The local paper for Downtown wn PANHANDLERS AND THE LAW ◄ P. 5
WEEK OF JUNE
1-7 2017
Mayor Bill de Blasio marches in the Little Neck Memorial Day Parade. Photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office
DE BLASIO TAKES HOLLYWOOD FUNDRAISING Mayor’s “tale of two cities” now includes Beverly Hills BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN
Remember the “tale of two cities” and the yawning gap between the haves and the have-nots? The contempt for those millionaire haves and the laser-like focus on income inequality? Those themes were visceral and easy to understand. And Bill de Blasio seized on them, masterfully, to capture City Hall. It was 2013, the dusk of the Bloomberg era, and affordability was back in style. Now, flash-forward four years. The mayor stands for reelection, and naturally, he needs big bucks. So off he goes into the sanctums of the uber-rich he so reviled, hat in hand. Destination: Beverly Hills, 90210. In the first five months of this year, de Blasio raked in at least $47,715 in campaign contributions from 15 donors in 90210, 90211 and
five other zip codes in Beverly Hills and its environs, according to filings with the city’s Campaign Finance Board. The capstone: A star-studded March 5 fundraiser for de Blasio at Spago, an entertainment-industry mecca and brainchild of celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck, who opened its doors in 1982 and was awarded his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in April. You have to understand that Spago, which billed the campaign $6,545 for the event, isn’t what one would call the solution to income inequality: inevitably, its patrons are one-percenters. No matter how liberal, left or progressive their politics may be, affordability isn’t really their thing. Consider the fete’s three co-hosts: • Jeffrey Katzenberg, ex-studio chief at Walt Disney and former CEO of DreamWorks Animation. His net worth is about $900 million, according to Forbes. The Katzenberg Family Trust gave de Blasio $4,950, which is the maximum
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Community members last week discussed the future of Pier 40, located on the Hudson River near West Houston Street. Photo: David Shankbone, via Flickr
WHAT’S NEXT FOR PIER 40? DEVELOPMENT Community weighs in on redevelopment plans for riverside ballfields BY MICHAEL GAROFALO
Months after the City Council approved an air rights transfer deal that will fund repairs of Pier 40’s crumbling pilings, attention has shifted away from the pier’s structural demise and toward plans for its potential redevelopment. At a May 25 meeting of Community Board 2’s Future of Pier 40 Working Group at the Village Community School on West 10th Street, local residents discussed the future of the 15acre recreational complex on the Hudson River near West Houston Street.
In December, the City Council voted to approve a $100 million deal transferring 200,000 square feet of air rights from the pier to the developers of a planned high-rise residential and retail complex at St. John’s Terminal, which sits opposite the pier across the West Side Highway. The funds from the air rights transfer will be used to repair the deteriorating pilings that hold the pier above the Hudson. Even after the deal, Pier 40 retains significant air rights that could be used for further development at the site to generate additional revenue for the Hudson River Park, possibly in concert with commercial interests. A future iteration of Pier 40 could conceivably include recreational space alongside residential housing and retail space, which some fear could change the character of the park and Downtowner
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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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surrounding neighborhood. The Hudson River Park Trust did not respond to a request for comment on redevelopment plans for the pier. Apart from serving as home to recreational sports organizations, Pier 40 is a crucial revenue generator for Hudson River Park Trust, which operates the four miles of West Side riverfront park space that includes the pier. Income from Pier 40’s parking garage currently helps fund operations elsewhere in the park, and any future plans for the pier would likely need to replicate — or potentially add to — that revenue. “We have to start talking about the park as a park in general, and not isolated development pieces,” state
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