With the closure of the John Hughes shelter, the nearest homeless shelter to Battery Park City is now in Tribeca. Joe Little of the New York City Rescue Mission gives a tour of the city’s oldest homeless shelter. With the bad economy and closure of other shelters nearby, demand for meals at the Mission have increased 20%.
To volunteer or donate money, contact (212) 226-6214 or go to http://www.nycrescue.org/
Construction on Route 9A, also known as The West Side Highway, and closure of the pedestrian bridge south of Albany Street have created a very dangerous situation. The ground-level crossing of The West Side Highway at Albany Street can be a death trap.
In February of 2009, Battery Park City resident Marilyn Feng was killed and her boyfriend seriously injured when a drunk driver struck the couple. Ms. Feng was an intern in Manhattan Borough president Scott Stringer’s office. In late September of 2009, another pedestrian was struck by a motorist, but he survived.
Funding for the permanent pedestrian overpass has been cancelled. Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer discusses the problem.
New York City Council takes advice from Community Boards on matters such as liquor licenses and construction permits. Community Board 1 oversees lower Manhattan and is divided into subcommittees by region, such as Battery Park, Tribeca, Financial District, etc. Tribeca committee Chairman Peter Braus explains how the system works.
The dangers of the Albany St/West Side Highway crossing have been well documented. Not so well appreciated are the dangers at the other end where Albany meets South End Avenue. Drivers making turns onto Albany are too occupied by looking down South End for other cars that they neglect to yield for pedestrians crossing Albany who have the white walk sign. The problem is particularly bad in the early evening.
BatteryPark.TV spent a mere five minutes filming the problem on a crude cell phone camera. Within that time, numerous cars violated the law and could have run over a pedestrian who was not paying attention.
If the NYPD posted patrol personnel, it could possibly earn more than $100,000 in revenue per year. Rather than ticket parked cars and do nothing to improve safety, perhaps the NYPD should try targeting more dangerous areas where moving violations are concentrated. Just a friendly suggestion: earn revenue and please the community.
When it rains it pours. In addition to the horrendous bad publicity that Goldman Sachs has endured on the national scene leading to an apology by the CEO, their new several-billion-dollar skyscraper headquarters being completed in Battery Park City is angering the community.
The Community Board 1 meeting tonight was heavily attended and the two main topics were related to Goldman Sachs problems. First, the early-morning New York Waterway ferries added to help with the new Goldman employees coming from New Jersey are rattling the windows of the Gateway Plaza residents. Executives from the ferry company explained the situation for an hour (see video).
Secondly, the new Goldman building yet again created a major safety hazard from falling debris. This time, a cracked window fell several hundred feet causing a rerouting of the West Side highway. Previously, a heavy steel plate speared the grass of the ball fields as it fell from the construction tower and a falling object broke the glass of the awning adjacent to the movie theater entrance. A hammer also fell this year.
This weekend, on a survey of more than five hotel bars, regular bars, and restaurant bars in Bowery, SOHO and Tribeca, all of the establishments shut down no later than 2:00 AM despite having plenty of customers. What is the explanation for this seemingly voluntary forfeiting of lucrative revenue?
The answer lies in a citywide effort to limit hours of operation of liquor-licensed establishments using Community Boards as the tool. This article written in 2008 explains it well.
2 a.m. Closing Time Becoming Norm for Manhattan Bars
When Hog Pit co-owner Felisa Dell sent an email to Eater on April 7th confirming the closure of her Meatpacking District BBQ joint, she insinuated that “the mayor and the State Liquor Authority are now only issuing Liquor Licenses until 2 a.m. It’s very sneaky, but in 5 years the 4 a.m. liquor license will be a thing of the past, without any community input.” Today the NY Sun backs Dell up, reporting that many Manhattan bar owners are finding it “nearly impossible to open new nightlife establishments that are permitted to serve alcohol until 4 a.m.”
While the New York State Liquor Authority can’t arbitrarily impose a specific closing time before 4 a.m., Community Boards have been demanding bar owners agree to curfews before they recommend approval to the SLA. The Sun looked at the most recent records available from Community Board 3, which covers the East Village and the Lower East Side, and found that not a single liquor license recommendation was granted to a bar that would close after 3 a.m. on weekends and 2 a.m. on weekdays.
And in Tribeca, Community Board 1 killed Matthew Piacentini’s plans to open a lounge in a commercial building on Hudson Street by telling him he’d have to close at midnight on weekdays and 1 a.m. on weekends. The early closing times are a big problem for bar owners; a recent survey found that 58% of their revenues are earned between those magical hours of 1 a.m. and 4 a.m. These are also the hours when some of us lose 58% of our dignity, so maybe it’s all for the best?
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.
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.
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.
- Community Board 1, - First precinct, - Mayor's Office, Featured Residents, Volunteering | admin | 
March 10, 2010 12:41 pm | 
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