Dear Neighbors and Allies:

It has been a while. A lot is happening these days in the City, and we wanted to share some of it with you.

The November 2022 Newsletter has excellent coverage of how thousands of sheds permanently changed our City; a legal update on the first lawsuit against the City; coverage on sex shacks, rats, roaches, and other shed squalor; Dogs + Needles and Tompkins Sq Park; Mayor's proclamation NYC is not Ratitioullie; an update on the new City Council outdoor bill;  NYC DOT releases a very glossy report; Halloween humor involving the Mayor, YIMBYs and bike/urbanist extremists; and a heartbreaking goodbye to Bowery Boogie.

We also have some good news for Hell Square.  Working with residents and DOT, six sheds were removed in the last few weeks, with ten more flagged by the agency. Happy November! The LES Dwellers P.S. Follow us on Twitter @lesdwellers and stay up-to-date. We are there, for now, waiting to see what Elon Musk does...

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The article is behind a paywall, If you can't get past it, please  CLICK HERE   for the PDF version.

The Good News First!

The squeaky wheel gets the grease. After numerous 3-1-1  calls that resulted in DOT inspections but no action from the businesses or landlords to cure the violation, we targeted DOT and the Mayor on Twitter. We followed up with two detailed memos to the DOT Commissioners and the Mayor's Office illustrating the failure of 311, DOT enforcement, and the blatant disregard of DOT rules by businesses and landlords. Six sheds were removed, two were cured, and we have the commitment from DOT that the other shed complaints have been escalated. We urge residents to continue to file 311 complaints. It was the 311 data that allowed us to show DOT that enforcement was lacking and often toothless. This is the best way to file all 311 complaints:  https://portal.311.nyc.gov/article/?kanumber=KA-03321 (The categories don't always fit, so find the best one and submit photos, and be detailed in your complaint)

(click images to read the article)

This is a blatant example of how the emergency outdoor dining program become a free-for-all.  Shameful this shed was allowed to happen in the first place?

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News We Wish We Didn't Have to Report!

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 How It's Going (East Village)

How It Started (West Village)

Dogs Are Not Safe in the Park?

Rat, Roaches, and Grime

This Is Nuts! NYC is F***ed!

This is going to end badly for NYC. How do we know? 

Watch the video but here is a hint: Con Edison is asking for liability coverage from the business so they are off the hook for any damages, deaths, or destruction.

What other city allows manholes to be covered by unsafe, unregulated structures and tables and chairs? There is no enforcement of the Emergency Open Restaurant program, which is about to be made into a permanent program in 2023. 

NYC is F***ed!

#JustLikeParis

A Message to Mayor Eric Adams and DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez: 

 Please stop gaslighting us. NYC is not just like Paris! The dining sheds DO NOT contribute to safe streets,  au contraire. 

For example, the 7th Precinct in the Lower East Side has a 79% increase in YTD in major crime and an 82% increase in 28-days. 

 Our streets look like shantytowns from the vandalized, unsafe, unsanitary, and unregulated sheds all over our roadways. The shed disorder contributes to the overall chaos and incivility on our streets:

1. Remove the sheds 2. Clean up the trash 3. Add more street lights 4. Create a compassionate care unit to help with the unhoused and mental health epidemic on our streets 5. Expand supportive housing, evenly distributing the responsibility to all neighborhoods, not just LES, Chinatown, and Harlem 

 Do these things, and you will see the temperature come down in Hell Square on the Lower East Side and throughout the city. 

THE LES DWELLERS

City Council, Vote No on the Text Amendments!

There is Better Way for Our Public Streets Than Getting In Bed With the NYC Hospitality Alliance

“We have been hoodwinked, bamboozled, led astray, run amuck, and flat out deceived."

The fight in the street is not about car parking versus eating and drinking sheds. That is the distraction, to make us look away while our public lands are given away.

Permanent Open Restaurant is a land grab that privatizes public space for one business industry, commercial landlords, and the customers who can afford the $20.00 burger and $15.00 cocktail.

For perspective, in zip code 10002, the median individual income is 20K and a poverty rate that hovers near 30%. This means that many people are left out of the Department of Transportation's newly imagined "public" streets and sidewalks.

What's going on here is so apparent. The powerful hospitality lobby is manipulating the Covid crisis to deregulate and privatize our streets and sidewalks to maximize profits, produce market concentration and strip the public of their "right to the city."

