Mayor Bloomberg, Part II - The Blanding of New York City

Mayor Bloomberg at a "Dead End"

Chinatown and Lower Manhattan residents protested on Tuesday in front of the Municipal Building bearing 10,000 signatures signaling their opposition to the City Planning Commission’s new rezoning proposal which omits their neighborhood. This omission signals open season for developers, endless construction and the displacement of long-time residents and businesses leading to the further homogenization of another of the city’s unique neighborhoods.

The International Herald Tribune reported in June that Mayor Bloomberg “has rezoned vast swaths of the city to accommodate bigger, more densely populated buildings, encouraging the construction of millions of square feet of office space, hotel rooms and housing. Over all, the number of construction permits for new buildings or major renovations issued by the Department of Buildings has soared 23.3 percent over the past five years.”

The result of all this is a construction boom, signaled by large signs on virtually every block blaring the same two words: “luxury housing.” Existing tenants in smaller, quaint buildings get displaced, the buildings are torn down, diversity and any resemblance to the ‘past’ is bulldozed over, and neighborhood after neighborhood starts to look the same.

As these changes go on around them, long-time landlords with long-time small business tenants start to raise rents, doubling, tripling the figures and those tenants are soon gone and replaced. As if they’re expendable. As if they never existed. The fabric of one too many neighborhoods is frayed, coming apart at the seams.

Yet, this is the climate Mayor Bloomberg’s New York promotes and encourages.

Juan Gonzalez writes about the “Lower East Side rezone plan another Mike Bloomberg boondoggle” in today’s New York Daily News:

“Theirs [Chinatown/Lower East Side residents] is a story that has become all-too familiar during the Bloomberg era: another stable neighborhood turned upside down by a massive rezoning. The sheer number of these rezonings - from Columbia University to Hudson Yards to Greenpoint-Williamsburg (Brooklyn) to Willets Point - boggles the mind.”

Gonzalez continues, “City officials routinely claim it’s for the good of the neighborhoods, but in the end a handful of well-connected developers and Big Box stores end up the big winners. Small businesses and low-income New Yorkers keep getting pushed out.”

It’s no coincidence that our city is vanishing at such a quick pace. It’s the blanding of our city, put into place in neighborhood after neighborhood, public space after public space, to create the City that Mayor Bloomberg, a billionaire, envisions. It’s a less interesting one but the billionaires and their friends are happy. That’s what matters, right?

What’s the answer?

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Photo: RS Eanes

Mayor Bloomberg, Part I - on his finances

Today’s headlines provide the information that Bloomberg L.P., Mayor Bloomberg’s private company, and one of the Mayor’s earliest business partners, Merrill Lynch (which provided the “seed money” for the venture) are “parting company.”

The New York Times reports that the “deal … places a public value on the mayor’s private company, Bloomberg L.P. That figure: At least $22.5 billion.”

The article continues, “Mr. Bloomberg is expected to buy Merrill Lynch’s 20 percent stake in Bloomberg L.P., the financial data and news provider he founded, for about $4.5 billion, people briefed on the deal said Wednesday. The sale will be handled through the trust that manages the mayor’s assets.”

Bloomberg easily spent $73 million on his election campaign in 2001 and more than that in 2005 on his re-election campaign, when presumably people of New York City were familiar with him.

The Times’ article omits mention of the what & why of the “trust.” The “trust” was put in place when Michael Bloomberg became Mayor of New York City. It was suggested by a city regulatory agency at the time he was running that Bloomberg divest himself from Bloomberg L.P. - advice he quickly ignored. With the news today clarifying the company’s worth, we can see why.

NYC Parks Department Motto: Stick to the plans, no matter how irrational or unwelcome they are.

AstroLand Park, Coney Island

The NYC Parks Department never ceases to amaze. Operates as a pure business model. Promotes privatization ventures without fail. Destroys thousands of mature city trees to put forth splashy expensive redesigns of parks. Pitches “MillionTreesNYC” “initiative” with little planning given as to how to care for and maintain the trees. Lets parks fall into disrepair so communities are desperate for change. Redesigns parks that don’t need redesign. Corporate giveaways of parks in areas where they are most needed (see: Yankees. The Bronx.) and the city pays for the new parks. Reduction in public space. No concern for community mandates or input. Manipulates Community Boards, NY City Council, and other city agencies by lack of transparency and purposefully withholding information and misstating plans.

