In the News: ISIS Selfies

••• “Governor Andrew Cuomo is hoping to bring major changes to Red Hook, just one of the proposals he will talk about in his 2018 state of the state address. […] Cuomo will ask the MTA to study the potential of extending subway service from Lower Manhattan to Red Hook via a new underwater tunnel.” —Curbed

••• “Jihadis are spreading chilling selfies of a man brandishing ISIS logos while posing on New York City streets [….] Another is of someone holding a smartphone with the terror group’s logo on its screen in front of the World Trade Center. The phone-holder appears to be standing near the corner of Houston Street and the West Side Highway.” —New York Post

••• “Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the city would spend $50 million to secure high-risk public spaces from attacks by vehicles, and from vehicles that go out of control because of a medical emergency. The money will go toward a range of safety measures, including installing 1,500 metal bollards at some of the city’s most-visited locations and placing large planters at other vulnerable spots. […] Aside from Times Square, city officials declined to say where many of the bollards would go and noted that it would take a few years to install all 1,500 of them.” —New York Times

••• “By paying for the installation of [subway] elevators Madison Equities, the developer of nearby 45 Broad Street, would be allowed more square footage for their tower. […] The new elevators, with their accompanying glass structures, would provide handicap access to the Broad Street station of the J and Z lines and, by underground connection, the Wall Street station’s 4 and 5 lines. Last month, opponents submitted to Community Board 1 an online petition signed by some 270 residents of 15 and 30 Broad Street who oppose the ‘dangerous structures.’ They say the elevators would give a bomb-carrying terrorist a tempting entry into the secured area around the Stock Exchange.” —Tribeca Trib

••• “A woman grabbed a $1,000 iPhone from the hand of a 29-year-old Gold Street resident who was waiting for the A/C train on the northbound platform. ‘Don’t even try to chase me,’ she said to the victim before fleeing.” And more thefts in the Tribeca Trib police blotter.

••• The Caviarteria caviar bar, which lasted a few years on Murray Street, is trying again—in the East Village. —EV Grieve

••• Chef David Bouley listed “his sprawling, rustic duplex [at 161 Duane] for $5.5 million. The biggest selling point? The woodburning fireplace was built with 17th-century stone from the same quarry used to construct Chateau de Versailles.” —6sqft

 

4 Comments

  1. Train to Red Hook is another actually useful thing cheaper than the Oculus.

    See NY Times: Subway Stop and Housing for Red Hook Are Among Cuomo Proposals
    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/03/nyregion/red-hook-subway-housing.html

    “The idea would be to extend the subway from Lower Manhattan to the neighborhood, using a tunnel underneath the East River. The container terminal along the shoreline would be relocated to Sunset Park, potentially clearing the way for the redevelopment of more than 130 acres of publicly owned waterfront. […]

    “The potential redevelopment area is larger than Battery Park City, the community built on landfill in Lower Manhattan, and about six times as big as the largest private real estate development in the United States: the $25 billion Hudson Yards complex now taking shape on the Far West Side of Manhattan”

    Two different $3 – $3.5 billion plans envision a stop on Governor’s Island (allowing added development there) plus tens of thousands of affordable and market-rate apartments in Red Hook.

    • Won’t Red Hook be more or less underwater in a couple decades? It was totally submerged during Sandy. Seems a bit foolhardy, no?

      • From the NYT article: “Perhaps the biggest environmental challenge is that Red Hook, portions of which are built on landfill, sits more or less at sea level and is vulnerable to rising seas and flooding.”

  2. The comment published on the Tribeca Trib article suggesting an escalator for the disabled and that other disadvantaged groups, the tired, is breathtaking in its cluelessness. Exactly how will an escalator help a wheelchair user?

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