The bad news is that the commission wants the Garden gone in 15 years. The Dolan family, which owns the Garden and its teams, had been hoping for a permit that would have allowed the Garden to remain on its current site in perpetuity.

This page supported the Dolan family’s position, but it appears to be doomed. Despite investing hundreds of millions in private funds to renovate the Garden in recent years, the Dolans apparently are no longer welcome to operate the world’s most-famous arena above Penn Station.

The issue now goes to the City Council, which could either allow the commission’s decision to stand by simply doing nothing or overrule the commission and give the Dolans only a decade to find a new location. The Council should let the commission’s ruling stand. It’s not the fairest solution, not by a long shot, but it certainly is fairer than the 10-year process that the local community board and some elected officials favor.

Supporters of the 10-year plan insist that the sooner the Garden is moved, the sooner work can begin on a new Penn Station. There’s no denying that Penn Station is a civic disgrace—that was true 40 years ago, and it is true today. And mass-transit advocates rightly note that the rail tunnels connecting Manhattan and New Jersey are antiquated, posing a huge obstacle to expanded Amtrak and New Jersey Transit service.

The status quo at Penn Station is unacceptable. In fact, the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan first began making that point back in the mid-1990s, when he served as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and wrote a federal transportation bill that, for the first time, favored public transit over highway construction.

All these years later, Moynihan’s vision of turning the old Farley Post Office building into a new rail station is nowhere near reality. And yet the Dolans are to be evicted—in either 10 or 15 years—because the Garden is perceived to be an obstacle to the transformation of the West Side transit hub?

There certainly is an argument to be made that New York deserves a better arena than the Garden, even in its renovated state. Nearby cities, including Boston, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., have opened new areas recently with impressive results. The Garden is very much a creature of the late 1960s, a period few associate with classic sports architecture.

That being said, the Dolans have been treated poorly in the debate over Midtown West’s future. If the city is going to limit their permit, better 15 years than 10. The Council should resist pressure from the community and let the commission’s ruling stand.

The Speaker and mayoral hopeful announced yesterday at a newsstand near City Hall that the Council will propose a bill to amend a little-known city regulation that limits the price of items sold at newsstands. Ms. Quinn’s new bill will raise the limit from $5 to $10.

Currently, newsstands may only sell snacks, beverages and other products priced less than $5, though cigarettes, high-priced newspapers and magazines, prepaid MetroCards and calling cards are exceptions to the rule.

“This legislation will allow New York City's iconic newsstands to sell more products, thereby expanding consumers' access to more of the products they want and need,” Ms. Quinn said.

This regulation applies only to newsstands regulated by the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs, not food carts or trucks, newsstands and convenience stands in subway stations or street vendors who sell cheap knock-off sunglasses and handbags.

Supporters of the new legislation, which will be officially introduced at a City Council meeting on May 22, said the higher limit could help keep newsstands in business.

“This will help newsstands stay in business by giving them items they can sell and make some money on,” Robert Bookman, counsel to the NYC Newsstand Operators Association told Crain’s New York. "It's to allow these other items which you can't sell for $5 anymore, a decent umbrella that will work for more than one rain, or a tourist guide.

Mr. Bookman also told Crain’s that there are currently 300 newsstands in the city, which is down from the 1,500 that populated the city decades ago.

Of all the fun new items newsstands might be able to sell soon, including camera batteries and headphones, Ms. Quinn remarked that higher quality umbrellas might be the biggest draw.

“The $4 umbrella of 2002 isn’t the same as the $4 umbrella of 2012-13,” she said. “The $4 umbrella in 2013, you’re lucky if it’s going to get you to the corner.”

Rezoned!

This afternoon, the City Council voted to approve the Hudson Square rezoning. The rezoning—a plan five years in the making that allows for the creation of a denser, mixed-use district with significantly more residential and retail development—is now in effect. Bordered by Tribeca and Soho, there's little doubt what the rezoning will mean for Hudson Square's future. Behold New York's next hot neighborhood.

