Hell's Kitchen Online 7/2/99 (holiday reading)

[kitchen]

Hell's Kitchen Online                               7/2/99
http://hellskitchen.net "All the News the Times Won't Print"
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Because New York is worth saving: http://www.RetireRudy.com
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IN THIS ISSUE...

  1. No CSDC July meeting
  2. Even more developments planned  
  3. Big Apple Tours in Hell's Kitchen... Sure  
  4. Joe Rose, public servent
  5. Vallone's people (Newsday)
  6. Midtown North Cops have nothing better to do (Times)
  7. Big Business Dreams for West Side rail yards (Times)
  8. Cheating at Manhattan Plaza (News)
     No one would do that, would they?

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NO JULY CSDC MEETING

The Clinton Special District Coaliition (CSDC) will not have a regular monthly meeting in July --
which is normally held on the first Monday of the month at Hartley House. Regular meetings will
pick up again in August (Monday, August 2, 1999)

NEIGHBORHOOD TRAFFIC FORUM

CSDC is hoping to sponsor a Traffic/Transportation Community Forum this summer to focus on traffic
problems in the neighborhood. Watch for details.

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DEVELOPERS JUST WON'T STOP

Costco at 55th/10th?

From the Villager: Costco goes shopping: Community Board 4 reports that Costco, the discount bulk
supermarket chain which owns the garage at 524 W. 23rd St., is now considering moving into the
Armory at 125 W. 14th St. or to 10th Ave. near 55th St. Costco's attorney said the firm has
submitted a proposal to open in the Seward Park Urban Renewal Zone.

The New York City Economic Develoopment Corporation is trying to sell a huge parking lot on the
east side of Eleventh Avenue between 44th and 45th Streets, next to P.S. 51. Approximately 90,000
sq. ft. are available zoned M1-5 (heavy industrial) with a Floor-Area-Ratio (FAR) of 5.0. With
these specifications, a very large development could be placed there.

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THOSE GLEAMING RED BUSSES
We received this recent email (reproduced verbatin w/o the sender's email)... This person may have
been perfectly honest in intent, but we find it a bit odd. Your comments would be welcome to
cough@hellskitchen.net.

  Hi, Hell's Kithcen People!

  I work for New York Apple Tours (one of the Double Decker Tour 
  operators). Do you think it would benefit your cause to promote 
  awareness of the Historical Value of the area by including the 
  area on a New York Apple Tour Route? If so, and you think you 
  might be interested in persuing this avenue (tee hee) 
  please E-mail me.

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FOIBLES OF JOE ROSE

From the Villager:

No-Doze for Noho: The Landmarks Preservation Commission yesterday designated the area bounded by
E. Houston, Lafayette, E. Ninth, and Mercer Sts. as the Noho Historic District. Many of the 125
buildings in the area, which die hards still consider part of the Village, were built in the late
19th Century and were part of wholesale and retail hub. At a recent Noho Business Improvement
District meeting, City Planning Commissioner Joseph Rose said he wants to study rezoning the area
so "it won't be a sleepy little neighbor to other neighborhoods," to which someone said under her
breath, "sleepy is O.K."

From the Observer:

According to a recent New York Observer, City Planning Commissioner Joe Rose appeared in front of
Community Board 8 on June 16 (would he dare show his face at Board 4?) claiming his intent to
crack down on the explosion of vinyl advertising signs on buildings. He moaned the advertising was
"out of control." Rose further complained that the advertisers have huge influential lobbyists at
City Council. "This is all about special interests and lobbyists trying to protect their economic
cash cow at the expense of the zoning resolution."

Oh those empty streets

According to a local politician, Joe Rose recently referred to Clinton/Hell's Kitchen as a place
where "no one lives."

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VALLONE ASSISTANT IS ARRESTED
Newsday, 06-28-1999

An administrative assistant in the office of City Council Speaker
Peter Vallone was arrested early Sunday on assault charges for slashing
his brother with a sword, police said.

Angel Lopez, 31, of the Bronx was charged with first-degree assault
for the alleged attack that left Jeffrey Mirabal, 21, with a laceration
to his neck, police said.

Lopez was identified by police as an assistant in Vallone's office.
The assault took place at 12:42 a.m. in a dwelling shared by the
brothers, police said.

Another brother witnessed the incident. Mirabal was taken by a
private car to Jacobi Medical Center, where hospital officials notifed
police of the incident.  Lopez was arrested at his home without
incident, police said.

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New York Times, June 30, 1999
2 Officers Charged in Theft of Street Vendors' Wares
By JAYSON BLAIR

Two police officers assigned to a unit that enforces street-peddling laws were indicted on Tuesday
on charges that they stole counterfeit merchandise from illegal street vendors and then sold it to
other vendors in midtown.

The officers, Sgt. Victor Araujo and Officer Vincent Contini, both members of the Midtown North
Precinct Peddlers Unit, were arraigned in State Supreme Court in Manhattan Tuesday on charges of
grand larceny, accepting bribes and official misconduct, said the Manhattan District Attorney,
Robert M. Morgenthau. Each pleaded not guilty and was released on a $7,500 bond.

