Results tagged “city”

Want to avoid costly fines from the city for renting out illegally subdivided apartments? It's easy — just don't open the door. In the aftermath of a fatal fire that killed three Bangladeshi immigrants in an illegal basement apartment without sufficient exits, the Daily News pulls up some damning figures on the city's inability to crack down on these surprisingly ubiquitous deathtraps.

Just before 10 a.m. a report came over the newswire saying a female in a wheelchair was pinned under a truck. Shortly after a reader sent in these photos from the accident, which occurred on Bleecker and 8th Avenue, showing the truck was a City Parks vehicle. The vicitim was unconscious and transported to St. Vincent's Hospital, and there has been no additional word on her condition.

A Manhattan teenager with no criminal record is suing the city for $1 million because cops arrested and taunted him as "Plaxico Burress" after he got shot in a robbery. Christian Dudley doesn't even own a gun, but that didn't matter to the officers who collared him after the Harlem mugging earlier this year. He was arrested in a Washington Heights hospital where he was waiting to get the bullet removed from the back of his knee—instead of surgery, he got dragged to the precinct on a charge of criminal possession of a weapon. And that's where the fun really started.

While the NY Times' story on a Harlem charter school's kindergarten visit to the Queens County Farm Museum might just seem like a human interest story, there's actually a serious reason behind it: The state's English and math tests seem biased towards kids with knowledge of farms. There are "several questions each year about livestock, crops and the other staples of the rural experience that some educators say flummox city children, whose knowledge of nature might begin and end at Central Park. On the state English test this year, for instance, third graders were asked questions relating to chickens and eggs. In math, they had to count sheep and horses." Oh no!!!

Perhaps using his Talking Heads song "Cities" as inspiration, David Byrne penned a piece for the Wall Street Journal about his ideal metropolis. Byrne lives in New York, of course, but also travels more frequently than most of us, so he's got a lot of crazy European ideas! As for his hometown, however, he says the locals wouldn't be the ideal folk to populate his city; "New Yorkers are viewed as being tough as nails, no-nonsense but with hearts of gold—or maybe just gold-plated. This might not be the sensibility I would choose if I had a choice." Don't take it personally, because he still says our nightlife is probably the best, and maybe even our security! "For example in parts of New York's West Village, as author Jane Jacobs pointed out, the streets are rarely abandoned and there are almost always some locals hanging out, so everyone sees a little bit of what's going on. The community has eyes and ears, and everyone behaves accordingly. In my perfect city I'd feel that sense of neighborliness—that people weren't in my business, but that I would be a familiar sight, as they would be to me." What else are we good for, New York?

Just when you thought developer Bruce Ratner was about to turn the corner in the P.R. war over his proposed $800 million arena for the Nets in Brooklyn, along comes the city’s Independent Budget Office with a big bucket of ice water. A new analysis concludes that "over a 30-year period, the arena would cost the city nearly $40 million more in spending under current budget plans than it will generate in tax revenues (present value, 2009 dollars)." It also estimates that "for the developer, Forest City Ratner Companies, the mix of special government benefits result in total savings of $726 million."

A man who was wrongly jailed on Rikers Island for 17 months has accepted a $145,000 settlement with the city because a detective misidentified his fingerprints. Dwight Gomas was residing in Atlanta in 2004 when he was suddenly arrested by U.S. marshals for an armed robbery at a Howard Beach jewelry store. Detective Eileen Barrett had matched a partial finger print from the crime scene to Gomas, whose prints were on file after his only prior arrest as an adult: driving with a suspended license in Brooklyn. Gomas maintained his innocence before a grand jury, but was indicted and couldn't make bail. Languishing on Rikers, his Legal Aid lawyer urged him to accept a plea offer of five years in prison, but he refused. Luckily, veteran detective Daniel Perruzzaa finally conducted a routine review of the fingerprints. He tells the Daily News, "When I looked at it, I said, 'You know what? This is a screwup; this is not his fingerprints." Oopsy! Gomas was released after 523 days in jail, but by then his girlfriend and their child moved in with another man. On the plus side, he pulled in $145K in less than two years on Rikers, so we're sure there's no hard feelings.

The Post says that "two distressed luxury condo buildings -- one in Harlem and another in Downtown Brooklyn -- are in talks with the city to unload their unsold units at fire-sale prices as affordable housing." Hey, if luxury condos can become homeless shelters, why not? While it's unclear which condos are being eyed, apparently the city is negotiating with the banks that foreclosed on the properties. And the city's housing commissioner Rafael Cesetro said the condo developers/banks "would have to take significant losses"—a $500,000 condo could be purchased by the city for $300,000 (plus the developer/bank would get a $50,000 subsidy). Cesetro added that developers were only thinking about the bubble, "Some of the sales assumptions seemed like a stretch in any kind of market. In Downtown Brooklyn, and not on the water, they had buildings underwritten to sell for $800 to $900 a square foot." Will more luxury condos be turned over to the city?

