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By Heather Murray
Although Community Board 3 Chairperson David McWater has said the board won't ask the Department of Planning to expand a 114-block East Village/Lower East Side rezoning plan to include the Bowery and Chinatown, a coalition determined to expand the rezoning's area is working to mobilize the community.
The Coalition to Protect Chinatown and the Lower East Side was formed earlier this year to promote rezoning all of Community Board 3. The umbrella organization includes the Chinese Staff and Workers Association, National Mobilization Against Sweatshops, Bowery Alliance of Neighbors, Two Bridges Neighborhood Housing Council, the Sixth Street Community Center, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Chinese Restaurant Alliance and the Community Coalition Against the Business Improvement District.
The original rezoning study that jumpstarted the plan was brought to the community board in 2005 by the East Village Community Coalition. The coalition was formed in 2004 to fight Gregg Singer's high-rise dormitory plan on the site of the old P.S. 64 on E. Ninth St.
...
C.S.W.A.’s Lee is worried that if the areas surrounding Chinatown are rezoned, it would entice developers to buy up property on the Bowery and in Chinatown. She feels for this reason it’s the Chinatown developers who are pushing for the redevelopment plan, not the working class.
“The community board, too, has a role to represent the entire community, not to draw a circle around where the leaders live,” Lee said. “They also need to represent the community, instead of pushing the government’s racist agenda upon the people, instead of becoming the mouthpiece for the developers in this community.”
Hoon Kim first spoke on behalf of the National Mobilization Against Sweatshops at C.B. 3’s January meeting.
Schumer Reveals: Safety Gap On Inter-City ‘Chinatown’ Buses; Rated Dangerously Low On Safety By Feds
Two Buses Recently Caught on Fire Mid-Ride; Passengers Were Lucky to Escape Lawmaker Urges Feds to Hold More Surprise Inspections, Devote More Staff to Low Fare Carriers, and Disclose Safety Ratings for Shadow Bus Companies
U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer today revealed that cheap “Chinatown” bus services and a number of other bus tour providers are sorely lacking in passenger safety. According to Federal criteria, Chinatown buses do much worse than other companies in several Safety Evaluation Areas (SEA), which rate a bus services’ drivers, vehicles, and overall safety management. Recent accidents on a few of these ‘Chinatown’ buses have raised serious questions about the safety of passengers riding to and from New York City to a variety of other cities on the East Coast. An examination of publicly available ratings and statistics show that low-cost, ‘Chinatown’ buses score dramatically lower than other bus services.
Schumer is urging the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), the federal government agency which is charged with the responsibility for buses nationwide, to fully investigate past incidents, increase the number of surprise inspections, make sure that safety ratings are clearly disclosed on buses for riders to see, and ensure that no bus that does not meet a minimum passing rating can drive out of the station loaded with passengers.
by Lizzie O'Leary
NEW YORK, NY September 15, 2005 -New Yorkers who like to travel on the cheap know about all about the "Chinatown bus." Fifteen dollars to Boston. Twenty to Washington. Twelve to Philadelphia.
The companies that run these somewhat chaotic cash businesses started out several years ago, ferrying Chinese restaurant workers up and down the East Coast. But thrifty travelers caught on, and now a series of companies carry college students, professionals, and anyone else looking for a low-priced convenient trip. It's estimated that about 350 buses leave New York's Chinatown a week.
But a pair of fires in recent months has prompted some federal and state officials to take a closer look at the safety of the buses, and the companies that run them. Reporter Lizzie O'Leary has more.
10. Xincheng Bus Company
Bus ticket New York <=> Pittsburgh: original prize: $60, Card Holder: $45
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Chinanews
10/23/2007
New York Up Close
Zipcar, Zapped by Parking
By ALEX MINDLIN
IN 2002, when the car-sharing company known as Zipcar brought its first 10 small Volkswagens to the city, an article in the Automobiles section of The New York Times offered the speculation that the venture's cars might one day "become as familiar to New Yorkers as the pushcart hot dog vendor."
More than five years on, that prediction is closer to being true. The company has 1,100 vehicles in the city, which can be picked up at more than 100 different sites.
But as the company grows, it has bumped into a problem facing so many New Yorkers: scarce and expensive parking. Zipcar says it raised rental rates last month in part because of this cost, and as the company expands further outside Manhattan, it finds itself struggling to stay a step ahead of the developers who are buying up the city's empty lots.
