Fireworks on the Hudson (YouTube)

For those of us living in the outer boroughs, navigating Manhattan during the holidays can serve as a great reminder as to why we migrated off the island in the first place.  New Years Eve, St. Patrick's Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving...the term "amateur hour" was practically invented to describe the hoards of revelers who descend upon NYC like a plague of locusts to "celebrate" these annual events by getting as drunk as humanly possible and clogging up the sidewalks and public transit systems.

Now, most of the time, this does not pose too much of a problem for Brooklynites and Queens residents, who would just as soon stay in their district anyway, throwing  Skrillex-themed rooftop parties.

But the 4th of July poses an issue for non-Gotham-dwellers: since 2009, the incredible light show thrown by Macy's has been held on the Hudson River, making it almost impossible to view from the top of a Brooklyn Heights townhouse.

In late June,  the discontent of outer-borough residents were voiced  in a public press conference, where Public Advocate Bill de Blasio (D-Brooklyn) and Senator Daniel Squadron (D-Brooklyn Heights) railed against the dearth of explosives on the East River; a supposedly "one-year hiatus on the Hudson (that) has now become the new norm." From 1976 to 2008, the East River held the event, and it was originally  moved to the Hudson to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson in 2009. But the fireworks were never moved back to their original location.

Councilman Stephen Levin and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz also stood behind the decision to bring back the sparklers, standing behind a petition  that has amassed 3,100 names so far.

Message received: Macy's has agreed to a sit down with the Brooklyn  politicos to  discuss potential solutions, according to The New York Daily News.

The department store is being tight-lipped on the subject, with a spokesperson only saying, "Macy’s fireworks will take place in and around all accessible New York City waterways and will not be a permanent fixture at any one location."

Hey, we're not unreasonable people: If New Jersey residents are unhappy to lose the view of the fireworks on the Hudson, we'd be more than happy to outsource the whole Thanksgiving Day parade to Newark.

Or some of us just live in Queens and Brooklyn, and don't want to haul ourselves to the other side of Manhattan to watch fireworks that for all intents and purposes should belong exclusively to New Yorkers but still have to share with New Jersey for some reason. And that seems to be quite a few people, no? Yet: Macy's, year after year, has continued their tradition of exploding colored gunpowder over the Hudson River ever year, instead of the East River.

Until now. Hopefully. Because we have someone advocating for us.

With a website.

Yes, public advocate Bill de Blasio has taken up The People's Cause along with superhero-sounding State Senator Daniel Squadron and Marty Markowitz (who would campaign with Spider Man as his running mate if he could do such a thing, utilitarian that he is) have teamed up to take on the persecution of outer-borough residents from receiving the fireworks we so deserve for having to put up with Macy's and all the irritating tourists who seem to congregate around their stores, which are usually in some of our most trafficked pedestrian areas.

Now, you may be thinking: What a frivolous way for a politician to spend their time! You are probably not from New York, where advocacy for ostensibly frivolous things on behalf of our politicians is pretty standard. For context, this is like the opposite of what Sen. Chuck "Fun Destroyer" Schumer does.

Anyway, they have a petition you can sign. Do it before July 4th or else we will all die of sadness and New Jersey will win again.

fkamer@observer.com | @weareyourfek

A dolphin is dead today.

Remember that adorable dolphin seen swimming the Hudson River on Sunday?

Like so many of the day-players who get filmed at Chelsea Piers on Law & Order as Cadaver #2, it has met its maker. As previously noted, DNAinfo reported:

A dead dolphin was found floating near Chelsea Piers Thursday morning, days after one was spotted swimming on the Hudson River, officials said. A spokeswoman for the Riverhead Foundation, which had been searching for the lone dolphin since it was seen in the Hudson Sunday evening, said it was too soon to say whether the dead dolphin was the same as the one that was spotted Sunday. "We won't know if it's the same dolphin until we match the dorsal fin," said Kim Durham, spokeswoman for the foundation, which monitors marine mammals in New York. But sources said that it was highly likely, given the rarity of lone dolphins in the Hudson River.

