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WEEK OF JUNE WHAT IF? THE ‘CITY OF NEW MANHATTAN’ < P. 9
15-21 2017
Lee Ielpi, a retired firefighter and co-founder of the 9/11 Tribute Center, stands in front of a wall listing the name every victim, including his son Jonathan. The center reopened in a new location on June 7. Photo: Madeleine Thompson Gays Against Guns, a direct action group advocating stricter firearm laws, organized a Monday evening memorial rally in front of the Stonewall Inn to commemorate the first anniversary of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando. Photo: Claire Wang
HUNDREDS COMMEMORATE PULSE SHOOTING VICTIMS COMMEMORATION On the first anniversary of the nation’s deadliest mass shooting, they gathered at the Stonewall Inn to pay tribute BY CLAIRE WANG
A curtain of white cloaks flanked either side of the makeshift stage, sashaying gently with a breeze that cooled the sweltering evening. On Monday night, the first anniversary of the Orlando Pulse nightclub
massacre, the veiled volunteers, 49 in all, hoisted poster boards displaying pictures and accompanying tributes of the victims of the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. Proxies for the fallen, the collaborators appeared to be floating like fluorescent lamps above the cobblestone walkway outside the Stonewall Inn, the Jerusalem of the gay rights movement. Christopher Street, usually quaint and muted, rolled back the clock and transformed again into the crowded, exuberant place where a once-marginalized LGBTQ community underwent catharsis by celebrating love and life. The scene was made all the more
startling because Gays Against Guns, the direct action group that organized the memorial rally, had explicitly recommended that the public wear black to mourn those who died. Much of the two-hour commemoration, which drew at least 200 attendees, swung wildly from elation to heartbreak, soaring gospels to solemn name reading. The Orlando massacre has inspired activists and allies alike to better insulate the LGBTQ community from more gun violence by urging politicians to pass stricter laws regarding the purchase of firearms.
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9/11 TRIBUTE CENTER REOPENS EXHIBITIONS “By remembering yesterday we’re going to make tomorrow better,” says one of the co-founders BY MADELEINE THOMPSON
There is a digital screen towards the exit of the 9/11 Tribute Center that scrolls through the names of those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001. It takes five and a half hours to complete each cycle. In case that doesn’t sufficiently summarize the scope of the exhibit, the screen is located next to a long, somber wall on which every single name is printed. By the time visitors get there, after wandering through story after story of fear and destruction, the last section of the exhibit focuses on resilience and community service, a welcome way of being ushered out. The 9/11 Tribute Center reopened on Wednesday after moving to 92 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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Greenwich Street from its previous location on LIberty Street, which was only 6,000 square feet to the new space’s 18,000. Many of the same items moved with the center; a twisted steel beam, a menu from Windows on the World, the shredded firefighter jacket and melted helmet of Jonathan Lee Ielpi, who lost his life rescuing people. Mingling with visitors, a walkie-talkie on his belt, is Jonathan’s father Lee, a former firefighter and co-founder of the Tribute Center. “Here we have the ability to not only expand our size but to drive the mission home,” Ielpi said. “That by remembering yesterday we’re going to make tomorrow better.” The exhibit opens with a quote from the Dalai Lama that introduces a recurring theme: “Just as ripples spread out when a single pebble is dropped into water, the actions of individuals can have far-reaching effects.” Ielpi described the center’s
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