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July 16, 2004
curbed
curbed: More paparazzi of real estate than consumer.
Covers Manhattan and Brooklyn real estate,
and sometimes western Queens.
More about decorations than morgages, financing, and rates.
Posted by dc at 01:50 AM | Comments (0)
July 10, 2004
Jon Cooper To Harass Rapid Drivers
See also NYS Speeding Ticket fixers
Jon Cooper Looks To Harass Rapid Drivers
SUFFOLK COUNTY
Legislator pushes for county-wide ban of radar and laser detectors, jamming devices
By Brian Ferry
bferry@longislandernews.com
If you like to drive fast, and you rely on a radar detector or jamming device to
keep you from writing checks for speeding tickets each month, then Jon Cooper
will be happy to serve you.
Cooper (D�Lloyd Harbor), the Suffolk County Legislator who brought to Suffolk
County a ban on the highly controversial weight-loss drug ephedra and a law
requiring the use of a hands-free device to operate a cellular phone while driving
an automobile, is looking to make the streets safer for drivers across the county.
At a press conference held on June 30 at the Suffolk County Police Departments
Second Precinct, located on Park Avenue in Huntington, Cooper announced that
he has introduced legislation that would prohibit the purchase, sale, and use of
radar detectors and laser detectors in all vehicles in Suffolk County. New York
State currently prohibits the use of radar detectors in commercial vehicles over
10,000 pounds and any vehicles over 18,000 pounds. Cooper wishes to extend
this ban to all motor vehicles, including passenger cars. Cooper�s resolution
would also ban radar and laser jamming devices, which work to �jam� radar and
laser guns that police officers use to detect the speed of a vehicle.
Robert Moore, Chief of Department for the Suffolk County Police, explained that
police officers may not even realize that there is an automobile utilizing these
devices.
It depends on the sophistication of the device. The detector tells you that there
is a unit out there and the police officer would not know that the person has the
device out there, Moore said, adding that with a jammer, the officer would know
that his or her gun is being interfered with, but would not know which vehicle is
doing so.
Such a ban on radar and laser detectors and jammers would be the first of its
type in the nation. The use of these devices by motorists to ignore speed limits
endangers other drivers and hinders the ability of police to enforce traffic laws
and maintain safe driving conditions.
�The only reason for a motorist to use a radar detector or jammer is to break the
law, plain and simple, Cooper said at the press conference. People who
recklessly use these devices put thousands of innocent lives at risk every day
and this has to stop.
Cooper and Moore both explained in different instances that these devices are
readily available at many locations, including retail stores such as Best Buy and
on the Internet. Moore said that just last week, the department was able to find
850 sites that sell Mobile Infrared Transmitters, or MIRTs. They are the devices
that emergency vehicles use to signal the change in a red traffic light that allows
them to pass quickly through traffic.
And they're brand new, Moore said. 'Access to these things is not all that hard.'
Violations of this law would be punishable by a fine of up to $250 per violation.
'Suffolk County has the dubious distinction of having the highest auto fatality rate
in New York State', said Suffolk County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer.
'Any efforts by people to thwart the enforcement of traffic regulations that would
endanger the citizens of Suffolk County is something we cannot tolerate.'
A public hearing on Cooper�s resolution will take place on August 10 at the next
meeting of the County Legislature in Hauppauge.
The bottom line, as always, is [the question] 'Why are the police doing this � [or]
'Why is government doing it ?' Moore said. 'Are we doing it because it is fun to
harass the public' No. We're doing it because the actions we're trying to prevent
could end people's lives.'
Long Islander News
Posted by dc at 04:14 PM | Comments (0)
July 09, 2004
Villages West project in Melville
Affordable Housing’s Next Step
Last week, Town of Huntington officials gathered at the site of the Villages West
housing development in Melville to announce the start of a lottery process to
award homebuyers the right to purchase affordable housing units there. A total
of 60 two-bedroom condominiums will be built in the gated community that, when
it is completed, will be the last of five phases of housing built on 155 acres
comprised of the former McGovern Sod Farm and another parcel.
