No More Roll-Down Security Gates

Following up on using environmental cues to deter crime, here's a bit of news I meant to blog a couple of weeks ago (before my son's recent bout of diarrhea):

Citing high rates of graffiti, the City Council voted...to gradually ban the use of roll-down metal security gates, a move that would eliminate what has been an enduring if forbidding feature of the urban streetscape. Other kinds of security gates, like rolling or sliding grilles, which allow passers-by to look into store windows and are seen by some as being harder to vandalize, would still be permitted.

Councilman Peter F. Vallone Jr...also noted that many police officers and firefighters considered the gates that allow partial visibility to be preferable from a safety perspective. (NYT, 11/30/09)

Obviously, the City Council must be reading Hawthorne Street...

Comments

[Art Tatum]

I'm willing to try anything to combat graffiti, but wouldn't the vandals just spraypaint over the gate AND the glass? Granted, it's not as visible as it would be on a flat surface, but from some of the graffiti I've seen, it's not so much about how good it looks or how easy-to-read it is, but rather the act itself--the defiance, the audacity, etc...

[Laurel]

Yes - I read about this. I wonder how quick the turnover will be, though, given the 16 year grace period. What the heck is that about?

Even 2011 seems to long to wait for the replacement provision to kick in.

In any event, I'm happy that it is on the books. I wonder how it will be enforced though?