News from
Union Square curves add accessibility
challenge to $100 million makeover
BY JOSE MARTINEZ
THE CITY
A proposed $100 million
overhaul of Union
Square lays out a blueprint
for making one of the city’s
best-known public spaces more
pedestrian friendly.
But the new “Vision Plan” from
the nonprofi t organization that
helps to beautify the city-owned
green space also points to the
limitations of making the sprawling
subway complex beneath the
park more accessible to riders
with disabilities.
The platforms along the 4, 5
and 6 lines at the 14th Street-
Union Square station lack elevators,
and a MTA-commissioned
study last year made it seem the
stop would never be compliant
with the Americans with Disabilities
Act.
There is “no fully accessible
solution at this time,” the February
2020 report concluded.
The “extreme curvature” on the southbound 4/5/6 platform
at Union Square prevents the station from having a fully
accessible solution, according to an MTA-commissioned
study last year.
Meanwhile, the area is a veritable
hub for New Yorkers with
mobility issues.
“We’ve had people who have
had to be carried out of the
station by the Fire Department,
we’ve had people have to crawl
up the stairs,” said Susan Dooha,
executive director of the Center
for Independence of the Disabled
FILE PHOTO
New York — an advocacy organization
whose offi ces are off Union
Square Park.
“Imagine how you would feel
about that.”
‘Most Accessible Place’
The Union Square-14th Street
District Vision Plan calls for
improving access to the subway
station by adding elevators and escalators
to an enlarged 16th Street
entrance.
That’s among several proposed
changes that could be funded over
the next 10 to 20 years, which include
expanding the park’s footprint,
doubling sidewalk widths, making
bigger bus boarding zones on 14th
Street and adding street lighting.
The improvements would be
part of the biggest renovations
to Union Square Park since the
mid-1980s, when a central lawn,
lighting and two subway kiosks
were added to the 6.5-acre space.
“One of the core goals of the
Vision Plan is making Union
Square-14th Street the most accessible
place in New York, especially
for people with disabilities,” a
spokesperson for the Union Square
Partnership, which is offi cially
launching the plan Tuesday, said
in a statement to THE CITY.
The improvements, the spokesperson
said, would benefi t neighboring
hospitals, senior citizens
and visitors to Union Square, and
be funded by a mixture of public
and private sources.
But underground, the upgrades
can only go so far.
As THE CITY reported last
year, an MTA-commissioned study
of how to bring the subway system
in line with the Americans with
Disabilities Act found that a “fully
accessible solution” at the fourthbusiest
station in the subway system
remains out of reach. That’s largely
because of the “extreme curvature”
and moving gap fi llers on the southbound
platform of the 4, 5 and 6
lines at 14th Street-Union Square.
The subway complex — which
does have elevators connecting to
its platforms on the N, Q, R, W and
L lines — was among the few stations
in the fi rst 100 to be surveyed
where full accessibility was found
to be unfeasible. About a quarter
of the 472 stations in the subway
system are fully accessible.
This story was fi rst published
on Jan. 25, 2021 by THE CITY,
an independent, nonprofi t news
outlet dedicated to hard-hitting
reporting that serves the people
of New York. Visit thecity.nyc to
read more.
The last scoop: Big Gay Ice Cream shop closes after 10 years
BY DEAN MOSES
The East Village is slowly
losing its charm—one
storefront at a time.
It was announced that the famous
Big Gay Ice Cream at 125
East 7th St. will not be reopening
after an extensive shutdown during
the pandemic. The beloved
frozen treat shop has been closed
since March of 2020, when the
COVID-19 pandemic truly began
its destructive reign throughout
the city. Still, many in the area
held out hope that the shutters
would once again rise and the
trademark rainbow colors would
shine from its East 7th Street and
Avenue A location.
Currently, this unfortunate
closure only seems to be affecting
the company’s Lower East
Side store, still to those who
adore refreshing themselves over
the summer months with sundaes
and frozen yogurt this is not much
consolation. Obscured by metal
shutters, the inside of the shop has
been completely gutted, leaving
an empty void and a poster on the
window announcing the space is
for rent.
This is particularly disheartening
for the East Village community
since this was the company’s
very fi rst brick and mortar location
after they had been serving
ice cream from a truck for two
years. Big Gay Ice Cream moved
into their storefront in 2011.
Locals, like Alan Castles and
Fiona Siseman, live mere blocks
away and were frequent customers.
They say they will deeply miss
what they call a staple of the area.
“I am sad, they have been
closed all summer. I really loved
the ice cream. We live just down
the road and we would go often.
I will miss their Salty Pimps, that
was their best. We will have to go
to the Upper West Side if we want
Big Gay Ice Cream, but it won’t
happen very often,” Castles said.
Summer days strolling down
the East Village to spend an
afternoon in Tompkins Square
Park snacking on a double scoop
of novelty dessert, such as the
American Glob, the Monday
Sundae, and others, are another
nostalgic pastime destroyed by the
COVID-19 crisis.
For some, the loss of this
business will leave another gaping
hole in the hope to return to
normalcy. Siseman, who adored
the shop for its soft-serve ice
cream, agrees that she will miss
visiting the storefront but she is
not worried about the neighborhood
losing its culture.
“There is still so much happening
down in this area and the
rents will be cheap, I am pretty
sure a new wave of businesses and
restaurants will come through,”
Siseman said.
Some of this new wave has
already arrived. Just a few doors
down from the ghost of Big Gay
Ice cream stands Plant-baked,
a brand-new business to the area
that opened its doors two weeks
ago. This bakery that serves
Vegan plant-based products at
retail and wholesale were sad
to learn about the neighbor they
never got to have.
“They were still closed when we
started moving in back in November;
they were already closed. We
were hoping and waiting to see if
they would come back, but it was
only in the last week we noticed
everything had been cleared out of
there. It was really sad to see they
didn’t come back, and we were
also their customers for a couple
of years now, so we are really sad
to see them go,” Parker co-founder
of Plant-baked bakery said.
PHOTO BY DEAN MOSES
The storefront of Big Gay Ice Cream is obscured by shutters
and the inside is gutted, leaving nothing but an empty lot.
Schneps Media January 28, 2021 3