City decision on 60 Hudson St. sets dangerous precedent
To the Editor:
Until October 17, the telecom hub at 60 Hudson Street was a neighborhood problem. On October 17, it became a citywide problem. That is the day when the Board of Standards and Appeals voted to uphold a Buildings Department waiver allowing 60 Hudson Street to store diesel fuel in a manner that is in contravention of the fire safety code and is a significant threat to the surrounding community.
With its vote, the BSA has created an appalling precedent. If 60 Hudson Street—a sensitive building reportedly housing critical components of the national telecommunications infrastructure—is permitted to store over 80,000 gallons of diesel fuel in its basement and on upper floors in the middle of a residential neighborhood, there is nothing to stop other buildings from doing likewise. If it has been given permission, despite prohibitions in the existing fire code, to install as many diesel fuel tanks as it wants on the street floor—the most vulnerable location in the building—why shouldn't other buildings have the same privilege?
If 60 Hudson Street is allowed to fill fuel tanks by hand from drums carted through spaces filled with combustible electronic equipment, it's only a matter of time before other building owners claim the same right. Now that BSA has put its stamp of approval on these and other practices, New York City is wide open for their replication at other sites.
Neighbors Against N.O.I.S.E., the organization that brought the appeal to the Board of Standards and Appeals, will continue to work to bring 60 Hudson Street under control and to fight the spread of the dangerous practices the BSA has endorsed.
We have solid support from elected officials. With their help, we will try to make sure that other buildings do not go the way of 60 Hudson Street and to stop 60 Hudson Street itself from continuing to threaten the safety and health of those who live and work in our neighborhood.
If you would like to be part of this effort please write Tim Lannan at 55 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10013, or send an email to info@nanoise.org. For more information go to www.nanoise.org <http://www.nanoise.org> . With even a small expenditure of time you can accomplish a lot.
Tim Lannan, Deborah Allen,
Bruce Ehrmann, Lori Stone,
Aziz Dehkan
The Board of Neighbors Against N.O.I.S.E.
Why are we losing nearly a third of our playing fields?
To the Editor:
Local residents and especially parents with children participating in Downtown's Little League and Soccer League should be aware that at this past Tuesday's meeting of Community Board #1's Education and Recreation Committee it was announced that the Battery Park City Authority, which is appointed by and answers only to the Governor, is planning to close off nearly a third of the West Street playing fields between Warren Streets and Murray Streets for a period of at least two years while two new high-rise condo buildings are built between the fields and North End Avenue.
CB#1 Committee Chair Paul Hovitz, a longtime ardent defender of our community rights, stated that while he personally was opposed to the closing he felt he had no alternative but to go along with it as the BPCA authorities insisted they needed this much of the field as a "safety zone setback."
By my estimate this "setback" measures an average of 50- to 60-feet in depth along its length and would eliminate any space for parents and siblings to view the games or other children to play while the games are underway. We were told that those wishing to view the games should stand along West Street and look through the chain-link fence and that the pathway through the fields leading to PS/IS 89 will also be gone for the duration.
According to reports given at the meeting the BPCA intends to return "most" of this space to the fields once the construction is finished, but there appears to be no guarantee of that other than the "good-will" of the authority, which we were warned not to jeopardize.
I personally do not believe that a 60-foot setback is necessary for safety. I am a licensed architect with more than 25 years experience, born and raised here in Manhattan, and can tell you that a safety area this wide for a high-rise project in New York City is highly unusual. Most high-rise projects in the city have no safety zones at all, being built right up to street corners where thousands pass by each day. BPCA authorities were quoted at the meeting as stating they needed this distance to prevent injuries from wind-blown debris. Since neither of the two buildings currently under construction directly adjacent to P.S. 234 has anything more than sidewalk bridges in place to protect our children I find this argument on the part of the BPCA to be suspect and leads me to question their motivations.
Perhaps they really are worried about the kids, but at best this setback looks to me more like a staging area for construction (where one parks trucks and stores steel, concrete, etc. while building). One wonders what criteria the BPCA has used in setting this distance—the turning radius of a tractor trailer perhaps? If a staging area is what's needed, why not close the east side of North End Avenue, where there is almost no traffic.
At worst this looks like a smoke screen for a "reallocation" of territory from the fields to the condos. We were also informed that the Authority intends to create a raised platform adjacent to the high-rises and that this would become "tiered seating" for viewing the games. I cannot speak for all parents, but I have no use for such seating. When one is watching his kid play ball he wants to be on the sidelines and able to keep an eye on smaller siblings. So why create this platform? Is it to give ground level parking and/or utility functions for the condos?
Once again personal profit and greed appear to triumph over the interests of the community and the common good. How long will it be before our local developers kill the "goose who lays the golden egg" by destroying the very things that have made Tribeca so desirable? This is getting to be a bitter refrain in Tribeca as thousands of condo units rise this year in our neighborhood while schools, parks and services become overcrowded. Beware fellow Tribecans, for once these open spaces are taken away it will be impossible to get them back.
William Rogers
Mike of Captain Mike's: "I'm still on Chambers St."
To the Editor:
In last month's Trib, there was a letter about the sign on West Broadway and Chambers Street and the writer said that Captain Mike's was gone. I'm still here. I was the owner of Captain Mike's seafood restaurant, which is now doing business as Mudville 9 since 1988. The sign was put up when I became the major stock holder of the building and we didn't have money to point the bricks on that side of the building, so I sold the spaces for the price of the repair.
Schwimmer Real Estate at the bottom of the sign belonged to my father who had an office in the basement of the building. The ground floor had been a topless bar called Chamber Maids before we bought it and opened Captain Mike in 1977. Four years ago, my son Eric joined me. I'm retiring soon and he's going to take over.
Mike Schwimmer
CERT says 'Thanks'
To the Editor:
The Tribeca CERT team wishes to thank Councilmember Alan J. Gerson and Richard Brouillette, director, Citizens for NYC for their generous financial grants to our downtown disaster preparedness team. Councilmember Gerson's $3,000 grant allowed Tribeca CERT to purchase a defibrillator, computer and projector, all part of our disaster training/rescue and preparedness material.
With the $500 grant provided to us by Citizens for NYC, Tribeca CERT was able to send two of our members, Marc Ameruso and Melanie Reiser, to advanced CPR/First Aid training which now allows Tribeca CERT to provide FREE CPR training to all Tribeca CERT members.
Kudos too to Pete Gleason, our former co-director, for using his legal skills to help us obtain not-for-profit status and to Bob Townley for helping Tribeca CERT find a community home.
Tribeca CERT will be beginning a new training session soon.We'd love more Tribeca residents to take our training and be a part of keeping Tribeca alert and prepared. For information email us at info@tribecasohocert.org.
Thanks!
Jean Bergantini Grillo
Tribeca CERT founder
and co-director
