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WEEK OF FEBRUARY
ART OF FOOD 8-14 att
2018
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THE CURSE OF MANHATTAN BUILDINGS A new campaign is launched to rein in the reviled, if omnipresent, sidewalk shed — and curb the crime, clutter and congestion it brings to the urban landscape BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN
They rob the city of sunlight and oxygen. They strip the avenues of their view corridors and the streetscape of its continuity. They undermine the street-grid system and engulf the treasured space of the sidewalk. If that’s what they take away, what do they add? In a word, blight. They attract vermin and invite litter. They provide a secluded den for drug dealers and an impromptu bedroom and bathroom for the homeless. Not only that, they create an obstacle course and an urban wind tunnel that impedes foot traffic, heightens congestion — and poses a physical barricade to shops and businesses that often drives away customers. The scourge in question is the street scaffold, also known as the sidewalk shed. Billed as a “temporary” protective structure, it has morphed instead into a permanent feature of the city’s architecture. Now, a bill has been reintroduced in the City Council that would, for the first time, mandate the removal of a giant chunk of the scaffolds that front 7,750 buildings and envelop more than 275 miles of city sidewalk. Sponsored by Council Member Ben Kallos, whose district on the Upper East Side is pockmarked by hundreds of sheds, the legislation would require a structure to be dismantled within six months of being erected — or in seven days if no work has been performed in that time.
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A proposal designed to ease traffic on Manhattan streets and fund transit improvements would impose a congestion fee on drivers travelling below 60th Street. Photo: Steven Strasser
WEIGHING THE COST OF CLOGGED STREETS TRAFFIC Officials consider potential impacts of congestion pricing BY MICHAEL GAROFALO
A northbound view up Second Avenue from 91st Street captures an unsightly row of sidewalk sheds that has marred the vistas on Second Avenue for several years, casting shadows, scarring the streetscape and creating an unfriendly climate for pedestrians on the East Side. Photo: Douglas Feiden
Local leaders are mulling the possible effects of a proposed congestion pricing plan that would impose a new fee on traffic travelling below 60th Street in Manhattan. Under a plan recommended by an advisory panel created by Governor Andrew Cuomo, a fee of $11.52 would be imposed on passenger vehicles entering a congestion pricing zone encompassing all of Manhattan south of 60th Street. The electronically-assessed charge would apply to all passenger vehicles entering the zone between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. on Downtowner
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WEEK OF APRIL
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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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weekdays. Buses, taxis and for-hire vehicles would be exempt from the congestion fee, but a new surcharge would be applied to taxi and for-hire vehicle trips in the zone. The measure is designed to reduce the number of cars on the road in the congestion zone by an estimated 13 percent by incentivizing drivers to adjust commutes and delivery schedules to off-peak hours where possible. It also would provide a new revenue stream for the beleaguered Metropolitan Transportation Authority. And advocates note that reduced traffic would come with the added benefit of improved air quality. The plan calls for a three-phase implementation scheme that would begin this year with improved enforcement of blocking-the-box and
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