Seen & Heard: Cortlandt Alley Condos

••• If only the ticket was enough to discourage FedEx from doing this kind of thing again.

••• From Notify NYC: “There will be a fireworks display off of Liberty Island [today], 6/12, at 9 p.m.” Maybe I no longer need to mention Ellis Island fireworks? If you find it helpful, let me know and I’ll keep doing it.

••• I don’t mind the idea of a fee if it’s in lieu of a tip…. (The link says that it’s Grazin’s fee, not Seamless’s.)

Grazin fee••• There are flyers on W. Broadway for a shoot on Monday; it’s that TV show “The Affair.”

••• I don’t think we’ve seen this rendering before: It’s of 372 Broadway, the decrepit building being converted to condos—with the main entrance at 6 Cortlandt Alley.

••• Press release: “This Sunday, June 14, pop legend Neil Sedaka and Grammy-winning band The Klezmatics will kick off KulturfestNYC, the first-ever week-long celebration of the impact of Jewish culture on the world, with a free concert at 7:30 p.m. at Winter Garden at Brookfield Place.” More info.

••• Another press release: “O.A.R., The Word, Ryan Bingham, and The Wood Brothers will headline the annual free Lowdown Hudson Music Fest at the Brookfield Place Waterfront Plaza on July 14 and 15, Arts Brookfield announced this afternoon.” More info.

••• “I ate at the Parm in Soho on Sunday,” commented Amy. “The waitress said they expect the Brookfield location to open by the end of the month.” At this point, I think we have to ask: Which month?

 

3 Comments

  1. Parking ticket? How about a DUI?

  2. http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20130526/ECONOMY/305269980/parking-tickets-all-in-the-cost-of-doing-business

    Quoting:

    FedEx, UPS and the U.S. Postal Service. Together with Verizon, Time Warner, FreshDirect and other businesses with large delivery fleets, they compose the bulk of the city budget’s $550 million-a-year parking-ticket bonanza.

    Just in the first three months of [2013], FedEx racked up $1.8 million in parking violations. A spokesman for UPS said the Atlanta-based delivery company was also paying the city more than $1 million a quarter for parking infractions.

    Of the 10 million or so parking tickets issued in New York each year, 20% to 30% go to commercial-delivery companies.

    “If we have to double-park, then, yes, we will. It’s the cost of doing business,” the UPS spokesman said. “That’s all there is to it.”

    […]

    The city has set up two programs to address industry complaints and help ease the process. The Department of Finance’s stipulated-fine program expedites the payment of parking tickets and, in some cases, halves or even eliminates penalties. Vehicles in the program can legally double-park anywhere except midtown Manhattan, but tickets issued to them cannot be contested.

    But business insiders and transportation experts complain that the city’s commercial-parking programs amount to legitimizing illegal behavior.

    “It’s a disgrace,” said one prominent real estate developer who asked to remain anonymous. “There is no reason why FedEx and UPS should be occupying curb lanes for the next 50 years. And the city has not lifted a finger to get those guys off the street.”

    Paul Steely White, executive director of Transportation Alternatives, was more delicate in his criticism.

    “You have big delivery companies writing the [cost of] tickets into their business plans,” he said. “Preferably, they should be paying the same rate as everybody else, because getting a discount on a parking ticket just exacerbates the problem of congestion. They’ll just park there all day long.”

  3. Install the black sidewalk pylons found in many European cities. Done.

Comment: