The local paper for Downtown wn SENDAK ON STAGE ◄ CITY ARTS, P. 12
WEEK OF JULY
18-24 2019
INSIDE
THEY ARE THE CHAMPIONS OF THE WORLD
WHY THE LIGHTS WENT OUT Con Ed blames blackout on relay system failure, P. 6
GEN Z ON THE CB Teenagers as young as 16 can serve on NYC community boards, P. 6
CELEBRATIONS These world-class athletes know how to throw a world-class party BY EMILY HIGGINBOTHAM
It was a euphoric scene of flittering ticker tape in the streets of lower Manhattan. Thousands of fans repping jerseys of red, white and blue flooded the Canyon of Heroes last week to catch a glimpse of the 23 members of the U.S. women’s national soccer team in a parade to celebrate the team’s fourth FIFA World Cup title. The players danced atop their floats, thanking the fans along the way for their support throughout the month-long tournament, which they said was integral to their victory.
Jeffrey Epstein’s $77 million East Side mansion. Photo: Ema Schumer
BEHIND THE OAK DOORS LAW ENFORCEMENT A raid on Jeffrey Epstein’s UES mansion and details from his sex-trafficking indictment stunned the nation. But the revelations were not a shock to some NYC journalists who followed the saga for years BY STUART MARQUES
Fans at the Canyon of Heroes TickerTape Parade. Photo: Michael Appleton/ Mayoral Photography Office
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When FBI agents pried open the heavy oak doors of Jeffrey Epstein’s $77 million Upper East Side mansion, they had an idea of what they would find inside. But they were astounded at the volume: They discovered a “vast trove” of “hundreds, if not thou-
sands, of sexually suggestive pictures of naked underage girls” locked in a safe. Prosecutors say the entries were carefully catalogued and labeled: “Young [Name] + [Name],” “Misc nudes 1,” and “Girl pics nude.” “Agents seized evidence, including nude photographs of what appear to be underage girls,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said in unveiling a sex trafficking indictment alleging that Epstein, 66, “sexually abused dozens of minor girls at his homes” in Manhattan and Palm Beach, FL. Prosecutors say he recruited minor girls for sex acts and got them to recruit others. Epstein, who once taught math at the elite Dalton School on the Upper East Side,
paid the women several hundred dollars per encounter, which often began as a massage. “The conduct, as alleged, went on for years and involved dozens of young girls, some as young as 14,” Berman told reporters, adding that Epstein faces up to 45 years in jail, if convicted. “The alleged behavior shocks the conscience.” It was certainly not a shock to several New York-based journalists who have followed the Epstein saga for years and have had to deal with Epstein’s army of high-priced lawyers and powerful public relations firms who tried to kill or soften stories about him. He also moved in social circles with bold-
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THE CHELSEA HOTEL: A NEVERENDING STORY Delays continue to dog the renovation of the legendary 23rd Street landmark, P. 12
MARIANO RIVERA: MR. CONSISTENCY Reflections on the Yankee great as he enters the Hall of Fame, P. 8
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FOR HIM, SETTLING SMALL CLAIMS IS A BIG DEAL presided over Arbitration Man has three decades. for informal hearings about it He’s now blogging BY RICHARD KHAVKINE
is the common Arbitration Man their jurist. least folks’ hero. Or at Man has For 30 years, Arbitration court office of the civil few sat in a satellite Centre St. every building at 111 New Yorkers’ weeks and absorbed dry cleaning, burned lost accountings of fender benders, lousy paint jobs, and the like. And security deposits then he’s decided. Arbitration Man, About a year ago, so to not afwho requested anonymity started docuhe fect future proceedings, two dozen of what menting about compelling cases considers his most blog. in an eponymous about it because “I decided to write the stories but in a I was interested about it not from wanted to write from view but rather lawyer’s point of said Arbitration view,” of a lay point lawyer since 1961. Man, a practicing what’s at issue He first writes about post, renders and then, in a separatehow he arrived his decision, detailing blog the to Visitors at his conclusion. their opinions. often weigh in with get a rap going. I to “I really want whether they unreally want to know and why I did it,” I did derstood what don’t know how to he said. “Most people ... I’d like my cases the judge thinks. and also my trereflect my personalitythe law.” for mendous respect 80, went into indiMan, Arbitration suc in 1985, settling vidual practice
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MANHATTAN'S APARTMENT BOOM, > PROPERTY, P.20
2015
In Brief MORE HELP FOR SMALL BUSINESS
The effort to help small seems to businesses in the city be gathering steam. Two city councilmembers, Robert Margaret Chin and Cornegy, have introduced create legislation that wouldSmall a new “Office of the within Business Advocate” of Small the city’s Department Business Services. Chin The new post, which have up told us she’d like to would and running this year, for serve as an ombudsman city small businesses within them clear government, helping to get through the bureaucracy things done. Perhaps even more also importantly, the ombudsman and number will tally the type small business of complaints by taken in owners, the actions policy response, and somefor ways to recommendations If done well, begin to fix things. report would the ombudsman’s give us the first quantitative with taste of what’s wrong the city, an small businesses in towards important first step fixing the problem. of for deTo really make a difference, is a mere formality will have to the work process looking to complete their advocate are the chances course, velopers precinct, but rising rents, -- thanks to a find a way to tackle business’ is being done legally of after-hours projects quickly. their own hours,” which remain many While Chin “They pick out boom in the number throughout who lives on most vexing problem. said Mildred Angelo,of the Ruppert construction permits gauge what Buildings one said it’s too early tocould have the 19th floor in The Department of the city. number three years, the Houses on 92nd Street between role the advocate She Over the past on the is handing out a record work perThird avenues. permits, there, more information of Second and an ongoing all-hours number of after-hours bad thing. of after-hours work the city’s Dept. problem can’t be a said there’s with the mits granted by nearby where according to new data jumped 30 percent, This step, combinedBorough construction project noise Buildings has data provided in workers constantly make efforts by Manhattan to mediate BY DANIEL FITZSIMMONS according to DOB of Informacement from trucks. President Gale Brewer offer response to a Freedom classifies transferring they want. They knows the the rent renewal process, request. The city They 6 “They do whatever signs Every New Yorker clang, tion Act go as they please. work between some early, tangible small any construction on the weekend, can come and sound: the metal-on-metal or the piercing of progress. For many have no respect.” p.m. and 7 a.m., can’t come of these that the hollow boom, issuance reverse. owners, in business moving The increased beeps of a truck has generto a correspond and you as after-hours. soon enough. variances has led at the alarm clock The surge in permits
SLEEPS, THANKS TO THE CITY THAT NEVER UCTION A BOOM IN LATE-NIGHT CONSTR NEWS
A glance it: it’s the middle can hardly believe yet construction of the night, and carries on full-tilt. your local police or You can call 311
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for dollars in fees ated millions of and left some resithe city agency, that the application dents convinced
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