Thursday, December 3, 2009

Council bans metal roll-down gates

From the NY Times:

Citing high rates of graffiti, the City Council voted unanimously on Monday to gradually ban the use of roll-down metal security gates, a move that would eliminate what has been an enduring if forbidding feature of the urban streetscape.

Other kinds of security gates — like rolling or sliding grilles, which permit passers-by to gaze into plate-glass store windows and are seen by some as being harder to vandalize — would still be permitted.

The Bloomberg administration gave its support to the legislation — championed primarily by Councilman Peter F. Vallone Jr., a Queens Democrat who is chairman of the Public Safety Committee — only after the Council agreed to a lengthy grace period. Not until 2026 will the roll-down metal gates be entirely banned.

This bill would require that after July 1, 2011, any roll-down gate that is being replaced must be replaced with a gate that allows at least 70 percent of the covered area to be visible.

By July 1, 2026, all of the businesses covered by the legislation must have the new higher-visibility gates installed.

15 comments:

Unknown said...

Yet again another way of pushing small businesses out of NYC. Force the store to paint over the graffiti not spend thousand to replace perfectly good gates.

I bet there is a connection to a gate installation company somewhere in all this.

And finally... graffiti "artists" will just find a new way to tag. When they changed the trans the kids started doing scratch-iti. This will just force them to change that way they vandalize

Anonymous said...

Bloomturd is a master gater!

Lino said...

To the above poster: Why don't we try a little exercise in reading comprehension

"This bill would require that after July 1, 2011, any roll-down gate that is being replaced must be replaced with a gate that allows at least 70 percent of the covered area to be visible."

No one will need to replace "perfectly good" gates.

I'll be glad to see these things go. Even when not sprayed by vandals they are often rusted and filthy.

Anonymous said...

Bad for grafuitti,good for burglars.

Anonymous said...

just wait for the next riot, looters will pull that gate off like nothing

Anonymous said...

To Lino:

Why not exercise some of your own reading comprehension:

"By July 1, 2026, all of the businesses covered by the legislation must have the new higher-visibility gates installed."

So if you have an older one, you'll have to spend money to replace it because of this stupid law. That's if Bloomturd hasn't chased them all out of the city by then.

Anonymous said...

This won't help the grafitti problem. If people want to live like animals, you can't stop them.

Lino said...

To Genius "anon":

"“We wanted to give a reasonable phase-in period to small businesses,” said Jeffrey Haberman, a lawyer who works on drafting legislation for the City Council. “The typical gate, with regular maintenance, lasts anywhere from 10 to 15 years. Most businesses that have roll-down gates now will have replaced their gates over the normal course of business by 2026.”

If you had bothered to read the article..I know it is in enemy territory, the N Y Times..but still. Sixteen years is well long enough.

Lino

Anonymous said...

My friend's had hers for 20 years and there's nothing wrong with it.

Taxpayer said...

Police are being cut. Firefighters are being cut, Hospitals have been closed. Commissar Moron cannot do the math on the city's finances.

Unemployment is about to explode.

And yet, this is the tripe that occupies the minds(?) of every city council member?

Who is pulling their strings?

Anonymous said...

Excellent legislation!

The extended phase-in period was probably put in there to appease the whiners, such as those posting here, that somehow have no clue how oppressive the solid gates are to a business district after-hours.

Too many storekeepers pull down their gates at night and drive to a different neighborhood, and don't give a damn about what their storefronts look like to the residents that have to look at them after hours. I've tried to reason with a lot of these shop owners who just don't care. Those idiots are the reason why the city council had to come up with a solution, and this was it.

Unless you've cleaned graffiti in your neighborhood, don't complain.

Anonymous said...

Hey Taxpayer,

What makes you think only one item at a time can be discussed by the council? It ain't tripe unless you agree with keeping graffiti alive in NYC.

Anonymous said...

If storeowners follow the 48 hour law to clean graffiti from their property (gates), then there should be no issue.Those with solid gates can have a letter box opening cut (the length of the gate) into the gates instead, thus saving $'s and still adhearing to FDNY and NYPD requirements--- BUT the gates must be kept graffiti-free.

Anonymous said...

i remember the west side of manhattan with no store gates or graffiti. that was 1946-52.

when i returned from the Korean War ,i was stunned to see that my area had copied HAVANA ,CUBA at night ,with the gated storefronts.

the n.y.p.d. walked the beat in the earlier years in manhattan.

Anonymous said...

Good Riddens, they are as ugly for as neighbordood as hell and give the impression that it is a fortress and unsafe..I hate them..