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Port Authority Bus Lights Are A Kenny Rogers-Style Nuissance

Garth Johnston

Published Nov 14, 2011

Modified Nov 14, 2011

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Garth Johnston

Published Nov 14, 2011

Modified Nov 14, 2011

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Remember that episode of Seinfeld when Kramer and Jerry are both driven mad by a glowing red sign for Kenny Rodgers Roasters? Well, it seems that life is now imitating art. Residents on 43rd Street and Eighth Avenue (yes, people live there) are up in arms over the five-month-old LED display the Port Authority proudly put up on its Bus Terminal over the summer. "My cats don’t know what’s happening. They’re jumping around and looking all over the place trying to figure out where the light’s coming from. It’s funny, but it’s not funny," complained one neighbor.

Back when the Port Authority first showed off its new lights this summer we were impressed, and jokingly suggested they start screening movies on it. But the neighbors, they were not as impressed! Though the PA says it dims the lights on the giant billboard by 40 percent at night, folks on 43rd Street (who are subjected to it via reflection and through a parking lot-sized gap) say that isn't dim enough. "It’s flashing, flashing, flashing all the time, like lightning or having the paparazzi chasing you in your living room," Wilmer Hernandez, 74, a retired financial-aid adviser who has lived on 43rd Street for 40 years told the Post.

So now they are taking their gripes to Community Board 4 to get things done. They'll be speaking their minds tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. at the Holland House at 351 W. 42nd Street. On the one hand, it seems pretty reasonable to expect that if you live somewhere for 40 years you can have a reasonable expectation that you won't be subjected to insane light pollution nonstop all night. But on the other hand? If you live right next to Times Square it can be harder to make that argument.

Anyway, if neighbors are looking for ways to persuade the PA to dim the lights...we doubt that the throwing wet rat fur around the Port Authority will make much of a difference at all.

Tagged

bright lights

manhattan

nimby

port authority

port authority bus terminal

seinfeld

Garth Johnston

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