If Mayor Bloomberg did not view city Parks as corporatizing entities that are exploited for their real estate value to property owners, businesses and tourism, and was looking for someone to care for and cherish our Parkland, NYC Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe would be out of a job and working for, say, Chase Manhattan, Madison Square Garden, or, perhaps, Bloomberg LP.

If there isn’t enough confirmation that the Parks Department digs in its heels and won’t abandon its plans no matter what damming evidence is in front of the Commissioner … than take the recent articles about artificial turf, that synthetic substance made from recycled tires that has been placed in 94 parks and ballfields across NYC’s five boroughs thus far.

Today’s Metro NY follows up a story in Saturday’s New York Daily News investigating the high temperatures the artificial turf reaches when a child, adult or animal walks or plays on it.

In Saturday’s (7/5) NY Daily News, Jeff Wilkins and Elizabeth Hays report: “Artificial turf installed in city fields can heat up to a blistering 162 degrees even on a mild summer day, a Daily News investigation has found.” This is twice as high as the temperature of natural grass.

The writers encountered 9 year old Yannick Pena at Macombs Dam Park in the Bronx after he walked on the artificial turf there. He said, “My feet are burning! I had to dump cold water on my shoes just to walk around.”

What would Commissioner Benepe say to that? Commissioner Benepe is, after all, a big advocate of synthetic turf.

Well, Liam Kavanagh, first deputy Parks Commissioner, told the News: “The temperatures can get very high during the heat of the day. But people are smart. They are not going to use a place that is uncomfortable to play on.”

Other than the heat, there are other problems: “Earlier this year, The News reported concerns that the millions of tiny crumbs contain heavy metals like lead and cadmium, as well as volatile organic compounds and other chemicals.”

Deputy Commissioner Kavanagh said the city would begin using a “carpet-style turf” and “plans to stop using the crumb-rubber infill because of excessive heat.”

However, in testing a field at Macombs Dam Park that has the “new turf,” The Daily News found that it also registered “as high as 160 degrees.”

In today’s Metro NY, Patrick Arden reports new signs are now appearing in the NYC parks and ballfields that contain artificial turf. The signs state: “This field can get hot on warm, sunny days. If you experience symptoms of heat-related illness, such as dizziness, weakness, headache, vomiting, or muscle cramps, move to a shaded area. Drink water, rest, and seek medical attention if you do not feel better.”

Metro’s investigation backed up the Daily News report, “One day last month, the artificial turf at Brooklyn’s Cadman Plaza was 165.5 degrees, while a nearby plot of grass measured just 83 degrees. Waves of heat rose from the field.”

Will the Parks Department follow the logical route and abandon their turf dream of installing these substances in 68 more locations? All evidence points to the contrary.

NY Daily News: “Kiss my grass, Mayor Bloomberg” by Michael O’Keefe

There has been much to report on Parks in the news lately … I’m still catching up! Michael O’Keefe, the New York Daily News Sports writer, wrote this past Sunday about the upcoming Jon Bon Jovi concert on Central Park’s Great Lawn:

Fans of Sayreville’s own Bon Jovi have apparently learned how to defy the laws of gravity! Either that, or Mayor Bloomberg and his administration are once again rolling over for sports teams and leagues.

Back in August 2004, as it was becoming crystal clear that the Bush administration had cynically exploited the Sept. 11 attack to drag America into a pointless war in Iraq, thousands of people from around the world came to New York to voice their outrage during the Republican National Convention.

Anti-war groups hoped to channel that anger with a massive demonstration in Central Park, but the city refused to issue the necessary protest permits. Peace, love and understanding, the city argued in federal court, is not healthy for Great Lawn grass and other living things.

But when Major League Baseball and its corporate sponsors decided to host a Bon Jovi concert this coming Saturday, in conjunction with the July 15 All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium, nobody in the Bloomberg administration apparently raised a Sambora about the grass. Is Bloomberg livin’ on a prayer, hoping Bon Jovi fans will hover over the Great Lawn?

The Bloomberg administration will argue that this is all about numbers - the 60,000 rock fans expected for the Bon Jovi concert won’t have the same impact on the grass as the 250,000 protesters United for Peace and Justice hoped to rally in Central Park in 2004.

But given how Bloomberg has consistently put the greed of the sports teams - especially the Yankees, Mets and Nets - over the needs of ordinary citizens, you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.

As Daily News columnist Juan Gonzalez pointed out last week, City Hall is backing a Yankee request for $366 million in additional tax-exempt financing to complete the new Yankee Stadium - a very expensive handout for a private business that employs a tiny number of New York residents.

