The local paper for Downtown wn A HOLIDAY COOKIE PRIMER < FOOD & DRINK, P.16
WEEK OF DECEMBER
24-30 2015
Our Take
A FRESH APPROACH TO THE HOMELESS PROBLEM NEWS Mayor hopes outreach ‘surge’ will make a difference BY JONATHAN LEMIRE AND COLLEEN LONG
A surge of outreach teams set to be deployed by New York City to deal with its persistent street homelessness problem has a deceptively simple goal: talk to as many homeless people as possible, as often as possible.
That increased frequency of contact, many experts believe, could help persuade the homeless, even those who have lived on the street for years, to finally go to a shelter. The number of staffers doing the outreach -- which started this past week with plans to double to more than 300 by March -- will flood an 8-mile stretch of Manhattan, checking each block daily to try to make contact with the estimated 3,000 to 4,000 people living on the streets of the nation’s largest city.
Mayor Bill de Blasio hopes the tactic, which has had mixed results in other U.S. cities, could help the city “crack the code” of what has been a chronic problem. He stressed that, while the city looks to create permanent affordable housing, it still can offer a bed in a shelter, hotel or room donated by religious organizations. “Now, more than ever, we’re going to provide the housing they need,” the mayor said during a radio interview. “So if we can get them in the right
WELCOME BACK, MR. MAYOR
to leave. The de Blasio administration has shifted into high gear in recent weeks to combat the homelessness problem after taking months of criticism for not acting quickly. There are about 58,000 people living in the city’s
direction, we actually have a place for them to go.” The teams will engage each homeless person and offer services, such as shelter, medical care or a hot shower, officials said. The hope is that the homeless people, many of whom are mentally ill, will begin to trust the familiar faces and eventually accept help. But they can’t be forced
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A MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR A DOG LOVER NEWS Two dozen dogs, and their owners, turned out to honor the founder of an animal rescue organization BY MICKEY KRAMER
Tina the chihuahua, Tilly the pitbull-mix, and Yorkie terriers Sigmund Freud, and, yes, Trump, were among the 25 or so canines who paid tribute, along with over 60 humans, to Emelinda Narvaez, the founder of Earth Angels Canine Rescue. The memorial, on Saturday at Jan Hus Presbyterian Church,
honored Narvaez, who passed away on December 2. “I feel so lucky to have known her and so sad that such a beautiful light in the world is now gone,” said longtime Earth Angels volunteer Judy Ross. She said that her dog Carmine -- “a beautiful 75 pound ball of mush” -- adopted through Earth Angels in 2005, is a wonderful reminder of Narvaez. Narvaez, who was 70, spent about 40 years rescuing dogs in New York City and was in route to saving a dog whose guardian was about to enter a nursing home, when she was felled by a heart attack. Her niece Emelinda Banuchi, who used to travel the streets with Narvaez looking for stray
dogs to feed and save, called her aunt, “a hero to the dogs.” For the memorial, the sanctuary was decorated with handmade posters featuring pictures of dogs adopted throughout the years, dogs currently available for adoption and tributes to Narvaez with words such as “woof woof mommy, we miss you.” The stories of gratitude, admiration and love for Narvaez were vast, tear-filled, and extended the scheduled one-hour event to almost two. Diego Aguirre and Jamey Poole brought Rusty James, a gray and white pitbull they’ve had for four
Mayor Bill de Blasio left us all a holiday gift this week, in the form of an admission -- his first, by our count -- that he has stumbled in his first two years in office. “I want to do better,” the mayor said. If acknowledging your mistakes is the first step towards not repeating them, de Blasio is moving in the right direction. Much of the first half of his first term has been marked by a haughtiness that has turned off even people who voted for him. That, and his initial failure to acknowledge a rise in homelessness aand a fraying of relations between the community and the police, left the impression that he was out of touch, or worse, uninterested in the nitty gritty business of governing. Speaking to reporters this week around a tablle in the Governor’s Room of City Hall, de Blasio was surprisingly candid about that failing. “When you actually have to start with the substance, the world gets a little more interesting,” he said, later adding: “I’m not going to change my level of belief that a lot of things have to change in this city. But I also understand the status quo doesn’t always yield so easily.” Indeed, it does not. That kind of change takes diligence and persistence and a willingness to seek out competing voices and to adapt. Those are not characteristics that we would associate with the Bill de Blasio of the last two years. As we enter 2016 and beyond, here’s hoping he’s learned his lesson. The city has no shortage of pressing problems, and is ready to get down to the business of solving them. We’d love to have the mayor join us.
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Photos by Barbara Ross 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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