Signs of the Times

This one just keeps getting more absurd.  First the city painted new stripes on the street, then they took out the crumbling steps on the other corner and put up a railing.  Then a house designed by William Henry Miller burned down and the sidewalk was closed in front and along side (the famous Frosh Alley where Ezra Cornell planted the Osage Orange trees that grow there to this day).  When do-gooder/ anarchists moved the barrier enough times that alley reopened.  Now they are rebuilding the house and this has been the situation on the street since the fall.  For the privilege of taking the public space for so long the property owner could have rebuilt the steps on the other side perhaps?