It’s Slow Going on These City Sidewalks

Barabee Silvana and her children were trapped, surrounded by surging crowds on a Manhattan sidewalk. When they saw an opening in the human gridlock of Fifth Avenue, they tried to rush through it -- only to be blocked once more.

“I’ve never seen anything like these New York crowds,” the Fall River, Mass., resident said Saturday, staring at the hordes of people stalled in front of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. “You have to be a genius just to make it a few blocks in any direction.”

For a city anxious about terrorism, surviving the sidewalks seems to be an equally pressing concern this holiday season. Pedestrians are finding it harder than ever to get from here to there, and as resurgent tourism brings increasing numbers of people to already congested streets, some residents are grumbling that enough is enough.

“This isn’t Bangkok, it’s New York,” groused a Daily News headline, echoing a growing concern not only along chic Fifth Avenue but in the crowded shopping districts of Times Square, Greenwich Village, Chinatown and other neighborhoods.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and other officials predict that 2003 may see more than 36.2 million people visit the city, equaling the record set in 2000. But those crowds have taken a toll on the busy sidewalks of New York, where “wait” is a four-letter word.

How did the problem spiral out of control? There’s plenty of blame to go around.

Street vendors have proliferated in many commercial districts, and even though the city has tried to limit them, their tables and wagons take up precious space. There are hundreds of peddlers, selling everything from scarves, World Trade Center photos and bootleg DVDs to imitation jewelry and telephones. Many operate on the run, without required city permits.

State lawmakers compounded the problem last month when they failed to renew a law allowing the city to better restrict the number of vendors.

But sometimes the worst offenders are pedestrians themselves, who can unknowingly aggravate the problem.

Silvana, for example, violated a classic New York rule of the road when she came to a halt at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 50th Street, one of the city’s most notorious chokepoints. She and her family simply froze, looking around for several seconds, while impatient (and vocal) New Yorkers continued to push up the street behind her.

When she saw an opening that led to the street -- and a chance to move her family a few extra feet ahead before rejoining the sidewalk -- she froze once again. Several pedestrians cursed under their breath, waiting for their chance at the valuable space.

“You have to keep moving -- that’s a basic rule,” said John McDwyer, the head doorman at Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, who has been watching city sidewalks since 1996. “There are thousands of people taking up space on each block, and at some point they just stop moving,” he said. “You need to know the right moves.”

Football is a helpful analogy. When New York crowds are sparse, people charge right up the middle of the sidewalk, covering large distances. As the streets fill up, some pedestrians use broken-field running to zig and zag their way forward. When the mob stops moving, smart New Yorkers call an end run, stepping briefly into the nearby street -- and dodging cars -- to keep moving up the block.

Much depends on the time of day one hits the streets, McDwyer said. At 10 a.m. Saturday, for example, Fifth Avenue was a bustling boulevard, filled with people but still fairly navigable. An hour later, however, it was becoming heavily congested.

By noon, the sidewalks were impassable. It took five minutes to walk one block, and the same scene was being repeated near the Empire State Building, along Canal Street in Lower Manhattan, at Herald Square and in other areas filled with holiday shoppers.

“How do people live here?” complained Nora Johnson, a visitor from Canada, trying to maneuver her three children and one infant in a stroller up Fifth Avenue.

Slowly, she made her way north, struggling to reach Central Park. Past Gucci and Godiva, past Gant and the Gap. She lurched forward, one agonizing inch at a time.

As Johnson and others tried to move up the avenue, another crush of people leaving St. Patrick’s Cathedral joined them to the north; a long line of pedestrians near Saks Fifth Avenue suddenly appeared on the right; to the left, another army of people was pouring into Rockefeller Center to get a good look at the Christmas tree.

Many tourists took it in stride, gawking at the heavily armed police officers standing guard with bomb-sniffing dogs outside St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and laughing at the bizarre sidewalk scene. Some locals, however, failed to see the humor.

“I’m standing here like a moron,” fumed Joey Francisco, wearing a Yankees cap and shaking his head at the large, shuffling crowds. “Let’s go!” he shouted.

But there was nowhere to go. At one point, the automobile traffic on Fifth Avenue -- already slowed to a snail’s pace -- was moving faster than the sidewalks.

“I think we can get a cab; I see one over there,” one man shouted to his wife.

“No way,” she answered, stalled in pedestrian traffic. “I came here for the real experience.”