The officers are accused of stealing merchandise confiscated from illegal street vendors and then
forcing other vendors to buy it from them in exchange for protection from law enforcement,
Morgenthau said.

The Peddlers Unit has been under scrutiny by the department's Internal Affairs Bureau since
January, when Officer Contini was said to have implicated himself and the others in extortion
attempts. Two other officers resigned after refusing to take drug tests and two others were placed
on modified duty. The two remaining officers who were in the unit have been transferred, said
Charles V. Campisi, the chief of the Internal Affairs Bureau. Other officers have taken the places
of those no longer in the unit.

Internal affairs investigators said the officers in the unit would seize counterfeit handbags,
watches, sunglasses and other merchandise from illegal street vendors and then sell it to other
vendors, who would pay a little less than $100 a day for it. In exchange, the officers in the unit
would protect the vendors from law enforcement raids, the investigators said.

If the vendors did not comply, the officers would threaten them with arrest, the investigators
said. "If you are giving them $100 per day, then you were not likely to be in trouble and you get
access to one of the most lucrative parts of town, where the most cars and foot traffic is," said
Daniel J. Castleman, the chief of the Manhattan District Attorney's investigation division.

Officials said they were not sure how much money the officers might have obtained from the
arrangement.

The indictment, unsealed Tuesday, charges Sergeant Araujo and Officer Contini with extorting money
from Mbaye Tague, a licensed street vendor from Senegal who owns four vending stands in midtown.
But law enforcement officials said that the case might involve at least a dozen merchants and that
there could be additional charges against other members of the unit, which was supervised by
Sergeant Araujo, 39, a 14-year veteran.

The Midtown North Precinct came under scrutiny in January when Officer Contini, 39, tried to
commit suicide after testing positive for cocaine. In a bid to save his pension, investigators
said, Officer Contini told them that he had been stealing from street vendors and selling their
goods for profit.

The police said Officer Contini told detectives that he and other officers in the unit took
watches, handbags and other merchandise from vendors working near Rockefeller Center and then sold
them. Law enforcement officials said Tuesday that the arrangement began in November and ended in
January.

On May 12, Officer Contini, a 17-year veteran of the department, was indicted on charges of grand
larceny and tampering with public records. After executing a search warrant at a jewelry store on
the Lower East Side in March, the indictment charges, Contini reported seizing $9,000 in cash from
a safe in the store, but officials said he had pocketed at least $30,000.

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Big Visions for the West Side 
Architects Turn Imaginations Loose on the Rail Yards 
New York Times, June 29, 19999
THOMAS J. LUECK 

For developers and architects, it has long been the juiciest prize in Manhattan, a squalid
corridor of rail yards covering 12 square blocks and stretching from the General Post Office on
Eighth Avenue to the Hudson River. But what should be built on it?

Now the architects, or at least a small, internationally diverse group of the biggest names in
their field, have spoken. And anyone expecting the predictable may be in for a jolt.

A stadium? Perhaps. And if it were built over the shoreline of the Hudson River, there might also
be room for a new city park, an addition to the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center and a new
Madison Square Garden.

Something simpler? What about a vast, glass-covered winglike structure extending from Ninth Avenue
to the river that would provide the roof for New York City's biggest public commons? In a truly
minimalist approach, one architect would leave the site almost entirely untouched except for
erecting 70-foot-high "wind-blinkers" (that's British for windmills), thereby creating what he
calls "the Lungs of Midtown Manhattan."

Whimsical or not, these are three of the five entries in what is regarded as one of the world's
most prestigious architectural competitions for one of the city's most sought-after pieces of real
estate.

The competition, which was sponsored by the Canadian Center for Architecture and judged by a panel
that included such architectural luminaries as Frank O. Gehry and Philip Johnson, was intended to
provoke fresh, cutting-edge and even practical ideas for the rail yards west of Pennsylvania
Station, the site bordered by 34th Street and 30th Street between Eighth Avenue and the Hudson
River.

The winner, announced last night, was Eisenman Architects, a New York firm headed by Peter
Eisenman. It was the proposal by Mr. Eisenman, who is known for his experimental, sometimes
controversial approach, that would incorporate a sports stadium, an addition to the Javits Center,
a new Madison Square Garden and a public park atop the site's major new buildings.

In addition to the prestige of winning, Mr. Eisenman will receive a $100,000 prize but no
assurance of future work on the site. All the finalists have already received $50,000 stipends to
cover the four months' work needed to prepare their entries.

"This is the most important competition in America since the Chicago Tribune competition of 1922,"
said Mr. Johnson, referring to the architectural event that set parameters of style and design
that were followed for decades. "It was hard to pick a winner," added Mr. Johnson, who at 92 is
widely regarded as the dean of American architecture.

The competition has taken on a special importance not only because of the high-profile architects,
but also because two high-ranking government officials were among the jurors. They were Charles A.
Gargano, Gov. George E. Pataki's economic development adviser, and Joseph B. Rose, director of the
New York City Department of City Planning.

