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Summer Reading: Best Books About New York


In writing and researching City of Fire, his fictional trilogy about New York City, Kevin Baker has read many books on New York City. Although fiction, the books includes lists of other writers’ work Baker consulted as he portrayed Irish immigrants in the Civil War draft riots, Eastern European immigrants of the early 20th century and the African Americans who made their way from the Deep South to New York in the depth of the Great Depression.

And out of all his readings he provided us with a list of some he likes best, including his all time favorite: Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York by Luc Sante. Baker also recommends two books on civil mayhem, The Shakespeare Riots: Revenge, Drama, and Death in Nineteenth-Century America,” by Nigel Cliff, and “The Devil's Own Work: The Civil War Draft Riots and the Fight to Reconstruct America” by Barnet Schecter. His other choices are: Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898” by Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace; and "102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers” by Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn, along with two books about mayors -- Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11 by Wayne Barrett and Dan Collins and Fiorello H. LaGuardia by Thomas Kessner.

Baker is a New York reader and a New York writer -- involved in the book industry from at least two ends. And he is far from alone. Many New Yorkers make their living from books – writing, publishing, selling and lending them – and in their spare time many read books about the city.

We have asked some people involved in books in New York to select their favorite works about the city. The choices are eclectic, from a mystery by a French master of the genre to a former wilderness writer’s examination of the rats that live among us.

A selection of their choices is below. Next week, other experts about New York, including historian and political scientists, will tell us what they recommend. And we would like to hear from you: What are your favorites books about New York City? Send your choices to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. -- and we’ll publish a selection of your comments.

For a list of some upcoming book s about New York, click here. And for our past interviews with some top New York writers – including Jim Dwyer, Kate Ascher and Jonathan Lethem click here.

SOME NEW YORK NOVELS

Dionne Mack-Harvin, executive director, Brooklyn Public Library:

Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat
Danticat is an extraordinary storyteller, and she does a remarkable job at capturing the resilience and enduring strength of women in this novel. I also love the vibrant imagery of this story, especially how Danticat weaves back and forth between the countrysides of Haiti to the buzz of Brooklyn’s Flatbush Avenue.

Alexandra Egan, Urban Center Books

Three Bedrooms in Manhattan, by George Simenon.
Set against the backdrop of a 1945 Manhattan both murky grey and neon, the work by the famed French mystery writer takes the reader along for endless rambles up and down late night Fifth Avenue and all through Greenwich Village. We drink whiskey and feed jukeboxes along with the protagonist, Francois, and the woman he meets by chance in a 24-hour diner and stumbles into love with. This is a side of Manhattan - visceral, desolate, and poetic - that has mostly not survived, and Simenon's stark novella, based on the story of his own meeting of his second wife, is a wonderful opportunity to discover (or relive) it.

Brooklyn Is: Southeast of the Island: Travel Notes, by James Agee.
Full of language so precisely and carefully sprawling that it must be read aloud. The book takes the reader across Brooklyn from edge to edge, revealing a borough by turns unchanged and unrecognizable. Every Brooklynite will find their neighborhood here, along with a portrait both scathing and sympathetic of the people, architecture and history that give Brooklyn its enduring spirit.

PERSONAL HISTORY

Nancy Bass, owner, Strand Books

Here is New York, by E.B. White
A timeless, relevant literary essay about the city. Funny and insightful; a quick but substantive read.

Toby Cox, owner, Three Lives and Company Bookstore

Let Me Finish, by Roger Angell
The long-time contributor and fiction editor at the New Yorker recounts his early days as a boy growing up in New York City.

The Good Life, by Jay McInerney
In this moving, surprising, and heart-stopping post 9-11 redemptive novel, Jay McInerney once again proves himself as a classic New York observer.

Stephen Maine, manager, The Strand

I Love New York, Crazy City, by Isa Genzken.
On a visit to New York a decade ago, German artist Isa Genzken accumulated hundreds of handbills, postcards, print ads, tabloid tear sheets, flyers, hotel invoices, and matchbook covers, patching them together, along with her own snapshots of New York street life, in a voluminous, scattershot scrapbook. This is a faithful facsimile of that unique volume, both a playful record of Genzken's idiosyncratic visual imagination and a vivid time capsule of mid-1990's Manhattan.

EVER EVOLVING CITY

Fred Bass, owner, The Strand:

The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell by Mark Kurlansky
A revealing history of forgotten piece of New York's past: Oysters were the city's most famed export for centuries. And the book offers a cultural, economic and ecological study of New York's rapid development.

Jeffrey Lewis, co-owner, Bluestockings bookstore:

Like Son by Felicia Luna Lemus
Draws from the “real” New York experience to tell a tale of an East Village resident struggling with sexual identity.

Subwayland: Adventures in the World Beneath New York by Randy Kennedy
Pretty self-explanatory: a book that details the highs and lows of the city's subway system.

Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants by Robert Sullivan.
The short of it is it's about rats, but it's really about New York. How they got here, how they live! It's about humanity in New York.

Taxi!: Cabs and Capitalism in New York City, by Biju Mathew
Chronicles the lives of cab drivers in the city and looks at their attempts to unionize and organize.

FOR YOUNGER READERS

Margaret Tice, coordinator of children’s services, New York Public Library:

Uptown, by Bryan Collier
A tour of Harlem, the train, brownstones, shopping on 125th Street, summer basketball and the sunset of the Harlem River.

The Man who Walked Between the Towers, by Mordicai Gerstein
A lyrical remembrance of Philippe Petit's daring escapade in 1974, beautifully graced by striking panoramic views of New York City.

My Chinatown: One Year in Poems, by Kam Mak.
A boy from Hong Kong vividly remembers his first experiences in New York City "where the English words taste like metal in my mouth."

Max Found Two Sticks, by Brian J. Pinkney
A young Brooklyn boy responds to his neighborhood friends by drumming on buckets, hat boxes and garbage cans, echoing the city sounds.

Fat Kid Rules the World, by K. L. Going. (Published by G. P. Putnam's Sons)
In this book for teenagers, 17-year-old Troy gets a new lease on life when a homeless teen, who is also a genius on guitar, wants Troy to be the drummer in his rock band.”

Abigail Moller, employee, The Strand

From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, by E.L. Konigsberg
New York City has long been a magnet for those in search of the extraordinary, whether in their personal or professional lives. If you have ever felt yourself to be in rebellion against the monotony of daily life, or have ever longed to escape toward beauty and excitement, than this children's novel about two young people who run away from home and live for a time in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, will speak directly to you.

Reporting by Besa Luci, Mara Gay, Zach Rose and Valerio Russo

 

New Books About New York


New Books About New York

The list of books about New York or set in the city keeps growing. Here is a selection of the latest works about our city – from fictionalized accounts of 9/11 to subways stories.

FICTION

Two of the new novels center around 9/11.

Don DeLillo’s Falling Man takes its title from the photograph of a man falling from the North Tower on 9/11. The book, published by Scribner, takes off from that image to depict stories of people who were inside the Twin Towers that day or otherwise affected by the attacks.

A Day at the Beach by Helen Schuman is set during the 24-hour period beginning just before the planes hit the towers. In the novel, published by Houghton Mifflin, Schulman treats the terrorist attacks as a central theme in the already troubled marriage of Gerhard and Suzannah Falktopf.

Other novels include:

The Invention of Everything Else” by Samantha Hunt (Published by Houghton Mifflin Company): a father-daughter story, a love story and a literary mystery set around the New Yorker Hotel, where inventor Nikola Tesla lives out his last days.

and Maynard Jennica by Rudolph Delson (Houghton Mifflin). The two main characters, a native New Yorker and a Jewish girl from California meet on an uptown Number Six Train in the summer of 2000.