Maybe if more people were not immediately overjoyed at the prospect of seeing a dolphin in the Hudson River—and who can blame them? Dolphins are wonderful!—and didn't register that joy as their first thought, as opposed to "There is something seriously wrong with seeing something as majestic as a dolphin swimming in something as vile as the Hudson River," and alerted the Riverhead Foundation Rescue Program sooner, maybe it could have been saved. Maybe if people reacted to this dolphin the same way they reacted to seeing a US Airways land in the Hudson, and alerted the Riverhead Foundation's Rescue Program the same way they would have Tweeted about an airplane in the Hudson, or called 911, it may have lived to happily swim and bring itself, other dolphins, and possibly some humans who don't live in a Gomorrah-esque metropolis some much-needed joy to their lives.

Did our—however tempered—happiness at seeing this dolphin kill it? Probably not. Is it being suggested that this writer's colleague may have had a hand in the death of a beautiful, magnificent, noble, and harmless creature by not properly alerting the public in the foremost fashion possible of the eminent danger it was in, instead of exploiting it for a moment of joy? Of course not. The colleague in question has gone on record as a friend of dolphin-kind, and no doubt, her intentions were not malicious.

But maybe we should all pause a moment, and consider the fate of this dolphin, and anything else we see in the Hudson that appears, quite simply, not right. Maybe we should all just get rid of Instagram. Maybe, today, inside, we are all a dead dolphin in our own ways.

Or maybe not. Maybe, sometimes, a dead dolphin is just a dead dolphin. But we'll never know for sure, now, will we?

fkamer@observer.com | @weareyourfek

Installing the stars. Photo: The Windmill Factory.

Wednesday night, as The Observer crossed the West Side Highway at Bank Street and walked over to Pier 49, the pink-orange sun was reflecting onto the Hudson River, and people had filled the surrounding patches of grass, waiting for the official unveiling of a new public artwork by artist Jon Morris called Reflecting the Stars, which was sitting out in the water.

Mr. Morris and his team had spent the past few days attaching wirelessly controlled, solar-powered LED lamps onto the gnarled wooden posts that once constituted the pier in an arrangement that replicates the constellations that one would see in the night sky, looking west from the pier, were it not for New York’s substantial light pollution.

The opening had been delayed by 24 hours because the threat posed by Hurricane Irene had forced his installation team to remove an accompanying plaque and solar panels days before it was due to open. “They can get rained on, but they can’t be submerged,” Mr. Morris told The Observer.

“We left the stars in the water,” Mr. Morris said, “and some of them got skewed out of place, but we didn’t lose any.” He sounded elated. “Then we had to reprogram everything and there just wasn’t enough time.”

The project had cost $25,000 to install and was paid for by a variety of companies and foundations. It will be in place until there is no longer enough power from the sun to light them up at night—“probably the end of October or the beginning of November,” Mr. Morris said.

New York assemblyman Linda Rosenthal and Charles Renfro of Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the architecture firm behind the nearby High Line, were on hand to discuss their support for the project.

For Ms. Rosenthal, the work also has political significance. She is currently working to pass a bill that would create dark-sky reserves, light-free areas set aside to allow people to see the night sky, and promote new shades for streetlamps that would lessen their blinding glare. “At the moment I have a lot of opposition,” she said, “but something like this could really turn things around.”

Mr. Renfro took a more philosophical approach to the work. “Reflecting the Stars links itself to realms near and distant,” he said. “It is a new way of observing our surroundings, helping us imagine the invisible if mankind were not so visible.”

New York has become a bastion for public art lovers of late. We asked Renfro how this was different from public art elsewhere in the city.

“I like the city’s public art,” he said. “But this has the whimsy of The High Line; it connects with something else.”

Later, Mr. Morris told the crowd that Buddhism advises its devotees to go out and look up at the night sky in order to relieve stress. We tried to imagine looking up at his LED stars from the bottom of the Hudson, but we couldn’t quite manage it.

“We look down at the stars today,” we thought, as the blue-white lights flickered on and off in their constellations in the now dark, starless sky.

“Do you know how to swim?” asked Lev Grote, president of the New York Kayak Water Polo Club. “That’s key.”

We turned our attention down to the clipboard and signed a liability form, kicking ourselves for having skipped the intro session earlier that month. Though Grote had offered us the option of the “Friendly Friday program,” which had been promised to be less crowded and slower-paced, here we were - armed with a swimsuit and towel as our only preparation for the two hours to come.

