A prime holiday shopping stretch in the city — Fifth Avenue between 48th and 57th streets — went “car-free” for the first of the days Sunday, outraging cabbies while delighting pedestrians, human or otherwise.
“Ruby loves it!” Upper East Sider Robin Lempel, 32, said of her dog as the pair strolled down the makeshift shopping plaza. “She doesn’t like sitting still, but she likes walking around outside without cars around.”
Lempel said she felt the street closure had improved the experiencing of purchasing and window-shopping along the busy commercial strip.
“Especially for the holidays I think it’s nice for people to be able to go see the stores and the windows without cars being in the way,” she said.
The closure was in effect from noon to 6 p.m. and is also on tap for the next two Sundays at the same time.
Meanwhile, the streets around Rockefeller Center — West 49th and West 50th — will be car-free from 11 a.m. to midnight seven days a week for the rest of the season.
Ellen and Jeremy Longley, both 30, and their two kids came to the area from the Upper East Side — but said they were disappointed by what they felt were scant Christmas decorations.
“We wanted to see the decorations and to be able to walk down the middle of Fifth avenue. When else do you get to do that? Never, right?” Ellen said.
“I do wish there was more Christmas decorations. I’m like, if we’re going to do this, let’s go really big and [do] like [a] Christmas explosion, or just a holiday decoration explosion, in general.”
Some drivers had a less rosy take on the closure.
Kwabena, a taxi driver for 15 years, said the new policy was “causing problems” for him and his driver colleagues who typically pick up passengers among the holiday shoppers walking along Fifth Avenue.
“That’s where we get more passengers,” Kwabena said.
