Month: August 2008

Jacob Neuman is the 5-year-old boy who died yesterday in a tragic fall down an elevator shaft at Taylor-Wythe Houses in Williamsburg.

What makes this tragedy more galling is the fact that it is not all that surprising. The New York City Housing Authority, which runs the City’s public housing projects, has a horrible track record when it comes to elevator safety. In this case, the two elevators at Taylor-Wythe had a history of stalling between floors going back at least six months. Further, the elevators at Taylor-Wythe had been labeled “unsatisfactory” in 17 of 21 inspections between 2004 and 2007. And despite a requirement that elevators be inspected every six months, NYCHA has no records of an elevator inspection at Taylor-Wythe since October, 2007.

And its not just this housing complex. Citywide, NYCHA experienced over 25,000 elevator breakdowns in the first six months of this year (and that’s down 5% from last year). Over 49% of housing authority residents rate their elevator service as poor or bad. The history of breakdowns and fatalities directly or indirectly tied to them is depressing. Last year, Lillian Milán, who suffered from asthma, died when she was forced by a broken elevator to walk up 10 flights of stairs to her apartment at Bushwick Houses. Despite calls to action after that tragedy, little has changed.

NYCHA is pointing the finger at the Federal government, for cutbacks that prevented NYCHA from undertaking upgrades to the elevators at Taylor-Wythe back in 2004. But that is just passing the buck. NYCHA knew it had problems with elevators system wide, and knew that these elevators needed replacing. Rehabilitating these elevators was a life-safety issue, and the responsibility for performing the upgrade rests solely with NYCHA. (Others are pointing the finger at DOB, but this is one case where criticism of DOB is misplaced – the Department does not even have jurisdiction over NYCHA properties.)

Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes has already announced an investigation, and surely there is plenty of blame to be passed around. But the buck has to stop somewhere, and it stops with NYCHA. They knew they had an elevator problem – here specifically and in general system-wide. It is their responsibility to keep their properties safe, wherever the money comes from.

The Sun “discovers” that there are antique stores in Williamsburg: “Where there’s money, there’s a market for antiques”.

Huh?

Moon River Chattel (which the article cites) has been around since 1995. Portmanteau (also cited) is a newcomer, but all of the other stores at the west end of Grand Street have been around a while. That includes Cosmo Modern (close to ten years?), Two Jakes (OK, used office furniture is not antiques) and Carl Chaffee and Modest Designs (the shared modern spaces at the corner of South 1st and Wythe – maybe the Sun doesn’t consider mid-century modern to be antique, but the stuff sells for a lot more than most other “antiques”). Add to that Golden Calf (North 6th and Wythe), which started out at South 1st and Wythe close to 10 years ago.

I suppose the Sun is trying to draw a distinction between “the innumerable thrift, vintage, and secondhand stores” in the neighborhood and bona fide antique stores, but its a stupid distinction. There has been a market for higher-end vintage furniture for well over a decade now (M and White on White were here in the 1990s). That includes the mid-century modern pieces at Modest and the ancient Chinese pieces at Golden Calf. It sure doesn’t seem to me that we have suddenly crossed the line into curated “antiques”.

Nice that they no longer poll workers to take the machines home with them, but why would anyone have thought this was a good idea in the first place?

Oh, and this doesn’t inspire much confidence in the system either.

JellyNYC builds support for post-pool live music in Williamsburg.

These concerts are the last bastion of what this neighborhood has come to represent over the past 10 or 15 years. If they leave, Williamsburg will become just another SoHo. [JellyNYC’s founder Alexander Kane]

The plan for 5,000 new residential unit at the former Queens West site nears final approval. Located directly across the mouth of Newtown Creek from Greenpoint, this project will result in 3,000 units of affordable housing for middle income residents (60% of the total).

In the same speech in which he denounced Barack Obama’s ambition to become president, John McCain also had this to say:

And in matters of national security, good judgment will be at a premium in the term of the next president

Oh yes, judgement.

Such as Obama’s judgement that we need a reasonable time table to leave Iraq? Status – after being denounced by Bush, McCain and every other victory-at-all-costs wingnut, it now appears that we are – with the support of the Iraqi government – on a path to a time table for withdrawal. A time table which is remarkably close to that proposed by Obama (and which McCain now supports).

Perhaps McCain is referring to Obama’s judgement that Pervez Musharraf was not reliable ally in our war on terror? Status – Musharraf resigned as president of Pakistan today.

Or maybe McCain is referring to Obama’s judgement that we took our eye off the ball in the war on terror, Afghanistan? Status – after years of neglect in favor of an unnecessary war in Iraq, the Taliban is resurgent in Afghanistan.

Surely McCain is also referring to Obama’s willingness to negotiate from a position of strength with states such as Iran? Status – the Bush administration has entered into direct negotiations with the government of Iran over the issue of nuclear weapons.

McCain is right – good judgement is at a premium. But it will be on display in Denver next week.

Today John McCain chided Barack Obama for his “ambition to be president”.

Just so we are all on the same page:

This is the same John McCain who has been running for president non-stop since 1999.

This is the same John McCain who has embraced not only Bush fils, but has also embraced Pat Roberson and Jerry Falwell, the far right evangelical preachers who eight years ago he denounced as “agents of intolerance… pandering to the outer reaches of American politics”.

This is the same John McCain who in 1999 “would not support repeal of Roe v. Wade“, but who now pledges to appoint Supreme Court Justices who would overturn this ruling.

This is the same John McCain who seven years ago denounced [don’t bother, they took that page down] the Bush tax cuts as “tax cut in which so many of the benefits go to the most fortunate among us at the expense of middle-class Americans”, but who now promises to extend these same tax cuts indefinitely.

This is the same John McCain who was a co-sponsor of the DREAM Act – an act to grant legal status to illegal immigrants’ children who graduate from high school, but who now opposes this Act.

This is the same John McCain who said that he would vote against his own legislation on immigration reform. (That’s right, John McCain was for John McCain before he was against him).

But according to this John McCain, it is Obama who has an ambition problem. Seems like a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black.

One of many pledges from the 2005 rezoning that have yet to fully bear fruit. This one is particularly annoying, in that a) the City clearly promised land it didn’t control; and b) that land is also tied in to the construction of affordable housing. So a big chunk of open space and a big chunk of affordable housing are stuck in limbo, for at least another two years.

Transportation Alternatives has issued a report (download the pdf here) that decries the costs of city-mandated off-street parking in new developments. By TA’s estimation, this zoning requirement will result in 170,000 new cars in NYC over the next 20 years. That, in turn, means significantly more congestion, pollution and other associated ills.

The parking requirements written into the zoning code are almost 50 years old. They date to a time when it was assumed that the car was the future for New York and every other city. I think we know better now, but we are still living with zoning requirements based on a decidedly mid-20th Century mindset.

WTF? NYPD sure seems to have it in for frolicking hipsters.