Photos by Steven
Early yesterday morning (6:40!), city crews from the DOT and DSNY joined forces to remove the curbside structure outside 188 Allen St. between Houston and Stanton.
Earlier this month, the DOT issued a termination notice for the space outside the now-closed Cheese Grille. A group of artists and some art fans had hoped the structure could continue on as 188 Allen Street Gallery, an art space that has showcased a variety of artists since last summer (see here and here). It was an outgrowth of the pandemic-era space that Cheese Grille used.
NYC street artist SacSix, who has curated shows here as well as created murals on the storefront, appealed to the DOT in a recent Instagram post, inviting city officials here "to see how small business entrepreneurs can create incredible communities in unique spaces."
However, the DOT showed its appreciation of the space with chainsaws and crowbars...
22 comments:
I wish this city was this zealous about the encampment of junkies that is building at 5th and A
If I never see a restaurant shed again it will be too soon.
Meanwhile... Solas's abandoned shed sits untouched after complaints to 311.
I would rather have the metered spots generating some revenue for the city rather than an abandoned dining shed
How does Stromboli on St Marks get away with theirs? It is on the sidewalk and completely blocks the corner of 1st. 311 closed the tickets as “in compliance”.
Take away the noisy hotel while you’re there.
The DOT enforcement seems spotty at best. There were 3 removal notices at the then-closed Bait & Hook on 14th Street and 2nd Avenue for the fully enclosed mobile home constructed on the sidewalk. Several residents told me they filed complaints with the city over the structure, as it ate up most of the sidewalk. It's still there, though, and part of the new restaurant that took over the space.
This is a perfect example of what's wrong in NYC: first the city gives away public property free to restaurant owners for the pandemic (and apparently now, FOREVER!) and then when the restaurant goes out of business, artists decide it's THEIRS (by some magic) and they're going to make a gallery there. And then they get all "tragic" about the dismantling of a now-illegal dining shed that they repurposed for a not-legal use. Talk about "entitled"!
Yes, I'd rather NYC get the money from parking meters than have this shed sitting there.
The sheds need to go, every last one of them. Either people play by the rules, or we have anarchy.
"I'd rather NYC get the money from the parking meters"
The parking meters should be $20 an hour.
Restaurants do pay for the use of sheds... with the usurious small business taxes on the interior space. When a restaurant without a shed gets closed by the marshal for being in-arrears, the collective response is "eh!" or "they were too expensive" or "nightclub masquerading as a restaurant!" so it's always something.
I have a hard time believing the level of injustice of sheds not paying "their fair share" equates to the noise made about it in the comments here.
No disagreement on abandoned sheds being removed or those harboring drug use being addressed constructively. DOT has to improve with that. But there's like 15 years worth of comments on this blog that are receipts that people weren't happy with urban nightlife before the sheds either, so I'm guessing the sheds are just an extension of the same irritation against the same kinds of businesses and patrons. Which is tired. We'd be the only city without this stuff. New York #1, right?
If you look at the last photo in the post, you will see that this isn't a bus lane.
The ways the restaurants are using the street/sidewalk still is insane. It feels so claustrophobic. And the way "open streets" that somehow get approval can transform neighborhoods like the BS on Canal Street, is disgraceful.
@11:39am: Yeah, the sheds ARE an extension of everything about NYC nightlife, DUH. The sheds bring the amplified noise right out to the street, where you can't escape hearing it (and it's far worse if you happen to live upstairs in that building).
Your claim that "Restaurants do pay for the use of sheds... with the usurious small business taxes on the interior space" is completely absurd! You'll have to find a better argument, b/c if the pandemic had never happened, things would be VERY different indeed - and the restaurant industry is not a "charity" that somehow needs special protection!
This is NYC: If you open a restaurant here, either you know what you're getting into, or you're so clueless that it won't surprise anyone if your business model doesn't succeed. If your restaurant "needs" a dining shed in order to "make it" at this point (post-pandemic), then you don't have a workable business model.
A contrary voice: I like the sheds. They add life to the street. I don't find three parking spaces interesting in the least. Different priorities. If it's about adding revenue then meter all parking.
