Bollards aren't boring.

NEW ORLEANS, Oct. 9 — Since 9/11, physical security barriers have sprung up around the United States, multiplying like rabbits.

In New York City, particularly in Manhattan, "setback" from the street and "target hardening" were already buzzwords by the time I started working for the NYC Department of Transportation two years ago last week.

Now, knock on wood, the City has decided many targets are sufficiently hard without adding unsightly barricades ringing their perimeters, as you can note in Cara Buckley's piece in Saturday's New York Times, "Security Barriers of New York Are Removed."

While I was at DOT, I worked with the developers of the Time Warner Center — the mall at Columbus Circle whose bollards are pictured in the Times piece — to ensure their scheme (or any changes to it, really — still none made, as far as I know) were sufficient to "harden" the building and that they were easy enough on the eyes to appease the Art Commission.

I'm glad to see the City and my former colleagues at DOT are making progress in keeping Manhattan secure while making it useable for the peds — that's transportation speak for pedestrians.

From NOLA, the land of few bollards and many potholes,
B.S. out.