We have been quiet but we have been busy! We promised you the best Bleecker Street Bar 2.0 we could make and we are happy to say we are building! It's been an incredibly long and hard couple of years for so many people and we can't wait to welcome all our people back and raise a glass to resilience and community.
Today, I rallied with the Ukrainian-American community here in NYC for peace above all else. I stand and will continue to stand with this community and the people of Ukraine throughout this. pic.twitter.com/pXZupKAO1e
— Carolyn B. Maloney (@RepMaloney) February 25, 2022
Standing today in solidarity with leaders of NYC's Ukrainian community, calling for action in the face of Putin's reprehensible war.
— Mark D. Levine (@MarkLevineNYC) February 25, 2022
We want Ukrainian immigration requests expedited, safe passage of relief supplies, and seizure of oligarch's assets in NYC.
Слава Україні.🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/TwjGCQlHHR
Outside Veselka on Second Avenue and Ninth Street, co-owner Jason Birchard talked with reporters.Honored to share space and solidarity with colleagues and friends in Little Ukraine today. We stand resolute with the people of Ukraine and their families demanding immediate action against totalitarian, premeditated war.
— Carlina Rivera 利華娜 (@CarlinaRivera) February 25, 2022
Слава Україні. Glory to Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/BY4O83D4DC
St. George Ukrainian Catholic Church in the East Village, parishioners gathered to pray for peace.Andrij Dobriansky is the church cantor and spokesman for the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America."The feeling is shock. The feeling is the punch to the stomach," Dobriansky said. "This entire neighborhood was built on the back of refugees, people who know what destruction is, so this is what we've been fearing for the longest time."
This lovely sycamore tree and I coexisted peacefully on this block for over 47 years. I don't remember it ever being small. I have no clue why the city choose to murder it today. They will probably say "it's too old," unsafe, etc., etc., etc. My feeling is that Amazon probably needs its own loading space, another restaurant shed needs to be built, a branch might injure a CAR! or it's just inconveniently in the way. I, being old like the sycamore, hope I live long enough to see its spindly replacement sapling, which the city will plant and then ignore.
To establish a permanent open restaurants program, several legislative and administrative changes would need to occur. First, a zoning text amendment that eliminates certain restrictions on where sidewalk cafes can be located needs to be approved. Last November, the City Planning Commission voted to approve this text amendment, and now the amendment needs the approval of the City Council.Next, the City Council would need to pass legislation that would repeal the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection’s authority over sidewalk cafes and authorize the Department of Transportation to establish a permanent program.
Once the City Council approves the program, the Department of Transportation and other relevant agencies would need to establish administrative rules about the program, which would also be subject to a public comment process.
However, this does not necessarily mean the DOT is out of the picture for good. Basically, moving forward, as part of the process of creating the new law, Velazquez and fellow councilmembers will now be deciding whether D.O.T. should continue to run the program or whether the job should be handed off to another agency.
