On a slushy, snowy December day, the lower concourse of Grand Central Terminal, which includes a mall-style food court, is packed with tourists, commuters, office workers eating lunch—and homeless people, some sleeping upright on benches, some parked at tables with bags and belongings, some wandering around or standing still. Recent reports suggest that business is not good for many Grand Central food vendors. Proprietors point to issues like constant renovation, high rents, mice, and the awkward and cramped space, but they also cite the homeless presence. “If I had known this before I sunk all the money into this space, I wouldn’t have done it,” reports one discouraged restauranteur, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Grand Central Terminal has been here before. After World War II and the end of the golden age of railroad travel, the station entered a long decline that paralleled the fortunes of New York City generally. In the 1970s and 1980s, as public spaces throughout the city became increasingly disorderly and dangerous, Grand Central deteriorated into squalor, with derelicts inhabiting the once-grand waiting room. In 1973, Grand Central’s operators announced that the terminal would begin closing for several hours overnight; they blamed declining passenger service, but news reports also cited “problems with prostitutes, vagrants, derelicts and alcoholics.”
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