The squat, vermilion, steel-clad No. 9 was installed in front of 9 West 57th Street decades ago not just to identify the address of the distinctive ski slope-shaped tower, but to distract from the bare walls of adjacent buildings in Midtown Manhattan. For the privilege of parking the three-ton, nine-foot-tall numeral on the sidewalk, the property owner pays the city $12,000 a year.

The Grand Hyatt New York, which adjoins Grand Central Terminal, is billed nearly $300,000 annually by the city because its mezzanine-level restaurant protrudes over the sidewalk on East 42nd Street.

Talk about sidewalk sales. New York collects about $60 million annually for allowing signs, ornamental lampposts, stand-alone clocks, benches, bollards, planters, permanent trash receptacles, delivery ramps and just about anything else imaginable on, over or under the city’s 12,000 miles of sidewalks.

And while New York sidewalks have always been congested with pedestrians, so-called street furniture has proliferated too, driven by commercial, aesthetic and security concerns.