New York, NY – The City Council has voted to eventually ban the use of rolldown security gates – a common sight on New York storefronts. Critics say they’re graffiti magnets.
Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
The city still will allow other types of security gates. For instance, gates with a grillwork pattern allow people on the sidewalk to look into windows. They’re considered more difficult to vandalize.
The council agreed to a long grace period.
After July 1, 2011, businesses replacing their old gates must use the new kind.
By July 1, 2026, all businesses covered by the law must have the higher-visibility gates installed.
The Bloomberg administration supported the legislation.
Next to go are car windows: They are a magnet for tives to smash.
graffiti magnets? any blank wall in nyc is a graffiti magnet.
how about stricter punishments for the gangs that spray graffiti.
it’s time the left wing loonys stop glorifying graffiti “artists”. they’re not artists. they are vandals and most of the time gang members. they should also outlaw those non graffiti “murals” that are painted to memorialize gang members (all those RIP murals and no im not talking about the 9-11 ones).
You cant ban gates because gangs do illegal things.
Should we ban carrying flashy jewelry because it causes gangs to steal it?
Should we ban copying machines because people could photocopy copyright things?
Should we ban concerts oh wait sorry
It may be easier to vandalize this kind of gate, but the ones with a grill pattern would make it easier to break windows. Isn’t there some kind of coating that can be put on the rolldown gates to make it easier to remove the paint? That would seem to be cheaper overall than using a grill type gate and fixing the glass.
as if brick walls are not vandalized as well! next they will say one can only build with glass. why is it that law abiding citizens are the ones who get hurt and penalized?
The City Council just gave the OK for criminals to rob NY stores
Stupid law.
Instead of penalizing people whose property gets damaged by these lowlife graffiti “artists”, figure out a way to catch and punish those who are doing the crime.
This is INSANE !!! what’s next ? people shouldn’t wear jewlery or drive nice care because it intices people to steal ??
it is like building a hospital next to the broken bridge instead of catching and arresting
the graffiti painters
This law is ridiculous. Should we ban Subway stations and subway cars also because they are “graffiti magnets”?
Its kind of surprising that while unemployment is rising, businesses are leaving NYC in packs, the NYC council can’t do something useful with their time.
Call your local councilman and remind them to stop waisting our money and their time on silly pet projects.
I think that the next thing will be all outside building walls like private houses etc. on the street will have to be see through
Remember always punish the victim and never the criminal.
They should have required that it be coated with an anti-graffiti paint, as other cities have already done.
Of course the morons in city council sees removing them comletely as a better option.
Next will be all stores will have to remove all merchandise from the shelves because it is a magnet for shoplifters.
There is no other explanation for this other than some city council members are getting paid off by the iron workers/gates industry.
Has anyone seen a single decent piece of legislation come out of the City and State Councils and in the last couple of years? Day in day out we hear about more and more minutia. Yet we somehow find a way to put these losers back in office time and again. All we ever hear about is who’s backstabbing who and who’s in Kahoots with who. Just remember MIKE now has 4 more years to harrass the heck out of us.
how stupit can one become. how about we should ban the “no parking sign polls” because posters are hung on them and eventualy fall down?
It’s getting crazier and crazier. Why should merchants have to spend thousands of $$$ to prevent graffiti when they are only trying to keep their stores from being broken into?? Anyway grafitti is sort of interesting.It takes away the monotony of those ugly gates.
The cops are too busy hunting the criminals that own cars instead of hunting the real gangs and criminals. Soon you will be fined for owning a store and not giVing away the stuff for free.
The decision is long overdue…these roll down gates make our streets look like some third world country…Thank you again Mr. Mayor and keep up your efforts to improve the ambience of our neighborhood.
sooooo, soon they will BAN JEWS from NYC, because Jews attract anti-Jewish crimes.
—-
Once they named vandalism with a name which makes it sound like Art, they turned it into something to be encouraged. Just by calling this criminal vandalism “graffiti” they “decriminalized” it, and made it okay.
So, what do they do now, pass foolish, crazy laws, taking the burden off themselves and “blaming the victim” ….. Blame the roll-down gates.
Now, since we know that any wall attracts such criminal vandalism, are they going to ban walls?
Now, how about overpasses? Street signs? Highway signs?
BAN THEM ALL!!! They attract vandals.
—
Now, since those gates with holes in them are poor security in this crime-infested city, with THEY pay back the storekeeper for the broken windows and/or missing mdse from having to use the gates they approve?
I HATE NEW YORK
in stead of the cops catching those hooligans the people have to pay for new gates.
This is Absurd.
Did Felder vote for or against this?
Don’t you get it, the commitee have an interest in the grill type shutter companies, so they make alaw that you have to buy from them.
Since when did any law consider need of the people it was imposed on it was always to line the pockets of the lawmakers.
who said crime dosent pay???
Just fine business owners for failing to remove graffiti. That takes care of everybody.
People do not get it. No one is being paid off, it’s just plain socialism and stripping NY from their freedoms by left wing environmentalist like Bloomberg. It’s all in line with the greener NY policy.
I actually like well drawn creative graffiti like the picture above. I think its better than seeing drab gray shutters or brown brick walls. We should encourage creative graffiti artists to decorate the city rather that shunning them and making it illegal. If it is encouraged, then it will promote more creative artistry rather than the scrawling tags that wannabe graffiti ‘artists’ leave behind.
They should get rid of meters and no parking regulations since they are tempting targets for people who have to park. And the cars look ugly with all those orage papers flapping around.
I think there ought to be a law requiring graffitti on every gate and those that don’t have any yet should be fined.
Have to be replaced by 2026–I’d better get started.
I own a couple of businesses in Brooklyn and at one point had four going, I have to say NYC are making it so tough to keep a decent law abiding hard working individual from operating and hiring people to work those places, at one time you had to pay of maybe the mob or someone now its government sanctioned Extortion I am up against constantly..IE Health, DEP, Sanitation Dept to name a few. I am at the end of my rope with this city which i fell in love with back in the 90s when i came over from Ireland. It is no longer worth the hard work and effort to continue much longer, there has to be greener pastures somewhere that allow people to make a living without making a broken city work on the backs of the working people that try to live there. Sorry but I am not alone in these thoughts NYC is in trouble of becoming a total soulless city. If they only would help the small business people to create and maintain jobs here they would get there money from the people who can work finally .