VOLUME 6, NUMBER 16 MAY 07, 2014
THE WEST SIDE’S COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER SERVING CHELSEA, HUDSON YARDS & HELL'S KITCHEN
De Blasio Outlines Decade-Long Plan for Affordable Housing BY EILEEN STUKANE Mayor Bill de Blasio’s workweek began with the unveiling of an ambitious, long-awaited initiative that won’t be fully realized for another decade. While making stops in Brooklyn and the Bronx on May 5, de Blasio held up his 115-page “Housing New York: A FiveBorough, Ten-Year Plan” to protect and expand affordable housing. He did not hold back: “This is literally the largest and most ambitious afford-
able housing program initiated by any city in this country in the history of the United States of America. It is the largest, fastest affordable housing plan ever attempted at the local level.” Addressing what he views as “an affordability crisis that we’ve never seen the likes of before,” the mayor plans to create or maintain 200,000 affordable units over the next 10 years — by constructing 80,000 new apartments and
Continued on page 4
Hoylman’s Bill to Treat HitAnd-Run Cyclists Like Drivers BY SAM SPOKONY After a State Senate staffer was nearly killed last month by an unidentified bicyclist who hit him on West 40th Street and fled the scene, State Senator Brad Hoylman is calling for much stiffer criminal penalties for hit-and-run cyclists. The Senate staffer, John Allen, who lives on the Upper West Side, was walking across West 40th Street at Sixth Avenue on April 7, around 2pm, when he was mowed down by the speeding cyclist, according to police. The crash was so serious that Allen was left with
a fractured skull, and briefly had to be placed in a medically induced coma after being rushed to Bellevue Hospital that day. Allen is also a personal friend of Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer (a former Upper West Side City Councilmember), who initially explained the incident to Hoylman — along with dozens of Chelsea residents — at an April 21 forum at the Hudson Guild community center on West 26th Street. Brewer’s recounting of the hitand-run crash came in response
Continued on page 6
TALKING POINT, LETTERS PAGE 8
OPEN STUDIO TOUR PAGE 11
Photo by Zach Williams
Beyond the metal gate and into the Silicon Alley: Chelsea Market is home to Major League Baseball Advanced Media, which develops the sport’s digital presence.
Report Finds Strong Local Presence of Silicon (Alley) BY ZACH WILLIAMS An expanding “digital ecosystem,” large loft spaces and proximity to a wide spectrum of potential clients are catalyzing the increased influence of high-tech in the neighborhood and throughout New York City, according to recent research. An April 28 report from the office of New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli (“NYC’s Growing High-Tech Industry”) states that “Silicon Alley” grew by 33 percent in the last five years. More than 103,000 jobs, three-quarters of which are in Manhattan, were added by 6,970 tech-centric companies — representing the fastest growing sector of the city economy.
Computer system designers and operators constitute more than half of such jobs and have grown by 35 percent following the 2008 economic crisis. As many as 260,000 others engage in similar occupations throughout the city in economic sectors including retail, media, finance and entertainment, according to the report. While high-tech firms now pop up in Lower Manhattan, Downtown Brooklyn and Long Island City, the titans of industry retain a focus on Midtown South — where the biggest deals funded by a record $1.3 billion in investment for 222 firms occurred in 2013, according to a March 26
analysis by consulting firm HR&A Advisors. Eight of the top 20 venture capital deals involved Chelsea-based companies, including AppNexus (28 West 23rd Street) and Bamboom Labs (West 16th Street). Two more were located in Hell’s Kitchen and Times Square (MongoDB and On Deck Capital, respectively). Revived manufacturing infrastructure now serves the needs of a 21-century workforce. Differences among economic sectors blur within the digital economy, according to the comptroller’s report. “These high-tech companies,
Continued on page 3