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WEEK OF NOVEMBER CELEBRATING WITH A BARK ◄P.16
9-15 2017
A cyclist passes newly installed concrete barriers on the Hudson River Park Bikeway in Lower Manhattan, near the site of the Oct. 31 vehicle attack that killed eight people. Photo: Michael Garofalo
HARD LESSONS OF VEHICLE ATTACK STREETS Hudson River Bikeway fortified with concrete barricades as authorities plan new safety measures BY MICHAEL GAROFALO
More than a week after a man drove a truck nearly a mile down the Hudson River Bikeway at high speed, deliberately striking pedestrians and cyclists and leaving eight dead and another twelve injured in his wake, concrete barriers spaced along the riverfront bike path serve as an imposing reminder of what NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill called “the worst terror attack in New York City since September 11th, 2001.”
City and state transportation officials installed dozens of barriers along the Hudson River Greenway in the days after the Oct. 31 attack in hopes of preventing vehicles from entering the park’s pedestrian and bicycle paths in the future. The Oct. 31 vehicle attack started near Pier 40, at Houston Street, where the driver steered his rented truck from West Street onto the bike path and sped south, targeting users of the crowded, narrow trail. The driver was shot and apprehended by police after he collided with a school bus near Stuyvesant High School. Police identified the suspect as Sayfullo Saipov, 29, an Uzbek immigrant who they said was inspired by the Islamic State. The attack marked the second time this year that a driver left a Manhattan street to target bystanders. In
May, an intoxicated driver made an abrupt u-turn onto a Times Square sidewalk and plowed through pedestrians for three blocks, killing one person and injuring 22 others. The vehicle in the Times Square attack came to a stop when it struck a metal bollard on a street corner, which likely prevented further injuries. Additional bollards were installed in Times Square after the incident. Mayor Bill de Blasio said after the bike path attack that while it would be “very hard” to put bollards on every corner in the city, the city will install them in “key places” and learn from each incident. Bills have been introduced in both the House and Senate that would dedicate federal money to fund the installation of such barriers.
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This log-cabin inspired birdhouse once started off as an old beer skid that Mele found behind a bar. Photo: Carson Kessler
BIRDMAN OF THE WEST VILLAGE NEIGHBORHOOD Vincent Mele handcrafts whimsical birdhouses for McCarthy Square on Seventh Avenue BY CARSON KESSLER
Taking a break from transforming a vacant storefront into a waxing and color room for the neighboring salon, the birdman of the West Village is absolutely covered in white paint, stray strokes smeared upon Downtowner
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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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his neck, jeans, and Timberlands. White powder is caked on his round glasses and the leathery skin of his tattooed forearms, clear evidence of his relationship with drywall and plaster. The master carpenter motions towards the window, pointing at a three story, log-cabin birdhouse, the most recent of his contributions to the neighborhood. For about nine years, Vincent Mele, 66, has been handcrafting whimsical birdhouses to decorate McCarthy Square, the triangular park at
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