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The Broadsheet ~ 3/15/21 ~ The Unkindest Cut of All CB1 Seeks to Make Sense of Inconsistent Sidewalk-Street Connections
CB1 Seeks to Make Sense of Inconsistent Sidewalk-Street Connections
This curb cut on Chambers Street, near the entrance to Stuyvesant High School, is a legal parking space under City regulations issued in 2009. Despite this, the NYPD wrote more than $19,000 in tickets to cars parked there over a 30-month period. CB1 wants to close the loophole that allows parking in such spaces, which prevents pedestrians with wheelchairs or baby carriages from crossing.
Community Board 1 (CB1) is pushing the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio to close a legal loophole so obscure that it confuses even police. The technicality is centered on curb cuts (the dips in sidewalks and curbs that connect to an adjoining street, making it easier for wheelchairs, baby carriages, and disabled pedestrians to cross) at t-intersections, where one road dead-ends into a perpendicular street. While it is ordinarily illegal to park in front of a curb cut, this prohibition was, in 2009, removed from curb cuts at T-intersections—provided there was not a stop sign, traffic light, or painted crosswalk at the same location.
The City’s Department of Transportation (DOT) calls curb cuts, “a critical component in providing for safe and accessible means of travel” while the office of Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer says, “when a [curb cut] is missing, blocked, in disrepair, or improperly constructed, residents with disabilities cannot fully participate in many activities and opportunities for enrichment that other New Yorkers take for granted.”
But, as a resolution enacted at CB1’s February 23 meeting notes, “New York City traffic rules allow parking at some T-intersections—those without traffic signals, all-way stop signs or crosswalk markings—even if there is a curb cut at that location.” The resolution also observes that, “painted crosswalks are not typically placed at curb cuts located at T-intersections, which means that drivers are not alerted that a pedestrian crossing is present, even though a child or wheelchair user at the bottom of a curb cut is too short to see or to be seen by drivers due to parked vehicles that block sight lines.”
Earlier in February, Jennifer Sta. Ines, the DOT’s Deputy Manhattan Borough Commissioner, confirmed that the agency’s policy is not to install painted crosswalks at locations at which there is no traffic signal or stop sign.
All of these conditions converge in Battery Park City, at the T-intersection of North End Avenue and Chambers Street, where exactly such a curb cut exists on the north side of Chambers Street, slightly to the west of the main entrance to Stuyvesant High School. At this location, the curb dips, but there is not a painted crosswalk connecting to it. (Complicating matters is that the area surrounding the curb cut has been painted yellow, but such markings are legally meaningless in New York City parking enforcement.) Under the 2009 change in regulations, it thus became legal to park there. The problem is that nobody seems to have told the NYPD, or any of the dozen or so other City agencies that are authorized to write parking tickets.
Ben Wellington, a professor at the Pratt Institute who harnesses publicly available data to address urban-planning questions, discovered in 2016 that the New York Police Department (NYPD) wrote more than $19,000 in tickets to cars parked in this counter-intuitively legal space. Professor Wellington, who teaches at Pratt’s Graduate Center for Planning and also writes the I Quant NY urban planning blog, discovered that this error was part of a larger, systematic pattern in which NYPD wrote millions of dollars of tickets over the 30-month period for cars that were legally parked.
Using the City’s Open Data portal, Professor Wellington was able to look at all of the locations in the City where cars were repeatedly ticketed for parking at curb cuts. Many of these spaces have crosswalks attached, which means that the violations issued by the police were legitimate. But hundreds of these spaces do not have a crosswalk, which means that every summons issued for parking at one of these was invalid on its face.
Professor Wellington then isolated this subset of spaces alongside curb cuts that had no crosswalk, ranked them by the number of tickets each had generated. He found that the space at the curb cut on Chambers Street had the sixteenth-highest incidence of this type of summons for the City as a whole, and was ranked number one for all of Manhattan. In the previous 30 months (the period covered by the City’s Open Data program), it generated 116 tickets with a value of $19,140.
