I am standing at the southwest corner of Amsterdam Avenue and West 76 Street, about to walk west to Broadway. A few steps in I see it: a large sign on a green fence that juts out into the street, saying: "Sidewalk closed. Please use the other side of the street". Since I am a healthy middle aged man, I do just that (although the other side of the street is narrow and dirty) but I have been reminded, as I have been countless times before, that construction sights, in NYC at this time, take precedence over pedestrians.
Since the Mayor began his committment to "development", mostly luxury housing, in the early part of his first term, bloggers have remarked about the negative aspects of this policy and how it adversely effects neighborhoods, however, I don' remember reading anything about the simple inconvenience pedestrians are faced with, every time they try to walk through a construction work sight that juts out into the street, shortens the driving lanes of the adjacent street, and forces pedestrians to walk parallel to the cars, or on the other side.
I have lived in the city since the early seventies, and never during the Guiliani, Dinkins, or Koch era, do I remember this "jutting out" of construction work sights being allowed. To me it is just another reminder of the importance that this administration regards developers; there is something so arrogant about the message this sends to the rest of us. Ofcourse, being every day "New Yorkers", we're supposed to shake our heads, simply say "that's life in the city---another inconvenience," and move on. Perhaps that is all it is. Or perhaps not. Perhaps the new luxury development on 76th Street and Broadway, and three others like that in the surrounding blocks, will also cause prices in the nearby stores to rise, or some of those stores to dissapear altogether, as commercial landlords, even in this weak enonomy try to milk their properties for as much as they can get.
A smaller sign on the work sight tells us that the new apartment house will be named "The Laureate", and further down that when the building comes to fruition, that it will "enhance the quality of life for all New Yorkers". How? It doesn't say. Personally, I had expected that the economic downturn would slow down development, and I wonder if all the apartments that are being built can be sold or rented, but atleast in the west seventies, the building continues.