BY ALINE REYNOLDS | Community Board 1 has created an inventory of newsstands in the district, enabling the board to better evaluate newcomers’ applications.
Students of Pace University professor Michael Levine, C.B. 1’s director of planning and land use, hit the streets this spring to tally all the neighborhood newsstands. “We discovered there are so many more than we thought were out there,” Levine told the board’s Financial District Committee on Thurs., June 2.
“This gives us a more informed perspective for decision-making when presented an application for a newsstand,” said Financial District Committee Chair Ro Sheffe.
“The committee is very committed to small businesses, but right now there are special circumstances,” Sheffe said, noting the increase of area construction and street repair that is restricting pedestrian pathways. “We have to be very careful not to block those arteries any further.”
The board has teamed up with the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center to plot the newsstand locations and upload them onto a digital database. In the coming weeks, the L.M.C.C.C. will be overlaying the data onto the agency’s online construction map, which Sheffe said would prove useful for both the board and the Downtown community.
“Now, at a glance, we’ll be able to see that two streets are partially closed because of construction, for example, when [considering] a newsstand application,” said Sheffe.
Applications for newsstand licenses, Levine explained, must be approved by the City’s Department of Consumer Affairs, the Department of Transportation and, finally, the Landmarks Preservation Commission or the Art Commission (depending on whether or not the newsstand is located in a historic district).
Newsstand applicants must specify the dimensions of the proposed booth as well as its proximity to curbs, property lines and building entrances, and list items such as canopies and planters, that are situated within 25 feet of the proposed location. They are also supposed to submit photographs showing street obstructions located in the 25-foot parameter. Applicants are additionally required to notify the owners of buildings and lots directly adjacent to the site of the application within 30 days of its submission to the D.C.A.
After reviewing the material, the D.C.A. forwards it to C.B. 1, which then has 60 days to provide feedback, including concerns about pedestrian congestion.
“If the Community Board provides no comments within 60 calendar days, it shall be deemed to have waived its opportunity to comment,” said Levine. “So we must always respond in the negative or affirmative in order for our opinion to count.”
The goal of the D.C.A., according to its guidelines, is “to ensure that, while serving the public, newsstands do not unduly interfere with pedestrian circulation or conflict with street obstructions.”
While the Department does a good job of enforcing guidelines for existing newsstands, Levine said, it could be more effective when vetting applications.
“Our suspicion is that some [newsstand] operators don’t properly complete the forms. We need to make sure we reinforce what the D.C.A. does not” by asking applicants to provide all of the relevant streetscape information in the board’s two-page questionnaire,” said Levine.
The D.O.T. evaluates it within 60 days following C.B. 1’s assessment of the application, after which the applicant must gain final approval from the L.P.C. or the Art Commission.
“I think this is really good. We might want to consider posting [the data] onto the C.B. 1 website,” said Catherine McVay Hughes of Levine’s presentation.
Levine said he would post the inventory and newsstand application regulations on the board’s website in July.
