Thanks, Tourists: Sex and the City Landmark Is Getting a Gate

In Sex and the City and its spinoff, Carrie Bradshaw glides down the steps of her Manhattan apartment to take on New York City. But coming and going isn't so easy for the person actually living in the brownstone in Greenwich's West Village. After "20-plus years" of watching fans of the show lounge on her steps, ring her doorbell, peer in her windows, and even carve their initials in her front door, Barbara Lorber, owner of 66 Perry Street, has received permission from the city's landmarks preservation commission to install an iron gate to block the steps leading to her home, the Guardian reports.

Lorber acknowledges the fascination with her home is partly "my fault." She says she allowed the location to be featured in the original HBO show because she "felt sorry for the young location scout who was a recent grad from NYU Film School." "At the time, no one knew the show would turn into anything long lasting … much less the iconic fantasy vehicle and touchstone for NYC's magic that it has become." Now, her home has become "a global tourist destination," Lorber says, per the Guardian. "At any hour of the day or night, there are groups of visitors in front of the house taking flash photos, engaging in loud chatter, posting on social media, making TikTok videos or just celebrating the moment."

She says visitors failed to respect her "No Trespassing - Private Property" sign, leading her to request a more permanent barrier to the home built in 1866. "In order to regain a reasonable quality of life for our tenants and ourselves, we need to install a proper gate," says Lorber, who was backed by two architectural preservation groups and a neighbor, who described "personal property being attacked all day, every day," per the New York Times. The commission is now working with architect Isidoro Cruz on a minimalist gate design. As Lorber tells the Times, "Take all the pictures you wish standing on the street. But please don't climb into our space and into our windows." (More Sex and the City stories.)