coat tale" politician.
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