"Slacker Girl" by Alexandra Koslow (Plume): The story of a charming and unambitious woman in workaholic New York City.

NONFICTION

Following a winter when newspapers gloried in the controversy surrounding the an aging Brooke Astor and her son, two new books explore this illustrious New York family.

One, When the Astors Owned New York by Justin Kaplan (Plume) focuses on the history of several generations of Astors. The Last Mrs. Astor: A New York Story by Frances Kiernan (W.W. Norton) is a personal portrayal of New York grand dame Brooke Astor, whom Kiernan knew personally.

"South Street" by Barbara G. Mensch (Columbia Univerisity): Photographs of the lost world of Lower Manhattan's Fulton Fish Market and the lives of the fishmongers, the majority of whom were immigrants.

Subway Chronicles: Scenes from Life in New York edited by Jacquelin Cangro (Plume): Stories about the transit system recounted by those who work on the subways and those who ride them.

 

Breaking Up is Hard to Do


In three recent New York divorce cases, the plaintiffs were surprised to learn that what they considered cruel treatment by their spouses was not cruel enough to end their marriages. These cases, along with a recent ruling involving the break-up of a same sex couple, casts light on the current state of breaking up in the state.

THE LIMITS OF CRUELTY

When Carol Gross testified that her husband of 37 years, Jerome Gross, “had physically forced himself on her sexually,” and “grabbed her, pulled at her, thrown her on the bed, and pushed her against the wall,” a Manhattan trial judge granted Ms. Gross a divorce on the grounds of cruel and inhuman treatment.

The Appellate Division of New York State Supreme Court disagreed. It ruled that the plaintiff had not proved her case. She must remain married to Mr. Gross and continue to live with him (unless she leaves the Upper West Side apartment that they share).

The Domestic Relations Law, which governs divorce, defines cruel and inhuman treatment as behavior “harmful to the plaintiff’s physical or mental health and makes cohabitation unsafe or improper.” But in a unanimous decision, the five judges – all of them men – on the appellate bench said that Ms. Gross’ testimony was vague and that ”plaintiff did not elaborate in any other way about what she meant in stating that the defendant had ‘forced himself on her sexually.’” The judges found, “In its vagueness and generality, this testimony could include conduct ranging from the criminal (e.g., forcible rape) to the merely obnoxious. Moreover, plaintiff offered no evidence that she sustained any injuries as a result of this incident.”

Citing prior cases, including a 1976 case in which a “defendant severely beat plaintiff on two occasions causing bruises and black and blue marks,” the opinion in Gross v. Gross called “the absence of medical evidence here particularly telling.” The court decided, “At bottom, we are left to speculate as to the effects, if any, of defendant’s conduct on plaintiff’s physical and mental well-being.” In reversing the trial decision, the court commented that, apart from the alleged conduct, the couple had an otherwise civilized social relationship.

Around the same time, in another divorce case based on cruelty, a different trial judge rejected a husband’s claim of cruelty. In that case, Hearst v. Hearst, the husband said that his wife’s control of the couple’s money and property had exacerbated his many physical ailments and led his health to deteriorate. But both the trial and appeals courts found that the wife’s alleged actions did not constitute cruelty. Calling the situation an example of “marital discord,” the Appellate Division agreed that the trial court had acted properly when it denied the husband a divorce on grounds of cruelty.

And a recent divorce action labeled CL v. JL was not even permitted to go to trial when a Brooklyn judge dismissed the plaintiff’s complaint because of “a lack of particularity in the allegations.” The plaintiff – the wife in this case -- had accused her husband of “verbal tantrums, ... humiliating and vilifying the friends and relatives of the plaintiff,” and failing to support her and the household. The judge found that the allegations were too “vague to give husband notice so that he could defend against them.” It might have been different, the judge wrote, if for example, the marital home had been lost to foreclosure or had collapsed injuring the wife.

FINDING FAULT

New York does not have “no fault” divorce, in which a marriage can be dissolved without either party being found guilty of some kind of marital misconduct. In New York, the law requires that grounds for divorce be established unless a separation agreement has been in place for one year. (There is talk of reducing that time requirement, perhaps to as little as three months.)

A separation agreement does not assign blame but is a contract that settles the business between the couple – money, custody and so on. If a couple cannot reach agreement on all that, a marriage can be dissolved only if one party is found to be at fault. The fault grounds, in addition to cruel and inhuman treatment, include adultery, abandonment, or defendant’s imprisonment for three consecutive years.

Although some may see these cases as reasons to change the law and permit divorce without proof of fault, others point out that only a very small number of divorces in New York result in contested trials, where fault grounds must be alleged, proved and subjected to cross examination. In most cases, the defendant does not contest the plaintiff’s charges and the divorce is granted. In all of New York City in 2006, only 3,385 divorce actions or 11 percent of the 31,670 filed were opposed by the defendant and scheduled for trial.

Even in the contested cases, the disputes rarely center on fault. According to the judges who hear matrimonial cases (as divorces are euphemistically called), those taken to trial usually involve money, property, support or child custody. Fault is almost never considered in resolving the economic issues of a marital dissolution.

Many lawyers and advocates for women favor retaining fault, since fighting the divorce may be the only leverage the spouse with less money, who is usually the wife, has in securing support, property or custody of children.

SPLITTING UP SAME SEX COUPLES

In the meantime, although same-sex couples cannot marry in this state, it seems they can get divorced. Or, at least, at the end of the relationship, their property may be distributed on an equitable basis – or what a judge finds to be equitable -- just like that of any other married, divorcing couple. A recent decision by another Manhattan judge produced what might be termed a non-marital divorce.

In the case of CY v HC, Yaffa Cheslow and Constance Huttner, both lawyers, had become registered domestic partners and exchanged vows in a religious service. Soon they jointly purchased an Upper West Side townhouse for $3.46 million. They lived as a couple with their three children (two of Huttner’s and one of Cheslow’s) and were, as the judge described it, “in all respects a family.” But, after two years in the family home, the couple separated.

Traditionally, where title to property is held jointly, as it was in this case, there would have been a 50-50 ownership interest and 50-50 split of the proceeds of the sale of the home. While title -- the name on the deed -- no longer controls in divorce, in any other situation a deed listing two names carries a presumption of equal interests. But Huttner argued that there was not an equal investment in the home because Cheslow had contributed only 7 percent of the down payment, closing costs, renovations, mortgage and insurance payments. As the larger contributor, Huttner said that the deed to the jointly held property did not accurately reflect their true, proportionate interests.

The judge could have found that, because the deed reflected a 50-50 interest, the property should be partitioned equally. Instead, the judge likened the case to a divorce. She deducted what each woman had put into the property as far as could be established at trial and divided the remainder in half. In this unusual result, the court concluded that Huttner was not entitled to credit for “any disparities in payments made by the parties to carry and maintain the townhouse after the couple moved in, and prior to separating” -- in other words during the period when they were partners in a family relationship and not mere real estate partners.

As reflected in these cases, it is often easier to form a bond than to dissolve one.

Emily Jane Goodman is a New York State Supreme Court Justice 

Coney Island's Summer of Reckoning


At the seashore then and now: One of world's great beaches

Development is booming along much of New York City's once neglected waterfront. New developments shoot up in Greenport and Williamsburg, as luxury high rises encircle more and more of Manhattan's shore.

