Results tagged “extension”

Yesterday, the Senate passed a bill extending unemployment benefits 98-0. The House is expected to approve the bill and the President Obama is also expected to sign it. NY State, which has already extended unemployment benefits to 79 weeks for the longterm unemployed, would get another 20 weeks because its unemployment rate is higher than 8.5% (it was 8.9% in September; the NYC rate is 10.3%). The NY State Labor Dept.'s Twitter has been keeping followers apprised of the bill's progress.

After threatening to lay off some 400 employees during the lucrative holiday season, Tavern on the Green has been granted a reprieve. The city had ordered owners to vacate the premises on January 1st and turn over the lease, but owners insisted that deadline would have required them to close down in December, in order to conduct an onsite auction of their assets, which were valued by an appraiser at $8.171 million. Though Tavern's owners had wanted three months for the changeover, a US Bankruptcy Court judge in Manhattan said "two weeks to a month" in January would be "a reasonable transition period." But will the new occupant play along?

The 400 union employees at Tavern on the Green are facing the prospect of joblessness during the holiday season, because the restaurant's owners says they can't turn over the lease on January 1st without closing before December. So Tavern's operating company has asked for a temporary restraining order in US Bankruptcy Court that would permit them to delay the changeover for 90 days after January 1st, enabling the restaurant to operate during the lucrative month of December, and then conduct an onsite auction of their assets, which were valued by an appraiser at $8.171 million. But the new leaseholder isn't having it.

Good news for anyone sick of getting off the G at Smith and 9th Street and waiting for an F train just to go a couple more stops: Starting July 5th, the G train will continue on for five more stops into Brooklyn. The additional service is being added because of the massive Culver Viaduct Rehabiliation project, which, according to the Post, will prevent the G train from reversing itself at the next stop (Fourth Avenue). Come summer it will stop at Fourth Avenue-Ninth Street, Seventh Avenue, 15th Street-Prospect Park and Fort Hamilton Parkway before finally reversing course after the Church Avenue stop. This may be the best silver lining to the rehab work being done at Smith and 9th Street; last we heard the MTA plans to close the station entirely for at least nine months next year, and the entire project is expected to take 4 years. A spokesman for NYC Transit tells us, "We have said that we would look to make the [G train] terminal change permanent, as it makes sense both from a customer and operational perspective."

   

[UPDATE: VIDEO BELOW] That big beautiful specimen you see dangling behind our mayor is the front part of what will be a 100-ton tunnel boring machine, or "TBM," as they say in the boring biz. Today workers lowered the "cutter head" part of the TBM into a "launch chamber" hole near the intersection of 25th Street and 11th Avenue, where come spring they'll begin drilling two 7,100-foot long tunnels to Times Square as part of the long-awaited 7 train extension.

Attention passengers: The next stop on this westbound 7 train extension will not be 10th Avenue and 41st Street. Due to a sick economy, MTA officials will bypass plans for a 10th Avenue station. However, they're still going through with building a new station at 34th Street and 11th Avenue to accommodate the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. City Room reports that last fall the MTA signed a $1.14 billion contract with a company to dig a new 7 train tunnel and build the 34th Street station; a second station at 41st and 10th would have cost $450 million, and officials say the budget won't allow it. The city defended the change, explaining that "a 10th Avenue station is not necessary to drive growth there." But Andrew Albert of the NYC Transit Riders Council scoffs to NY1: "Is that the only reason we build subway stations now, to spur development? How about to serve the people that are already in a neighborhood?" The extension is expected to be finished in 2013. Please be patient.