Viv makes the press Hall off

THE CITY COUNCIL abruptly barred the press from its side of City Hall on Monday, reversing a decades-old policy of open access.

With weeks remaining in the tenure of Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, chunks of the public building’s east wing were blocked off.

Mark-Viverito said secretive negotiations taking place as her term comes to an end had driven her decision. “We’re in the process of having a lot of extensive conversations and negotiations in these last couple weeks, and so we’re limiting access,” she said as she left City Hall Monday.

“I’m doing this until the end of term, and that’s my position.”

The area now off-limits to the press includes a City Hall corridor where reporters often speak to elected officials, and where public documents involving the Council’s agenda are distributed.

It also includes the building’s radio room — which was renamed in honor of legendary 1010 WINS reporter Stan Brooks in 2013, shortly before his death. Only reporters assigned to desks in that room were permited to enter the restricted area Monday.

Whether the policy will continue past the end of the year will be up to the next Council speaker. Eight members are vying to succeed Mark-Viverito. Several candidates said they’d been unaware of the policy change and would look into it.