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WEEK OF JUNE KEEPING IT REAL ◄ P.12
21-27 2018
FIREWORKS ON THE EAST SIDE POLITICS As the Democratic Congressional primary nears, Maloney and Patel battle over their records and the future BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN
Illegally parked vehicles owned by city employees are a common sight on many Chinatown streets near City Hall and NYPD headquarters. Photo: @placardabuse, via Twitter.
COUNCIL CALLS FOR CRACKDOWN ON PARKING PERMITS STREETS Police push back on bills targeting misuse of city-issued placards BY MICHAEL GAROFALO
For most New Yorkers, parking in front of a fire hydrant, on a sidewalk or in a crosswalk, bus stop or bike lane is all but guaranteed to lead to a ticket or a towed car. But a select population routinely gets away with these violations by displaying city-issued parking permits in their front windshields. Some drivers who cheat the system don’t even have valid city permits. As documented on a near-daily basis by
the Twitter account @placardabuse, which tracks instances of so-called “placard corruption” across the city, owners of illegally parked cars often get away with violations by displaying expired or fake permits, or by simply leaving a vest bearing the insignia of a city agency on the dashboard. Though a city-issued placard does grant certain special privileges, it is not a license to park with impunity. Placards allow holders to park in loading zones or metered spots for free, but other areas, such as crosswalks, remain off-limits. Some placards are only valid in specific locations for a limited period of time.
Citing her record and the landmark laws she’s enacted, Rep. Carolyn Maloney sums up her case to the voters: “I’m not finished yet — and there’s much, much, much more that I can do to help people.” Calling for a new political order and generational change, challenger Suraj Patel boils down his pitch to the electorate like this: “I’m running for Congress because elections ought to be about the future.” Her resolve and his defiance, her quarter-century of deeds and his vow to break from the old ways, have defined the surprisingly heated Democratic primary race for the 12th Congressional District. The clash between two liberal, proimmigrant, anti-Trump Manhattan Democrats — she’s an uptowner, he’s a downtowner — has given voters an X-ray view of both candidates as they head for the polls on June 26. At stake is a prize that encompasses the Upper East Side, Sutton Place, Roosevelt Island, Midtown, Union Square, Flatiron, the East Village and parts of Brooklyn and Queens. The district, redrawn in 2010, has been Maloney’s political base since she was first elected to Congress in 1992. That political longevity has made her a senior member of the House Financial Services Committee, well respected on both sides of the aisle, with the clout to author and pass 70plus bills and obtain billions of dollars for the Second Avenue Subway and other monumental projects. But it’s also provided a cudgel for
U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney speaks to constituents April 13 at the Anna Silver School on the Lower East Side. Photo: Michael Garofalo the 34-year-old, Indiana-raised Patel, an East Villager, to clobber the 72-year-old incumbent, an Upper East Sider, with his calls for “new blood,” a “new generation of leaders” and “better Democrats” who call the “status quo not good enough.” In their only televised debate of the primary campaign on NY1 on June 12, Patel posited that he “deserves a first term because I’m going to be talking about the future.” By contrast, he argued, “The congresswoman feels she’s entitled to a 14th term simply because she’s already served 13.” That set the tone for a contentious faceoff in which the heavily favored Maloney demanded of her rival, “What have you done to help people? Besides talk?” Patel shot back that he was doing “God’s work” as an attorney who has volunteered his services to help the dispossessed, and as a professor who teaches business ethics at NYU. Maloney retorted by citing an Our Town exclusive questioning his rootedness in the district where he’s running; examining how he’s switched his voter registration between the city, Indianapolis and the Hamptons; and revealing tweets indicating he may have mulled a race to “knock out” a Republican incumbent in Suf-
Suraj Patel mingles with voters at a town hall on May 24 in an East 88th Street church. Photo: Douglas Feiden folk County. Patel denied he was shopping for another district in which to run, saying that as an active Democrat who owns an East Hampton vacation home, he simply wanted to see conservative, pro-Trump Long Island Rep. Lee Zeldin go down to defeat. Despite bitter differences, the candidates do have a couple of things in common: Fundraising prowess and unforgiving views of the tenant in the Oval Office. Maloney, a time-tested fundraiser, took in $1.65 million and had $793,000 in the bank as of June 6, according to federal election filings. The bigger surprise was that firsttime political aspirant Patel chalked up $1.23 million, though he’s banked only $41,000. As for Donald Trump, he runs the “most anti-woman administration of my lifetime,” Maloney says, while Patel brands him “this monster of a president.” invreporter@strausnews.com
INSIDE: Issues Scorecard: Maloney vs. Patel PAGE 6
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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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