Seen & Heard: Stop Sign Press Conference

••• Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer held a press conference at Greenwich and Duane just now—actually, they may still be there—to insist that the Department of Transportation to do something about the consistently dangerous intersection. Pointing out that he had called on the DOT three years ago and citing the “unprecedented changes” in Tribeca, he railed against government bureaucracy and the DOT’s “laissez-faire attitude” toward an intersection where “children play hit-or-miss with their children and pugs.” He said he’d be sending a letter to the federal government to that effect. “How many close calls are too many?” (Five, duh.) There was a nice turnout, but I bet there would’ve been far more people had there bee more than three hours’ notice and had it been called for 3 p.m. or later, when parents pick up their kids from school. (I left when Stringer was done, because it has always been my theory that the most important person at a press conference will be the one to say anything important. Besides, I have a strict no-press-conference-or-ribbon-cutting rule that I had already violated.)

••• Related! A press release popped over at 12:30 p.m.: “Today, Council member Margaret Chin wrote to Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan calling on the DOT to immediately install a stop sign or traffic light at the intersection of Duane and Greenwich Streets in Tribeca. […] ‘The DOT must ensure that Greenwich Street is safe for pedestrians, many of whom are children. This is my top priority and will take precedence over any of DOT’s activities in lower Manhattan.'”

••• Someone who lives near the Tribeca Grand’s eastern side has had it. He/she started a Twitter account, 3becaGrandNoise, detailing the problem. Which reminds me (because I need to fill this part out a bit so these two images don’t bump up against each other): Tribeca Citizen is on Twitter, too. In fact, just the other day I made an off-color (but funny?) joke about a two-groom wedding cake from Duane Park Patisserie. Follow me.

••• Salaam Bombay appears to be getting a new paint job. Like the red!

 

1 Comment

  1. Has Stringer just been waiting patiently for 3 years for a reply to his letter? Only now the big press conference comes? Can’t he just shoot them an email? I hope he doesn’t wait 3 years for a reply from the federal government. It’s like when politicians make a big whoop-dee-doo only during election season. Oooooooooh, riiiiiight.
    I think Jeanette Sadik-Khan is just waiting for a fatality so she can get a magazine photo spread with her sitting at a cafe table in the intersection of Duane & Greenwich with the painted white outline of a child’s body at her feet. (see link for reference) She’s a genius. (cough, cough).
    http://www.esquire.com/features/brightest-2010/janette-sadik-khan-1210