Photo Courtesy of Wiki Commons

By Alissa Fleck

The New York Times recently reported yoga studio owners feel unfairly targeted by city agencies. Three years ago, New York State government proposed regulations requiring schools that trained yoga instructors to obtain licenses to do so. Eventually, yoga studios were exempted from the regulation, but the obstacles for studios only continued from there.

Now, yoga studios in the City are saying the State is looking for any way to get money out of the booming industry. As we reported before at the Press, the State Department of Taxation recently decided to exclude yoga studios in NYC from the 4.5% sales tax implemented on other gyms and fitness centers. This followed a deluge of audits of local yoga studios though, in which the department threatened to charge back taxes on many studios, many of which were completely unaware of the status of the regulation.

City yoga studios say the government harassment does not stop there. The Department of Buildings has fined studios for not having the appropriate permit, reports the Times. Additionally, the Labor Department has gone after studios for declaring instructors independent contractors instead of employees. Studio owners believe these actions are unfair and unreasonable. Declaring an instructor an employee rather than an independent contractor, when that instructor teaches at multiple studios, incurs an enormous amount of burdensome and unnecessary costs.

J. Brown, the owner of Abhyasa Yoga in Brooklyn, told the Times: “[Agencies] think they can reinterpret statuses and apply them to yoga.”

While the sales tax was recently declared not applicable, studios continue to struggle with government agencies over the other issues. This is particularly hard for yoga studios as, while yoga itself may be an increasingly popular industry, “yoga studios operate on shoestring budgets,” Alison West, executive director of Yoga for New York, told the Times. 

Local Rob Tucker took this photo of emergency vehicles arriving on the scene.

Two people were hospitalized Tuesday morning after a car plummeted down the elevator shaft of an Upper East Side parking garage.

A parking attendant at the East 76th Street and 1st Avenue garage reportedly drove the vehicle into the car elevator on the building’s fifth floor, but the elevator was not there, CBS reported. He and the car plunged down five stories before hitting the ground.

At around 9:45 a.m., the fire department arrived on the scene at 355 East 76th Street, which houses a Hertz Rent-a-Car business, according to NY1. Firefighters rescued the driver, who was trapped inside the vehicle, as well as an individual who was in the elevator on the ground floor at the time of the accident.

Neighbors reported that there were at least 10 emergency vehicles on the scene, in addition to a helicopter hovering over the building. Fire and police officials closed off the sidewalk to passersby on both sides of the street.

The rescued driver and another victim were transported to New York Presbyterian-Cornell Hospital to be treated for what are believed to be non-life-threatening injuries.

NYC Department of Buildings records show that the garage faced a code violation in May 2009 for non-compliance related to maintaining elevator service equipment. The complaint was later resolved.

The fallen vehicle landed upside down on the ground level. (Photo Courtesy of @FDNY)

The car extracted from the elevator was completely crushed. (Photo Courtesy of @FDNY)

FDNY officials carefully removed the car from the elevator. (Photo Courtesy of @FDNY)

Firefighters extracted an occupant from the fallen car. (Photo Courtesy of @FDNY)

The hotel in question is not really a hotel at all, by law or by appearances. It’s run out of 318 W. 75th St., a landmarked five-story walk-up with 11 apartment units. It looks like, and is zoned to be, a residential building, but until recently, four of the 11 units were functioning as hotel rooms instead of homes.

Until a few days ago, the four rooms were listed on the travel site Airbnb.com, where homeowners can rent out rooms or entire homes to travelers at rates typically lower than traditional hotels. The listings have since been taken down, but they boasted a prime Upper West Side location and spacious, sunny apartments. Visitors had been coming and going among the permanent tenants for some time, but the city was finally spurred to action when the local block association got involved.

“West 75th Street has had this on their radar for a while,” said Dee Rieber, president of the block association. “It was pretty clear that people were coming and going with suitcases for quite a while. We didn’t know the extent, that there were four homes in the building that were being used as illegal hotels, until relatively recently.”
Rieber said that the owner of the building, Ron Shoshany, has been trying to get tenants out of the rest of the building in order to operate all of the apartments as hotel units. Shoshany, the president of Sirkin Realty on East 62nd Street, did not return a call requesting comment for this story. But the photos that last week were advertising apartment 1A at 318 W. 75th St. as an available property on Airbnb are now on Sirkin Realty’s website advertising the same apartment, fully furnished, for rent.

