Seen & Heard: Australian bridal imports on Warren

GETTING HITCHED?
The pop-up shop on Warren off the corner of West Broadway is hosting an Australian wedding dress designer with a massive following there for this week, which, if live under a rock, is Bridal Fashion Week. George Elsissa (on the right) (who is also half Lebanese) and his husband are here to try to break into the US market.

STAKE-OUT ON WEST BWAY
Anyone have any info on these guys and what they are doing staking out Balloon Saloon almost every morning? G. reports that she sees them in the mornings, and not in the afternoons. She snapped these on two different days.

5 BORO BIKE TOUR PROMISES TO KEEP IT DOWN
S. also reported that the folks from the 5 Boro Bike Tour, who came to the transportation committee meeting of CB1, promised to do better this year with the agreements that they made last year, but didn’t follow. (This year’s event is Sunday, May 5.) For one, they agreed that an event phone will actually be answered this year (it was not last year). They also promised to have someone from Bike NYC at the start line to double check that all sound agreements are followed – most importantly no bullhorns before 9a. They will also try to have better communication with the neighborhood prior to the event. Members of the committee asked if they would begin to search for a new starting point, since this neighborhood continues to grow.

THAT BAG WILL COST YOU
Councilwoman Margaret Chin was among the handful of city legislators who want to introduce legislation to include a 5-cent fee on paper bags, as part of the plastic bag ban just passed by the New York State Legislature. Chin’s press release said: “In cities, states, and countries around the world, a small fee on single-use bags has helped the vast majority of shoppers, across lines of income, race, age, and family size, to shift to reusable bags. The result has been a reduction of millions of tons of solid waste.” The State Legislature adopted a statewide plastic bag ban as part of the budget over the weekend. However, the legislation leaves the option of a fee on paper bags open to each municipality. In Suffolk County, where a 5-cent bag fee has been in place for a year, there has been a reduction of over 1 billion single-use bags.

TRIBECA ALLIANCE PARTNERSHIP MEETING
Tribeca Alliance Partnership will hold its next organizing meeting on Tuesday, April 16, 6:30-8p, at Gymboree Play & Music, 100 Reade St. The group is looking for volunteers who have two hours each month and can handle a project that will benefit the Tribeca community. The goal is to have businesses and residents work together to keep the community’s unique character. Annual membership is $45. If you have a small business, you will be added to our Tribeca map and presented on the TAP website as a member.

 

20 Comments

  1. 5 Boro Bike Tour should consider shifting sightly to the south and starting at a wide open spot in a more commercial area like adjacent to the Oculus and Century 21 on Church Street.

  2. In theory reusable bags are better for the environment than plastic, but they are more resource intensive to produce and distribute than plastic and are not reused enough times to compensate.

    This does not account for the resources needed to wash reusable bags, to avoid breeding and spreading bacteria and viruses from carrying raw foods and placing the bags in dirty shopping carts (especially the baby carrier portion.)

    • @James: How many years does one have to use them for them to compensate for the resources they use in manufacturing?

      • From Atlantic Monthly, 2016:

        “In 2008, the UK Environment Agency (UKEA) published a study of resource expenditures for various bags: paper, plastic, canvas, and recycled-polypropylene tote bags. […]

        “The UKEA study calculated an expenditure of a little less than two kilograms of carbon per HDPE bag. For paper bags, seven uses would be needed to achieve the same per-use ratio. Tote bags made from recycled polypropylene plastic require 26, and cotton tote bags require 327 uses.”

      • A 2018 study by Denmark’s Ministry of Environment and Food found that, considering a large set of environmental impacts, e.g., “Climate change, Ozone depletion, Human toxicity, Resource depletion”, when compared to an LDPE plastic bag, an organic cotton bags would need to be reused “for grocery shopping at least 149 times for climate change, at least 20000 times considering all indicators.” A conventional cotton bag would need to be reused “for grocery shopping at least 52 times for climate change, at least 7100 times considering all indicators.”

        • Mine’s nylon!