But the waterfront is luring developers and residents to the edges of the city as well. Real estate firms have bought up chunks of Coney Island, including the Astroland amusement park. The city has a strategic plan for the Brooklyn neighborhood and plans to announce rezoning of the area within the next several months. With Thor Equities, the new owner of the Astroland property, envisioning luxury condos, indoor water rides and other year round amusements, some Coney Island aficionados wonder whether the area's unique spirit can survive. Isolated attractions – the Cyclone, the Wonder Wheel, the Parachute Jump – will stay on but what will surround them? And what will become of the businesses -- some marginal, some tawdry -- that have staked out territory at New York's southern edge.

Wonder Wheel: A landmark attraction

Beaches on the Edge

See also:

  • Coney Island: Vendors Contemplate the Future
  • The Rockaways: Rescue, Revival or Ruin?
  •  

    Coney Island Yesterday and Today:

    For more information on Coney Island:

    Coney Island Development Corporation: City agency charged with spearheading and implementing planning and economic development for Coney Island.

    Coney Island USA: A non-profit arts organization that promotes Coney Island and some of its traditions.

    Coney Island History Project: A not-for-profit organization that works to increase awareness of Coney Island's legendary and colorful past and highlight appreciation of the Coney Island neighborhood today.

    Rollers Coaster of Coney Island: Coney Island's role in the development of the favorite amusement park ride.

    Coney Island Lost and Found by Charles Denson (Ten Speed Press, 2002): This book by a Coney Island native weaves together memoir with stories of the areas past and personalities.

    Coney Island: The People's Playground by Michael Immerso (Rutgers University Press, 2002): A history of Coney Island from its earliest development as a resort to the Mermaid Parade, with hundreds of photos.

    The Incredibly Bold, Audaciously Cheesy, Jaw-Droppingly Vegasified, Billion-Dollar Glam-Rock Makeover of Coney Island (New York Magazine): What could replace Astroland.

    Currently much remains unclear. Although the city has a plan for the area, it has not yet issued a planned rezoning of the neighborhood's streets. While Thor wants some residential development, the city wants to keep housing – luxury or not – out of that part of Coney Island. The owners of Astroland have sold their land, but they apparently still hope some of the rides can be moved elsewhere. The B&B carousel has been shuttered, the horses and other parts moved for renovation. The carousel will take children in circles again some day – but its final location in Coney Island remains unclear. Underlying all this are concerns about whether anything can lure people to Coney Island in the winter and whether it can support a year round amusement area, to say nothing of hotels and posh apartments.

    The Municipal Art Society recently held a forum on Coney Island and its history in this era of development. Excerpts from the discussion are below. (While the society did not invite a representative of Thor Equities, another developer, Ari Shalam, Taconic Investment Partners, did speak. Taconic has a number of projects in Coney Island but not on the Astroland site.)

    Honky-tonk Fantasy

    By Stuart Pertz

    Coney Island is an extraordinary beach, one of the most extraordinary beaches in the world, in fact. We take it for granted because it's ours. Once a most incredible place, it remains pretty incredible.

    Preceding the 1800s, a number of Indian colonies were around Gravesend Bay. The oysters were the size of dinner plates, and they were packed in crates and sent off to Holland as a delicacy.

    The turn of the century was really the heyday of Coney Island. There were three racetracks, there was Luna Park, Dreamland and any number of smaller amusement areas, and there was the beach and the boardwalk. There were few places in the world that could boast the kind of architecture that Coney Island had. It was a combination of honky-tonk and then the phantasmagoric dreamland.

    There were five railroads and a horse drawn trolley that got people where they were going, plus a ferry that, at peaks times, ran every 20 minutes. Some people even came by car. There were lots of amazing hotels to stay in: big ones, little ones.

    It was more than a place of amusement, it was an attitude. This is apparent in the fact that so many musical scores were written on or about Coney Island.

    And it was also a community. Living nearby were people who did not necessarily work in the amusement park, but people who lived normal lives in Brooklyn in perfectly nice houses: some very suburban, some apartment houses, and some that were not so nice and in need of repair.

    The basis change came about after the fire at Dreamland. That fire and subsequent fires wreaked havoc on an amazing place that had boxing, restaurants and racetracks. They left Coney Island devastated.

    But it is still a great place to swim, a great place to walk, and a great place to bike. It is also a great place with some wonderful opportunities for preservation.

    Stuart Pertz is a former New York City planning commissioner.


    The Plan for Change

    By Lynn Kelly

    Coney Island is an opportunity for something very exciting. You may not have been to Coney Island, but you've heard of Coney Island. I think everyone I have talked to has at least some notion or recollection of the name. Other great assets of Coney Island are its beach, its community, and most importantly, its history. But there are obvious challenges too: disparate ownership, a lot of vacant parcels. There is a seasonality issue. We would love to make Coney Island more year round, but without amusements to bring you there, why would you want to go to Coney Island in the middle of February?

    History will show that in Coney Island, the city made mistakes. Now we have a great opportunity, with everyone united, to change that.

    The first step took place in the previous administration with the implementation and building of Keyspan Park for baseball's minor league Brooklyn Cyclones in 2001. When the Bloomberg administration came in in January of the following year, the first step was to unite the local elected leaders and come up with a vision of how we were to change Coney Island. The Coney Island Development Corporation was formed in 2004 by the mayor, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz and the local city council member, Dominic Recchia. It has a 13-member board and is charged with spearheading a comprehensive economic development strategy for Coney Island.

    As the president of the Coney Island Development Corporation, one of my first tasks was to work on the strategic plan. The vision for Coney Island, released in 2005, was based on three strategies. - It is important to get year round activity, new entertainment, and retail. - It is important to enhance the amusement district, because, without enhancing the amusement district, we've effectively lost Coney Island, we've lost that brand. - And lastly, Coney Island is in the middle of a vibrant neighborhood of over 50,000 residents, and it is important to provide opportunities to those residents.

    The B&B Carousel: It gets the bras ring -- renovation and a new home

    How will we achieve this? The strategic plan breaks Coney Island into different districts, and in each of these districts we have certain goals that will become a part of the reassignment for Coney Island.

    In order to look forward, you have to know your past. Let's start with the historic aspects of Coney Island and the icons that are there: The Wonder Wheel, the Cyclone the Parachute Jump, the Aquarium, the Shore Theater. All of these are going to anchors for new development in Coney Island. Four of them are landmarks. One – the Parachute Jump -- received a 1.5 million dollar lighting scheme within the past year and went into restoration. This is Coney Island east, the main amusement area, and we really want to see that grow as an amusement park.

    We're proposing new streets because, back in the day, part of the Coney Island experience was the pedestrian experience. You could wander or walk in and around a certain avenue and really enjoy yourself in a way that was pedestrian friendly. Currently the blocks are very large, they're mega-blocks. One approach to the strategic plan is to break off some us those mega-blocks with new streets.

    The existing zoning right now is called C, a very limited zone. It only permits, for the most part, open amusements. We need to give people different experiences when they come to Coney Island -- for example, hotels, music venues, entertainment retail -- and of course, more amusements and rides. So the new zoning would allow activities that could complement an amusement district such as entertainment retail and hotel.

    The Cyclone: Preserving the wooden rollercoaster

    Some might ask, "If you're going to bring in all this retail and activity, who is going to use it?" A huge part of the strategic plan is residential as well. North of Surf Avenue, where there are currently a lot of vacant parcels with a mixture of public and private ownership, we are proposing residential, with ground floor entertainment retail. You need a reason to walk down Stillwell or Surf Avenue, you need something compelling, and retail is an important part of that plan.

    The western end of Coney Island is a transition area and heavily residential. Here again you can ground floor retail. These are parts of the plan that we feel create the critical mass of people within Coney Island.