Full Council approval was largely a formality after the Council's land use and zoning and franchise committees voted to approve the plan last week, but it was significant: the last step in a lengthy approval process that will transform a neighborhood currently characterized by old printing plants and quiet sidewalks.

The rezoning process—initiated by Trinity Real Estate and the largest privately-initiated rezoning in the city—was largely uncontroversial. Nonetheless, Trinity had more to gain from the rezoning than any other developer, given that the church owns roughly 40 percent of the neighborhood, an area that is bounded by Houston and Canal streets to the north and south, Sixth Avenue and Washington Street to east and west.

But even the proposal's detractors admitted that the existing zoning was problematic and needed to be overhauled—it barred residential development but not hotel/condo towers (like the much-maligned Trump Soho). Moreover, the neighborhood has, in recent years, drawn a number of tech and media companies to its loft-like commercial spaces, increasing demand for dining and nightlife options.

Nonetheless, the Trinity plan was altered considerably since it was first proposed. As a condition of City Council approval, the land use committee negotiated changes to increase affordable housing (the rezoning is expected to bring between 2,000 and 3,000 new apartment units to the area) and open space funding. The Council also garnered an agreement with the Landmarks Preservation Commission to vote on the northern section of the South Village Historic District by the end of the year—an area that many (including the city's own impact report) say will be adversely affected by spillover development from a newly-rezoned Hudson Square.

The City Planning Commission and Borough President Scott Stringer also made additional changes to the original plan—adding a 444-seat elementary school, reducing the height of the buildings down from 320 feet to 290 feet and requiring special permits for any hotels with more than 100 rooms.

Last week, Community Board 2 chair David Gruber told The Observer that the modified plan was “a win all around." He singled out the landmarking of part of the South Village Historic District, the $5.6 million in open space funds that will go to fix the roof at Pier 40 and more affordable housing as changes that the community was particularly pleased with.

Meanwhile, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, which has been a rare critic of the plan because of its potential impact on the South Village, faulted the council for not securing landmark hearings for the entire district and for allowing buildings to rise as high as they did.

“The commitment to vote upon landmarking part of the South Village before the end of the year reduces substantially but by no means eliminates the negative impact this rezoning, as approved, will have,” executive director Andrew Berman wrote in a statement.

Still, the rezoning plan that passed today was rare in its widespread popularity. It was also, to no one's surprise, very popular with Trinity.

"The rezoning has benefitted from the ideas and close participation of the community board, the oversight of the City Planning Commission and the contributions of the Borough President, " Trinity Real Estate president Jason Pizer wrote in a statement. "The result is a winning combination for the neighborhood and the city. Trinity has a long history in Hudson Square and, especially recently, has seen it evolve and grow as a home for many creative companies so important to the city's economy."

Mr. Pizer added that Trinity felt that the rezoning would, as had been intended, "strengthen this vital and dynamic area while preserving its special character."

kvelsey@observer.com

Speaker Quinn.

The New York City Council passed a bill today that prohibits employers from considering an applicant's current employment status when making hiring decisions.

The bill would also put an end to job ads that say applicants must be currently employed. Under this measure, New York would be the first city in the country providing people with the opportunity to sue on the basis of unemployment discrimination.

“Imagine spending every day and night for months upon months upon months looking for a job–only to be told ‘don’t even bother … unemployed need not apply,’” said Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who supported the bill. “We cannot–and will not–allow New Yorkers who are qualified and ready to work have the door of opportunity slammed in their faces.”

The Council cited that 51 percent of unemployed New Yorkers have been job-hunting for over six months, but many job listings require candidates to already be employed.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose signature is required to codify any City Council-approved bill into law, has vowed to veto this one, according to Metro.

Hizzoner called it "one of the most misguided pieces of legislation" and claimed it would "damage lots of small businesses" to Capital New York.

Whatever side of the argument you're on, the city has an unemployment rate of 8.8 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and that's a lot of people who need all the help they can get.

