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Stringer: There Is Too Much Box Blocking In SoHo

By

Garth Johnston

Published Jan 23, 2012

Modified Jan 23, 2012

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Night or day, there is traffic on Broome Street

 

MBPO

By

Garth Johnston

Published Jan 23, 2012

Modified Jan 23, 2012

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Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer has been concerned about cars blocking the box around town for years now, but with a mayoral election in the pipeline he's pulling the old issue out again for another spin. Today the Beep held a press conference to goad the Department of Transportation into doing something about the permanent gridlock that envelopes SoHo—especially Broome Street—come rush hour every day. "For residents of the SoHo and Hudson Square communities, horn honking has become the lullaby of lower Broadway," Stringer quipped. See what he did there?

Of course the problem in SoHo is nothing new—its all about the Holland Tunnel—but it also hasn't exactly been improving. Even after blocking the box went from being a $50 moving violation to a $115 trafic violation. Heck, we've even noticed squeegee guys back on the strip in the past year. So what does Stringer want done to make the lives of the lucky folk living in SoHo easier? He's got bullet points!

And the Gracie Mansion-eying Stringer isn't the only pol pissed about the traffic. He lined up State Senator Daniel Squadron and Assemblywoman Deborah Glick to complain too: "The long standing problem of gridlock in SoHo has been exacerbated by policies that increase both vehicular and pedestrian traffic without appropriate mitigation,” Glick says. “It is incumbent on the Administration to step up gridlock prevention to improve pedestrian safety and reduce air pollution hot spots.”

So, yeah. Stringer would like more traffic cameras to stop people from blocking the box. Sure. Except we swear we've walked on Broome durring rush hour and seen cops just waiting at intersections ticketing car after car... and yet the box blocking continues.

Tagged

block the box

Broome street

gridlock

manhattan

scott stringer

soho

traffic

Garth Johnston

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