    We did a lot of outreach in the community when we were first composing the plan and two things came out of that. One was the importance of having a community center in Coney Island and the other ferry service to Coney Island. The city has already designated a developer that is going to build South Brooklyn's first full-service 40,000 square foot YMCA and affordable housing. The city is contributing $5 million to that project. The city is also going to request a proposal to study ferry service.

    This is a plan that has been presented to the public and will continue to be presented to the public. The mayor has already committed over $85 million to a variety of capital projects in the plan: public housing, the B&B carousel, new streetscape work.

    We're here, we're active in Coney Island, we're anxious to hear your. But let me leave you with one thing: Tell every person you know that this is absolutely not the last summer for Coney Island.

    Lynn Kelly is president of the Coney Island Development Corporation.


    Opportunity Around a Great Building

    By Ari Shalam

    In 2004, we looked around Coney Island and saw what it could be. We saw the new Stillwell Avenue subway station. We saw the Cyclones stadium, which was a great public investment although not necessarily planned the way we would have done it. We could see the Parachute Jump go into motion and the aquarium. We saw a lot of public investment and initiative.

    We saw the wonderful history of Coney Island. We saw the beaches. A lot of money had gone into rebuilding those beaches and the Boardwalk. And yet just behind the beaches, there's all this land lying fallow. You have to ask yourself why. Some of that land was orphaned – cut off from other properties. In particular, the stadium development took land that might have been used for new amusements and cut it off from the amusements already there.

    Luna Park: Architectural fantasy destroyed by fire

    The last thing we saw was a good transportation infrastructure. If New York City is going to accommodate the growth that it needs and the housing formation that the mayor has called, it has to site residential opportunities close to public transportation. Whether it is vehicular transportation or subway transportation, that is where the homes need to be. We need to have sustainable development in the city, and not develop things far away, where people have to drive.

    Our first acquisition was in the spring of 2005. The strategic plan came out just around that time. Everything that we are thinking about doing is fixed with that plan. We are going to do what we can to put it together and really bring about the reality of change in Coney Island, rather than some of the failed plans that have come and gone over the years.

    Now to something that is near and dear to my heart and to many of the people here: the Childs building. The Childs building is really one of the remarkable landmark structures of Coney Island. In the development community, you hear a lot of people say, "Gee, that shouldn't be a landmark." But it is. With the Childs building, there are no doubts. It is a wonderful building.

    There are a couple things about it that are particularly important. It happens to be at a place on the Boardwalk where there is a natural bend. Trying to draw people from the narrow, reduced footprint of the amusement area, around the stadium and into some of the more transitional areas, people will look down the boardwalk and see the Childs building. We see that as a kind of gateway piece.

    The Childs building has a great history. It was once part of the Childs restaurant chain. Since it closed in 1947, various people have owned it. The person we bought it from was a bookseller. It was an extraordinarily complicated transaction. The person did not really want to do anything with it. Many organizations have tried to talk to this owner. We were successful in August of 2006, finally consummating a long-term ground lease with the option to buy.

    We see it as a as a marquee food operation with catering and opportunities for people to come in and not only eat on kind of a passer-by basis, but actually have reservations and sit down. If you look over to Brighton Beach side, you see some restaurants that come out on the Boardwalk. As you walk by, they really pull you in.

    We have proposed restoring the fascia of the building. There are some beautiful medallions on there and great detail work. The interior of the building was a mess. It was dark and dingy. We have cleaned it up made it safer, installed security.

    We are trying to get in a position where it could be used very soon. Because we don't know how the ultimate rezoning and development will occur on Coney Island, we have to be careful of what money we spend now. But we are working on a way to open up the historic parts on a temporary basis this summer or at least open up the front portions of the building for that.

    Childs Building: Restoring a onetime jewel of the Boardwalk

    One of the ideas we kicked around is to try to create access to a second floor, or the roof, for a catering facility. Wouldn't it be great to have a wedding or an event and come out to the roof and look at the ocean? If you look at some of the old pictures, you can see that there was almost a beer garden up there. We're going to try and restore that. But the plan for that building really has to be taken in context with everything that's going to happen around it, not only the plans for the parachute jump, but also for Steeplechase Park which is a block or two away. We have to see what happens with the rest of Coney Island.

    Ari Shalam, Taconic Investment Partners

     

    New Bills: Rights in Restaurants, Banning Markers


    At each of the City Council's stated meetings, council members introduce bills. Most of them never become laws, but some do. (For the process by which bills become laws, click here). As a regular feature, Gotham Gazette discusses some of the legislation proposed at each meeting.

    Responsible Restaurants

    Amid press reports about underpaid and overworked employees in the city’s restaurants, Councilmembers Eric Gioia and Rosie Mendez introduced the Restaurant Responsibility Act.

    The measure, backed by the Brennan Center Strategic Fund and the Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York, would require establishments to comply with labor laws in order to have their operating permits renewed. By enforcing minimum wage and other labor laws, Bill 569 would combat the widespread cost-cutting measures that many restaurants employ at the expense of their staff.

    The restaurant industry is the largest private sector employer in the state, according to Carolyn D. Richmond, a lawyer for Heartland Brewery. And a study by the Restaurant Opportunities Center found that the New York City restaurant industry is expected to account for $13 billion in annual city revenue by 2010.

    Counter to this growing wealth, however, is the often bleak reality for the industry’s thousands of workers. Violations of labor laws are widespread in New York City’s restaurants with 59 percent of employees reporting violations of laws governing overtime wages, 52 percent reporting a lack of workplace safety training, and 38 percent reported being burned on the job. Additionally, 73 percent of restaurant workers said they had no health coverage.

    A number of lawsuits accuse restaurants of stealing tips from workers and cheating on wages. State Labor Commissioner Patricia Smith said this is because actors and immigrants who normally do not speak up for their rights have become “emboldened” and are speaking up.

    Delivery staff are among the restaurant workers leading the trend. For over two months, they have been protesting outside of the Saigon Grill because of firings and what they say are wages as low as $1.60 per hour. Earlier this month students organized a sit-in at the restaurant, and then joined delivery workers on the picket line.

    The Restaurant Responsibility Act would elevate the importance of labor laws by requiring disclosure of violations and would create opportunities for public comment on the restaurants’ practices as part of the permit process. The act would also add make the violation information available online, as the city currently does with health violations, and allow the city to conduct hearings on permit renewals.

    The government currently has the power to go after restaurants in violation of labor laws, but this act would established a clear mechanism, standards and penalties, according to Eric Lane of the Brennan Center.

    Graffiti Wars (Continued)

    Councilmember Peter Vallone Jr. introduced legislation to set new limits on materials used to make graffiti, such as aerosol paint, thick permanent markers and etching acid. Aimed at individuals under 25 years old, the law would require written permission for those traveling with these materials for work or school, or who are permitted to use the paints and markers on a particular surface or structure.

    Vallone won passage of similar anti-graffiti legislation targeting 18 to 20 year olds last year, but it was struck down by a federal court on first amendment grounds. Mark Ecko, a designer and backer of the lawsuit, pressured Vallone not to challenge the ruling. Vallone dropped the case but instead introduced this measure. Ecko’s lawyer, Daniel Perez, said, however, that the new bill does not address the issues raised by the suit. “I'm almost speechless that he would even propose this to the council, and I hope he tells the council before he gets them to vote for it that this bill has already been struck down as unconstitutional," Perez told the Sun.

    A buzz on the anti-graffiti bills has continued in classrooms where graffiti work is studied and conceptualized. Vallone said of the professor and students of a Geek Graffiti class at Parsons School of Design, “He’ll be giving his students As, but we’ll be giving them a misdemeanors.”

