The local paper for Downtown wn
Healthy Manhattan • 2019 SPECIAL REPORT • PAGE 13 •
WEEK OF JANUARY
17-23 2019 201
CASUALTIES OF THE SHUTDOWN GOVERNMENT As venomous politics and dysfunction in Washington bring federal governance screeching to a halt, Manhattan absorbs a body slam BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN
stages of exploring a potential sale of a parcel it owns on Park Avenue between 76th and 77th Streets, Straus News has learned. A real estate play would be a gamechanger for Lenox Hill, which is under the umbrella of Northwell Health and has been evaluating the option as a means of financing an ambitious expansion paired with a rehabilitation of both its legacy holdings and other East Side properties. The hospital’s main campus, between Park and Lexington Avenues, sits on some of the most valuable land in Manhattan — a full city block running 204 feet along the avenues and 405 feet down the side streets. It is a portion of its western frontage at 855 Park Ave. — a tourniquet’s
At least four former presidents historically and inextricably linked to New York have been officially dissed. The culprit: The record-shattering federal government shutdown that’s largely the handiwork of the current president. “Grant’s Tomb is closed!” lamented City Council Member Mark Levine. “And the trash has been overflowing.” West Siders don’t typically enter the mausoleum at 122nd Street to visit the sarcophagus where the 18th president and his wife are entombed. But General Ulysses S. Grant’s permanent perch on Riverside Drive has been a worldwide magnet for tourists since it was dedicated in 1897. Or at least it was. Then last month the National Park Service was forced to shutter the site due to the abrupt cutoff in federal funding. Overnight, the visitors vanished. In turn, that spotlighted the corrosive impact the shutdown has had on the micro-economies of Manhattan: “Our local businesses are hurting,” said Levine, whose West Side district takes in the national memorial. “The tourists who commonly walk over to Broadway to shop or have lunch after visiting aren’t here anymore.” The longest government closure in U.S. history has lasted 25 days, as of press time on Jan. The Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum on Fifth Avenue in a Jan. 13 15. And as the fiery standoff between President photo. The public will be barred from the landmark Carnegie Mansion until the Donald Trump and Congressional Democrats federal government reopens. Photo: Douglas Feiden over funding a southern border wall abides, the toll on New Yorkers has been intensifying. Profits have plunged for immigrant coffee vendors stationed outside federal offices in Foley Square and Hudson Square. Wall Street What did Teddy Roosevelt ever do to deserve this?” is in limbo with only a skeleton staff operating
CONTINUED ON PAGE 23
CONTINUED ON PAGE 5
The Park Avenue side of Lenox Hill Hospital on 77th Street in a recent photo. A portion of the super-expensive parcel is being eyed for possible sale and redevelopment. Photo: Douglas Feiden
THE METAMORPHOSIS OF A HOSPITAL EXCLUSIVE It’s eastward ho as Lenox Hill redevelops an entire blockfront on Third Avenue, mulls a big sale on Park Avenue — and ruffles community feathers amid demands for greater transparency BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN
It was 1868 when the institution that would eventually became Lenox Hill Hospital first put down stakes on Park Avenue at East 77th Street. Now, 150 years later, the Upper East Side fixture is weighing whether it should monetize some of the pricey property at its ancestral home. The hospital is in the preliminary
Alair Buckley, 24, tourist from Montana
Downtowner
OurTownDowntown
O OTDOWNTOWN.COM @OTDowntown
Crime Watch Voices City Arts NYC Now
3 6 8 10
Business 12 Restaurant Ratings 21 Real Estate 22 15 Minutes 25
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
We deliver! Get Our Town Downtowner sent directly to your mailbox for $49 per year. Go to OTDowntown.com or call 212-868-0190