Thursday, June 09, 2005
Sidewalk cafes and a pedestrian boulevard on 42nd Street - CB6 handles them all
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
In the lifecycle of a Community Board, springtime in New York means passing on applications for street events, liquor licenses and sidewalk cafes. Thus it was at the CB6 April meeting, the minutes showing a concentration on the latter.
Parenthetically, sidewalk cafes are a very serious matter not only with restaurateurs but also with diners, particularly in this era of high real estate prices. Buyers of properties are raising the lease renewals, causing a number of closures, several noted on 3rd Avenue. A 17th Street restaurant faces a tripling of the lease costs come expiry date, with the prospect of closing, or greatly increasing the charges in this moderately priced family eatery, a lifesaver when two-income families do not have the time to cook. A sidewalk café seem a nuisance to passersby but it helps to keep the diners’ costs down.
Feltrim Restaurant on 34th Street (2/3 Aves), Barfly Inc on 3rd Avenue and 20th Street, 449 Restaurant Inc d/b/a MoonstruckEast on 3rd Ave and 31st Street, and Pulsar LLC d/b/a as Rice Restaurant and Take Out passed the muster, The main activity was further uptown, with approvals Afacan Corp. d/b/a Pescatore Restaurant, Joyce East 49th d/b/a Bliss, Les Brasseurs d/b/a La Mangerie, Pig and Whistle, M&M, Corner 51 formerly Nessa, Lasagna Restaurant, Aquamarine Asian Cuisine, Sip Sale, 28 Noodles, 52 Restaurant Corp d/b/a Opal, 2nd Ave Plaza Diner d/b/a Plaza Diner, and Alterations 44th d/b/a as Overlook Lounge, formerly Costello’s . . The music of the names is sheer magic, I simply cannot resist reciting them. Costello’s in particular, this was the great newspapermen’s bar, of James Thurber fame, depicted in The New Yorker in the halcyon days gone by.
Some applications failed - 660 Sweet Thing d/b/a Redemption Bar had numerous violations, and CB6 absolutely opposed their off-premises liquor license application, the strongest terms I have ever seen in their resolutions. CK Cage, formerly Chef T, cannot have a sidewalk café because of insufficient clearance, and Piramida Mayas d/b/a Mama Mexico failed the test for building an addition. But Graceful Services can join the 2nd floors of two buildings for a Physical Cultural Establishment, as not adversely impacting the neighborhood, and the Annenbeg Foundation may open a Center For Living, serving alcohol-abusing teenagers, on 52nd Street.
Pedestrian safety at the Gramercy Park hotel construction site, 20th Street and Lexington Ave, has been a concern, and CB6 urges the transportation Dept to take the traffic light on Lex and 22nd Street out of synchronization, to cause the speeding southbound traffic to stop, and to install a “no through traffic” signs on 22nd and 23rd Streets, and a large flashing arrow directing traffic to turn west.
Of particular interest to residents of Stuyvesant Park was the report that the Parks, Landmarks and Cultural Affairs Committee will actively pursue the East Park fence rehabilitation, a project that has been ongoing for over 20 years. They will seek some funding through the budget process [if memory serves, there have been major funds allocated in the Ruth Messinger borough presidency era (1990-98), but not enough to start the project, which does not lend itself to a piecemeal handling]
A strange project being considered in committee is Vision42, defined as a citizens’ initiative in reimagining and defining low-flow traffic on a car-free 42nd Street, river to river, by means of a light rail line within a landscaped pedestrian boulevard. The trains would be low, with 12 stops, at the avenues. The boulevard would be lined with trees in planters, curbs would be removed and automobile traffic redirected to adjoining side streets (I am not sure how South to North traffic will fare; it would appear to seriously interfere with the pedestrian tranquility and the trolleys, unless redirected to the FDR and West side Drives, with the prospect of incredible volume). It is seriously sponsored by the Institute for Rational Urban Mobility, a NY-based not-for-profit, and chaired by architects Roxanne Warren and George Haikalis. They have signed up an Advisory Committee, made up of 40+ urbanists, architects, transportation thinkers, tourism officials, big realtors, futurists and dreamers, and include, in the order listed on the Vision42 website, Tony Hiss, Georges Jacquemart, Dr. Floyd Lapp, Mildred Schwartz, Jonathan Bowles, Carter Craft, Janine DiGioacchino, Alfred Fazio. Douglas Durst, Jessica Flagg, Ahok Gupta, Arthur Imperatore, John Johnston, Fred Kent, Charles Komanoff, Rocco Landesman, Pamela Lippe, Russell Menkes, Howard Millstein, Dick Netzer, Eliot Sander, Sam Schwartz, Michael Sorkin, Vukan Vuchic, Paul Steely White. One is inclined to suppress the chuckles and thoughts about this being a put-on after viewing the list of supporters.
But who is to be taken seriously in this era of the Governor and Mayor pushing for a West Side sports stadium, a $1B expense paid for a broke city and broker state, with the MTA giving away a property with a real estate value of $2B to a sports organization for a fraction of its value, when realizing the full worth of the property could postpone subway fare increases for a decade, or maybe pay down for the #7 line extension and the airport link? The urbanists might be better employed in arguing against the game day traffic jams, and speaking up in favor of using the rail yards land for residential and business developments, earning the city some real tax money. Sanity seems to have taken a leave of absence, locally as well as nationally and worldwide.
