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WEEK OF MARCH INSIDE THE BOX ◄P.14
22-28 2018
CYNTHIA NIXON’S GUBERNATORIAL GAMBIT POLITICS The actor-activist and consummate Manhattanite says farewell Miranda, throws her hat in the ring. But can she take down the incumbent pol who may be the most powerful man in the state? BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN
Police seized over 200 electric bicycles in the first six weeks of 2018, often posting photos of confiscated e-bikes to social media. Photo: NYPD, via Twitter
NYPD E-BIKES CRACKDOWN CONTINUES SAFETY City’s efforts to rid streets of electric bicycles focus on seizures, fines BY MICHAEL GAROFALO
Electric bicycles — outfitted with battery-powered motors that can propel riders at sustained speeds of upwards of 20 mph — have become an increasingly familiar piece of Manhattan’s streetscape in recent years. They’ve become so common that an out-of-towner who didn’t know better could be forgiven for thinking that the motorized bikes, favored by food delivery workers
for their speed and ease of mobility, are a fully sanctioned mode of transportation in New York City. But in spite of their ubiquity, e-bikes are, in fact, illegal to ride on city streets — and the city has gone to increased lengths to stamp out their use. From Jan. 1 to Feb. 11, the most recent period for which data is available, police seized 209 e-bikes and issued 238 moving summonses to e-bike users citywide. This rate puts the city on pace to surpass the 1,007 e-bikes confiscated citywide by police last year, which itself was a significant increase over the 551 seized in 2016. The uptick in enforcement coincided with a crackdown on
e-bikes announced by Mayor Bill de Blasio last October at a press conference on the Upper West Side, during which the mayor called e-bikes “a growing safety problem” and referenced riders “going the wrong way down streets, weaving in and out of traffic, ignoring traffic signals, sometimes going up on sidewalks.” Much of the city’s enforcement efforts have been concentrated in Manhattan. The NYPD’s 20th and 24th Precincts on the Upper West Side confiscated a combined 89 e-bikes last year, while the 17th and 19th Precincts on the East Side seized a combined 103 e-bikes through mid-October of 2017.
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It is now official: Conjuring up her humble upbringing — living in a onebedroom, fifth-floor Yorville walkup with a single mom — lifelong New Yorker Cynthia Nixon declared on Monday that she was running to unseat Governor Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary. “I love New York,” she said in a gauzy, two-minute political video statement unveiling her candidacy. “New York is my home. I’ve never wanted to live anywhere else.” As the camera portrayed her descending into a subway station, waiting on a platform, taking a train, walking purposefully down city streets, she got straight to the point. “Our leaders are letting us down,” Nixon said. She didn’t mention any names. But she briefly explored themes that have been the calling card of her No. 1 political ally and top Cuomo nemesis, Mayor Bill de Blasio, saying that the Empire State has become the “most unequal state in the entire country with both incredible wealth and extreme poverty.” And she demanded, “How did we let this happen?” Nixon’s response to her own rhetorical question: “Something has to change,” and she called on “government to work again on health care, ending mass incarceraDowntowner
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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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Cynthia Nixon in a 2-minute video statement unveiling her candidacy for New York governor. Courtesy CynthiaForNewYork.com tion, fixing our broken subways.” It wasn’t particularly subtle. “We are sick of politicians who care more about headlines and power than they do about us,” she said. “It can’t just be business as usual anymore.” Does she have a chance? Well, Nixon’s announcement came out on the same day a Siena College poll found Cuomo would trounce her by a 66-to-19 margin among registered Democrats. On the other hand, consider another series of numbers that are retro and stark and could possibly portend change in a political climate shifting toward the empowerment of women:
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