Posts from — June 2008

Precarious on Flickr.

Mind your heads out there folks! On the Upper East Side, it’s just a couple of unbalanced, overlapping wood planks separating your noggin from all that construction equipment being stored up there.

Cosby Sweater Auction Ad. 

Unfortunately it seems that Cliff Huxtable’s iconic sweaters are not as big a draw as had been hoped by those auctioning them off on Ebay. As of today, Urbanite reports that no potential buyers have ponied up the starting bid of $5,000 to get things going. The sellers have even thrown in free shipping…maybe if they threw in a homemade bacon burger dog?

The sweaters are were all worn by Bill Cosby on the show somewhere between seasons 3-8 and were created by designer Koos Van Den Akker for The Cosby Show. The proceeds from the auction, should any bidders materialize, would benefit the charity Cosby established in memory of his murdered son. The Hello Friend/Ennis William Cosby Foundation assists students with learning disabilities and also provides resources for parents and teachers.

Despite the heat, thousands lined Fifth Avenue today to celebrate the 51st annual National Puerto Rican Day Parade. This year Dennis Rivera, leader of the Service Employees International Healthcare Union, was the parade’s grand marshal and led the procession up Fifth from 44th Street to 86th Street.

Rivera was joined by a cavalcade of politicians including Mayor Bloomberg, Governor David Paterson, New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, Senator Chuck Schumer, Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, and a delegation of mayors from Puerto Rican cities. Spectators were treated to marching bands, dancers, colorful floats, and beauty queens all set amidst an ocean of waving red, white, and blue flags.

In 1937, the Board of Water Supply (the current Department of Environmental Protection) commissioned a massive 3D relief map of the NYC watershed for the 1939 World’s Fair that measured almost 700 square feet. The work traced the city’s water supply system from the outermost, upstream tributaries of the Delaware River to sea level at the Nassau County line, and identified the various aqueducts, water shafts and drainage basins that feed the city’s water supply. Due to space limitations within the NYC Pavilion, the model was never exhibited in its entirety at the fair.

After being rediscovered after nearly 70 years in storage, the 27 completed panels were in desperate need of conservation. After a year’s restoration work, the model is again ready to be again displayed to the public. In celebration, the Queens Museum of Art and DEP will commemorate the homecoming to the NYC Pavilion with an exhibition featuring the model, historic documentation, and contemporary photographs of the New York City watershed.

A Watershed Moment: Celebrating the Homecoming of The New York City Water Supply Model
June 22 - November 17, 2008
Queens Museum of Art
New York City Building
Flushing Meadows Corona Park
Corona, NY 11368
Directions
(718) 592-9700
www.queensmuseum.org

I lift my 100 watt lamp beside the golden door! on Flickr. 

It’s going to take some time for the Democratic party to heal the rift that had developed between Clinton and Obama supporters, even as Clinton has formally announced the cessation of her presidential campaign.

This was evidenced yesterday at an “unity” rally by local Democratic officials on the steps of City Hall. Tensions flared as State Sen. Bill Perkins (D-Manhattan) answered a reporter’s question about why some Clinton supporters were not present for the event and then Congresswoman Yvette Clarke (D-Brooklyn) interrupted. Perkins responded with “Don’t tell me to behave. I was talking to him,” and the ensuing exchange captured by the Observer’s Azi Paybarah was hardly an example of party unity. City Council Members Mathieu Eugene, Letitia James, and John Liu ended up having to intervene to keep the two apart.

Bay Ridge Jewish Center by Bay Ridge Bitches on Flickr.

Another Bay Ridge house of worship is closing the doors of its decades-old home and planning to sell to a developer. The Bay Ridge Jewish Center at 4th Avenue and 81st Street has seen its congregation dwindle over the years (the synagogue as built can hold 600, but the current congregation totals only about 100), and cannot feasibly maintain its current building.

On Wednesday the congregation voted 70 to 3 to tear down its current building, sell a parcel of the property to a developer, and use the profits from the sale to build a new smaller sanctuary on the remaining portion of the site. The pending sale parallels the situation at the Bay Ridge United Methodist Church (the “Green Church”) several blocks north on 4th Avenue, where worshipers put the church land on the market and hope to move to a smaller location. The move by the Green Church sparked a battle with preservationists who want to save the 108-year-old church, and who are now in a desperate search to find a buyer willing to retain the original structure.

Mayor Bloomberg by manuelaoprea on Flickr.

Today Mayor Bloomberg reacted to a call for Federal inspections of city construction sites that utilize cranes and other construction sites the government might deem hazardous. The call to get the Feds involved originated in a letter from Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (who represents much of Manhattan’s East Side in addition to Western Queens) to the head of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). In the letter, Representative Maloney highlighted the recent spike in construction-related accidents in New York City and seemingly lax city oversight–self-certification, anyone?–and asked that OSHA “conduct a complete investigation of all construction sites in New York City that are using cranes and any others that you deem appropriate.”

Bloomberg reacted today at a press conference, “I appreciate the intent, but it’s tough enough within the city to do an investigation and to make progress in terms of making this city safer and growing…we’ll spend our time on investigating a tragic accident which we’ll find out where we could have prevented.” The Mayor also noted that the Congress has got enough on its plate as far as health care, taxes, and the world situation to be prying into the city’s business.

The Mayor’s argument that another layer of bureaucracy in the investigations would slow things down and needlessly duplicate efforts seems to ring true–the only problem is that the city’s own bureaucracy, namely the Department of Buildings, has shown itself to be incapable of carrying out its most basic mission of making sure New Yorkers have safely and securely-built roofs over their heads.

Sky View Parc, the “most spectacular residential development in the history of Queens County”, has been steadily rising along the shores of the Flushing River in Queens as sales of the luxury studios ($400K) and 1, 2, and 3 bedroom units (up to $2MIL) continues via Halstead. The site will contain six residential towers and a rooftop park above a 800,000-square-foot retail shopping center, all within walking distance of the Flushing-Main Street subway and LIRR stops. Let’s take a look at the construction progress…

Bouwerie Lane on Flickr.