The Permanent Open Restaurant program is more predatory neoliberal policy that extracts from the public and exploits the poor and working class. Like all market-based recovery strategies, the rules and advantages are created by and for the owners of the capital. 

This economic power creates vast political power, which limits the government from imposing rules or regulations or offsetting the needs of the public. 

The fact that most of the City Council are in lockstep with the NYC Hospitality Alliance on this path to the "great" economic recovery shows the sad state of our democracy.

The NYC Hospitality Alliance worked actively against paid sick leave. Unapologetically opposes a living wage. Fights against workers' rights, protections, health care, and wage theft recovery legislation. 

The "100K jobs" that NYC Hospitality Alliance insists outdoor dining "saved" mainly were low-wage jobs primarily held by workers of color—one of the hardest-hit groups economically from the pandemic. Their misfortune directly results from NYC Hospitality Alliances'  years of blocking or chipping away at pro-worker and fair wage policies.

Equitable economic recovery from COVID-19 for New York City can't repeat the lousy economics of past market-based recovery efforts. Economic recovery for all means putting collective action over private interest.

When the emergency order ends, so should the Open Restaurant program.

Time to give the streets back to the people.

The time is now to redefine public space equity.

And, it's about time for bold, imaginative leadership to reimagine and remake the streets and sidewalks for all.

City Council, please vote no on the text amendments. 

President of the Uniformed Firefighters Association of Greater New York Says “Lives Are in Danger” from the Roadbed Dining Sheds

(New York City - February 5th, 2022) – Andrew Ansbro, President UFA Of Greater New York Local 94 I.A.F.F. AFL-CIO statement:

The haphazard way the structures went up, with no attention to the Fire Department’s operations are endangering New Yorkers by causing delays in traffic which increases the response time, and in some places, the sheds have narrowed the street to the point where we cannot safely and effectively raise ladders from the apparatus to windows.

On certain streets that have been narrowed by the placement of sheds, our firefighters are unable to set up the stabilizers from the ladder trucks which are necessary to stabilize the rig so that the ladders can reach residents on upper floors. Also, these sheds at times force the members of Engine companies to stretch additional hose lines around them to enter the front of the building.  If a street is narrowed by the placement of sheds to the point where the street is not much wider than a car it makes it difficult or impossible for us to set up a ladder or truck.

If you or a loved one, has a shed in front of your building, or on your block, you should be concerned about how this shed will affect you, should your building be on fire.  

These sheds not only cause traffic restrictions but in many cases, they negatively affect fire operations.

Lives are in danger.

The Soul of Fat Baby is Now ‘Restocked’ on Rivington Street [via Bowery Boogie]

We know residents often feel like positive change is in short supply for our neighborhood. Hell, residents often feel like things are getting worse by the day. But, while change may be slow, it does happen.

The Fat Baby conversion from nightclub blight to a shoe and clothing store is the inspiration we need to keep fighting for what is fair:

The Soul of Fat Baby is Now ‘Restocked’ on Rivington Street

Residents deserve a pat on the back for this incredible community victory. It took four hard-fought battles at Community Board 3 to win the war. 

The bright spot on the corner of Rivington and Essex is because residents refused to accept the status quo and surrender (and because CB3, in this case, put the quality of life of residents first).

There is no stopping community power when we band together, hold firm, and refuse to accept anything less than the most basic and essential quality of life standards as of right.

Thank you, neighbors and allies!

Positive change is possible for our neighborhood when we band together and demand basic and fair quality of life standards for all. Last year, you helped stop a 3-floor nightclub and live music at 112 Rivington Street. We now have a new shoe and apparel store in its place. You also helped CB3 reverse its approval for a mega clubstaurant at 109 Ludlow Street, helping stop an operator with a long violation history with the New York State Liquor Authority. Our community dodged a bullet with that denial! Let's stand together tomorrow and tell CB3 to VOTE NO on the new clubstaurant at 109  Ludlow Street.   We deserve better, but we must demand it! Quick links: Letter Drive: https://form.jotform.com/220044007356141 (Sign if you have not already-- short 41 letters or 100 signature goal) Community Report: https://bit.ly/109-Ludlow-Oppo SLA & DCA Licensing Committee ZOOM Agenda:  #5. 109 Brasserie LLC, 109 Ludlow St (op)

Monday, January 10 at 6:30 PM | Online:  https://zoom.us/j/92199317942 By Phone:  +1 646 518 9805, +1 929 205 6099 | Meeting ID:  921 9931 7942

