NYC Chinatown residents demand end to open streets program that turns neighborhood into ‘s–tshow'

Yahoo

05-04-2025

Chinatown residents want to put the brakes on the return of open street parties to Canal Street this spring, saying the city's move to close off part of the street turned their peaceful neighborhood into 'spring break in Miami' for seven months of the year.
Last year, two blocks of Canal – between Orchard and Essex – were closed off to traffic from 3 to 11pm daily from April to October, allowing bars and restaurants to add hundreds of seats on the street, creating what residents described as a free-for-all.
They said adding 300 diners — with no extra toilets — was 'psychotic.'
'The public urination is out of control. I've said to people, 'Hey would you mind not peeing here?' and they've said to me, 'Why don't I punch you in your f—ing mouth. It's awful,' said neighbor Elizabeth Zalman.
Another neighbor said someone urinated in his building's flowerpot. 'It's chaos,' said Bruce Torrey. 'It's a combat zone.'
A group of residents and business owners launched a stomach-churning campaign – using photos of public urination, puking and raucous behavior — to capture City Hall's attention and deep-six a wine bar's sidewalk-dining application.
It worked. In a rare move, City Hall rejected Le Dive's request for 18 sidewalk seats.
But for neighbors, that's just a symbolic victory. They expect Le Dive to get approval to put 87 seats on the street, along with half a dozen other bars and restaurants.
Jon Neidich, owner of Le Dive, told The Post the restaurants are being unfairly targeted.
'The block parties and stuff like that — that didn't come from any of the restaurants. Our business is having people seated and serving them,' he said.
The residents' focus now is trying to get the city to put limits on the Canal Open Streets program
They say partiers inevitably end up spilling out onto side streets, leaving behind broken glass, cigarette butts and various bodily fluids.
'You see these little grandmas the next morning sweeping up the streets because they're going to get a fine from the Sanitation Department saying 'this is a s–tshow',' said Zalman, who lives on Orchard Street.
Shop owners say they are losing customers.
'It screwed up my business,' vented Frank Farooq, who has owned Hi-Tech Electronic Service Center on Canal for 32 years. 'They block my entrance and my customers cannot come.'
The low point came on Oct. 4, when a 26-year-old man was slashed in the face after a dispute.
'Residents and business owners were left to clean up the blood while diners looked on, drinking their Pet Nat,' one resident told The Post.
The community's main ask to the DOT is to reduce the number of seats restaurants are allowed to add on Canal by half. They also want the party to end an hour earlier, and to have no seating on the south side of Canal to make way for an emergency lane.
So far, restaurants have agreed to limit the party to four days a week instead of seven. The DOT confirmed Canal Open Streets was approved to operate from Thursdays to Sundays for the 2025 season.