NYC’s unsightly sidewalk sheds and scaffolding targeted by Mayor Adams in new program

NEW YORK CITY (WABC) — Mayor Eric Adams is taking action when it comes to all the scaffolding and sidewalk sheds across New York City.

The mayor says the city’s plan called “Get Sheds Down” is working well.

Scaffolding and sidewalk sheds aren’t just an eyesore in some neighborhoods, a study shows these structures actually cost businesses money.

A legitimate scaffold or sidewalk shed where there is actual construction taking place is not the target. It’s the owners of the ones that are just creating dark spaces, with no work going on, probably because the owner is stalling, that the city is putting on notice.

“Our plan is to flip the script on property owners so work gets finished and sheds come down,” Adams said.

The mayor stood in front of a building Wednesday that had been by a sidewalk shed that had not served much of a purpose for a whole year.

The city says 173 miles of ugly sheds have come down in just the last few weeks.

The local business improvement district says the building owner there was cooperative, but others can be stubborn.

“The excuse I’ve heard is, it’s cheaper that way. Avoids problems, let’s just leave it up. But bad things happen in the meantime,” said Dan Biederman, President, 34th Street Partnership.

“When you are in a cramped, dark, not-very-well -lit no light reaching the store, an attraction for nefarious activity, bars all around, that’s a vibe that this mayor does not want,” said James Oddo, NYC Buildings Commissioner.

Statistics show they’re bad for business.

“Restaurants and bars are seeing as much as a 10% decrease in weekly transactions, in the six months following a shed going up,” Adams said.

The city’s so-called “Get Sheds Down” program is enforcing existing law, but the city council is working on additional incentives, requiring building owners to use nicer-looking ones, and to show every 90 days that they’re doing work that requires the use of them.

“They’re going to have to continue to show the department of buildings that they’re doing the work, and if they’re not, they’re going to hear from us,” said Keith Powers, NYC Council.

The Buildings Department commissioner says the difference is night and day. He even came up with a buzzword for it. Shed-endfreude.

“That feeling you and others get when a shed has come down, and an area that was dank is now resplendent in light. The word of the day. SHED-enfreude,” Oddo said.

The city says of the scaffolds and sheds that have come down in the last few weeks, 259 of them had been up for five years or more.

According to the NYC DOB:
– There are 9,110 active sheds in the city. The average age of the sheds is 485 days.
– End-to-end the scaffolding in the city spans 2,096,411 feet – that’s 397 miles.

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