Public Hearing on Proposed Soho BID
According to a release from the SoHo Alliance, councilmember Margaret Chin has called a public hearing on Wednesday, Oct. 31, at 10 a.m. at City Hall on the proposed Soho Business Improvement District (BID). The hearing will be conducted by the City Council’s Finance Committee Chair Dominic Recchia, and both proponents and opponents of the BID are expected to present their positions, a process expected to last for several hours.

DA Announces Sentencing for 1998 Crimes on LES
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr., recently announced the sentencing of Lerio Guerrero, 33, to 15 years in state prison for a rape and burglary on the Lower East Side in 1998, according to a release from the DA’s office.

“Without the state’s DNA data bank, this defendant might never have been apprehended,” Vance said. “But because New Yorkers live in a state that recognizes the power of DNA to convict the guilty and exonerate the innocent, this crime victim is able to finally see justice be served nearly 14 years later. The fact that we were able to file an indictment in this case before the statute of limitations expired serves as a powerful reminder of the importance of the recently passed All Crimes DNA law and the continued expansion of the DNA data bank.”

According to the defendant’s guilty plea and documents filed in court, on Nov. 8, 1998, Guerrero followed the victim to her apartment building on the Lower East Side. She was 28 years old at the time. He pushed open the building door behind her, and threatened her with a piece of broken glass. While holding the glass to the victim’s throat, the defendant cut his own hand, bleeding on the victim’s coat. Guerrero then forced her to the rear of her apartment building, where he sexually assaulted her and stole her wallet. The defendant then forced his victim to follow him to an ATM to withdraw cash. When Guerrero tried to make the victim go to an ATM at a different location to withdraw more cash, she broke away and ran into a deli.

FiDi’s Transformation and Impact on Foreign Buyers
Real estate brokers and community leaders recently filled the rooftop of 75 Wall Street, a new luxury condominium atop the Andaz Wall Street hotel, for “Becoming FiDi,” a discussion of the Financial District’s residential transformation. The event brought together industry experts for a panel on foreign capital, which has been especially impactful in the Financial District.

“There is definitely an appetite for prime Manhattan real estate, particularly in Asia, and the Financial District has become one of the most sought-after areas in the entire city,” said panel participant Alistair Auty of JMA Property Services, a U.S.-based real estate corporation that works closely with foreign brokers and investors, in a release.
Hosted by The Hakimian Organization, developer of the 75 Wall Street Residences, the event began with a tour of the neighborhood led by historian Joyce Gold and continued in the building’s stunning rooftop lounge with a panel discussion moderated by Matthew Fenton, editor of The Broadsheet and seasoned FiDi reporter. The panel included Auty, Elizabeth Berger, president of the Downtown Alliance, and Amina O’Kane, director of Upper School admissions for Léman Manhattan Preparatory School.

City Council Members Will Recruit Volunteers to Escort Women to Abortion Clinics
Last Friday, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and other council members, along with representatives from Planned Parenthood, the New York Civil Liberties Union and other pro-choice organizations, gathered at City Hall to announce their upcoming “Clinic Protection Project.”

Under this program, council members will recruit and coordinate volunteers to accompany women to abortion clinics. Planned Parenthood and other reproductive health clinics already have volunteer escorts for their patients, but they say they need more. Thus Speaker Quinn and others are stepping in.

“Protesters have a right to speak their minds, but the exercise of the First Amendment should never intimidate anyone from accessing medical care,” Speaker Quinn said.
The need for a supplementary service has increased in the last few years, according to pro-choice officials, because there are more protesters outside clinics, many of whom reportedly harass women attempting to use the facilities.
“In the last three years … we’ve gone from two or three protesters on a given Saturday morning, to 50 or 60,” said Joan Malin, CEO and president of Planned Parenthood New York.
The President and CEO of Choices, Merle Hoffman, said in a phone interview that protesters outside her clinic wear vests printed with the words “Unborn Baby Protector” and also videotape the patients who enter, shaming them. Hoffman said one woman who came for an abortion arrived in a panic, because the picketers outside had said that the anesthesia would kill her.

Hoffman attributes the increase in protesters to the “rise of the radical right,” while Assemblywoman Deborah Glick said that having a pro-choice president in office has ignited the pro-life movement.

Although the details of the program are still being mapped out, Speaker Quinn said that her team will work on the recruitment and management side, and Planned Parenthood will actually train the escorts.

Senseless Violence
In a seemingly random and purposeless act of violence, a man was assaulted from behind early Wednesday morning while walking on the sidewalk along East 63rd Street, near the intersection at 3rd Avenue. The victim told police that an unknown perpetrator, described as a black male approximately 5-foot-11, wearing a baseball cap, approached him from the back and struck him repeatedly with his hands. The 54-year-old victim suffered small lacerations to the back of the right side of his neck, left wrist and the left side of his back. He walked to the hospital following the assault, where an examining nurse called the police on his behalf. The attacker has not been identified.