Lawyers for Willets Point businesses, meanwhile, say the city has refused to provide even basic services to the neighborhood for years. So is it coincidence or conspiracy that the city has decided to use eminent domain to throw out the junkyards and body shops just as the Mets are putting the finishing touches on their nearby new stadium?

Bloomberg, meanwhile, has been a shameless cheerleader for Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project, which has become an international synonym for a shameless corporate land grab.

A free Bon Jovi concert might be a nice midsummer gift. But stop rolling over every time a sports official asks for a favor, Mr. Mayor. Some New Yorkers would rather protest a bloody and immoral war than chill out with bland suburban rock.

I’m impressed by sports writers. They inject passion and reflect on history in a way that, for the most part, political writers and media covering City Hall don’t. If politics was covered the way sports is, perhaps more people would know what was going on and the world … our City … would be a different place.

Asbury Park: An appreciation of “the gritty.” Madam Marie, Boardwalk psychic immortalized by Bruce Springsteen lyric, dies

Asbury Park is not a park and it’s not in New York City. But like Washington Square Park it’s a place that matters. It has history and charm and spirit. Well, at least, it did until the Asbury Park government sold it down the river - several times.

It will always have a magical spirit, no matter what they do to it. There was a time when it was seedy and charming and, if just left to its own devices, it would have rebounded in a harmonious way. But instead, “investors” came in, including, inexplicably, Johnny Cash and Michael Jackson and Henry Vaccaro, and began constructing a building that blocked the famous driving strip along the Ocean. They declared bankruptcy and left this monstrosity, like a shipwreck protruding from the sea. There. in the middle. of everything. For years. The town went careening downhill from there. But then. It happened. There were signs of life. Again, it could have just transpired on its own. But “developers” appeared (earlier in this decade) and instead of proposing a few tweaks here and there, they wanted to reconstruct miles and miles, take property via eminent domain, bring Asbury Park ‘back.’ The city government, again, went for it.

Mark Moran, writer from a magazine, book and web site appropriately called Weird NJ, summed up the previous incarnation of Asbury Park well:

The Asbury Park that I knew and loved in my younger days was not the wholesome family fun resort of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The Asbury Park of my fond memories [early '80's] was a seedy, run-down seaside town, languishing in the afterglow of its earlier heyday, when it was the jewel in the crown of the Jersey Shore. …

What was left in the wake of the retreating nuclear families and day-trippers, was an odd assortment of misfit characters. They were the kinds of people who were not necessarily welcomed with open arms in other resort towns, but who felt comfortable here. Bikers, hippies, gays, rockers, and religious cultists had all adopted Asbury Park as their new summer home. This eclectic melange of personalities gave the town a vital counter-cultural flavor. There was also a thriving (and now legendary) nightlife, where local rock bands could share the stage at places like the Stone Pony or the Fast Lane with internationally renowned acts. Fans from all over would travel for miles just to hang out in the local clubs hoping to catch a glimpse of Bruce Springsteen (not an uncommon occurrence at the time).

In addition to its colorful cast, what really made Asbury Park appealing in its waning days was the same things that drew people there generations before. The beach, boardwalk and buildings there were still among the most beautiful on the entire Jersey Shore (albeit deteriorating rapidly).

There are similarities between the saga of Asbury Park and Washington Square Park. Both places had ups and downs. Heydays and not-so-great days. But both were at a place where they just needed the city to come in and do a little bit of repairing, grease the mechanisms a bit. Instead, they swoop in with their charts and graphs and maps and attempt to wipe the slate clean. There’s seemingly this driving force behind it: a need to make everything somewhat whitewashed and devoid of its history. To make these magnificent places homogenized and stripped of the very qualities that make them so special. To make it all the same. The strip mallification and corporatization of every inch of space. No one is more of a proponent of that, via his policies and endless development of our city, than Mayor Bloomberg.

How do you legislate appreciation of the gritty? It would be really wonderful is if those in “power” could appreciate the mixing it up of real artistry with glamour, of the not-so-pretty and the people on the edge and realize that those are all vital contributions to what make a place matter.

What would Madam Marie say?

Madam Marie, Asbury Park boardwalk psychic, survived it all. She was 93 and died on Friday, immortalized in Bruce Springsteen’s 1973 song, “4th of July, Asbury Park(Sandy),” with the line “Did you hear the cops finally busted Madam Marie for tellin’ fortunes better than they do?”