Last year the Bloomberg administration made a big deal about reducing the number of parking placards issued to city employees, slashing them by over 25,000. At the time, the cutback on permits, which allow cops, civil servants, and other lucky bureaucrats to park almost anywhere, was heralded by Paul Steely White of Transportation Alternatives as “a good first step. But the final analysis will be weeks and months from now, when we see how actively these plaques are enforced."

Alright Gowanus Canal, where were we? The NY Times reports on the latest developments surrounding the clean-up debate, which is split between those who want it to be labeled a Superfund site and those who are afraid of that label's stigma (real estate developers). City officials are sided with the latter group, and have proposed an alternative cleanup plan that would be overseen by the EPA, would take less time, and wouldn't have such a scary word attached to it.

.The Coney Island Cyclone may be getting some competition. The NY Post reports that city officials want a new roller coaster added to the destination spot. That would be just one of many new amusements if a city-appointed panel gets their wish list. "The panel said 12 acres along the fabled boardwalk is sufficient space to build 30 new major amusements, including a roller coaster with a drop tower, water rides, a House of Horror, other thrill rides, and rides suitable for kids." And, uh oh, the panel also said that the city shouldn't get stuck on preserving artifacts from the historic Coney, but rather come up with ways to entice visitors. Still, might be better than leaving much of the area vacant as Thor Equities Joe Sitt and the city have their little turf war.

An undercover cop who falsely identified an innocent cab driver as an ecstasy dealer has cost taxpayers $1.5 million. Yesterday lawyers for the city agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by 34-year-old hack Jesus Diaz Delossantos, who was arrested and jailed for 9 months in 2002 on charges of selling 100 Ecstasy tablets to an undercover police officer. According to Newsday, Delossantos' lawyer proved the officer wasn't even working the day he claimed Delossantos sold him 100 ecstasy tablets, and that Delossantos did not even fit the description of the man who sold the drugs. His lawyer tells the Daily News, "These cops were bad guys. They were untruthful." Crazy, right? Delossantos, who is originally from the Dominican Republic, says, "This is the end of a very ugly part of my life."

City and State were at odds last night at a public forum held in Carroll Gardens regarding the cleanup of the Gowanus Canal. It's being reported that the Bloomberg Administration is "opposing a proposal by the federal Environmental Protection Agency to add Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal to the agency’s list of Superfund sites, arguing that the designation could jeopardize planned development for the area and the city’s own cleanup efforts." Daniel Walsh, director of the Mayor's Office of Environmental Remediation, noted that "Of the 1,500 federal Superfund sites to date, no river cleanup has been successfully completed." Because the Superfund solution would require finding responsible parties for past contamination, the city fears that the effort would take up to 20 years, "putting at risk more than $400 million of private investment already committed to the area for housing and other development," as well as the city's own cleanup efforts. The E.P.A. officials will make a final decision following a 60-day public comment scheduled to end June 6th.

With the old Yankee Stadium looking very desolate (no more grass!), the Bronx Bombers are getting ready to sell off the legendary ball field's items, now that they have struck a deal with the city. See, the city owns the old Yankees Stadium and the team needed permission to sell off things like urinals, seats, foul poles, etc. The NY Times reports that while the deal is still being completed, the city is supposedly guaranteed at least $10 million, plus "the city will receive 5 percent of net sales over $16 million; 10 percent of sales over $17 million; 20 percent over $18.5 million; 24 percent over $19.5 million and half of everything over $29 million." Keep in mind, the city has given the Yankees hundreds of million in subsidies to build the new House That Jeter Built.

A spokesperson for Governor Paterson's office confirmed that talks were ongoing but stressed that no resolution had been reached. Governors Island has become an increasingly popular weekend recreation destination since it was opened to the public in 2003. It's run jointly by the city and state, but Paterson's budget does not include any money for the park this year, and yesterday the Governors Island board of directors imposed an austerity budget of $11.8 million, down from $18.8 million, while acknowledging that the remaining $550,000 in its operating budget will be exhausted by the end of the month.

    

Coming soon to Times Square and Herald Square: Vehicle-free Broadway! Starting on Memorial Day, two stretches of Broadway, from 42nd to 47th streets and from 32nd to 35th streets, will transformed into pedestrian plazas in an experiment that will last through the end of the year and may become permanent, the Post reports. Mayor Bloomberg is expected to announce the plan today, and promise that the change will actually improve the overall traffic flow, because Broadway disrupts traffic where it intersects with other streets. As part of the changes, Seventh Avenue will be widened from three to four lanes at 45th Street.

