Community Board 3 officials learned last Thursday during a committee meeting that the Department of Sanitation (DSNY) will use part of 10th Street west of First Avenue to park garbage trucks.
By Saturday, new street signs had arrived [per a resident, the signs arrived a few weeks back. See comments], restricting the parking on part of 10th Street west toward Second Avenue to the Department of Sanitation. The trucks arrived on Saturday as well.
[Top two photos by Steven]
[Photo from Saturday]
Everyone was seemingly caught off guard by this parking development, including the Community Board, local business owners and residents.
"There was no discussion or outreach. We are still gathering information on this issue," Trever Holland, chair of CB3's Parks, Recreation, & Waterfront Committee, told me via email. "Most of the questions we asked went unanswered or [the DSNY said] 'we'll get back to you.'"
The DSNY no longer has use of their garage at 606 W. 30th St., and are relocating their fleet elsewhere, including 10th Street and at Pier 36. None of these trucks will be servicing residents within Community Board 3.
"We have very little information from the DSNY, but many, many complaints," CB3 District Manager Susan Stetzer said yesterday. "I have never before received so many complaints in such a short time."
In an email, one EVG reader noted: "Over the weekend, three stinky garbage trucks were parked on the block. It was like a wall of stench in front of Pinks and across from Snowdays and Tarallucci e Vino."
Pinks, the bar-restaurant at 242 E. 10th St., is the business most directly impacted by the arrival of the parked trucks.
"I can firmly attest to the fact that Saturday evening the corner of 10th Street and First Avenue is jammed with people, and at that time on Saturdays, Pinks typically has a nice dinner and drinking crowd," said Alex Sassaris, an owner who also bartends on the weekends. "This past Saturday during the same time the bar was practically empty.
"Keep in mind we are a food-service establishment, with the cellar door just a few feet a way from a truck filled with garbage — that's certainly a potential rodent nightmare on our hands."
Rodent potential aside, Sassaris said the trucks parked in front of the bar also present a possible security issue.
"[We are] obstructed from the view of 9th Precinct patrols," he said. "This poses a substantial danger to our patrons and staff for any number of potential threats ... if the police can not have eyes on the bar from the street."
[Image from security footage at Pinks]
Before Theater for the New City moved into its current home at 155 First Ave. near 10th Street in the late 1980s, the Department of Sanitation used the building for storage. As Off the Grid noted in a 2012 feature, "When the Theater for the New City purchased the former First Avenue Retail Market building there was stipulation that they had to still share part of the space with the Sanitation Department for a time."
Apparently there are still facilities for the city to use in the building. According to last week's CB3 committee meeting agenda, Department of Sanitation officials were on-hand to discuss a "reactivation of Section Station at 155-157 First Ave."
It's not immediately clear how long the city plans to park garbage trucks on 10th Street. According to CB3's Holland, sanitation officials said that it will be "temporary" — like five years or longer until they secure a new spot.
"If this is allowed to continue, our business is certainly in jeopardy and all the people we employ could potentially be out of a job," Sassaris said.
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Updated 9/19
Here's an update from CB3 District Manager Susan Stetzer this morning:
I also want to thank the readers who posted information about the trucks. The CB number posted in the comments is not correct — it is a defunct fax number. However, it is not productive to call — we would be doing nothing but answering the phones. Do call 311 and also do submit a "make a complaint" form on the CB website. At this point it would be good to submit only if new information. For example, we just got a complaint through the website that there are now trucks also parking in areas not reserved for the trucks.
CB 3, CB 6 and the council office were informed of this decision shortly before it happened, with little information, and with no input or choice. However, we will be working together to try to have a better resolution.
An EVG reader noted that the East River Park Track was open for business yesterday... mostly students were using the new upgraded facilitates ...
The front gates were unlocked. The reader was unsure if the track was open to anyone or just the students. (It appeared to be some kind of organized practice or event, the reader thought.) Updated: the track is open for anyone to use.
Anyway, as previously reported, the Parks Department closed the East River Park Track at the FDR and Sixth Street — without any advance notice — for a year-long renovation project last September.
In late August, a Parks rep said that the track would return for use on Sept. 10, though it remained locked up last week. The Parks Department website shows that the work here is now "100% complete."
The $2.8 million initiative was set to "reconstruct the synthetic turf soccer field and resurface the running track," per the Parks Department website, which includes this rendering highlighting all the improvements...
