On cobblestones and such…

A visit to the Meat Packing District can feel like a step into a parallel universe, removed from the New York City we know. Cobblestone streets and plaza’s make the area feel like…. well, Europe.

The Meat Packing District (MPD) started as an outdoor food market named the Gansevoort Market in 1884. Today, according to meatpacking-district.com the district is the “quintessential 24-hour neighborhood.” The district covers a 20 square block, with Gansevoort St. marking its southern most boundary.

The NYC DOT has been working on redeveloping the MPD since 2007. Balmori Associates, a New York based urban and landscape design firm established in 1990, has been contracted to find a “temporary solution for public space” at Gansevoort Plaza, on 9^th Ave. between 13street and Gansevoort. The company was hired to make the space compatible with the changes being implemented by the NYC Department of Transportation such as bike lanes, and new traffic alignments. 

Balmori Associates is the design team for the NYC 2012 Equestrian Olympics, happening at the Greenbelt park in Staten Island. The firm is also part of the team working on the High Line, and played a role in developing the viewing wall at Ground Zero.

Diana Balmori, founder of the company, in an article titled “Making Public Spaces: Building an Urban Living Room” explains that 40 Dutch Design students and their professor have been incorporated on to the redesign team. The company has also opened up a Twitter forum, and is gathering ideas from there.

ALERT THE PRESS: MAIL IS GOING OUT OF BUSINESS

In the business of mail, times are tough for the U.S. Postal Service. In August, the USPS announced a plan to shut down 800 post offices nationwide in an effort to pay back it’s $7 billion deficit.  In New York alone, 250 post offices would shut down.

“New Yorkers from every borough and every income level depend on their local post office for a number of key services,” said  Christine Quinn, New York City Council Council Speaker, in a statement to the press.

After the angry calls from people and politicians came flooding in, USPS officials released a revised list of locations, lowering the number of closures from 250 down to 14.

Still,  the potential closure of 14 post office locations in New York City would disproportionately affect communities  in Manhattan and the Bronx.

In an effort to help save the broken structure from collapsing, Congress provided the USPS with operation funds. In an article concerning the financial crisis facing the USPS nationwide, it New York Times wrote “if something doesn’t change by the fall, the Postal Service will have to renege on those health benefit prepayments — despite its legal obligation to pay them — or start missing payroll.”

It’s a fact that in order for the Postal Service to stay alive, each street must drop at least 25 envelopes into the mailbox per day. In the last two years, approximately 14,000 boxes failed to pass the test on different occasions in New York City. “The loss is almost entirely due to a recession-driven decline in business mail,” said William Burrus, president of the American Postal Service Workers Association.

Burrus blames the post office failures on the recession because a “$1.2 billion surplus for its 2008 and 2009 fiscal years,” he said, was expected before the recession hit.

Recession or no recession, most people would rather email than purchase stamps. And if the real mail doesn’t flow, neither will the cash. The USPS might end up going postal after all.

Steam Me Up Scotty!

 

taken from Thelookmachine.com

 

 

Before I moved here I never really understood why there was always steam coming out of manholes in Manhattan in the winter. My first thought was that it was the metro, second was that New Yorkers have really warm sewage (gross), and third was that maybe all of the construction workers are really members of a huge Turkish underground spa. But no, none of those hypothesis were correct.

The steam that flows out from underneath New York streets is in fact from “The New York City steam system, a district heating system which carries steam from central power stations to heat, cool, or supply power to high rise buildings and businesses.” Thanks Wikipedia.

The New York Steam company started in 1882, it provided services for lower manhattan. The company now owned by Con Edison provides service from the Battery all the way to 96^th street. It services 2,000 customers and 100,000 commercial and residential buildings.

In 1879 Wallace C. Andrews decided to take on the challenge of providing steam to New York City. Along with his Chief engineer, Charles E. Emery, The New York Steam Company acquired ten boiler plants and started laying steam mains. On March 3^rd 1882 the company provided heat for its first customer, the United Bank Building.

