OPINION: Reopen Park Row to Vehicles

Park Row, at Worth Street. Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib

Recall September 11, 2001. Now imagine New York City responding differently. Not with defiance that led to reopening and eventual rebuilding, but instead by cowering and simply shutting down.

But there is really no need to imagine this. Today, less than a mile from Ground Zero—now home to the magnificently rebuilt World Trade Center and 9/11 Memorial Museum—our still target-rich city acts irrationally and fearfully in response to 9/11.

The longstanding—and still ongoing two decades later—closure of Park Row does not make residents of the area more secure. Instead, their safety is swapped out for the convenience of operations at One Police Plaza.

Back in the day, former Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly reportedly called the residents near the thoroughfare that is (was) Park Row casualties of 9/11. And we continue to be casualties.

The closure of Park Row has always been about prioritizing the safety (and convenience) of One Police Plaza over the safety of the folks living in the area. While the remote possibility of an attack on Police Headquarters remains front and center, the very real daily (even hourly) dangers presented by delays to emergency service vehicles routed around Park Row and onto side streets are ignored. The recent fires in Chinatown only highlight the need for quick access—free of checkpoints and mechanical gates—to the nearest hospital.

The former Head of Emergency Services at Downtown Hospital Dr. David Goldschmitt, spoke about the impact of street closures on ambulance response times to/from Downtown Hospital. His testimony was part of a 2004 lawsuit brought by the community against the city. And even though the judge in the case ordered the street opened to emergency service vehicles, it is still effectively closed. Many emergency vehicle drivers only see the barricades and naturally avoid the street. How many precious seconds are lost because of the dangerous detours that result?

Reopening the street to vehicular traffic will bring back the vital connection between the financial district to neighborhoods east of it. On one side of Park Row is part of lower Manhattan where the average annual salary is $507,162. On the other side, Chinatown and the Lower East Side—where the average household annual income is under $50,000.

Two decades of being cut off from our closest hospital and a thriving economic community (inclusive of all the ongoing sales and economic growth lost) are long enough. The mayor says his administration is about “getting stuff done.” Here’s a perfect opportunity to do that.

We stand ready to embrace the reopening of Park Row so that Chinatown can flourish once more in the face of so much recent hardship.

The Civic Center Residents Coalition

Danny Chen, Jeanie Chin, John Ost, Jan Lee