Parts of Lower Manhattan may spend the holidays and beyond hooked up to noisy, noxious generators if building management companies don’t soon finish necessary repairs.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, many downtown Manhattan buildings relied on emergency generators for power in an effort to return to normalcy. As of last week, Council Member Margaret Chin’s office reported 105 emergency generators were still operating downtown, providing electricity to these buildings.

While these generators may be necessary in an emergency, community members and elected officials are concerned over why they still have such a prominent presence downtown. The generators emit potent, potentially hazardous fumes and often deafening noises. They also appear to be running largely unregulated by city agencies, which have not demonstrated much oversight in the situation, according to downtown’s elected officials.

“Many of the streets in Lower Manhattan, particularly in the Financial District, are literally lined with [these] generators,” said Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. “We all know that after 9/11, thousands of Lower Manhattan residents were exposed to air that caused serious health problems, and we cannot allow that to happen again.”

A Con Edison spokesperson explained that the buildings’ management companies are responsible for the generators still in place.

“They’re the ones who bore the brunt,” he said.

Chin’s office agreed that Con Edison is not to blame for the delay. The buildings’ management companies reportedly continue to push back the dates when they’ll be ready to reconnect to power, now giving time frames as late as April in some cases.

“Con Edison is willing and ready to hook these buildings back up,” said Kelly Magee, a spokesperson for the council member. “The buildings are not ready to receive power. The buildings have some kind of issue, whether it’s damage to the transformer or a part that needs a replacement—they’re unable to hook back up to the grid.”

Magee said these buildings’ management companies would not return their phone calls and there was no explanation as to why the dates kept getting pushed back. She speculated building management companies are taking advantage of this opportunity to make other repairs to their buildings. Without incentive for the management companies and enforcement by the city, she said there’s not enough pressure for the companies to act in a timely fashion.

Once a building is ready to be hooked back up to the Con Edison grid, only a quick inspection is necessary before this can take place.

Council Member Chin, whose Lower Manhattan district has many such generators, is disappointed in the city’s response thus far. She said her office has received many residential complaints over the last month and that she’s repeatedly reached out to the city and tried to work through official channels.

One woman called the council member’s office to complain she had fainted while exiting a downtown subway because of the overwhelming fumes released by the generators.

“The residents are contacting our office and saying they need help—these fumes are going right into their apartments,” explained Chin. “People have been very patient and they understand it’s an emergency, but week after week … it’s taking too long.”

“The Department of Health needs to provide solutions,” said Chin. “Now they’re saying seal off your windows with plastic—that’s not an appropriate way to live.”

“The phone calls are seriously disturbing,” added Magee.

Magee said the council member’s office has been working to get the Department of Environmental Protection and the Department of Mental Health and Hygiene to come out and regularly conduct inspections of the generators.

“What it seems like to us is in the beginning there was an emergency situation; a lot was done without much oversight, and it wasn’t until we asked for enforcement that the DEP started doing anything,” Magee said.

“We go and look around ourselves, and we can see the smoke spewing out,” she added. “The DEP needs to be down there every single day, and they need to get the dirty ones out.”

The council member said it seemed not much thought had been given to the generators’ physical placement either.

“To be listening to one 24 hours a day is a lot to ask of residents,” said Chin, who explained they were loud enough to drown out any conversation in the street.

Ryan Carlino works on Water Street, right by the river. He said he was not allowed to return to his office building until Dec. 4.

“We literally have to walk through a tunnel of generators to get to the entrance of our building,” he said. “There’s smoke everywhere. It constantly smells like diesel fumes.”

“I’m sure they’re safe, I guess,” he added. “They were OK’d by the EPA. But they look like they could blow up or electrocute someone at any point.”

The generators are also loud, according to Carlino. “The noise isn’t a huge inconvenience since you can’t hear them inside,” he said. “It’s just really weird and post-apocalyptic walking through them to get to work.”

When asked how he knew the generator had been approved by the EPA, Carlino said his company’s operations coordinators told workers the EPA had checked them out.