799 Broadway is located at the corner of 11th Street and Broadway, at the convergence of Union Square and Greenwich Village. Designed by Perkins+Will, the new 12-story, loft-style building will comprise 182,000 square feet of boutique office space and will provide a dramatic complement to this quintessential New York neighborhood. With floor plates ranging from 3,600 to 22,000 square feet, 799 Broadway will feature floor-to-ceiling glass, private terraces, and 15 foot high ceilings. This combination of highly desirable location and state-of-the-art design will appeal to New York’s most progressive and creative companies.
And...
Once completed, 799 Broadway will complement Columbia’s growing portfolio of differentiated assets in Midtown South, characterized by smaller floor plates, distinctive architecture, and high-end, modern finishes and amenities.
Speaking of once completed...
[Binyan Studios]
Further proof the tech/office boom in our neighborhood, which will be exacerbated by the recent Tech Hub rezoning, is turning Greenwich Village+the East Village into “Midtown South” in the real estate industry’s eyes: https://t.co/r3r5nomlhf
The 165-year-old building that is being torn down is noteworthy for many reasons. It opened in 1853 as the St. Denis Hotel, which is where Ulysses S. Grant wrote his post-Civil War memoirs and Alexander Graham Bell provided the first demonstration of the telephone to New Yorkers.
However, the building is not landmarked... and it is not in a Historic District.
Fire extinguisher handiwork arrived overnight outside the Beth Israel clinic at 26 Avenue A ... and over on the (for sale) Provident Loan Society building on Houston and Essex ...
To date, the majority of articles about the upcoming L-train repairs have focused on the transportation alternatives while the MTA upgrades the Sandy-damaged Canarsie Tunnel.
The 15-month L-train shutdown between Bedford Avenue and Eighth Avenue begins in April 2019.
The MTA outlined the extensive work that will take place in a news release last year:
Demolition and reconstruction of approximately 60,000 linear feet of duct banks, 14,400 linear feet of track and track bed, 270,000 linear feet of cable ducts and associated cables, repair of 7,000 linear feet of concrete lining, and the installation of tunnel lighting and fire systems. The tunnel will be also be protected from future storms with resiliency measures including construction of resilient cables and ducts and the installation of a new discharge line.
Prior to the tunnel closure, extensive station work will be performed that will increase operational efficiency and improve accessibility and circulation. Station improvements at the 1 Av and Bedford Av L Subway stations will include new stairways, and four accessibility-compliant elevators and other work to improve customer flow.
Preliminary work started in the summer of 2017 on building new entrances at Avenue A and a new power station at Avenue B. Since then, 14th Street between First Avenue east to Avenue B has been an active construction zone with a variety of trucks, drill rigs, pile drivers, compressors and generators.
[Reader-submitted photo]
Meanwhile, 14th Street between Avenue A and First Avenue is down to one lane of traffic in each direction.
This is a large — and noisy — project that has already taken its toll on nearby residents and businesses.
However, as some 14th Street residents recently discovered, as bad as it has been the past year, the construction is going to get a whole lot worse. A group of residents living at 542 E. 14th St. at Avenue B said that 14th Street and Avenue A will be the main access point for the 24/7 delivery of new Canarsie Tunnel infrastructure as well as the portal for removing debris from the tube.
BoweryBoogie first reported on this development on Aug. 29. A resident speaking on behalf of tenants at No. 542 provided an update after a second meeting with officials on the construction on Sept. 6
Describe what you have been through with the L-train work to date.
Our first inkling that something was up was on Aug. 5, 2017 (a Saturday), when workers showed up and quietly dismantled the bus stop at the corner of 14th Street and Avenue B. There was no community announcement about a construction job about to begin at that location, no posted announcement about the bus stop removal.
Since that time, the project and site have been growing and growing — from Avenue B to First Avenue, on both the north and south sides of the street. The noise and pollution have made our building untenable. For almost a year, we've had on our block (14th between A and B) over 30 diesel machines (generators, four-story drills, compressors, bulldozers, backhoes, etc.) running six days a week, from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.
[Reader-submitted photo]
The noise has been astounding. We've regularly made recordings of decibel readings in the high 90s to 120 on many of the machines — way above DEP allowable levels. We've also reported diesel run off into the streets and gutters.
[Reader-submitted photo]
For as horrific as the scope of the project has been, it has continued to get worse in every respect.
While all this has been going on, a crucial, game-changing piece of paper was tacked up at the site on the corner of 14th and A: A permit issued by DEP to the MTA approving 24/7 work hours beginning May 2018 for a full year. Mr. Nirva Paul at the DEP signed off on this permit (below) without the DEP having responded to a single one of our scores of complaints, and with no community interaction whatsoever.
