Eulogies

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On Monday, the city voted to ban roll-down security gates in storefronts, prompting the New York Times to run a long, searching piece about the gates' history. It starts off romantic: The gates "have provided the clattering soundtrack of dawn and dusk, the steel canvas of struggling artists, the most compelling evidence that the city does, indeed, sleep." Then it veers into practical, when the Times discovers that on Court Street in Carroll Gardens, "Not a single owner or manager who was interviewed was aware of the Council’s vote." (Which is OK, since the city gave shopkeepers until July 1, 2026 to install new, less cluttered-looking gates.) Toss in a few obligatory Bushwick-during-the-1977 blackout anecdotes, and you've got perhaps the platonic ideal of metro reporting. [NYT]