“It’s been very difficult for the tenants in the building, I know that, just from what’s happened in the past two weeks,” Rieber said.

After Rieber mobilized the block association and the local elected officials, making 311 complaints, the Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement moved quickly to inspect the premises and issue violations against the building operating transient occupancy rooms out of a permanent residence. The Department of Buildings inspected and issued Environmental Control Board violations, which address the occupancy contrary to the zoning and certificate of occupancy as well as the lack of fire exits and sprinkler systems that are required for hotels. The listings have disappeared and Rieber believes, based on what she’s heard from tenants, that for now the temporary occupants are out.

Sarah Meier-Zimbler, who works as a legislative aide to State Sen. Tom Duane, said their office has been trying to combat illegal hotels, or the technical term “transient use occupancy establishments,” for years. She told residents in an email that calling 311 was the best way to register the issue with the city, but that it can be a slow process.

She also pointed out that even when fines are levied, they are often low enough that the owner simply pays them and continues to operate illegally, making more than enough money to cover the financial risks. Similar studio apartments in the neighborhood rent out on Airbnb for $150 to $200 a night; if the apartment is rented most nights, it brings the owner more money than the average studio would in monthly rent.

Council Member Gale Brewer is sponsoring legislation in the City Council that would raise the fines for illegal hotel operators, which she said has gotten support from affordable housing advocates, neighborhood groups, lawmakers and even legitimate hotel operators.

“The current amount [of the fine], if you have an illegal hotel, is very low, under $1,000. That’s like one night of business,” said Brewer. “The feeling is if you’re really going to have some teeth to the state law, the fines really need to be higher.”

The legal troubles began shortly after the Rose Group signed a 20-year lease with the church in 2006. The lease terms specify that the Rose Group pay $250,000 in annual rent as well as 10 percent of the profits from their events, in addition to making costly repairs and paying the building’s property taxes and utilities.

The event company originally obtained the permits to operate based on the legal premise of being an “accessory use” of the church, which has since been challenged, and the latest court decision decreed that the building no longer functions primarily as a church, a decision that some neighbors support but that church members find perplexing.

“It’s obvious those people have never visited us,” said Dora Redman, the clerk and treasurer at the church. “Our services still exist; we’ve never cancelled one.”

While their membership has dwindled over the years, Redman said they still hold Sunday services for around 50 members each week, in addition to Wednesday evening services, Bible study, lectures and conferences that bring crowds in the hundreds. She also confirmed the fact that the church simply cannot afford to operate and maintain the building—the Rose Group said they’ve made $6 million worth of repairs and upgrades to the church—without a revenue-generating tenant.

The characterization of the building as a church matters, because it would grant the Rose Group an exception to the ABC (alcoholic beverage control) law that prohibits the sale of liquor within 200 feet of a school or house of worship—in this case, the Central Presbyterian Church just a block north of 583 Park. Exceptions are given to houses of worship if they themselves sell alcohol as an “accessory use” of the building and the other establishments within 200 feet are doing the same thing and don’t object.

“We made it very clear [what we were doing], we brought it to the community board,” said Louis Rose, the owner of the Rose Group.

“We had the conditionally approved license, we made the deal with the church, we had permission from the buildings department,” said Rose. “We got all the permits, we started the work, we tore the whole place apart, the roof had been leaking for a long time, the cornices in the auditorium had been washed away and melted away from water damage. So we had scaffolding, we took everything apart, and the neighbors woke up about it.”

Rose said that the community first objected to 583 Park covering the name of the church during their events, a move that was demanded by the church and approved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission. From there, community opposition grew louder.

The Department of Buildings rescinded its permits, and the Rose Group sued the city and eventually won when the court found that the city was not treating the church in the same way as surrounding establishments. Meanwhile, however, the conditional liquor license was dependent on getting a certificate of occupancy that they did not have, and the SLA rescinded it.

In 2009, the Rose Group applied for another liquor license. Community Board 8 voted strongly against it, telling the SLA in their resolution that the Rose Group had failed to provide hours of operation and refused to limit the days of use or number of attendees per event, and that the board had heard substantial complaints of noise and traffic problems from neighbors of the largely residential area. A neighborhood organization called the Preservation Coalition formed to oppose the application, and when it was denied, the Rose Group went back to court.

The state Supreme Court decided in their favor, but the neighbors appealed and won, and the Court of Appeals declined to hear the case. Now the SLA will no longer grant single event licenses to 583 Park, which they had been using for years, and they cannot book new events.

