Garodnick addressed these issues, among several others, in a letter he wrote to CWCapital, the “special servicer” responsible for maintaining the property.

He explains the patience he once had “has now reached its end, as thousands of residents have been without basic services for almost three months—with no explanation from CWCapital about the timeframe for their restoration, or any commitment to give further abatements for a diminution of necessary services.” Such necessary services currently not working include intercoms, laundry machines and a complete elevator service.

“Residents living in buildings with diminished service should be entitled to pay less rent,” Garodnick said in the letter. No word on a response yet from CWCapital.

South Village Reacts to Hudson Square Rezoning
Last week, the City Planning Commission sent the application for the proposed Hudson Square rezoning to the City Council in hopes of getting a majority vote of approval for enactment. While some City Council members see the proposed rezoning as an opportunity to expand on residential development in Hudson Square, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation is hoping to use this opportunity to push for the historic designation of the South Village.

In a letter written to Speaker Christine Quinn, the GVSHP, along with various community groups, asked her to reject the proposed rezoning unless the adjacent proposed South Village Historic District is designated a landmark by the city.

“We hope that you will use your considerable leverage to get the City to act,” the letter reads. “But if the City refuses to landmark the South Village, we urge you not to approve the Hudson Square rezoning, given the profound impact it would have in accelerating the destruction of this fragile, historic area.”

This would not be the first time landmark designation concessions have been implemented. This was the case with both the West Chelsea Historic District with the West Chelsea rezoning and the Prospect Heights Historic District with the Atlantic Yards rezoning. Deemed landmark-eligible four years ago by New York state, the South Village has been waiting ever since for designation.

“The fate of the South Village is now in Speaker Quinn’s hands,” said executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation Andrew Berman. “She will determine if this beloved, endangered New York neighborhood receives the protections it needs, or if its ongoing destruction will be accelerated by an enormous rezoning on its doorstep.”

Bike Safety for All
The Department of Transportation, SaferHood and Delivery.com have teamed up for a joint safety initiative designed to increase bicycle safety in the city.

Most recently, DOT and Delivery.com joined forces to provide 1,500 commercial cyclists with free bike lights, bells, and retro-reflective vests. Delivery cyclists from all over the city can attend one of the multi-language commercial bicyclist forums to receive the safety equipment.

These forums, which have been held from Brooklyn to the Upper East Side, are designed to educate, equip and answer questions about bicycle safety laws. Other bicycle safety efforts include NYPD enforcement and inspector visits to businesses that use delivery cyclists. These inspectors serve to both inform and oversee the legal regulations such businesses are required to follow.

DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan said of the new efforts, “Safety is everyone’s business, so it’s significant when the private sector steps up to the plate to make changes in the public interest.”
“In a city where food, groceries and wine can be at your doorstep in moments, we empower the neighborhood economy by equipping our merchant partners with the right tools for making safe and speedy deliveries,” said Jed Kleckner, CEO of Delivery.com.

These efforts have already seen some positive results, fostering high hopes for the revised administrative procedures regarding bicycle safety that will be enforced this coming April.

Compiled by Jessica Mastronardi

Janette Sadik-Khan, the DOT commissioner, released a statement saying that “for the first time in generations, we are systematically updating our streets to eliminate the signs that don’t work and improve the signs we actually need. While honking signs have been around for decades, there’s no sign that they do anything except add clutter to our streets.”

To bolster the case, the DOT argued that over the past five years, honking complaints have decreased 63 percent. But there are plenty of residents on both the Upper East and West sides who do not hear things quieting down.

“Whenever there’s a sudden blast of a horn, it creates road rage. Its very hostile,” said Bette Dewing, an Upper East Side resident, traffic safety expert (and columnist for Our Town). “I’m a great believer in signs. I don’t know why they’re so concerned with clutter. I am more interested in traffic safety rules.”

Dewing, also an activist for elder rights and safety, added that for older New Yorkers, a sudden horn honk can be jarring to the heart, which is unpleasant for anyone, but potentially dangerous for older pedestrians.

Council Member Gale Brewer said that in her district on the Upper West Side, there are several horn-honking problem areas, including the intersection of Riverside and 79th Street, where drivers coming off the highway tend to loudly announce their presence. She also said that congestion and noise occurs near schools like Columbia Preparatory School at West 94th Street. When school lets out, cars and buses idle in front of the school, causing frustration and honking.

Brewer said she is puzzled by the DOT’s decision.

“The neighbors want to be able to point to a sign and say, ‘do you see that sign? that’s the law,’” she said. “We’re in a city; we like noise but not excessive.”

Arlene Bronzaft, a noise expert and psychology professor, said that she does not buy the DOT’s explanation of de-cluttering the roadways. She said that where she lives at 79th and York, there are four signs telling people to cross at the green light.