Dispatches
The Last Cut Is the Deepest
By JAKE MOONEY
EVEN on a quiet evening last week, without a construction worker in sight, there were signs of the neighborhood strife that has taken over a stretch of 70th Street in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn. A blue tarpaulin was draped over an unfinished porch renovation, and in front of that house, behind barriers and yellow tape, was a smooth, pale new stretch of sidewalk, sloping gently down toward the street.
This, in regulatory parlance, was a curb cut, and it was the focus of a dispute that has pitted neighbor against neighbor on a quiet stretch of narrow attached brick houses for the past year.
Gus Englezos, the owner of the house and the author of the curb cut, says he spent $60,000 fighting for permission to build a driveway and free himself from searching for parking spaces on the street.
But in the opinion of the block association president, Josephine Beckmann, who is also the district manager of the local community board, the streetscape has been marred, not to mention the fact that there is now one fewer public parking spot. And the Dyker Heights Civic Association says the city's decision in Mr. Englezos' favor, which it is appealing, could set a pernicious precedent and lead to similar turmoil on dozens of other blocks.
Ghost Bikes
Ghost Bikes are small and somber memorials for bicyclists who are killed or hit on the street. A bicycle is painted all white and locked to a street sign near the crash site, accompanied by a small plaque. They serve as reminders of the tragedy that took place on an otherwise anonymous street corner, and as quiet statements in support of cyclists' right to safe travel.
The first ghost bikes were created in St. Louis, Missouri in 2003, and they have since appeared in at least 30 cities throughout the world. For those who create and install the memorials, the death of a fellow bicyclist hits home. We all travel the same unsafe streets and face the same risks; it could just as easily be any one of us. Each time we say we hope to never have to do it again -- but we remain committed to making these memorials as long as they are needed.
Fighting with rival gang members was commonplace, but were often limited to weapons of brute force like bats and knives rather than automatic weapons. such is the case in West Side Story, where the rumble is agreed to be a fistfight, until each combatant reveals his own hidden knife. These fights were seen as assertions of one's bravery, dominance, and loyalty, and to shy away from a fight was downright dishonorable. And while many expected that these teens, like the characters of West Side Story, would be locked into lives of violence and crime, many of their stories have happier endings that include full-time jobs, homes, and cared-for families. The lasting impact of the strife and violence from their stories is evident when one simply examines the success of a film like West Side Story. The tale of rivalry, unreasonable hatred, and overcoming oppression is as salient today as it was in the 1950's.
Salisbury, Harrison E. "Youth Gang Members Tell of Lives, Hates and Fears; City's 'Shook-Up' Youth: Their Lives are Found Lacking in the Basic Securities." New York Times 25 March 1958: 1.
This article, one of a seven-part series written in the midst of gang-related turmoil in New York and Los Angeles in the 1950's, examines the conditions that lead to street gang formation and the deterioration of the neighborhoods they control. First is the case of 17-year-old Vincent, the immigrant Puerto Rican leader of one of New York's street gangs. He explains that his primary motivation for involvement, like many others his age, is safety and security. The members of Vincent's gang are highly distrustful of those outside of the gang, relying instead on only those companions who have proven their loyalty. Vincent also claims that Puerto Ricans and other non-natives are subject to unfair treatment at the hands of their so-called protectors: the police. The local police are no more welcoming of the Puerto Rican presence than the local natives, and with even a minor smudge on one's record, a decent job and a fair living become almost entirely out of reach. Vincent himself was prevented from graduating high school by a false conviction from the police. The article also uses the case study of Tommy, another gang leader, who sees the Army as the only guaranteed way of escaping the dangerous neighborhoods where the gangs reign. He explains that gangs are places where his presence is not only valued but respected--in stark contrast to places like school, where he is struggling to succeed, and home, where instability and deprivation are ever-present.