In the lifecycle of a Community Board, springtime in New York means passing on applications for street events, liquor licenses and sidewalk cafes. Thus it was at the CB6 April meeting, the minutes showing a concentration on the latter.
Parenthetically, sidewalk cafes are a very serious matter not only with restaurateurs but also with diners, particularly in this era of high real estate prices. Buyers of properties are raising the lease renewals, causing a number of closures, several noted on 3rd Avenue. A 17th Street restaurant faces a tripling of the lease costs come expiry date, with the prospect of closing, or greatly increasing the charges in this moderately priced family eatery, a lifesaver when two-income families do not have the time to cook. A sidewalk café seem a nuisance to passersby but it helps to keep the diners’ costs down.
Feltrim Restaurant on 34th Street (2/3 Aves), Barfly Inc on 3rd Avenue and 20th Street, 449 Restaurant Inc d/b/a MoonstruckEast on 3rd Ave and 31st Street, and Pulsar LLC d/b/a as Rice Restaurant and Take Out passed the muster, The main activity was further uptown, with approvals Afacan Corp. d/b/a Pescatore Restaurant, Joyce East 49th d/b/a Bliss, Les Brasseurs d/b/a La Mangerie, Pig and Whistle, M&M, Corner 51 formerly Nessa, Lasagna Restaurant, Aquamarine Asian Cuisine, Sip Sale, 28 Noodles, 52 Restaurant Corp d/b/a Opal, 2nd Ave Plaza Diner d/b/a Plaza Diner, and Alterations 44th d/b/a as Overlook Lounge, formerly Costello’s . . The music of the names is sheer magic, I simply cannot resist reciting them. Costello’s in particular, this was the great newspapermen’s bar, of James Thurber fame, depicted in The New Yorker in the halcyon days gone by.
Some applications failed - 660 Sweet Thing d/b/a Redemption Bar had numerous violations, and CB6 absolutely opposed their off-premises liquor license application, the strongest terms I have ever seen in their resolutions. CK Cage, formerly Chef T, cannot have a sidewalk café because of insufficient clearance, and Piramida Mayas d/b/a Mama Mexico failed the test for building an addition. But Graceful Services can join the 2nd floors of two buildings for a Physical Cultural Establishment, as not adversely impacting the neighborhood, and the Annenbeg Foundation may open a Center For Living, serving alcohol-abusing teenagers, on 52nd Street.
Pedestrian safety at the Gramercy Park hotel construction site, 20th Street and Lexington Ave, has been a concern, and CB6 urges the transportation Dept to take the traffic light on Lex and 22nd Street out of synchronization, to cause the speeding southbound traffic to stop, and to install a “no through traffic” signs on 22nd and 23rd Streets, and a large flashing arrow directing traffic to turn west.
Of particular interest to residents of Stuyvesant Park was the report that the Parks, Landmarks and Cultural Affairs Committee will actively pursue the East Park fence rehabilitation, a project that has been ongoing for over 20 years. They will seek some funding through the budget process [if memory serves, there have been major funds allocated in the Ruth Messinger borough presidency era (1990-98), but not enough to start the project, which does not lend itself to a piecemeal handling]
A strange project being considered in committee is Vision42, defined as a citizens’ initiative in reimagining and defining low-flow traffic on a car-free 42nd Street, river to river, by means of a light rail line within a landscaped pedestrian boulevard. The trains would be low, with 12 stops, at the avenues. The boulevard would be lined with trees in planters, curbs would be removed and automobile traffic redirected to adjoining side streets (I am not sure how South to North traffic will fare; it would appear to seriously interfere with the pedestrian tranquility and the trolleys, unless redirected to the FDR and West side Drives, with the prospect of incredible volume). It is seriously sponsored by the Institute for Rational Urban Mobility, a NY-based not-for-profit, and chaired by architects Roxanne Warren and George Haikalis. They have signed up an Advisory Committee, made up of 40+ urbanists, architects, transportation thinkers, tourism officials, big realtors, futurists and dreamers, and include, in the order listed on the Vision42 website, Tony Hiss, Georges Jacquemart, Dr. Floyd Lapp, Mildred Schwartz, Jonathan Bowles, Carter Craft, Janine DiGioacchino, Alfred Fazio. Douglas Durst, Jessica Flagg, Ahok Gupta, Arthur Imperatore, John Johnston, Fred Kent, Charles Komanoff, Rocco Landesman, Pamela Lippe, Russell Menkes, Howard Millstein, Dick Netzer, Eliot Sander, Sam Schwartz, Michael Sorkin, Vukan Vuchic, Paul Steely White. One is inclined to suppress the chuckles and thoughts about this being a put-on after viewing the list of supporters.
But who is to be taken seriously in this era of the Governor and Mayor pushing for a West Side sports stadium, a $1B expense paid for a broke city and broker state, with the MTA giving away a property with a real estate value of $2B to a sports organization for a fraction of its value, when realizing the full worth of the property could postpone subway fare increases for a decade, or maybe pay down for the #7 line extension and the airport link? The urbanists might be better employed in arguing against the game day traffic jams, and speaking up in favor of using the rail yards land for residential and business developments, earning the city some real tax money. Sanity seems to have taken a leave of absence, locally as well as nationally and worldwide.
# posted by Wally Dobelis @ 5:24 PM 
