Tuesday, October 28, 2008

The layers of Fulton Street (aka, that big hole in the ground)

I've been keeping my eye on the looooong-delayed and increasingly expensive Fulton Street Transit Center at the corner of Broadway in the Financial District. It doesn't seem as if much progress is being made. The top two photos here show the construction site last week.



Here's what it looked like in July. I can't really see much difference.





Meanwhile, the Fulton subway entrance pictured below has been shuttered during the recent construction. The businesses shown here in July have been relocated to other parts of Fulton Street. These mom-and-pop shops that line entrances and exits of the subway give this city a little character, a little of which continues to die.








3 comments:

Ken Mac said...

There's a beautiful old tall building next to the site, not sure of its history but apparently it's landmarked as it has escaped the towering crane and demo...

Anonymous said...

Slow progress on this completely unnecessary but expensive-as-hell project, but they sure took those beautiful old buildings down in a hurry. Now the whole area looks like shit.

All they've succeeded in doing thus far has been displacing small businesses (on the street and in the small affordable work spaces within) that were contributing to the city's tax base.

And of course the MTA'll need to raise our fares to cover its huge deficit this year....

Anonymous said...

this last picture brings back a great memory from this summer, when I purchased a pack of gum at this very same "why pay more?" shop. after asking the shop keeper guy how much the gum costs, he took my question as an opportunity to advertise and shouted out, "Gum?! 75 cents! Why pay more?!" Character indeed.