The Streets Where We Live

Upper Manhattan Bike Lane Education Workshop Scheduled for Spring

UPPER MANHATTAN — Pedestrians, car drivers and bike riders will get a chance to debate the introduction of new bike lanes in Inwood and Washington Heights when Community Board 12 holds a workshop in the spring.

Members of the Traffic and Transportation committee decided to put off a public hearing originally slated for January, saying it wants to be inclusive of the entire community, including older members who are more likely to attend then than in the "dead of winter."

The committee has been mulling a proposal from the Inwood/Washington Heights chapter of Livable Streets that calls for several changes to the Upper Manhattan biking landscape, but has said it wants to hear more community input before recommending a plan to the Department of Transportation.

The DOT said that because the bike lanes would not be implemented until 2012 anyway, the board's delay in submitting a recommendation would not make a difference.

Read more about the bike lane discussion at DNAinfo.com. 

 

Councilman Pressures Noisy Dyckman Street Restaurants to Close Sidewalk Cafes Earlier

INWOOD — When noise complaints on Dyckman Street reached a fever pitch this summer, elected officials began working with restaurant owners so that they could keep making money without depriving their neighbors of a good night’s sleep.

But one restaurant seems reluctant to play by the new rules.

City Councilman Robert Jackson, whose district encompasses the Dyckman Street area west of Broadway, began meeting with restaurant owners to ask them to reduce sidewalk cafe hours and work on better business practices for the neighborhood, and many of them agreed.

As a result, popular — some say too popular — restaurants Mamajuana and Papasito have reduced their outdoor hours of operation by one hour, closing the outdoor seating at 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and midnight on Fridays and Saturdays.

Some said the reduced hours have resulted in a quieter Dyckman Street area.

"We still have a ways to go, but a few of these places have gotten better," 43-year-old William Meyers, who lives nearby on Dyckman Street, said.

But when a representative from Jackson’s office met with Il Sole owner Sandra Jaquez to discuss adopting a similar policy on Thursday, she reportedly said adopting the shorter hours would bring on economic hardship.

Read more about Dyckman Street at DNAinfo.com. 

Upper Manhattan Officials Say Federal Fingerprint Sharing Program Sets Stage for Racial Profiling

Upper Manhattan elected officials protested New York State's participation in "Secure Communities," a federal program that mandates police departments share fingerprint information of detainees with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). (Office of Ydanis Rodriguez)

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS — Northern Manhattan elected officials gathered at City Hall on Sunday to protest "Secure Communities," a federal program that allows police departments to share the fingerprints of people in their custody with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The federal department then uses the data to check on the immigration status of those arrested and can begin deportation proceedings if they are found to be in the country without documentation.

Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez called on Gov. David Paterson to end New York State’s participation in the program, which began in May 2010.

Read more at DNAinfo.com. 

Community Board 12 Asks City to Consider Rezoning Sections of Washington Heights

Washington Heights areas being examined for potential rezoning. (The lower portion was ruled out of the proposed rezoning due to its small size.) (Community Board 12)

By Carla Zanoni

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

UPPER MANHATTAN — Changing the landscape of Washington Heights and Inwood will take a lot longer than a "New York Minute."

Community Board 12 approved a resolution asking the city to consider rezoning sections of Washington Heights to update three key areas of the neighborhood at its last executive meeting. Those areas have remained untouched by city planners since the 1960s.

The board’s resolution passed on Sept. 26 was the culmination of a more than six-year study of the district that seeks to change three sections from zoning that only allows for automotive intensive space with to zoning that would allow for residential and street level commercial use.

Inwood section of previously

proposed rezoning study. 

(Community Board 12)

 

Although the study initially looked at six areas throughout the CB12 district, the resolution presented to the Department of City Planning only focuses on three key areas in Washington Heights: Broadway between W. 173rd and W. 177th streets, Broadway between W. 181st and W. 187th streets and Amsterdam Avenue between W. 179th and W. 181st streets.

Read more about the resolution at DNAinfo.com. 

 

 

Washington Heights Tax Swindler Allowed to Keep Restaurant Open

Photo credit: gazcueesarte.blogspot.com

By Della Hasselle

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

MANHATTAN — A Washington Heights restaurant owner who admitted to stealing over $800,000 from the state will be allowed to go back to work soon, the New York Post reported.

