Life after Donald Trump’s presidency, as a business owner near Trump Tower
Small business owners along 56th Street in Midtown are beginning to exhale, as the city continues to remove the barricades, police checkpoints, and other security measures that have long protected Trump Tower. The measures — put in place shortly after Donald Trump’s election in November 2016 — have plagued restaurants in the neighborhood for the last four years, hindering foot traffic and making food deliveries all but impossible, according to a new report from the
New York Times.
“This stretch of 56th Street used to be like Times Square in terms of foot traffic,” echoes Vincent Lin, owner of the newly opened restaurant Blue Willow. That changed shortly after Donald Trump’s election in November 2016, when 56th Street near Trump Tower became a frequent site of protest for both supporters and opponents of the former president. At times, the street was closed to pedestrians and cars for blocks in either direction. “It changes you completely, destroying your business, from the barricades to everything else,” John Goçi, owner of Il Tinello, tells the