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MARCH
12-18 2015
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In Brief
THE LOOMING SHADOW OF LUXURY South Street Initiative looking to become voice for Lower East Side residents BY DANIEL FITZSIMMONS
Victor Papa knew in the late-1990s that the Lower East Side was poised for change, and as a longtime community activist, that the neighborhood needed a platform to draw attention to the needs of residents who live in the many public housing developments nestled along the East River. Then 9/11 happened. And his plans, like those of so many others, were put on hold. What did not change was a need to insure that those who have lived on the Lower East Side for decades did not get squeezed out of the discussion over its future. “There’s been incredible changes,
new neighborhoods, the whole gentrification thing,” said Papa, now the chair of Two Bridges Neighborhood Association. “The Lower East Side is probably more sought after than Lower Manhattan, and that’s part of the problem.” Those changes are best illustrated in a plan that Extell Development - one of the city’s largest property owners and developers - has to erect a 68-story luxury residential tower at the foot of the Manhattan Bridge. The development will include 790 units of market rate housing and feature amenities like a Turkish bath, bowling alley and golf simulator. Even more to the point, the high-rise is being built on top of what was a local supermarket. Residents in the neigh-
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SENTENCE IN DEATH OF A 4-YEAR-OLD PEDESTRIAN
The East River waterfront looking south at the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges. A 68-story luxury tower is being built at the foot of the Manhattan Bridge. Photo by Daniel Fitzsimmons
SHARP RISE IN PLAYGROUND INJURY CLAIMS NEWS Downtown playgrounds included in report from comptroller Playgrounds in lower Manhattan aren’t all fun and games. A new report from Comptroller Scott Stringer shows that playground-related personal injury claims have risen sharply over the past decade, including downtown, even though the number of kids in the city over the same period has dropped. Stringer’s report tracks 577 claims against the city for playground injuries -- about one a week
The playground at Union Square, which is among those cited by a city report on injury claims.
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Three to nine years. That’s the prison sentence Franklin Reyes Jr. received in a plea bargain deal last week after fatally running down 4-year-old Ariel Russo with his car in June 2013 while she crossed the street holding her grandmother’s hand. While the sentence will be seen as progress by some trafficsafety advocates, who have grown frustrated by how few pedestrian deaths end up getting prosecuted at all, the fact that Reyes was able to strike a plea deal is remarkable. This, after all, is a driver who was driving without a license. Who dragged a cop 100 feet feet while fleeing a traffic stop – a year after Russo was killed. Who was trying to avoid the police because he was out on bail after being accused of looting a dead woman’s Chelsea apartment in a building where his dad was the super. (A trial for that charge is slated for later this month.) In the courtroom for the Russo sentencing, Reyes was largely unapologetic, though he did quibble with the judge about whether the incident with the cop was his fault. After a break, he acknowledged guilt in that incident only after the judge threatened to toss out the entire plea deal. Perhaps not surprising, Ariel’s parents said they felt little in the way of closure after the hearing. “Three to nine years is absolutely not enough for what he did,” her mother, Sofia Russo, told the Daily News. “His reckless actions killed my daughter, maimed my mother and has shattered our lives. We’re never going to be the same again. There has been no remorse, no apologies.” Three to nine years -- a moment in time in the long war over pedestrian deaths in New York.