    Vallone has become a prominent anti-graffiti figure, and was featured in Bomb It, a movie about graffiti artists. Vallone opted not to attend the recent Tribeca Film Festival screening of the film citing that fact that he would be an unpopular guest.

    Siting Schools

    Over the next five years, the Department of Education plans to lease 30 existing buildings to open new schools. In light of this, Councilmember Robert Jackson introduced Resolution 836 calling upon the state legislature to amend the Public Authorities law so that the buildings leased will be subject to the same community, political and environmental review processes that apply to new school construction.

    The safety of school sites came before the City Council earlier this year when it voted on a proposal to build four schools on a toxic dump. Though members of the council and the public voiced concerns, the proposal passed unanimously after the Department of Education agreed to a new plan for cleaning up the area and to make the school siting process more transparent.

    Arts Funding

    In another resolution on education, Councilmembers Jackson, Oliver Koppell and Dominic Recchia introduced Resolution 837 calling for the Department of Education to maintain a minimum level of arts funding for New York City’s public schools.

    Mayor Rudolph Giuliani began Project ARTS (Arts Restoration to the Schools) in 1997 to fund arts education programs. But, according to the resolution, for the past few years, principals have been allowed to spend the arts funding on other projects, thus reducing the amount of money going to arts education. This would recommend that the education department set a baseline of arts funding to ensure that the arts dollars are spent as intended.

    Litter

    With homeowners grumbling about litter tickets, Councilmember Vincent Gentile introduced bill 568, which would change the city’s rules about litter around residential buildings.. Under the law, tickets would be issued when someone complains to 311 or another agency rather than solely at the discretion of the sanitation agents.

    According to the Gentile’s deputy chief of staff, Joe Mancino, the bill was inspired by the increasing number of “dirty area tickets” issued by the Department of Sanitation, often for reasons unclear to the property owner. This proposal and another one to be introduced at the next City Council meeting are intended to clarify the process. A related bill to reduce waste from unwanted circulars and menus also will be put before the council in the coming weeks.

    Unsafe Guns

    Councilmember Oliver Koppell introduced bill 572 to prohibit the sale and possession of unsafe, low quality guns, commonly referred to as “Saturday Night Specials.” These guns are cheap and easy to conceal, but because of their construction they are especially dangerous to gun owners and the public. And they are frequently used in crimes, according to the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The proposal would create a Pistol and Revolver Advisory Committee to advise the police commissioner on which guns violate the police department’s standards. Violation of the law would qualify as a misdemeanor.

    Notifying Tenants

    Councilmember Jessica Lappin introduced bill 573 to require building owners found to have unsafe conditions on the exterior walls to notify tenants immediately.

    Transportation Studies

    Councilmembers Vincent Gentile and John Liu introduced a bill that would require the Department of Transportation to conduct studies of traffic accidents, determine the causes of observed patterns, and make recommendations.

    Birth Certificates

    Councilmember Isabel Palma introduced bill 574 to allow prisoners to receive a birth certificate copy without a fee upon their release.

    Commuter Tax

    Councilmember Nelson introduced Resolution 841 —a perpetual dream for the reinstatement of the commuter tax.

     

    Have Laptops Flunked the Test?


    Last spring, the city launched a pilot program to provide a free laptop for every student at seven middle schools on the Upper West Side The “One-to-One in Ten” program (so named because it takes place in School District 10 and aims to achieve a one-to-one student to laptop ratio) had a modest beginning. But City Councilmember Gale Brewer, the chair of the council’s technology committee who championed the program and represents most of the Upper West Side, hopes that every public middle school student in New York City some day will have access to a laptop at school. Eventually some advocates thought the students might even be able to take their computers home at night.

    Brewer’s enthusiasm is based upon research that shows that using laptops encourage students to engage more deeply with their coursework. The so-called one-to-one programs also seek to prepare students for the technologically driven world in which they live and to close the digital divide between students who have computers and those whose families may not be able to afford them.

    But a problem has arisen: There is little evidence that students who use laptops in class do better on standardized tests than students who do not. Since President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act in 2002, a school’s aggregate performance on standardized tests has become of foremost concern for school administrators. Given this reality, a national backlash against laptops in the classroom is brewing just as New York City has begun to embrace the trend.

    PUTTING LAPTOPS IN SCHOOLS

    New York City is far from alone in using laptops for educational purposes. Maine has launched a similar program, and many Maine teachers who worked in one-to-one laptop initiatives are now advising others about how to begin similar programs. A study of 2,500 of the country’s largest school districts conducted last year found an increasing number gave all students and teachers computers connected to the Internet, sometimes for use at home as well as at school.

    DO COMPUTERS DO MORE HARM THAN GOOD?

    In general, though, evidence seems to be emerging that technology is not a cure-all for the nation’s classroom. A recent Department of Education study, for example, while not considering the laptop programs, looked at 15 software programs used in schools and found that they did not lead to higher test scores.

    On the other hand, as the Times recently reported, school district are seeing a downside to the computers. Many districts find that they spend too much time and money fixing and maintaining the computers. One letter writer to the Times pointed out that maintenance is a greater problem with Windows machines than Apple products. But regardless of the type of computer, students use them to access educationally trivial (and sometimes pornographic) web sites. Students at one suburban Syracuse school, the Times found, used the laptops to exchange test answers and view pornography. When the school tried to stop that, some students found a way around the increased security – and used the computers to tell their fellow students how to do that.

    Faced with all of this, school districts that serve a diversity of student populations — some affluent, some poor, and with various ethnic groups — are abandoning their laptops

    BEYOND TEST SCORES

    So, have the defenders of laptops in the classroom lost the debate? Is it time to revert to the chalkboard and the fundamentals of reading, writing, and arithmetic? Not so fast, argues Bruce Lai. Lai is Brewer’s chief of staff and an expert on how to increase broadband Internet access in underserved areas of New York City

    He points out that many of schools abandoning their laptops programs have students who have ready access to broadband Internet connections at home. He worries, though, that taking a similar step in New York City’s school will “consign working-class students” to a technological apartheid. According to a recent report by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, only 21 percent of households with an annual income of $30,000 or less had a broadband connection at home in 2006.

    Lai and educational research consultant Saul Rockman also question some of the reasoning that has led schools to abandon laptops. The goal of laptop learning, they say, is not to improve standardized test scores, but rather to capture the imagination of students as they work on projects that would either be impossible or much more difficult without a computer. For example, the students in Maine reportedly used laptops to create a book in Spanish for children in Guatemala, an activity whose benefits are difficult to quantify with standardized tests.

    THE TEACHER’S ROLE

    Another barrier to the success of laptop programs is teacher resistance. Instructors who are used to teaching the traditional way may resent the introduction of laptops into their classrooms. “The box gets in the way,” Liverpool, New York, school board president Mark Lawson told the Times.

    Teachers who perceive a potential benefit for laptops in their classrooms and are willing to change their teaching style to allow for increased student control of learning are more likely to take a positive view of one to-one laptop programs.

    Laptop programs should take this into account. Lai points out that meaningful plans for integrating technology into the classroom – and addressing resistance to change among teachers — are just as important to the success of the computing plan as the laptops themselves.

    Such cultural changes take a long time to occur but some are working on it. Teaching Matters is a New York based non-profit that seeks to hasten the process. Believing that technology can improve learning if it is used properly, they provide assistance in the classroom as well as workshops and on line help so teachers can make better use of technology

    In the meantime, researchers from Fordham University’s Regional Educational Technology Center have begun to evaluate the efficacy of the “One-to-One in Ten” initiative. Surely there is room for improvement, but one hopes it will find some signs of greater student engagement with their own learning. But that might not be enough. In today’s world, educational assessment is driven by standardized exams, and classroom laptop programs may fail the test.

