Fight Against Ugly Scaffolding Continues, But Still Hard to Cut Number of Sidewalk Sheds

Mayor Eric Adams is continuing his public war on scaffolding sheds, by playing up a new city study which concluded that retail shops situated under scaffolding saw a marked drop in revenue.

Conducted in partnership with MasterCard, the study found that dining & drinking establishments with sidewalk sheds in front of them saw a weekly decline in transactions of between 3.5 to 9.7 percent. On a monthly basis, MasterCard users spend between $3,500 and $9,500 less at all businesses.

Adams brought allies from his administration and the City Council to 8th Ave. & W. 35th St. for an August 14 presser on the matter, where speakers utilized a podium plastered with the “Get Sheds Down” campaign slogan, which was itself positioned in front of a large “Improving Quality of Life” banner.

During his speech, Adams said that lingering scaffolding is “unsightly to our sidewalks, dangerous, and makes no sense.” He claimed that many shed owners leave them because it is cheaper to leave them up than to carry out the repairs that were the reason the sheds were erected to facilitate in the first place. He labeled that “bad public policy.”

“Too many businesses in NYC have been shrouded by hundreds of miles of sidewalk sheds, some of which have been up for decades,” the mayor added.

The city made great hay of the city taking down 173 miles worth of scaffolding sheds in the past year; however, data from an interactive Department of Building’s (DOB) map shows that the overall amount of linear scaffolding ft. has increased since last year, from 2.03 million ft. to nearly 2.1 million ft.

There is still 87,870 ft. of sidewalk sheds that are more than five years old citywide, and the largest amount of these are concentrated in Manhattan. The total number of permits for these particularly old sheds has dipped–since last July–from more than 500 to less than 300, though, which demonstrates some progress. These were prime targets for the city when the “Get Sheds Down” program first kicked off last year, and have extra scrutiny applied to them by the DOB under the “Long Standing Shed” program.

During his own speaking slot at the presser, DOB Commissioner Jimmy Oddo said that “every shed is not the same.”

“A shed that goes up for new construction is a good thing. A shed that goes up for maintenance is a good thing. A shed that goes up and responds to Local Law 11, could be a good thing. A shed that goes up, and no other work happens...that’s what Mayor Adams wants us to address,” Oddo clarified.

Another key element of the anti-scaffolding campaign has been the threat of penalties against stubborn building owners. Under Local Law 11, otherwise known as the Façade Inspection Safety Program, shed owners can face penalties of $10,000 dollars if they have a dangerous façade and don’t: file a repair application within three months, obtain work permits for repair within six months, and complete the repairs within 24 months.

Now, a year after this penalty system was proposed, the City Council wants to modify it further to help the sheds become less offensive on the eyes–for example, by allowing them to be a color other than green.

At the August 14 press confererence, Council Member Keith Powers began his remarks by echoing Adams’s aggressive stance: “For far too long, we have surrendered our entire city–and certainly Midtown–to allowing scaffolding to take over our neighborhoods.”

Powers added that a hearing had been held on the modification legislation, and that he had got some help from Council Member Erik Bottcher, who was standing nearby.