NY Daily News: “Fort Yankee Stadium” Or … Mayor Bloomberg further shows his true colors

From yesterday’s New York Daily News:

Fort Yankee Stadium

Mayor Bloomberg apparently has adopted a bunker mentality on the new Yankee Stadium project, as serious questions arise over “equal” replacement of parkland, huge cost overruns, questionable financing and other issues.

Parks Commish Adrian Benepe is now under orders to pass any media inquiries about the project directly to Mayuh Mike’s press office.

Maybe City Hall needs to build a bunker under the new stadium.

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Want to know more? Click here.

Events at the Squares - Washington Square Park (Saty 6/28) and Union Square Park (Wed. 7/2): Reclaim Our Public Space

Washington Square Park and Union Square Park are two of the great public spaces in New York City - each with incredible historical references and ideals. Public space - our commons - is being continually minimized and distorted in the interest of privatization and the ’shopping mall’-ification of the city. Real estate interests and Business improvement districts (BIDS) rule and communities lose out in Mayor Bloomberg’s New York.

Come learn about and reclaim these two great NYC spaces.

Two upcoming events:

Washington Square Park * Saturday, June 28th(tomorrow!), 12 noon

Come to the Walking Tour! WASHINGTON SQUARE PARK: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE:

A Guide to New York City’s Redesign of a Perfect Public Space

(Raindate Saturday, July 12th, 12 noon)

Meet Up at Washington Square Arch, Washington Square North @ Fifth Avenue ; $5

“In the 1950s, Jane Jacobs helped keep cars out of Washington Square. But a new redesign - which will entail dismantling the fountain, removing the chess tables and cutting down decades-old trees - puts the beloved green space in jeopardy all over again. [WSP CID] leads this tour through WSP, which highlights some of the proposed ‘improvements.’” - Time Out NY 6/26/08

Trains: A,B,C,D,E,F to West 4th Street/Washington Square

Presented by Washington Square Park Blog and Washington Square Community Improvement District(CID)

Union Square Park * Wednesday, July 2nd, 6 p.m.

Celebrate this year’s national nativity party ye olde fashioned way…

PUSH BACK PICNIC !

Northern end of the Park, by the Abe Lincoln Statue

As the nation prepares to celebrate it’s 232nd Birthday, and the Union Square BID (Business Improvement District) prepares to privatize the LANDMARKED Pavilion building, come join the Community Improvement District (CID), along with your favorite radical heroes of Union Square for a radical auction action and more. Make a bid on your favorite national chain store franchise! Dance circles around stodgy, stogie-smoking, sell-out politicians! Marvel as the park pushes back against the greedy takeover artists!

Let’s push back the privatizers and keep Union Square a place for public gatherings, public rallies, and public play. PUSH BACK THE BID — UNION SQUARE IS NOT FOR SALE!

More info: Union Square Not For Sale

Yankee Stadium Parks update: Parks Dept is “inexperienced” in building parks on top of parking garages.

The New York City Council Parks & Recreation Committee called the NYC Parks Department forward to ask a few questions yesterday about the delays (2 years) and skyrocketing costs (from budgeted $99.5 million to now $174 million) of replacing parkland in the South Bronx taken away to create the new Yankee Stadium. Remember how NYC government took away 40 acres from 2 parks (destroyed one entirely) in their quest to give the Yankees Corporation whatever they wanted for their expensive, high tech building? The Parks Committee decided it was time to offer some oversight.

Timothy Williams reports in today’s New York Times: “On Tuesday, council members asked Liam Kavanagh, the parks department’s first deputy commissioner, a series of pointed questions, including whether the agency had been dishonest about its original cost estimates.”

Kavanagh was sent forth by Parks Commissioner Benepe to explain the situation. He asserted that “the department’s inexperience with such complex projects was partly to blame.”

City Council Parks & Recreation Committee Chair Helen Foster asked about the largely increased costs, ““Is there a possibility the numbers were watered down or made less to make the package more appealing?” (Was it ever appealing?)

Mr. Kavanagh responded, “I can assure you there was no attempt to underplay the cost of the replacement program.” (Would they admit that?)

Finally, Parks representative Kavanagh explained the real problem was the “unusual locations” chosen for the replacement parks, “including one atop a stadium parking garage.” “It is not something we are fully familiar with,” he commented.

Imagine that they decide to take over some of the parkland at Central Park for, say, a new DisneyLand and, by way of explanation, the Parks Department says, “You know that public space you ran on, where you rode your bike, and walked your dog? We’re going to replace it and it’ll be even better. Trust us. We’ll be cutting down 400 mature trees but … we’ll plant more! And, yes, your new space will be on top of a parking garage blocks away and you’ll have to cross the West Side Highway to get there. But, don’t worry, you’ll adapt.”