     

    Stated Meeting: Protecting Fire Fighters


    At the city council’s stated meeting on May 9, the council members unanimously approved a bill requiring that the fire department be notified of any substantial changes in existing buildings. During the meeting, which also featured the long-delayed swearing in of new City Councilmember Mathieu Eugene and continued debate over whether to rename a street for black activist Sonny Carson, the council passed a resolution in favor of a federal program that would provide money to help those who responded to and worked or lived near the World Trade Center collapse on September 11, 2001. A number of new bills were announced as well.

    Fire Department Notifications

    The measure to improve safety information for firefighters, Bill 553A, was introduced by Councilmember Miguel Martinez and Council Speaker Christine Quinn and passed unanimously.

    The proposal arose from the death of two firefighters last summer when the damaged floor of a burning building collapsed. Quinn explained that, in conversations following the accident, firefighters cited the issue of unknown structural problems in buildings. “When work is going on, obviously a structure may be less sound and less secure, and that makes a collapse, like happened that day in the Bronx, more likely,” she said.

    The bill requires the buildings department to notify the fire department when permits for substantial renovations are issued. Currently, the fire department receives notice only of permits related to the installation of fire suppression, sprinkler and alarm systems. Amending the administrative code, this bill would expand that requirement also to include all permits involving substantial structural alterations such as changing a one-family home to a two-family home, transforming a facility from commercial to residential or relocating a building’s entrances.

    Under the new procedure, when the Department of Buildings issues a so-called ALT 1 Permit for substantial changes, it will tell the fire departments in that jurisdiction within one business day. This is intended to help firefighters prepare more safely and efficiently to extinguish fires in buildings, particularly if their structural integrity may be compromised.

    Martinez, chair of the Fire Safety and Criminal Justice Committee, said of the safety initiative, “This is the first step in insuring that our agencies are communicating. This is the first in insuring that when we have a fire department responding to a fire, they have all the information available to them so they can better respond.” Such information, he said, will help “prevent the loss or injury of the responders that are going to that fire.”

    The council is considering another measure to enhance safety information through similar communication with the buildings department. Councilmember Gale Brewer recently introduced Intro 496 to require building owners to file floor layout plans with the fire department. Initially, the bill called for the submission of detailed floor plans, but critics like Frank Rici of the Rent Stabilization Association found this to be too onerous, and fire experts described the measure as “pointless.” After public hearings, the bill was changed to require only “flight” plans, specifically how the stories of a building are arranged, such as showing that the 13th floor of a building is instead labeled as the 14th floor.

    While proponents say these two measures would increase the information that is available to firefighters on particular buildings, work that goes on without permits will remain undocumented.

    Grant Money for 9/11 Health

    The council unanimously passed Resolution 738, which was first introduced by Councilmember Joseph Addabbo Jr., in support of the 9/11 Heroes Health Improvement Act of 2007. This federal legislation sponsored by Senator Hillary Clinton would create a grant program for programs providing medical and mental health monitoring, tracking, and treatment for individuals who suffered from ill health effects following their work at Ground Zero after 9/11. The bill would especially support organizations working with those who lack medical benefits or whose expenses go beyond their coverage. The federal bill would authorize $2 billion for such programs between 2008 and 2012. Currently, the act has four other Senate sponsors, including New York’s Charles Schumer. A companion bill in the House of Representatives was introduced by Jerrold Nadler and sponsored by 16 other members of the House, including several from New York State and City.

    Reports and Updates

    The Committee on Aging’s Subcommittee on Senior Centers submitted a report on the emergency preparedness of senior centers. The report included recommendations for improvements, such as generators for summer blackouts, contact lists of homebound seniors, and bus service.

    Also, the council updated the membership rosters of various subcommittees.

     

    Data to the People


    Last week, City Councilmember Gale Brewer sat down for a live on-line chat with Gotham Gazette and its readers as part of out “Measuring Up” series. The chair of the council’s technology committee, Brewer, who represents the Upper West Side, discussed how technology can help citizens learn more about their government and influence its action.

    Gotham Gazette: A few years ago you proposed a bill, which passed, that requires the city to make data available from its 311 call center. Has this been successful? What has the data told us?

    Gale Brewer: The 311 data is now available on the web. The current commissioner of information technology and telecommunications, Paul Cosgrave, has met regularly with community boards to discuss 311 data. We are hoping that the discussions will lead to real-time data available at the community boards. The 311 system needs the community boards and elected officials to help to solve the complicated issues. We become 311’s follow up!


    We become 311’s follow up.


    Dick Dadey: What, in your opinion, has been the most successful technology project?

    Gale Brewer: 311 would be a good candidate for watching government if the data was divided up to reflect neighborhood issues. As you know, we are working with the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunication to develop a system that allows community board staff to get the information in a form that can be manipulated and integrated with their data. Currently the data comes in a pdf form that is too hard to work with.

    I also think that the Campaign Finance Board’s website is a good government watcher, but the website of the Board of Elections is hard to navigate. The sites of the City Clerk, Campaign Finance Board, Board of Elections etc. need to be integrated.

    Iphigene: What are some of the ways you think data collected by citizens or nongovernmental organizations can be effectively integrated into the city's efforts to track its progress? Could these kinds of partnerships work toward ensuring better city services or would it be too complicated? How could technology facilitate such collaborations?

    Gale Brewer: A good question. The Fund for the City of New York has worked with community groups and block associations by giving residents hand-held computers that have a list of neighborhood issues, such as potholes, vacant lots, graffiti, vacant tree pits. etc. Residents walk their neighborhood and punch in data for the issues that need to be addressed. The list could be expanded and residents could do this on a regular basis.

    In addition, with an expanded 311 system that can respond to residents and tell them if their problem is resolved (or not), the information on the handheld computers could be integrated into the 311 system. I have had the pleasure of using the handhelds, and I hope that all block associations could utilize them! I also hope that data could be collected by 311 via an email and not just by a phone call.


    Residents walk their neighborhoods and punch in data.


    Sara Stuart: How do you see technology and the internet facilitating greater citizens participation in zoning and planning issues in the next few years?

    Gale Brewer: Great question! The Municipal Art Society has funding and staff who meet regularly with community boards to implement their 197-A planning efforts [to develop community based plans] by using GIS technology (computer mapping). I was a member of a community board for years. Having a map of a zoning project at a meeting makes for a much more informed discussion.

    Gotham Gazette: You have been very involved in trying to bridge New York’s digital divide, particularly in the area of broadband access. How can government reach people who for whatever reason are not on line?

    Gale Brewer: In December 2005, I passed a law that mandated that the mayor and the City Council jointly appointed a Task Force on Broadband and how it could be used to close the digital divide. The law calls for hearings in all five boroughs. The Task Force had its first meeting in the Bronx, and the second is scheduled in Brooklyn on May 22, 2007, from noon to 2 p.m. at Brooklyn borough hall. All are welcome. (You can respond to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..)

    We have learned (not surprisingly) that the cost of the current carriers (cable and telephone) is too high for many families, that the libraries are not open enough hours to provide books or use of computers, and that there is wireless access in schools (via e-rate), but students are really only able to access two hours a week of computer use. We need more competition, less expensive or free access to Internet, and we need to include Instant Messaging and other forms of communication in the discussion in order to bridge the digital divide. The city's economic development commission is also conducting a study of how New York City should implement a wireless system. We are behind the rest of the world in access to low cost, fast Internet or other technology for communication.


