By: Ilana Siyance
Sunday was the first of the car-free days on Fifth Avenue’s Holiday Shopping Plaza.
As reported by the NY Post, 11 Midtown Manhattan blocks, stretching from 48th to 57th streets on Fifth Avenue were closed off to cars from noon till 6 pm. The same street closures will apply for the next two Sundays, delighting pedestrians, but irking Taxi and Uber drivers. “Especially for the holidays I think it’s nice for people to be able to go see the stores and the windows without cars being in the way,” said Upper East Side resident Robin Lempel, 32.
Additionally, every day for the entire holiday season, the two streets around Rockefeller Center, on West 49th and West 50th, will be car-free from 11 a.m. till midnight. The car-free pedestrian plaza was announced by Mayor Eric Adam in mid-November, with hopes to facilitate the holiday shopping season in the Big Apple. The three Sundays on Fifth aim to “cement Midtown Manhattan as the premiere international holiday destination,” City Hall said in a statement. On the remaining six days of the week, the NYPD has been instructed to use the metal barricades to take out one lane of traffic for pedestrians from Fifth and Sixth avenues. The two-block Rockefeller Center street closures will be effective 7-days a week from 11 am to midnight, beginning Nov. 30–the day of the iconic Christmas tree lighting which draws thousands of visitors.
Local elected officials had called on Mayor Adams to limit car traffic in Rockefeller Center, hoping they will make the streets safer when large crowds make their way to visit the tree during the shopping season. “The crowds are just enormous. This is one of the most popular tourist destinations in America, and it’s frankly unsafe to have tourists pushed off the sidewalk and stepping into traffic,” Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine previously told The Post. “It’s the most wonderful time of the year except if you’re a person walking down the street in crowds near Rockefeller Center,” said Councilman Keith Powers (D-Manhattan). “The crowds are crushing and demand is overflowing.”
In 2019 and 2021, Mayor Bill de Blasio had introduced the seasonal pedestrianization of the two block Rockefeller Center area for certain hours of the day during the holiday season. No other streets had been previously closed for the season. Adams in a statement called his expended plan “bold, creative thinking.” “Every year, people come from across the world to New York City, and to Midtown Manhattan specifically, during the holiday season,” the mayor said. “This year, we are going to make that experience safer and more enjoyable for all New Yorkers and visitors with more access to Open Streets.”
Some cab drivers were less than enthused about the street closures. Kwabena, a taxi driver for 15 years, said the new policy was “causing problems” for him and other drivers who rely on giving rides to holiday shoppers walking by Fifth Avenue. “That’s where we get more passengers,” Kwabena told the Post.