Ross Sandler

November 15, 2015 marked the 75th anniversary of the opening of the Queens Midtown Tunnel. The tunnel is an indispensable link between Manhattan and Queens, the Long Island Expressway, and JFK and LaGuardia airports. Its four lanes carry 80,000 vehicles a day. Few drivers in these 80,000 vehicles, however, were likely among those breaking open champagne bottles in celebration. Drivers are more concerned with getting in the tunnel, creeping through the tunnel, and getting out at the other end, at a toll of $8 per trip.

(read more…)

Ross Sandler

On Thursday, March 20, 2014, a lively audience filled the Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College to discuss Mayor John V. Lindsay. The occasion was the publishing of Summer in the City, John Lindsay, New York and the American Dream, edited by Hunter College Professor Joseph P. Viteritti. The audience came to hear two star-studded panels, the first moderated by Sam Roberts of the New York Times with Richard Ravitch, Lilliam Barrios-Paoli and Vincent Cannato. The second moderated by Errol Louis of NY1 and featuring former close Lindsay aides, Sid Davidoff, Ronnie Eldridge, Peter Goldmark and Jay Kriegel. The audience was not disappointed. (read more…)

David Gruber, Chair of Manhattan Community Board 2.

It is time to start a real conversation about a small store retail rent stabilization program.

Many neighborhoods , not only in Manhattan,  but  also in other high use commercial districts in all the  boroughs are being shred apart as small Mom and Pop’s just cannot fight back the tide of the enormous  run up of  commercial retail rents in recent years. (read more…)

Ross Sandler

More and more tort cases involve bike riders. Three recent cases demonstrate that injured bike riders may have difficulty in court.

CityLaw reported a case, 19 CityLaw 100 (2013), involving a bike rider in Fort Washington Park who encountered Sanitation workers cleaning graffiti. The workers had coned off the area, and the biker, to avoid the cones, rode onto the grass where he fell and broke several teeth. The Appellate Division dismissed his claim against the City. The actions by the Sanitation workers were part of a discretionary governmental function and were, therefore, immune from liability. This is an established judicial precedent for traffic applied to a bike rider. (read more…)

Ross Sandler

Ed Koch celebrated his 88th birthday at a party/reunion held at Gracie Mansion on December 12, 2012. He is, as he says, still relevant. Ed Koch broadcasts his current opinions in regular blogs, movie reviews, political broadsides and letters. But if you really want to know Ed Koch, read his first two books, Mayor and Politics. Koch wrote Mayor shortly after losing his 1982 run for Governor against Mario Cuomo. Politics followed one year later. The two books present New York City politics with unforgettable characters, raw and revealing stories of politicians entertainingly told, and an insider’s view of a city experiencing a decline in population, a rise in crime, a city budget in crisis and a political establishment still expecting to whack up the municipal pie. Koch reveled in detailing these demands and, of course, his dominance over them.

(read more…)

Ross Sandler

Every four hours around the clock, beginning Tuesday, October 30, 2012, workers from every part of Consolidated Edison’s territory reported to senior management on the status, needs and plans to restore service to Con Edison customers. The reports came in to Con Edison’s Emergency Response Center set up in the nineteenth floor auditorium at Con Edison’s headquarters at 4 Irving Place.

The first reports were sketchy assessments: what was happening and where. As the storm receded, the terrible numbers started to come in. Midland Beach in Staten Island and Gerritsen Beach in Brooklyn were devastated. A storm surge knocked out the East River steam plant, caused an explosion at Manhattan’s 13th Street transmission station, and flooded office towers on Water Street. Trees downed wires all over Westchester County, blocking roads and preventing crews from getting through. Brighton Beach was flooded. Con Edison’s Manhattan workout locations were under water, but Con Edison’s vehicles were safe; Con Edison had removed them to the high ground of Union Square 24 hours before the storm hit.

There was steady, intense professionalism in the Emergency Response Center as the reports kept arriving. A Con Edison worker returning home from a twelve hour shift was robbed at gun point. A mutual aid crew working on a 13,000 volt overhead line failed to follow safety rules; they were sent home to North Carolina. Site safety became a concern, so Con Edison sent trained office workers to downed wire sites in the field. A gasoline shortage threatened to prevent workers from getting to work sites; tankers of gasoline were ordered. A work camp sleeping mutual aid crews was set up at Citi Field in Queens. A hush came over the Response Center when a dog was reported to have been electrocuted by a downed wire.

Eleven days after the storm, the video display in the Response Center charted a constant increase in restorations of power. Con Edison crews had restored electricity to 1,012,316 of the 1,054,972 customers blacked out by Sandy and the following Northeaster.

The extraordinary professionalism, preparation and dedication shown by Con Edison’s executives and by the 14,000 workers in the field were reflected in the successful restoration work. Later there will be investigations and reviews of performance as there should be. In the meantime, as this is written, the hard, house-by-house restoration work continues in the field.

Ross Sandler