Whac-A-Mole with town car drivers: Episode 11: XYZ driver refuses to leave, second driver busted sleeping goes nuts

Whac-A-Mole episode 10: Driver goes nuts in front of NYPD

Serious conflicts of interest between CB1 board members and the CEO of the BPCA come to light

May 1, 2012 By Steven Greer, MD

Egregious new conflicts of interest between some Community Board 1 members (people who are supposed to be representing the welfare of the BPC citizens) and the Battery Park City Authority (run by executives who do not live in BPC) were uncovered at the May meeting tonight. In a meeting that should have lasted 15 minutes, but dragged on for two hours under the leadership of CB1 member Jeff Galloway, Mr. Galloway began a bizarre discussion with Marc Costello, former president of Downtown Little League and BPC resident, about “MOU’s” (memorandum of understanding) relating to the use of the ball fields. Mr. Galloway mentioned that he had been negotiating the MOU in private meetings with the CEO of the BPCA, Gayle Horwitz. After a few minutes, CB1 member Tom Goodkind spoke up and said, “I have no idea what you two are talking about. I have not seen this MOU.”

Later in the meeting, at the request of BatteryPark.TV and Julie Menin, Chair of the entire CB1, the board members discussed where to relocate the monthly meetings that are currently held in the same offices of the BPCA. However, Mr. Galloway did not explain the reason that this topic was being discusses, which was to eliminate the conflicts of interests between the CB1 and the BPCA. Recall, numerous elected officials and residents are upset with the management of the BPCA and have called for major changes at the BPCA.

In the video, you will see Mr. Galloway asked, “For proposals that would radically change or even eliminate the BPCA, don’t you find it a chilling effect to host these meetings here in the BPCA offices?” Most of the CB1 members replied, “No.”, with the exception of Tom Goodkind.

Mr. Goodkind said, “As a former Arthur Anderson auditor, I think it is important to at least give the impression of independence.”.

Mr. Galloway was then asked, “You are meeting in private with the CEO of the BPCA. Don’t you find that a conflict of interest?” Mr. Galloway replied, “No. This meeting is now adjourned.”

Whac-A-Mole episode 8: Driver becomes belligerent in front of police

May 3, 2012

Chef Floyd Cardoz of North End Grill tours his restaurant

*** BatteryPark.TV has selected this establishment as a Best of Downtown for seafood

The North End Grill

104 North End Avenue (West side of the Conrad Hotel)

T (646) 747-1600

January 23, 2012  By Steven Greer, MD

The North End Grill began its first dinner services for the regular public tonight. As one would expect from a Danny Meyer 4-star striving establishment, the details were well done. As a propitious welcome, the framed photographs at the entrance feature the Irish Memorial across the street (which almost no one will realize). The bar serves individual seltzer and Coke bottles with the drinks, and the glasses are the proper shape. Try the three-glass sampler of whiskeys and the ice cold local beers. The bar menu of $4 tacos, etc. will be a big hit.

Walking to the dining room one sees the open kitchen, which flaunts the fine ingredients and competent crew. There is nothing to hide. The row of seating overlooking the kitchen could be the best seats in the house for the circumspect diner. The dining room looks out onto the peaceful North End Avenue (thanks to BatteryPark.TV evicting the tour buses) and offers a peak of the Hudson River and sunsets.

Chef Floyd Cardoz and his team prepares the wild salmon perfectly, and the Brussels sprouts are creatively chopped and grilled. Other meats and fish are dipped into the unusual wood oven using a Spanish-inspired pair of large steel wheels. The Josper grill allows other meats to be charcoal broiled. Pork chops and steaks are also available.

A separate pastry desert station and a coffee roasting station offer the triptych completion to dinner that will compete the best restaurants. The pecan layer cake portion looks small when it arrives, but is more than enough. But to be honest, many of the southern classic baked deserts around the corner at Blue Smoke can’t be beat.

The best part of North End Grill (and Blue Smoke), is the new demographic that it draws to Battery Park. Although it was a rainy Monday night, the place was almost full. Danny Meyer came over to greet diners in person, and there was no pretentiousness or rudeness that plagues some nearby Tribeca joints like Locanda Verde.

