December 2009

Today I read an interesting article in the New York Times about how roll up gates - the solid kind that shop keepers roll down over their business fronts to protect them at night - will soon be illegal.  In their place, the city will allow the kind of see-through "cage" gates that are used on store fronts in malls across America.

I have been thinking about these store gates all day.  For one thing, I cannot imagine that they are really, truly necessary.  The New York Times article even calls them a legacy from New York's past, the bad old days of the 1970s when crime in New York City was at an astonishing nationwide high.  The article also cites looting concerns, as in the looting which was widespread throughout the city during the infamous blackout of 1977.


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