NEW YORK - A sweeping red-glass staircase in the heart of Times Square that is a magnet for selfie-snapping tourists has been barricaded off.
The pandemic, which has taken away so much already, has created new challenges for public places that are, by design, meant to be shared by everyone and are central to cities like New York, where limited space forces people together. "Everyone is desperate to encourage public activity, but how to do it safely with a less than perfect understanding of how risky is risky?" said Tom Wright, president of the Regional Plan Association, an influential planning group.
An outdoor dining plan announced by mayor Bill de Blasio allows restaurants to expand seating outdoors on sidewalks and in parking lanes and plazas. Restaurants will soon be able to use streets that have already been closed to traffic. But with little official guidance from the city on public spaces beyond streets and outdoor dining, many business and community groups have been left to figure out how to keep people safe."The stressful part of going anywhere is getting there, because the sidewalks are so narrow," said City Councilman Ben Kallos, who represents parts of the neighborhood and Roosevelt Island."There's no room for distancing, especially when people are walking toward you.
Times Square, one of the most famous gathering spots in the world, draws up to 450,000 people daily. The cascade of 27 ruby-red glass steps, which seats hundreds at a time, has been closed indefinitely. Dozens of theater-inspired signs remind visitors of social-distancing rules, including one that says,"Phantom of the Opera: popularizing masks since 1986."
Still, many people overseeing public spaces say there is only so much they can do to maintain social distancing. "We need to think of public spaces in total," he said."They're all part of the solution, and we need to think about them in the same way." Moving dining tables outside would not offset the losses from reducing indoor capacity, McNamee said, but it would allow his restaurants to bring back up to 50 per cent of their employees.
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