In The Face Of Gentrification, Some Prefer To Keep The Neighborhood Desolate And Uncompetitive

The complaints about Water Taxi Beach, the Hipster Guantanamo temporary-ish waterfront attraction that was established a couple of summers ago in a desolate corner of Long Island City, seem to be coming from the restaurant across the street. You don’t say:

Despite the official and popular support it has gained, at the request of the owner of Water Taxi Beach, a special meeting was held in early March to air and answer charges that the ferry terminal and summer resort on the shore of the East River in Long Island City is a public nuisance. The charges, dealing mainly with drunken and disorderly behavior, are so strong they threaten the continued life of Water Taxi Beach during the summer months.

. . .

. . . detractors said, when the sun goes down on summer weekends, trouble begins, particularly toward and into the early morning. An alleged source of disruption is P.S. 1, the Museum for Contemporary Art, which holds weekend events in its yard on Jackson Avenue. When they are concluded, according to this version of events, many of the celebrants go looking for further alcoholic consumption down at Water Taxi Beach and other places in Hunters Point. WTB gets the main share of attention because it can handle hundreds of persons at a time.

The complaints came mainly from workers at the Waterfront Crabhouse, at 51st Avenue and 2nd Street. They said that many persons, several of them barely qualified to drink legally, come up from the beach and into the restaurant to use the restrooms or to continue drinking. If refused service or told the restrooms are for patrons only, they often become obstreperous and present a problem for Crabhouse security personnel, the restaurant’s workers, mainly women, told the meeting. One of them said she has endured incidents where young drinkers have come toward the restaurant “in droves” and yelled insults she described as “extremely vile” at her. She related being on a smoke break one night when one inebriated man tried to relieve himself in her ashtray.

. . .

[Water Taxi Beach owner Tom] Fox had a few things to say, both in his defense and about changing the situation. He admitted it was bad, though not as dire as his critics believed it was. He said he would move up last call on Saturday and Sunday mornings from 4 a.m. to 2 a.m. and have the place closed and dark by 3 a.m.

Location Scout: Water Taxi Beach.

NYPL Receives Nine-Figure Commitment; Experts Expect Stone Carver Unemployment Rate To Plummet By 100 Percent

I certainly don’t need my name inscribed on the facade of a landmarked building, you know, right at waist level, but since you asked:

The New York Public Library’s venerable lion-guarded building on Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street is to be renamed for the Wall Street financier Stephen A. Schwarzman, who has agreed to jump-start a $1 billion expansion of the library system with a guaranteed $100 million of his own.

The project, to be announced on Tuesday, aims to transform the Central Library into a destination for book borrowing as well as research. The Mid-Manhattan branch, on the east side of Fifth Avenue at 40th Street, will be sold and its circulating collection absorbed into the new space.

The gift from Mr. Schwarzman, a library trustee and buyout guru who made fortunes as the chief executive of the Blackstone Group, is among the largest to any cultural institution in the city’s history. The 1911 Beaux Arts structure on Fifth Avenue will be called the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building after construction is completed around 2014. The building is protected by landmark status, and the library expects the name to be etched on the building should approval be granted by the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission.

“We hope to incise the name of the building in stone in a subtle, discreet way on either side of the main entrance about three feet off the ground,” said Paul LeClerc, president of the library’s board of trustees. “It’s in keeping with the dignity of the building.”

. . .

Mr. Schwarzman said it was the library that proposed renaming the landmark building. “They said, ‘We’d like you to be the lead gift and give us $100 million and we’d like to rename the main branch after you,’ ” he said. “I said, ‘That sounds pretty good.'”

Remind Me Again Why A Hockey Arena Needs A Lobbyist?

Sheldon Silver’s MSG opposition, put into perspective:

The Garden has hired some of the state’s highest-paid lobbyists: Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker, Patricia Lynch Associates, Greenberg Traurig and Kasirer Consulting.

