NYC finally moves to crack down on endless scaffolding

"In the greatest city in the world, we should not accept darkened sidewalks and covered walkways as a fact of life. The new rules focus on one of the quirkiest aspects of the city's scaffolding laws, which is how far sheds must extend from a building. Until now, that distance was tied to a building's height, which means taller buildings could require sheds that stretched into plazas, courtyards or green spaces."

"Right now, the numbers are staggering: sidewalk sheds cover roughly 380 miles of city streets (that's around 7,500 blocks), according to the city. Some structures have remained in place for more than 15 years. The city says more than 4,000 feet of sheds had been installed there; some are already coming down, with the rest expected to disappear by late spring."

New York City has announced a comprehensive package of rules designed to reduce sidewalk scaffolding across the five boroughs and decrease the time structures remain in place. Currently, approximately 380 miles of city streets are covered by sidewalk sheds, with some structures persisting for over 15 years. Mayor Zohran Mamdani unveiled these changes at Highbridge Gardens in the Bronx, where scaffolding had covered walkways for more than five years. The new regulations address obscure existing rules that permitted prolonged scaffolding installation. A key change beginning in August caps shed extensions at 40 feet from building facades, regardless of building height, replacing the previous system that tied shed distance to building height and allowed structures to extend into plazas and green spaces.

Read at Time Out New York