“Why do we need four signs to tell us that?” she said. “You’d think we were smarter than that.” She also said that keeping the no-honking signs will guilt people into following the law.

“It’s simple psychology,” she said. “The signs are prompts for good behavior.”

Baruch students and members of the community enjoy the new Interim Plaza. Photo courtesy Baruch College

When Baruch College students return to classes toward the end of this month, they won’t have to look both ways when they cross 25th Street anymore. That’s because the college received the necessary approvals to close 25th Street between Lexington and Third Avenues to traffic at the end of December, and has created an interim pedestrian plaza. In about a year, it will be permanent.

Even in chilly early January, a few parka-clad pedestrians paused to sit at the colorful bistro tables and chairs recently set out for passersby, shielded in part from the wind by large potted and holiday-decorated trees. The closed portion of the street, which lies between Baruch’s two main buildings, the Newman Vertical Campus on the south side and the Library and Technology Building on the north, is paved with sand-colored gravel, many shades lighter than the surrounding streets, giving it a bit of a beachy look.

Diane Livoti, who works in the college’s registrar’s office, recently enjoyed part of her lunch break in the new plaza. “It will give Baruch much more of a campus feeling,” she says. “And everyone is on board with it: the pizza place, the bagel place, the students, everyone.” The plaza will also be smoke-free and Wi-Fi accessible to the college community, and open 24/7 not just to students but to the public and surrounding community.

When Baruch first floated the idea of the plaza, the college argued that such a space would provide a much needed oasis in a district—Community District 6, encompassing Turtle Bay, East Midtown, Murray Hill, Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village—that is the most open-space deprived in the city. When school is in session, there are an estimated 10,000 crossings per day, many of which are performed by harried students not necessarily taking the time to look before they cross. A traffic light installed midblock mitigated, but did not completely eliminate, the danger. It still hangs, despite there now being no vehicular traffic for it to signal.

Community Board 6 approved the plan last June, and it received the support of the DOT’s Plaza Program, the brainchild of DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan. “The creation of the 25th Street Plaza will be a transformative event that will forever enhance the campus experience for our students, faculty and staff,” said Baruch College President Mitchel B. Wallerstein, “as well as for the local community.”

As a signal of how important the plaza is to the college community, the Baruch College Association voted to fund the entire cost of the 25th Street Interim Plaza beautification. The Interim Plaza is expected to be in place for a year or more as the college and community work together on the design and construction of a permanent one, which may host events for the whole community, like a book fair, farmer’s market and productions from Baruch’s Performing Arts Center.

UWS Residents Want Their Trees Skirted
As New York enters the lazy days of the end of the summer, Upper West Side residents have not been idle. Recently, Council Member Gale Brewer has received so many calls about tree skirts that she was compelled to take action. Brewer heard from constituents on Columbus Avenue that several trees and lampposts had been summarily stripped of their coverings. According to a letter that Brewer sent to Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, demanding answers to the perplexing case, the tree skirts and lamppost collars have been removed from the four corners of West 75th Street and Columbus Avenue, as well as from two corners of West 74th Street and Columbus Avenue. The Upper West Side community is normally quite vigilant about maintaining pleasant and historically correct streetscapes, so it should come as no surprise to the DOT that locals are calling for answers. Brewer politely asked the DOT to return the swiped skirts as well as inform the community why they disappeared in the first place.

Free Summer Concerts Continue
The Lincoln Square Business Improvement District is hosting free outdoor concerts for the lunch crowd every Wednesday in August, from 12-2 p.m., in Richard Tucker Park. On Aug. 15, the Opera Collective will be bringing some classical fare to the park with an Opera in the Square afternoon. The Aug. 22 concert will be “Pop to Beatlemania” with Andy Suzuki & The Method and The Meetles, and the series will wrap up Aug. 29 with The Brotherhood of the Jug Band Blue and the Ukuladies playing early American tunes. The park is on West 66th Street from Broadway to Columbus Avenue. Music lovers are encouraged to bring their lunch and something to sit on to watch the show.

Locals Rally Against Homeless Shelters
The Department of Homeless Services (DHS) is plowing ahead with its plan to house 200 homeless families in single room occupancy (SRO) buildings on the Upper West Side. Despite the strident objections of the community board, City Council Member Gale Brewer, Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal, State Sen. Adriano Espaillat and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, DHS announced earlier this week that they will begin moving homeless residents into the buildings at 316 and 330 W. 95th St.

The buildings are serving as emergency shelters, meaning that DHS doesn’t have to adhere to normal regulations governing where shelters can be placed. The buildings operated as illegal hotels until recently and the owners were fined $600,000 by the city. Instead of returning the SRO units to their originally intended uses, to house low-income residents in small, cheap apartments, the landlords have turned to DHS to offer the buildings as emergency shelters. In return, DHS pays $111.99 per unit per day. Residents and local pols aren’t happy with this choice.

