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WEEK OF MARCH-APRIL MIRROR IMAGES ◄ P.14
28-3 2019
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KEEPING MEASLES OUT OF MANHATTAN ▲ P.2
Hunter College grad student Will Zentmyer, a volunteer, helped sign in people at a recent coalition legal clinic. Photo: Stephan Russo
FOR IMMIGRANTS: SANCTUARY AND LEGAL HELP VIEWPOINT Every week, scores of people fleeing violence and economic despair in their home countries seek assistance at Judson Memorial Church in Greenwich Village BY STEPHAN RUSSO
They start arriving every Tuesday around 4:30 p.m., seeking help at the New Sanctuary Coalition’s pro se legal clinic in Greenwich Village. Some are newcomers who have travelled from the outer boroughs, New Jersey, and as far away as Rockland County and Long Island. Others have immigration cases that have dragged on for months and even years, and are well known to the coalition. Family members, whose loved ones have been detained solely because of their undocumented immigration status, show up desperate to find the funds to meet bail.
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A rendering of the new jail the city plans to build at 124-125 White Street in Lower Manhattan, currently the site of the Manhattan Detention Complex. Image: Perkins Eastman
DOWNTOWN JAIL PLAN: NEW DETAILS SHARED POLICY City to commence public land use review process for 450-foottall detention complex in Lower Manhattan BY MICHAEL GAROFALO
The administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio has shared new details regarding the contentious plan to build a new jail in Lower Manhattan — a crucial component of its effort to close the notorious Rikers Island jails — as it prepares to move forward with
public review of the project. The city’s proposal calls for the existing Manhattan Detention Complex at 124-125 White Street, known colloquially as the Tombs, to be demolished and replaced with a new, larger jail facility. The latest plans, detailed in a draft environmental impact statement issued March 22, contemplate a new 1.27 million square foot jail tower that would be 450 feet tall and have a capacity of 1,437 beds. Administration officials said at a March 22 press briefing that the new jail’s proposed height and capacity were reduced in response to community concerns. Earlier plans called
for a tower 45 feet taller and with 73 more beds. These changes were announced as the city prepares to initiate the extensive uniform land use review procedure, or ULURP, for the project, which has encountered significant opposition from some Chinatown residents in recent months. The proposed Manhattan jail is one of four new facilities that would replace Rikers Island, the violenceplagued and outdated East River complex that the administration has said it aims to permanently close by
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A MEMORIAL FOR THE ‘TRIANGLE’ WOMEN ▲ P.5
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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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STUDENTS SPEAK UP AT STUYVESANT ▲ P.9
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