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WEEK OF AUGUST SCARAMUCCI’S NEXT STEP? < P. 6
3-9 2017
More than 500 CityBenches are expected to be in place by the end of next year. Photo: NYC DOT
THE BENCHING OF MANHATTAN PUBLIC SPACES Or how a modest piece of street furniture is making life a little bit easier for the old, the frail, the young and just about everybody else
From 2006 to 2015, the number of annual bicycle trips in NYC grew 150 percent. Photo: Michael Garofalo
DOT TOUTS BIKE SAFETY DATA STREETS Cyclist fatality rates have dropped, study shows BY MICHAEL GAROFALO
It’s not your imagination: there are way more bikes on the streets than there used to be. From 2006 to 2015, the number of annual bicycle trips on New York City streets grew 150 percent. According to a new Department of Transportation study, the dramatic increase in ridership has been accompanied by a precipitous decline in the rate of fatalities and serious injuries. “Overall, the rate of cycling fatalities and serious injuries has really dropped as our numbers have risen,”
DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg said at a July 31 press conference announcing the findings of the “Safer Cycling” study near the pedestrian and cyclist entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge in Brooklyn. The number of annual cyclist fatalities in New York has remained relatively flat over the last decade, Trottenberg said, but data shows that safety has improved significantly when increased ridership is taken into account. On a per trip basis, the study says, the fatality rate for cyclists dropped 71 percent between 2000 and 2015. DOT officials and bicycle advocates have suggested that the reduced rate of accidents, even as the number of bikes on the road has grown, is evidence of the so-called “safety in numbers” theory, which holds that cycling
ridership and cycling injuries and deaths are inversely correlated. “The more bikers out there on the streets, the safer it is for everyone,” said Paul Steely White, the executive director of Transportation Alternatives, a pedestrian, bike and transit advocacy group. But despite encouraging data on bicycle safety, Trottenberg said there is still work to be done. Five cyclists died in Manhattan during the first six months of 2017, according to city data, including three in June. One of the DOT’s priorities in improving bicycle safety is expanding the city’s network of bike lanes. According to the report, 89 percent of fatal bike collisions between 2006 and 2016 occurred on streets without bike lanes.
BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN
Imagine a $1.31 million investment that can boost the quality of life on the East Side, the West Side and in midtown, downtown and Chelsea. A tiny expenditure that can turn the urban landscape for seniors more age-friendly, make a walkable island even more pedestrian-friendly, aid people with mobility problems — and simply give harried New Yorkers a space to catch their breath. Sound far-fetched? Actually, with little fanfare, it is already happening. The vehicle for this unheralded miracle? The humble street bench. Under a federa l ly f u nded streetscape improvement project, nearly 450 benches have been installed on the streets of Manhattan as of July 28, according to data provided by the city’s Department of Transportation. The average per-bench cost for the
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citywide program, which has already added 1,800 benches in all five boroughs, is roughly $3,000, according to an analysis by city Comptroller Scott Stringer’s office. That means the cost to date to place sidewalk pews in all 12 community districts in Manhattan is a modest $1.31 million — about the price paid by the MTA for a single subway car. As for the benefits? It’s hard to overstate them: “Benches are a really, really big deal, and we pushed very hard to get them,” said Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, who first advocated for benches as a three-term City Council Member representing the Upper West Side. “They enable an older person to get to the grocery store, and the doctor’s appointment, and to rest along the way,” she said. “It helps them to remain independent.” They can also transform a bleak block into a joyous, user-friendly cityscape. Consider the stretch on the west side of Columbus Avenue between 77th and 76th Street, where a tall, unsightly block-long fence cordons off a schoolyard and had created what planners dub “sidewalk dead space.”
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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 on the Over the past 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.” can’t come p.m. and 7 a.m., 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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