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To Help Holiday Crowds, New York to Close Streets Near Rockefeller Center To Help Holiday Crowds, New York to Close Streets Near Rockefeller Center
(32 minutes later)
To ease the congestion caused by the throngs of tourists who swarm Midtown Manhattan during the holidays, New York City plans to close parts of the area around Rockefeller Center to traffic, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced in a radio interview on Friday. Countless visitors make the pilgrimage to Fifth Avenue in Manhattan during the holidays to bask in the glow of the towering Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center, gawk at glittering window displays and take selfies with sidewalk Santas.
The decision came weeks after Mr. de Blasio initially walked back plans disclosed by a city agency to close lanes of Fifth Avenue to traffic during the holiday season, a time when crowds of people fill the street to gape at festive store window displays and pose for selfies with Rockefeller Center’s soaring Christmas tree. And soon New York City will make more room for these holiday crowds in the heart of the city by taking the groundbreaking step of removing or severely limiting cars on several streets, including an iconic stretch of Fifth Avenue.
Portions of 49th and 50th Streets between Fifth and Sixth Avenues would also be closed for significant parts of the day, the mayor said. Mayor Bill de Blasio, during a radio interview on Friday morning, announced that a pedestrian zone would be created around Rockefeller Center and Radio City Music Hall by temporarily closing all or part of several blocks to cars, starting the day after Thanksgiving and ending in January.
The move represents the city’s latest effort to squeeze space on the street for cars in an effort to improve the flow of traffic in New York’s busiest neighborhoods, which has slowed to a crawl in recent years. The decision came weeks after Mr. de Blasio had seemed to quash plans by the city’s Transportation Department for the holiday street closings.
Earlier this year, the city closed much of 14th Street, a major thoroughfare across Manhattan, to cars in an effort to speed up buses. And the City Council recently approved a plan to significantly expand bus and bike lanes, which would mean eliminating parking spaces and traffic lanes. On Friday, the mayor said it was important to make sure that people were safe and able to enjoy themselves at the increasingly crowded holiday sights.
In a letter to a local community board last month, a Department of Transportation official revealed the Fifth Avenue plan, saying it would ease congestion for tourists and locals alike during the holidays. “Literally, each year, more and more people are coming,” the mayor said on the radio show. “That’s creating a real safety issue, and we want to protect those folks, be they New Yorkers or folks visiting from out of town. There’s a congestion problem, so we are acting on it.’’
But Mr. de Blasio put the brakes on the plan at a news conference in October, saying the idea had not yet been given a green light by City Hall. The move represents the city’s latest attempt to change longstanding traffic patterns in its busiest neighborhoods, where cars have slowed to a crawl in recent years.
Last month, the city closed much of 14th Street, a major thoroughfare across Manhattan, to cars in an effort to speed up buses. And more recently, the City Council approved a plan to significantly expand bus and bike lanes, which would mean eliminating parking spaces and traffic lanes.
In a letter to a local community board in October, a city transportation official revealed the Fifth Avenue plan, saying it would ease congestion for tourists and locals alike during the holidays.
But Mr. de Blasio put the brakes on the idea at a news conference that month, saying it had not yet been given a green light by City Hall.
“I think it was premature that whoever at Department of Transportation let that get out there,” Mr. de Blasio said. “Maybe it was accidental, maybe someone was trying to further their own agenda. But it was premature.”“I think it was premature that whoever at Department of Transportation let that get out there,” Mr. de Blasio said. “Maybe it was accidental, maybe someone was trying to further their own agenda. But it was premature.”
On Friday, during his weekly radio interview on “The Brian Lehrer Show,” Mr. de Blasio said that the city would close a lane of traffic on each side of Fifth Avenue on weekday evenings and weekends, providing more space for pedestrians. Fifth Avenue’s elaborate window displays and exuberant holiday cheer have attracted tourists to the city for years. But just as famous as the street’s festivities are the notorious traffic and crowding they cause, which slow New Yorkers’ typically brisk sidewalk trot to a crawl.
The lane closings will start next Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, and run through New Year’s Day, Mr. de Blasio said. In recent years, the congestion was amplified by heightened security around Trump Tower, the longtime New York City residence of President Trump.
Fifth Avenue’s elaborate window displays and exuberant holiday cheer have attracted tourists to the city for years. But just as famous as the street’s festivities is the notorious traffic and crowding they cause, which slows New Yorkers’ typically brisk sidewalk trot to a slow crawl.
In recent years, the typical congestion was amplified by heightened security around Trump Tower, the longtime New York City residence of President Trump.