Proposal to turn 5th Avenue into a pedestrian mall in Manhattan

NEW YORK (WABC) -- It is the most expensive retail strip in the country and perhaps the world.

Manhattan's 5th Avenue is where President-elect Donald Trump and his family live.

Security has already changed the neighborhood, but now Mayor Bloomberg's former transportation commissioner is proposing to turn a two-mile strip of 5th Avenue into a pedestrian mall.

"You go down there and you see what the problems are. It's not working for anybody," said Janette Sadik-Khan, Bloomberg Associates.

Former Transportation Commissioner Sadik-Khan says 5th Avenue needs to be reinvented.

She proposes turning the avenue into a pedestrian mall for 25 city blocks; from 59th Street south to 34th Street. It would leave two of the avenue's five lanes for city buses.

Cab drivers told Eyewitness News it's unimaginable.

Ms. Sadik-Kahn insists spillover traffic would be minimal as drivers adjust, allowing New Yorkers to, as she put it, "reclaim 5th Avenue."