Still A Laughingstock, In Just Three Short Years

Widely heralded DOT pedestrian plaza in Meatpacking District continues to impress:

Street plazas with stone barriers that distinctly resemble breasts have become the laughingstock of the trendy Meatpacking District, and businesses are poised to give them the heave-ho, The Post has learned.

. . .

The city Department of Transportation installed the odd open areas between Gansevoort and West 14th streets in one of its first experiments with public plazas. The promenades have since become a DOT obsession, spreading all over the city.

“The plazas look neglected, dirty and unkempt. No one is taking care of them,” said [the] executive director of the Meatpacking District Improvement Association, a nonprofit spearheading the $500,000 overhaul. The tab is being split between the city and the business group.

The Meatpacking District Initiative, another local group that pledged to maintain the areas when they were first built, claimed the city stiffed them out of $40,000 and their funds dried up in 2009.

Clubgoers have taken to loitering in the plazas in between bar-hopping, and filling them with trash.

Bars By Zip Code

Helpful when you want to impress visitors with intriguing facts about the city:

A Post analysis of state liquor licenses by ZIP code has zeroed in on the booziest blocks, with the East Village’s 10003 rising to the top of the suds-soaked list.

There were 474 bars, restaurants and corner stores licensed to sell hooch in the hood, beating out Times Square and Hell’s Kitchen.

For further research: Is this the highest concentration of bars in the country? What about per capita? Need more details to pad out the walking tour!

Now We Know What Borough Presidents Do . . .

. . . basically put themselves in perfect position to become mayor, by defining leadership:

Fifth Avenue, the glittering central spine of Manhattan, is the undisputed divider of the city’s famous street grid: east of Fifth is East, and west of Fifth is West. Been that way since 1838.

So when Scott M. Stringer, the borough president of Manhattan, was walking along Fifth Avenue by Central Park this week, he noticed something peculiar: every bus stop sign on the sidewalk seemed to be wrong.

A stop across the avenue from East 84th Street was identified as “5 Avenue & West 84 St.” Same for the stop at Fifth Avenue and “West” 72nd Street. The peculiar signage continued all along the length of the park.

Mr. Stringer, who deemed the signs misleading, sent a stern note on Tuesday to the city’s Transportation Department, demanding that the apparent errors be fixed.

It is unclear, however, whether the signs are in error at all.

Happy Birthday, Map!

The Times pays tribute to the 200th anniversary of the street grid that made Manhattan boring — er, a real estate boon:

Two hundred years ago on Tuesday, the city’s street commissioners certified the no-frills street matrix that heralded New York’s transformation into the City of Angles — the rigid 90-degree grid that spurred unprecedented development, gave birth to vehicular gridlock and defiant jaywalking, and spawned a new breed of entrepreneurs who would exponentially raise the value of Manhattan’s real estate.

The paper floods the zone with coverage, including this:

John Randel Jr., the secretary, surveyor and chief engineer for New York City’s street commissioners, was hardly the most popular public servant of his day.

Beginning in 1808, Randel and his colleagues were pelted with artichokes and cabbages; arrested by the sheriff for trespassing (and often bailed out by Richard Varick, a former mayor); sued for damages after pruning trees; and attacked by dogs sicced on them by property owners irate at the prospect of streets’ being plowed through their properties (“many of whose descendants have been made rich thereby,” Randel noted later).

But She Does Have A Great Personality . . .

I think it’s important for blocks to understand that not every block can be as beautiful as certain other blocks, and that giving them false hope may lead to further disappointment down the road, as it were:

The ugliest stretch of midtown — and maybe all of Manhattan — is 35th St. between Sixth and Seventh Aves., according to Municipal Art Society member Frank Addeo.

“It’s midtown’s ugliest block,” said the former Department of Transportation and Downtown Alliance staffer, who highlighted the spot as part of an “Ugly Streets” walking tour Friday.

“Blank-wall buildings drive me crazy,” he said, gesturing to the shuttered back entrances and boring brick along the block.

Scaffolding and sidewalk sheds cover the back side of Macy’s along the entire south side of the block, making it even darker.

People who walk the block every day were far from surprised at its dubious distinction, although a homeless man wearing underwear on his head seemed to find it an ideal spot to spend the afternoon.