NYC Mayor Eric Adams vows action after ugly scaffolding costs businesses nearly $10K per month in lost revenue

Mayor Eric Adams vowed Wednesday to revamp the ugly green scaffolding peppering New York City — after a study showed that local businesses are losing upwards of $100,000 a year in lost revenue due to the off-putting eyesores.

The study, commissioned by the city and conducted by Mastercard, found that the Big Apple’s 9,400 “sidewalk sheds” — more than 4,000 of which plague Manhattan — are affecting the livelihoods of small businesses.

Mastercard holders spent between $3,900 and $9,500 less each month at businesses located in buildings obscured with unsightly scaffolding, according to the analysis.

“These sheds can cost businesses nearly $10,000 per month, and that’s just from spending by people using Mastercards,” Adams told reporters in Midtown Wednesday morning.

“This is bad public policy, and it is bad for public safety. We no longer even look at the buildings anymore, because you look at the sheds and you think is part of the building, and they have been up so long here in Manhattan,” Hizzoner continued.

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Restaurants and bars were the most impacted, with a 3.5% to 9.7% decrease in weekly transactions in the six months following the erection of new scaffolding, the study found.

Councilmember Keith Powers, who represents the east side of Manhattan, also joined the mayor Wednesday in railing against the structures affecting the bottom line for small businesses in the Big Apple.

“My dad was a small business owner,” he said. “He owned a restaurant right across from where I live in Stuyvesant Town and if you put scaffolding in front of his business people would no longer be able to find it.”

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A City Hall rep did not immediately respond to questions about how much the study cost or when it was commissioned. The full study has also not been made public.

Hizzoner used the findings at a press conference Wednesday to bolster support for a “Get Sheds Down” plan he announced in 2023.

The admin says it aims to reduce some of the 386 miles of unsightly scaffolding in the Big Apple by working with business owners to more swiftly make repairs so the scaffolding can be taken down faster.

The mayor also directed the Department of Buildings to solicit six new scaffolding designs to make the necessary structures less of an eyesore.

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However, the new designs have been pushed back several months and won’t be completed until the summer of 2025, according to Commissioner Jimmy Oddo.

Testifying at a Committee on Housing and Buildings council hearing on June 23, Oddo urged council members to update the city’s antiquated building facade laws and told lawmakers the yet-to-be-unveiled designs will be “more aesthetically pleasing, scalable and cost-efficient” — and will utilize materials that work best in a New York City climate.

Oddo added that the scaffolding serves an important public safety purpose but that the structures that are up needlessly while no construction work is being completed lead to even greater public safety hazards — as people congregate inside them at night or use them for shelter during the day.

The Adams administration has removed 240 of the longstanding structures over the last year that had been up for five years or more, according to Oddo.

The commissioner blamed the scourge on disputes between owners and neighboring building tenants, which leads to delays in necessary facade repairs and keeps the scaffolding up.

Some building owners also opt to keep the scaffolding up indefinitely because it is cheaper than making building repairs.

At a separate event in June, Oddo said the Department of Buildings is also working with Manhattan borough president Mark Levine’s office to set up a fund to help building owners who cannot afford to fix their building facade.

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