The artists involved in the shed either knew there would be an expiration date or are very naive. I also like street art and do not think it detracts from the tax base. Sheds, properly maintained, policed and taxed would definitely add to the tax revenue. More than offsetting whatever revenue was lost with the elimination of parking spaces.
Sheds were great for the moment and a blight since so good they're getting gone as for nightlife in New York too many restaurants go before cb3/sla and say they're going to be a quiet neighborhood place and then well they're not the become loud intrusive and quality of life altering so they lie and act like it's they're right to disturb the people who live near it it's lunacy
@1:39pm: You write: "Sheds, properly maintained, policed and taxed would definitely add to the tax revenue. More than offsetting whatever revenue was lost with the elimination of parking spaces."
You must be very young and/or very poorly informed. What do you imagine the COST of "maintaining, policing, and taxing" the sheds would be? You have NO IDEA, do you? No, you don't! And if you think that would "more than offset" lost revenue from parking spaces, you don't have any idea what parking meters cost.
But hey, yes, let's GIVE AWAY every single inch of curb space on every street in Manhattan - how very festive that will be! Wall-to-wall sheds (AKA rat-incubators). No cars, no parking spaces, no deliveries from UPS or FedEx - hey, who needs deliveries?! You can then only get out of a cab at the corner. And when you walk out of any building, all you'll see will be sheds in every direction. Won't that make Manhattan delightful? AND they can all blast different music from each shed, from noon to 4:00 AM, thus further enhancing the ambiance and the quality-of-life for residents and visitors alike! Heaven on earth, right? /s
"This is NYC: If you open a restaurant here, either you know what you're getting into, or you're so clueless that it won't surprise anyone if your business model doesn't succeed."
On a different note, this NYC. Know what you're getting into before you move to the LES before complaining about noise, cars, drugs, bros, etc.
Spot on, 11:39. 15 years of bitching, cranking, whining and moaning. Seems like a lot of people here were born frustrated.
I'm ok with the sheds, mostly, but they need to be regulated and properly maintained. As for calling what that lot did as "art" good riddance to bad rubbish.
I am sick of quick comments like "neighbor" --a troll. Get a life. You complain about lack of housing yet you love gentrification--tear down one story buildings on 14th street.... naive...wow(sorry for repetition) but, Avenue A at 5th Street is an issue??????
Whoever reported Stromboli to 311 should be ashamed of themselves. First of all, that is not an outdoor dining shed—it's a legal expansion of the indoor space and not a separate shed sitting out in the gutter. And it does not block the entire corner, give me an effing break. There is plenty of room to walk down the sidewalk next to it.
And bye. Not much else. Thanks evgrieve. Lively debate at once.
@XTC: "Know what you're getting into" when you move here? I moved in here longer ago than you've been alive, and I love the East Village! But I hate what these effing sheds have done to this area.
YOU say you're "okay with the sheds", which ignores that an enormous number of the rest of us who live here actively detest these sheds and the rats we are now contending with.
You think people were "born frustrated"? How would you feel if a RAT ran across your bedroom floor at 2 AM? I guarantee you wouldn't enjoy having that "visitor" in your apartment.
Next emergency/pandemic, the restaurant owners can go pound sand, b/c they've selfishly taken advantage of the goodwill gesture hat the *temporary sheds* were intended to be. Now we see: give them an inch, they want the whole effing curb permanently and for free.
@1:39pm
The cost of regulating the sheds is, or should be, paid for by fees and taxes. The city is very good at squeezing restaurants with fees. See: Bloomberg, Micheal. And now we're talking about abolishing deliveries? Look up "straw man". Tax base? Midtown office market is imploding. The quants, brokers and their paper pushers are working from home. FIRE will not support the coming next iteration of the city. We're going to need tourism. No one ever got on a plane to look at parked cars.
@6:44pm
Private vehicle owners have always had "the whole effing curb permanently and for free." The difference is that restaurants pay extra taxes and fees for the privilege. You mean the "enormous number" of EV Grieve commenters who despise the sheds, don't you? You have evidence the general public feels like you do? Get it on the ballot.
At this point the blog master could feed select archives into ChatGPT and recreate the shed / bike lane vs free parking debates accurately.
Maybe see you at the ballot box?
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