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In the News: A Turn for the Worse at North Cove Marina
••• Zaro’s Bakery chain will open a shop and kiosk in the Fulton Center, reports Crain’s. Also: Pen Parentis‘s M.M. De Voe discovered that Financial District Wine & Liquor (on Nassau) is opening a shop there, too—it’ll be called Freedom Wine. And according to a sign in its window, the Christian Science Reading Room at 130 Church is moving to 9 John, which appears to be one of the Corbin Building storefronts. (Where apparently it used to be, or so says the sign.)
••• Brookfield Properties presented its North Cove Marina plan to Community Board 1’s Battery Park City Committee, and it did not go well. “Brookfield plans to make space available for only seven boats for use by a sailing school, camp, and club this summer.” (The former operator “set space aside for as many as 30 boats for public use in previous years.”) It gets worse: party boats, for one thing. “What we like about them is that they bring people through the retail several times a day,” said the Brookfield rep. —Broadsheet
••• This isn’t Tribeca specific, but it’s important: If you patronize nail salons, you owe it to the workers to read the New York Times article on how horribly they’re treated.
••• The newish Planet Fitness on Canal has a serious theft problem. UPDATE: I stand corrected; it’s the Planet Fitness in FiDi. —Tribeca Trib
••• A review of the William Okpo boutique in the South Street Seaport. —New York Times
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The nail salon article should be mandatory reading for anyone who has ever used a nail salon. It is pretty sickening. How can we “patronize” those businesses when we know this is what is happening.
The Planet Fitness referenced by the Trib is the FiDi one on lower B’way, not Canal.
we now know why there are so many nail salons in tribeca…they don’t pay their workers! i now feel like i HAVE to increase my tips and secretly give them to the technicians.
i read the nail salon article WHILE i was getting my nails done at Ada Nails. i couldn’t help but ask the nail technician questions…no, she doesn’t get paid minimum wage; no, she doesn’t get paid for lunch; yes, she works more than 10 hours a day, 6 days a week. i spoke with the manager “sunny” and told her about the article and encouraged her to read it. apart from tipping extra or simply boycotting the place, what else can we do?
Uh, so you think Sunny cares? Obviously not. Tipping more is not a guarantee the workers will get the money. As long as people want cheap mani-pedis, Sunny doesn’t give a crap about her workers–clearly. Personally, I would rather paint my own nails with substandard results than knowingly fuel the indentured servitude of other women. No justification for patronizing those businesses.
i agree that sunny doesn’t care about her technicians, but i bet she cares about having customers. our dollars have power and we can make demands. i doubt that if i just told sunny i wouldn’t get my nails there until conditions changed, she would blink; but if every single customer came in and announced it, she might feel the heat. (i had visuals of me standing outside the door handing out copies of the articles to women who walked in) i applaud you for painting your own nails, but there are hundreds of women who won’t and will continue to support the business.
The nail salon story is overall depressing. These poor women. I have always felt like I tipped well, but now need to up it more. NO wonder they ask for tips only in CASH! They don’t want it stolen from the employer.
The owners ask for the tips is cash so they don’t have to pay the fees to the credit card companies on that portion of the charge!
Everyone knows that tips are often taken from these women–lets just be clear that you are just supporting the whole industry by continuing to patronize these places. Is it really so impossible to paint your own nails given what you now know undeniably about this system? People, let’s get our priorities straight.
Cami, what’s wrong with patronizing salons like Sweet Lily where the workers are paid real fees and treated well? There’s nothing wrong with paying for a mani/pedi, but yes, if you are paying $20 for a mani AND pedi at a typical Korean nail salon, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to think about what your technician is making and how they are being treated. If you can afford to get your nails done pay a real wage and support businesses that treat their workers fairly.
So does the truth emerge? When dismissing the previous lessee, Mr Mehiel was reported as saying that the BPCA board board wouldn’t be swayed by the political pressure in favor of one bidder to “preserve [its] economic interests.” Has he instead played into the hands of another bidder and its economic interests? It was reported that the ‘fear’ at the time was that North Cove would become the preserve of mega-yachts. But the truth now appears to be that it will become a party boat haven, merely in order to create foot traffic through Brookfield’s shopping mall; will we see hammered punters weaving their way through after a boozy cruise, happily parting with their dollars at Ferragamo? North Cove looks pretty forlorn these days, rather than a hive of activity (and foot traffic). It may remain largely empty this summer. Would it have cost the BPCA or Brookfield very much to give NCMM and the MYC say a year’s notice?
That would be the decent and fair thing to do, so of course, BPCA has no interest in behaving that way.
The truth is, it is about political =financial pressure. Brookfield pays the largest Pilot taxes to bpca. Why else would the BPCA foot the bill for the 250M renovation of Brookfield place?. Bpca also had to reward Farkas, for Cuomo’s reelection. This was a classic, kill two birds with one stone.
The marina will cater mostly mega yachts during the busy season and party boats when all the mega yachts winter in the Caribbean. Mega yacht season is pretty short in nyc.
Mega yachts will bring in people who can and will shop at brookfield.