Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, Senator Brad Hoylman, Councilmember Carlina Rivera, Assemblymember Harvey Epstein, and representatives from Manhattan Community Board 3 will hold a press conference to demand that the Board of Trustees for the Boys Club of New York postpone the sale of the historic 117-year-old Harriman Clubhouse on East 10th Street.
Attendance at the Harriman Clubhouse, particularly from boys and young men from lower-income families, has increased in recent years despite claims of enrollment made by the board to justify the sale.
Mayor Bill de Blasio promised to “relieve the immediate pressure” on a residential street in the heart of the East Village that has become a parking lot for Department of Sanitation vehicles.
“Do we want garbage trucks parking on residential streets? Of course not,” said de Blasio. “What we’re trying to do every day is figure out the kind of facilities that will help avoid that in the future.”
"[The Department of Sanitation] must immediately move their vehicles to locations that do not place an undue burden on our vulnerable constituents and mom-and-pop stores and should engage in a meaningful dialogue with these communities," wrote Councilwoman Carlina Rivera in a recent letter to the Department of Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia.
[T]he Sanitation Department says that this is the only option until another garage location is secured.
“In short, we’ve been working for years to find garage space, which is the only solution,” said Belinda Mager, the department’s spokesperson. “This is the option of last resort, and what’s needed to be able to provide essential services to the district.”
A feud over garbage trucks parking on a residential street in the East Village heated up Thursday after a New York City Sanitation Department employee was captured by a surveillance camera dumping trash out of his garbage truck into a planter on E 10th Street between First and Second Avenues outside Pinks...
In October 2003, the SmithStone family moved into an apartment at 233 E. Fifth St. They opened the nonprofit Phoenix Theatre Ensemble a year later. Their theatre offers a full season of performances as well as lessons in theatre to aspiring actors, seniors and kids in local public schools.
Their building was purchased by Raphael Toledano in 2015, with a loan from Madison Realty Capital. The fledgling landlord asserted that the family’s apartment had lost its rent-stabilized status in 2003 and sued to retake possession of the unit, but the family opposed Toledano’s claim, arguing that the apartment was rent stabilized. The legal battle lasted 34 months. In the midst of it, Toledano defaulted on his loan. Madison Realty Capital reclaimed the properties as de-facto landlord and continued prosecuting the lawsuit.
In June 2018, the Appellate Division of NY State Supreme Court ruled against the family, and Madison Realty Capital immediately began eviction proceedings. Due to a clause in their lease, the SmithStones are now being held accountable by Madison's lawyers for Toledano/Madison Realty Capital's legal fees, amounting to about $250,000. As dedicated artists and educators with 3 college-age children, these fees would be disastrous to the family.
Please join us on Saturday at 11th and Broadway, in front of the old St. Denis Hotel, for a demonstration to save our neighborhood. The historic former hotel, built in 1853, is to be demolished for a large glassy office tower.
This is part of a broader trend of demolitions and completely inappropriate new development in this area south of Union Square, fueled by a lack of zoning and landmark protections, the expanding tech industry in the area, and the commercial upzoning for the Tech Hub recently approved nearby on 14th Street. That deal, passed by the City Council and local Councilmember Rivera, failed to include any of the promised meaningful protections for the affected adjacent Greenwich Village and East Village neighborhoods.
Developers now increasingly see this area of our neighborhood as an extension of the ‘Midtown South’ office district and of the tech industry’s “Silicon Alley” ... we are continuing to push for landmark protections that will preserve this and other buildings in the area.
1) Hot food item not held at or above 140º F.
2) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation.
3) Raw, cooked or prepared food is adulterated, contaminated, cross-contaminated, or not discarded in accordance with HACCP plan.
4) Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred.
In 1982, Dojo took over the space next door and expanded even more. Then in 1991, Dojo in the West Village was created – both Dojo East and Dojo West were favorite local gems. Unfortunately in 2007, Dojo East was closed down due to high rent. BUT Dojo West is still going strong!
Please join us to discuss creating a passive recreation space at the DEP shaft site on East Fourth Street
Monday, Oct. 1:
6:30 p.m. — Meet first to see the DEP shaft site
7 p.m. — Scope meeting at JASA Green Residence, 200 E. Fifth St. at the Bowery
This project was funded by Mayor de Blasio and former Council Member Rosie Mendez, and is supported by Council Member Carlina Rivera.
NYC Parks is starting the design process for this project by holding a scope meeting, in which local residents and stakeholders to learn about the opportunities at the site and provide feedback. With this input, we will develop a design to be presented to Community Board 2 for public review.
Tenants from the Lead Dust Free NYC (LDFNYC) coalition are releasing a series of photos showing the faces of lead dust contamination. As elected officials focus more on the issue of lead in NYC housing, LDFNYC urges them to crack down on landlords who contaminate buildings with lead during construction.
Lead contamination arising from unchecked construction dust has hit Lower East Side (LES) tenants hard over the last five years. Landlords like Samy Mahfar, Steve Croman, Raphael Toledano, and Icon Realty have all exposed tenants to lead through this form of contamination. In response, LES tenants have formed this campaign and assembled these photos of themselves to highlight the extreme lead exposure they have faced through construction dust in their buildings.
While tenants applaud new legislative efforts to stop lead poisoning, they want to also bring attention to the lax enforcement of existing laws. NYC’s predominant lead law is Local Law One of 2004. It was enacted fourteen years ago and many aspects of the law, which would help protect tenants from lead laden construction dust, are simply not being enforced.
"We have had multiple lead violations at 514 E. 12th St. The last violation placed found lead dust at four times the EPA standard. I do not believe Local Law One is enforced," said Holly Slayton, a longtime East Village resident whose doctor advised her and her daughter to wear face masks in their own home during renovations in their building (pictured above). "I had to call city agencies continually to get the dust tested and the landlord to follow the proper Local Law One protocol."
In 1960, New York City was one of the first municipalities to ban the use of lead paint. In 2004, Local Law 1 set a goal for the City to eliminate lead in all residential buildings by 2010. Eight years past that deadline, it is clear that there is still more work to be done.
Under current law, landlords must perform annual checks for lead-based paint hazards in multiple dwellings built before 1960 with units that house children under 6 years old. Landlords must also perform a check whenever an apartment becomes vacant. To remediate the problem, landlords often paint over the lead paint surface. Because paint is susceptible to chipping or fading, this only creates a temporary solution to the presence of lead.
Intro 873 pushes for a permanent solution by requiring landlords to permanently remove or encapsulate any lead paint once a unit becomes vacant.
Intro 874 would increase inter-agency coordination when construction work blows lead particles into residential units and common areas, and also allow the City to issue a stop work order if a unit has received a notice of a lead-based paint hazard.
These two bills, sponsored by Chin, were introduced as part of a legislative package of 23 bills to expand the City’s oversight over lead paint, decrease the threshold for elevated blood lead levels that trigger investigation, improve inter-agency coordination and call for reporting to assess the impact and effectiveness of the City’s lead prevention measures.
