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WEEK OF AUGUST
9-15
‘ON THE TOWN,’ ON BOARD ◄ P.12
2018
RIVERBOAT RENAISSANCE WATERWAYS
A FERRY GOOD WAY TO GET TO WORK:
A century ago, they clogged the East River. Now, ferries are coming back in a huge way — and the ride is briny, breezy, buoyant and brisk
Two New East River Routes Set to Launch TO SOUNDVIEW (the Bronx)
SOUNDVIEW ROUTE
BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN
COMING AUGUST 15
a tactic party activists see as a path to triumph not just in low-turnout primary elections, where ballot totals are often separated by only a few thousand votes, but also in this November’s general elections. “It’s not just red to blue,” OcasioCortez said in her Aug. 4 keynote speech at the Netroots Nation conference in New Orleans. “It’s nonvoter to voter. That’s our swing voter.” In New York City, much of the emphasis surrounding voter registration has concentrated on eligible voters in jail or on parole. An Aug. 3 registration drive organized by Getting Out and Staying Out, a nonprofit that works to reduce recidivism among formerly incarcerated young men, targeted the 35,000 parolees in New York state who are newly eligible to vote as a result of an executive order issued in April by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Boatloads of commuters on the Upper East Side will be able to bypass the subway and speed to jobs in midtown and downtown when the city on Aug. 15 launches a massive expansion of its existing ferry system. The embarkation point is the East 90th Street landing, just north of Carl Schurz Park, from which riders will be whisked to 34th Street in a mere 16 minutes, then down to Pier 11 on Wall Street only 18 minutes later. Work-bound residents of the East 20s, Stuyvesant Town, East Village and Lower East Side will also be able to zip up and down the East River when officials on Aug. 29 inaugurate a second new nautical route. That line will connect two existing ferry docks, on 34th Street and Wall Street, with two newly built jetties in Stuyvesant Cove Park on 20th Street and Corlears Hook Park below the East River Park Amphitheater. The twin transit options are expected to bring efficient, enjoyable and hassle-free rides — with skyline vistas and a fully-stocked bar — to New Yorkers long inured to the daily trudge into a hellish subway system. “New York City has reclaimed its waterfront — and access to it in a timeeffective, cost-effective manner can be better provided by water than by subways or bridges,” said Cameron Clark, a senior vice president at NYC Ferry, which operates the ferry lines under contract with the city.
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New York voting rights activists have intensified efforts to register new voters ahead of the Aug. 19 deadline to register for September’s state primary. Photo: Michael Garofalo
‘ARE YOU REGISTERED TO VOTE?’ ENGAGEMENT Ahead of Aug. 19 primary deadline, voter registration drives heat up with new emphasis on incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals BY MICHAEL GAROFALO
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s surprise June House primary victory looms large over Democratic Party politics in 2018 — particularly in her native New York, where her campaign’s emphasis on engaging nonparticipants has helped energize efforts to register first-time voters. The Bronx candidate has credited her success in defeating incumbent U.S. Rep. Joe Crowley in part to her upstart campaign’s focus on boosting turnout among nonvoters and voters who sat out past elections —
SOUNDVIEW EAST 90th STREET
20 min
2 Bronx River Pkwy
EAST 90th STREET 16 min
140 58th St
EAST 34th STREET 18 min
WALL STREET
TO LONG ISLAND CITY (Queens)
Pier 11
LOWER EAST SIDE ROUTE COMING AUGUST 29
EAST 34th STREET
LONG ISLAND CITY STUYVESANT COVE
6 min
46th Ave and Center Blvd
EAST 34th STREET 7 min
STUYVESANT COVE CORLEARS HOOK
10 min
20th Street at FDR Drive
CORLEARS HOOK 9 min
East River Promenade
WALL STREET
WALL STREET Pier 11
Pier 11 Source: NYC Ferry / NYC Economic Development Corp.
You can even grab a beer on your way home!” Cameron Clark, executive at NYC Ferry
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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
9-16
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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