Please login between 6:30 PM - 7:15 PM; the earlier, the better. When the moderator opens the chat section, please write:

Name, a resident of [INSERT] Street, opposes the new OP for 109 Brasserie LLC at 109 Ludlow Street. Example: Jane Doe, a resident of Ludlow Street, opposes the new OP for 109 Brasserie LLC at 109 Ludlow Street

👆Press Submit Now! Help Stop a 3-Floor Clubstaurant at 109 Ludlow Street. Need 100 Signatures Before Fri 12PM Deadline! Can We Count On You To Help?👍🙏

You can fill out this form on your computer or mobile device: https://form.jotform.com/220044007356141

This is coming to the Lower East Side's Hell Square unless we can stop it...

Method-of-Operation: 3-Floor "brasserie with international influences"; 220 capacity, DJs (2 times a week), Security (1-2 at the door from 10 PM - close Thurs - Sat), Closing Hours: 4 AM Fri and Sat, 2 AM Thurs, 1 AM Tues - Wed, and 12 AM Sun-Mon; 3-Bars and "ambient" music 

Does this fool any of us? What serious restaurant needs security, DJs, 4 AM closing, and a designated lounge area in Hell Square? 

Need 100 submissions before 12 PM Friday. 

Please can you help us reach this goal? 

Please have everyone over18 years old in your household sign the form letter and share it with friends and neighbors. 

Thank you for helping make the Lower East Side more livable!

The Menace of Summertime Saturday Night on Ludlow Street

With comfort levels of close-quarters partying seemingly back to pre-pandemic norms, Hell Square has rebounded in kind. Neighbors report that any quality-of-life progress gained in this sixteen square-block sector over the last few years completely evaporated.

The hordes of hellraisers were out in full force again this past Saturday night. One week after a roving DJ set up an amplified boombox cart outside Hair of the Dog on Orchard Street, something similar happened around the corner at Ludlow and Stanton Streets. [READ MORE, BOWERY BOOGIE]

And this...

Only in Hell Square can a mob take over a street without consequences. NYC is a lawless mess, especially the Lower East Side!

I care, do you? LES-Hell Square is a lawless lunatic asylum from failed local & state policies, weak CB3 leadership, over-licensing, no enforcement/policing...and those damn outdoor party sheds!.

@CB3Man @BrianKavanaghNY @yuhline @CM_MargaretChin @galeabrewer @NYPDShea @NYPD7Pct @NY_SLA @NYC_DOT @NYGovCuomo @NYCMayor

Watch video to connect the politics of Open Street + BIDs.

See how LES BID is failing Open Streets and Open Streets: Restaurants, but is seeking to expand the Streetscape anyway?

JOIN ON-LINE TONIGHT

Agenda Item: LES Partnership: DOT Pedestrian Plaza & Neckdown Extension at Intersection of Orchard and Broome Streets Transportation, Public Safety, & Environment Committee Tuesday, August 11 at 6:30pm Online:  https://zoom.us/j/94462666216 By Phone:  +1 646 518 9805, +1 929 205 6099 Meeting ID:  944 6266 6216

WATCH VIDEO TO LEARN HOW THE OPEN STREETS PROGRAM IS SUPPOSED TO WORK

The majority of Open Streets and  Open Streets: Restaurant is managed by and under the responsibility of Business Improvement Districts followed by restaurant/bar consortium and/or merchant associations.

Many of our Electeds and local Community Boards gave a full-throttle endorsement of partnering with the local BIDs to manage Open Streets and Open Streets: Restaurant. In fact, BIDs receive discretionary funding from most members of City Council, and have wide-ranging political influence that was cemented in the late 1980s and has grown more substantial since then.

See Links Below for More Detailed Info About Open Streets Program and How to File a Complaint with DOT :

OPEN STREETS INFO + LOCATION & MANAGEMENT SEARCH

OPEN RESTAURANTS INFO SEARCH IF RESTAURANT/BAR IS APPROVED FOR OPEN RESTAURANT OPEN STREET: RESTAURANTS INFO SEARCH WHO IS MANAGING + HOURS OF OPEN STREET: RESTAURANT LOCATIONS DOT OPEN RESTAURANT PROGRAM FAQ FILE A DEPT OF TRANSPORTATION OPEN STREET AND/OR  OPEN RESTAURANT COMPLAINT *For Open Restaurant concerns, please be sure to select “Open Restaurants” from the general topic list. Do the same for Open Street complaints.