The impressive lineup of architects was a reflection of the intense interest in the future of this
site. Even though there is no official government mandate or financing to develop the land at the
moment, the prospects for large-scale construction may be stronger than ever.

This is due to the city's strong economy, combined with the intense pressure to expand or rebuild
public buildings on the periphery of the site. One is the Javits Center, just north of the rail
yards, which the city and state hope to enlarge. Another is the General Post Office, which is to
be renovated as a new Pennsylvania Station.

Added pressure has come from City Hall, where Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani wants part of the rail
yards used for construction of a new sports stadium. The Mayor also supports extending the No. 7
subway line, which now runs along 42d Street as far west as Times Square, to serve as a conduit
for both the Javits Center and the new stadium.

"This is not just an intellectual exercise," Mr. Rose said. "There is real interest and demand in
this site, and the competition serves as a catalyst to get first-rate designers thinking on an
ambitious scale."

All five firms will be invited to attend further discussions with city officials, he said.

Just how significant the results of this particular competition prove to be remains to be seen.
Architectural competitions are far from new, particularly in a city as densely developed as New
York and as preoccupied with urban design.

And, as was the case with the site of the New York Coliseum, the most ambitious and provocative
proposals often have little relationship to what is eventually built.

In the case of the rail yards, the hurdles to development are large and complex, and the interests
of builders, residents and government regulators are bound to conflict.

"We definitely are not interested in a stadium, and we don't want this corridor developed in a way
that creates a barrier across the West Side of Manhattan," said Leni Schwendinger, president of
the Hell's Kitchen Neighborhood Association, one of several groups that have promised to fight any
development plan that seems too immense.

Debate over the future of the rail yards site is bound to be intense, because much of the land is
publicly owned, having been subdivided over more than 50 years among the city, the state and the
Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

The competition underscores the intense interest surrounding the rail yard site among architects,
who consider it one of the world's most important big-city tracts of underdeveloped land.

According to the organizers of the event, the finalists were chosen from 110 firms in Europe,
Asia, Africa and the United States.

All five designs will be on display for a month starting in October in Grand Central Terminal.

Among the other proposals was one by the New York City firm of Jesse Reiser and Nanako Umemoto of
Reiser & Umemoto RUR Architecture P.C., calling for a huge glass roof atop a public commons, which
could accommodate up to 90,000 people for cultural events. That plan would also include three new
hotels.

Ben van Berkel and Caroline Bos, of Van Berkel & Bos Studio, based in Amsterdam, proposed a vast
structure that would house a larger and more technologically advanced Javits Center.

That plan would also provide a new pier in the Hudson River and gardens along the riverfront.

A California firm, Morphosis, headed by Thom Mayne of Santa Monica, Calif., proposed a large new
structure extending along the spine of the rail yards site, which like Mr. Eisenman's plan would
support a landscaped public area on its roof.

Mr. Mayne would use the part of the site just west of the post office and the new Pennsylvania
Station for a new Madison Square Garden.

Perhaps least expected among the proposals was that of Cedric Price, of the London firm of Cedric
Price Associates. He would take advantage of the breezes off the river to power his
"wind-blinkers" and preserve the largest remaining open tract of industrial land in Manhattan.

"There are many situations in which to be systematically late is to be systematically wrong," Mr.
Price said in the somewhat oblique text accompanying his entry. In other words, he seemed to be
saying, enough damage has been done to the site already. Leave it alone.

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Harlem Boys Choir Founder Faces Apartment Cheat Rap 
By GREG B. SMITH 
Daily News, July 1, 1999

The founder of the internationally acclaimed Boys Choir of Harlem hid his six-figure income to
snag a subsidized apartment in a Times Square artists' residence, prosecutors have charged.

Walter Turnbull, who got awards from two Presidents as director of the choir, will be hit with tax
charges in Manhattan Federal Court today, two sources familiar with the case confirmed.

Gerald McKelvey, a spokesman for the choir, confirmed Turnbull would be charged with one count of
failing to report income in 1990, in a deal worked out with Manhattan U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White.

Turnbull is a former cab driver who founded the Boys Choir of Harlem in 1968. Since then, the
group has been praised for helping young men rise out of sometimes troubled circumstances.

The choir has performed worldwide and on soundtracks for the movies "Glory" and "Malcolm X," and
was the subject of a TV movie.

Turnbull allegedly underreported his income to get a taxpayer-subsidized apartment on the 36th
floor of Manhattan Plaza on W. 42nd St., a mixed-income complex with phenomenal views and a
waiting list to get in.

Most residents are performing artists whose rents are federally subsized. Artists can rent a
one-bedroom for one-third their annual income if they earn less than $62,000 this year.

IRS records filed by the choir state that Turnbull earned $101,175 in 1995 and $82,546 in 1994.

Turnbull attorney Charles Stillman said: "This is an event in Dr. Turnbull's life he intends to
put behind him."

Original Publication Date: 07/01/1999