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WEEK OF APRIL MIDWESTERN METAPHORS ◄ P.12
19-25 2018
Panel members at the homelessness forum. Photo: Ben Kallos, via Twitter
HELP FOR THE HOMELESS COMMUNITY A forum on the UES focused on affordable housing, job placement and resources for independent living BY SHOSHY CIMENT
“We are a welcoming community. And whether it is women in need or others, we are going to work with you.” City Council Member Ben Kallos
For New Yorkers, the issue of homelessness is virtually impossible to ignore. Approximately 63,495 people are homeless in New York City, 22,293 of whom are children in the public school system and 17,085 are parents with children, according to the NYC Department of Homeless Services, in figures from April 12 cited by City Council Member Ben Kallos. These numbers only account for people in shelter system and do not represent the minority of homeless individuals — about 3,700 people — who sleep on the streets. City leaders and homelessness experts discussed the situation on April 12 at the Ramaz School during
a forum that addressed avenues for alleviating the problem in New York City, specifically on the Upper East Side. “It really is more of a think tank,” said Barbara Rudder, a co-chair on the Health, Seniors, and Social Services Committee of Community Board 8. The forum, which was attended by over 60 people including Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright, was meant to share information about the homeless problem with the public and discuss workable solutions to fix it.
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Commissioner Julie Menin with school kids. Photo courtesy of the NYC Office of Media and Entertainment
ONE BOOK, 8.5 MILLION READERS READING New Yorkers can’t agree on anything. Can reading the same book bring them together? BY ALIZAH SALARIO
The book, though still undetermined, will be a singular sensation. “One Book, One New York,” the nation’s largest community reading program, returns for a second year to unite citizens of the five boroughs through the universality of an individual book, read together. The program gives New
Yorkers the opportunity to vote for one book among five nominated titles. Each nominee captures one world within our multifaceted city, from Brooklyn’s Navy Yard during World War II to early 1970s Harlem. The winner will be announced on May 3. “No matter which book wins, they each celebrate New York City, and the love affair that these authors have with [it]. They speak about so many important themes, about immigration, inclusion, exclusion, really important issues, particularly in today’s turbulent political times,” says Julie Menin, Commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment Commissioner, which is sponsoring Downtowner
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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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for dollars in fees ated millions of and left some resithe city agency, that the application dents convinced
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the program with New York magazine and Vulture. The five nominees were determined by a group of literary scholars, professors and academics, and each book reflects a different neighborhood. While community reading projects that encourage people to read the same book at the same time are not new, New York is the only city that brings its citizens into the decision-making process. “The public element of it is very important,” says Menin. “There’s no better way to have a civic conversation than to have New Yorkers engage directly, and to choose.”
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