Lynch, a former top aide to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, reported $633,000 in fees from the arena from 2004 to last year. Silver’s opposition killed the Jets Stadium, which would have competed with the Garden.

Of Course Congestion Pricing Is Worth It — Who Can Argue With 6.3% Less Traffic* And 15% More Transportation Funding!

But really, doesn’t the concept of a dedicated funding stream take the state off the hook for transit improvments? That’s a good thing when New York City is trying to recoup more of the money it sends to Albany? And then there’s the question of how much of an impact 15% would even have:

Supporters of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s plan to charge people who drive into the busiest parts of Manhattan have promoted it as a way to provide a steady flow of money to pay for improvements to public transportation for decades to come.

Trains would be less crowded. Stations would be spruced up. A new subway line would be built.

But under a new spending plan released Wednesday by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, so-called congestion pricing would cover a relatively small portion — 15 percent — of money needed for transit improvements. That would leave the authority still scrambling for money.

The authority said that it would need $29.5 billion from 2008 through 2013 for system improvements (like thousands of new buses and modernized subway signals) and expansion (like work on the Second Avenue subway).

It tentatively identified $20 billion in potential sources of funds, including $4.5 billion that could be raised by borrowing against congestion pricing revenue. But officials were unable to say where the remaining $9.5 billion would come from at a time of city and state budget tightening. They planned to ask the governor’s office and the State Legislature to come up with a financing formula to make up the shortfall.

Elliot G. Sander, the authority’s chief executive, said that unless its plan is financed in full, the transit system risked sliding back into the disrepair of the 1970s and 1980s.

. . .

Under the plan, the $4.5 billion in borrowing that would be made possible by congestion pricing accounts for just 15 percent of the authority’s infrastructure needs through 2013.

. . .

Mr. Bloomberg, who first proposed congestion pricing in April, said in a statement that it provided “one of the only reliable sources of funding” for the authority’s capital program “and without it, the projects in this plan will not happen.”

But the spending plan also exposed lines of tension between the authority and City Hall over how congestion revenues would be used.

Aides to Mr. Bloomberg said revenue from the system should allow for a total of $6 billion in borrowing — $1.5 billion more than the authority proposed.

The authority said it came up with a lower number because some congestion revenue should be set aside to cover operating costs, which would rise as it adds service to accommodate people who switch from cars to public transit once the system goes into effect.

The mayor has said that all congestion revenue should go to support capital spending.

The majority of money under the plan would go for the upkeep and modernization of the current system. It calls for the purchase of 590 subway cars, 2,976 buses and 440 commuter rail cars. It includes rehabilitation plans for 44 subway stations and the modernization of signals in parts of the subway system.

*As per PlaNYC 2030 Transportation Report (.pdf)

Still, It Has A Nice Jingle: “Ten-Trip, Pay-Per-Ride, Still A Steal At Seventeen Thirty-Nine”

The MTA buttresses the penny lobby with its latest fare hike:

The MTA is rolling out a 10-trip, pay-per-ride MetroCard — with a peculiar price: $17.39

And the agency will soon start selling a 30-trip pay-per-ride with a $52.17 price tag.

The move is intended to provide an easy-math option for riders wanting to buy cash-based bonus MetroCards with a specific amount of trips — and no spare change in value.

Another reason: MetroCard vending machines can provide only limited types of change.

But one transit worker dubbed the options “wacko.They just look odd.”

Another worker quipped, “This is going to put the Board of Education to the ultimate test.”

Under the scheme, the $2 fare remains the same but the easy-math 20% bonus — buy five trips and get a sixth free — is being reduced to 15%.

That means a rider who gives a token booth clerk $8 will get a card with four trips — and $1.20 remaining toward the future purchase of another ride. MetroCards can be refilled at vending machines and booths.

The 10-trip oddball card — providing 10 subway or local bus rides, and free transfers — equates to $20 in value for $17.39.

The 30-trip oddball amounts to $60 in value — for $52.17.