The local paper for the Upper East Side TAKE A BOW, DAVID HOCKNEY ◄P.12
WEEK OF NOVEMBER - DECEMBER
30-6 2017
SCANDAL? WHAT SCANDAL? IOWA BECKONS LEADERSHIP
A rendering of the planned expansion of the East River Waterfront Esplanade between East 53rd Street and East 60th Street. Image: NYC EDC
EAST RIVER GREENWAY INCHES FORWARD WATERFRONT Sutton Place residents push back on proposed 54th Street access point BY MICHAEL GAROFALO
The city’s plan to build eight new blocks of pathways along the East River is moving closer to realization, but the location of one proposed access point to the riverfront greenway has emerged as a point of contention for some residents. In April, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced $100 million in city funding for the second phase of the project, which will create a new stretch of elevated path raised on pilings over the East River from East 60th Street to East 53rd Street. Construction is expected to commence in 2019 and last three years.
When complete, the East Midtown Waterfront Esplanade project will add 1.1 miles of new, uninterrupted esplanade along the East River from 38th Street to 60th Street, narrowing one of the largest remaining gaps in the network of riverside pathways that officials hope will eventually encircle the island’s entire 32-mile waterfront. Officials from the NYC Economic Development Corporation, the lead agency on the project, updated the public on the status of the project at community board meetings last month. Typical stretches of the new esplanade will be 40 feet in width, with pedestrians and cyclists traveling on separate pathways divided by planters and seating areas. The project also includes the construction of new access points to the esplanade across the FDR Drive. One
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Even before he’s sworn in for a second term, Mayor Bill de Blasio will hit the Hawkeye State to rev up his national profile — despite intense blowback from bogus leadpaint inspections at public housing BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN
When the going gets tough, Mayor Bill de Blasio gets going — as far away from City Hall as politically, geographically and logistically possible. It’s been a four-year pattern. And now, even as his administration reels from a mushrooming scandal at the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), it is about to repeat itself: The mayor next month packs his bags for Iowa, home of the first-in-thenation caucuses — and graveyard-inthe-cornfields for outsized dreams and overreaching politicians. Fresh from his reelection triumph and two weeks before his swearing-in for a second term, he’ll headline the fifth annual holiday party for the liberal advocacy group Progress Iowa in Des Moines on December 19th. It is the classic testing-the-waters event — one that Bernie Sanders keynoted in December 2014 as he geared up for his 2016 presidential bid. “Welcome back to Iowa,” said Matt Sinovic, the group’s executive director and a “BBQ sauce competitor” at the Iowa State Fair. He said the mayor’s “progressive leadership and passion for common-sense solutions provides a model for the entire country.” Perhaps. But at the largest public housing authority in America, the home of one out of every 14 New York-
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Mayor Bill de Blasio outside Trump Tower on November 21st. Amid a growing leadpaint scandal at the city’s public housing, he heads to Iowa next month in a quest for national attention. Photo: Ed Reed / Mayoral Photo Office, via flickr ers, there’s been a spectacular lack of common sense. Not to mention absence of compassion for the vulnerable. Even disrespect for the rule of law. It turns out that NYCHA over a fouryear period failed to conduct leadpaint safety inspections in thousands of its apartments as mandated by state and federal laws, then lied about it by submitting false claims, the city’s Department of Investigation revealed in a November 14th report. Not atypically, de Blasio was enjoying a week-long, post-election family vacation in Connecticut when the news broke — but that didn’t deter
him from mounting a strong defense of NYCHA’s embattled chair, Shola Olatoye. After 24 hours of silence, and an initial refusal to address what DOI
CONTINUED ON PAGE 21 Jewish women and girls light up the world by lighting the Shabbat candles every Friday evening 18 minutes before sunset. Friday, December 1 – 4:11 pm. For more information visit www.chabaduppereastside.com
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