At least there's a tax extension on these places

At least there's one benefit for those whose homes were destroyed or significantly damaged during Hurricane Sandy. Today, the city council voted to give owners of such properties an interest-free extension on their next property tax bill— a three month grace period that extends until April 1, 2013 (tax bills are usually due on January 1).

Which a little more time to pay taxes on a home that's no longer is not really all that much of a consolation for home-owners, at least it gives people a little more time to collect on insurance payouts (for those lucky enough to have insurance payments to collect on). And the city's coffers do need an infusion of funds—New York is $19 billion out of pocket for the Hurricane (though federal funds should be forthcoming).

But not just anyone who experienced a soggy basement can take advantage of the break. Only properties that were red tagged by the Department of Buildings—i.e. uninhabitable now and in the immediate future—qualify, meaning that damage is so bad that the house must be demolished or have extensive structural before anyone can live there.

“Enacting this grace period is one small way we can reassure people who are worried they won't be able to pay the bill on time, and it’s also going to give them a little bit of extra money,” council speaker Christine Quinn said in a release.

About 3,000 properties are eligible for the extension, according to the Council. The average property tax bill is $506.

The extension was proposed by councilmembers Vincent Ignizio and James Oddo, who represented Staten Island, where much of the worst damage occurred.

This legislation is the first step in a multi-pronged effort to provide those affected with property tax relief.  I look forward to the next step, which will include businesses and rebates for property owners most affected," said Mr. Oddo in a statement.

The IRS is also offering tax extensions for New York State residents affected by Sandy, pushing back the deadline for return filing and tax payment.

And, for those who don't rebuild their homes to their former glory, there's the promise of a reduced assessment next year.

kvelsey@observer.com

Brad Lander says, "Where's the bus?" (Kit Dillon)

On every straphanger's gift list this winter. (Kit Dillon)

The bus stop is a lonely place, made lonelier without the reassurances of time. Like Estragon said, “Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes, it’s awful.” Much better to wait underground for the subway where your time is allotted to you by little digital clocks hanging from the ceiling.  No more leaning out and staring into the endlessness of a dark tunnel looking for light. Your train is 4 minutes away, at least on those lines fortunate enough to have the timers.

New York City is not a place for waiting. We’re terrible at it, and the City Council knows it. Today, joined by transit advocates and riders, a group of council members introduced a resolution calling on city agencies to install “bus clocks” in all of the 3,300 shelters across the city. Clocks that would display real-time bus arrival information, not simply those flimsy timetables many bus poles now unreliably, even flagrantly, post. It’s a move that will finally see the city catching up with such other metropolitan innovators as Albany, Syracuse, and Champaign, Ill. They've even got an online version in Boston—Boston!

“Bus Time and subway countdown clocks have been tremendously helpful technologies for straphangers,” Bronx Councilman James Vacca, chair of the Transportation Committee, said. “Knowing when the next bus or train will arrive gives straphangers time to pick up coffee or the morning paper rather than standing around with no information.”

That’s the point, of course. A moment with no information, in a city like ours, in a time like this, is a matter of life and death! Or at least a blown meeting or missed first date. Of course, we know, waiting now, that a bus will come. It always does. But we don’t know when and that lets the mind wander into strange and uncharted territory. What if the bus never comes? What are we waiting here for? Is it all worth it? Why are we here? Tough questions for the 2.5 million average weekday bus riders. Tough questions for anybody.

The MTA has a new system, known as Bus Time, currently accessible from a smart phone app, that was first installed as pilot program on the B63 line in Brooklyn. It has since expanded to a few more lines in Staten Island and the Bronx, and by the end of 2013, it will be available for all bus routes in the city. But as the concerned City Council members point out, smart phones are not as ubiquitous among the city’s elderly and low income residents, which creates a very real accessibility issue.

“There are few things as frustrating as waiting for a bus without knowing when it will show up, especially if you’re already running late for work or the weather isn’t cooperating,” Councilman Steve Levin said. “Installing countdown clocks in bus shelters is an easy step that the MTA can and should take to ensure that all riders know when to expect the next bus.”

