Security
Streetsblog Basics
NYPD Is Making Midtown Sidewalks an Obstacle Course — Where’s de Blasio?
The mayor controls the streets but is nowhere in sight as NYPD security theater puts the squeeze on Midtown foot traffic.
December 5, 2017
NYPD Keeps on Junking Up Midtown Streets With Fences and Barricades
While peer cities like London carve out more car-free space on their busiest streets for walking, NYPD is busy dropping metal fencing and concrete barriers all over Midtown, obstructing paths for pedestrians and cyclists.
December 4, 2017
NYPD Security Theater Takes Manhattan
Obtrusive new police barriers interfering with walking and biking paths are cropping up in Midtown and elsewhere. Do you feel safer, New York?
December 1, 2017
70 Year-Old Man Crushed, Killed by Security Truck Driver in Financial District
At least two pedestrians were pinned by a pickup truck used as a movable security barrier on Broad Street near the New York Stock Exchange at approximately 1:30 p.m. this afternoon. One of the pedestrians, an unidentified 70 year-old man, has died. NY1 is reporting that the victim was a NYSE security guard who was eating lunch when the crash occurred.
August 23, 2012
The Public Square After Times Square
As a New Yorker, I’m no stranger to terrorist attacks, but I’ve probably had closer contact than most. I was in historic Fraunces Tavern in the financial district, having lunch, on the winter’s day in 1975 when a bomb ripped through it, killing four people and injuring 44. On 9/11, I was minding my two young children when the Twin Towers ten blocks away turned to rubble. We weren’t harmed, but the fallout -- air poisoned, schools shuttered, sleep invaded -- wasn’t pretty.
May 7, 2010
LIRR’s Brooklyn Bunker: More Extreme Than NYPD Counterterror Guidelines
Brooklyn's new Long Island Rail Road terminal opened earlier this month to generally positive reviews for its airy interior. Outside the station? That's an entirely different matter.
January 21, 2010
Does Times Real Estate VP’s “Joke” Betray Anti-Bike Bias?
In December, Streetsblog reported on the lack of bicycle parking in the new New York Times Building, despite promises to bike-commuting staff that there would be space inside. We talked to several Times employees who said that after initially being allowed to bring their bikes in, they were suddenly denied entry.
January 11, 2008
Disgruntled Drivers Responsible for UK Letter Bombs?
A letter bomb exploded yesterday at the offices of the Drivers and Vehicle Licensing Agency in Swansea, South Wales, injuring a woman. It was the seventh such incident reported at a UK agency linked to traffic enforcement in the past three weeks, and the third in three days, according to an article in the Guardian. A total of six people have been injured so far, according to a statement issued just yesterday by police.
February 7, 2007
Parochial Thinking Amid Ominous Signs
The Committee to Keep NYC "Congestion Tax Free." Front row, left to right: John Corlett, Automobile Club of New York; Ray Irrera, Queens Chamber of Commerce;
Council Member David Weprin; Lobbyist
Walter McCaffrey; Joe Conley of Queens Community Board 2.
December 12, 2006
NYC Finally Cracking Down on Security Barriers
In the aftermath of September 11th, concrete and steel barriers sprouted like mushrooms around big buildings in New York City. It almost seemed to me to be a kind of status symbol. You knew you worked in an important building if your landlord had hardened it against truck bombs.
October 9, 2006