Much as Mr. Meyer’s “Eleven Madison” progressed up to 4-stars, the putative progression of North End Grill should be no different. Hopefully, our idea for a Lincoln Center Jazz style venue will open up next door, and BPC residents will never have to take another depressing New York City cab ride again.

Whac-A-Mole with town cars: Episode 7, Driver sleeps in back seat of car

This driver was sleeping in the back seat, loitering, and had no TLC license displayed. All the while, he was blocking a fire hydrant.

Whac-A-Mole with town cars: Episode 6: PEP officer promptly evicts town cars from Rector Place loop

May 1, 2012

Watch a PEP officer evict six livery cabs from the Rector Place loop. One of them was very belligerent and grabbed at our camera. If you see this problem on your street, you should call the PEP office at (212) 417-3100. You should also insist that your building managers contribute and have the doormen at least make the call when they see this.

Livery “town car” drivers can often be dangerous criminals

March 29, 2012  By Steven Greer, MD

BatteryPark.TV has extensively reported on the growing problem in our neighborhood of drivers of livery cab town cars illegally parking in residential Battery Park and illegally soliciting fares. In one story, a driver was threatened us.

This recent Fox 5 news report exposed how these illegal drivers are often repeat offenders with multiple arrests. The criminal judges are not sentencing the drivers to jail time, so the TLC and Port Authority are now impounding their cars.

On the evening of March 28th, no less than ten town cars were loitering on the Rector Place loop. The PEP promptly shooed them away, and more drove up from West Thames to fill the spots within seconds.

When you see this illegal behavior on your street, you should call the park PEPs at once (212) 417-3100 and they will respond. The NYPD First Precinct is also responding now (212) 334-0611. BatteryPark.TV has spoken with the Deputy Commissioner of the TLC, Ray Scanlon, and they are coordinating enforcement of our streets with the NYPD.

Whac-A-Mole with tour buses: Episode 4

As always, if you see this, you should call the PEP at (212) 417-3100 or just take out your cell phone camera and ask them to leave.

Also, if you see this specific company violating the law, Academy, you can call the district manager at (732) 442-6969, ext 3080. His name is Vincent Triola.

Related stories, click here

Whac-a-Mole with illegally parked tour buses in Battery Park City: Episode 5

Previous stories on this problem found here

Whac-A-Mole with town cars: Episode 3: Illegal town cars spill over into residential Battery Park

In full screen 1080iHD

Update: March 23, 2012 By Steven Greer

NY Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver is investigating this problem. His staff replied, “The Speaker and his staff are aware of the issue.  It is currently being investigated”

March 22, 2012 By Steven Greer

BatteryPark.TV has previously reported on the citywide problem of lawbreaking town cars competing with yellow taxis. The problem is most severe near the bankers on Vesey Street. Recently, the cars unable to pick up illegal cash fares on Vesey Street have spilled over south into the residential areas of Battery Park on South End Avenue and the sleepy side streets.

To the untrained eye, they look like cars waiting on clients, but they are all simply loitering. Not only are the cars parked illegally in bus stops and blocking fire hydrants, but many of the drivers are mentally unstable and aggressive when asked to leave. We filmed one such encounter.

The quiet and peaceful streets in Battery Park, with plenty of parking spaces, creates a vacuum for tour buses, as previously reported, and now for illegal town cars, to park illegally in the neighborhood. The park ranger “PEPs” will respond promptly and should be called to handle problems that one should encounter. Without aggressive enforcement, the neighborhood will be labeled as a safe haven for the illegal drivers.

To contact the PEPs, call (212) 417-3100

Whac-A-Mole with town cars: Episode 2: Video: town car driver urinates on street

This video exemplifies why the illegally parked town cars are a menace to our clean residential community, and these are the registered TLC cars. The completely unlicensed rogue cars have more of the criminal element drivers.