“New Yorkers understand that all neighborhoods share in the responsibility to provide housing to those in need,” said Stringer. “But abruptly moving a 400-person shelter into a residential neighborhood in the dead of summer with no community consultation, no contract and no long-term plan only creates bad will and sets back the cause of fighting homelessness.”

Officials have repeatedly asked DHS to address the neighborhood’s concerns—chiefly that the sudden influx of residents who may have substance abuse or mental health problems will tax the local police and safety resources to the breaking point—but say that they haven’t gotten any satisfactory answers.

“While we all support helping those seeking shelter, it is unjust and unwise to oversaturate one neighborhood through these emergency provisions, especially when it already has its fair share,” said Espaillat. “From the beginning of this process, DHS has failed to communicate with community leaders, enable a public process and notify neighbors.”

One of the biggest criticisms has been of the secrecy of the plan.

“The process should have included a substantive planning discussion with Community Board 7, elected officials, current residents of the two buildings and responsible neighborhood leaders to find a solution to the need for shelter for homeless individuals,” said Brewer.
On Tuesday, residents and politicians came out to protest the move and ask the city to halt the process, but so far there has been no indication that DHS will be heeding those calls.

Photo Courtesy of Wiki Commons

We warned you it was coming—zip lining has officially hit Foley Square for the next two weekends of August. For the NY DOT’s ongoing Summer Streets event, the organization is running a zip line in Foley Square, which is open for public enjoyment. There are other events as well, in celebration of New Yorkers reclaiming their city streets. Numerous streets throughout the City are shut down to cars for the event.

DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan told Metro NY: “The streets are for everyone. It’s a great way for New Yorkers to get out and see and enjoy the city in a different way.”

For the next two weekends only (Aug. 11 & 18), head to Foley Square and get zippin’.

—Alissa Fleck

Photo Courtesy of Wiki Commons

More than 100 neighborhoods around New York City have applied for “traffic calming measures,” according to a statement issued by Transportation Alternatives, after Mayor Bloomberg unveiled his new “slow zone” program. The Department of Transportation has so far granted 13 safe zones, which reduce the speed limit in designated neighborhood areas from 30 mph to 20 mph. Speed bumps and additional signage are also being implemented in these zones.

Transportation Alternatives reports a pedestrian has an almost 100 percent chance of surviving a collision with a car moving at 20 mph. Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan said: “the likelihood of dying after being hit drops from 70 percent to 5 percent if drivers reduce speeds from 40 mph to 20 mph.” The majority of all crashes fatal to pedestrians also take place on neighborhood streets, and speeding is the primary cause of these accidents, taking 45 lives in 2010.

Transportation Alternatives Executive Director Paul Steely White called the decision “a victory for these neighborhoods.”

The DOT implemented the first safe zone in the Bronx last year and has since been taking applications for others. Installation of a safe zone requires approval from the local community board. TA’s Michael Murphy said the decision is also influenced by the rate of traffic crashes in a given area.

“Speeding on our streets is really a matter of life or death,” said Sadik-Khan. Others, however, are more suspicious: “The DOT’s programs seem to be doing everything they can to increase congestion,” said Robert Sinclair, an AAA spokesman.

The 13 approved zones are expected to be installed by 2013, reports am NY. 

The locations currently planned are:

* The Bronx: Mt. Eden, Baychester, Eastchester, Riverdale
* Brooklyn: Boerum Hill
* Manhattan: Inwood
* Queens: Corona, Elmhurst, Jackson Heights/East Elmhurst, Auburndale
* Staten Island: New Brighton/St. George, Dongan Hills, Rosebank

—Alissa Fleck

Photo courtesy of Wiki Commons.

Midtown in Motion, a traffic system unveiled by Mayor Bloomberg and Department of Transportation (DOT) officials in July of last year, will be expanded due to its initial success in congestion reduction.

The first phase of Midtown in Motion saw a 10 percent increase in travel speeds, the DOT announced in a press release yesterday. The results won the NYC DOT a transportation technology award from ITS America, for creating a model for other cities as well as minimizing pollution.

The system’s success comes from its ability to relay traffic conditions to city traffic engineers in real time. The initial phase included various microwave sensors, video cameras and EZ pass readers. Real-time traffic information allows controllers to immediately identify issues and adjust patterns, avoiding bottlenecks and promoting the ability of drivers traveling at a constant speed on avenues to hit all green lights.

“The service area will more than double in size to include Midtown from 1st to 9th avenues and from 42nd to 57th streets,” the press release explained. “This state-of-the-art equipment is also more weather-resistant and tamperproof, and requires less maintenance than previous generations, which could only be adjusted based on time of day, leaving no ability to respond to crashes, construction, or special events.”

The expansions will cost $2.9 million, with funding provided by the City and New York State.