In our first meeting — not a publicly announced, town-hall meeting, but one organized for residents of 542 E. 14th St. with the MTA and Judlau Contracting, Inc. by Assemblymember Harvey Epstein — MTA and Judlau finally admitted ... that their diesel emissions are not being monitored, and their noise levels are not being monitored. We were told in that first meeting that they weren't monitoring diesel emissions because a) they weren't required to, and b) there is so much diesel in the air already, there's no point in monitoring it.
The refrain from the MTA for the Carnarsie Tunnel Project has always been a firm, frantic — "This has to be done!" As if we're in an emergency state of repair. This is a bullying technique of they use to cover their bad planning.
The fact is, Hurricane Sandy happened in 2012 and they've had six years to figure out the best way to do this work with minimal community impact. They are a state agency, and appear to be clueless about our how our neighborhood functions.
This work has already greatly affected the businesses on 14th Street between B and First Avenue. Several have already gone out of business due to severely limited access to their storefronts. Several (west of Avenue A) are suffering because their customer access now is only 28" of sidewalk space, not big enough for a wheelchair in spots.
What we learned in that first meeting was the MTA's plan to make that very spot, at 14th and A, the sole entry and exit point for all old tunnel materials and all new tunnel materials. Heretofore, they had told the public that the work on that corner was for the new stairways and elevator for the station.
The work that's being done — long ahead of the stairways and elevator — is to create entry and exit points for a constant (24/7) flow of yet more diesel trucks removing debris that contains asbestos and silica dust (you can learn about that on the MTA's very own YouTube channel).
Residents said that they have filed complaints with the MTA and the DEP. What has been their response?
We — at least five of us in our building alone — have made a steady flow of very specific, documented complaints about violations to the MTA and the DEP about noise, diesel pollution and traffic congestion. We've had zero response from either agency. The only responses we’ve been able to obtain have been verbally, during the two meetings we’ve had so far with them and the Assemblymember.
You said that MTA reps confirmed on Sept. 6 that the area between Avenue A and First Avenue will be the main staging area — 24/7 — during the reconstruction. Before this, were you aware of any public meetings to let community members know about the work?
There were public meetings, but none of them addressed what you mention, which is what leaked, we believe for the first time, during our first meeting with the MTA, Judlau and Assemblymember Epstein. You can check the records on that — no publicly released information mentioned the staging area or the 24/7 work.
The only work mentioned was installation of the underground power station at Avenue B, and the construction of the elevator and stairways down to the new station on either side of Avenue A. We know of no place this “main staging area” information was made public before now; if it was, it certainly is not known at all in the affected area.
What is your biggest concern about the work?
The fact that the MTA’s current plan is to truck out hundreds of tons of tunnel debris. Much of this debris is known to be contaminated with silica dust and asbestos as acknowledged by the MTA on its YouTube site.
The Avenue A access point 50 feet from a school and church. This debris will be carted out 24/7 for a year and a half, under tight deadlines and facing and with contractors facing stiff penalities for each day the deadline passes, through the streets of the East Village and Stuy Town.
On the delivery end, the MTA will be commandeering the service/access roads of Stuytown to deliver all the tunnel materials, again 24/7. With a very conservative estimate of 30 trucks a day, that is over 13,000 truck deliveries, with all the pollution, idling, beeping and noise coming into what will be some of the most heavily-trafficked blocks and street in the city.
The fact that we’re facing two years of diesel trucks lined up and idling, coming and going round the clock, in an already heavily congested area.
The fact that the neighborhood will very likely to become a parking area for idling diesel trucks, 24/7. This alone will create conditions even more untenable than those we’re already facing.
Why is this being done undercover, in such a shady fashion? The only answer to that is they know community response will be outrage once people have a chance to fully grasp what’s in store. Keeping it secret will allow them to get far enough into the project that there will, arguably, be no turning back. But the nightmare of the plan (and the congestion, not to mention the pollution), combined with their plan to use 14th Street for a substantially increased number of buses round the clock, will have a devastating effect on the area.
Now that we know the plan, we’re calling on all public officials for our district to come out against the plan, and for the Mayor and the Governor to put a moratorium on work until an independent auditor can be brought in to assess the impact of this plan on the community’s health and well-being, and to engage the community in this plan.
