Seen & Heard: Citigroup Construction Noise

••• Water from the 30 Park Place plaza’s water features has been running all over, so now someone has put plastic barriers around them.

••• From Brookfield Place: “From August 28 to September 1, the Waterfront Plaza at Brookfield Place will be taken over by a pop-up tennis court for guests of all ages to try their hand at a serve. The court will host daily events for all experience levels ranging from tennis lessons, clinics, open court, and a corporate tournament later in the day. Kicking off the event on Monday, August 28, two surprise tennis legends will christen the courts with a special one-off match at 8 p.m.”

••• “I am wondering if you know whether Citigroup has a deal with the city that allows them to jackhammer and drill into the night and on weekends without regard for the hardworking (and high-rent-paying) citizens,” asked I. “For those of us living across the street, the constant construction noise is maddening.” I bet. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Department of Buildings has granted after-hours permits to the project. You can check by going to the DOB website, and entering the borough and address (388 Greenwich). Look for the link to after-hours permits in the lower right of the page. Clicking that will get you to the approved variances. You can always complain to Community Board 1, which can drag in the developer/contractor for a discussion. Citi regularly goes before CB1 to give updates, so you should keep an eye on the agendas and attend the next one to complain about the issue. You’ll have much more impact if you get others to attend, too.

••• I had forgotten about New York Vintners’s plan for a big “indoor farm” at 100 Church, most of which will be below ground, but here’s the street-level part at 61-69 Barclay.

•••Well, this sure is tacky. I thought the only reason the city is in the newsstand business is to collect advertising revenue—so why does a panel go without advertising? (If no one wants to pay, offer it to local groups.) And since the city is in charge of the design specifications, can’t it insist on none of this ugly, flashing lighting?

 

3 Comments

  1. Funny thing about this newsstand – it doesn’t sell newspapers.

  2. That newsstand is next to my building, and it is indeed garish. When we first heard about it we researched whether there was anything we could do and there was not. These newsstands are multiplying like rabbits. Hard to believe that they do enough business to justify the license and other costs, but who knows?

  3. This was a Bloomberg thing…a lot of stands went out of business because they couldn’t afford their share of the “upgrade.”

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