The Times has 1,391 words on the state of the Coney Island "redevelopment" process, but the diagnosis can basically be boiled down to just one: stasis. There's not much new here for those who've been following along with the various competing proposals for the amusement district and surrounding neighborhood, but the article is a pretty disheartening portrait of urban planning gone nowhere. Joe Sitt, the developer who has bought up most of the land and essentially evicted Astroland, isn't negotiating with the city anymore; their talks broke down around Thanksgiving. Meanwhile, nothing's being done besides a long-overdue repair of the Boardwalk, and fears are mounting that, given the economy, none of these grand plans will come to fruition, leaving local businesses in dire limbo. Charles Denson, executive director of the Coney Island History Project, tells the Times, "We might be looking at vacant lots for a long time to come. Everybody’s broke. These massive plans, these visions, don’t usually work. But I hope for the best."

   

Now that city investigators have closed the file on The Great Maple Syrup Smell Scare, maybe they can get cracking on the Mysterious Northern Lights that have been baffling and entrancing New Yorkers. A reader sent us some photos of the as-yet unexplained lights from his East Village apartment, telling us that they changed colors every ten seconds or so and lasted about fifteen minutes. Then, in the comments section of yesterday's post, he goes all Fox Mulder WITH THE CAPS:

THERE IS NO WAY THIS WAS FROM YANKEE STADIUM OR SHEA. THE PICS WILL SETTLE THAT, BUT WILL DEFINITELY RAISE QUESTIONS AS TO WHAT PRODUCED THE LIGHT, WHICH WAS VERY COOL LOOKING, IT CHANGED EVERY 10 SEC OR SO AND WAS SOMETIMES RED, BLUE, PURPLE, WHITE, AND GREEN. IT CONTINUED FOR MAYBE 15 MIN AND LOOKED TO BE SHINING VERTICALLY DOWN RATHER THAN UP. IT WAS ALSO SUPER HIGH IN THE SKY.

New York City schools chancellor Joel Klein (not pictured) brought a gloomy forecast to Albany yesterday, pleading with state lawmakers to reduce proposed budget cuts and to give the city more flexibility in how state aid is spent. According to Klein, a proposed $84 million cut from the current school year’s budget could "really wreak havoc" and force school administrators fire an estimated 15,000 employees, many of them teachers.

At 1 p.m. tomorrow, the eyes of the world will be on a City Planning Commission Review Session in Spector Hall at 22 Reade Street, where the city will make a formal, public presentation of its controversial rezoning plan for Coney Island. Last week the Mayor's Office of Environmental Coordination quietly released their Final Draft Environmental Impact Statement, which outlines how the city will rezone the area to encourage the development of towers up to 27 stories tall, expanded retail spaces, 4,500 new housing units (800 of which would be built to be affordable units), and a new 27-acre indoor-outdoor amusement district to be dubbed the "People’s Playground."

With a deal to sell some of his prime Coney Island boardwalk real estate to the city stalled, developer Joe Sitt is moving to snatch up more land in an attempt to build a controversial entertainment-amusement-hotel complex. Kansas Fried Chicken king Horace Bullard tells the Post that he's "leaning toward" selling the former Thunderbolt roller coaster site to Sitt for $91 million. Those three acres would tighten Sitt's grip on most of the land stretching from Keyspan Park to the Cyclone.

The NY Times reports that Mayor Bloomberg sent a memo to city agencies asking them to "must relinquish at least 10 percent, or about 685, of their 6,800 nonemergency vehicles by the end of March," not to mention "cut their overall vehicle expenses by roughly another 5 percent, either by relinquishing more cars or cutting down on fuel or maintenance costs." The move is prompted by budget issues, not to mention Bloomberg's desire to reduce the city's carbon footprint. The Independent Budget Office says that the estimated $20 million in savings is good, "When you are facing a big budget gap, every bit counts." The Times adds that the city thinks the cars—Toyota Priuses, Ford Escapes—can fetch $2,000 each and the employees who don't have company cars anymore will be expected to take mass transit; in the future, the city's cars would be consolidated.

Last month, the Department of Aging's commissioner Edgar Mendez-Santiago resigned, and now, the city is paying $225,000 to settle a lawsuit from a city employee who accuses Mendez-Santiago of sexual harassment. Apparently former secretary Aurelita Santos accused him of coming onto her: Her lawsuit claimed, "Mendez-Santiago put his hands down the pants of a subordinate female employee in plaintiff's presence," as well as bragged about his "gypsy" blood" and sent her threatening e-mails when she refused him. The lawsuit had been filed in February (Santos resigned in 2007), but the Times reports, "went unnoticed until Mr. Méndez-Santiago’s unexpected resignation, which occurred amid strong opposition to plans to overhaul programs for the elderly... The accusations against Mr. Méndez-Santiago tainted the Bloomberg administration’s near sparkling record of hiring strong administrators; nearly all of the administration’s senior officials have avoided scandal since Mr. Bloomberg took office in 2002." The settlement, which states the city and Mendez-Santiago do not admit to wrongdoing, includes back pay, legal fees, and damages.

