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The city makes $60M a year off sidewalks
Sidewalks, it turns out, are a great real estate deal
The city’s sidewalks are many things. They are crowded, dirty and too often covered with scaffolding. But they are also cash cows for the city.
The large No. 9 that sits in front of the office tower at 9 West 57th Street costs the building owner $12,000 a year. The mezzanine-level restaurant, which juts out over the sidewalk, costs the Grand Hyatt New York adjoining Grand Central Terminal $300,000 a year. And the nearly 16-foot decorative clock that stands in front of Trump Tower should cost the Trump Organization $300 a year – however, neither the city nor the Trump Organization could confirm that the bill has been paid.
According to the New York Times, all this sidewalk stuff earns the city roughly $60 million a year. And that number is growing.
Revenue collected from restaurants with outdoor seating has more than doubled in the past decade to about $14 million. The city also makes roughly $400,000 a year from sidewalk vendors of fruit, vegetables and flowers.
Even Columbia University isn’t safe from sky-high sidewalk fees. A pedestrian overpass at the university, which crosses Amsterdam Avenue near 116th Street, will cost $80,967 this year.
“New York’s sidewalks are the soul of our city and some of the world’s most desirable real estate,” Polly Trottenberg, the city’s transportation commissioner, told the Times. [NYT] –Christopher Cameron