The city's plans to change the traffic patterns of Chatham Square in Chinatown were challenged at a news conference Wednesday outside the offices of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation.
Community Boards 1 and 3 have gone on record in opposition to the plans and on Wednesday City Controller William Thompson and City Councilmember Alan Gerson urged the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation to withhold the $31 million the city plans to use for the $50 million project, according to an article by Julie Shapiro in this week's edition of the Downtown Express.
Mr. Thompson said that "Everyone had stood up and said this is a bad idea" and Mr. Gerson said that the city did not make its plans available in public libraries and hold a public comment period on the plans.
The city intends to realign the seven intersecting streets at Chatham Square to connect East Broadway to Worth Street and the Bowery to St. James Place. Community groups have protested that the plan makes the closure of Park Row at the square more permanent. It has been closed at the location since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
The community plan for the site would leave it pretty much unchanged but would create a new one-lane road connecting St. James Place to East Broadway. Ms. Shapiro's article said that the community plan would not work according to an e-mail from Scott Gastel, a spokesman for the Department of Transportation, who argued that "Chatham Square is in need of significant changes that will mitigate traffic congestion and improve safety."
Community Boards 1 and 3 have gone on record in opposition to the plans and on Wednesday City Controller William Thompson and City Councilmember Alan Gerson urged the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation to withhold the $31 million the city plans to use for the $50 million project, according to an article by Julie Shapiro in this week's edition of the Downtown Express.
Mr. Thompson said that "Everyone had stood up and said this is a bad idea" and Mr. Gerson said that the city did not make its plans available in public libraries and hold a public comment period on the plans.
The city intends to realign the seven intersecting streets at Chatham Square to connect East Broadway to Worth Street and the Bowery to St. James Place. Community groups have protested that the plan makes the closure of Park Row at the square more permanent. It has been closed at the location since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
The community plan for the site would leave it pretty much unchanged but would create a new one-lane road connecting St. James Place to East Broadway. Ms. Shapiro's article said that the community plan would not work according to an e-mail from Scott Gastel, a spokesman for the Department of Transportation, who argued that "Chatham Square is in need of significant changes that will mitigate traffic congestion and improve safety."
Architecture Critic
Carter Horsley
Since 1997, Carter B. Horsley has been the editorial director of CityRealty. He began his journalistic career at The New York Times in 1961 where he spent 26 years as a reporter specializing in real estate & architectural news. In 1987, he became the architecture critic and real estate editor of The New York Post.
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