“By 1932, the tremendous Kips Bay Station (occupying the entire block along the East River between 35^th and 36^th Streets) and five other stations provided steam to more than 2,500 buildings. Among them were some of New York’s most famous landmarks: Grand Central Terminal, the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, the Daily News Building, Tudor City, Pennsylvania Station and Hotel, and Rockefeller Center. Just about every new skyscraper was a testament to the efficiency and reliability of steam service: most were built without smokestacks or individual heating plants.” ConEd.com/history/steam.asp.

Today New York has the largest steam system in the world. There are 105 miles of mains and service pipes that provide some 30 billion tons of steam yearly for heating, hot water, and air conditioning. The steam coming up from the manholes is not caused by leaks in the steam system, but actually by outside water boiling on contact with the hot steam pipes, or other hot equipment underground.

The high pressure of the steam can cause the pipes to explode especially if they have not been replaced for centuries. In 2007 a pipe exploded in mid-town causing a 40 story high shower of flying debris and a steam cloud higher than the nearby Chrysler building. The eruption was so abrupt that people thought it was a terrorist attack, one woman died of a heart attack fleeing the scene, and another man was scalded on over 80 percent of his body.

The Gotham Gazette has a great article about the wonders of New York City’s steam system.

New York’s Gateway

]

New York Harbor is one of the busiest harbors in the world. It is home to five shipping terminals. These terminals receive tons of cargo each year. In 2008, the ports of New York City and Bayonne, New Jersey handled 33.63 million tons of waterborne cargo valued at $152,736 million.

“[The barges] come in with everything,” said Roland Lewis, President and CEO of Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance, a non-profit working to revitalize New York and New Jersey waterways. “From construction materials, to underwear, to beer.”

When cargo ships approach the bay, which starts just south of the Verrazano Bridge, they are met by the Sandy Hook Pilots. The Pilots safely guide the ships into New York City, under the Verrazano Bridge, which is the unofficial gateway to the harbor. In addition, the Pilots check the boat for safety violations.

 

A Sandy Hook Pilot guiding a ship into Lower New York Bay. The crew from Sandy Hook Pilots climb up the sides of these barges to check the cargo (briefly) and ensure the safety of the ship before it enters the harbor. Photo courtesy of the Sandy Hook Pilots

Once the merchandise arrives to ports, it is unloaded and distributed throughout the tri-state area and beyond. According to the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor, the largest imported containerized cargo volumes were furniture, clothing, beer, and ale. The largest containerized cargo volumes for export were paper, carbon, crepe, automobiles, scrap metal, and auto parts.

Currently, there are 52 companies licensed as stevedores (people that are responsible for loading and unloading cargo ships) that operate the five ports in the bay. These companies employ 6,188 workers, which include 372 port watchmen, 323 pier superintendants, and 2,167 “deep sea” longshorepersons, among others.

“We’re taking action to expand New York’s maritime industry,” said Peter W. Davidson, Executive Director of Empire State Development, a New York State agency that provides assistance and service to businesses in order to encourage economic investment and prosperity in New York. “Waterfront businesses are a critical part of our economy, and we think it’s important to do whatever is necessary to create room for them to thrive. The Harbor should include good maritime jobs, and both recreational and educational opportunities.”

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Sources:

Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor

Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance

Empire State Development

Moses Apparition Causes Traffic on the Verrazano Bridge

By: Stephen Tompkins

A Crowd of people gather around Moses' ghost

Early on November 15 a crowd formed in the center of the Verrazano Bridge in New York City’s Bay Ridge. Passersby gasped as the ghost of Robert Moses stood in the middle of the road blocking traffic. Moses emerged from a fog underneath the bridge.

The fog from which Moses emerged

“This is incredible,” Mark Wahlberg (The Italian Job, Fear) said. “I go to Staten Island every day and I’ve never seen anything like this!”

The ghost of Moses called upon the forming audience and asked if they would help him reign over New York City once again and implied that he would be running against Michael Bloomberg in the next mayoral election.

