#HTE

Urban Design Observations: What is This Thing For?

In front of store on Spring Street in lower Manhattan, we see this object.

A hole has been bored into the side of it to admit a chain. The chain is attached to the bracket holding the on/off lock for the roll-down gate.

The top of this object has been tightly covered in gaffer’s tape, to prevent passersby from filling it with trash. Even so, someone has tossed a discarded tissue on top of it. 

They had a dirty tissue, couldn’t be bothered to wait until reaching the trash can at the corner, saw this thing, and dropped their tissue on top of it. Also, if you zoom in you can see someone has stuffed their cigarette butt into the hole that admits the chain. This is why I don’t like people.

So: Any guesses as to this object’s function?