New Home: The Enterprise sits safely inside the Space Shuttle Pavilion its new home on the deck of the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum. Surrounded by dramatic lighting and a series of images and video stations, the Enterprise sits just 10 feet off the ground, allowing visitors to walk underneath and around the original NASA orbiter.

Brewer Intros New Bike Legislation

Following last week’s news from the Department of Transportation (DOT) that they will be unleashing a new education and enforcement team for commercial cyclists on the Upper West Side, Council Member Gale Brewer announced that she’s also introducing a new bill to reform the city’s commercial cycling laws at a Council meeting on July 25. Brewer teamed up with Queens Councilman and Transportation Committee Chair James Vacca to craft legislation that will give the DOT more enforcement power over businesses whose delivery cyclists break the law.

“The legislation…will relieve the burden on the NYPD to chase down commercial bicycle scofflaws and grant enforcement responsibilities to the DOT,” said Brewer in the statement. “We are all working together to come up with a new way to educate businesses and delivery cyclists about relevant laws. If businesses and their delivery cyclists don’t know the laws, we will educate them. Once they know the laws, DOT will have discretion to enforce them.”

“I am tired of hearing complaints from every corner of the city about commercial cyclists riding recklessly and with abandon,” said Vacca. “The creation of a civil penalty will give DOT what it needs to enforce the laws on the books.”

Right now, if a business fails to post signage explaining the rules of the road to their cyclists, it’s up to the NYPD to enforce the rule. Vacca’s bill would create a civil penalty up to $100 per violation for breaking the existing laws, and Brewer’s gives a special team of DOT inspectors enforcement power.

Former UWS Officer Remembered
Long time Upper West Siders may remember Det. Vincent Lupinacci as a community affairs officer who truly cared about the neighborhood. Lupinacci retired from the NYPD in 1992 after serving on the force since 1960; he passed away on Friday, July 13 of complications from a series of strokes, according to Sam Katz, the former 20th Precinct Community Council president.

Katz remembered Lupinacci as a “fixture” in the 20th Precinct and noted that he was promoted to the rank of detective in 1988. Current precinct Community Council President Ian Alterman said in an email that Lupinacci was the first police officer he got to know personally, meeting him when he was a teenager at I.S. 44 in the early ’70s. “Although he was no pushover, all the kids loved him,” Alterman recalled. “It may well be that his example (he practiced ‘courtesy, professionalism and respect’ long before it became an NYPD slogan) helped give me a view of the NYPD that ultimately led to my presidency of the Council four decades later.”

Land Mark West! Screens Indie Doc
Upper West Side preservation advocacy group Landmark West! is hosting a screening of the film The Vanishing City on Thursday, July 26 at 6 p.m. The movie takes a critical look at New York’s luxury developments and zoning policies while chronicling the loss of some of the city’s old neighborhoods. The screening will be followed by a Q&A session with the filmmakers.

At the Macaulay Honors College Screening Room, 35 W. 67th St. Tickets are $15, $10 for Landmark West! members. Space is limited and tickets must be purchased in advance by emailing landmarkwest@landmarkwest.org or calling 212-496-8110.

Meltzer Publishes Short Story book
Upper West Sider Dan Meltzer has been chronicling the goings-on of his neighborhood for years, and has now has released a book collecting his short fiction, often inspired by real life. The book is entitled Outsiders. Meltzer, who is also a playwright and a journalist, has won O. Henry and Pushcart prizes for his short fiction, and he brings his best work to the collection. The unidentified first-person narrator of many of the stories offers stark observations of a city that many will recognize as one they almost know. The characters could be real New Yorkers—only a touch stranger than reality.
Meltzer says in his author’s note that the stories are all about “individuals who live outside the fold, who can’t or won’t conform to the demands and customs of society. Some thrive; others either seem to get by or they don’t or they just drive those around them crazy, usually thanks to some peculiar need or idiosyncrasy.” The book is available on Lulu.com.

Economic Boom from Same-Sex Marriage
A year after the Marriage Equality Act was enacted, the city estimates that the law has generated $259 million in economic impact and $16 million in direct city revenue. The city issued 8,200 same-sex marriage licenses over the past year, resulting in a boost in the tourism and hospitality industries, as half of those couples held wedding celebrations somewhere in the five boroughs. NYC & Company, the city’s official tourism agency, and the city clerk’s office conducted an economic impact survey that found that over 200,000 guests traveled from outside the city for their same-sex weddings, leading to over 235,000 hotel room bookings.

The news follows the economic predictions many made before marriage equality was passed in the state.

“Marriage equality has made our city more open, inclusive and free—and it has also helped create jobs and support our economy,” said Mayor Michael Bloomberg in a statement.

