Mayor Creates Tsar To Oversee Street Fairs
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
In an apparent response to complaints from residents and lawmakers about the way the city oversees street fairs and other gatherings, Mayor Bloomberg has quietly created a new position in his administration: a tsar of special events.
The first executive director of the Office of Citywide Events Coordination and Management, Evan Korn, is scheduled to testify at a City Council hearing today on street fairs.
Mr. Korn, who took up the new post in March, previously worked at the Department of Transportation, where he was in charge of coordinating logistics and transportation for all citywide events that use public space. The position pays $137,000 annually.
A Democrat of Lower Manhattan who called for the hearing, Council Member Alan Gerson, said he had not been informed about the new position.
“That’s welcome news as long as that person is responsible to the basic livability needs and concerns of residents,” he told The New York Sun. “There has been no one thus far who has coordinated the street closures and street festivals, if you will, and that’s been a problem.”
Past fairs, he said, have run into problems when they needed additional traffic officials or extra rounds of garbage pickup. There has been a “lack of responsiveness and lack of coordination,” Mr. Gerson said.