Currently the city bus shelters are built and maintained by CEMUSA, a world wide leader in, what it calls, "iconic street furniture," better known as bus-stop-meets-billboard.  According to the franchise agreement with the city, which includes a clause about installing and maintaining future systems as they are developed, CEMUSA is already in a position to install countdown clocks without serious contractual changes.  As for the costs of the initial installation, the council hopes that some of the financing can come from discretionary appropriations and toggling agreements with advertisers, in which time information is alternated regularly with advertisements.

"With Bus Time going citywide," declared Brad Lander, "it's time for the MTA, New York City, and CEMUSA to overcome bureaucratic and inter-agency hurdles and make bus clocks a reality in New York City."

Speaker Quinn weathers the storm. (NYSUT/Flickr)

"Millions of New Yorkers have stories" from the hurricane, Council Speaker Christine Quinn declared this morning during a soaring, post-Sandy speech at the Association for a Better New York. Among those stories was Ms. Quinn's own.

It was an emotional moment that came during what was otherwise a wonky, if powerful, policy-laden address to the city's business leaders during which the council speaker (and presumptive mayoral candidate) called for at least $20 billion in new infrastructure across the five boroughs to protect against future disasters. The story, from the summers of Ms. Quinn's youth, underscored her belief that the city must seize upon this disaster to create a stronger (or at least drier) future.

"My grandfather came over on a boat from Ireland with a third grade education and worked his way up through the ranks of the Fire Department," Ms. Quinn explained. "Rockaway Beach offered him a chance to rent a bungalow in the summer, to afford a little place on the ocean just like the rich people he saw in the magazines. It was his own piece of the American Dream."

And also Ms. Quinn's. "I can remember walking along the boardwalk as a young girl with my late mother and aunt," she said. "It’s one of my favorite memories of my mother, of how much that place meant to her and to my whole family.

But it is no longer a place for dreamers, at least not now. "Last week, visiting with families in the Rockaways, I saw that boardwalk lying in pieces, tossed into street corners or crashed into people’s homes."

As if defying Mother Nature, Speaker Quinn wants to make sure that never happens again. She announced today that the City Council, in partnership with the Bloomberg administration, will accelerate two studies analyzing what kinds of risks the city faces from storms, and what could be done to mitigate them.

She expects New York will spend billions implementing new infrastructure to combat future disaster, which she predicts would cost around $20 billion. Ms. Quinn believes the federal government should cover most of those costs, pointing to the government response to Hurricane Katrina as a precedent. She also announced that Senator Chuck Schumer is putting together a study of his own with the Army Corps of Engineers that will help the city determine the best defense for the city from future disasters, as well as the general rising of the tides due to climate change.

"Let me be clear, this is not an academic exercise," Ms. Quinn said. "It will produce a concrete blueprint for action, along with a price tag for any and all projects."

The speaker pointed to the now very voguish topic of Dutch-style sea barriers as one possible solution for the city.

"In the Netherlands, they’ve spent billions of dollars on miles and miles of connected barricades like dams, dikes, walls, and levees," Ms. Quinn said. "In more recent decades they added massive storm surge barriers at critical locations. The largest one, which has a really, really, long, unpronounceable Dutch name, stretches five and a half miles from end to end."

"At the City Council," she added, "we would have just called it the Ed Koch Barrier." The crowd all chuckled, this being a reference to a fight earlier this year over whether or not to rename the Queensboro Bridge after the former mayor.

On the smaller side, the speaker called for major investments in the city's sewers, to stave off sewage flow into the city's waterways during storms, due to our combined sewer overflow system. She also wants soft infrastructure that will help absorb stormwater, like permeable pavement and green streets, or new marshlands, known as bluebelts, that help purify runoff. She called for buffers around subway grates, raising station entrances, even out-there technologies like industrial balloons that would seal the subways and other subterranean infrastructure off.

There should be revisions to the building codes and the development patterns, which the city's Building Resiliency Task Force will undertake. Through the Urban Green Council and the Real Estate Board, the task force will be holding emergency sessions to assess the rebuilding effort following the storm.