For some neighbors, it’s a long-awaited victory. Phyllis Weisberg, the attorney for the Preservation Coalition, said her clients simply want to maintain their residential community and feel that the events at 583 Park are too disruptive.
“When you have 1,000 people arriving on one night at one location in a residential district, obviously it’s a serious problem,” Weisberg said. “The sidewalk is often blocked; people have to go into Park Avenue, into the street.”

Weisberg said that the group opposing 583 Park has involved several area co-op boards as well as individuals, but would not say who exactly composes the Coalition or pays its legal fees. Rose contends that the opposition is only a small minority and speculates that a real estate interest is behind it, a theory Weisberg rejected as “nonsense.”

The Rose Group points to their abundant security measures, efforts to curb traffic and noise—they only load and unload in specified zones on the side streets and limit the hours to the daytime—and few complaints to the 19th Precinct as proof they’ve been good neighbors. But others in the community say that’s not the whole story.

“We hear periodic complaints about the operations including noise and traffic, everything you would expect when a quiet church transforms into a catering facility,” said Council Member Dan Garodnick. “The events at the church are of a size and scale that are beyond any of their immediate neighbors.”

He said that he hasn’t heard from the Rose Group in the past few years, but that he had been involved in trying to broker a compromise early on.

“I spent some time, by the way, trying to explore whether there was a way for the community and the Rose Group to operate in harmony before this whole thing took off, but we did not reach any agreements,” Garodnick said.
Rose said they’ve been working with state elected officials and are open to compromise now, although they are still pushing and hoping for a full liquor license. State Sen. Liz Krueger declined to comment on the issue, but Assembly Member Dan Quart confirmed that he is willing to work with both sides of the dispute.

“If we are to play any role at all, it will be bringing sides together, if a resolution is possible,” Quart said. “My office has certainly been inundated by phone calls, emails and letters from advocates and interested parties on both sides.”
Indeed, the Rose Group has stacks of letters in support of their business enterprise. Rose said that’s because many of their upscale clients’ guest lists are drawn primarily from the community surrounding 583 Park. High-end events like Oscar de la Renta fashion shows and the star-studded Save Venice benefit attract both celebrities and wealthy Upper East Side residents.

“Even people who are against us come to the parties all the time,” said Rose. “It is a remarkable phenomenon.”
Rose said that they’ll apply for a beer and wine license, which has different criteria, if all else fails.

“Maybe 75 percent of our business is charities; they won’t mind the beer, wine, champagne bar. We would certainly survive. I think it would be difficult for weddings, bar mitzvahs, corporate events, holiday parties,” Rose said. “We believe that the building is beautiful; we do not need the liquor. But with that said, it will certainly make us less desirable of an operation.”

NEW ADDITION TO UNION SQUARE PARTNERSHIP 

Felicia Tunnah, former assistant vice president of the Downtown Alliance, has joined the Union Square Partnership as its director of economic development and special projects. As the new director, Tunnah will create programs to promote retail and commercial activity in the area and enhance the streetscape around Union Square.

“Union Square is one of the city’s most vital and vibrant districts, offering tremendous opportunity for economic development benefiting stakeholders, and the Partnership has done a wonderful job serving the district for over 30 years,” said Tunnah.

FINANCIAL DISTRICT

SILVER ON DOWNTOWN CONSTRUCTION NOISE

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver called on the city’s Department of Transportation and the Department of Buildings to cease issuing variant permits that allow noisy construction work that continues into the night and forces residents to use their pillows to block out the noise. The Financial District is one of the fastest growing mixed-use neighborhoods in the city and, prior to its relatively recent residential boom, the after-hours permits were not considered particularly disruptive. Now, residents have primarily complained about construction on John Street and at the Brooklyn Bridge. Silver called for the city agencies to only allow construction during weekdays, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.

CITYWIDE

CCRB TO MONITOR POLICE MISCONDUCT

For the first time, the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB), will be able to independently prosecute substantiated cases within the NYPD’s internal system. An agreement between City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and the CCRB will bring increased transparency to their reviews of alleged police misconduct. Under their prosecutorial authority, they’ll investigate civilian claims of police misconduct and refer to the NYPD for prosecution if necessary.

ZADROGA BILL TO COVER CANCER 

Last week, the Science/Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) of the World Trade Center Health Program voted to add certain types of cancer under the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, said a press release distributed by Council Member Margaret Chin’s office.