The racism found even within the police force can be seen in West Side Story. Lieutenant Schrank's biased treatment of the gangs shows clear preference for the white Jets. He not only lets them get away with more trouble, but he agrees with them that the Sharks are encroaching on the Jets' territory. He is not entirely respectful or fair to either group, but he saves the majority of his abuse for the Puerto Ricans. In the article, Tommy mentions his dislike of school, although it is one of the few places in the neighborhood that has been declared "neutral territory." The situation is the same in the film--the high school (where the dance is held) is the exclusive turf of neither gang since they have no choice but to coexist on its grounds. The gang members need for security is understandable, as they are always at risk of attack at the hands of the rival gang. The opening scene of West Side Story illustrates this well--the power switches hands numerous times depending on which group's members outnumber the other's. The members almost always travel in groups of two, three, or more, as the most precarious situation one can be caught in is being alone and cornered by the rival gang, as happens to Baby John, who narrowly escapes.
Negron-Muntaner, Frances. "Feeling Pretty: West Side Story and Puerto Rican Identity Discourses." Social Text 18.2 (2000): 83-106.
West Side Story is often hailed as an intimate look at street life in poor, racially divided New York neighborhoods, but this paper argues that the film's dealings with New York City gang life is superficial and uninformed. There is agreement that, while dealing very generally with relevant themes, the story is not intended to realistically represent Puerto Rican immigration or culture. The creators of the play and film admit that their knowledge was limited even during the film's production.
The film portrays the Puerto Rican identities in a stereotypical manner--the males are all violent, aggressive gang members, while the females are all highly sexualized, whether overtly (Anita) or innocently (Maria) and rarely seen without a male escort. Racialization, or the collection of techniques used to enhance the racial divides, is the cause of much of the film's tension. Makeup is used to make Bernardo's skin darker, both Maria and Bernardo have obviously falsified Puerto Rican accents, and the European-descended Jets all happen to be blonde-haired. Negron-Muntaner notes that without these tricks, all the actors would appear to be simply American. The Puerto Ricans are presented throughout the film amidst a generic "Latino" culture of bright colors, broad movements, and unidentifiable music and accents. One particularly persuasive point for the racial inequality shown by the story's creators is the relative quality of a Puerto Rican vs. American life. Maria was brought to the U.S. to marry Chino, another Puerto Rican, but only finds happiness (and self esteem, as evidenced by her song, "I Feel Pretty") when she receives the affections of Tony, a white man.
The other important topic discussed in this paper is the issue of Puerto Rican/U.S. territoriality. Puerto Rico is the U.S.'s most significant territory, and the turf war between the Jets and the Sharks somewhat reflects the colonial relationship between the U.S. and Puerto Rico. As Negron-Muntaner explains, "Puerto Rico itself belongs to, but is not a part of, the United States; it is bound by the law but has no rights under the law" (86). So it is with the Puerto Rican characters of West Side Story; they are citizens of New York but "belonging" is just as out of reach as it would be for Puerto Ricans still living on their home island. The article also touches upon the themes of homosexuality and gender identity in the film, notably in the characters of Baby John and Anybodys, but as these claims are not as well argued or supported, nor readily apparent upon a more-or-less casual analysis of the film, the articles focus is on the racial themes.
New York City has always been a major draw for foreigners hoping to migrate to the United States and gain the benefits of an "American" life. But why New York? True, it is the most populous city in the country, but this is more likely to be the result of the influx of immigrants than the cause. This article examines the unique features of New York that draws in immigrants and lends itself to being ultimately shaped by them. The East coast was the easiest place for immigrants coming from across the Atlantic, notably Europeans, to enter the country; Ellis Island, specifically, accounted for most European's point of entry in the 1800's and early 1900's. The article also examines the fact that Puerto Rican-born New Yorker's are overwhelmingly assigned the immigrant identity, although it is not technically accurate. Puerto Ricans are, by birth, American citizens, but popularly classified as immigrants due to a combination of their minority status and physical, lingual, and cultural differences from "mainland" Americans. Before the term Hispanics became popularized to refer to all people with a background in a Spanish-speaking country, Puerto Ricans were singled out as an immigrant group with particular prominence in New York, and were therefore subject to extreme prejudice.
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Express Bus Service*
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1910 N Charles Street, Baltimore, MD, 21218
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New York(Mid Town,Penn Station) ==> Washington DC/Baltimore
Washington DC/Baltimore ==> New York(Mid Town,Penn Station)
*Note:We do not stop in New York Chinatown
*NYC<=>DC takes about 4.5 hours subject to traffic
*NYC<=>Baltimore takes about 3 hours subject to traffic
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Editorial
Chinatown bus chaos
Chinatown's private bus business is booming. That this industry has grown to its current level in a little under 10 years is amazing. The rates are cheap and if one is not too fussy these rides are just the ticket.