A Department of Environmental Protection spokesperson confirmed that DEP inspectors are going block by block in Lower Manhattan to ensure that all generators are properly certified and are meeting emissions standards, and the DEP has also teamed up with the city’s Health Department and the state Department of Environmental Conservation to monitor air quality. The agencies have installed three additional air testing sites since Hurricane Sandy and have not detected patterns of higher concentrations of particulate matter.

While they may technically be safe, the generators are still a huge nuisance. In many cases, residents cannot understand why the generators powering some commercial buildings must remain running all night.

“Imagine that happening continuously all day long and at night when people are supposed to be sleeping,” said Chin. “We have families and lots of young kids down here.”

Chin said the city has already established a rapid repair program with residential buildings, one which might soon have to extend to commercial buildings as well.

“It’s unacceptable that they will be there all winter,” she said. “If there are missing parts, get them.”
While the noise and pollutants affect residents and workers in the area, Chin is particularly concerned about generators operating directly outside of a downtown school complex.

“We need all the help we can get,” said Chin. “We want this done by Christmas. This is our Christmas present.”

Carlino is at least glad to be back in his own office building despite the generators. “We were up in Times Square,” he said. “It was awful.”

Courtesy of Antony Lopez via Flickr

—Compiled by Adel Manoukian

Train Thefts Persist
The NYPD reports that the number of thefts on trains and train platforms is increasing, so riders be warned or you might end up like the following unlucky cases. Having just gotten off a southbound N train, a 23-year-old NYU student was walking on a train platform when her phone vibrated. When she reached for her pocketbook to get it, she noticed the zipper was open and several items were missing, including her $100 wallet that contained $100 in cash, a $40 metro card and a credit card. A few days later, a 24-year-old man was holding his $500 iPhone in his hand as he stepped off a southbound N train at around 3 in the morning. As he was getting off, a thief snatched his phone and took off.

Good Samaritan Helps Arrest Thieves
The saying in this city goes, “If you see something, say something.” Luckily this woman was in the right place at the right time and did exactly that. The Good Samaritan witnessed two young males come up to a 21-year-old man on Dutch Street and demand he give up his money and iPhone. When the victim refused, they punched him in the face in concert. As the man was being mugged, the witness called the police and two suspects, ages 19 and 18, were caught and arrested a few blocks away. The man’s $200 iPhone was recovered.

Water Street Business Robbed at Gunpoint
A 58-year-old woman was unlocking the door to her check-cashing business on Water Street last Tuesday, when a man pushed his way into the store, displayed his semiautomatic pistol and announced that he came to rob the place. The man, who donned a ski mask and sunglasses, had the woman disable the alarms and unlock the door to the rear counter area that contained a safe. As soon as she complied, the thief forced her down on the ground and handcuffed her. The perp placed a whopping $150,514 in cash in his black knapsack and allegedly shouted to an accomplice outside the front door. Unfortunately, the victim never had a chance to see the other person. The robber fled in an unknown direction. Police are still investigating.

Keep Your Bags in Sight at All Times
In these blotter pages, we often report on unattended bags being stolen, yet these crimes still persist. A 30-year-old man was standing on the corner of West Broadway and Lispenard Street early Sunday morning when he placed his bag down to make a call. As he was talking on the phone he noticed a group of people pass him, but the unsuspecting man took no further note of them. When he finished his call a few minutes later, he noticed the bag he had set down next to him containing his $1,700 MacBook and $80 in cash was gone. A few days later, a 21-year-old tourist set her bag down behind her to take a picture with one of her cameras. When she turned around to pick it up a few seconds later, it was out of sight. The bag contained her $1,000 MacBook Air and a $250 Olympus camera. Unfortunately, the woman did not see or hear anything and there were no witnesses. At the time of the occurrence, the visitor only had two more days left in New York City.

