The city has spent the past three years vowing to continue with the Chatham Square redesign in the face of locals' extreme hatred for the project. Among the things they disliked: the redesign called for the permanent closure of Park Row, construction would be a downer for local businesses, and the redesign plan, which has been floating around for years, never went through a public review. Things have been quiet in Chinatown because the work was delayed for a year?and now it looks like it won't happen at all. DNAinfo reports that the city has decided to reallocate the $30 million meant for Chatham Square to other projects downtown.
The Mayor's Office of Capital Projects doesn't seem to have taken the plan completely off the table, but it's "not an option for at least five years" thanks to Brooklyn Bridge-related detours. Where the money might go instead: to the management of the 9/11 memorial buses, to improvements on Water Street, and maybe even toward a smaller spruce-up of Chatham Square itself. But that won't get locals to forget about Park Row, since some are already urging the city to put the money toward a feasibility study of reopening it.
· City Scraps $30M Chatham Square Redevelopment [DNAinfo]
· Chatham Square coverage [Curbed]
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