Seen & Heard: City Tree-Planting Program Is Skipping This Area

••• Sitting in my apartment yesterday, I got so frustrated with the insanely loud, totally piercing beeps of this cherry picker—it beeps whenever the basket moves—working at City Hall that I went over and asked how long I could expect it to go on for. (Two weeks!) Then I called 311. (“Where’s City Hall?”) So I tweeted councilmember Margaret Chin, whose office is now looking into it.

City Hall cherrypicker••• And then I got so disgusted with this UPS truck that I tweeted (and then emailed) the company.

UPS truck••• Possible next grumpiness target: If AT&T can’t bother to unlock this plaza more often, it should give it to the community. A great spot for a playground in an area that could use one….

ATT Long Line 33 Thomas plaza••• And I’m going to assume that China Blue is not doing anything untoward to that loading dock.

China Blue••• Community Board 1 sent out an email about the city’s street-tree planting program, with a link to the spring 2015 planting locations. There’s not one in Tribeca, and only a handful in FiDi. Chinatown and the Lower East Side are getting the bulk of the new trees downtown. Bad news for Hudson, W. Broadway, and all the other streets whose trees have been chopped or otherwise left to die.

••• 506 Canal has come out from under the plywood! Those three buildings look fantastic, aside from the billboards, of course.

••• Demolition continues at the 268 West block. The first pic is from West Street, looking toward Washington; the second pic is of 39 Desbrosses, where Ponte’s restaurant was.

268 West39 Desbrosses

 

2 Comments

  1. FYI, China Blue is not involved in the work shown in your picture. The work has been contracted by the building; the work has been approved by the buildings department, DOT and Landmarks, and permits have been posted.

  2. Has AT&T been asked to make the Thomas Street Plaza open more often? They seem to open it every weekday reliably at 7:30am, but weekends would be nice. This weekend’s use as employee parking surely must be a violation of the public plaza rules.

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