The good news is that our parks PEPs and the NYPD will act promptly. Anyone witnessing a loitering town car or SUV should call (212) 417-3100

For related stories, click here

Whac-A-Mole with tour buses: Gone in 60 Seconds

September 5, 2011

As the 9/11 Memorial opens, more and more tour buses will try to illegally park on South End, North End, West Thames, and Battery Place streets. Tess Huxley and Gayle Horwitz’s PEP have declared that they will not ticket the vehicles. However, any person can easily evict them just by asking nicely. The drivers know they are in the wrong and will rarely argue.

In this video, we show how easy it is.

Of note, the “mobile” yet permanent pastry/coffee shack on Albany aids and abets the tour buses by letting them park near him pretending to be customers.

Whac-A-Mole with town cars: Episode 1: Police called to remove tour buses from North End Avenue

September 17, 2011

By Steven Greer

A viewer of BatteryPark.TV recently sent a letter complaining about the illegally parked tour buses that park in front of his building on North End Avenue near Murray Street, and requested that BP.TV do a story on the problem. On Saturday, September 17th, we noticed more than five tour buses parked all along West Murray and winding into South End Avenue.

We approached one driver from the lead bus operated by Enchanted Coach (866) 423-9700. He refused to leave and taunted us to call the police, “Go ahead, call the cops”. We then approached the driver of an out-of-state tour bus from St. Louis. He initially agreed to leave and was driving away, when the lead driver from Enchanted Coach got into his bus, discussed the situation, and convinced him not to leave.

The Enchanted Coach driver also bumped into us and was threatening. He said, “Man, go screw a cow.”

The 911 police operators were called and a squad car arrived. The bus drivers quickly evacuated the illegal parking zone.

Coincidentally, the Battery Park City block party was underway and we told CB1 BPC Chairwoman Linda Belfer about the incident. She summoned over PEP Captain Falcon and asked him what the PEP could do. The BPCA has made previous announcements that the PEP would not be ticketing these buses. Captain Falcon assured Ms. Belfer that the PEP would begin requesting the tour buses to leave when they spot them illegally parking in the future.

If you have troubles with the tour buses parking in your area and the authorities are unresponsive, please email us promptly and try to snap photos. BatteryPark.TV will track a list of the worst repeat-offender bus companies.

Illegal livery cabs halt traffic on Vesey Street

The Sailors Ball

In full screen 1080i HD

The Urban Farm

Warrie Price, President and Founder of the Battery Conservancy, gives Liz Conner a tour of the new Urban Farm growing vegetables

(Viewable in full screen 1080iHD)

Asphalt Green pool filled as a PR maneuver to deflect the fact that the center will not be ready this season

April 26, 2012 By Steven Greer, MD

A local printed flier featured today yet another pro-BPCA fluff piece highlighting the positives of the Asphalt Green athletic center. We previously reported how the BPCA Gayle Horwitz blamed the city for the long delays, then reported on the real reasons for the delays.

In the article today, the BPCA reached out to the sympathetic venue of the flier that relies on the BPCA for stories and advertising revenue, to place a story about an alternate site for swimming classes far Uptown on 91st street. Instead of expressing the true outrage of the community that our own swimming pool will not be ready this season, the article simply mentioned, “Anne Fenton, special assistant to Authority President Gayle Horwitz, said she realizes that the timetable is of special concern to parents…. “Construction is progressing toward completion,” said Matthew Monahan, the Battery Park City Authority’s senior vice president of public affairs. “Last week, the contractors filled the pool with 186,000 gallons of water, as well as installing a heat and natural gas meter. The boiler is running, which is working to dehumidify the plywood sub-floor in the gymnasium. In the next week and a half, the floor is expected to dry-out enough so that contractors can lay down the hardwood floor and it will stay down without buckling.”

Rather than representing true progress in construction, the filling of the pool is likely a PR ploy to give the appearance to passerby’s, who can look through the sidewalk windows and see the pool, that “It’s almost ready.” In fact, Ms. Horwitz informed the community (see video below) at the town hall meeting that the pool would soon be filled, and proceeded to follow that announcement with “(However) I cannot give any updates as to when (asphalt green will be completed).”