Yet, while the busy bus business is good news for Chinatown's economy over all, it also has brought a host of problems that are affecting Chinatown as well as the Lower East Side.
The buses increase traffic, pollution, noise, garbage and even violence, due to the fights that sometimes flare between rival operators in their competition for passengers. Police say it's hard to oversee these problems because the buses are so spread out. And the buses' picking up at the curb at scattered locations means traffic is being impacted in a haphazard, irrational way. Residents, in particular, are feeling the bus invasion's effects.
As The Villager reported last week, the city recently proposed a 30-day pilot program under which all the Chinatown interstate buses would be shunted toward the end of Pike St., with no more than seven dropping off or picking up at any one time. However, neighbors at Knickerbocker Village and the Rutgers Houses opposed the idea and so did Community Board 3.
What's drives the Chinatown van drivers?
By Loretta Chao
...
As convenient as the service is for riders however, drivers say the work is extremely difficult and unrewarding. Each driver has to buy, insure, and sign their buses up with a company, which then gets a cut of their daily earnings. Zhou, for example, makes seven round trips everyday during the winter and gets to save less than $100.
"I have worked 365 days for four years now," said Zhou, who lives in Flushing with his wife and 3-year-old daughter. "Just think - I've never taken a vacation, not even for one day. I haven't even had time to get sick.
"It's just unbearably hard. I don't know English. When I go out I feel like I'm mute. Everything I learned in school is useless," he said.
And while customers are plentiful, the increasing number of vans has led to bitter and sometimes violent rivalry over the past six years. Police arrested the drivers involved in a string of murders as part of what they called a "bus war" in January 2003, but investigators said minor offenses like tire slashing and window breaking often went unreported. With some drivers working until 11 o'clock at night, they face other dangers as well.
Soho
Was This Street Made for Walking?
By JAKE MOONEY
ON a weekend stroll down Prince Street in SoHo, past the vendors with foldout tables heaped with jewelry and movie scripts, the crowds flocking in and out of the Apple store, and the milling clusters of overtired out-of-towners, it might seem hard to imagine that the neighborhood could suffer from more foot-traffic congestion than it already does.
But that peril, along with the daunting prospect of still more tourists, is the main reason many local residents oppose a plan suggested this month by the city's Department of Transportation to declare summer Sundays on Prince Street car-free from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The plan drew heated opposition from about 200 people at a meeting on March 11 of the Traffic and Transportation Committee of Community Board 2.
On Thursday night, the full board voted to reject the idea, asking the department to explore car-free zones in a different form or perhaps on a different street.
Immigrant Entrepreneurs Shape a New Economy
By NINA BERNSTEIN
Manuel A. Miranda was 8 when his family immigrated to New York from Bogotá. His parents, who had been
lawyers, turned to selling home-cooked food from the trunk of their car. Manuel pitched in after school, grinding
corn by hand for traditional Colombian flatbreads called arepas.
Today Mr. Miranda, 32, runs a family business with 16 employees, producing 10 million arepas a year in the
Maspeth section of Queens. But the burst of Colombian immigration to the city has slowed; arepas customers are
spreading through the suburbs, and competition for them is fierce. Now, he says, his eye is on a vast, untapped
market: the rest of the country.
In the long run, like bagels, "you're going to have arepas in every store," predicted Mr. Miranda, whose
innovations include a "toaster-friendly" version (square instead of round), and an experimental Web site that
offers online sales nationwide. "But I don't have the connections. I don't know the people who can advise how to
take us to the next level."
Posted on: Wednesday, 23 May 2007, 15:00 CDT
By DAVID A. MICHAELS, STAFF WRITER
A minibus company that began as an informal service catering to immigrants in Passaic County now carries more commuters between Paterson and New York than NJ Transit.
While critics have scoffed at the worn-out appearance of some minibuses, riders praise the Spanish Transportation company for its inexpensive and frequent service.
Even state transportation officials acknowledged that Spanish Transportation has evolved into an essential commuter service for a growing region that demands more mass transit than the state can supply.
"Our elected officials have realized the services we provide to the cities are a necessity," said Norberto Curitomai, the founder and president of Spanish Transportation. "We provide a quality public transportation, at lower rates that is maybe not provided by New Jersey Transit."
