The local paper for Downtown wn 2018
WEEK OF APRIL - MAY
DOTTY 26-2 AWA R D S
Downtown’s Our Town Thanks You
2018
P.9
A FIRST LOOK AT PIER 17 DEVELOPMENT The waterfront space, featuring restaurants, ESPN studios and rooftop performance venue, will soon open its doors to the public BY MICHAEL GAROFALO
NYCT President Andy Byford addressed Upper West Side transit riders at an April 19 forum hosted by Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal. Photo: Michael Garofalo
‘I KNOW YOU GUYS ARE NOT HAPPY’ TRANSPORTATION NYCT President Andy Byford addresses M104 cuts and station closures at UWS forum BY MICHAEL GAROFALO
Andy Byford harbors no illusions about the magnitude of his task as president of New York City Transit. “Without question, I think the biggest, hardest, toughest job in transit right now is New York,” Byford told a congregation of Upper West Side transit riders at an April 19 forum at Rutgers Presbyterian Church. “I come into this job with my eyes open,” he said to the often lively crowd that filled the pews to capacity. “I know that you guys are not happy.”
Byford, an Englishman who joined NYCT in January after a seven-year stint heading the Toronto Transit Commission, promised a bold plan to modernize the New York’s subway and bus service in an hour of crisis. “I didn’t come here to tinker at the edges,” Byford said. “I came here to give you the transit system that New Yorkers deserve.” Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal, who organized the forum, pressed Byford on recently announced reductions in M104 bus service, a popular Broadway route which she said “round after round of cuts have rendered a shell of its former self.” Byford acknowledged that the M104 “is a critical route for this community,” but said that recent cuts
Food, drink, outdoor space and breathtaking views will be the key offerings at the new multipurpose commercial space set to open next month at Pier 17 — the latest addition to the Lower Manhattan waterfront and a major component in Howard Hughes Corp.’s overhaul of the South Street Seaport district. The developer hasn’t announced an official opening date, but public outdoor spaces on the roof and the building’s periphery are expected to open by late May, with a full opening to follow sometime this summer. Howard Hughes Corp. hosted a public tour of the space April 19 as contractors completed final touches on the new fourstory building, which juts into the East River at Fulton Street. Retractable glass doors on the sides of the building, which will be kept open as weather permits, reveal an airy two-story space on the ground floor. Within are several modular commercial spaces, clad in corrugated metal and reminiscent of shipping containers, that will hold restaurant tenants, including concepts from chefs Andrew Carmellini and David Chang. The first restaurant, a casual seafood-centric offshoot of chef JohnGeorges Vongerichten’s ABC Kitchen, is scheduled to open in August. The open areas between the restaurants will feature seating intended to evoke a hotel lobby ambience rather than the feel of a shopping mall, How-
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The new Pier 17, set to open this spring, is a centerpiece of developer Howard Hughes Corp.’s effort to revitalize the Seaport District as a commercial destination. Photo: Michael Garofalo Downtowner
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WEEK OF APRIL
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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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