Posts from — February 2008

French Toast by Turtblu on Flickr.

It’s back! That delightfully mysterious scent of maple syrup, flavored coffee, or roasted nuts (depending on who you ask) has returned around much of Manhattan. The first olfactory reports began coming on Thursday night. The inexplicable sweet smell has descended over the city at various times in the past, and though disconcerting, is better than the sulphury odor that wafted over from Jersey around this time last year.

NY1 reports that calls have been coming in to 311 and 911 from Manhattan residents concerned about the smell. The aroma has been reported from Lower Manhattan all the way up to Harlem.

As always, air tests show nothing dangerous, but officials cannot determine the possible cause of the aroma. Maybe years from now, while we’re all slaving away under our new pancake-alien overlords, we’ll look back and wonder why we did not put together the sweet-smelling pieces of their global domination plan sooner.

The Daily News highlights the coming change of the guard in the City Council as 36 of the current crop of 51 members will lose their seats to term limits in 2009. Many of the departing members have their sights set on other political posts.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Council Member Tony Avella from Queens will go after the mayoral spot, as well as other term-limited officials like Comptroller Bill Thompson, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, and Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum.

Outgoing Council Members Eric Gioia and John Liu both from Queens are likely to run for Betsy Gotbaum’s Public Advocate seat. In the race for Comptroller we’ll most likely see Queens members Melinda Katz and David Weprin, and from Brooklyn, David Yassky and Simcha Felder, as well as current Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión.

For borough president from Brooklyn we find that outgoing Council Members Charles Barron and Bill de Blasio will most likely be running. On Staten Island, Council Minority Leader James Oddo and Democrat Michael McMahon will be looking towards the BP post after they must vacate their seats, and in the Bronx, Council Members Joel Rivera and Helen Foster will go after Adolfo Carrión’s post.

Recent downtown Manhattan subway map progression: From very confusing for tourists to somewhat very confusing for tourists.

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Reflections on Flickr.

The Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle.

Deutsche Bank Building Smoking by ekonon on Flickr.

The New York Times reported last week on two updates in the ongoing debacle that is the demolition of the former Deutsche Bank building near the World Trade Center site. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited and plans to fine both Bovis Lend Lease (the general contractor leading the demolition) and the John Galt Corporation (the nebulous umbrella-group of sub-contractors working on decontamination and demolition) for a variety of safety violations that created that dangerous conditions that ended in the tragic fire and deaths of two firefighters last summer.

The 44 safety violations and almost half-million dollar fines are the result of exposing workers “to death or serious injury from falls, falling objects, electrocution and the inability to exit the tower swiftly and safely in the event of a fire.” The Times also quotes Joel Shufro, the executive director of the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health, who asserted, “clearly, there was a systematic failure of oversight.”

As the private contractors deal with the new citations and fines, the public agencies involved in the demolition and the City government have racked up more than $2 million in fees for legal services to defend their position and to fulfill requests from investigators. The City of New York acquired the services of Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel and will owe the firm almost $1.4 million (and growing). The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, who’s got Dechert LLP, has spent about $900,000 so far.

The overall cost for the demolition of the building was originally estimated at $75 million in the summer 2005, but now it’s estimated that the complete cost factoring in the delays, fines, and new legal and deconstruction costs could raise that figure to $170 million in the end.

Brooklyn-Flatbush Boundary Marker by flatbushgardener on Flickr.

Brooklyn realtors demand consolidation with New York to fill glut of housing-stock, 1895 (NY Times)

The forgotten father of NYC consolidation (among many other accomplishments), Andrew Haswell Green (andrewhgreen.net)

Before the Five-Borough City: The Old Cities, Towns and Villages That Came Together to Form “Greater New York” (NY Genealogical & Biographical Society)

Watch New Yorkers enjoy the winter in this 1898 film (LOC)

Learn about the first post-consolidation mayor, Robert Van Wyck (NYC.gov)

Preparing the Staten Island Ferry fish tank for its debut today.

2 Columbus Circle has sported its new cladding of glazed terra cotta panels (pictured above, catching the glow of the setting sun) and glass for a little while now. Not much else seems to have changed in the transformation from Edward Durell Stone Venetian to Brad Cloepfil modern. The lobby (pictured below) also does not seem much farther along then it was last fall.

Let’s hope things are ready for the September 2008 opening mentioned on the museum’s website. The site also has a slide show and video of the re-cladding project called 2 Columbus Circle From Then ’til Now. It’s got a great Our City–On The Move! soundtrack and is worth watching to see the demolition workers going to town on the defenseless marble facade and lace-like portholes that once climbed the sides of the building.

Two renderings of the new museum above.

More current photos after the jump.

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Just down the block from each other in Long Island City. Maybe the Hummer owner needs a new home that better befits the car purchase?

Robert Moses Plaza on Flickr.

Bas-relief of Moses by Albino Manca located in Moses Plaza on the grounds of Forham University’s Lincoln Center campus.