“As the legislative sponsor of the Marriage Equality Act, I couldn’t be more proud that so many same-sex couples have taken advantage of their long-awaited right to marry across our great state this past year,” said Upper West Side Assembly Member Daniel O’Donnell, who married his longtime partner last year in the city.

contact Bette Dewing at dewingbetter@aol.com

CBS News radio says the “taxi of tomorrow” has a partition that softens the blow to passenger’s heads when drivers make an emergency stop. An emergency room surgeon reported, “Every week, at least two such facial injuries occur.”
Who knew? Not this “traffic safety trailblazer” (Rep. Carolyn Maloney called me that in a 2006 tribute) who only takes cabs in an emergency and says that what’s needed—besides safe drivers—is a cab that won’t move until its passengers are seat-belted. Until then, let’s all tell the driver, “Don’t drive off until my seat belt is fastened!” And, please, won’t somebody up there (Rep. Maloney?) follow my life, limb and money-saving trails?
Ah, but 19th Precinct Officer Liam Lynch did say at the Community Council meeting on traffic safety that the flashlight I have attached to my cane “should be patented.” But how to light up every walker after dark? All-out enforcement of the bike head- and tail light law would give us a fighting chance. As usual, citizen traffic laments at the meeting were often about scofflaw biking, and a number of people attended because the subject was traffic safety.
Among them were 20th Precinct Community Council president Ian Alterman and traffic safety activist Susan Siskind, who shared fears and solutions. Alterman and Siskind are both great letters-to-the-editor writers, and Siskind speaks out most effectively at civic meetings. If only more people did.
Though a bike rider, Alterman is greatly opposed to the law-breaking kind. So here’s to the 19th and 20th Precinct people blazing some trails together to stop all crimes of traffic—kamikaze biking and walking and, the most lethal, motorists failing to yield when turning into crosswalks.
I gave Alterman a copy of Charles Komanoff’s trailblazing manual, Death by Automobile, with statistics and tragic stories to back up this claim. We must never forget how longtime 19th Precinct volunteer Alberta Kenny was killed by a school bus’s illegal turn at York and 79th Street.
Lynch also warned the East 79th Neighborhood Association about bicyclists who swoop in and steal iPhones. Police and civic activist Joy Zagoren also alerted us to covering our cards when using an ATM or bank machine because of a recent string of PIN thefts.
Infinitely more must be learned about the planned replacement of the staircase that connects John Finley Walk with the river walk before the 18-month-long work on it starts next spring. The “staging area” is the 81st Street cul de sac where 45 East End’s service entrance and 33 East End’s front entrance are located.
Loretta Ponticelli, who called attention to heedless kid scooter riders, was able to attend the meeting because Community Council officer Mary Ford could escort her there. The able-bodied helping those who are not is surely a trail to be followed. Photos help, like one of Ponticelli and Ford walking safely together, and of younger Council member Christine Donavan offering me her arm as we crossed Third and Second avenues on the way to our mutual bus stop.
The community relations officer said police will try to keep things “quiet” on St. Patrick’s Day. Helping one another not drink more than two a night is a trail in urgent need of following. And information about open-to-the-public A.A. meetings is an education everyone needs, especially after reading this paper’s story about pub-crawling’s appalling excesses. Intervention is another trail to be widely followed.
Some trailblazing hopes and prayers—not only for St. Patrick’s Day or the Lenten and Passover season.

Bunny Abraham says, “[N]ot only should bikers…have some type of lighting so that they can be seen in the dark…but I also feel they should be licensed as motorcycles so they can be identified” (letter, May 21).

Actually, there is already a law that all  bikers must have both a working front light and front and back reflectors when riding at night. Although bikes cannot be licensed “as motorcycles” (since they are not motorized and are not required to be parked on the street), and although it is highly unlikely that civilian bikers will ever be licensed, there are plans afoot to license delivery bikes.

Ms. Abraham continues, “I received a letter from the Deputy Inspector [of the 20th Precinct] stating that…in 2008, 240 summonses were handed out to those riding on sidewalks.” Actually, the actual number of bike summonses written in 2008 was 667 (fully 50 percent more than Ms. Abraham states).

She adds, “I only wish the police were around every time it happens to me and to the elderly woman I know who recovered from a concussion because of an unlawful biker.”

Although Ms. Abraham’s lament is understandable, the question is simply one of resources. And the available resources that any particular precinct  does have must deal with both “serious” crimes (robberies, burglaries, etc.) and quality of life crimes (bike issues, noise, graffiti, etc.). As an aside, the 20th Precinct is actually particularly keen on the bike issue because our precinct had the very first fatality of a pedestrian hit by a biker riding on the sidewalk—and that is a constant reminder of the reality of the issue for our precinct.

The 20th Precinct is doing whatever it can with its available resources to deal with bike issues and goes the extra mile whenever it can. But it is unrealistic to expect that, even with  increased enforcement, the problem is going to be solved to the complete satisfaction of Ms. Abraham or anyone else who rightly expresses this particular concern.

Ian Alterman
Upper West Side
The writer is vice president of the 20th Precinct Community Council.

Letters have been edited for clarity, style and brevity.