WEST VILLAGE — The owner of a skate shop on Charles Street implored police last week to help him control rampant public urination during this weekend’s Pride Parade.
Jeff Gaites, who with his wife, Kristen, owns Uncle Funky’s Boards at 128 Charles St., said he has struggled year after year with drunken Pride revelers in the West Village.
His shop is at the bottom of a set of stairs, which he says parade-goers have urinated in during every parade for the past four years.
“My wife and I have to stand at the top of the stairs all day to prevent people from using the stairs as a bathroom,” Gaites told police from the 6th Precinct at a public meeting last week.
“I just wanted to come to this meeting before the parade to kind of plead with you guys,” he said. “When there’s people drinking in the street openly it’s really tough to conduct business.”
“I don’t want to be the guy who’s the bummer guy during the parade,” he added.
Gaites said almost all of the business owners in the area close down for Pride, but he and his wife can’t afford to.
He told 6th Precinct commanding officer Elisa Cokkinos that police officers have in the past been unhelpful.
“If someone’s peeing in public, it’s a violation,” Gaites insisted. “I can’t be the one saying, ‘You can’t pee here.’”
Cokkinos said there was little she could do to control the situation because the officers who patrol the parade come from precincts all over the city.
“We do the best we can,” she explained. "We issue hundreds and hundreds of summonses for urinating, drinking on that day.”
Gaites also said he asked parade organizers to set up portable bathrooms, but has little hope anything will improve.
“What’s going on is there’s no bathrooms and people are still partying, hanging out, and it turns into a street festival,” Gaites said. “It happens all along Charles [Street].”
James Fallarino, media director of NYC Pride, the group that organizes the parade, said his organization “strongly encourages” parade watchers to respect the surrounding neighborhoods.
