The local paper for Downtown wn
2016 M
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A New Year’s coming, and we have some ideas about where you should spend it. We’ve come up with our Best of Manhattan, as we do every year. The concept of “best” is, we realize, subjective — and fun to argue about. with strong opinions, and we’re We’re New Yorkers, after all, here partly to spark a dialogue on what’s worthy. But we also hope encourage moments where you to dive into the city you call home. So go ahead and have a conversation with a good friend in a restaurant toddler to story time. Enjoy a play you’ve never tried. Take your – or a playground. Get the dog groomed. train or in a car and head out of Or put yourself on a bike or a the city. There’s a whole host of experiences waiting outside your apartment door.
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Best of Manhattan 2016 was written by Christopher Moore and designed by Heather Roland-Blanco
WEEK OF DECEMBER
Pets
Kids
RESPONDING TO HATE CRIMES With a rise in bias incidents, some New Yorkers step up while others stand by BY MADELEINE THOMPSON
Kelvin Kendall, 17, participating in the first New York City foster care hackathon on Dec. 3. Photo: Diamond Naga Siu
TECH AND SUPPORT FOR FOSTER KIDS Innovators, including those within the system, cultivate technology to find solutions, help shape policy BY DIAMOND NAGA SIU
Kelvin Kendall, 17, was kicked out of his house on a recent Friday. By the next morning, he was leading a discussion at eBay headquarters on Sixth Avenue in Chelsea on how to ameliorate similar situations for other youth. Kendall is one of nearly 30,000 people in the New York City foster care system. And on that Saturday, Dec. 3, he was participating in the first New York City foster care hackathon, working with a team of activists and techies to create an app that brings accessible after-hours support to people in the foster care system. Many of the participating hackers are in a similar situation to his — they are present or past foster care children. “Our entire world is driven by how we interact with technology, so we have on our phones countless apps that can help us order pizza quicker, order packages on Amazon and know exactly what’s happening to our package,” said Rafael Lopez, commissioner of the federal Administration on Children, Youth and Families. “Why not learn other sectors and apply to human services the
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Spurred by a 35 percent increase in hate crimes throughout the city since the election of Donald Trump, about 50 New Yorkers spent two hours of a recent Thursday night learning when and how to speak up for victims of bias attacks. Rachel S. Blum Levy, a social worker who organized the free workshop, walked attendees through the four D’s of bystander intervention — direct, delegate, distract, delay — and provided specific tactics to carry them out. “Your instincts are really important and you have to listen to them,” she said at the Nov. 8 workshop. “Oftentimes, not always, but oftentimes using our voice is enough to defuse a situation.” Opportunities to speak up have been all the more available lately. Last week two Muslim women — one a police officer and one an MTA employee — were verbally and physically assaulted in different incidents. Swastikas have appeared in graffiti in multiple locations, including a 1 train and inside the elevator in state Senator Brad Hoylman’s apartment building. Some New Yorkers are stepping up to educate themselves and help others, but some are looking the other way. On Dec. 3, a Muslim student was attacked on the subway by three men who screamed “Donald Trump” at her and tried to rip off her hijab. According to the New York Daily News, no one intervened. “People were looking at me and looking at what was happening and no one said a thing,” 18-year-old Yasmin Seweid told the Daily News. James Mulvaney, an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and former deputy commissioner of the New York state Division of Human Rights, isn’t surprised by New Yorkers’ capacity for vitriol. “While you have a diverse population, it doesn’t mean that it’s a melting pot,” Mulvaney said. “There is still a substantial
Participants during a Nov. 12 march in New York City. Photo: wasikphoto.com, via Wikimedia Commons. amount of tension — racial, religious and economic.” Imam Ali Mashour of the Upper East Side Islamic Cultural Center, however, was shocked and disappointed. “Outside of New York it would be something I would
2016 “BEST PRESCHOOL”
Downtowner < CITYARTS, P.12
WHERE CHILDREN
Learn & Thrive!
WEEK OF APRIL
SPRING ARTS PREVIEW
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
brighthorizons.com/NYC
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
n OurTownDowntow
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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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expect,” said Mashour, who attributed the recent incidents not directly to Trump but to the “outrageous” campaign he led. Mashour was surprised by Trump’s elec-
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