Let us not forget the trucks, especially those 18-wheelers one sees with increasing frequency, even on narrow side streets. Volume deliveries for national chains, we're told, keep costs down and operations efficient. But New Yorkers pay the price in more congestion, increased pollution and greater traffic dangers. The city welcomes visitors. New Yorkers are proud to share their city's richness and uniqueness.
Visitors are an economic asset, up to a point.
That is a suburban amenity, not an urban lifestyle. It can be achieved only at the city's expense, and with a reduced quality of life for the residents who are the real economic and social lifeblood of the city. It was almost 30 years ago that the alarm was first raised about tour buses at a national convention on tourism. Today, many revitalized cities wrestle with this issue. Tourism-savvy cities like Charleston, S.C., and Savannah, Ga., limit bus size, numbers and behavior.