Midtown Community Board To NYPD: Tear Down These Barricades

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — A Midtown community board overwhelmingly passed a resolution this week calling on the NYPD to take down the barricades blocking streets around the neighborhood's precincts, the latest development in a monthslong battle over the obstructions.

Midtown East's Community Board 6 passed the resolution Wednesday, asking the department to take down the barricades at the 13th Precinct on East 21st Street, as well as the 17th Precinct on East 51st Street, where police erected a "checkpoint" last month.

Residents and elected officials have questioned the necessity of the barricades, which were put up as a security measure near precincts around the city in June, at the height of Black Lives Matter protests.

Now, the board wrote, “the threat to stationhouse security has subsided, but 19 of 22 precincts in Manhattan continue to barricade adjoining streets,” citing a report last week by Borough President Gale Brewer’s office.

An officer stationed at the 17th Precinct checkpoint Saturday told Patch that the barriers were erected as a precaution, "in case people try to storm the precinct."

With no such threat appearing imminent, the officer predicted that the barricades would be taken down within a month. Until then, the stretch of East 51st Street between 3rd and Lexington avenues is closed to drivers except those with "business on the block."

At the 13th precinct, meanwhile, Brewer's office found that police had partially blocked off both 20th and 21st streets, barring through traffic and only allowing residents to drive through after questioning them.

The Midtown South and Midtown North precincts also had barricades and police vehicles blocking access to cars and sometimes pedestrians, inspectors from Brewer's office found last week.

The board's final vote on the resolution was 36 in favor, four opposed and six abstaining. The NYPD did not respond to a request for comment about the resolution.

Also on Wednesday, the board overwhelmingly passed a resolution backing the construction of a new pedestrian bridge over the East River, that would stretch between the East Side and Long Island City.

Past coverage from Patch:

• Battle Escalates Over NYPD's Midtown Street Barricades
• NYPD Blocks Midtown Street With New 'Checkpoint'