The Asphalt Green complex, and the far more expensive and even longer delayed Pier A in the South, are both being hampered by the mass firing of the 19 BPCA employees, many of whom were the only dedicated construction staff capable of navigating the city bureaucracy. Chairman Bill Thompson is in charge of the BPCA and is also running for Mayor in 2013.

The economic impact of the Tribeca Film Festival

April 19, 2012  By Steven Greer, MD

Entering its 11th year, The Tribeca Film Festival will go through April 29th. In 2002, less than six months after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centers and The Pentagon, CBS television producer Jane Rosenthal co-founded the festival with actor Robert De Niro to help revitalize Downtown New York. The two had previously worked together on a television series called TriBeCa that aired on the Fox network.

With millions of funding from the LMDC, corporate sponsors like American Express (headquartered in Battery Park), Apple, Bloomberg, and plenty of community support from Battery Park and TriBeCa residents, the event has grown into an East Coast film spectacle to rival Robert Redford’s winter Sundance Film Festival out West.

Has the festival added more to Downtown than it has taken in? These days, one has reason to be skeptical.

It is a sad fact that many seemingly do-gooding charities or philanthropic events can simply be cover operations for individuals making six and seven-figure salaries working for “non-profits”. The CEO of the controversial Komen for the Cure breast cancer philanthropy earns at least $400,000 (as first reported by this author, then in The Washington Post). Another recent example is the nearby 9/11 memorial, which is hundreds of millions of dollars over budget, and yet numerous staff are making six-figure incomes.

With those bad examples of charities in mind, we investigated the books of the companies behind the Tribeca Film Festival. Tribeca Enterprises, LLC is a for-profit private company with no publicly available finances. The smaller Tribeca Film Institute (TFI) is a non-profit with form 990′s available. We obtained financial estimates for Tribeca Enterprises from press releases and a conversation with a media spokesperson.

The co-founders, Mr. De Niro and Ms. Rosenthal, do not take a salary from the non-profit TFI, according to the spokesman. In the 2010 form 990, the TFI reported $3.25 million of incoming grants and revenue, and issued $2.27 million in the form of educational grants for filmmakers. The spokesperson said that “The majority of every dollar goes toward (philanthropic efforts)”. In the form 990, salaries totaled $1.29 million in 2010, or 40% of the grants and donations taken in. Only one person received more than $100,000 in salary, and that was the artistic director at $117,000.

The larger entity responsible for the Tribeca Film Festival is the for-profit Tribeca Enterprises. It takes in the majority of its revenue from corporate sponsors, such as American Express, with a much smaller portion of revenue coming from ticket sales of the films screened during the festival. The enterprise states in numerous press releases that the total economic activity generated for New York City since the festival began is approximately $725 million. That number cannot be verified, but as a back of the envelope check, that equates to approximately $200 contributed to the city from each of the 3.7 million people who have attended, which seems quite reasonable.

How does this compare to the government grants given to the Tribeca Film Festival from entities such as the LMDC? A quick check on the LMDC site indicates that approximately $4 million in grants have been issued. This compares to the $70 million in “economic activity” generated by the festival each year.

Mr. De Niro is the first person to acknowledge that lower Manhattan would have rebounded just fine after September 11, 2001, without the festival. Billions were pumped into the economy from the LMDC, and real estate tax breaks caused thousands to move to the area. In addition, the global housing bubble helped generate office building conversions into apartment building on Wall Street, and new residential towers went up all over Tribeca and Battery Park.

However, the festival founders’ efforts are not to be diminished by any means. Lower Manhattan has gained a bit of culture that it never had in the previous fifty years. A dollar value is difficult to assign to that goodwill. Moreover, the Tribeca Film festival is commendable for being a clean financial operation (upon our cursory inspection with a skeptical eye accustomed to finding financial trickery almost everywhere).

With disgraceful graft and corruption occurring atop the hallowed ground of “Ground Zero”, the Tribeca Film Festival might be the most honorable memorial to September 11 that we have. Let the curtains open once again.

Canines of BPC

Shoot us an email if you would like to have your dog or pet featured

Liz Conner features residents nearby who own dogs.