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.

Matthew Goldstein.

By Rachel Stern

A decade ago, some might argue, the City University of New York (CUNY) appeared very different than it does today. There was no Macaulay Honors College, School of Public Health, School of Professional Studies or graduate journalism program. There were less full-time faculty members and lower academic standards at the four-year colleges.
The man credited with helping shift the system, spurring several educational programs and initiatives into action and fundraising over $4 billion, is Dr. Matthew Goldstein, CUNY’s chancellor since 1999.
“We’re all here to try to improve the lives of our students and give them options that they can exercise during and after their time studying here,” said Goldstein, the first CUNY graduate to become chancellor of the system.
Goldstein studied statistics and mathematics at City College, commuting from Sheepshead Bay and juggling part-time odd jobs. He received his bachelor’s degree in 1963, continuing on to receive a PhD in mathematical statistics from the University of Connecticut. He returned to CUNY in several positions, among them as a professor and then president of Baruch College and president of The Research Foundation.
He began his tenure as chancellor by working to raise the academic standards of CUNY’s 11 senior colleges, moving “remedial education” to the six community colleges, he said.
“It required raising our academic assessment test to make judgments about whether people are ready for baccalaureate work,” said Goldstein. “And if they were not ready, they would first have to study at a community college and do reasonably well before they could enter a senior college.”
Over breakfast with Mayor Michael Bloomberg a few years after his start, Goldstein brought up how he wanted to boost CUNY’s community college graduation rates, which are notoriously low, “without diluting the curriculum,” he said.
Bloomberg then funded the $20 million program Associated Study in Accelerated Programs (ASAP) at all CUNY’s community colleges. Launched in 2007 with small class sizes and required full-time study, ASAP helped 55 percent of its students receive their graduate degree in three years—three times the national urban community college three-year graduation rate of 16 percent.
Furthermore, it inspired the creation of The New School, according to Goldstein, CUNY’s latest community college slated to open this fall.
A firm believer in math and science education, Goldstein was also behind The Decade of Science, a plan stretching from 2005 to 2015 that is modernizing science facilities, bringing in more faculty, and has created the School of Public Health.
“I’m really trying to encourage students who have the aptitude and ability to make contributions that are not only important to themselves but to society,” he said.
As a public institution, Goldstein says CUNY still needs more funding to boost its diversity of programs and students. He stood behind the latest tuition increases—$300 per year under Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s tuition plan—calling them “modest” compared to other public universities.
“We’ve been keeping tuition at reasonable levels,” he said, “without impairing the abilities of students who come to the university.”