He then reached out to the Mayor’s Office of Data Analytics, as well as to the office of Ms. Brewer (a persistent advocate for the Open Data program), both of whom referred him to the Police Department. An NYPD spokesman later wrote to him that, “Mr. Wellington’s analysis identified errors the Department made in issuing parking summonses. It appears to be a misunderstanding by officers on patrol of a recent, abstruse change in the parking rules. We appreciate Mr. Wellington bringing this anomaly to our attention.” The NYPD promised to conduct new training that to clarify for officers the 2009 rule change, and added, “thanks to this analysis and the availability of this Open Data, the department is also taking steps to digitally monitor these types of summonses to ensure that they are being issued correctly.”
As a delighted Professor Wellington wrote in his I Quant NY blog, “I was speechless. This is what the future of government could look like one day. This is what Open Data is all about. This was coming from the NYPD—not generally celebrated for its transparency—and yet it’s the most open and honest response I have received from any New York City agency to date. Imagine a city where all agencies embrace this sort of analysis instead of [trying to] deflect and hide from it.”
“Democracies provide pathways for government to learn from their citizens,” he continued. “Open Data makes those pathways so much more powerful. In this case, the NYPD acknowledged the mistake, is retraining its officers and is putting in monitoring to limit this type of erroneous ticketing from happening in the future. In doing so, they have shown that they are ready and willing to work with the people of the City. And what better gift can we get from Open Data than that?”
CB1’s February resolution notes that, “changes to laws and regulations to make it illegal to block any portion of a curb cut and to mandate painted crosswalks at all curb cuts would be low-cost ways to further Vision Zero,” a de Blasio-administration initiative that aims to eliminate fatalities and serious injuries arising from road traffic.
The resolution concludes that CB1, “demands the DOT change traffic rules and parking regulations so that blocking any portion of a curb cut is illegal, including with a City-issued placard or by a City-owned vehicle,” and insists that, “DOT paint crosswalks at every curb cut.”
Matthew Fenton
Equity Advice
LMHQ, the collaborative workspace operated by the Downtown Alliance for companies in the technology, advertising, media, and information industries, will offer a free, online symposium, “Leading Your Business toward Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion,” on Tuesday, March 16, from 12:30 to 1:30 pm.
Keesa Schreane, Refinitiv executive and author of “Corporations Compassion Culture: Leading Your Business toward Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion,” will explain how corporate chieftains who recognize that employees, customers, and shareholders are more than mere assets are not only more like to survive, but also derive a significant competitive advantage.
To register, please browse: https://lmhq.nyc/ and click on “Attend an Event.”
Flustered by the Filibuster?
Lower Manhattan’s own Federal Hall will continue its virtual discussion series, “Debate Defends Democracy,” on March 16 (starting at 5:30 pm) with a roundtable titled, “Senate Power vs. the Majority.”
Presented in partnership with the Brennan Center for Justice and moderated by CNN’s John Avlon, the panel will include Norman Ornstein, an emeritus scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, and author of “One Nation After Trump: A Guide for the Perplexed, the Disillusioned, the Desperate, and the Not-Yet Deported.” To register, please browse: https://federalhall.org/debate-defends-democracy/
Risky Business
On March 16 (from noon to 1:00 pm), Downtown’s Museum of American Financewill partner with Fordham University’s Gabelli Center for Global Security Analysis to host George G. Szpiro, author of, “Risky Decisions: How Mathematical Paradoxes and Other Conundrums Have Shaped Economic Science,” for an free online discussion about how numbers drive not only economies, but also politics and whole civilizations.
I lived for many years at 41 River terrace. My children grew up there.
There is currently a proposal to put a monument aside the benches on River Terrace. This is where the elderly sit and others congregate.
I would not put it there. If it must be in BPC, I would put it below the steps by the water. It would do well in another place where the sentiment would be more apparent. The area where the most people fell victims to this horrible pandemic.
