The local paper for the Upper er East Side DEALING WITH EBOLA FEARS P. 8
WEEK OF OCTOBER
30 2014
OURTOWNNY.COM
OurTownEastSide @OurTownNYC
TALLYING THE COST OF ACCIDENTS ON THE EAST SIDE
In Brief CITY LAUNCHES INITIATIVE TO ADDRESS SUICIDES IN JAIL
SAFETY NYC has paid out more than $2 million for claims involving pedestrian accidents on the U.E.S. BY ADELLE BRODBECK AND HANNAH GRIFFIN
Pedestrian traffic accidents aren’t just dangerous in New York City. They can also be expensive. A report by Comptroller Scott Stringer shows that between 2007 and 2014, the city paid out at least $2 million as a result of accidents between pedestrians and city vehicles on the Upper East Side.
Nick Di iorio, a candidate for NY’s 12th Congressional District, meeting voters at the Lenox Hill Neighborhood House senior center. Photo by Daniel Fitzsimmons
AN UNDERDOG LOOKS TO THE POLLS POLITICS Those claims contributed to a whopping $27 million tab paid paid by the city in 378 claims throughout New York, according to the Stringer report. The Comptroller’s study drills into the pedestrian claims made over the past seven years. Victims’ ages, for instance, range from infanthood to 93, with an average age of 42. Most of the accidents occurred in “hot-spot” crowded areas such as Midtown Manhattan, where over 40 claims were filed. However, no neighborhood was spared, as a list of Upper East Side accident spots shows. A complete list of claims is below. In an attempt to abate and hope-
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GOP candidate Nick Di iorio hopes to unseat longtime Democratic congresswoman BY DANIEL FITZSIMMONS
UPPER EAST SIDE Nick Di iorio (dee-oreo) is finally getting the ink he contends has been denied him since launching his congressional campaign in January. His opponent, Representative Carolyn Maloney (D-NY 12), has largely ignored his existence, with the tacit cooperation of the media, he says, leading him to claim the press is in her “back pocket.” And while it makes strategic sense for Maloney -- regarded as the stan-
dard-bearer of Manhattan’s Democratic establishment -- to avoid legitimizing a political opponent through engagement, the move left her open to criticism for seemingly flouting the democratic process, a point that was recently made for the second time in a New York Post editorial. Other attention includes Business Insider’s coverage of a press conference Di iorio held last week on the steps of City Hall, in which he vowed to focus on serious issues, in contrast to Maloney, he said. He has criticized her for embarking on a trip to China earlier this year in a bid to bring a panda to the Central Park Zoo. Di iorio’s presser featured a costumed panda, which was not lost on Business Insider; their article
highlighted the humor in claiming to focus on serious issues while a 6-foot panda is lollygagging in the background. Di iorio’s campaign promoted the article anyway. The episode is illustrative of the trials and tribulations facing any first time candidate, especially a 28-year-old Republican trying to unseat an entrenched Democrat in a race where the GOP, in recent memory, hasn’t bothered to field a candidate. And Di iorio’s claim to seriousness isn’t all political puffery. He spent six years in seminary training to become a Catholic priest before deciding it wasn’t for him (he wants a wife and kids). In August he embarked upon a fact-finding mission to Israel around the same time New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and a delegation of state officials were there, and later positioned himself as the pro-Israel candidate by saying Maloney failed to support Israel during the latest conflict in Gaza. “Even to this day she has not said a word about the most recent Gaza conflict,” Di iorio said. “That to me
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The de Blasio administration announced plans to implement system improvements to lower the rates of suicide and self-harm among inmates in New York City jails. Funded by a $400,000 grant from the National Institute of Justice, the Department of Correction, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and the Vera Institute of Justice will embark on a three-year project to standardize review of instances of inmate suicide or self-harm and document what can be done to reduce the likelihood of such instances happening again. Incidents of suicide, suicide attempts, and other acts of selfharm that can result in serious injury are called “sentinel events.” The health department currently has a systematic approach in place to review every case of suicide, which has kept rates of suicide in the City’s jail system well below the national average, despite increasing acts of selfharm.
FORFEITED FUNDS GO TO N.Y.P.D. TECHNOLOGY The NYPD is getting up to 41,000 tablets, handheld computers and other technology designed to make police work faster and more efficient. The initiative is funded by $160 million that was forfeited in criminal cases. The tablets will be used in up to 6,000 police cars. Patrol officers will be able to do searches, including record checks from the field. They’ll get faster information about 911 calls — sometimes before radio dispatch — and be able to enter reports without returning to their precincts. Jewish women and girls light up the world by lighting the Shabbat candle every Friday evening 18 minutes before sunset. Friday October 31 - 5:36 pm For more information visit www.chabaduppereastside.com.