“We want to make it possible for people to enjoy the sport right and for people to learn about it,” Grote said of the group. “Most people don’t know what kayak polo is, of course.”

The sport is meant be played on flat water, such as a pool or a 35 by 75 meter space called the “pitch” according to official rules, but in the summer months the New York Kayak Polo group embraces its local home, hosting practice sessions at the Hudson several times a week.

Formed in 2003, initially the group was “sort of a ramshackle operation” according to Grote, storing its boats at the nearby Frying Pan restaurant. Two years ago, the paddling enthusiasts applied for space next door at Pier 66. With membership remaining around 25 people (the fee is $150 per year), a core bunch now practices two to three times a week, though more sporadic attendance is common among the others.

“The thing about the club is there’s so many different interests,” said Margaret Mann, coach of the women’s team who also competes internationally. “There are people who are super competitive…  and then there are people who just want to have fun.”

These different motivations, Mann continued, can create conflict and make it difficult for those at the top to improve. The club oftentimes does not have enough “top notch players” to select from for tournament teams, added founding member Dmitri Bougakov who is gearing up for a Canadian tournament this weekend. A neuropsychologist, he speculated that perhaps the group needs to recruit younger members (most now are in their 30’s).

Drinks in hand, onlookers from the deck of the Frying Pan always cheer on the players, pointing down at the bumper-equipped boats as members dribble, pass and shoot the ball at nets suspended a paddle-length above the water. Cheers arise as they “hand-tackle” or “kayak-tackle” in a flurry of water and paddles. Occasionally, the temporary fans ask them to toss a ball up, but they never ask to join in. As Mann put it: “It’s a really hard sport to get people to play for so many reasons… For me, personally, I just feel like I was meant to play this sport.”

Lucky for them, The Observer was ready to learn yesterday. We were not bothered by the conversion of the typically serene kayaking hobby into an aggressive team sport. We were not afraid of the blue and yellow polo ball. We were not part of that “certain proportion of people who has no interest in getting into the Hudson,” as one member described.

Ready for the challenge that lie ahead, we snapped on life vest #91, pulled up the kayak skirt and buckled our helmet. But just as we prepared to enter the water, another member dragged her boat out.

Feces were floating under the dock.

After some deliberation, several of the group who milled about the boathouse decided that since The Observer was certain to go under, it would be wise to pack up for now and learn another day.

Turning to go, we explained our plight to Bougakov, who shrugged and argued that his immune system had been built up over the years, so he would be just fine. “By now it’s our natural environment,” Bougakov said in his Russian accent, moving to get his gear.

Other members made preparations to enter the water as well, pulling boats from their racks and dragging them out onto the dock. After all, when a rainstorm blew through during practice last week, they had played on. A handful of excrement wasn’t going to stop them.

Not that anyone actually keeps track of such things (actually, of course they do), but a relatively unthrilling penthouse at The Mark was, thanks to its $60 million tag, briefly the most expensive apartment on the market in New York. That just changed. A 78th-floor penthouse at the Time Warner Center came on today for $65 million, which works out to a bewildering $7,831 per square foot.

A bigger problem is that the monthly maintenance fees are $13,361 and the monthly taxes are $16,332, which means it costs an extra $356,316 per year to live there. On the bright side, the master bedroom suite happens to have an office, his-and-hers dressing rooms, his-and-hers bathrooms, and a gym, too. Then the condo has a 41-foot-long living room with floor-to-ceiling windows; a red lacquered corner library/office (not the first red lacquered library in town); a dining room with a view of the Hudson River; a chef's kitchen ("and pantry with full laundry center"); a screening room; and four other bedrooms, all with en-suite bathrooms.

Records suggest the apartment was sold for less than $30 million two years ago.

He didn't walk away, but one of those sources said the final sales price was between $20 and $23 million--lower than the $25 million-plus he was reportedly going to be paying. Maybe Mr. Jackman is a good haggler? Or maybe it's that every super-expensive apartment in New York is going to be open to negotiation for the foreseeable future.

Mr. Jackman's seller, the Sun Microsystems co-founder Bill Joy, paid $17.57 million for the raw space in 2002. Considering that Mr. Joy probably spent millions to fix up the 11,032-square-foot triplex, it's likely he has lost money on the deal--not that Sun co-founders worry about that kind of thing.

