The local paper for the Upper er East Side
WEEK OF SEPTEMBER PICASSO IN 3D < CITYARTS, P.12
17-23 2015
CITY PLANNING TO BUILD ON HOLMES PLAYGROUND NEWS Maloney vows to fight NYCHA’s plans for E. 93rd Street BY DANIEL FITZSIMMONS
AS PRIVATE SCHOOLS EXPAND, THE LOBBYISTS LINE UP NEWS Private schools have spent nearly $500,000 lobbying the city for their expansion efforts
Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney blasted a recent proposal by Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration to build affordable apartments on playground space at the Holmes Towers public housing complex on E. 93rd Street. In a bid to increase the affordable housing stock in Manhattan, the administration is proposing to sell or enter into longterm leases with developers to build 350-400 apartments on public space at Holmes, 175-200 of which would be affordable. According to the proposal, the agency would replace and move the current playground to construct one mixedincome housing building, but the agency’s statement did not say where the replacement playground would go. NYCHA is also proposing a similar plan at Wyckoff Gardens in Brooklyn. Shola Olatoye, chair and CEO of NYCHA, said the proposal is part of the agency’s strategy to, “put our financial house in order and create safe, clean and more connected communities.” Maloney, however, suggested the proposal is more fiscally motivated than the agency let on. “I am deeply troubled that [the NYC Housing Authority] is considering taking light, air and playground space from residents of Holmes Towers in order to balance its budget,” she said, before referencing the East 91st Street marine transfer station, which is scheduled to be completed next year.
Several private schools in Manhattan have spent nearly a half-million dollars in the past two years with New York’s top lobbying firms, all in an effort to help win approval for construction projects in some of the city’s most exclusive neighborhoods. Since January 2014, three schools in Manhattan’s Upper East and Upper West sides will have spent $473,000 with firms such as Capalino & Company, Geto de Milly, and Kramer, Levin, Naftalis & Frankel LLP, according to lobbying disclosure forms. These firms target local elected officials and city agencies, such as the Dept. of Buildings and the Board of Standards and Appeals, as well as community boards and local residents. Since April of last year, the Chapin School, a private all-girls K-12 school on the Upper East Side, has spent $225,000 with Geto de Milly and Capalino & Company in an effort to clear various hurdles in its bid to add three floors, including a glass encased gymnasium on the top floor, to its building on East End Avenue and 84th Street. Residents of Yorkville near the school have criticized around-the-clock construction over the summer.
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BY DANIEL FITZSIMMONS
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Our Take CELEBRATING A SUBWAY STOP It is a sign of the dysfunction of our public life that the opening of a new subway station is cause for celebration. Yet it is, and the new 7 train station at Hudson Yards is indeed a wonder. The station, the first new stop in the system in two decades, features impressive public art, an elevator that (for now) works, and heating and cooling systems that will keep commuters cool in the summer and warm in the winter. In short, it has everything that the rest of the world has come to expect in a working subway system, but that New Yorkers, beaten down by decades of infrastructure neglect, see as something just short of a miracle. Should this be so in the richest city on earth? Even the weekend opening of the new station carried with it some of the petty squabbling that has made such projects a rarity. The mayor and the MTA bickered over funding issues. Former mayor Bloomberg - a champion for the station -- was a no-show. Cynics predicted that the temperaturecontrolled platform would be a winter haven for homeless people. But for now, let’s celebrate the 7 station -- and the even-more impressive Fulton station in lower Manhattan -- as steps in the right direction. And recognize that our public spaces, and public transit, define who we are as a city. Jewish women and girls light up the world by lighting the Shabbat candles every Friday evening 18 minutes before sunset. Friday, September 18 – 6:42 pm Yom Kippur eve Tuesday, September 22 – 6:36 pm. For more information visit www.chabaduppereastside.com
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