That section where the monument would be is heavily trafficked. Tourists and residents alike use that space.
Just my opinion.
Bob Townley
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To the editor,
Re: letter from Paul Hovitz, published March 11, 2021
Paul Hovitz’s letter was quite critical of his Southbridge neighbors many of whom have opposed the oversized building proposed by the Howard Hughes Corp (HHC) at 250 Water Street. He failed to note that their proposal is also opposed by the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC), Community Board 1, local organizations including the Seaport Coalition, Save Our Seaport, and Children First and roughly 10,000 people who signed a petition in opposition and many well respected good government groups including the Municipal Arts Society, the City Club of NY, Landmarks Conservancy, Historic Districts Council and the list goes on. And no, these organizations do not stand to lose their view from an oversized building.
Mr. Hovitz also neglects to mention that 250 Water Street is within the South Street Seaport Historic District that has special low scale zoning limits and LPC oversight intended to preserve the historic low scale character of this special part of Lower Manhattan. Indeed, Lower Manhattan has many of the tallest buildings in New York City and there is no opposition to them since they are not subject to the historic district zoning and guidelines that all other owners do comply with.
Howard Hughes should be commended for supporting other local organizations but that does not give them the right to disregard the protections intended to keep the Seaport Historic District so special. And Mr. Hovitz fails to note that the 120’ height limit instituted in the Seaport in 2003 was overwhelmingly supported by this community including residents, every local elected official, the City Planning Commission, a unanimous City Council and groups such as the Downtown Alliance, the South Street Seaport Museum, and Community Board 1.
For Mr. Hovitz to question the motives of others with different positions than his, I would hope that he is truly speaking—at arms length—uninfluenced by benefits that HHC has bestowed on so many while in the process of trying to get a controversial development project approved.
Full disclosure, I am one of Mr. Hovitz’s referenced Southbridge neighbors. There are 1651 apts. in Southbridge Towers. Under the Seaport’s existing contextual zoning height limit of 120 ft, not even 200 apts. – likely less – would lose any sort of view that Mr. Hovitz suggests is behind resistance to an inappropriate development for the Seaport.
I don’t have a view from my apartment. My view comes from my daily walks through the Seaport, and I don’t want a looming skyscraper destroying this special place.
Respectfully,
Joanne Gorman
Co-founder- Friends of South Street Seaport,
Southbridge Resident
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Originally published March 3, 2021
Dear Neighbors,
I have a dream . . .
I dreamed of a Seaport Museum from Scotch and Soda to Sarah Jessica Parker as one renovated building structure housing the lynchpin of the Historic District with a brand new state of the art building next door across from the River and our ships.
I dreamed of this lynchpin with a $50M endowment; enough to bring our museum into the digital age. All this was foreseen by CB1 when we created the Save our Seaport Museum Taskforce.
I dreamed of our New Market Pier surviving its predicted collapse into the East River and being rebuilt ending in a much needed community center for downtown.
I continue to dream of charitable funding to so many institutions including the Rescue Mission, our downtown hospital, our Spruce Street School, our Peck Slip School, our Downtown Little League. All these and more funded thru Howard Hughes, member of our community.
I dream of the addition of 100 truly affordable housing in our community. This will not replace the 1650 affordable middle income housing that SBT residents voted to remove from the community in favor of greed. Many of these folks opposing the above in favor of their view corridor.
Now . . . unfortunately, all of the above have been traded for “I want to keep my view of the bridge” without concern for the overall picture our our Seaport. Indeed, SOS has translated to Sabotage our Seaport. We need to look past our personal needs and represent the South Street Seaport and our community.
A vibrant Seaport Historic District increases the land values, our property value. Before Pier 17 opened the Seaport was veritably a Ghost Town.
Please . . . we could lose all of the above and simply end up with a 120 feet +20-40 additional feet for the Flood Zone blockhouse. This is As Of Right!