Rolando Lantigua, 35, made a deal with prosecutors Thursday that allows him to keep Arka Lounge, one of his three Washington Heights restaurants, open in exchange for $300,000, to be paid back to the state over a period of five years, according to the Post. Lantigua was also ordered to serve two days a week at Rikers Island for 11 months.

Read about the deal at DNAinfo.com. 

Voters With Disabilities Add to Complaints About Primary Election

Disabled voters from all over the city complained about inaccessible voting places and no ballot-marking devices.

MANHATTAN — When Washington Heights resident Edith Prentiss got in her motorized wheelchair and went to vote on Tuesday morning, she found a disturbing surprise: her polling site did not accommodate wheelchairs.

The desks where the new optical scanning voting machines were located were placed too close to one another, making it impossible for her to reach the machine.

"I would have had to walk between the voting desks to get to the table where I needed to vote," said Prentiss, who is unable to walk.

Despite the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002, which requires that polling sites be accessible to the disabled, people with disabilities citywide have reported a host of problems blocking them from their civic duty.

Read more about the problems disabled voters encountered at DNAinfo.com.

Voters Hit the Polls in Washington Heights, Inwood to Vote in New Reps for State Senate and Assembly

UPPER MANHATTAN — Two familiar faces won the races for state Senate and Assembly in Tuesday's primary elections in Washington Heights and Inwood.

Assemblyman Adriano Espaillat garnered over 51 percent of the vote and will replace State Sen. Eric Schneiderman in the 31st Senate district.

His longtime foe and new-political ally, former City Councilman Guillermo Linares, won Espaillat's soon-to-be vacated spot in the 72nd Assembly district with 48 percent of the vote.

Read more about Primary Day at DNAInfo.com.

Upper Manhattan Women Look to Make History in the Hunt for Albany

Upper Manhattan has four women in the hunt for Senate and Assembly seats, a record number.

UPPER MANHATTAN — When Julissa Gomez launched her campaign to become the first woman to represent Upper Manhattan in the state Assembly, she quickly realized the road to Albany would be bumpy.

For one thing, she had to endure jokes about her looks. For another, a search for a female candidate to run for the 72nd District seat held by outgoing Assemblyman Adriano Espaillat ended with the incumbent endorsing a man.

Gomez is one of four women hoping to represent Washington Heights and Inwood in state government — and looking to make history. Never before has a woman represented northern Manhattan in Albany, and to have so many female candidates in the mix is unprecedented.

In addition to Gomez, 35, there's Gabriela Rosa, 44, also in the pool of Democrats up for the Assembly primary on Tuesday. In the 31st District state Senate race, there's Miosotis Muñoz, 41, and Anna Lewis. With weak Republican opposition expected in the general election, whoever wins the primary in both races is nearly assured victory in November.

But the path to history hasn't been smooth.

Read more about the women running for office at DNAinfo.com. 

Political Motorcades Hit Broadway for Last Minute Campaigning in Inwood, WaHi

Caravans made a last-minute push for candidates in Inwood and Washington Heights days before the primaries.

UPPER MANHATTAN — Northern Manhattan was alive with the sound of politicking Sunday afternoon as two motorcades drove up and down Broadway looking for last-minute votes ahead of Tuesday's primary.

In one motorcade was state Senate hopeful Assemblyman Adriano Espaillat and the candidate he wants to replace him in the 72nd District, Guillermo Linares. In the other was Espaillat's main rival, Mark Levine.

Read more at DNAinfo.com.

Campaign Truck Blaring Election Messages Sparks Altercation in Inwood

An Inwood man sick of a truck blasting election messages allegedly dismantled the speakers, campaign staff said.

INWOOD — Tensions over campaign trucks that blast loud messages throughout the neighborhood boiled over recently when an Inwood resident fed up with a noisy truck took matters into his own hands and dismantled a pair of speakers on the vehicle.

A campaign manager for assembly candidate Guillermo Linares also claims that the resident threw dog feces at the truck and tried to intimidate the worker who operated it.

The truck, which was broadcasting messages for state Senate hopeful Assemblyman Adriano Espaillat and Assembly candidate Guillermo Linares, was set up at the corner of Broadway and Isham Street last week.

Read more about community sentiment about the trucks at DNAinfo.com.