Photo Courtesy of GVSHP

Full City Council voted today, 44-1, to approve NYU’s modified expansion plan, despite continued community resistance. Speaker Christine Quinn called the modified plan significantly smaller than the original proposal and was satisfied with the outcome, reported WNYC.

(by Alissa Fleck and Paul Bisceglio)

The decrease in size from approximately 2 million square feet down to 1.9 million, including reduction in density and increases in open space, did not mean much to the plan’s numerous staunch opponents, many of whom have opposed it in its entirety from the beginning. This included the 37 NYU departments which passed resolutions against the plan. Many of these groups have sought legal council, according to WNYC. Additionally, various writers have compiled a collection of protest pieces inspired by the expansion, titled While We Were Sleeping: NYU and the Destruction of New York. 

Councilman Charles Barron was again the only holdout, imploring other councilmembers to heed the voices of Greenwich Village residents over those who may avoid the plan’s direct impact by not living in the construction zone.

Enough Greenwich Village residents, NYU faculty and other community members attended the vote to fill the Council chambers to full capacity. Opponents chanted “Chin and Quinn did us in!” from the balcony just before the actual vote took place, the Village Voice reported, and persisted as Quinn repeatedly called for silence. The entire balcony was escorted out of City Hall prior to the vote.

“This is a sad day for democracy in New York City,” said Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, in a statement. Berman has been a major face for the opposition since the plan’s inception. He added his group would seek every possible legal avenue in continuing to fight the plan.

“The NYU 2031 plan has little to do with education, and everything to do with real estate and expansion for expansion’s sake,” said Berman. His group and others have joined together in formation of a city-wide campaign in protest: StandUp4NYC.

Jim Walden, an attorney with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher representing GVSHP, said: “We look forward to our day in court.”

Many residents in Greenwich Village at the time of the vote also expressed dissatisfaction with the proposal, citing construction noise, congestion and loss of a sense of community as major concerns.

“We don’t want another Midtown,” said one community member.

Two others were more willing to embrace the incentives that NYU included in its modified plan. “We’re getting a rent reduction,” said a resident of the University’s Silver Towers, an iconic residential complex on Bleecker Street in the middle of the proposed construction area. “So while we aren’t thrilled about [the expansion plans], that’s why a lot of us [in the Towers] are keeping our mouths shut.” (New York Press has contacted NYU housing and is waiting to confirm the details of this reduction.)

Construction on the plan is set to begin in 2014.

Photo Courtesy of Wiki Commons

A popup pool opened Friday in Brooklyn Bridge Park with an exclusive capacity of sixty swimmers. The pool, with its view of the Manhattan skyline, opened preceding the weekend heatwave which was expected to surpass the 100 degree mark, though it only hit a recorded high of 95. Brooklyn Bridge Park pool will be open for at least five years and has a sandy beach, lounge chairs, picnic tables and a concession stand, reports WNYC. 

State Senator Daniel Squadron helped raise $400,000 from Albany to install the pool, which he hopes will become permanent, according to WNYC. For the time being, hopeful swimmers will have to arrive early or during off peak hours to get into the tiny pool, which is open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The pool is intentionally shallow with three lifeguards, designed with families in mind.

Community advocates have allegedly been pushing hard for some time for the pool’s installment. Head to Brooklyn Heights to beat the heat this summer without the frenetic madness of McCarren Park pool, but remember to get there early.

—Alissa Fleck

In the lobby of WYNC’s offices on Varick Street, Michael Ian Black is chatting with Meghan McCain. It seems as though they are old friends catching up between sips of iced coffee. They’re not. Actually, they only met in person less than a year ago, but in this short time they have toured the nation together and learned valuable lessons from one another, though they are of very different political thinking. Black, a Democrat, and McCain, a Republican, prove that friendship and admiration can cross party lines.

Clutching the book they have penned together, America, You Sexy Bitch, I go over to greet them after their interview with Brian Lehrer. Black and I walk to the nearest Starbucks, where we speak about his book, Washington Square Park, and the first trip he took across the United States—dressed as a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.

In the beginning of your book, you said that Ambien and Twitter were instrumental in getting Meghan to sign on to this project. Is that really true?

Yes, I was on Twitter. I had taken Ambien. And the next morning, I woke up and went, “Did I just propose writing a book to Meghan McCain? I think so and I think she said yes. I think that’s what happened last night.” I had only met her once before, via satellite. I had been a fan of hers for years. I liked the way she spoke about the Republican party, and that that she wasn’t afraid to go against party orthodoxy. She seemed like someone who spoke her mind, which I respond to.

