Should Private Parking for Placards Revert to Public Parkway?
Community Board 1 is pushing for a long stretch of Park Row that has been closed to civilian vehicles since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, to be “multimodal [and] include pedestrians, buses, emergency vehicles, bicycles, commercial bicycles, and private motor vehicles.” On January 22, 2025, the NYC Economic Development Corporation told community leaders that the street would remain closed to vehicular traffic but that the free parking enjoyed by police officers along the same stretch would be restricted.
For more than two decades, the artery that once connected the Financial District and Civic Center to Chinatown has been closed, under the rationale that a security buffer was needed for the nearby police headquarters, along with other government offices. This closure was introduced as a “temporary” measure in 2001, but never rescinded. During the years since, Park Row has served as an unofficial (and free) parking lot for police officers’ personal vehicles and those of employees of adjacent court houses. For most of that time, the only public access to this half-mile stretch of streetscape has been aboard the M103 and M9 bus routes, which continued to use Park Row. In 2005, pedestrians were permitted to begin using the thoroughfare, and in 2018, a new bikeway opened for cyclists.
At its December monthly meeting, CB1 enacted a resolution demanding that “Park Row [be] opened to all forms of traffic,” based on the results of a traffic study conducted by the City’s Department of Transportation (DOT). This analysis found that traffic queuing at the northern end of Park Row (where St. James Place meets Worth, Oliver, and Mott Streets) is three times the local average, with 1,141 vehicles converging there during a typical morning rush hour. Opening Park Row to traffic could relieve bottlenecks.
The CB1 resolution endorses other aspects of DOT’s Street Improvement Plan for Park Row, such as a proposal to create a physical barrier to protect bike traffic on the street by installing a parking lane. But CB1 cautions, “there is concern that creating new parking spaces for members of the NYPD’s private vehicles reinforces the idea that they are entitled to free parking rather than using sustainable modes of transit.”
In the January 22 statement confirming the continuation of the closure of Park Row and announcing new restrictions on police parking there, deputy mayor Meera Joshi said, “Our work with the Chinatown community and all who live, work, and visit the area continues as we move the next phase of design forward to bring this neglected space back to families, businesses and workers.”