In Downtown Manhattan, where glass and steel skyscrapers create sleek urban canyons, it is difficult to picture the Wall Street area lined with genteel homes and churches. Yet despite devastating, widespread fires that wiped out most Downtown buildings, and two centuries of demolition and construction, three 18th-century structures still stand and remain the oldest buildings south of 14th Street.

The Captain Joseph Rose House, former site of the infamous “Rat Pit” in the 1800s. Photo by Caitlyn Bierman

Captain Joseph Rose House

Joseph Rose was a successful importer of expensive Honduran mahogany. When he built his brick Georgian residence at 273 Water St. around 1773, before landfill extended the shoreline, the river ran just behind his elegant home.

Similar merchant-class homes lined Water Street in the late 18th century, but by the beginning of the 19th century, the area declined as encroaching commerce pushed residents away. The house was used as a cobbler’s shop, an apothecary and, just before the Civil War, a boarding house. By mid-century, Water Street had become a “sea of wretchedness,” as described by one contemporary writer, James D. McCabe, where “hideous women” and drunken sailors loitered.

In 1863, saloon keeper Christopher “Kit” Burns opened his Sportsmen’s Hall in the house. Here gambling, bare-knuckle boxing and drinking attracted rowdy customers. The hall, however, was best known for its rat and dog fights. For $1.50-$5 (around $26-$87 today) patrons would see how quickly a dog could kill 100 rats. Between bouts, Burns’ son-in-law, “Jack the Rat,” would bite the head off of a live mouse for a dime. Burns’ “Rat Pit” was among the most notorious of New York’s saloons.

After the hall was closed in 1870, the building was used as a home for “fallen” women, in the vernacular of the day—prostitutes.

After a fire in 1904, it was used as a warehouse until another fire in 1974 gutted the building. Today, the captain’s former home has been renovated into luxury apartments. Where Jack the Rat once bit the heads off of mice, apartments now sell for just over $1 million.

Fraunces Tavern, where George Washington once slept. Photo by Caitlyn Bierman

Fraunces Tavern

George Washington indeed slept here—but he hadn’t even been born when it was built. In 1719, French-born Stephan DeLancey completed his four-story brick home at Pearl and Broad streets. The impressive mansion was entered through an elegant doorway framed by a columned portico.

While Col. Beverly Robinson, a loyalist and friend of Benedict Arnold, was living here in 1756, Washington stayed as a guest before returning to the Indian Wars. Samuel Fraunces, a Frenchman from the West Indies, bought the home at auction in 1762 and converted it into The Queen’s Head Tavern.

An important meeting place for revolutionists, the tavern included a dungeon below for prisoners of war and the upstairs meeting rooms were used as the offices of the newly formed departments of War, Treasury and Foreign Affairs. But it was Washington’s emotional farewell to his troops in the Long Room, a private dining and meeting room, that Americans most remember.

Devastated by fire in 1854, it was later renovated but its historical importance was long forgotten, until the Daughters of the American Revolution rediscovered it in 1895. In 1907, after years of restoration, Fraunces Tavern re-emerged as the building we can see today.

St. Paul's s Chapel, the oldest church building in New York City. Photo by Caitlyn Bierman

St. Paul’s Chapel

St. Paul’s Chapel, at Broadway and Fulton Street, sat in a wheat field when it was completed in 1766. Although architect Thomas McBean faced the chapel away from Broadway to take full advantage of the river view, two years later a graceful carriage portico was added on Broadway, creating what we recognize today as the front.

A fire ravaged the city in September 1776, destroying 25 percent of its buildings, including the 1698 Trinity Church. St. Paul’s, then at the northern rim of the city, became George Washington’s place of worship, and he prayed here prior to his inauguration.

The chapel held memorial services for the victims of the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 and in 2001 for those lost in the World Trade Center terrorist attacks. Used as a place of rest for workers on “the pile,” today the interior of the oldest existing church building in New York City is draped with memorial banners.

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Tom Miller is author of the historical architecture blog Daytonian in Manhattan. A transplanted Buckeye, he moved to New York in 1979 and has never stopped being a tourist.