Did she meet your expectations?

She exceeded them in a lot of ways. She’s a lot braver than I would have given her credit for. In politics, it’s very hard to forge your own path, because the way the political system works, you’re either in one camp or the other. Meghan is a Republican, but the Republican establishment that exists rejects her because she does not toe the party line. As a result, she doesn’t have a home politically. It’s a shame, because for that party to succeed, it needs to have more Meghan McCains.

You said that her mother, Cindy, was the first person who made you start to think you may have had the wrong impression of some Republicans. How so?

I had an impression of Cindy McCain based on what I knew from the media: She was rich, cold and aloof. None of that was true—except for the part about her being rich. She is really rich. [Laughs] But she was warm and hospitable and open with me in a way that surprised me because they’re a guarded family—as anybody would be in that position. To welcome a stranger into your home whose motivations probably seemed very unclear, I think, was really generous.

In the book, you explain your worry that your two children will not get to experience the American Dream as you did. What do you mean by that?

Every parent worries about the opportunities their children are going to have. My fear for them is that they won’t even see the opportunities that my generation and all previous generations saw. The American Dream is a promise that one generation gives to the other and right now, it’s hard to give my kids that promise. It’s a scary time. That being said, my children are in a much better position than 80-90 percent of other kids in this country because I make a good living. They have a lot of advantages that others don’t, and yet I’m still frightened for my socioeconomically blessed children. I can’t even imagine what it’s like for people living from paycheck to paycheck.

You studied acting at NYU. What is your favorite place in the city?

I will always have a very soft spot in my heart for Washington Square Park. It’s where I came when I was a kid on my first trip to NY. We saw street performers there. NYU is there; I spent innumerable mornings walking across that park and really feeling like a part of the city for the first time.

Do people recognize you here?

I’m not out there going, “Look at me—I was on cable.” People recognize me and are usually really nice and respectful.

The first time you traveled around the country you were 19 and dressed as Raphael, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. What was that for?

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were doing a live tour—like Disney on Ice, but with turtles and no ice. They needed people to travel ahead and promote the show. So that’s what I did; I dropped out of college to go be a turtle. It was an opportunity to see the country and make good money. It was so weird and crazy that I thought, “I should do this.”

Do you keep in touch with your fellow castmates from Wet Hot American Summer?

That movie was populated almost entirely with friends or people who became friends. There are very few people I don’t see from that movie. The only one I don’t really see is Bradley Cooper, but that’s just because he’s in L.A. and is an A-list movie star. I’m actually shooting a movie in July called They Came Together with a lot of the same Wet Hot American Summer people.

How have your political views changed since touring the country with America, You Sexy Bitch?

My own political philosophy hasn’t changed—in a lot of ways, it was reinforced. I think my mind is a little more open than it was before about the conservative philosophy and lifestyle. I’m a liberal—will probably always be a liberal—but I feel like I at least caught a glimpse of what American conservatism is supposed to be about. And that there’s a lot to admire about it.

Are you going to work on this year’s presidential campaign? They’re going to want you to now, since you wrote this political book.

Oh no, I’m not going to do anything for the campaign. I’m not posting yard signs anywhere. I’m not stuffing envelopes.

Those are all the questions I had. But if you want to add anything…

Just that New York City is the greatest city in the world. Is that pandering enough?

Yeah—that’s fine.

OK, good.

Photo Courtesy of Wiki Commons

Is there a better target for robbery than a shady van filled with thousands of cellphones? That’s just one complication that arises when considering the city’s perplexing cell phone storage procedure for high school students.

Cell phones are banned in city schools—probably with good reason—but students who attend schools with metal detectors, and want cellphones for the commute, must store these phones in trucks or nearby bodegas for a $1 fee. The bodegas and trucks store the phones for the day like a coat check service. That adds up to about $22,800 a day for all New York City high school students.

The New York Post reports these companies make up to $4.2 million a year, while the accumulated “phone check” fees can be a financial stretch for some students. As Gothamist points out, schools with permanent metal detectors often have the most financially challenged students (88 of 1,200 schools have detectors). For many students, money now going toward cellphone storage may have been put toward basic sustenance.

WNYC reports Mayor Bloomberg told students to “leave [their] cellphones at home,” but we’ve all seen enough Law and Order to know kids should not be wandering city streets without some means of communication.

—Alissa Fleck