“When Midtown moves, New York City moves,” said DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan of the project’s success. “While every New Yorker talks about beating the traffic…we’ve taken decisive steps towards managing it more effectively.”

—Alissa Fleck

UWS Slasher Convicted
A state Supreme Court jury found Upper West Side resident Julian Kurita guilty of second degree murder last week. Kurita was convicted of killing his father, Fumitaka Kurita, in their shared Upper West Side home on July 19, 2010. That night, police received a 911 call from the defendant, a former sushi chef, at his West 87th Street apartment. He told police that he had stabbed his father, slitting his throat, and then slashed his own wrists. When officers arrived on the scene, they found the father face-up on the floor, bleeding from neck and not breathing. Kurita had killed him as he was sitting down to the dinner table. His attorney argued in court that he was mentally ill at the time—Kurita told police he had gone off his medication—and didn’t know what he was doing, but the jury sided with the prosecution and agreed that he was responsible for, and guilty of, the murder.

Property Taxes Demystified
Upper West Side City Council Member Gale Brewer and representatives from the city’s Department of Finance will be available to help residents with property tax questions at a seminar on Thursday, June 7 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at the American Folk Art Museum, 2 Lincoln Square. Bring questions about commercial, residential, condo and co-op property taxes and get answers directly from the department that handles them.
New Cardiac Treatment at Local Hospitals
Two Manhattan hospitals—St. Luke’s and Roosevelt—are getting ahead in the treatment of slow heartbeats. The two hospitals will be among the first in the nation to treat patients with INGENIO pacemakers, which help people who suffer from bradycardia, a heart rate of usually less than 60 beats per minute.
“The INGENIO device enables physicians to treat pacemaker patients with an advanced and comprehensive set of therapies,” said Emad Aziz, a doctor in the Department of Medicine and Cardiology at the hospitals. “The INGENIO pacemaker’s MV sensor is easy to optimize and will provide needed therapy for patients to help them feel less fatigued during physical activity.”
With this new device, doctors can keep tabs on their cardiac patients’ health from a distance; the device’s wireless technology can transmit patients’ data to doctors in several locations in North America.

Parking Regulation Map Goes Online
The Department of Transportation announced the launch of an online map that will show parking regulations for every block in New York City. The new tool came about as a result of legislation authored by East Side Council Member Dan Garodnick designed to increase transparency of street and transit data. The map shows parking signs, indicates when roads were last resurfaced and gives a street evaluation for roads in good, fair or poor condition. The DOT hopes that the tool will make resident parking easier, allowing people to check the map for alternate side regulation days before setting off on the daunting task of finding a spot in whatever neighborhood they’re in. This could cut down on the time that drivers are wandering the streets if they know which streets to avoid before they set out.
“New Yorkers shouldn’t be flying blind when they are looking for parking,” said Garodnick, who attributes the idea for the map to his mother. “It can be extremely annoying to drive to a new neighborhood and only learn the parking limitations once you have arrived. This map will let drivers know what they are getting themselves into when they plan a trip, and ultimately will save them some unnecessary headaches.”
Council Member James Vacca, chair of the transportation committee, compared deciphering parking regulations to “understanding Morse code” and praised the city for making it easier, and DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan promised to continue using technology to help residents navigate the city’s transportation system.

Central Park Walking Tour
Local preservation advocacy group Landmark West is sponsoring a walking tour through Central Park led by professor Andrew S. Dolkart, director of the Historic Preservation Program at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning & Preservation. The walk will be Wednesday, June 20 at 6 p.m., and tickets ($25, $15 for members) for the limited number of spots must be purchased in advance. Email landmarkwest@landmarkwest.org to RSVP or call 212-496-8110 for more information.

Plants and Crafts Festival
The Broadway Mall Association is dedicated to maintaining and enhancing the malls of Broadway from the Upper West Side through Harlem. On Sunday, June 10, the organization is hosting its 35th annual Plantathon and Music Festival. At this free festival, participants can sample international cuisine from over 50 food stands, browse the displays of over 400 craft and plant exhibitors and listen to the music of Linda Miller, Havana Central, and Blue Haze on Broadway between 72nd and 86th streets. Famed actor Eli Wallach will be signing autographs and discussing his autobiography at the Author’s Corner from 2-4 p.m. The festival runs from 11 a.m.-5 p.m. and is open to all. For more information, call 212-764-6330.

Over $1 Million Raised for Health Care
Last month, St. Luke’s and Roosevelt hospitals held their annual joint fundraising gala on the Upper West Side at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on West 113th Street and Amsterdam Avenue. The event honored world-renowned endovascular neurosurgeon Dr. Alejandro Berenstein, as well Richard E. Cappetta, president and CEO of MicroVention, the company that makes the microcatheters that Berenstein uses to treat patients. The gala raised more than $1 million to help support the hospitals’ initiatives.