The local paper for Downtown wn INFINITY, IN THE PALM OF YOUR HAND ◄ P. 12
WEEK OF MAY
4-10 2017
Mayor Bill de Blasio, elected officials and guests took a ceremonial ferry trip from the Rockaways to Manhattan on Sunday. Photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office
CITYWIDE FERRY SERVICE LAUNCHES COUNCIL CANDIDATES ANSWER At a Monday night forum, candidates for City Council Districts 1 and 2 answered questions on preservation from residents and activists. Photo: Madeleine Thompson
TRANSPORTATION
TO PRESERVATIONISTS PRESERVATION Tech hub proposal among topics BY MADELEINE THOMPSON
Candidates for City Council District 1 gathered Monday night for a forum on preservation that packed a room of the Third Street Music School to the gills. Many attendees wore stickers reading “no tech hub without rezon-
ing,” in reference to a proposal by the New York City Economic Development Corp. to attract more tech companies to Union Square. Those opposed to the so-called tech hub want the area to be rezoned first to restrict the height and size of commercial buildings. This was just one of many issues raised by residents and activists. There are fewer contenders for the Council District 1 seat because incumbent Margaret Chin is running for another term and will be difficult to unseat. According to the city’s
From the Rockaways to Lower Manhattan: commuters ride the first of six eventual routes
Campaign Finance Board, however, Chin has a financial competitor in 28-year-old Christopher Marte, who has raised just over $50,000 to Chin’s roughly $52,000. Her other two challengers are Aaron Foldenauer, a litigator who lives in the Financial District, and Dashia Imperiale, a filmmaker and activist. Campaign finance filings show that Foldenauer has raised $18,000 while Imperiale has yet to disclose any funding.
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BY MADELEINE THOMPSON
The first of the city’s new fleet of ferry boats launched Monday morning, leaving the Rockaways at 5:30 a.m. With a stop at the Brooklyn Army Terminal before terminating at Pier 11 in Lower Manhattan, the trip took about an hour. The Rockaway route is one of six that will eventually criss-cross the East River from Astoria to Governor’s Island. Kelly Marcus wakes up early evDowntowner
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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 on the Over the past 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.” can’t come p.m. and 7 a.m., 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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ery morning so she can take the ferry instead of the subway. “I take the ferry all the time; it’s the best,” said Marcus, who rode one of the new vessels from Long Island City to get to work in Lower Manhattan on Monday. Though ferry service isn’t new to her, Marcus is excited for the places she can explore once the rest of the routes have opened. “I will use it as much as possible,” she said. “If it were running through the night, if it were running earlier, I’d be using it more, trust me.” Marcus was also pleased to discover, upon opening the ticketing app, that the cost of her commute had decreased. Ferry rides on the new routes cost $2.75 — the same as the
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