The Department of Housing Preservation and Development spent more than $4 million this year to maintain 113 buildings that have been all but abandoned by their landlords. These landlords are required to reimburse taxpayers for the work, but until then the city places a lien on the properties, most of which are located in Bushwick, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Prospect Heights and East New York. Yet despite the emergency repairs, conditions at some of these residences are still utterly appalling. Angelica Jimenez of Bushwick tells the Daily News, "Every night, we have rats in my apartment—big ones! They walk all over the kitchen and that's not nice. I kill them. I have no choice, I can't afford to move." City Councilwoman Diana Reyna sees a pattern, and speculates that landlords in Bushwick are neglecting repairs to drive out low-income residents, thus enabling them to cash in on the neighborhood's proximity to trendy Williamsburg by renting to hipsters.

The Times takes a look at a tradition followed by the city's 45 marshals, who take a break from evicting tenants for two weeks every year around the holidays. The unofficial "eviction moratorium" isn't sanctioned by the city, and the marshals insist it has more to do with year-end paperwork than any Christmas spirit. But one marshal, 31-year veteran Danny Weinheim, admits to having a bit of a heart: "Could you go into an apartment with a Christmas tree and evict everybody and be Scrooge? I wouldn’t do that. It’s Christmas Eve. I’m Jewish, but it’s still Christmas Eve." The article also gives an insightful peek at the makeup of the city's marshals: two have Ph.D.’s, one was an exterminator, and another was a haberdasher before taking up one of the most hated occupations. And one unnamed marshal will be breaking ranks and carrying out evictions this week (it's said he has a heart two sizes too small).

Sure, the city is facing lower tax revenues and will cut from city agencies' budgets. But when the Yankees and Mets need additional tax-exempt bonds to complete their new stadiums, that's okay! The NY Times reports, "The city also plans to issue $341.2 million in additional tax-exempt bonds on behalf of the Yankees and Mets to complete the stadiums, whose combined cost is about $2.2 billion. The teams are responsible for paying off the bonds, but they pay tens of millions of dollars less in interest because payments to bondholders are exempt from city, state and federal taxes." The teams need the additional bonds because costs have gone up. And since the city and state are paying for hundreds of millions in infrastructure ("parks, garage and transportation improvements"), it turns out, unsurprisingly, that those infrastructure costs have gone up, too. The Independent Budget Office tells the Times, "The additional costs that have emerged make it quite likely that that the city’s net benefit number is now negative.”

City Councilmen Eric Gioia of Queens and Simcha Felder of Brooklyn will introduce a bill next week that would prohibit the city from buying bottled water and water coolers for workers at city agencies, the Daily News reports. At a press conference yesterday, the two councilmen said taxpayers could save $2 million a year by having municipal offices switch to systems that filter tap water. Felder himself installed a $400 heating and cooling water filter in his office this year, and he told reporters, "It is hypocritical for the city to buy bottled water while urging New Yorkers to drink tap." In addition to saving money, the bill would lessen the city's carbon footprint and waste, without sacrificing taste. Over the summer, NYC placed second in a regional tap-water tasting contest, bested only by Bethpage on Long Island.

Drivers, it's the last Friday in November—do you know where your car is? The day after Thanksgiving was the most-ticketed day of the last fiscal year, according to an extensive analysis of parking tickets conducted by the Times. The study concluded that parking tickets issued citywide have surged 42 percent since Mayor Bloomberg took office. During the last fiscal year, the city raked in $624 million in parking fines, which is more than the city spends to run the entire Department of Transportation. Officials, maintaining a straight face, insist the parking enforcement is not driven by revenue goals.

Now that Barack Obama has won the election, his terrorist pal William Ayers has agreed to accept the highly coveted post of Secretary of Flag Burning! Also too, Ayers was on Good Morning America today to plug a new edition of his book, Fugitive Days—and hey, who could blame the guy for cashing in on his renewed notoriety? Unlike his previous New York appearance, Ayers talked plenty his seditious relationship with Obama, while also defending his radical past:

"The content of the Vietnam protest is that there were despicable acts going on, but the despicable acts were being done by our government...I killed no one, and I harmed no one, and I didn't regret for a minute resisting the murderous assault on Vietnam with every ounce of my being.

Continue reading "William Ayers Breaks Silence on Good Morning America"

Woah, can you believe the election is only four days away? And even though that Obama has been busy making sure the drapes match the carpet in the Oval Office, a Fox News poll shows the two candidates almost tied! So if you want to volunteer to support the candidate of your choice—whether it be the bitter old warmonger on death's door and his demagogic running mate, or the most inspiring, perspicacious American politician in generations—here are some ways you can get involved.