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WEEK OF MAY POLAR PURPOSE ◄ P. 21
11-17 2017
More than 7,500 sidewalk sheds shade New York City, mostly in Manhattan. A new map gives a better picture of the size and safety purposes of these common features. Photo: Steven Pisano, via Flickr
SHEDDING LIGHT ON SHADE BUILDINGS Buildings department maps scaffolding citywide BY MADELEINE THOMPSON
On West 29th Street, between Eighth and Ninth Avenues, one structure stands out in a row of multi-colored, five-story buildings. Number 339 is shrouded in scaffolding and sheltered at the street level by 22 linear feet of sidewalk shed. The permit for that cluster of wood, steel and other material was issued almost a decade ago, in December 2007. While it’s possible that the shed and scaffolding were taken down at some point over the last 10 years, a Department of Buildings spokesperson said, it is
“overwhelmingly likely” that the structures have been up since their initial assembly. A new map engineered by the department charts that edifice and thousands of others — and confirms what for New Yorkers is a truism: sidewalk sheds are everywhere. As of Feb. 1, roughly 7,500 sidewalk sheds provided temporary protection for pedestrians walking under construction sites, according to the DOB. The map also provides evidence for what many suspect: countless of these removable roofs can hardly be described as temporary. When sorted by longevity, the map shows that some of these scaffoldings are more enduring than the tenants and businesses underneath.
Battery Park City. Photo: Gryffindor, via Wikimedia Commons
BILL WOULD REFORM BPCA BOARD COMMUNITY State legislation would require most Battery Park City Authority members to be community residents BY MADELEINE THOMPSON
After Martha Gallo resigned from the Battery Park City Authority
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(BPCA) last month, there were no longer any residents of Battery Park City or the neighboring area represented. Even before Gallo’s tenure, the board never had more than one local member. The rest of the seven-member authority board has two vacant seats, and four of its members’ terms have expired. A bill that is making its way through the Legislature aims to change that. State Senator Daniel Squadron, AsDowntowner
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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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for dollars in fees ated millions of and left some resithe city agency, that the application dents convinced
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sembly Member Deborah Glick and Assembly Member Yuh-Line Niou have teamed up to pass new legislation that would require a majority of the BPCA’s members to be residents of Community District 1, which includes much of Lower Manhattan below Canal Street. The bill passed the Assembly May 2, but it still has hurdles to jump before becoming law.
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