The local paper for Downtown wn
WEEK OF NOVEMBER - DECEMBER
29-5
ALL THAT GLITTERS AT THE MET
2018
▲ P.12
COUNCIL WEIGHS HATE CRIME BILL JUSTICE Legislation would form interagency office tasked with coordinating city’s anti-hate efforts BY MICHAEL GAROFALO
casualty that uprooted a thirty to forty year old Callery pear (Pyrus calleryana) on 22nd Street and took a good portion of the sidewalk with it, as well as a very shiny late model BMW that happened to be unluckily parked beneath. One doesn’t often think of the trees that line the side streets of the city, except when they display their vibrant autumn foliage, bloom into fluffy nebulae of delicate spring blossoms, or droop their branches
Amidst a recent spike in hate crimes, the City Council is considering legislation that would create a new city office dedicated to addressing bias-motivated incidents. Early in November, soon after a gunman killed 11 Jewish congregants at a Pittsburgh synagogue, police in New York City arrested an individual suspected of drawing swastikas on several Upper West Side buildings. Several similar acts occurred in Brooklyn within a few days, adding to a list of over 500 anti-Semitic incidents reported across the city in the last two years. Legislation introduced by Council Member Mark Levine would establish a new mayoral office for the prevention of such hate crimes. The office would serve to foster cooperation and collaboration between the various city agencies involved in disparate issues relating to hate crime, ranging from law enforcement and prosecution to outreach and prevention to counseling services for victims. “When the city confronts major challenges like this, we often establish an entity to coordinate amongst the many agencies that are required to work together,” Levine said at a Nov. 19 hearing, citing existing interagency bodies tasked with coordinating city resources dedicated to domestic violence prevention and legal assistance programs, among other topics. The new office, Levine said, would provide policymakers with a more holistic view of the city’s efforts to fight
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Uprooted. Photo: Deborah Fenker
A TREE FALLS IN CHELSEA NATURE An arboreal casualty is a reminder of how vulnerable — and miraculous — our city greenery is BY DEBORAH FENKER
Last week’s early snowfall that the authorities predicted would turn to rain never did, and in fact turned out to be substantially more profound a storm than most anyone expected. A projected one or two inches that would melt into puddles by rush hour turned into substantial and sloppy accumulation, wreaking havoc on both mass and private transit, and foiling the shoe choice of many who were understandably and unfortunately unprepared. The wet, heavy flakes settled onto vulnerable branches that had not yet lost their foliage, the slushy weight snapping branches like uncooked spaghetti and even felling an unprecedented number of specimens. Right here in Chelsea, we suffered an arboreal
The trees of New York subsist much like their human counterparts, crammed into living spaces much smaller than the ideal.
A police and fire call box on the Upper West Side, near West 104th Street and Columbus Avenue, was vandalized with a swastika and “KKK” in October 2018. Photo: Office of Council Member Mark Levine 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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for dollars in fees ated millions of and left some resithe city agency, that the application dents convinced
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