Respectfully submitted,
Paul Hovitz, Retired Vice Chair of CB1
They Listened
City and Seaport Developer Revamp Pavilion Plans,
In Response to Community Input
Community Board 1 (CB1) is endorsing a proposal by Howard Hughes Corporation, the real estate firm that is redeveloping the South Street Seaport, and the City’s Parks Department, to create a new outdoor restaurant underneath the FDR Drive.
The plan calls for an oak-framed pavilion that will be 11 feet tall and 76 feet long, situated between FDR Drive, at South and Fulton Streets, in front of the historic and newly refurbished Tin Building. Open patios will extend from the north and south ends of pavilion, where food and drink will be served year-round. Removable panels will provide shelter from the elements during cold-weather months. To read more…
Downtown Jabs Left
Lower Manhattan in Line with Borough, Ahead of City in Rates of COVID Vaccination
Lower Manhattan’s local vaccination rate is roughly in line with that of Manhattan as a whole, and slightly ahead of the overall rate for the five boroughs.
In Manhattan, 26 percent of the adult population have been fully vaccinated, and another 14 percent have received partial vaccination. To read more…
A Decade of Development
Lower Manhattan Quietly Becomes Home to Equivalent of a New Neighborhood – Almost None of It Affordable
In the ten-year period that ended in 2020, Lower Manhattan absorbed the equivalent of an additional Battery Park City, through the number of new households created by real estate development, according to an analysis from the Department of City Planning.
Community District 1—a collection of neighborhoods encompassing 1.5 square miles, bounded roughly by Canal, Baxter, and Pearl Streets and the Brooklyn Bridge — saw the creation of 6,477 new housing units in the decade that begin in 2010. To read more…
Quid Pro No?
Another FiDi Renter Seeks Recompense for Years of Rent Overcharges
The wave of Financial District tenants going to court to demand restitution from years of illegally high rent gathered further momentum on Tuesday, when another tenant at 50 Murray Street filed court papers arguing that she is entitled to rent stabilization protection along with reimbursement for six years worth of overcharges, and triple damages.
Heather Horn moved into 50 Murray Street in May, 2014, at an initial rent of $4,695 per month. Since then, according the documents filed with the new York State Supreme Court, she has renewed her lease six times, and her rent has increased by almost 26 percent, to $5,900.
1) COVID-19 Vaccine Overview – Presentation by Dr Renuka Gupta, Associate Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and Chief of Medicine at NY-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital
2) State of the City’s Response to COVID-19 – Updates
needed for filing, packaging/mailing items, and computer work including spreadsheets. Handyman skills helpful. $25/hour, approximately 12 hours/week. email cathy@riverprojectnyc.org.
TUTOR AVAILABLE FOR HOMEWORK SUPPORT
Stuyvesant HS student available for homework help. All grades especially math. References available upon request
A Guide To Lower Manhattan’s 2021 Light Installations
“Talking Heads,” designed by Hungarian artist Viktor Vicsek, is made up of two massive heads dotted with 4,000 LED lights that change to reveal different facial expressions in conversation.
The sculpture “C/C,” designed by Singapore-based artist Angela Chong, is a bench for seating that transforms into a colorful LED light show at night.
Winter is a little brighter in Lower Manhattan, where you can bask in a whole bunch of colorful light installations this season.
There are two Downtown Alliance-sponsored public art projects on loan from Amsterdam’s Light Art Collection at the public plaza adjacent to 85 Broad.
The sculpture “C/C,” designed by Singapore-based artist Angela Chong, is a bench for seating that transforms into a colorful LED light show at night.
“Talking Heads,” designed by Hungarian artist Viktor Vicsek, is made up of two massive heads dotted with 4,000 LED lights that change to reveal different facial expressions in conversation.
Another Alliance sponsored installation is Ziggy. At the public plaza at 200 Water Street, this interactive piece by design studio Hou de Sous uses cords tied to a steel structure illuminated by colorful lights to create exciting views of the surrounding landscape. You can enter the installation from all angles, and sit on the several “gateways” that serve as benches. At night, Ziggy’s lights add an inviting extra pop of brightness.
