New York City’s longest-standing sidewalk shed at 409 Edgecombe Avenue, a city landmark, which had been up for 21 years. The safe removal of this shed comes after the city filed a criminal court case against the building’s property managers for their repeated failure to repair the building.
Through the “Get Sheds Down” plan, the Adams administration has expediated the removal of sidewalk construction sheds and scaffolding while reimagining the future of pedestrian protection in New York City.
“Scaffolding in New York City is a way too large reality,” Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement. “Scaffolding plays an important role. It’s what we put up while we’re doing critical facade work, and that work absolutely needs to be done, but the overbearing soul-less steel and drab green wood often overshadows our streets.
“We’re enforcing against long standing sheds; and in 2024, we’ll work with city council to sharpen our tools to do this work, and we’re working with design engineers to design new scaffolding that will showcase rather than shroud our streets.
The shed removed after Christmas was been up for 21 years and the mayor says too many sheds have become permanent fixtures.
“And we said no to that,” he said. “We are taking down the longest standing shed in New York City history.
The historical landmark building at 409 Edgecombe had to be encased in a shed “because it was easier to keep it up than to do the repairs and take it down”.
“The course of the Civil Rights Movement was started right here in the building behind us. And for 21 years, that history has been living under the darkness of a shed, which is not only just a poor eyesight but it has been known to perpetrate or allow criminal behavior to take place. Hiding items, drugs, guns and other items,” Adams said.
Sidewalk sheds were created to protect New Yorkers from unsafe buildings and construction sites. But they stay up far too long. This is what our initiative was about.
Since the “Get Sheds Down” plan that we’ve announced, about 500 construction sheds have been removed – about 100 sidewalk sheds a month returning a total of 11 miles of sidewalk space.
“We hear the concerns about them over and over again, and it’s just excellent to see the longest one coming down,” Adams said. “And we want to continue to not to break those records again of having a shed up for 21 years.
