Photos from NYT.

On Monday, City Council voted to ban security gates that completely shield commercial storefront windows and doors from view (as in the left photo above). The only roll-down gates that are permitted are the type that allow passers-by to see inside store windows (as in the right photo above). Luckily, all businesses affected – including banks, barber shops, beauty salons, health clinics, dry cleaners, dental offices and retail stores - have until July 1, 2026, to install security gates that allow at least 70 percent of the area they cover to be visible. Any gates installed after July 1, 2011, must comply with the new requirements. A New York Times reporter decided to see how the storeowners of Carroll Gardens were dealing with the news:

Along Court Street in the Carroll Gardens section of Brooklyn, a gentrifying commercial and residential strip in what remains an Italian stronghold, the gradual ban on solid gates – there are probably tens of thousands of them – was as well-received as a property tax hike. Not a single owner or manager who was interviewed was aware of the Council’s vote.

The head-scratching dismay expressed by Pyung Lim Lee upon learning that City Hall had taken a regulatory interest in the rickety old solid gate outside C.H. Plaza Dry Cleaners, 400 Court Street, Brooklyn, N.Y., 11231, was typical.

“If the government pays, then O.K.,” said Mr. Lee, the owner of the shop, who was not surprised to learn that the government would not, after all, be covering the cost of a new gate. “They make law, law, law, and people’s life is more difficult.”