...
Curitomai's drivers make express trips in about 45 minutes compared with an hour or more on NJ Transit's long, winding circuits. His buses carry an estimated 30,000 daily passenger trips, Curitomai said.
Yet his success hasn't hurt NJ Transit's Paterson business. The state agency's revenue grew 18 percent between 2002 and 2006.
Source: The Bergen Record
Fung Wah driver cited for speeding in rollover
By David Abel and Kristen Green, Globe Staff and Globe Correspondent | September 6, 2006
AUBURN -- Thirty-four people were injured yesterday after a speeding Boston-bound Fung Wah bus rolled over on an Interstate 290 offramp, State Police said.
Fung Wah Bus is Chinatown's first Bus company to provide low cost transportation between New York Chinatown and Boston Chinatown. Fung Wah Bus is located at the heart of New York Chinatown between Bowery Street and Canal Street.
SafeStat, short for Motor Carrier Safety Status Measurement System, is an automated data-driven system that calculates the safety fitness on motor carriers.
What is SafeStat?
They offers daily bus service between New York(156 E. Broadway) and Philadelphia.
New York(156 E Broadway) <--> Philladelphia
One way $12.00, Round Trip $24.00
Duration:about 2 hours
New York:156 East Broadway
Philadephia:Frankford Transportation Ctr. or 2801 Cottman Ave.
List of low-cost bus lines, and other transportation options to-and-from NYC.
NOTE: Standard disclaimers apply; this website/webpage is provided to you "as is" with no warranties of any kind either express, or implied. While all effort was made to ensure the accuracy of the information on this webpage, the author does not accept any responsibility, or liability for any omissions, or errors. Please verify all information before you make any decisions.
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Dragon Coach provides affordable and reliable transportation between New York, Baltimore, Washington DC, Albany, Woodbury Common Premium Outlets, Pittsburgh, PA and State College, PA.
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March 16, 2008
Gowanus
Where Did All the Truckers Go?
By DEBORAH KOLBEN
...
In the last couple of years, the high-end boutiques, cafes and restaurants that transformed Fifth Avenue have been spilling onto Fourth Avenue. But few residents expected Third Avenue to start going upscale so quickly, and some are already fearful that Park Slope and Carroll Gardens will merge to form one big brownstone Brooklyn neighborhood.
“They’re going to call Gowanus ‘West Park Slope’ or ‘East Carroll Gardens,’ ” Ms. Yurick said with a grimace. “It’s a joke. This is a truck route.”
The first major sign of gentrification on Third Avenue arrived in the beginning of February, when Bar Tano, an Italian restaurant with large glass windows and a bar that serves 40 types of Scotch, opened at Ninth Street in an abandoned storefront opposite a tire repair shop. Entrees include braised short-rib sandwiches with caramelized onions and homemade potato chips for $15, not exactly the plate of chicken and rice on the menu for $4.50 at Sonia’s, a Latino restaurant across the street.
Study Quantifies the Frustrations of Parking
By WILLIAM NEUMAN
It's official: There really is nowhere to park in Lower Manhattan.
A long-awaited city study has found that the area is so choked with vehicles using government-issued parking placards that there is little if any room for those without placards - in other words, most drivers - to park.
In the financial district alone, the study found that on a typical workday, there were three times as many cars without placards trying to park as there were on-street spaces for them.
Over all in Lower Manhattan, the number of private vehicles exceeded the legal spaces by almost 30 percent, and many drivers, bypassing costly garages, were taking their chances by parking illegally. The study was released Friday by the city's Transportation Department.
...
"It's one of the worst neighborhoods you could park in," said Mike Singh, 52, a contractor from Queens who parked his sport utility vehicle on Friday by a fire hydrant near Hudson and Harrison Streets in TriBeCa. "It's beyond everything. You're going all over, looking, and you see nothing."
Mr. Singh said he often parks illegally and pays someone to sit in his truck all day and to move it if a parking agent appears.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
8:25 AM EDT, March 11, 2008
Travelers between Boston and New York will soon have another low-cost option.
Greyhound Lines is partnering with Springfield-based Peter Pan Bus Lines to launch the "Boltbus." The coaches will offer wireless internet, plenty of leg room and one-way fares as low as $1.
