The local paper for Downtown wn
WEEK OF AUGUST
23-29 Fall 2018 EDUCATION p.11
2018
TOUGH SLOG TO A FAST FERRY TRANSPORTATION The new riverboats are already a magnet for East Siders — but a trek to the dock means navigating 70-plus steps, so it’s impassable for the disabled
It is outrageous that there is still no accessible path to the 90th Street ferry.”
BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN
Question: Now that ferry service has returned to the Upper East Side, how does a river-bound passenger reach the East 90th Street landing to board the boat and travel to points south? Answer: It’s easy if you’re young, healthy or fit. It can be tricky, even treacherous, if you’re old, infirm or frail. And unfortunately, it is all-but impossible if you’re confined to a wheelchair. With great fanfare, the city on Aug. 15 launched a massive expansion of its existing ferry system, opening a berth just north of Carl Schurz Park to whisk riders down to 34th Street and Pier 11 on Wall Street. The only problem is getting to the ferry dock. To access the site, commuters have to navigate dozens of steps on the uptown side of Gracie Mansion and scale a steep slope that summits on the roof of the FDR Drive tunnel. That pitched hill — beloved by generations of sleigh-riders — is crowned by a plateau atop the highway which ferry-goers traverse by wending their way between two construction fences before finally descending to the East River on the other side. “The ride itself is gorgeous — but I could do without all the huffing-andpuffing it takes to get there,” said Phyllis Lester, a 79-year-old retired Yorkville bookkeeper who took the ferry to visit a doctor on 36th Street.
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State Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright The mayoral charter revision commission is one of two panels concurrently reviewing the charter. In April, the City Council convened its own charter revision commission, which will send any ballot proposals in approves to voters in Nov. 2019. Photo: Benjamin Kanter/Mayoral Photo Office
PANEL PRESENTS CHARTER REFORM PROPOSALS POLITICS Mayoral commission will review ballot measures targeting changes to campaign finance laws, community board appointments BY MICHAEL GAROFALO
Ferry passengers clamber up the pitched slope at the northern end of Carl Schurz Park to get to and from the East 90th Street ferry landing on the East River, where a new riverboat route launched on Aug. 15. It’s a pretty tough haul, and it is not ADA accessible. Photo: Douglas Feiden
The commission convened by Mayor Bill de Blasio to review the New York City Charter appears poised to send several ballot measures to voters this November, including proposals to enact term limits for community board members and expand the city’s public matching program for campaign funds. The mayoral charter revision commission provided the public with a broad overview of policy proposals to alter several aspects of city government in a resolution approved Downtowner
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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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The proposal on the Civic Engagement Commission is so vague and leaves so many unanswered questions.” Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer Aug. 14. Commission staff will draft detailed ballot proposals in the weeks to come, using the resolution passed by the 15-member resolution as a template. By September 7, the commission will vote on the proposals drafted by the staff, and those approved will be appear before voters on the general election ballot Nov. 6.
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