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The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) board this week is scheduled to vote on a new set of rules of conduct for people inside Grand Central Madison Terminal. And among the proposed guidelines is a 90-minute limit to how long someone can sit on a bench there.
According to MTA officials as per Gothamist, the time limit is actually “a continuation of an old policy that’s existed at Grand Central for years.”
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If approved, the rules would also ban someone from laying down anywhere inside the station and sitting on platforms, stairs or tables in the area, prohibit public defecation and carts larger than 30 inches.
The rule is aimed at homeless people, according to critics, because it discourages the population from idling inside the station.
“The rules are clearly aimed at homeless New Yorkers, there’s no question about it,” Dave Giffen, executive director of the Coalition for the Homeless, told Gothamist. “Sitting on a bench when you’re tired is a pretty simple ask and putting rules in place that are designed specifically to keep people who have no place else to go from sitting down and resting is just cruel and inhumane.”
Grand Central Madison has been the subject of countless conversations among New Yorkers in recent months—and for good reason.
Although construction on the new terminal kicked off in 2008, the station didn't open until January of this year. It's no surprise, then, that officials are trying their best to keep the hub clean and orderly—although we do also suggest they take a look at the current train schedule, which is in definite need of some revamping.