The Boltbus will compete with other low-cost carriers such as Fung Wah. Bus companies say dissatisfaction with air travel delays and traffic congestion have an increasing number of travelers turning to old-fashioned bus service as an alternative.
Greyhound plans to keep Boltbus fares low by selling most of its tickets online. Company spokesman Dustin Clark says fares will be set at market value but he expects there to be at least some $1 fares for each trip.
The Boston-New York service is scheduled to begin in April.
Boltbus starts D.C. to New York City service
Washington Business Journal - by Erin Killian Staff Reporter
A new bus service is launching between D.C. and New York City.
Secaucus, N.J.-based Boltbus, a division of Greyhound Lines Inc., said tickets went on sale Monday for the service that will start March 27.
Boltbus will run between Metro Center at 11th and G streets NW and two stops in New York City -- near Penn Station at 33rd Street and 7th Avenue and in south Manhattan at 6th Avenue and Canal Street.
Boltbus will compete with the Washington Deluxe, Apex Bus, Vamoose Express and DC2NY, a service that started in July 2007 between Dupont Circle and Penn Station in New York with a stop at the McPherson Square Metro station.
DC2NY launched in July and marketed the service by offering free water and high-speed wireless Internet service onboard.
Boltbus is not only also offering wireless, but it is also using a first-come first-serve incentive to sign up riders.
The company said one-way tickets start at $1 plus a 50 cent booking fee and become more expensive as the bus gets full. Also, Boltbus is offering a free one-way ticket for every eight round trips purchased.
Tickets for each bus company vary, but are typically between $30 and $40 round trip, which is significantly cheaper than Amtrak's cost of about $140 and up for a round-trip ticket.
The buses tend to attract travelers and students who are looking for an affordable way to get between the cities.
Boltbus said it will offer eight trips daily, starting at 7:30 a.m. from D.C. to New York.
By DANIELA GERSON
Staff Reporter of the Sun
February 14, 2006
For travelers in search of a cheap bus ticket, once almost impossible to find outside of Chinatown, there is now a growing market servicing Midtown. And often the new bus lines are run not by Chinese immigrants but by chasidic Jews.
Betty Ungar, the mother of 10 children, said she got the idea of starting a low-fare bus company while on vacation.
"It was so expensive," Mrs. Ungar, 50, said of traveling on a conventional bus line. "I decided I could do something better and at a much better rate, and I did it." Her service got started, she said, nearly four years ago.
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
By Mackenzie Carpenter, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The voice on the other end of the line sounded wary. "We're too busy to talk right now," said the man at Fung Wah Bus Service in New York City, before hanging up.
Such reticence is perhaps understandable: The granddaddy of ultra-cheap Chinatown bus services, Fung Wah has had its share of bad publicity in recent years. Last year, two of its buses caught fire on the road, and its federal safety ratings were low enough to prompt U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., to call for an investigation.
Mr. Schumer may have had a personal interest in checking up on Fung Wah: His daughter, he said, has friends who use the carrier to commute back and forth from college in Boston to New York. Fung Wah, which means "magnificent wind" in Chinese, was the first of the so-called Chinatown bus services to appear in 1998 to serve the children of Asian immigrants commuting to college in Boston.
Since then, dozens of other carriers have popped up, with names like Lucky River, Double Happiness, Eastern Travel and Dragon Coach, mostly picking up and dropping off passengers in a particular city's Chinatown. But their clientele has expanded beyond the Chinese community, mostly to young, white, cash-strapped college students willing to put up with long lines and -- in some cases -- broken air conditioning or toilets.
February 13, 2005
URBAN STUDIES
Many Lives, Many Wheels
By JENNIFER 8. LEE
BICYCLES are everywhere in this eight-story building: bicycles leaning in the hallways, bicycles parked in the stairwells, bicycles nestled two deep in the single-room dwellings shared by three or four men.
The sprawling landmark building, at 31st and Broadway, is nestled in the middle of Manhattan's wholesale district. Its central, though unglamorous, location appeals to its most notable tenant population: Chinese deliverymen. An alternative to farther-flung quarters in Chinatown or Flushing, this outpost is only 10 minutes by bicycle to restaurants in Murray Hill, 20 minutes to those on the Upper West Side, 20 minutes to the Upper East Side.
