The local paper for Downtown wn
WEEK OF DECEMBER - JANUARY
27-2
A MASTERPIECE FINDS ITS MATE AT THE FRICK
2018 - 2019
P.12 ▲
CITY SHARES FEW DETAILS ON NEW JAIL LAW ENFORCEMENT Amid transparency complaints, mayor meets privately with Lower Manhattan leaders to discuss plans for new detention center BY MICHAEL GAROFALO
underground. Catching the next train would take him far beyond his destination, and there was a strong chance the elevator at that station would also be inoperable. There is an average of 25 elevator outages per day in the New York subway system. The median outage is 4 hours, but many last months. Signs or audio announcements about the outages are rare. While the MTA provides bus service during extensive station issues, they don’t or can’t provide alternative accommo-
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan to build a new city jail in Lower Manhattan is a crucial piece of his initiative to shutter the scandal-plagued detention facilities at Rikers Island by 2027. But his administration’s efforts to build the new facility have been a source of frustration to many in the downtown community, even among supporters of the plan to close Rikers, who complain that the city’s process has left them sidelined. The mayor held a private meeting with downtown elected officials and community leaders on Dec. 18 to discuss his administration’s latest proposal, which calls for a new Manhattan jail at 125 White St. The administration has publicly shared few details of its plan, which would replace the existing jail at the site — the Manhattan Detention Complex, commonly known as the Tombs — with a significantly larger facility. The proposal to build at 125 White St. represents a shift from the city’s initial plan, released in August, to locate the new jail a few blocks south at 80 Centre Street. The change in sites, which was hastily announced and was not accompanied by updates to detailed official documentation pre-
CONTINUED ON PAGE 19
CONTINUED ON PAGE 5
Demonstrator makes his point about subway elevators at a November fare hike protest at Baruch College. Photo: Meredith Kurz
A WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE TRANSPORTATION New York’s disabled wage legal battles to improve subway and sidewalk access BY MEREDITH KURZ
Dustin Jones got off the subway at Union Station, rolled onto the platform and discovered that the elevator that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) claimed was in service was out of order. He was stuck, several flights of stairs
We are effectively now in a public engagement process about a 500-foot-tall proposed jail that is not even described in any public documents in any formal way.” State Senator Brian Kavanagh
The city plans to renovate and expand the Manhattan Detention Complex, known informally as “The Tombs,” as part efforts to close the jail facilities on Rikers Island. Photo: Wikimedia Commons Downtowner
OurTownDowntown
O OTDOWNTOWN.COM @OTDowntown
Crime Watch Voices NYC Now City Arts
3 8 10 12
Restaurant Ratings Business Real Estate 15 Minutes
14 16 17 21
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
9-16
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
COM
Newscheck Crime Watch Voices
for dollars in fees ated millions of and left some resithe city agency, that the application dents convinced
2 City Arts 3 Top 5 8 Real Estate 10 15 Minutes
12 13 14 18
CONTINUED ON PAGE
25
We deliver! Get Our Town Downtowner sent directly to your mailbox for $49 per year. Go to OTDowntown.com or call 212-868-0190