The rezoning that allowed the Villages and Villages West to be built at a higher
density than its existing zoning would have permitted ended a decade-long effort
by their developers to reach an agreement with the town. When the rezoning was
approved in the early 1990s, it was the promise of an affordable housing
component that made the difference. In return for a higher density zoning than
would otherwise have been allowed, the builder, Barbash Associates, agreed that
20 percent of the housing built on the property would be made available to
first-time homebuyers at below market rates. The price of the 2-bedroom
condominiums: $140,000.
It’s taken more than a decade since the rezoning was approved by the town
board under the administration of then-Supervisor Steve Ferraro, but those
affordable homes are on the way. Thirty future homeowners will be selected in a
lottery on November 15 and families should begin moving in by the spring of
2005. Thirty more units will be made available in a similar process when the final
phase of the five-phase development is completed.
Everything about what led to the creation of these affordable units was right. In
return for a higher yield — and thus greater profits — the developer was required
to provide affordable housing. A win-win situation for everyone involved.
Since then, the town has passed legislation imposing similar requirements on
developers of large projects, but things are not going quite as swimmingly.
For one thing, the steady upward spiral of property taxes has school districts
growing increasingly concerned about the addition of new housing stocks for
anything but childless senior citizens because of the impacts on enrollment. As a
result, the Greens at Half Hollow, comprised of more than 1,000 housing units,
was restricted almost exclusively to senior citizens. And to meet the town’s
required affordable housing component, the developer was allowed to build the
affordable units on another property miles away. What’s more, since that project
fell short of the required 20 percent, the developer exercised an option to write a
check — as is allowed under the law — instead of building the housing.
Unfortunately, while construction on the luxury Greens has chugged along, the
off-site affordable housing hasn’t been started.
Huntington was on the leading edge when it required an affordable housing
component of developers, and if other towns don’t follow Huntington’s lead, the
county or state ought to step in to mandate similar requirements. And while
they’re doing that, perhaps Huntington could lead the way again by finding ways
to deal with the questions of school children and rising property taxes.
From LongIslander News
Posted by dc at 03:25 PM | Comments (3)
July 05, 2004
Meatpacking District: the Epcot Center of alcoholic fun
The 13-story Gansevoort hotel was next. It had just opened its rooftop bar that
evening. Up top, I found dozens of young men in striped shirts and young
women in short skirts, enjoying the fantastic views. (Full disclosure: I, too, was
wearing a striped shirt.) The service was still coming online — the drinks took
awhile — but at least they cost only $14.
The neighborhood's developers have unwittingly built the Epcot Center of
alcoholic fun, with everything from ersatz France (Pastis) and ersatz Goa (Spice
Market) to ersatz Miami (the Hotel Gansevoort, the Maritime Hotel) and ersatz
London (Soho House). Throw in a handful of new lounges and clubs that you
could find in pretty much any of those places (PM, One, Cielo), and you have
exactly what it feels like on any given night in the meatpacking district: a
mobbed, boozy and tragically hip theme park.
The intersection of Greenwich and Gansevoort Streets has become a kind of
night life Five Points, with rival gangs of Frat Boys, Stiletto Girls and Expense
Account Creatives battling the Euros and Those From the Boroughs. One
half-expects Daniel Day-Lewis, whose Bill the Butcher would have felt at home in
the old meatpacking district, to emerge in a Thomas Pink shirt and a pair of
Gucci loafers.
Defenders of the district say the explosive development is a result of the
increasing stringency of rules on noise and what they perceive as a crackdown
on night life in other parts of the city.
"It's like Custer's Last Stand," said Mark Baker, an owner of Lotus on 14th Street,
one of the original group of cooler-than-thou bars that opened in the area about
four years ago. "Night life has been squeezed out of every other neighborhood in
the city, but this neighborhood doesn't have a real residential presence yet, so
night life doesn't disturb anyone."
NYT.
Posted by dc at 03:36 PM | Comments (0)
UK in NY
Union Jack flies at British bastions like Myers of Keswick on Hudson Street.
New York's British community came to watch soccer at Nevada Smith's, a
popular Anglo-haven on the edge of the East Village.
Camilla Hellman, president of the British Memorial Garden, which is being built in
Lower Manhattan to commemorate British victims of 9/11. Ms. Hellman had
popped by the offices of the St. George's Society, one of New York's oldest
British institutions, which was founded in 1770 to help the poor and whose walls
are decorated with framed letters from the Royal Family.
Posted by dc at 12:20 AM | Comments (0)