Sharks gone wild

Our Shark posting went viral. It was picked up by New York Magazine now, and look at all the comments!

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2009/11/shark.html

It all started out by being picked up by the Gothamist

http://www.batterypark.tv/outddor-events/shark.html

Seasonal flu vaccination program

October 21

Councilmember Alan Gerson is sponsoring regional seasonal flue shots to be administered. These are NOT the swine flue, or H1N1, shots.

To learn more, view the video and also call Alan Gerson’s office at (212) 788-7722

The number of people living in poverty soar

October 20, 2009

A new report out indicates that the real number of people living in poverty is far great than the government estimates. Covering the story, ABC Nightly News featured a Los Angeles shelter becoming overwhelmed with homeless.

See our previous stories about the New York City Rescue Mission and the growing homeless problem in NYC.

The USS New York leaving port

The USS New York is the fifth ship in the LPD 17 San Antonio class of amphibious transport dock ships.

The USS NEW YORK (LPD 21), built with 7.5 tons of steel from the World Trade Center in her bow, was commissioned in New York City on Nov. 7, 2009.

(source USS NY web site http://www.ussny.org/)

Sunset

Good news for the NYC economy soon?

October 14

It is being reported that Wall Street is expected to pay out the largest total in salaries ever: more than $140 Billion. This will, of course, directly impact the struggling NYC economy.

Say goo’bye to my leetle friend

October 13, 2009

Wasting no time, the DOT began construction on the new “Tire Swing Park” preventing any further delays from opposition groups. The current estimated budget is approximately $9 Million for the project. Despite opposition from residents, the project is proceeding with “Plan A” which cuts down all of the trees and has the maximal loss of grass field space to make way for the “Pataki Promenade” granite walkway parallel to the West Side Highway Route 9A.

The project is scheduled to be completed by Memorial Day, 2010. Near-term upside to the plan is that it will greatly expand the space allotted to the community gardens and level the grass playing field. The major downside to the plan, and reason for opposition from parents, is the loss of the large pear trees that provide great shade, and the down time from construction, of course.

Coalition to save Tire Swing Park

Selectively enforced parking rules on West Thames

October 11

Matt Fenton has an interesting article in the Broadsheet about how State and City employees are parking their cars in no-parking zones on West Thames. The cars post government affiliations on their dashboard to avoid getting ticketed. Some use handicap passes.

The controversy is whether these car operators are really on government jobs and really handicapped or are just abusing the system while regular Joe’s like us get expensive tickets on the other side of the street.

As an update, we did notice this handicapped car was ticketed.

NYPD 9/11 bagpipe parade 2009

The annual NYPD commemorative bagpipe parade honoring the police killed in the September 11th, 2001 attacks.

NYPD 9/11 bagpipe parade 2007

Over 60,000 views and counting (originally posted on YouTube at another location of ours)

The commercial real estate bubble

October 6

The other shoe to drop for New York City will be the massive rate of defaults on commercial real estate loans. Up to a trillion dollars in loans could go unpaid within the next year or two. Will lenders renegotiate or will they evict all of the businesses in those buildings causing an even great unemployment problem and tax revenue shortage?

More evidence of a commercial real estate shoe yet to drop

October 13

The WSJ has an interesting article about how hotels were caught at the worst time taking out large loans to renovate right before the economic collapse of lat 2007 through 2009. They focus on the Hawaiian hotel market as an example, but the data are relevant to New York City.

The growing homeless problem in BPC

October 15th

For the first time this decade, multiple homeless individuals are making the parks in Battery Park City their preferred location during the day. In particular, Wagner Park in front of the Jewish Heritage Museum is a popular spot.

James VarnHagen of the New York City Rescue Mission explains the reasons for this growing homeless problem. A key homeless shelter near BPC, the John Hughes shelter, did not receive a city grant and had to shut down causing many of the people that used to rely on it to spill into the park system. In addition, the budgetary problems of the city and increased unemployment have caused a 20% increase in homeless as the city shelters become overburdened.

To learn more and how to help, you may view the video now.

What I did for Summer 2009

Surfs up! A very windy day

Gusts of over 50 mph on October 7th

Monarch butterflies in Wagner Park

More trouble in the high-end restaurant business

October 7, 2009

The Tribeca Trib is reporting that famed chef David Bouley has not paid rent on one of his buildings that was supposed to be a restaurant but was cancelled due to the NYC depression. In addition, one his other restaurants around the corner, Secession, has been gone out of business.

Art on the walls of closed retail shops

October 12, 2009

The NY Times has a story about how so many ground level retail stores are empty in NYC that the landlords have turned to painting art on the walls to downplay the depressing sights.

Meeting to go over Plan B options for Tire Swing Park