Every morning around 10, the bicycles make an exodus as dozens of Chinese immigrants step out of the building and glide down 31st Street, their spinning wheels gently clicking.
At night, the process reverses. The men return, their bicycles casting long shadows under orange-tinged streetlights. Until last year, dozens of bicycles were chained along the scaffolding at night. Then the building was sold. The new management insisted that no bikes be left outside. So now the bicycles, seats covered with white plastic bags and frames fortified with duct tape, are taken into the cramped rooms.
For these quiet and nearly invisible deliverymen with few English skills, a bicycle is a lifeline. They often buy their bikes from black-market vendors who come by the restaurants. The prices are as low as $30 for creaky old models and as high as $80 for models with better maneuverability.
There is a tacit understanding that these bicycles are mostly stolen. The deliverymen shrug this off. After all, they are very often the victims that the bikes are stolen from.
Many of the men, having paid $30,000 to $65,000 to be smuggled into the United States, have not seen their children for years. Some, with orange-spiked hair and an enthusiasm for video games, are barely children themselves.
Home, which for most is Fujian Province in southern China, is reduced to photographs tucked into wallets, phone calls after work for as low as 2 cents a minute, and a firm determination that one day they will go back.
Most earn $1,000 to $1,500 a month, mostly from tips. "We can't do anything else because we don't speak English," said Chen, 37, who lives with three other men in a 10-foot-by-12-foot room. Two of his roommates are deliverymen: Lin, 55, who hasn't seen his family for 12 years, and baby-faced Little Chen, 22, who just arrived in New York.
In a corner of the room, behind the door, sat two bicycles, and just outside, a third one.
Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
Driving Mr. Baby
Spooked by grubby subways, frustrated by ever-elusive taxis, Park Avenue parents are hiring chauffeur-nannies in increasing numbers, or even sliding behind the wheel themselves: protecting their spawn from the mean, mean streets of millennial Manhattan
The Big Commute, in Reverse
By FORD FESSENDEN
ON most days, Matthew Davis, a 28-year-old portfolio manager, can count on spending about two hours getting to work and another two hours getting home. That's going against the tide of commuters going into New York City for work. Mr. Davis, who rented an apartment in Park Slope in Brooklyn when he landed a job in the securities industry in New York, found himself not on Wall Street, but in Ronkonkoma, working for a financial services management company.
He starts his morning with a stop for tea and a bagel at his neighborhood delicatessen, and walks 30 minutes or takes the subway to the Flatbush Avenue terminal of the Long Island Rail Road. In Jamaica, Queens, he changes trains and settles in for a 60-minute ride to his company's office near MacArthur Airport, deep in Suffolk County. There, he keeps a car for the last leg of the commute, a total of two hours each way. "Usually, until I get to Mineola, I have to stand, but then I find a seat and read the paper," he said. "I tried to find an apartment closer to work, but after 20 minutes of driving, I still wasn't anyplace that was close to anything. I really like living in the city."
Mr. Davis is among the some 300,000 people who live in New York City and make their way to jobs in the suburbs every day, part of a fast-growing segment of the work force that has turned the traditional idea of bedroom communities on its head. The group includes young workers in high-skilled professions, as well as tens of thousands of others up and down the income spectrum who prefer city living or cannot afford the suburban dream.
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"He put his face into the plexiglass separation, the section that is left open, and screamed 'You f------ b----!' and spit at me, which I could feel spray all over my face. I screamed the loudest I have ever screamed in my life: 'Let me out of this cab!'" So ended a ride home to the Upper West Side for 24-year-old Sarah Snedeker, who claims her driver became irate when she insisted on paying by credit card, locking her in the cab for five minutes while they argued.
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Call#: Van Pelt Library HT177.N5 S39 1993
New Operation to Put Heavily Armed Officers in Subways
By AL BAKER
In the first counterterrorism strategy of its kind in the nation, roving teams of New York City police officers armed with automatic rifles and accompanied by bomb-sniffing dogs will patrol the city's subway system daily, beginning next month, officials said on Friday.
Under a tactical plan called Operation Torch, the officers will board trains and patrol platforms, focusing on sites like Pennsylvania Station, Herald Square, Columbus Circle, Rockefeller Center and Times Square in Manhattan, and Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn.
Officials said the operation would begin in March.
Financing for the program will be funneled to the Police Department and will come from a pool of up to $30 million taken from $153.2 million in new federal transit grants to the state.