That is the equivalent of what happened to the people in the South Bronx who watched their parks destroyed all in the interest of privatization for Mayors Bloomberg & Guiliani’s “vision” for our city.

Bloomberg L.P. “Summer Party ‘08″ Takes Over Randalls Island (A “Public” Park?) This Past Weekend for Gala Event - Oh My!

Despite articles written about the not-so-ideal work conditions at Bloomberg L.P., Mayor Bloomberg’s company, I gather they make it up to their employees once a year with a gala event every summer to show us city folks who is boss. After all, it’s not many city parks that get closed off to the public for private parties for weeks at a time (includes preparation) yet somehow Bloomberg L.P. is able to swing it!

Connections? Parks for Sale?

The dubious and overwhelming presence of private-public partnerships in our city parks, lauded by NYC Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe and Mayor Bloomberg, registers as only more apparent when it comes to the issue of Bloomberg L.P.’s “Summer Party.”

Held this past weekend, the event consisted of: a ferris wheel, a merry-go-round, flying swings, roller skating rink, human foosball (I’m trying to picture that), salsa dancing, a classic car showroom, miniature golf, espresso bar, a Burger Shack (any relation to Shake Shack?), kid’s camp, and more!

Needless to say, it takes over two weeks to set up.

Perhaps if it was one day, that would be one thing - still questionable - however, closing off a large majority of a public park (the rest is under construction) for weeks at a time for a private corporation is a bit, um, outrageous.

Juan Gonzalez wrote in the Daily News last year, that for over two weeks, “East Harlem residents who crossed the footbridge into Randalls Island hoping to enjoy the park were confronted during those days by an unusual police presence, metal barriers and signs that read: ‘Private Event - Do Not Enter.’”

Gonzalez continued,” Randalls Island Sports Foundation officials refused this week to answer questions about how much the company paid to use the park or what the foundation’s policy is for private parties on the island. And there in a nutshell is why such a fury has erupted in recent weeks against the way Randalls Island is slowly being transformed into a playland for our city’s privileged and well-connected.”

And then, of course, there was that deal (still on the table) that was made to “give 20 of Manhattan’s richest private schools exclusive use on weekday afternoons for the next 20 years to most of the more than 60 new ballfields that will soon be built or renovated on the island.” All under the private-partnership mantra that this will help pay for the renovation. (No questions ever asked about why our parks are not adequately funded.)

If you were looking for a clue as to why New Yorkers, Mayor Bloomberg, think New York is going in the wrong direction, I think you could start right there at the site of your company’s lavish party on Randall’s Island, New York City “public” parkland.

Mayor Bloomberg This Week in the News

*Bloomberg L.P. has taken over half of Randall’s Island not under construction (for those ballfields for private school kids) for their annual private party which includes “several weeks” of preparation. Parks for Sale? The event will take place next weekend, and “in years past has included an indoor ice -skating rink, exotic animals, belly dancers, amusement park rides, a casino and a temporary beach made from trucked-in sand.” Metro NY’s Patrick Arden has the story.

*New York Times reports 33 trees in Central Park didn’t survive last week’s storm. David W. Dunlap writes: “It would be a sad census in any case, but the tally of trees lost in Central Park to high winds during the storm on June 10 comes with particular ill grace in the middle of the Million Trees NYC campaign.” Amazing how pervasive the Million Trees NYC hype is despite the true facts surrounding Mayor Bloomberg and his Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe’s tree destruction in our city’s parks.

*”Money for Needy goes to Wealthy Schools, Report Says,” an article in today’s New York Times which notably leaves out any mention of Mayor Bloomberg. (And they wonder - see below - why people don’t like the direction the city is going in yet don’t link him to it?)

*The New York Times also conducted a poll about the city and Mayor Bloomberg. Although many read it as validation of Bloomberg’s “popularity,” it was a bit more complex. While “approval” of his job as Mayor is at 67%, according to this poll, 56% of the people polled feel that “things in New York City have gotten seriously off track” vs. going in the “right direction.” (7% didn’t respond or weren’t sure.) Basically, a group of people believes Bloomberg is doing a good job but they don’t link him with what’s wrong. Yet, they are “hard pressed to point to any particular accomplishments of his administration.” Could his high rating be because of stories like the one above in which is name is omitted thereby erasing any links? Yes, people should put these pieces together for themselves but the media is very powerful in shaping impressions.