“I will work for 50 cents a year,” Moses said. “And I will give New York City residents affordable living.”

In the blink of an eye Moses was gone, but he left something on the ground. The sun glimmered off of the object laying lone in the middle of the road, making it hard to see.

“Pick it up,” someone shouted.

I inched closer to the object and saw that it was in fact, a copy of The Power Broker.

The Power Broker lying in the middle of the Verrazano Bridge

Mark Wahlberg stepped in front of me and grabbed the book. He ran away, all the while yelling that he was quitting acting and going into urban development.

bridge and aquarium

rm with battery crossing bridge model

the aquarium at castle clinton

the aquarium at castle clinton

NYC No Longer Has Room For People’s Crap.

Greenpoint Sewage Treatment Plant: Da nEw NYC HoTsPot

New York City’s residents are full of shit. About 36,000 tons of shit to be exact. That’s the amount of waste New Yorkers send to the sewers each day. Which begs the question, where does it all go? When we flush the toilet, where are our “dumps” dumped?

No Secrets To The Subway

courtesy of google maps

If you’ve been in New York for longer than a day, you’ve been here: standing on the subway platform, watching the rats scurry, wondering how a person’s ONE sock somehow fell beneath the tracks below you. In waiting for the subway, one is left with much time to dwell in the mysteries of the underground, made realities by the New York City Transit Authority.

What happens at the end of the line? How do the trains turn around? For years, I’ve assumed there’s a trick that I’m just not seeing in plain sight – something that happens when I’m not looking or because I’m not paying enough attention. Well, yes and no.

“You clearly don’t live in New York,” said a slightly irritated Charles Seton, a Spokesperson for The New York City Transit Authority, when I reached him on the phone. Evidently,there’s no magic. And there’s really nothing to it either, according to Charles, who has been with the MTA for 18 years. When each train reaches the other end of the track, he explained, the engineer walks to the other end of the train, and it just goes back the other direction. “There’s only one line in the city that turns around, and that happens on a loop track – the 6 and the turn around is at the Brooklyn Bridge stop,” said Charles.

Sure, it made sense. But I still didn’t quite understand all the nuts and bolts of the process. Take the L train, which Charles says has “thirty cars on the track at one time”: if the cars just go back and forth without turning around, won’t they collide at some point en route? Charles, not-so-patiently, explained that the L train pulls into 8^th Avenue on one track. The train operator then goes to the opposite end of the train, pulls out of the station, and switches to another track. A HA. I hadn’t thought about switches before – therein lies the key to my confusion.

Onto my next question: How do the trains get underground to begin with? “I always assumed that the subway cars were built underground somehow,” said Eric, a twenty-something daily subway rider. But Charles had the answer. “Our trains are built in Yonkers and upstate. They access underground through the tracks on the street level. Tractors bring them in to the city and they get lowered down.”

The Spokesman for the MTA also told me “newer cars travel up to 600,000 miles between break downs.” If a subway were to break down or require repair, they are fixed in one of the 15 subway yards scattered throughout the city. Which, of course, brought up a new question – how do those cars get aboveground for repairs? But something in Charles’s tone told me it was time to just hang up.

The internet is as confused as we are as to why it’s called the Avenue of the Americas

(14to42.com)

Wikipedia doesn’t even speculate. The Times wants four bucks for me to look in their archives for a day. And a bunch of people on a bunch of forums are really confused. Why is 6th Avenue called the Avenue of the Americas?

City in the Sky: The Secret World of NYC Rooftops

The average New Yorker doesn’t give much thought to what goes on above the frenzied city streets: peering up, distant rooftops reveal occasional tufts of green, bits and pieces of illegible neon murals, sagging, archaic water towers, rain-warped gargoyles and elaborate façades. Separate, shrouded, and private, they are seemingly disconnected from the chaos below. But recently, New York City rooftops have formed a vibrant, budding metropolis of their own; activists, artists and entrepreneurs are rapidly transforming the once bleak and dangerous spaces into restaurants, gardens, clubs, farms and even vineyards.