HELP!

Lower East Side During a Pandemic, July 2020

The videos and images featured were taken in July of 2020  on the Lower East Side during Phase 2 Opening of New York and the roll out of the Department of Transportation's Open Street, Open Restaurant, and Open Street: Restaurant program.

RESIST NOW: 

SLA & DCA Licensing Committee Virtual Meeting Wednesday, June 17 at 6:30pm Online:  https://zoom.us/j/98746333767 By Phone:  +1 646 518 9805, +1 929 205 6099 Meeting ID:  987 4633 376 

BOTTOM LINE: BIDs represent the best interests of corp landlords and developers. 

THE PLOT: LES BID (aka LES Partnership) wants a direct role in the licensing process at Community Board 3. 

WARNING: This could open the door for citywide BID & CB partnerships on licensing issues and extend their further involvement in land use, economic development matters. 

Dwellers Statement Regarding the BID & Other Policies: As our communities cope with life during a pandemic and are being buoyed by political protests fighting for real change, the private sector is exploiting the pandemic and social unrest. While our focus is on safety and support for substantive structural changes and reforms to our institutions, ideologies, and systems, lobbyists and special interest have the ear of our politicians. The rush to the favored neoliberal practices of our Elected Officials that have long benefited the private sector over careful consideration for the health, safety, and public welfare of all New Yorkers is in full motion. From, State Senator Brad Holyman's ill-conceived cocktails-to-go that will allow drinking citywide on the street for 2-years and turning our entire city into Bourbon Street. As the NY Post recently reported, we can expect our streets to become a big toilet. This all but guarantees unsafe and anti-social behavior on NYC streets as well as noisy, over-crowded streets. See Hell Square, which has been NYC's unsanctioned Bourbon Street for years, for what the future holds if this passes. To, Speaker Cory Johnson, CM Reynoso and MBP Brewer's migration from Open Streets for safe social distancing to shared streets for alfresco dining and drinking without a clear plan for the smart implementation of adequate enforcement, and safety protocols. The longstanding practice for years among our recycled political class, who have taken money from big developers and the hospitality and hotel lobby, is that liquor-licensed businesses (often deep-pocketed corp owned entities) get corporate welfare and special treatment while our small, mom and pop businesses, the heart of our communities, such as florists, bookstores, cafes, bakeries, bodegas, vintage or specialty shops, etc. are left to dry. Isn't alfresco expansion for some businesses unfair to all businesses? Isn't it bad enough, using taxpayer money, the Speaker and the Mayor created the wasteful Office of Nightlife, replete with a lobby-filled Advisory Board and an overpaid Nightlife Mayor, that already gave special treatment to this very business sector pre-pandemic? As we recently tweeted, before threatening to cut schools, sanitation, etc funding disband the lobby created Office of Nightlife & Advisory Board pushed thru by City Council, and put funding into a Covid19 public safety enforcement unit. The LES BID plan to takeover CB3's SLA Licensing Committee is peak neoliberalism and has been in the works for years with support CB3 Chair Coleman and District Manager Susan Stetzer.  It was defeated 2 years ago because residents resisted and showed up, refusing to be silenced and left out of the public process. This time things seem more imbalanced, the BID's exploitation of the pandemic and lobbying efforts now have the full-throttle support of CB3's Economic Development Chair Anisha Steephen as displayed at the last month's Executive Committee meeting. The bottom line, this can't be allowed to happen. This push by the LES BID has nothing to do with saving existing small businesses that may fold due to the current economic circumstances, which by the way, are already licensed. This policy is about guaranteeing landlords can l fill their vacancies with new liquor-licensed businesses, therefore, keeping commercial rents high. This is, in essence, an insurance policy for landlords that prevents the existing inflated commercial rent market from self-correcting and will completely kill retail diversity and prevent mom and pop businesses from ever flourishing. The BID's job is to protect and enrich corporate landlords and developers, not small businesses. Read more: Business Improvement Districts Ruin Neighborhood, The New Republic Please join us next Wednesday and resist this undemocratic plan. This is a citywide call to action because what happens in Community Board 3 will impact all of our Community Boards.