Meanwhile, the Australian actor happens to be in town today, so maybe he'll be seeing his new 51-foot-wide living room, 51-foot-wide rec room, 51-foot-wide master bedroom, a 54.5-foot-long dining room/gallery, or the slightly smaller music room, library, wet bar and exercise room.

Times have changed. New parks bring New Yorkers right next to the river. This all became possible with the construction in the 1980's of the west side's North River Sewage Treatment Plant. According to the New York City Department of Environmental Protection:

The construction of the plant in West Harlem was the subject of great controversy. In 1962, when the plant was first being planned, its proposed location was West 72^nd Street. Somehow, the plant miraculously floated upstream from a well-to-do neighborhood to a working class community of color. In fact, WE ACT, West Harlem Environmental Action, one of the city's most prominent environmental justice groups, was founded by Peggy Shepard and colleagues in 1988 to address problems related to the operation of the plant. According to WE ACT's web site:

The clean up of the Hudson is far from complete, and has come at great cost and struggle, but earlier this week, my colleagues Michael Purdy, Director of Columbia's Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory (the scientific heart of the Earth Institute), along with Observatory scientists Greg O'Mullan, Andrew Juhl and Raymond N. Sambrotto, announced a river monitoring collaboration with Riverkeeper. Monitoring the river in 2006 and 2007, this research collaboration found the river to be substantially cleaner than it was before clean up began in the 1970's. However, the quality of the Hudson's waters is still subject to great variability. Riverkeeper and Columbia plan to conduct monthly monitoring studies in the next several years and make these results available to the public each month.

The Hudson River has always been important to New Yorkers, but its use as a recreational site is growing. As I wrote in my recent posting on Pete Seeger, people are now interested in swimming in the Hudson. A new park on the river is about to open in Harlem, across the street from Fairway Supermarket. It's not hard to project that on a hot summer day people will want to do more than look at the river. Some of them will want to jump in and cool off. Of course, in addition to the potential toxicity of the water itself, people will want to be mindful of the river's incredibly strong current. The west side riverfront is now dominated by waterside parks, where once we saw heavy industry, freight receiving piers and floating sewage. The benefit of this resource is obvious to anyone wishing to take a look. We owe our thanks to the people who built the treatment plant, to the community leaders who struggled to make sure it ran well, and to the advocates and scientists who work at Riverkeeper, the Clearwater and the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory. Together, they have made sure that we are leaving this small part of our planet in better shape than we found it. We really can't ask for more.

I am grateful for the research assistance of Rachel Dannefer, Masters Student, Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs.

Many people know the story of Pete Seeger, who brought American folk music to the hit parade with the Weavers in the 1950's and was then blacklisted and banned from TV for refusing to cooperate with the communist-hunting House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). When brought before the committee in the mid 1950's, he asserted that testifying against his will was a violation of the first amendment's protection of free speech and refused the protection offered by the 5^th amendment protection against self-incrimination. In 1957 he was indicted for contempt of Congress, was convicted of this offense and then very nearly went to jail.

Seeger was brought back to commercial network T.V. by the Smothers' Brothers where he sang his anti-war folk song, "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy". The first time he sang it, CBS TV's censors cut it out of the show. The Smothers' Brothers then invited him to sing it a second time and it was finally broadcast. While Seeger's advocacy always included peace and labor issues, in the late 1960's he began to focus on the environment as well.

In fact, even before there was a federal water pollution law there was a sloop called the Clearwater. According to the Clearwater website:

The Federal Water Pollution Control Act was passed in 1972 over then President Richard Nixon's veto. Pete Seeger was an important voice in the chorus that demanded government action on cleaning up our water. For nearly forty years the Clearwater has continued its educational mission. It has long been a force for environmental clean-up and education in New York. When my daughters were in elementary school I was a class parent on a Clearwater voyage and it was memorable and effective. Seeger's imagination and practical approach to education and problem solving created a lasting and important institution.

Last weekend I walked by the new Hudson River pier that looks like it will soon open in Harlem across the street from the Fairway grocery on 125^th street. That park and the bike path it connects with down to Greenwich Village would not have been possible without the Hudson River clean-up that Pete Seeger helped start in the late 1960's. What Seeger has always understood is that the way to build support for clean water is to make sure that people can experience it and enjoy it.

