Bringing Order to the Visiting Multitudes

In an effort to reduce the street-clogging visitors to a Ground Zero viewing platform at Broadway and Fulton Street, the city is now issuing tickets—a maximum of two per person—on a first-come, first-served basis.

The free advance tickets are obtained at the South Street Seaport Museum kiosk at Fulton and Front streets. Not only is the new procedure meant to bring some order to the throngs of tourists who blocked sidewalks and tied up traffic, but also to send them to the east side of Lower Manhattan, where businesses have been suffering from a lack of visitors.

"We always had this dilemma of how to get all these people who come down here to spend some money that is so badly needed," said Paul Goldstein, district manager of Community Board 1, who along with CB1 chair Madelyn Wils, sold the idea to city officials. "This is a way it might well work because people basically have to kill about two or three hours right before they get to the platform."

Wils and Goldstein met recently with officials of the Department of Transportation and Office of Emergency Management, who approved the new procedure on the spot. The quick action, they said, was in stunning contrast to the community's poor working relationship to the Giuliani administration.

"It's a new day," said Wils. "Hopefully it will stay a new day."

The viewing stand is open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week, and the ticket kiosk is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., or until all tickets are distributed. Each day, tickets will be given out for all 30-minute intervals between noon and 8 p.m. that day, and for 9 a.m. to noon shifts the following morning.