Seen & Heard: Dangerous Film Shoot

••• Robin Brouillette found some very young kittens abandoned on the street last night. Stop by her pop-up boutique on W. Broadway (next to Edward’s) if you’d like to adopt one.

••• Thanks to A. for sending over the World Trade Center Health Registry’s 2013 report.

••• Pen Parentis’s M.M. DeVoe says the Overseas Fujianese Cultural Center of America is now open at Nassau and Ann: “Part museum. Part bookstore. All crazy.”

••• From Friends of WaMaPa: “Join the Friends of Washington Market Park at the Gazebo for our Annual Christmas Celebration. Saturday, Dec. 7, 2:00-3:00 p.m. (rain date Dec. 8). Meet Santa and his trusty elves and reindeer will be on hand to give rides in an Adeline Adeline bike/pedi-cab! There will also be caroling with Trinity Church youth choir and ornament making with Church Street School, along with all kinds of sweet treats!”

••• From N., who wrote in to complain about the Keanu Reeves film shooting the other day: “The workers were all very nice and civil and even acknowledged to me how ridiculous and unsafe the conditions were on the block. There was a cherry picker on the south side of Duane between Church and W. Broadway on multiple days last week (including Friday) with two of its huge monster truck industrial wheels on the sidewalk. At prime drop-off/school times (8:30-9:30), the crane was loading and unloading through the window at 144 Duane, which created a very unsafe condition for parents and kids at Washington Market School and JCP. We are talking furniture and cameras and very heavy equipment being passed through. No special safety conditions were in place —no person warning pedestrians or cones to prevent walking by/under the crane. And the crane kept moving and swiveling—people literally had to duck to get out of the way and walk on the sidewalk to school. We are all for film crew jobs and movie sets in our backyard, but how can we prevent these unsafe conditions from taking place? Why couldn’t they set-up or disassemble when kids weren’t going to school? Why couldn’t there have been safety procedures in place? Who should we be voicing concerns to? Community Board 1? The police? Who does the permitting?” I think you could bring it up with Community Board 1 in the hope that they can call to the carpet someone from Made in NY, as the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting is now known. My own experience with that organization have never been fruitful; they seem to exist to facilitate the shoots, not to manage the relationship between the crews and the residents.

••• A. forwarded an email from Tom Goodkind about the city’s Division of Housing and Community Renewal rent overcharge application: “According to Serge Joseph, the lawyer who assisted in the stabilization of 37 Wall and who visited [CB1’s] Planning Committee a few weeks back,  if one tenant in one of our many 421-g buildings fills this out, and DHCR sees this building as stabilized, it could stabilize the entire building.  Even better, the timing of stabilization starts with the DHCR decision. So let’s make our local tenants aware—the list of local 421-G building is [pictured].”

Update: Comments have been turned off due to spam. To have them turned back on, email tribecacitizen@gmail.com.

 

11 Comments

  1. Erik,

    Do you have any more insight on the last item? I currently live in one of the buildings listed and am not sure how to proceed. The last thing I want is the landlord to get angry with my complaint and slack on future repair requests, etc.

    From what I understood the building already was stabilized. Do we fill this out if we think we are being overcharged? If so, how would one know?

  2. @Bryan: I’m afraid I don’t have a clue. I’d suggest reaching out to Community Board 1, which would understand much better exactly what this is about. (Or if anyone reading this knows and wouldn’t mind connecting with Bryan, let me know and I can put you all in touch.)

  3. I too would like more info on the rent stabilization piece. My building is also listed and our rent has never been stabilized… We’ve had increases steadily for the past several years. Is this form meant to be a report of the fact that the rent has not remained stable?

  4. I too would like more info on the rent stabilization piece. My building is not listed but will my mortgage be stabilized? Will my mortgage (aka: property) be subsidized by the government (aka: tax payers)? I don’t want to take responsibility for my own life, I just want what I want and I would greatly prefer for others to pay for it or pay Cool?

  5. Smithers, I’m pretty sure taxpayers already pay for your mortgage.

  6. @Ellen, and I’m sure you’re pretty. ;)

  7. @Ellen,

    Can you tell me how your are “pretty sure” that taxpayers are paying Jim’s mortgage? I live in Tribeca an have a mortgage and I’d like to get some of that government cheese too?!

    The mortgage fiasco we lived through in 2008 that led to a taxpayer bailout was a function of greedy bank’s and Clinton’s initiative that “all” folks should enjoy the benefits of home ownership. Guess what – some folks should NEVER be homeowners….simply because they cannot afford to. I lived and worked my a#s off, and rented for 20+ years until I was able to afford the down payment and monthly payments of home ownership. I think that 90+% of homeowners are in the same boat as me.

    Your comments are both divisive and factually incorrect.

  8. @Marc: Mortgages are tax deductible. So if you’re not taking those including this yours as a tax deduction, go right ahead.

  9. @KP: TheTribeca Citizen regularly publishes recent real estate sales in Tribeca. Not sure what your experience is but I notice that most sales are in the $2MM-$7MM range with more and more transactions north of $10MM.

    Your comment seems to imply that all mortgage interest is deductible, when you know it’s limited to mortgages up to $1.1MM. I would argue that the overwhelming majority of mortgage interest in New York City is NOT tax deductible.

  10. We have a number of converted buildings in our area – especially in the Financial District that were commercial and are now residential rentals. If you live in one of these, those who developed the property may have gotten a 421-g tax advantage which requires rent increases to be stabilized, and would further protect renters under additional stabilization laws.

    To find out if you qualify, view the attached list (above). If you rent, and your building is on the list, you can fill out the attached (above) Rent Overcharge form and send it to DHCR.

    One resident did this at 37 Wall Street and now the entire building is under rent stabilization.

  11. Smithers, I tried. My little brain just can’t keep up.

    Marc, I think you need a new accountant. A limit doesn’t mean no deduction. And if you’re trying to make us feel bad for you because you have a mortgage that’s over a million dollars…sorry.