"We also must rethink the way we build in neighborhoods that were destroyed by the storm," Ms. Quinn said.

She called on Con Ed and other utilities to strengthen their substations, protect their power plants and to bury their electrical wires where it makes sense. "I want to send a clear message to ConEd today," the speaker declared. "We will not tolerate you simply passing these costs on to ratepayers." She also said the region needs to improve its gas and oil infrastructure to prevent the kind of shortages and long lines New York saw after the storm.

We must do all these things not only for us, Ms. Quinn said, but also, and more importantly, for the future.

"Millions of New Yorkers have stories just like mine," the speaker said. "We will make sure our children and our grandchildren have those stories too–not of a Rockaway destroyed, but of a Rockaway reborn."

Preserving the preservatives. (Jamestown Properties)

For many neighbors of the Chelsea Market, the biggest concern over a massive addition to the market was the shape it would take and thus its impact on the High Line, which the market abuts. Love it or hate it, the High Line had become a major neighborhood amenity, one people did not want to see get any worse with a massive eight-story addition overhanging it.

Developer Jamestown Properties acceded to demands from the City Planning Commission—which oversaw the rezoning that helped preserve the High Line—to rejigger the building, so what kind of concessions could Council Speaker Christine Quinn possibly extract? Especially since she had reportedly waffled on whether or not to beat back the building entirely as she eyes crossing over to the other side of City Hall.

Well, what better way to appease NIMBYs and preservationists than with architectural protections and schools?

Today, the City Council's land-use committee voted in favor of the project, with the stipulation the Jamestown commit not to alter the historic former Nabsico factory below the addition, protecting both the original structure and the alterations made to it over the years to create the new market.

"There have been numerous calls in the neighborhood to save the Chelsea Market, and I agree that the historic nature and food focused market should be saved," Speaker Quinn said in a statement. "That is why the Council will vote today to preserve the iconic neighborhood treasure that is the Chelsea Market. In the original plan, there were no restrictions on what the developer could do to the unique and cherished ground floor retail space dominated by food vendors. The Council’s action permanently protects 75 percent of the current total interior ground floor concourse retail space for food-related uses."

Jamestown will also create a youth technology center within the market to provide education services in tech and media for local Chelsea kids, particularly those from two nearby housing projects.

And in a further paean to over development, the Department of City Planning has agreed to look at altering the zoning in other areas of the neighborhood to ensure appropriate development occurs. The focus will be on the area bounded by 11th and 12th Avenues and will also include 85 and 99 10th Avenue, the South side of West 15th street and the east side of 10th Avenue between 14th and 15th Street.

"At each step in the approval process, Jamestown has worked to improve the plan, and the changes made by Speaker Christine Quinn and the City Council strike a careful balance that offers benefits to the neighborhood and allows the project to proceed," Jamestown COO Michael Philips said.

Goodbye desolation, hello development. (Flickr)

Yesterday, in a unanimous vote 47 years in the making, the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area has finally been approved by the City Council. SPURA, that massive parcel of barren (or in City Council speak, “under-developed”) city-owned land in Lower Manhattan, will now become a 1.65 million square foot mixed-use development. It’s a change that, according to the project's backers, will create 1,000 housing units, 1,000 permanent jobs and 5,000 construction jobs.

“Seward Park has long had the potential to bring new jobs, new housing and new retail options to one of New York City’s most vibrant neighborhoods,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “Today we know that that potential will be realized. After nearly half a century of sitting dormant, this piece of real estate – some of the most valuable underdeveloped land anywhere – will finally be transformed. Thanks to an historic and unprecedented community planning process, the plan that is moving directly reflects the input of residents, community members and other stakeholders.”

The plan delineates a 60/40 mix of residential and commercial space; creates 500 units of permanently affordable housing for low-, moderate-, and middle-income households, as well as senior housing; and allocates 15,000 square feet of publicly accessible open space. It also allows for the the expansion and relocation of the Essex Street Market to a new site, which has the potential to double the number of small businesses currently operating at the market.

