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Community Board Approves Street Fairs, With Reservations
Although the committee approved all eight street-closure applications before it, some members expressed mounting frustration with the events and called for a review of the board’s policy. Some of the most vocal opposition to the fairs came from the Downtown Alliance. Alliance attorney Michael Ketring and one of its directors, Joel Kopel, both members of the committee, said street fairs in the financial district hurt local businesses and snarl traffic. Kate Kerrigan, a vice president for the business improvement district, also weighed in with a presentation meant to show that Downtown cannot spare its streets for the events. “We’ve got $30 billion of construction ongoing in one square mile of Lower Manhattan,” Kerrigan said. “There are 60-plus private construction sites, in addition to 20-plus public construction sites. There are 800 buses going down Broadway every day. There are 576 buses on Water Street every day. When we start closing streets for fairs as well, it really gets very difficult to navigate the area.” CB1 member Tom Goodkind asked Kerrigan whether the Alliance’s long-held policy of opposition to street fairs came from its membership—mostly Downtown business and building owners—or elsewhere. Kerrigan said she didn’t know whether constituents had been consulted on the subject. But the fairs also had their defenders at the meeting. “Street fairs are never convenient,” said District Manager Noah Pfefferblit. “There’s a balance that needs to be struck between the needs of local worthy organizations to make some money and the inconvenience that it can cause because of traffic and the effect on local merchants.” Committee Chairman Ro Sheffe also defended the fairs. “There are a lot of deserving organizations for whom this is the primary source of revenue,” he said. Among the organizations seeking permission for street fairs at the Nov. 5 meeting were the Bowling Green Association, the John Huess House, the NYC Police Museum, Chabad of Wall Street, and the Independence Plaza Tenants Association. Committee member Catherine McVay-Hughes, a resident of lower Broadway and frequent critic of the fairs, suggested some of the events should be moved north to Lafayette Street, away from the construction in the Financial District. But Joe Giovanni, the president of Mardis Gras Productions, which manages the street fairs, said city’s Office of Event Coordination would likely reject that location because of its proximity to courts, federal buildings, and a prison. Ultimately the committee agreed to recommend approving all of the street fairs, so long as those along Broadway are rescheduled for weekends. But the community board is scheduled to take a closer look at street fair policy when its Quality of Life Committee meets Dec. 20. Among the street fairs the committee voted to approve was one hosted by Ziua USA, a newspaper with offices at 45 Broadway that describes itself as “The Most Dynamic Romanian-American Weekly.” “This is not just any street fair,” said Stefan Minovici, the paper’s editor-in-chief. Minovici told the committee that the event is broadcast live and watched by 5 million Romanians around the world. In previous years Nadia Comaneci, and Romanian Royalty have participated in the event. The fair would close Broadway between Fulton Street and Battery Place, but because it is scheduled for May 3, a Saturday, the committee opted to approve it. “I thank you,” Minovici told the committee after its vote. “Romania thanks you.”
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