Michael Chertoff, the secretary of homeland security, and Gov. Eliot Spitzer announced the grants at a news conference on Friday at Grand Central Terminal, where Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly outlined his plans to add a layer of security to the city's 24-hour transit system.
January 28, 2008
Two-hour coin operated parking meters could disappear from parts of the Upper West Side as early as this summer, with drivers instead paying varied parking prices that would change based on supply and demand.
The city Department of Transportation is evaluating a plan submitted by the Columbus Avenue Business Improvement District that proponents say would increase the turnover of parked cars, improve access to businesses, and decrease congestion created by drivers circling the neighborhood for a coveted spot
Grrridlock
TRAFFIC, apparently, hits a nerve.
In the wake of Mayor Bloomberg’s proposal to calm Manhattan traffic through a plan called congestion pricing, the City section asked its readers to offer their own solutions for easing the borough’s traffic woes.
More than a hundred responded, proposing ideas ranging from the wonky to the off-the-wall. Ban cabs. Ban private cars. Close streets. Add lanes.
Here are 20 of their suggestions, with assessments by two local experts on traffic: Jeffrey Zupan, a senior fellow for transportation at the Regional Plan Association in New York, and John Falcocchio, a professor of transportation planning at Polytechnic University in Downtown Brooklyn.
Although Mr. Zupan’s group supports the mayor’s plan, and Dr. Falcocchio argues that congestion pricing should be used only as a last resort, both experts said they were impressed over all by the suggestions. “The readers did very well,” Mr. Zupan said. “They also generated some thinking on my part.”
In the Region | Long Island
Transit as Downtown's Savior
By VALERIE COTSALAS
WHEN Maurice Fox, a vice president for a development firm, heard that an acre of land four blocks from the Valley Stream Long Island Rail Road station was for sale, he told his boss at the Dennis Organization, and "we jumped on it."
Next week, the developer will start laying the foundation for a $26 million 90-unit condominium complex with 37 one-bedroom units starting at $325,000, and 53 two-bedroom units starting at $395,000. Sales haven't begun yet, but Mr. Fox said there were 293 names of potential buyers on a waiting list.
The main selling feature of the complex, called Hawthorne Court, is its proximity to the station, which offers a 32-minute commute to Manhattan by express train, he said. With so many young commuters and empty nesters living in the area, he added, "I realized that Valley Stream is in dire need of it."
M.T.A. Says Mayor's Plan to Ease Traffic Will Cost $767 Million to Accomplish
By ROBERT D. McFADDEN
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's plan to ease traffic congestion by charging motorists who drive into the busiest parts of Manhattan would cost hundreds of millions of dollars for new bus and subway services and mass transit improvements to accommodate tens of thousands of new riders, transportation officials say.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, in a report to a commission created to evaluate the mayor's plan, estimated that expanded transit service and capital improvements for city and suburban riders who would give up their cars to get into Manhattan over the next five years would cost $767 million.
The total, the authority said, comprised $284 million in 2008 and 2009 for 367 new city and suburban buses, 46 new subway cars and many station renovations and service enhancements; $163 million for other subway and bus improvements from 2010 to 2012, and $320 million for two new bus terminals in Queens and Staten Island.
Dispatches
Tollbooths and Traffic: The Talk of 86th Street
By JAKE MOONEY
ANYONE who spends much time in the vicinity of East 86th Street, on the Upper East Side, is well acquainted with congestion. The street is one of the main two-way routes between the East River and Central Park, and on any given day it is home to a glut of vendors' tables and vans, to city buses, to delivery trucks, to commuters rushing to and from the subway past gaudy store displays - and to residents.
For all these people, it might seem that a sweeping plan to tame the traffic, like the mayor's congestion pricing plan currently being discussed by the state's New York City Traffic Congestion Mitigation Commission, would be a hit. But on this particular street, the plan has been a tough sell. The street represents the northern boundary of the zone that drivers would have to pay to enter during business hours on weekdays, and some people in the area fear that the fees will make life in the border zone even more chaotic.
Elaine Walsh, president of the East 86th Street Merchants and Residents Association, has a list of questions: Will residents who park in the area and drive to work outside the zone have to pay to leave? What about people who pass in and out of the zone while looking for parking spots? Will businesses just inside the line suffer?