    We are behind the rest of the world in access to low cost, fast Internet.


    Gotham Gazette: You have proposed a bill that would measure traffic congestion and set goals for reducing it. Everyone knows the city is crowded. Why is measuring congestion so essential to you plan?

    Gale Brewer: The Department of Transportation already measures traffic flow throughout the city, including potholes. But with everyone talking about congestion being a major problem, the department does not collect information with a focus on reducing congestion. That doesn't make sense to me. The mayor is proposing congestion pricing as a solution, but we need to know the extent of the problem and where it is the worst.

    Congestion plagues Manhattan, but there are traffic problems in all five boroughs. A comprehensive congestion study would allow the City to better strategically target its efforts. That is why I introduced Intro Number 199.

    Gotham Gazette: How do the goals you set for reducing congestion fit in with the mayor’s 2030 plan that includes congestion pricing, transit improvements and other congestion reducing measures?

    Gale Brewer: If Intro 199 passes, some of the mandated information collected will be health statistics at busy intersections, type of vehicles on the road and alternative forms of transportation including pedestrians and bicyclists. All of this is not collected now. This piece of legislation will require the Department of Transportation to study these various forms of transportation and identify goals on how congestion can be reduced and transit improved throughout the city. The department would then be required to report to the mayor and City Council on a biannual basis with updates on how those goals are being met.

    The information collected would better inform the city's strategic plans for congestion pricing, transit improvements, etc. by pinpointing locations where fast and comfortable public transportation should exist before congestion pricing is implemented.

    Ralph: You have advocated smart cards to improve bus transit times. Will you require that any smart card be anonymous to protect privacy and to avoid identity theft?

    Gale Brewer: Yes, I will advocate that the cards be anonymous. The advantage to the cards is that they allow passengers to move on the bus faster than with Metrocards. However, the technology used in the pilot project on the East Side of Manhattan has had challenges and is not ready for wider implementation.

    It is our understanding that there may be security issues. Also only Citibank cards can be used on the current system. I assume that other cards will be used once the challenges are worked out.

    Sydney: How does New York compare with other cities in its use of technology to monitor government and are there any particular models or programs elsewhere that you are interested in implementing or borrowing from?

    Gale Brewer: That would be a good question for an oversight hearing! We can ask representatives of states that have passed Clean Money Clean Elections laws to testify. 

    Stated Meeting City Council April 23, new bills


    At each of the City Council's stated meetings, council members introduce bills, most of which will never become laws (for the process by which bills become laws, click here). As a regular feature, Gotham Gazette discusses some of the legislation proposed at each meeting.

    Caregiver Status and Discrimination

    The city would expand the field of people protected by discrimination on the job under a bill introduced by Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, Councilmembers Bill de Blasio, David Weprin and Gale Brewer. Intro 565 would prohibit employment discrimination based on a person’s status as a caregiver responsible for a child or ill parent. The issue for such caregivers arises at work and when applying for jobs and often concerns such matter as compulsory overtime, schedule flexibility, opportunities to make phone calls and potential for promotion.

    Gotbaum’s initiative was prompted by a phone call from John Dallas, a New Yorker who cared for his ailing mother for eight years. He contacted the public advocate’s office after her came under pressure not to leave work to tend to her and instead to send her to a nursing home.

    A report by the Center for Worklife found that 57 percent of working caregivers have had to disrupt their work schedules to provide care. Another report by the Center for Worklife showed that New York is among the states with the most discrimination lawsuits arising from family responsibilities and that the East Coast region has the highest proportion of victories for plaintiffs in these cases. According to a 2004 report by the National Alliance for Caregiving mentioned in the text of the bill, over 20 percent of Americans and nearly two million New Yorkers care for family members or friends. De Blasio asserted that these caregivers need support and should not have to fear losing their jobs to tend to loved ones.

    Intro 565 would amend the New York City Human Rights Law, which is among the most comprehensive in the nation, to add caregiver status to the list of traits that employers may not discriminate against. The most recent amendments to the human rights law added protections for partnership status in 2005 and for victims of domestic violence, sex offenses and stalking in 2003.

    Currently, the District of Columbia is the only place in the United States to prohibit employment discrimination because of caregiver responsibilities.

    Gotbaum also supports the state legislature’s Working Families Time to Care Act, which would provide temporary paid leave to an employee to care for a family member.

    Enforcing Energy Conservation

    The day after Earth Day and Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s speech on creating a sustainable New York, Councilmember Dan Garodnick introduced bill 564 to improve the enforcement of the state Energy Conservation Construction Code and to create stricter standards for projects not normally covered by the regulations.

    The proposal would require specific and thorough documentation of a building, subsystems (such as lighting and ductwork) and equipment (such as escalators and plumbing) when substantial renovations occur. Currently, state regulations require that buildings undergoing reconstruction that affects more than half the structure comply with the Energy Conservation Code. By July 2008, this bill would extend that requirement to buildings with smaller construction projects and institute basic minimum standards for lighting, windows, heating, air conditioning and ventilation.

    Also seeking to reform New York City construction, Bloomberg last week announced plans to reform the city’s building codes, which have been described as “Byzantine” and “Talmudic.” His proposals would especially apply to new construction projects with regard to safety, conservation and efficiency.

    Watercraft Regulations

    Councilmembers Lew Fidler and Michael Nelson introduced bill 563 to regulate the sale and use of personal watercraft, primarily jet skis. Current New York State Navigation Law requires riders in personal watercraft to wear life vests, not drive recklessly, stay at least 500 feet from designated bathing areas and not drive in the dark. The law also requires crafts to have proper engine ventilation and be equipped with a horn, hazard light and emergency break latch. The proposal would require buyers of the crafts to be at least 16 years old. For their part, sellers would need to demonstrate the vehicle’s safety features and keep the purchasers’ information on record. Without the cap and controversy of the pedicab regulations, this bill has received minimal if any coverage in the press.

    Apologizing for Slavery

    Councilmembers John Liu, Larry Seabrook and Robert Jackson introduced Resolution 824 that expresses “profound regret for slavery and historic wrongs rooted in racial and cultural bias.”

    Though in the North, New York City had a long history of not only participating in the slave trade and profiting from slave labor, but also of having been reluctant to emancipate slaves.

    An inclusive declaration, the resolution states, “African American, Hispanic-American, Asian American and Native American communities continue to suffer from financial and social inequities, patterns of housing segregation, deficiencies in educational resources, and de facto remnants of formerly codified racism.”

    In discussing the resolution, Jackson emphasized the lingering impacts of slavery on African American New Yorkers, such as high incarceration rates and a lack of access to quality healthcare and education.

    Councilmember Albert Vann cited the fact that freed slaves, “never received the 40 acres and a mule that was planned,” and added, “I think the least of what we can do is to apologize.”

    The New York State Legislature also is considering a bill apologizing for slavery. These city and state apologies are relatively uncontroversial, but Assemblymember Hakeem Jeffries admits that winning passage of his bill to create a reparations commission would be “tough.”

    In April, the University of Virginia board passed a resolution apologizing for its use of slave labor. The states of Virginia, North Carolina and Maryland have made similar apologies, and Alabama and Florida are considering such resolutions.

    Commemorating Religious Freedom

    Councilmember Helen Sears proposed Resolution 825 to commemorate the 350th anniversary of the Flushing Remonstrance. This was the first exercise of freedom in religion in the United States, as the signers rebuked then governor of New Amsterdam Peter Stuyvesant for banning all religions except the Dutch Reform Church. A ceremony with descendants of the original signers is planned for December 27, 2007.

