The local paper for Downtown wn
WEEK OF JANUARY THE CITY’S MOSAIC < P. 12
5-11 2017
Kate Kodayachi has lived in SoHo for 40 years and shopped at the Met market for decades and laments its closing. Photo: Rui Miao
SOHO MARKET FORCED TO CLOSE Shuttering leaves residents with few places nearby to find affordable and fresh food BY RUI MIAO
The Met Foodmarket at the corner of Prince and Mulberry Streets was packed on New Year’s Eve. Long checkout lines from all four registers extended into the aisles — an unusual scene at the longtime SoHo supermarket. But there was a tinge of sadness in the air amid all the neighbors chitchatting and the “All Merchandise 25% Off” signs. After 25 years, the store would be closing its doors at 9 p.m. on the last day of 2016. The hustle and bustle was its swansong. “I’ve grown very close to this neighborhood, the people, and the community,” said Paul Fernandez, owner of the market. “I feel terrible.” Unable to reach an agreement on lease renewal with Abington Properties, the building’s landlord, Fernandez has until Jan. 14 to clear everything out of the place. Georgette Fleischer, who has lived in the neighborhood for more than 30 years, said she would now
CONTINUED ON PAGE 5
The Second Avenue subway on Dec. 31. The new line opened to the public at noon on Jan. 1. Photo: Kevin P. Coughlin/Office of the Governor
A FIRST RIDE ON THE SECOND AVENUE SUBWAY New train for a new year: the city’s highly anticipated transit line opens at last BY MADELEINE THOMPSON
The crowd waiting to board an uptown Q train at the 57th Street/Seventh Avenue Station was in an unusually festive mood. Musicians played jaunty tunes, camera crews set up to shoot and people smiled as friends and family members took their pictures in front of the train. As the clock struck noon, the train’s doors slid open and everyone cheered, proud and excited to be the first ones to ride it. ”Ladies and gentlemen,” a voice intoned over the loudspeaker, “this is a 96th Street/Second Avenue bound Q
and for small business along Second Avenue,” she said. “But I’m super pumped about actually having subway service.” Quin had come to ride the first uptown Q train with two friends who were equally excited. “I felt like the most important part of my transition into adulthood was knowing how to use the subway system,” said Finn Vigeland, a friend of Quin’s and self-described transit nerd. “I love trains, so to actually see this happen is thrilling.” As the train traveled from one station to the next, riders pressed their faces to the windows hoping to discern differences between these dark tunnels and the ones they knew so well. Several people remarked at how clean the new tunnels were. However, the trip was
train.” Nearly 100 years and more than $4 billion after it was initially proposed, the Second Avenue Subway opened to the public at noon on New Year’s Day. The three new stations at East 72nd, 86th and 96th Streets will hopefully bring some relief to the jam-packed 4/5/6 line, which has been bearing the brunt of the heaviest total subway ridership the city has seen since 1948. Sarah Quin, who lives on the Upper East Side at First Avenue, called her morning commute on the 4/5/6 “a disaster.” Despite her worry that rents in the area will skyrocket, Quin said she hopes the benefits of the new line outweigh the costs. “I’m worried for people who have been here a long time,
Downtowner
OurTownDowntown
O OTDOWNTOWN.COM @OTDowntown
Crime Watch Voices Out & About
3 8 10
City Arts 12 Restaurant listings 14 15 Minutes 19
WEEK OF APRIL
SPRING ARTS PREVIEW < CITYARTS, P.12
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
9-16
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
n OurTownDowntow
COM
Newscheck Crime Watch Voices
for dollars in fees ated millions of and left some resithe city agency, that the application dents convinced
2 City Arts 3 Top 5 8 Real Estate 10 15 Minutes
12 13 14 18
CONTINUED ON PAGE
25
not without glitches. The automated voice announced at 72nd Street that the next stop would be 72nd Street instead of 86th Street. A young boy who had just boarded with his dad could be overheard saying, “They had one job!” The train was also briefly held at the 63rd Street/Lexington Avenue station, to which another rider said, “Typical MTA.” Families with young children were one of the biggest categories of visitors on Sunday, and it was clear they had been preparing for this moment. Some kids carried train-related picture books or were wearing clothing with subway iconography. One girl brought her miniature MTA bus toy along.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 6
We deliver! Get Our Town Downtowner sent directly to your mailbox for $49 per year. Go to OTDowntown.com or call 212-868-0190