Good morning. It\u2019s Friday. Today we\u2019ll find out why some business owners say that a law passed 17 years ago \u2014 and set to take effect this July 1 \u2014 should be revised. We\u2019ll also get details on the National Transportation Safety Board\u2019s preliminary report on the deadly runway collision at LaGuardia Airport last month.<\/p>\n
Roll-down gates, which wall off storefronts after closing time the way a theater curtain walls off the stage between acts, have long been fixtures of the urban streetscape in New York \u2014 unsightly to some, irresistible to others who have spray paint and artistic flair and see them as canvases.<\/p>\n
When the City Council took up a bill to ban them, the vote was unanimous.<\/p>\n
That was in 2009. The measure set a deadline far in the future \u2014 this July 1, 69 days from now.<\/p>\n
Now, as the deadline approaches, there is resistance. At least one City Council member is drafting a measure that would require only new installations to meet the standard set by the 2009 law. It said that gates could no longer be solid steel curtains. People had to be able to see through them from the street.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been 17 years,\u201d said Randolph Peers, the president of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce. \u201cIn some cases, businesses forgot about the law. In other cases, even with new installations, nobody was advising businesses that they needed to be in compliance.\u201d He estimated that only 10 percent to 15 percent of businesses in Brooklyn met the requirements.<\/p>\n
An issue that disappeared from the conversation<\/p>\n
Councilwoman Althea Stevens, a Bronx Democrat who said she was working on a bill to revise the rules on gates, said the issue had faded from public consciousness in the years since her predecessors passed the bill. \u201cLiterally, I didn\u2019t know about it until I started talking to businesses in my district,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Many business owners first heard about the deadline in late January, when the Department of Buildings issued a leaflet with a photograph of a solid-panel gate that would not be acceptable after July 1. Next to it was a gate with what are known as fenestrated slats, or openings in the slats that roll down.<\/p>\n
\u201cEssentially it\u2019s about the level of visibility,\u201d said Jessica Walker, the president and chief executive of the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce<\/a>. \u201cLaw enforcement wants to have a better view into the stores\u201d if an alarm triggered by a break-in goes off. \u201cWe understand that and agree with that objective. It\u2019s about the timing, what it would mean for small businesses to comply by July.\u201d<\/p>\n