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WEEK OF MARCH
9-15 2017
Arthur Rangini opened St. Kilda Coffee, on West 44th Street, in November. Photo: Lily Haight
AUSSIE CAFÉ VIBE PERCOLATES IN THE CITY TRENDS Artisanal confections, Wi-Fi-free spaces replicate Down Under’s coffee culture BY LILY HAIGHT AND CLAIRE WANG
February’s blizzard might have been the most fortuitous occurrence for a pair of Australian baristas launching their new coffee venture in Greenwich Village. While the storm raged, New York Fashion Week attendees found shelter amid fresh plants and bamboo walls. Banter, a quaint Sullivan Street space awash in pastel hues, is the brainchild of Nick Duckworth and Josh Evans, two beanie-sporting, 20-something down-to-earth dudes from Down Under. It is one of three new Australian cafés that opened up shop last month, attesting to New Yorkers’ growing affinity for Aussie coffee culture, which has slowly come to permeate life in the city.
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City Council Members Dan Garodnick and Vanessa Gibson (center) introduced legislation requiring increased police transparency. Photo: Michael Garofalo
NEW BILL AIMS TO KEEP TABS ON NYPD SURVEILLANCE LAW ENFORCEMENT Proposed legislation would require police to disclose use of controversial technologies BY MICHAEL GAROFALO
A new bill introduced in the City Council last week would allow for increased transparency on a topic that has long been opaque to elected officials and members of the public: the surveillance activity of the New York City Police Department.
court cases brought by civil liberties groups, rather than via disclosure to City Council members tasked with overseeing the department’s operations. For years, the NYPD spied on the city’s Muslim community, eavesdropping on conversations and infiltrating mosques with informers in a long-running program that, according to NYPD officials in court testimony first reported by the Associated Press, never resulted in a terrorism investigation or even a single lead. The NYPD is currently engaged in discussions to resolve two lawsuits relating to the pro-
The Public Oversight in Surveillance Technology Act, introduced by Council Members Dan Garodnick and Vanessa Gibson, would require the NYPD to publicly disclose surveillance tools it uses or plans to use, outline their capabilities, and issue policies and procedures governing their use. “It forces the NYPD to actually think about privacy before they jump into a new surveillance scheme,” Garodnick said. In the years since the 9/11 attacks, the NYPD secretly adopted various controversial surveillance tactics that later came to light through press reports and
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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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gram, and recently agreed to a proposed settlement that would subject the department to increased civilian oversight. Technologies implemented by the NYPD without public input include Stingrays, which allow police to track the location of cellphone users and, in some cases, intercept their communications, and x-ray vans known as “backscatters” that can see through walls and vehicles, and which critics say may expose bystanders to harmful radiation. The department also uses
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