I think it's true that the eight million plus people living in New York City can enjoy their lives without experiencing the rivers, oceans, mountains, deserts and countryside that still dominate our increasingly urban planet. I believe that our lives are enriched by experiencing nature, but without parks and sloops New Yorkers might never take the time to enjoy them.

Pete Seeger is a "green hero" because he knows that we need to mix advocacy with education and education with enjoyment. The joy of the breeze off the Hudson on a summer night can carry you through a slushy walk in midtown in February. The school kids that spend a few hours on the Clearwater will never see the river in quite the same way that they did before their voyage-and perhaps more importantly they will see the river the next time they look at it.

The new River Pool in Beacon is simply the latest in a long list of songs, ideas, innovations and actions invented or promoted by Pete Seeger. We owe this modest man a debt of gratitude. Think about it the next time you take a peek at the Hudson.

Hunt: It’s actually four times as many.

O.K., four times. Isn’t it about time the city put some teeth into the inspection process?

Well, there have been plenty of teeth in the inspection process. As a matter of fact, if you take a look at Health Trac—it’s a thing on the Internet that shows the level of fines that they have assessed over the last number of years. The most recent information that’s available goes from January through September of 2006.

During that period of time, they collected $16,338,000 from restaurants for health violations. The great majority of these things were things that were in no way an immediate threat to the public health.

Such as?

Such as improper lids on a waste can in a public restroom, a fluorescent light that didn’t have shielding, a wiping cloth that was on top of a stainless-steel counter instead of in a container of cleaning fluid. Stuff like that—which makes many of my members think the emphasis has been placed on fund-raising [for the government] rather than actual protection of the public.

Your organization has vowed to investigate complaints of overzealous inspectors.

“Investigate” isn’t the proper word. I get calls from people complaining—and this is not just recently, this is over a long period of time—you know, “I had a health inspection today, and the inspector came in and looked at everything and complimented me on what a nice job I was doing and then said, ‘But you understand, I have to write you up for something.’”

That sentiment’s been around for a long time. Now it’s instead: “I have to write you up for a lot of things.”

I have been assured by various officials that they haven’t changed their procedures; they haven’t instructed the inspectors to become overzealous. It’s just business as usual. However, if you look at the situation, there was obviously the rat incident, which caused them to suspend an inspector. That was followed shortly thereafter by a picture of an inspector asleep while he was supposed to be doing an inspection. Frankly, it’s only human nature that these inspectors are gonna go wild. It’s like Girls Gone Wild—only it’s Inspectors Gone Wild.

We now have a smoking ban, a trans-fat ban, new menu-labeling requirements. Is Mayor Bloomberg a bigger threat to the industry than Times food critic Frank Bruni?

Actually, the real zealot here is Dr. Thomas Frieden, the commissioner of health and mental hygiene. I have had conversations with Dr. Frieden; we have a big difference in philosophy as to how a health inspection should be conducted and what its purpose is. He feels that the only way he can get compliance on the health code is through fines.

In other words, he feels that if you don’t make the fines heavy, many restaurant operators really wouldn’t care whether they make corrections or not—which is absolutely not the case.

My philosophy on inspections and what is done in the great many jurisdictions other than New York City is an educational process, wherein an inspector comes in, goes through the operation, points out the violations or the things that should be corrected, explains why they’re violations, explains how to correct it, and gives the operator a chance to make that correction before a fine is levied.

Your organization also has lobbied for the city to rethink its policy on garbage disposals in restaurants.

As an industry, we’ve been trying for years to get the City of New York, the Department of Environmental Protection, to allow restaurants to have a commercial garbage-disposal unit for wet waste—for putrescent waste, I believe is the proper term. Food waste. This is what attracts vermin.

Why can’t restaurants have garbage disposals?

Because the Department of Environmental Protection thinks it will screw up the wastewater system. However, interestingly enough, the City of Philadelphia requires it. Their regulation says that, before you get a dumpster permit to put your garbage in, you have to have a garbage-disposal unit, so that the food waste goes into the wastewater rather than into the dumpster.

Anyway, we’ve been trying to convince the city just to do a pilot program to prove that it would not affect the water in the Hudson River the way they fear it would. That would certainly help in terms of the rat problem.