Park Row

From Think!Chinatown’s Board President, Amy Chin’s speech: “Chinatown residents and businesses have endured untenable conditions with the closure of Park Row. the city has obstructed what was once a major thoroughfare into Chinatown and allowed the NYPD to occupy this public space as their parking lot. In the intervening 23 years, as the community to be reopened, the City responded with study after study after study but minimal change.

The construction of jail has also limited access to Baxter Street. The streets around Columbus Park and Worth Street get routinely closed off when there are high profile court cases. How much more can they cut off and choke off Chinatown? With the upcoming investment for the Chinatown Connections project, we must take this opportunity to improve access on Park Row for pedestrians, for cyclists, and vehicles alike.”

From the petition: “For 23 years, the residents and businesses of Chinatown and Little Italy have been begging the City of New York and the NYPD to reopen a major access road and our 400-car parking garage. This unilateral decision made after 9/11 crippled access to Chinatown and Little Italy and our economies, dramatically affecting the vibrancy and potential of our neighborhoods.  This was then exacerbated by Covid, anti-Asian violence, and the construction of the world's tallest jail in Chinatown further choking access.”