        • OK, so cotton bags are environmentally evil. But all non-cotton bags scored well in the Danish analysis: one has to use them just 40-80 times to keep impacts below single-use plastic bags. That’s pretty easy. I’ve been taking the same two non-cotton bags to the Saturday farmers’ market on Greenwich Street for over a decade, or around 500 uses.

  3. The stake out guys are school security guards (2 preschools on that block). They walk the perimeter of the block.

  4. Expect powerful, organized, well financed opposition to a plastic bag ban:

    “As communities increasingly take action on the worsening plastic pollution crisis, the chemical and plastics industry and front groups like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) have stepped up efforts to protect corporate profits through mass-produced preemption bills meant to “ban plastic bans.” This year, new bills to prevent local action on plastic pollution have been introduced in North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Florida, and reintroduced in South Carolina, Utah, and Missouri…

    ALEC has worked side by side with the Plastics Industry Association and its front group, the American Progressive Bag Alliance (APBA), to push model legislation for legislators to introduce and champion nationwide. This preemption approach has been used to benefit corporations over local communities on other issues including the minimum wage, paid sick leave, and fracking. Statewide preemption laws currently prohibit 70 million Americans in 10 states from enacting bag ordinances to reduce plastic waste and pollution in their communities.

    The American Chemistry Council (ACC), which is a member of ALEC, originally created the American Progressive Bag Alliance (then called the Progressive Bag Affiliates) and played a more active role in lobbying against plastic bans. In 2011, the ACC announced that the APBA was becoming a division of the Plastics Industry Association, which became a member of ALEC in 2013. In recent years, the Plastics Industry Association and the APBA have worked more closely with ALEC to oppose plastic bans across the country. Companies like Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and SC Johnson were listed as members of the Plastics Industry Association as of 2018. While SC Johnson recently stated that it supports plastic straw bans, it is still a member of the association whose APBA division leads preemption lobbying against local plastic pollution ordinances.

    The preemption bill in North Dakota was introduced by ALEC’s state co-chair, Dan Ruby, and 5 other members who are closely aligned with ALEC’s priorities. Both the North Dakota and Oklahoma legislation closely track an ALEC model policy that has been used to pass plastic ban preemption laws in other states. The South Carolina and Utah bills that were reintroduced this year do as well. In Missouri, the legislation expands upon its existing preemption law preventing action on plastic bags to now include cups, packages, containers, bottles, and other packaging. Following a year that saw plastic straws explode in the national dialogue, the Florida bill preempts local action against plastic straws, and the North Dakota bill adds new language to ALEC’s previously-used model policy to include straws as well…”
    https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/news/chemical-and-plastics-industry-and-alec-conspiring-to-block-communities-from-acting-on-plastic-pollution-crisis/

  5. James is correct about reusable bags. Alas.

    • Well, I have had the same Patagonia shopping bag in my purse for about eight years. I wash it once in a while. I think it’s definitely better than a plastic bag. It holds way more. Plus it has shoulder straps. And I am the last thing from a germaphobe. So, that works for me.

  6. I recently worked at a fundraiser at the coat check area. We put bags and shirts in plastic bags for the participants. The bags tore almost immediately. I recycle bmy plastic bags as I am sure most people do. City Hall can screw themselves with their politically correct crapola.

  7. IKEA bags, like https://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/17228340. They’re not made quite as well as they were when they cost 79 cents, but I have a bunch I have been using nonstop for maybe 15 years. They work for other loads as well, and when they get dirty, a quick wash in the tub cleans them right up. Did I mention they hold a lot….

  8. Security Guards- From THE CITY newsletter: “A program that uses public funds to pay for unarmed security guards at private schools – including some of the city’s most elite institutions – is on pace to cost taxpayers $22.3 million over the last three years, THE CITY has learned.”

  9. Funny how designers complain when their designs are ripped off though most of the time they are ripping others off – IKEA bag is a great example.

    I asked a teacher at WA Market School – those secret service looking guys are not for a politician’s child but for all the children who go to the schools on the block.

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