New York State Senate Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, U. S. Representative Jerrold Nadler, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, and City Councilmember Margaret Chin (Democrat of Manhattan) sent a letter in March to U. S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood asking him to help reopen a section of Park Row in Lower Manhattan that was closed for security reasons after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, according to an article by Aline Reynolds in today's edition of the Downtown Express.

In June 1 statement, Mr. Silver declared that "Local businesses have suffered because this important link between Chinatown and the Financial District has been cut off, isolating neighborhoods," the article said, adding that "it is time to give our neighborhood its street back."

"Park Row," the article noted, "was once a four-lane thoroughfare that ran through Chinatown, linking the Brooklyn Bridge with the Financial District. The NYPD, whose headquarters are at One Police Plaza, closed the nearby Park Row just after 9/11 for security reasons. Today, only certain MTA buses and authorized or emergency vehicles are allowed to pass through security posts on both sides of the thoroughfare. 'It feels like you're in a war zone. It's oppressive,' John Ost said, who serves on the Board of Directors of Southbridge Towers, a nearby 1,651-unit co-op.'"

Silver sent a letter in March to U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, asking him to reach out to the Department of Homeland Security about conducting a risk assessment that would help determine how the NYPD can safely reopen Park Row.

According to a May 26 news release issued by Silver's office, the article continued, Secretary LaHood has promised to approach the DHS about the risk assessment. The U.S. Department of Transportation had no updates this week on LaHood's communications with the DHS.

"Let the assessment be done to determine exactly what the risks are, and then we can decide what we need to do to ensure security," said Robert Gottheim, District Director for Congressman Jerrold Nadler, who represents the city's 8th District.

"Gottheim and others wonder, in particular," the article said, "why streets near the Downtown government courthouses and City Hall are not blocked off, yet the NYPD insists that Park Row remain shut off from traffic. "It doesn't make any sense on its face," said David Crane, Chair of CB 3's Transportation Committee. "Following that logic, why doesn't Broadway warrant closure? There are as many potential targets along Broadway as on Park Row."

Closing Park Row has blocked off a direct northbound passage through Chinatown to the Bowery and southbound to Wall Street and that said that according to one estimate "Its closure forced 500 to 1,000 vehicles an hour to be diverted to alternate routes that were pretty much near capacity at the time."

Over fifty businesses in Chinatown have closed since 2001, according to Jan Lee, a member of the Civic Center Residents Coalition New York City.

The article said that "Paul J.Q. Lee, owner of a general store at 32 Mott Street for some 30 years, closed up shop shortly after 9/11. His family had kept the business going for 113 years but couldn't survive the sharp drop in clientele once the NYPD began barricading streets that connected the shop to the heart of Chinatown. 'The closure of the Park Row thoroughfare destroyed us,' he said. 'Suddenly, we had no deliveries or customers coming in.'"