The town plans to close down an Higher East Aspect block so a fancy prep faculty can use it as its personal non-public playground.
The Division of Transportation has greenlit the $62,500-a-year Birch Wathen Lenox Faculty’s utility to incorporate East 77th Road between Second and Third Avenues in its controversial anti-car “Open Streets” program starting Jan. 5.
This implies the busy residential road would near site visitors between 9 a.m. and a pair of p.m. on weekdays, a plan native residents and enterprise house owners torched as a boondoggle for the rich few.
“If this closure goes into effect, the majority of the residents and business on this block will have their lives disrupted as cars, cabs and ambulances will not be able to get through,” stated Marie Stareck, a senior on the block. “The Open Streets program benefits the privileged few and hurts tax-paying citizens.”
The block is frequently utilized by ambulances making an attempt to succeed in Lenox Hill Hospital two blocks west and is flanked by development websites already hampering site visitors.
Astride Riche, the Ok-12 faculty’s chief of workers, informed Manhattan Group Board 8 not too long ago that the 500-student establishment is “very excited” to be included in “Open Streets” as a result of its current outside leisure area is “so small” that just one grade can use it at a time.
“We want our children to be able to take advantage of the fresh air and play together,” declared Riche.
Riche insisted automobiles could be allowed on the block “as needed” for enterprise deliveries and selecting folks up.
However the neighborhood board wasn’t offered, voting 36-2 in favor of a non-binding decision demanding DOT reject the applying.
“These children have parents, and when school is over, as I did with mine, you can take your children to the park,” stated board member Michele Birnbaum. “You don’t have to inconvenience a major hospital, residences, businesses … This is outrageous.”
DOT claims it is going to work with the varsity to “adjust” the deliberate road hours, however offered no specifics.
The Open Streets program was created in April 2020 as a momentary measure to assist New Yorkers collect safely open air throughout the pandemic.
The Metropolis Council made it everlasting in 2021, and Mayor Adams has since expanded it to roughly 200 websites as a part of an agenda aimed toward limiting automobile use.
The town is presently keeping off a pending federal lawsuit alleging Open Streets discriminates towards folks with disabilities who depend on automobiles to journey.
