The local paper for Downtown wn THE COLOR AND THE SHAPE
WEEK OF DECEMBER
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< P. 12
2016
THE TRUMP TOWER TANGLE Manhattan residents deal with disruptions created by President-elect’s presence in the city A Citi Bike docking station. Photo: Tom Marvel, via flickr
CITY COUNCIL PRESSES ON CITI BIKE EXPANSION “Far flung” neighborhoods want more stations, amid resistance on the Upper West Side BY MADELEINE THOMPSON
Citi Bike is the largest bike share program in the country, with nearly 70,000 rides taken on one October day this fall. Now it could become even bigger. By the end of 2017, Citi Bike aims to have 750 stations with 12,000 bikes throughout the city, compared to the current 600 stations and 10,000 bikes. At a City Council transportation committee hearing on Monday, elected officials grilled Department of Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg for details on the program’s funding and plans for the coming year. According to Trottenberg, Phase Two will entail expanding Citi Bike in Manhattan up to 130th Street as well as into Astoria and parts of Brooklyn. Council Members Carlos Menchaca and Deborah Rose, who represent parts of Brooklyn and Staten Island, said they are still waiting for Citi Bike to reach their areas. A reasonable, affordable commute, they said, is crucial to elevating low-income New Yorkers. “It’s no secret that Citi Bike has become a symbol of gentrification,” Menchaca said. Council Member Margaret Chin, who represents much of Lower Manhattan, asked that Citi Bike’s discounted fare oppor-
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BY SARAH NELSON, DIAMOND NAGA SIU AND GENIA GOULD
The city and its inhabitants have changed in innumerable ways since overnight on Nov. 9. Politically and psychically, certainly. But also materially. Nowhere is this more apparent than along Fifth Avenue between 56th and 57th Streets, the home and now transition headquarters of President-elect Donald J. Trump. And, in about eight weeks, following Inauguration Day, a good portion of the 58-story glass tower with a jagged façade could be serving as a de facto White House for significant portions of the year. For now, the busy boulevard, as well as 57th Street, in the vicinity of the tower will stay open to vehicle and pedestrian traffic, city Police Commissioner Jim O’Neill said. But that could all change, he said. For his part, Mayor Bill de Blasio, who met with Trump on Nov. 16, said he discussed with the president-elect the multitude of concerns residents have expressed at protests, rallies, online and with each other since Election Day. Hate crimes, the Affordable Care Act and financial insecurity were just a few of the issues the mayor said he touched on. But the core of his exchange, de Blasio said, was New York City itself. “My essential message to him was to remember where you come from,” the mayor said. “I hope he remembers every day what he saw over all those years in the city and doesn’t lose track of the very things that allowed him and countless others an opportunity — this place that is open to all, that believes in opportunity for all.”
WHITE HOUSE NORTH Since the election, Trump Tower and Fifth Avenue have become synonymous with metal grates, scores of police and Secret
Security personnel at Trump Tower. Photo: Sarah Nelson Service personnel, and protests. Security around Trump Tower encompasses at least two blocks in each direction on 57th Street from Park Avenue to Madison Avenue. The precautions have gridlocked the area. “It’s a nightmare,” said a manager of a nearby residential complex, who declined to give his name. “It takes an average of 30 minutes to get from here [54th Street] to the corner [53rd Street]. Driving here has become impossible.” Metal barriers close off the sidewalk in front of the building between 56th and 57th Streets completely. Pedestrians must request access through an NYPD officer in order to enter stores such as Gucci and Tiffany & Co. that are within the immediate vicinity of the President-elect’s 68-story home tower. Stationed in front of the building are two groups of three or more police officers on either entrance, a couple of whom carry
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WEEK OF APRIL
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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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machine guns. Inside, visitors are required to place any bags or personal items through one of two metal detector belts, akin to airport TSA security. Past the checkpoints, guests are free to wander and shop around the marble atrium and multiple floors, each with roaming NYPD officers and Trump Tower employees wearing pins that say “Trump.” The extensive security measures have caused concerns over how to keep pedestrian and vehicle traffic moving. Officers are stationed on each street corner to hurry along the gawkers and shoppers taking photos of the congested area. Inside Trump Tower, vendors at Starbucks and Trump Ice Cream Parlor said they were instructed not to comment on how the barricades have affected their business.
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