The STAC recommended that select cancers and cancer site groupings should be added to the list of WTC-related conditions, including breast and ovarian cancer, melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancers, thyroid cancer, lymphoma and leukemia. The STAC also recommended that rare cancers (based on age-specific incidence rates by gender, decade of age, site and histology), and childhood cancers (any diagnosed in people under the age of 20) be covered under the Act.

“The inclusion of cancer under the Zadroga Act will unlock the door to life-saving treatment for thousands of first responders and survivors,” said Chin, who represents the World Trade Center site and lower Manhattan.

STAC had until April 2 to submit its recommendations to Dr. John Howard, director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and the administrator of the WTC health program. Howard will make the final determination on which cancers will be covered.

NURSE-FAMILY PARTNERSHIP 

Last week, State Sen. Daniel Squadron, the ranking member and former chair of the Senate Social Services Committee, heralded the $2.5 million allocated for Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP) in the state budget, as well as significant investments in other critical social services programs.

Squadron has long championed state funding for NFP, which matches low-income first-time mothers with registered nurses for home visits from pregnancy until the child is 2 years old. Between 2009 and 2010, Squadron secured $7 million in state funding for the program, allowing NFP to grow the number of families for which it can provide services. Studies have consistently found that NFP’s work reduces child neglect and abuse, improves children’s behavior and school performance and leads to significant long-term savings for families.

Christopher Moore is a writer living in Manhattan.

by Christopher Moore

I hate to write about it. I even hate to think about it. But the question comes to me, usually after the door shuts. I wait for the movement. I look up, seeking the little illuminated sign to tell me where I am and where I’m going. There’s a tiny, ugly pause.

After the little surge starts, I’m grateful, especially when I’ve quickly and unpleasantly confronted the question, if only in my own mind: What happens when my elevator luck runs out?

I ponder the matter anxiously when I’m alone in an elevator. Or when I’m reading a newspaper or watching a TV news report, like the ones last week about how the average number of elevator inspections done by the city’s Department of Buildings has decreased dramatically during the past four years. That particular tidbit came after the awful death last December in Midtown of Suzanne Hart, a 41-year-old who died while trying to board an elevator.

News is when the everyday turns horrific. I’ve spent enough time in a newsroom to know that much. What happened in the Hart case could have happened to any of us. Such accidents also hit home because elevators remain such a part of our urban culture and common experience.

Responding to last week’s report, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer issued one of his ever-present press releases. This one wasn’t bad. He recommended carving the Department of Buildings into two parts: the Department of Buildings, which would deal with development, and a new Office of Inspections to handle the inspections. Whether a bureaucratic shift is needed or not, it’s clear New Yorkers need their elevators to be tested and as secure as possible.

In my building, the elevators are a relatively social experience. In those confined spaces, I’ve had better, albeit brief, conversations with strangers than I used to have with some of my best friends in New Jersey. Maybe it’s knowing that the chat will be short. We get right to the point. When somebody asks how things are going, the answers tend to be shockingly and refreshingly real. We’ve talked about the weather in there, yes, but we’ve also covered the pain of unemployment, the challenges of teaching college students who went to bad high schools, presidential primaries and the ongoing balancing act of a decent romantic relationship.

Sometimes I wonder, does this happen in other buildings? Granted, even in our building, elevator passengers have an annoying habit of wanting to stop at other floors. Still, having those people around keeps me from worrying about when the good elevators
might go bad. My basic understanding of science is pathetic enough for me to consider
the elevator’s operation to be, basically, magic. So I go through much of my time on the elevator wondering exactly when things will go wrong.

Sure, I go through life that way, too. When it comes to the elevator, though, I tend not to tell anyone. The questions running through my mind seem so clearly nuts. Like…Should I have my cell phone with me every time I get on the elevator? If this thing stops, how long will it be before I get out of here? Should I have used the restroom before I got on? Would it be worse to be stuck here alone or with that crazy lady with the red hair I have never liked?

I’m crazy, but not alone. Last week, I read exactly what to do when an elevator is plummeting. The piece must have been in the Science Times section of the
New York Times, since it’s the answer to a question I never would have asked— Science Times specializes in such cases.

The bottom-line advice this time was: lie down, as flat as possible, with your back
on the floor. This strikes me as unrealistic. In a plummeting elevator, I’m going to be fairly busy screaming.
Christopher Moore is a writer living
in Manhattan. He’s available by email
at ccmnj@aol.com and is on Twitter (@cmoorenyc).