The local paper for Downtown wn
WEEK OF JANUARY
10-16 ◄ P.12
2019
The recent removal of metal cornice, along with necessary repair work, has cleared the way for the sidewalk shed at 210 Seventh Ave. to be taken down. Photo: Scott Stiffler
CHELSEA BUILDING TO ‘SHED’ SOME BAGGAGE
Manhattan Borough President Gale A. Brewer (center) with Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney and other elected officials in Brooklyn on Sunday, Jan. 6 to call for greater transparency in L train plans. Photo courtesy of Manhattan Borough President Gale A. Brewer
AVERTING THE ‘L-POCALYPSE’
NEIGHBORHOODS City takes action at a longtime derelict site BY SCOTT STIFFLER
Boarded up and bereft of tenants, an unsightly Chelsea building is getting safety and aesthetic upgrades, the result of emergency actions by NYC’s Department of Buildings (DOB) and Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD). Long the bane of locals, the sidewalk shed (aka bridge) in front of 210 Seventh Ave., which snakes around the northwest corner of West 22nd St., has been approved for removal by HPD contractors — ending its embarrassing reign as an eyesore, but, in the process, eliminating what
This abandoned property and its scaffolding are an unacceptable public safety and quality-of-life menace for the people of Chelsea ... I’m happy that it’s close to being resolved. This has gone on for too long!” NYC Council Speaker Corey Johnson has served as a destination for people who have chosen to live on the streets instead of seeking shelter.
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TRANSPORTATION Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s surprise announcement will keep trains running. But is the new plan the best option? BY DEEPTI HAJELA
Nearly a quarter-million New Yorkers who for years dreaded “L-mageddon,” a planned 15-month shutdown of a key subway tunnel between Manhattan and Brooklyn, got a last-minute reprieve from the governor Thursday with a new plan that will allow repairs to go on at nights and weekends and keep the trains running.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo made the surprise announcement just weeks after convening a panel of top engineering experts to take another look at the L train tunnel beneath the East River to see if there was a way to fix flood damage from 2012’s Superstorm Sandy without doing as much demolition and disrupting so many lives. Turns out, there was. “This was an outside-the-box, creative solution,” said Cuomo, a Democrat, at a news conference announcing the new plan. He was flanked by engineering experts from Columbia and Cornell universities who dreamed up the proposal. “You have to be willing to think outside the box or break the box.” Downtowner
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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
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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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While many were relieved by the announcement, some wondered whether the last-minute change had been fully thought through. The announcement came after years of planning for the upheaval expected to be caused by the tunnel’s closure, which was supposed to happen in April. Brooklynites had already begun rearranging their lives for the expected “L-pocalypse,” with some changing jobs or apartments to avoid the looming commuting snarls. The original plan, adopted by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority after lengthy public debate,
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