Chinatown

A Streetsblog tipster snapped this photo yesterday afternoon. Note the Starsky & Hutch-style siren on the dashboard of the SUV hanging off the back of that tow truck. The photographer reports that NYPD tow trucks have been racking up the hours in December clearing the streets of Chinatown, and as you can see in the photo above, they are finally "towing their own".

It looks like the street redesign around the Manhattan entrance of the Manhattan Bridge is nearing completion. Considering that Transportation Alternatives has been pushing for these fixes for years, that was pretty fast. DOT presented its plan to the local Community Board, to unanimous approval, in July; sketched out the lines on the street in August; and here we are.

It looks like 5th Precinct Commanding Officer Gin Yee, the Sheriff of Chinatown, is laying down the law once again. A Streetsblog tipster spotted these tow trucks as they were removing government placard abusers from their illegal parking spots in Chinatown. While it's refreshing to see the police "towing their own," the tipster notes that as soon as the trucks pulled away a new group of placard abusing government employees swooped in to claim the empty parking spaces.

A Chinatown tipster sent along these remarkable pictures yesterday of what seems to be an effort to cut down on placarded vehicles clogging the neighborhood's streets:

With all the talk about high level personnel changes at the DOT, let's take it back to the streets for a minute, shall we? As we have already noted, Chinatown has gotten a buffered bike lane on Grand Street, which is fantastic, and would be even more fantastic if it wasn't treated as a car parking lane. But that is not the only recent change to the Chinatown streetscape.

DOT just finished striping new bike lanes and stencils along Grand Street on Manhattan's Lower East Side:

A pedestrian crossing sign slants over the middle of Fourth Avenue in Brooklyn, meant to remind drivers that human beings may try to cross the seven lanes of moving traffic on foot.  It is little comfort to the pedestrians standing exposed on the 2 foot wide median noticing that the sign was recently run into.

Bayard Street, Chinatown. Photo: SkyShaper

Triple-parked cars of government employees in front of the "The Tombs" in Lower Manhattan