The local paper for Downtown wn THE SUBSTITUTE TEACHER WHO RAPS < Q&A, P.21
WEEK OF JULY
9-15 2015
PARSING THE CRIME STATS NEWS June was the safest for the city in more than 20 years, though crime downtown was up BY HARRISON STEVEN CADE
Does New York City feel safer? According to the NYPD, it should. The department said that the month of June was the safest for the city since 1994, as major felonies fell across the board. NYPD Commissioner William Bratton held a press conference on July 1, in part to trumpet the numbers and in part to reassure New Yorkers that, going into the summer, the department is ready. The NYPD has announced a summer staff-up program, which involved the participation of over 300 formerly desked members of the NYPD in highcrime precincts. Bratton said the additions were aiming at dealing “with the traditional spike that we anticipate in the summer months.” Bratton also succeeded in convincing Mayor Bill de Blasio to add up to 1,300 new cops on the street, though the effects of those extra officers are months away. The citywide dip was not evident in lower Manhattan, where CompStat numbers from the 1st Precinct through the first 28 days of June showed that the seven major felonies tracked by the department were up 24.1% from a year ago. Most of that increase was due to a doubling in the number of robberies from a year ago as well as gains in the number of felo-
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Fabulous upcoming New York State events and must-sees at ILoveNY.com/summer15 and inside!
At B&D Halal Restaurant on West 29th Street, open plastic containers of dates and large jugs of cool water – with which the prophet Muhammad broke his fast some 14 centuries ago – beckon on each of the restaurant’s tables just before iftar, the evening meal during Ramadan. Photo: Richard Khavkine
Our Take THE VISIT OF POPE FRANCIS
FEEDING THE SOUL, IF NOT THE BODY The prohibition on eating and drinking during the Ramadan fast can be challenging, particularly when you’re the one doing the serving
BY RICHARD KHAVKINE
Lunchtime at the B&D Halal Restaurant on West 29th Street is usually a bustling affair. Nearly each of the eatery’s roughly 50 seats are occupied, while other
patrons wait their turns at two dozen steel pans brimming with stewed chicken or goat, fried fish and plantains, spiced rice and grains. But on a late June afternoon, the otherwise spare restaurant’s eight tables, each of which can seat six, were nearly empty. Regulars ambling toward the cash register, Styrofoam containers in hand, remarked at the relative quiet. “It’s Ramadan,” the cashier, Djenabou Diallo, said.
In New York, Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar, began on June 17 and will last until July 16. The month commemorates the revelation of the Quran to the prophet Muhammad and is observed by the world’s 1.8 billion Muslims, including the roughly 1 million who live in the city, by fasting from dawn until just after sunset. In Arabic, Ramadan’s etymol-
New Yorkers like to think they have been everywhere and done everything. We’re a hard group to impress. The visit of Pope Francis to the city in September is an exception. New Yorkers of all stripes -- and faiths -- already are strategizing for ways to see the pontiff during his upcoming visit. The pope’s focus on income inequality and on environmental concerns strike a particular nerve in this city. In addition, the closure of Catholic parishes around town has created deep fissures that the Vatican, and local Catholic leaders, are hoping the pope’s visit will heal. Indeed, one of the planned stops on the pope’s Sept. 24-26 tour is an East Harlem school that had been part of a church closed by the diocese. The late Edward Cardinal Egan shuttered the church, prompting parishioners to stage a sit-in and resulting in the arrest of six people. That was in 2007. This year, protesters again returned to Catholic churches across the city, after the diocese targeted more for closing. The pope will be hoping to close that chapter during his visit. He’ll also preside over masses at Madison Square Garden and St. Patrick’s and will visit the 9/11 Memorial & Museum. Line up for your tickets now. The visit by any pope is special. The arrival of this pope, at this time in our history, is monumental.
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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 interested a I was about it not from wanted to write from view but rather lawyer’s point of said Arbitration a lay point of view,” lawyer since 1961. Man, a practicing at issue what’s about He first writes post, renders and then, in a separatehow he arrived his decision, detailing Visitors to the blog 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 indiArbitration Man, 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 by of complaints 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 formality for deTo really make a difference, process is a mere complete their will have to to are the work course, the advocaterising rents, precinct, but chances-- thanks to a velopers looking find a way to tackle business’ hours,” is being done legally of after-hours projects quickly. own many their which remain “They pick out boom in the number throughout While Chin 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 the hollow boom, issuance of these business owners, that moving in reverse. as after-hours. The increased beeps of a truck has generto a correspond and you 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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