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WEEK OF FEBRUARY OLD MASTERS IN A NEW LIGHT ◄ P.12
14-20 2019
DÉJÀ VU ON THE WEST SIDE
Inside
POLITICS Gale Brewer was first elected to the City Council in 2001 and moved up to borough president 12 years later. As the term limits clock ticks, friends and supporters say, she is now contemplating a reprise.
NYPD TO BOLSTER SEX CRIMES UNIT More investigators as reported rapes increase
BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN
It is extraordinarily rare for an elected official serving in an executive capacity to trade down to a legislative branch and seek a position with fewer constituents, lower pay and lesser influence. But Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer has never been your typical politician. Ever since she was reelected to a second term by a lopsided 83 percent margin in 2017, the question of her political future has emerged as one of the hottest guessing games in town. Now, the answer is starting to come into focus: Brewer has been eyeing a possible return in 2021 to the City Council seat on the Upper West Side where she served from 2002 through 2013, according to at least seven people in her political orbit. No final decision has been made, and no announcement is anticipated anytime soon, for a general election race that is still two years and nine months away, say friends, supporters, district leaders, political consultants and officers of Democratic political clubhouses. Term limits, which Brewer has long opposed, is the catalyst. It will force her out of office on Dec. 31, 2021, when she completes the second of her two consecutive four-year terms as borough president.
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FIT AND NYFW Council Member Keith Powers speaks at a Feb. 6 rally for transit improvements along 14th Street during work to repair L train tunnel damage caused by Hurricane Sandy. Photo: Transportation Alternatives, via Twitter
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L TRAIN STREET CHANGES IN FLUX TRANSPORTATION As city prepares for subway line’s “slowdown” rather than full shutdown, the fate of long-planned mitigation measures is unclear BY MICHAEL GAROFALO
More than a month after the surprise cancellation of the L train shutdown, commuters and elected officials are still looking for answers regarding what will become of longplanned changes to bus and bike infrastructure designed to mitigate the impacts of the subway closure. Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Jan. 3 announcement that the MTA would scrap the imminent 15-month full shutdown of the L train, opting instead to maintain weekday service on the line during repairs to the
The most important thing to me is getting quicker bus service on 14th Street regardless of whether there’s a private vehicle restriction or not.” Council Member Keith Powers damaged Canarsie Tunnel, came as an unexpected curveball to transportation officials who had spent years developing elaborate plans to accommodate displaced riders. Some aspects of the shutdown plan, such as new bike lanes on 12th and 13th Streets, are already in place. Other measures were scheduled to take effect ahead of the April shutdown, including expanded bus ser-
vice across the Williamsburg Bridge, new East River ferries and the wholesale transformation of 14th Street into a dedicated “busway” with restrictions on private vehicle traffic. What will become of the 14th Street busway and other transit changes in light of the MTA’s new repair plan remains an open question. Transportation advocates and elected officials gathered on 14th Street Feb. 6 to call on the city’s Department of Transportation and MTA to follow through on their mitigation plans, which they say will benefit commuters on the L train corridor even though the shutdown will no longer occur. “The mitigation measures that had been planned were good ones and they had years of community input behind them,” Joe Cutrufo, communications director with Transportation Alternatives, told Straus News. “Even
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REQUIEM FOR A PET STORE Petland Discounts to shutter its shops by April
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IS IT REALLY ‘NERVOUS STOMACH?’
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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