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Debris removal from this entry point on 14th Street is likely among the topics to be discussed this evening during a Town Hall on the L tunnel reconstruction project. The event takes place at Middle Collegiate Church, 112 Second Ave. between Sixth Street and Seventh Street from 6:30-8:30 p.m.
We're seven months away from the scheduled L train shutdown. Join @CarlinaRivera and I, along with several other elected officials, for an East Side town hall featuring the latest updates from @NYCTSubway President Byford and @NYC_DOT Commissioner Trottenberg. Details below. pic.twitter.com/MOB9t6BJcX
Signs arrived over the weekend next to Katz's on East Houston about the grand opening for Marshalls... now apparently set for Oct. 4, one week later than previously announced...
"American Greed" — CNBC's true crime series that "examines the dark side of the American Dream" — features disgraced landlord Steve Croman in an episode that airs tonight at 10.
Croman's segment, titled "Lousy Landlord," will be on the second half of the episode. (Watch the trailer here.)
Croman was released from the Manhattan Correctional Facility on June 1 after serving eight months of a one-year jail sentence and paid a $5 million tax settlement following criminal charges brought by the AG's office for fraudulent refinancing of loans and tax fraud.
In a separate civil case, Croman agreed to pay $8 million to the tenants he was accused of bullying out of their rent-regulated apartments.
An independent management company is now overseeing Croman's residential properties — including 47 buildings with 617 units in the East Village — for the next five years.
Emmy Squared owners Matt and Emily Hyland recently announced that they will serve grilled pizza here, as New York magazine first reported.
The Hylands reportedly went to "grilled-pizza mecca" Al Forno in Providence, R.I., on their first date while they attended Roger Williams University.
Eater had more about grilled pizza:
It’s known for being crisp on the bottom but tender inside, with some smokiness from the grill. There’s not a lot of it in NYC, which is something the Hylands are familiar with after making Detroit pizza happen here with their breakout hit Emmy Squared.
The still-unnamed grilled pizzeria, which is expected to open in November, per New York, will also offer non-pizza dishes such as housemade pastas and grilled fish.
Steven shared these photos of the juvenile red-tailed hawk in Tompkins Square Park this morning... he was calling out for food in hopes that his parents, Christo and Amelia, might drop off something to eat...
The Cemetery grounds will be open from noon until 6 p.m. Stroll around and explore some New York history, or bring a book and a blanket and hang out under the trees for a while. Free admission, no reservations necessary.
Join us at Albert’s Garden to listen to the Chromatone Quintet, whose jazz repertoire will help usher in the fall season.
Date: Sunday, Sept. 16 (Tomorrow!)
Time: 4 to 6:30 p.m.
Albert’s Garden, begun in the 1971, is one of the oldest community gardens in Manhattan and offers a serene respite from the stress and noise of the city. It features a goldfish pond and a striking wall mural by the Belgian street artist Roa.
Location: 16 E. Second St. between the Bowery and Second Avenue.
The Loisaida Center continues its third annual Garbagia program today with a performance of "Three Green Suns," based on a story by Rolando Politi, at La Plaza Cultural on the southwest corner of Ninth Street and Avenue C. (Politi created the upcycled art that adorns the La Plaza fence.)
Here's more via the EVG inbox...
Loisaida is proud to bring our community an ongoing summer program, Garbagia, highlighting and revitalizing the migrant experience, our neighborhood's historical inventiveness, and ecological resilience.
2-5 p.m.: Hallucination Station Market — a second-hand and upcycled art market where the creatures and characters of the program will be the sellers and makers of their own products.
5-6 p.m.: "The Three Green Suns" is "the vision of a future that is here — climate change, cleaning planet, Reduce and ReUse, we are becoming Redeemers and Waste Pickers to arrive at Hallucination Station and experience 'The Three Green Suns.'"
There's also mention of a BBQ at 2 p.m.
Find more info at the Loisaida Center website here.
On Sept. 15 the action moves to the 5C Café and Cultural Center, long-standing home of avant jazz and bold performance, where funds will be raised for the Alliance of Families for Justice and the NYC Jericho Movement. Both organizations advocate for the unjustly incarcerated and call for urgent prison reform.
The evening opens with a solo performance by renowned drummer William Hooker, and includes 5C’s own pianist/composer Trudy Silver, Ras Moshe’s Music Now! and the Flames of Discontent duo of Festival director John Pietaro and Laurie Towers. The closing act is international songwriter Martina Fiserova.
The 5C Café and Cultural Center is on Avenue C at Fifth Street. Find more 5C Café info here.
