Hate street fairs? Good news! In the same vein as the cost-cutting measures that have snipped our city's parades (like the St. Patrick's Parade this week) the city's Office of Citywide Event Coordination and Management is getting ready to merge a number of the city's redundant (and much-maligned) street fairs as well as trim the hours and length of the rest by as much as a quarter (even the epic San Gennaro, though at the usual length, has had its hours reduced).
The cuts will not only save the city a buck or two—fewer police officers will be needed for fewer hours, to start—it'll also hopefully earn some for the city goodwill as many a New Yorker, we don't have to tell you, can't stand the homogenized bazaars the fairs have become.
"In response to those complaints," Cristin Burtis of the Office of Citywide Event Coordination and Management told the News, "we are taking steps to make the hours of street fairs shorter and reduce the number of times a street is closed by combining street fairs."
Last year in our informal poll, 97% of our readers felt that the way that New York street fairs are handled needed a re-boot. Shortened street fairs are certainly a start.
