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WEEK OF JULY OPULENCE ON DISPLAY ◄ PG.12
12-18 2018
TWEET WELCOME FROM THE FED SOCIAL MEDIA A “DearJohninNYC” campaign gives the new boss from San Francisco a crash course in New York — and proves central bankers can have a sense of humor BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN
A cyclist crosses the 59th Street and Second Avenue intersection using the bus lane. The Department of Transportation plans to install a new bike lane at the dangerous crossing, near the entrance to the Queensboro Bridge. Photo: Michael Garofalo
SECOND AVENUE TO GET BIKING UPGRADES STREETS DOT plan calls for new dedicated lane, pedestrian island at Queensboro Bridge intersection BY MICHAEL GAROFALO
For Manhattan cyclists, the busy section of Second Avenue approaching the Queensboro Bridge often makes for a white-knuckle ride. “I have long since come to the conclusion that if I get killed on a bike, that is where it’s going
to happen,” said Jeremy Posner, an Upper East Side resident who navigates the area frequently using Citi Bike. High traffic volumes and lacking bike infrastructure have long made the 10-block stretch of Second Avenue south of 68th Street one of the most treacherous places to bike in Manhattan — particularly at the complicated intersection between 60th and 59th Streets where vehicles enter and exit the Queensboro Bridge, which one recent study found was the most dangerous crossing in the en-
tire borough. A new proposal from the city’s Department of Transportation, presented the plan to Community Boards 6 and 8 earlier this month, calls for improved bike lanes on Second Avenue and an overhaul of the Queensboro Bridge intersection, improvements DOT officials say will make the area safer for bikers and pedestrians alike. From 105th Street to 68th Street, Second Avenue currently features a southbound
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York is best known for formulating monetary policy, regulating depository institutions, redeeming billions in Treasury securities and serving as the banker of the U.S. government. But it isn’t all macroeconomics or post-crisis supervisory stress testing at the Florentine-style palazzo at 33 Liberty Street downtown: The Fed, it turn outs, has been conducting a crash course in New York City 101. The principal pupil is Sacramento native John C. Williams, a 55-year-old economist who started his new post as 11th president of the New York Fed on June 18 after seven years as president of the San Francisco Fed. Williams had never worked on Wall Street. He’d never called the city home. So the Fed’s digital team decided to welcome him and advise him on mastering life in New York — by launching a playful new social media campaign, #DearJohninNYC.
John C. Williams, the new president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. A Sacramento native and ex-president of the San Francisco Fed, he was welcomed to the city last month by Fed staffers who launched a social-media campaign. Photo courtesy of Federal Reserve Bank of New York
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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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