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Seen & Heard: Chambers Street Spa Confirmed
••• It turns out that if you close a whole bunch of streets to vehicular traffic—as happened in Lower Manhattan on Saturday for the Shared Streets event—the streets left open will get totally, miserably jammed. Also, the notion that cars were being allowed through at 5 m.p.h. struck me as unlikely—I saw barricades blocking streets and no one there to let anyone through.
••• Speaking of traffic jams…. While the layout of the new Eataly struck me as an improvement, over the Flatiron one, visiting it on a crowded (i.e., normal) day proved that the place is still a challenge. My main issue—besides the fact that only three registers were open at 1 p.m. on Saturday—is that you’re forced to walk way out of your way to get to the registers, and if you’re carrying a basket, good luck navigating around the throngs of bovine tourists. UPDATE: Meant to mention that Eataly’s website says it’ll be closed Aug. 15 and 22.
••• A reader who goes to the Asanda Aveda spa said someone there confirmed that Asanda signed a lease on Chambers, presumably the last storefront at 95 Chambers.
••• Lotus Salon on N. Moore appears to be changing its name—or taking on a second one?—to Tokuyama Salon.
••• I’ve sat through a few Community Board 1 discussions about whether an intra-city bus is allowed to use a certain bus stop, so it surprised me to see this one disgorging passengers onto Varick on Saturday (because the bus stop signs mention only MTA buses). Does anyone know what the rules are?
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I am so glad you mentioned something about buses. I have recently noticed that Church Street near Warren and Murray (and further south to Trinity) has become a parking lot for buses, often idling and “off duty”. A three lane road narrows to one because you have buses double parked on either side. Did I just notice this, or has this been our new reality for a while?
Yesterday I saw three or four on the east side of Church; they all said “PATH shuttle.” Are those the ones you mean?
This unauthorized location is one block south of the 1st police precinct. NYPD is the designated enforcement agency for these intercity buses.
See http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/ferrybus/intercity-bus.shtml
“DOT has been authorized by the New York State Legislature to implement a permit system for intercity bus operators. This system requires intercity bus operators to apply for a permit from DOT before they can make on-street stops in the city. […]
“Intercity buses that operate scheduled service into or out of the city are prohibited from loading or unloading passengers on city streets except at designated locations, and must obtain a permit from the DOT in order to do so. […]
“School buses, charter buses, buses that operate within the city, and buses providing government-contracted public transportation do not need permits. […]
“Bus stop permits are issued for a period of up to three years. […]
“The New York Police Department enforces the intercity bus permit rules. The NYPD may issue fines of up to $500 for the first offense and up to $2,500 for subsequent offenses within two years of the first violation for the following offenses:
* a bus is stopped without proper identifying markings;
* a bus is loading/unloading without a permit
* a bus with a valid permit is stopping or standing in its assigned bus stop but is not actively engaged in the loading/unloading of passengers
* a bus with a valid permit fails to prominently display a copy of its permit
* a permit holder alters its intercity bus permit”
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/intercitybus/nyc-dot-authorized-intercity-bus-stops.pdf
Shared Streets was a bust for us. As we walked to the edge of City Hall Park just after 11am, there was no indication of “shared.” Cars were everywhere, honking. None of the booths were set up. We, along with other confused people, approached the NYC Info booth at the south end of City Hall Park to see if we misunderstood the program. The staff said that they had no idea what we were talking about, and that there was no such thing as Shared Streets.
We continued toward the Seaport, and saw some streets closed off, and some that looked totally normal – meaning that no human in their right mind would walk in the street. Lots of cops were sitting in cars, but no one was really making sure that the streets were shared.
Here’s Gothamists’ review, and I have to agree. In NYC, it’s much easier to just shut down streets than try to share. http://gothamist.com/2016/08/14/shared_streets_experiment.php#photo-1
Shared Streets made zero sense and the implementation was even stranger. Fulton Street was packed with cars zagging. Why not just close the streets down? You can’t expect drivers to drive at 5 pm on a road. It’s horrendously unclear.