Villagers battle buses on Bleecker

If Village residents have their way, tour buses may no longer cruise down Bleecker Street to scope out the famed stretch of Greenwich Village that once inspired Simon and Garfunkel.

Local groups such as Buses Off Bleecker have been battling companies like Gray Line and City Sights that bring in around a hundred bus tours per day, clogging the narrow street.

City Councilman Alan Gerson, who represents the Bleecker neighborhood, is drafting legislation that would address some of the Villagers' concerns by limiting tour bus traffic and use of loudspeakers.

Rita Lee, a spokeswoman for Gerson, said that tourists on the upper deck of the buses can see into second-story windows of the residences. She also said that there are often several buses lined up from morning till night, all with loudspeakers blaring from the open-top decks.

"It's all you hear," she said.

Then, as the busses turn off Bleecker Street onto LaGuardia Place, "the hydrolics make a screeching sound," Lee said. When they attempt to make the tight turn, the buses sometimes veer into oncoming traffic, jump onto the sidewalk and block the traffic lights, she added.

But local businesses see it differently.

"The buses bring a lot of visitors to the community," said Dirk McCall, executive director of the Greenwich Village-Chelsea Chamber of Commerce.

McCall said some of the stores are having trouble paying their rent, which goes up every year. Tourists drawn to Bleecker by the buses can help pump money into the local economy, he said.

Lee Gelber, an urban historian and tour guide consultant, said that the tour bus companies use Bleecker because of its historic value. Bleecker is a vital part of Greenwich Village and New York as a whole, he said, defined by landmarks, distinct patterns of immigration and connections to notable people.

Gelber said that alternate routes wouldn't have Bleecker's historical aura.

"What are you going to show on Eighth Street?" he asked.

Gelber said the buses should use modern technology to minimize noise.

"Come on, we're in 2008," he said. "We have all sorts of modern stuff going on."

Cutting back on the number of buses would eliminate 300 jobs, Gelber said.

He added that the noisy loudspeakers could be solved by individual headsets or speakers underneath each seat that only one person could hear, but he doesn't think that tour guides should remain silent from Seventh Avenue to Broadway because the tourists would miss the history behind the street names and the famous architecture of Louis Sullivan.

But Villagers still want the buses gone, or at least restricted.

"The residents are up in arms about this," spokeswoman Lee said.

Lindsey Thomas is a staff writer. E-mail her at citystate@nyunews.com.