Road Rage
A nasty case of road rage resulted in damage to a taxi cab and a few minor injuries to its driver in an incident that occurred Friday evening near the corner of East 63rd Street and Madison Avenue. After a dispute occurred between the driver and the perpetrator, the offending driver picked up a crowbar and smashed in the window of the victim’s taxi. A second victim, a 43-year-old male passenger in the cab, suffered lacerations to his left arm from flying glass. The perpetrator also grabbed the passenger’s cell phone and threw it to the ground, damaging it. Two eyewitnesses gave statements to the police regarding the incident. Police are looking for an unknown Hispanic male, approximately 45 years old, 6-foot-2 and about 250 pounds. He was wearing blue shorts and a white shirt, driving a yellow Ford Crown Victoria four-door sedan with the license plate number 3L53B.

So Un-Fare
Police responded to a report by a taxi driver on East 86th Street on Thursday evening who reported that he had been stiffed by a passenger who refused to pay the fare for his cab ride. The driver told police that the pair argued over where the perpetrator was meant to be dropped off, prompting the passenger to depart the cab without paying the approximately $6 charge. The perpetrator then reportedly told the 48-year-old taxi driver: “I’m refusing to pay and I’m calling 311 to make a complaint!” The victim described the passenger, who is accused of theft of services, as a white man with gray hair who wore jeans, a blue shirt and white sneakers.

Rape Conviction
A 61-year-old man was sentenced to 10 years in prison and 5 years post-release supervision for raping a young woman in January 2010. On June 7, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr., announced the sentencing of Mustapha Ouanes, who was convicted by a jury in February 2012 for sexually assaulting the victim in his room at the Plaza Hotel in Midtown. “The defendant sexually assaulted a young woman who was in a helpless and vulnerable state, and today’s sentence reflects the seriousness of that misconduct,” Vance said. “I thank the victim for her bravery in coming forward.” Ouanes was found guilty of one count each of rape in the first degree, criminal sexual act in the first degree, sexual abuse in the first degree, assault in the second degree and attempted sexual abuse, all of which are felony charges.

Officials Push for Domestic Violence Penalty Laws
City officials, including Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr., are calling for immediate passage of a bill that would increase penalties for repeat domestic violence offenders. The legislation, led by State Sen. Daniel Squadron and Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal, would provide district attorneys with the tools to crack down on reoccurring violent abuse by establishing the felony-level crime of “aggressive domestic violence” for abusers who commit two or more offenses within five years. Under the current law, only those who cause serious physical injury or kill their victims face felony charges, and those who repeatedly commit domestic violence offenses can only be charged with a low-level misdemeanor.

Quinn and Bloomberg Join to End Defense of Marriage Act
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently announced that they will file a joint amicus brief to support Edie Windsor’s constitutional challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Windsor sued the federal government after being forced to pay $363,000 in estate taxes on her late wife’s estate because the government did not recognize her marriage to her partner of over 40 years.
Under DOMA, homosexual marriages are not recognized as legitimate, and therefore only heterosexual couples are exempt from having to pay their spouses’ estate taxes.
“Edie Windsor’s case is a tragic reminder of the work that still needs to be done to extend equality to all people,” said Quinn. “As courts across the country continue to strike down DOMA’s unconstitutional assault on our civil liberties, I’m proud to join Mayor Bloomberg and the chorus of voices that have called to repeal DOMA once and for all.”

Safety Improvements on Spruce and Beekman Streets
After UPS worker Michael Rogalle, 58, was killed by an SUV on Spruce Street outside an elementary school, local parents have been petitioning for the addition of street signs and school crossing markings on Beekman Street between Gold and William streets.
According to the office of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, the petition passed and the signs will be put up in a matter of days and painted during the following weeks. Silver commented, “I look forward to further improvements so that we can do more to prevent tragedies such as the recent fatal accident at Beekman and Spruce streets.”
Newly Reconstructed Pearl Street Playground Gives Kids a Place to Cool Off
Last Thursday, June 21, Parks & Recreation Commissioner Adrian Benepe joined Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) President David Emil, City Council Member Margaret Chin, Community Board 1 Chair Julie Menin and neighborhood children to cut the ribbon on the $2.1 million reconstruction of Pearl Street Playground.
Generously funded by the LMDC, the reconstructed playground creates another improved public space along the Fulton Street corridor. The park was expanded into the roadbed of “Little Pearl Street” to provide an upgraded playground, including play equipment that meets current safety standards, a spray shower, swings and plantings. The enlarged park also has a pedestrian link to Beekman Street, several additional seating areas, a rock feature referencing the sandy bluff that once existed at the site and direct views of the South Street Seaport district.

First Tower on World Trade Center Site to be Completed
World Trade Center Developer Larry A. Silverstein joined more than 1,000 construction workers at a topping out ceremony to mark the completion of the steel erection for 4 World Trade Center on Monday, June 25 at the corner of Liberty and Greenwich streets. The last steel beam was signed by a representative group of construction workers before it was lifted 977 feet in the air and placed atop the building, which will be the first tower completed on the 16-acre WTC site when it opens in fall 2013.

Funding for Millennium High School’s new P.E. Space
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver announced that he has allocated $400,000 to Millennium High School in Lower Manhattan to replace its exercise equipment and renovate an auditorium so that it can serve as a space for physical education.
“Millennium High School is one of Lower Manhattan’s great success stories,” said Silver, “and I am proud to be able to allocate crucial funding to renovate this space and purchase new exercise equipment for students to have physical education. Providing the best possible environment for our children is a top priority of mine and I will continue to fight to ensure that Millennium High School, and all of our excellent Lower Manhattan schools, receive the resources they deserve.”
Compiled by Helen Matsumoto