Head up Water Street to the Seaport and find “Electric Dandelions,” created by artist Abram Santa Cruz and LA-based art collective Liquid PXL and presented by The Howard Hughes Corporation. In daylight, the ten 28-foot steel-and-acrylic structures look like dandelion flowers; at night, LED lights turn the structures into colorful, rhythmic animations.
(sponsored content)
Downtown Depreciates
Reports Show That Lower Manhattan Properties Are Dwindling in Value
A range of reports indicates that the Downtown real estate market has imploded in the wake of the recession brought on by the pandemic coronavirus. The Downtown Alliance’s “2020 Lower Manhattan Real Estate Year in Review” documents that office leasing fell by almost 70 percent from 2019 levels, to deeper troughs than those that followed the 2008/2009 financial crisis, while local office vacancies spiked to 20-year highs.
Perhaps the most radical undoing, however, was on the residential front. “According to our research, an estimated 40 percent of the local population left amid the pandemic,” To read more…
9/11 Victim Compensation Fund Report
More Survivors than Responders Now are Submitting Claims
The September 11th Victim Compensation Fund (VCF) has released its annual report for 2020, which documents some significant developments.
Over the course of its ten years of operation thus far, the VCF has awarded $7.76 billion to more than 34,400 individuals who have suffered death or personal injury as a result of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and their aftermath. The vast majority of these injuries take the form of illness caused by exposure to toxic materials that were released by the destruction of the World Trade Center.
44 BC – Julius Caesar, Dictator of the Roman Republic, is stabbed to death by Marcus Junius Brutus, Gaius Cassius Longinus, Decimus Junius Brutus, and several other Roman senators on the Ides of March.
856 – Michael III, emperor of the Byzantine Empire, overthrows the regency of his mother, empress Theodora (wife of Theophilos) with support of the Byzantine nobility.
493 – Christopher Columbus returns to Spain after his first trip to the Americas.
1783 – In an emotional speech in Newburgh, New York, George Washington asks his officers not to support the Newburgh Conspiracy. The plea is successful and the threatened coup d’etat never takes place.
1819 – French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel wins a contest at the Acadйmie des Sciences in Paris by proving that light behaves like a wave. The Fresnel integrals, still used to calculate wave patterns, silence skeptics who had backed the particle theory of Isaac Newton.
1874 – France and Vietnam sign the Second Treaty of Saigon, further recognizing the full sovereignty of France over Cochinchina.
1906 – Rolls-Royce Limited is incorporated.
1916 – President Woodrow Wilson sends 4,800 United States troops over the U.S.–Mexico border to pursue Pancho Villa.
1922 – After Egypt gains nominal independence from the United Kingdom, Fuad I becomes King of Egypt.
1927 – The first Women’s Boat Race between the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge takes place on The Isis in Oxford.
1931 – SS Viking explodes off Newfoundland, killing 27 of the 147 on board.
1951 – Iranian oil industry is nationalized.
1990 – Mikhail Gorbachev is elected as the first President of the Soviet Union.
Births
1611 – Jan Fyt, Flemish painter (d. 1661)
1767 – Andrew Jackson, 7th President of the United States (d. 1845)
1835 – Eduard Strauss, Austrian composer and conductor (d. 1916)
1854 – Emil von Behring, German physiologist and physician, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1917)
1878 – Reza Shah, Iranian king (d. 1944)
1887 – Marjorie Merriweather Post, American businesswoman and philanthropist, founded General Foods (d. 1973)
1932 – Alan Bean, American captain, pilot, and astronaut
1943 – Sly Stone, American singer-songwriter, musician, and producer
Deaths
44 BC – Julius Caesar, Roman general and statesman (b. 100 BC)
493 – Odoacer, first king of Italy after the fall of the Western Roman Empire (b. 433)
1959 – Lester Young, American saxophonist and clarinet player (b. 1909)
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