(2012-02-03) Nyc Zoning Small Retail

NYC is considering Zoning rules to effectively protect Small Retail in the Upper West Side. The proposal would amend the neighborhood’s zoning to limit the ground-floor width of all new stores to 40 feet on two major commercial thoroughfares — Amsterdam and Columbus Avenues — and banks to 25 feet on those two avenues, and on Broadway as well. The 40-foot number was chosen because most are already narrower than that, and 25 feet was regarded by officials as a “workable width” for ground-floor banks.

I have mixed feelings about this...

• I agree with one quote about how having a whole block taken up by a bank branch which is closed for many hours sucks life from the neighborhood. (That's true even while it's open.) But...
• A lot of NYC Small Retail is either twee Luxury crap or poorly-lit and poorly-stocked little family businesses that have been there for 30 years and never updated anything.