The local paper for Downtown wn HARPER LEE’S MANHATTAN
WEEK OF AUGUST
6-12
VOICES, P.8
2015
EAST RIVER WATERFRONT GROUP TAKES SHAPE a gaggle of civic-minded New Yorkers concerned about the future of the East River waterfront, is now set to incorporate as the South Street East River Community Development Corporation. Victor Papa, who as president of the Two Bridges
NEWS South Street Initiative set to register as a community development corporation BY DANIEL FITZSIMMONS
A view of the East River waterfront and the Manhattan Bridge, with the Brooklyn Bridge in the background. Photo by Daniel Fitzsimmons.
The South Street Initiative, which began last fall as
THE LAST DAYS OF OUR LADY OF PEACE After nearly a century on the Upper East Side, a parish is shuttered but congregants have appealed the NY Archdiocese’s decree BY RICHARD KHAVKINE
Nearing their 30-year anniversary, Janice Dooner Lynch and Tom Lynch renewed their marriage vows last week inside a red brick church with neat white stone trim on a tidy Upper East Side block. It was a bittersweet occasion. “We did it today, the last day we could possibly do it,” Janice Lynch said a few hours after the church’s pastor, the Rev. Bartholomew Daly, officiated at the ceremony July 30. It would be among Daly’s last official acts as pastor of Our Lady of Peace on East 62nd Street. After nearly 100 years as a parish, the church’s doors closed, likely for good, the following day. The Catholic parish, established in 1919 by a growing population of Ital-
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ian immigrants to the city and the neighborhood, was one of dozens shuttered by the Archdiocese of New York, which cited declining attendance, shifting demographics and a shortage of priests, among other factors, when it announced closings of parishes stretching from Staten Island to Albany late last year. Officially, Our Lady of Peace merged with that of Saint John the Evangelist, seven blocks to the south, to create an entirely new parish on Aug. 1. Beginning with her grandmother in 1921, four generations of Lynch’s family passed under the marble archway leading into to the church and on which the words “Domus Dei et Porta Coeli” — God’s House and Heaven’s Door — are carved. Like her parents and grandparents, she and her husband were married there, in October 1985. Her daughter, Kellie, was baptized at the church. “You feel the family’s history being ripped out,” Lynch said.
Congregants said they were confounded by the archdiocese’s decision to close Our Lady of Peace since, they said, the parish was financially sound, so much so that a $450,000 renovation in 2008 and 2009 was
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paid for entirely by the congregation. “This church has been in the black for years,” Lynch said, adding that the congregation’s numbers, while holding steady at about 400, was likely to grow. “It owes no debt to anyone. As a result it shouldn’t be closed.” Many said they expected the church to be sold to developers, despite
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Our Take THE LESSONS OF THE TRASH STATION Whether you live on the Upper East Side or not, the successful effort to move a trash-dump ramp in the neighborhood is a fight worth paying attention to. Mayor Bill de Blasio, whose support in the neighborhood is thin, had until now resisted moving the ramp, even though the facts of the project bordered on the absurd: the ramp on E. 91st Street would have directed heavy garbage truck traffic through Asphalt Green, a sports complex popular with kids, exposing them to traffic dangers and noxious fumes. While the shifting of the ramp, one block north to 92nd Street, seems now like a no-brainer, in fact it emerged as a sort of compromise, once it became clear that the mayor was unlikely to kill the trash dump entirely. Asphalt Green, supported by smart engineering and traffic studies to bolster its case, was able to work with other community leaders to at least ameliorate a bad situation. The mayor signed on to its plan late last week. There are lessons here for community fights elsewhere in the city: all-or-nothing demands rarely work, especially with this City Hall, which seems to have a nearly endless number of constituencies to satisfy. Second, by keeping the tone of the rhetoric in check, and focusing more on facts and logic, the good guys can, occasionally, win in the end. There are an endless number of fights where this kind of common-sense approach could help, from Central Park horses to Uber. Is it possible? Yes. Likely? Probably not
Solemn Mass at Our Lady of Peace on East 62nd Street on July 30, the evening before the church was closed. Photo: Richard Khavkine Downtowner 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
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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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