By Matt Chaban 11/12/12 1:26pm

recovery mode

Senator Schumer (far left) and Congressman Nadler (far right) at the mouth of a flooded Brooklyn Battery Tunnel—the kind o damage both hope to prevent. (Jay Fine/MTA)

Schumer and Nadler Say Sandy Was Our Wake-Up Call for Better Disaster Infrastructure

There has been a big debate in (local) government about how best to respond to Hurricane Sandy going forward. There is the governor’s camp, which argues for redesigning great swaths of the city and state’s built environment; and the mayor’s camp, which both before the storm and after, argued that the city could never really protect itself from these kinds of disasters, so it was up to citizenry to protect themselves. The city would help with evacuations and the like, but really, don’t build near the sea or count of some fancy new sea gates to protect you, the mayor insisted.

During the recovery, The Observer would ask major officials into which camp they fell. Both Senator Charles Schumer and Congressman Jerry Nadler (who represents much of the formerly flooded downtown Manhattan) put themselves in the camp of doing more, building more, protecting more.

“For the future, we have to look into it,” Senator Schumer said. Read More

By Matt Chaban 7/31/12 1:09pm

It Takes a Village

Silver Towers from Soho, with 505 LaGuardia at left. (Fuck Yeah Brutalism)

Village Vanguard: NYU Agrees to Keep 505 LaGuardia Affordable, Pols Pleased

One of the lingering concerns over the NYU rezoning of its two superblocks—besides whether it not it was The Final Nail in the Village’s coffin—was the fate of 505 LaGuardia Place, one of the three 30-story concrete sentinels that makes up the I.M. Pei-designed Silver Towers.

The other two are faculty apartments, but this one is Mitchell Llama public housing, and the lease with NYU was set to expire in 2014, at which point rents could jump to market rates, possibly driving out long-time residents, many of them elderly. According to local Councilwoman Margaret Chin’s office, NYU has agreed to provide 505 LaGuardia with the old lease agreement in perpetuity. The pols who fought for this agreement, along with the tenants  benefiting from it, are naturally ecstatic, as made clear in their quotes below. Read More