    Street Names Redux

    Twenty-nine council members introduced an amended street naming proposal that removed Sonny Carson Avenue from consideration. Bill 556 retained the other 51 thoroughfare recommendations.

    Speaker Christine Quinn had called for removing Sonny Carson from the rest of the bill because he was “divisive.” No council members commented on the change during the April 24, but two members of the community board that made the initial recommendation to honor Carson described the removal of his avenue designation as “arbitrary and capricious” and are filing a lawsuit.”

    Carson, a black activist who died in 2002, was heralded by for his civic work in the community and for his efforts against police brutality, but was also convicted of kidnapping in 1974 and was known for making anti-white statements and boycotting Korean groceries.

    If Carson does eventually become an Avenue, he would not be the first controversial figure to receive such an honor. Gates Avenue is named after slave owners, and Corbin Avenue initially was named after an anti-Semitic real-estate developer and later renamed for a Revolutionary War heroine with the same surname. And, in another contentious honor, entertainer Al Jolson who frequently performed in blackface, may soon be inducted into the City Council Hall of Fame.

    State Legislature

    The City Council also proposed two resolutions concurring with a state legislative proposals and one seeking action. Resolution 37 supports a bill which would allow any registered nurse or midwife who is a member of the New York City Employee Retirement System to participate in the age 55 improved benefit plan, a retirement program for people in physically taxing professions.

    Resolution 38 calls for the passage of a bill that would enable certain city employees who were laid off, specifically after the 9/11 cleanup, and later rehired to be able to buy back pension credits for the time of their suspension and be treated as continuously employed for the purposes of seniority and promotions.

    In Resolution 823, the council urges the legislature to make Elderly Pharmaceutical Insurance Coverage available to people eligible for social security disability insurance benefits.

     

    The Hard Choices Ahead


    Mayor Michael Bloomberg's energy plan should be lauded for its focus and vision. In what may be, by his own reckoning, the most important part of his overall plan for sustainability, the mayor has taken an activist approach to our energy future and made some extraordinarily wise observations. Efficiency, renewable supply, expanded resources, response to demand, a more mature financial market and upgraded reliability are the right challenges to focus upon.

    Respectfully, what we need now to begin to "finish the job" on energy and protect the long-term interests of our citizens and our city lies in the fine print- in more specific, and in some cases, more challenging initiatives to achieve the mayor's far-sighted goals.

    Case in point: The mayor rightfully puts his finger squarely on what may be the greatest barrier to more energy efficiency in our city: The individual tenant. Here we have an energy user who, due to the typical lease structure, often has little incentive to consume energy efficiently and little or no opportunity to improve energy efficiency. Yet I don't see an initiative in the mayor's plan that would address this. How does the mayor intend to get owners and tenants singing the same tune, in a key that will resonate with energy savings?

    Paying the (Real) Price

    One idea is "advanced metering," which provides more detailed information on when and how consumers use energy. This is a fine initiative to for larger facilities, but hardly the right stuff for the average Joe or Jane. Imagine installing a $600 meter in an apartment that consumes $800 in electricity for the whole year! Talk about a non-starter. But now imagine providing average consumers with inexpensive, one-way communication devices to let them know when electricity is most abundant and, therefore, least expensive and visa versa? Now we're talking a language that rings true to the pocketbook and could add up to huge energy savings for the city.

    If, however, we do install advanced meters in all buildings by 2014, as suggested, let us think twice about authorizing Con Ed to do the job. Why should the regulated transmission owner install these meters? Why not give some of the power back to the people?

    Con Ed has many important roles: to meter entire neighborhoods; ensure grid reliability; and provide rate plans that give consumers the opportunity to pay for consumption based on their actual usage. However, individual buildings and apartments should have a separate authority to see that people pay for the electricity they actually consume and also see to it that energy is literally owned by the user for the benefit of the deregulated marketplace.

    "Real-time pricing," where consumer pay different rates, depending on what hour they use power, is another positive change proposed by Bloomberg. It could motivate people to change their energy ways---by using energy more judiciously and cost-effectively. However, its impact on the city would be greatest in the residential sector, which is difficult to engage in a city with more than 3 million small accounts.

    Further, the New York Independent System Operator caps each hour's price. Can we get rid of that cap to truly allow the market to do motivational magic? The mayor has shown the vision; now will he help exercise the political will to accept the occasional $5 per kilowatt hours price for the larger goal of encouraging each of us to use less?

    A Market for Sustainable Energy

    Encouraging the use of renewable fuel sources, through tax benefits, is another laudable feature of the mayor's initiative. However, we need to think beyond tax incentives, to the more fundamental matters of how to inspire people to change their ways and how renewable energy markets should be structured if we are to achieve a truly sustainable energy market.

    For example, should we require fossil fuel power plants to buy a certain amount of energy---or "green tags"-- from renewable power plants to sell? If so, how much, and what is considered a "renewable" power plant? If I use dollars from the New York State Energy Research and Development Agency to support the construction of a renewable power plant, do I own the "green tags" that will be generated and eventually sold?

    Similar questions come up with respect to an energy efficiency market. Will power plants be required to buy back energy as "white tags" from those who install energy saving technologies? (Connecticut will require that, starting this year.) If so, how much energy will they be required to buy back? Will there be a cap on the price of these so-called white tags? If I use the New York City Energy Efficiency Authority to help fund a new installation, who owns the white tags -- the city, the utility or me?

    The mayor is perfectly positioned to ask these questions, and, in partnership with consumers and energy firms like ours, to seek answers. Parts of his plan already demonstrate courageous leadership and a commitment to real and potentially far reaching change. For example, I very much respect his idea of dedicating 10 percent of energy costs paid by city facilities toward build a more efficient infrastructure.

    Allowing power plants to sell electricity for the future, is also a smart initiative. With vision, Bloomberg has proposed taking this one step further, by allowing buildings to bid energy-efficiency projects into the market as if those projects were a power plant. So far, only New England has such a forward thinking policy.

    Taken together, the mayor's plan has raised some very important questions, answered some, and so far, not fully addressed or engaged others. We in the industry immodestly think we have some pretty good ideas as to how to best answer many of fundamental questions and address the challenges that go to the heart of our energy future. Working in collaboration with the city and its energy consumers, large and small, we have the track record to help the mayor make a difference. Sometimes we're in synch with the city's vision; other times we may disagree; in still other cases, we seek to extend the boundaries for change beyond the expected, understanding that the right thing to do is rarely the easy thing to do.

    Is Energy Too Cheap?

    Perhaps the most politically uneasy question to ask-and answer--is whether we should pay more for our energy. The courage to raise such a question, requires a willingness to state a fundamental economic truth: Given Gotham's blossoming economy, the reassurance that there will be enough electricity to go around at a predictable price, is far more important to our economic well-being than what that price is.

    Reliability of supply will be expensive. Ultimately, a courageous politician will admit that New York City's electricity prices are not high enough to sustain an economy that drives global markets.

    Some, perhaps many, will disagree with my belief that energy should cost more. However, we need to decide together where we stand on this, and on many other basic energy matters.

    Mayor Bloomberg's initiative is a constructive and potentially powerful first step on the path to a new, sustainable energy future. I know we can get there. But, if we are to get there we will all need to contribute hard advice and take courageous, sometimes unpopular, action. All of this seems a small price to pay to make good on the mayor's bold vision to build a lasting legacy in the energy infrastructure. More power to him.

    Mike Gordon is an energy economist with more than 25 years of experience in the energy marketplace. He is president and founder of ConsumerPowerline, a strategic energy asset management firm.

     



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