As far as the SoHo Alliance is concerned, pedestrians will bring the ruination of their hip New York neighborhood. Today, the New York Community Board 2’s Transportation Committee will entertain plans for a pilot project that would make Prince St., in the heart of SoHo, a pedestrian-only thoroughfare—for a mere few hours on Sundays.

The overwhelmingly negative reaction to this proposal—even by New Yorkers, who are largely car-free—only proves how attached people are to their cars. They can’t give them up, even for a few hours a week? I’m saddened to see such a fierce reaction to a ped-friendly proposal in a city that caters to its mostly car-free, pedestrian residents.

The SoHo Alliance is papering the area with flyers that expose how great a threat this proposed “pedestrian mall” would be to residents. Mimes and pesky performers would overtake the streets, and the aroma of roasting cashews from vendor’s carts would waft up to eight story windows. Imagine! It would be the downfall of the neighborhood’s fashionable reputation. (At least, that’s what the alliance is afraid of.)

According to Streetsblog, the Alliance has also rallied against new bike lanes, sidewalk widenings, and other efforts to create more livable streets.

In almost every New York neighborhood, the streets are already crowded with pedestrians. City traffic is always bad, and there’s never any parking. Now, SoHo wants to protect cars over people? The Alliance is calling the idea of a purely pedestrian Prince Street “cockamamie.” The Brits, however, have had great success with such ideas, and boosted business with car-free shopping days. It’s high time that SoHo stopped being so bloody snobbish.

Photos via flickr by Tom Simpson & kenyee.

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kitty cat bandit said:

Yet another reason I never want to live in NYC... I've lived in Iowa City, IA, now for 6 years and we have a thriving downtown community largely due to a pedestrian mall. In the summer, we have art festivals and jazz festivals and the entire downtown area is blocked off (yes, the streets are closed!). It's an accepted phenomenon, and we love it. New York needs to take a lesson from the Heartland and get over itself already.

March 12, 2008 | url

Graham said:

And what New Yorker wouldn't love living in thrilling Iowa City, Iowa, (pop. 62,649) Kitty cat bandit? As far as the post goes, It sounds like the reason they're doing this is to keep SoHo from becoming even more touristy then it already is (sort of a lost cause though in my opinion). Perhaps they want to keep up the illusion that it isn't a total tourist trap? Seems semi-justified at least. I don't think the back lash is really because NYers are "attached" to their cars - who the hell bothers with a car in NYC? Anyway in this case I can see the reasoning behind it. I don't know how they justify the other stuff like fighting bike lanes though... that's lame.

March 13, 2008

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