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WEEK OF OCTOBER THE BRESLINIZATION OF EAST 42ND STREET
25-31 2018
▲ P.5
The Department of Education fielded nearly 130,000 complaints about bus service in the first month of the 2018 school year. Photo: Chris Sampson, via Flickr Senior Pastor K Karpen (right) with Debora Barrios (center) and Associate Pastor Lea Matthews (left) inside of St. Paul and St. Andrew United Methodist Church. Photo: Stephan Russo
THE ‘SANCTUARYHOOD’ CAMPAIGN COMMUNITY A network of religious groups, non-profits and individuals hopes to turn entire neighborhoods into safe spaces for immigrants. How it works on the UWS BY STEPHAN RUSSO
The New York metropolitan area is home to 1.2 million of the nation’s 11.1 million undocumented immigrants. NYC is one of 39 cities that has declared itself a sanctuary city, which prohibits the NYPD from working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in identifying undocumented immigrants unless they have committed serious crimes. Despite threats by the federal government to punish the city and withhold needed funding, New York has held steadfast. Now there is a campaign on the Upper West Side to develop a local “SanctuaryHood” (Barrio Santuario), educating residents and busi-
The UWS is still a neighborhood where people feel connected. Where we can, we need to push back and hold our ground. Providing sanctuary is a concrete way of doing that.”
COUNCIL TAKES AIM AT SCHOOL BUS WOES STUDENTS Bills under consideration would make real-time bus GPS location data available to parents, expand DOE disclosure requirements on delays
Lea Matthews, associate pastor, St. Paul and St. Andrew United Methodist Church nesses on how to create a safe space for immigrants who live, work and shop in our community. The idea of turning entire neighborhoods into sanctuaries was an outgrowth of work by the New Sanctuary Coalition of NYC — an interfaith network of religious groups, non-profit organizations and concerned individuals that
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BY MICHAEL GAROFALO
Following a bumpy start to the school year for the 150,000 NYC public school students who rely on buses to get to class each day, city legislators are pushing a package of bills intended to improve the struggling pupil transportation system. Complaints of no-show buses, late arrivals and drivers getting lost on their routes abounded during the opening weeks of the school year. In September alone, students experienced over 27,000 bus-related delays,
according to Department of Education data, which cites heavy traffic and mechanical problems as the most common reasons for delays. The agency fielded nearly 130,000 complaints through its school bus helpline in September — 20,000 more than during the same period last year — many from worried parents in search of kids on tardy buses. The City Council is weighing a bill would address these concerns by requiring DOE to implement GPS tracking on each of the 9,000 yellow buses that transport public school students and giving parents access to real-time location data. The GPS legislation is one piece of a seven-bill bundle — known as the Student Transportation Oversight Package, or “STOP” — aimed at increasing the transparency and efficiency of the bus system.
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Crime Watch Voices NYC Now City Arts
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Students experienced
27,082 delays in September 2018
STOP
On average, delayed buses run
26.9 minutes late in Manhattan (Citywide, students on delayed buses arrive 28.1 minutes
behind schedule on average)
60 percent of delays are attributed to heavy traffic
71 percent of reported delays occur in the morning
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NYC SCHOOL BUS DELAYS
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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Newscheck Crime Watch Voices
for dollars in fees ated millions of and left some resithe city agency, that the application dents convinced
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Sources: NYC DOE, NYC Council
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