OPINION: Chinatown Needs a Reopened Park Row, Closed Since 9/11

Guard booths at entrance to closed Park Row. Photo: Open Park Row Now Coalition

9-11-24 marks the 23rd year of the horrific attack on the United States, with the bombing of the World Trade Towers causing the deaths of thousands of New Yorkers and first-responders. Afterward, the area around One Police Plaza was turned into a “frozen zone” with Park Row and surrounding streets cut off from car traffic as a “security” precaution. Mayor Giuliani promised a return to normalcy and rebuilding. Yet Park Row, a major thoroughfare between Chinatown and lower Manhattan, remains in the “frozen zone,” cut off from car traffic by police barricades and extensive NYPD parking. 

For most, normalcy returned with reasonable security measures taken to guarantee our safety. The new One World Trade Center opened in 2014. Memorials to those attacked were opened to the public.

The one neighborhood that has yet to return to normalcy is Manhattan's Chinatown. Its vital four-lane artery, Park Row, connecting Chinatown with the rest of lower Manhattan, remains in the “frozen zone,” cut off from public car traffic. The community’s 400+ space Municipal Parking Garage, located in the “frozen zone”, was converted for NYPD parking, at a loss of $14 million in annual parking revenue. 

No other neighborhood has been treated with such disrespect. East End Avenue, with the "target" of Gracie Mansion, is not closed. First Avenue is not closed despite containing the UN, a major "target." None of the streets surrounding City Hall, Penn Station, or Grand Central are closed. 

Within a year of the Park Row “frozen zone”, 24 nearby Chinatown businesses shuttered their doors. The area, once bustling with activity, now stagnates, a shadow of its former self. Community organizations filed multiple lawsuits because the Park Row area had become an ever-expanding NYPD parking lot. Lives continue to be jeopardized because hospital and fire emergency vehicles cannot take the direct Park Row route and must travel along packed local streets flooded with vehicles.

Recently, over objections, the City installed a bus island, requiring seniors and other riders to dangerously cross a two-way bicycle lane, and added 15 NYPD parking spots, effectively making northbound Park Row a one-lane bus lane.  

On July 25th, outraged by the proposed changes, which would permanently cause Park Row to be closed to vehicular traffic, the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association hosted a Town Hall attended by almost 300 people and supported by over 60 local organizations. The offline petition to reopen Park Row and the Municipal Parking Garage has already garnered over 6,000 signatures. The online petition is here [1].  [1]

Manhattan’s Chinatown is one of the oldest and largest Chinatowns, dating back to 1870. It is the treasured lifeline and hub for the Chinese in the tri-state area. Twenty-three years is far too long to be in the frozen zone—reopen the 4-lane Park Row and the Municipal Parking Garage to the public domain NOW so Chinatown can be revitalized and thrive.

Doris Ling-Cohan is a retired New York State Supreme Court judge.