In These Times: Things We Love About Our Community

The ‘Pizza Champ’ Delivering Pizzas to those in Need on the Bowery

When Chinatown was down, he was there; when COVID-19 hurt the destitute, he was also there. Hakki Akdeniz, the so-called pizza champion, was on the Bowery this weekend distributing pizzas and other snacks to those in need. Specifically, the queue of folks outside the Bowery Mission on Saturday. The pizza-maker had cameras rolling… Delivering pizzas […]   Bowery Boogie, 05/06/20

This Mott Street Bakery is Serving Free Hot Lunches to those in Need

As the mandated lockdown drags towards its third month, and basic necessities remain scarce and overpriced, the need to feed Chinatown seniors and destitute are being addressed thanks to individuals and organizations stepping up. The struggle is real. With nearby local farms closing, prices for Chinese vegetables has increased, mainly due to added cost of […]  Bowery Boogie, 05/06/20

Russ & Daughters Donating to Front-Line Workers and the Impoverished

The city still may be shut down, but that hasn’t deterred local appetizing anchor, Russ & Daughters. The century-old Lower East Side institution continues to be an integral part of the history of New York City, now slinging bagels and rugelach to those in need, as well as to health care workers on the front lines […]  Bowery Boogie, 04/24/20

Sidelined by COVID-19 Before Debut, ‘Saigon Social’ Now Serves Meals to First Responders

Saigon Social was oh-so-close to finally opening its first brick-and-mortar on Orchard Street. Then COVID-19 hit, and another setback befell the restaurant. Rather than accept defeat before even launching (i.e. takeout only), ownership pivoted to help serve first responders. Former presidential candidate, Andrew Yang, tweeted last week about how owner Helen Nguyen quickly pivoted. Cooking […] Bowery Boogie, 04/21/20

Extra, Extra Read All About It!

Mayor de Blasio & Nightlife Mayor Plan to Make LES Hell Square Cleaner & Quieter (with 70K of taxpayer dollars administered by CM Chin) 

Watch the Mayor's Announcement Video at Max Fish:  https://www.pscp.tv/NYCMayor/1PlJQVejOMqxE *The city that never sleeps has to look out for the New Yorkers who live where others play. Join me on the Lower East Side. (Mayor Bill de Blasio, 10/22/19)

Read the Press Release: https://www1.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/500-19/mayor-de-blasio-lower-east-side-late-night-quality-life-improvement-plan

Read the Press Articles:

Dwellers Statement:

While we have concerns that this "plan" may be another policy that puts the profits of the nightlife industry over public welfare, we look forward to the promise of cleaner streets, cleared sidewalks and less honking. We are a bit less optimistic about the Etiquette Campaign which many have neglected to take into account that intoxicated and disorderly patrons lack the mental ability to read, remember manners or care when under the influence... In response to inadequate community outreach efforts during the Nightlife Mayor’s 5-Boro Listening Tour, we made our voices known by pushing for meetings with the Office of Nightlife, Nightlife Advisory Board and CM Espinal in order to give the much needed community input. We also shared this presentation to Elected Officials and the Office of Nightlife to emphasis what happens when a neighborhood is turned into a nightlife saturated free-for-all entertainment zone void of adequate enforcement of all laws, regulations and stipulations. We hope that this strategy devised between the private sector and City Hall, which includes 70K from taxpayers issued by CM Chin to the local BID (Lower East Side Partnership), will in fact raise the quality of life and public safety standards of local residents. We raised concerns at the CB3 Transportation Hearing that while eliminating parking on Ludlow might be a good idea, it is also an invitation for “partying” in the streets. This was the case when parking was eliminated along with street closures by NYPD in the past— roving packs of drunks took over the streets and the party lingered outside. We hope this plan by the Mayor includes more NYPD officers to ensure that our streets are not turned into Mardi Gras again. Though residents were not directly asked for input on this specific "plan", we hope that there is going to be an effort to implement our suggestion for more proactive enforcement to deal with over-serving, underaged drinking, public nuisance/intoxication and anti-social behavior. Above all, we hope Mayor de Blasio and Nightlife Mayor Palitz listened to us about tackling the root problem, the complete abandonment of the 500 Ft Law by the Governor and NY SLA, which led to nightlife monoculture saturation that eliminated retail diversity, killed culture, and gave rise to economic & social displacement of locals from their own neighborhoods around the city ie Hell Square, EV, Inwood, Williamsburg, etc. 

We had things to say to the Mayor on Twitter too! We said This and This.

Orchard Street Block Association Weighs In:

RALLY WITH US!