All of which is no small feat. The details above, all represent many large and small political compromises from the community‚—some of whom have stood in opposition to the project from the start—from the community board, and from within the council. With any project this large no solution is a perfect one.

The Coalition to Protect Chinatown & Lower East Side is certainly keeping its eyes on the imperfections. Today they are meeting to hold Council Member Margaret Chin and Mayor Bloomberg accountable to their demand of building 100 percent low-income housing on the SPURA site. In their hands they have a petition with more than 8,000 signatures on it and a developer, Ben Wong, who has pledged to build just such a development if he can. Mr. Wong, founder of the Wok n Roll fast food Chinese chain, is currently out of the country but JoAnn Lum, a Coalition representative, confirmed for The Observer that he would still be submitting a plan in early 2013 under the cities developer Request for Proposals (RFP).

Councilwoman Chin is still pleased with the results, though. “This is a victory for the Lower East Side and for the City of New York," she said yesterday. "This development will aid under-housed, low-income individuals in our community by providing significant opportunities for affordable housing both on and off the SPURA site...I am confident that the SPURA development will reinvigorate the surrounding neighborhood while creating much needed affordable housing in our community.”

The city will now move forward drafting it's RFP, where it will meet with a task force designated by Community Board 1, continuing the partnership with the local stakeholders to determine what, exactly, should go on the site.

So if you're a fan of under-developed city-owned land and the eery quiet that can come from standing in a utility parking lot after dark, you should probably head down to the SPURA site now. Because, regardless of what side of the debate you're on, one thing is for sure, after SPURA this part of town is never going to be the same again.

SPURA springs eternal. (NYC EDC)

The development sites. (NYC EDC)

It took 40 years, but the transformation of the Seward Park urban Renewal Area, better known as SPURA, may finally be here. While everyone seemed excited at the prospect of this finally happening, the opinions were far from unanimous about what the city came up with for its plan for the seven undeveloped acres south of Delancy Street on four forlorn parking lots.

But there was unanimity today, when the City Council's land-use committee approved the 1.65 million-square-foot plan for SPURA by a vote of 16-0. Attendees of last week's public hearing on the development south of the Williamsburg Bridge will be relieved to hear that 50 additional affordable housing units (offset by another 50 at market rate prices) have been added to the project, for a total of 1,000 units, half of which will be affordable, half not. The administration also agreed to that now de rigueur piece of rezoning negotiations, a new public school.

"The City has stated that they will give preference to a proposal that provides income bands that are at the lower income level on multiple tiers," local Councilwoman Margaret Chin announced in triumph. "All along there have been a lot of discussions of all the different items but because of the ULURP process, we were able to get it on record and get a firm commitment that this is what will be beneficial to the community, especially to the Lower East Side."

The Bloomberg administration also agreed to to create another affordable housing project off-site, at 21 Spring Street. Other modifications included the creation of a community task force to assist in the selection of developers, with the city agreeing to give preference to local development partners; to minority- and women-owned businesses in the conception and construction of the project; and to local hiring through HireNYC.

The city also made a commitment that if a new Essex Market is built, current tenants would be offered comparable rent and square footage and "reasonable" relocation costs. The administration also "affirmed their commitment in terms of diversity of retail and numbers of storefronts on the site to create more opportunity for small businesses," as language in the rezoning puts it.

Councilwoman Chin's modifications were approved first by three members of Subcommittee on Planning, Dispositions and Concessions, and then by the 16 present members of the Committee on Land Use, many of whom prefaced their "aye" votes with words of congratulation to Ms. Chin. Fellow downtown Councilwoman Rosie Mendez, who worked closely with her colleague on the project, joked, "Let me see, I'm not sure how I'm gonna vote on this."

"I've seen the ongoing perseverance, and that's what it takes," said Councilwoman Sara Gonzalez of Brooklyn. "This is almost a town I think."

The project still awaits approval from the full City Council, but approval by the land-use committee almost certainly guarantees that will happen.