Rezoning: A Lasting Legacy of Mayor Bloomberg

While there's plenty to complain about when it comes to New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg (the inane and likely unconstitutional soda ban being one), one area that he's excelled at is the ability to get vast swaths of underutilized areas of the city rezoned for commercial and residential development.

That includes major developments like Hudson Yards, Atlantic Yards, DUMBO, and now a portion of the Bronx near the Sheridan Expressway.

A development firm co-founded by Gifford Miller, a former New York City Council speaker, though, is betting that the stretch, rezoned for residential use last October, can be transformed into what the Bronx borough president, Rubén Díaz Jr., calls “a small city.” The project, which is to include 1,325 units of housing and 46,000 square feet of retail space, took an important step forward this month, when it received $1.2 million in capital financing from Mr. Diaz’s office and another $1.3 million allocated by City Councilman Joel Rivera.

That money, combined with financing from the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development, will allow Mr. Miller’s company, Signature Urban Properties, to move forward on construction of the project’s first two buildings, he said. The initial plans call for a total of 237 residential units and 4,200 square feet of retail space in those structures, with low-income housing in one building and moderate-income housing in the other. Construction could begin as soon as early next year, Mr. Miller said, with the entire 10-building project taking seven to nine years to complete.

The Bronx development would benefit greatly from the elimination of the Sheridan Expressway and replace it with a grade level boulevard with park space. The Sheridan is functionally obsolete and the traffic isn't commensurate with the effort devoted to maintaining the roadway (to say nothing of the mess it makes of the Bruckner Expressway interchange.

NYS Department of Transportation To Install Barriers On Bronx River Parkway

The New York State Department of Transportation has begun installing new concrete barriers along the stretch of the Bronx River Parkway where seven people were killed when their vehicle careened off the viaduct and crashed more than 60 feet to the ground. Two other segments along the Parkway will get similar treatment.

The 2-foot, 8-inch concrete slabs will be placed on the righthand side of the travel lanes to block a vehicle from continuing on toward the existing fence and vaulting off the elevated roadway.

The barriers will be the same as the concrete median that separates northbound and southbound traffic lanes on the parkway.

Work began Wednesday morning.

The barriers will go up on the viaduct over the Bronx Zoo and two others that cross over East Tremont Ave. and the Amtrak tracks.

State Transportation Commissioner Joan McDonald said her agency “shares community concerns about the safety of the Bronx River Parkway.”

It's better late than never, and it is far too sad to consider that these developments would not have occurred had seven people not been killed when their vehicle careened over the side of a viaduct on the Bronx River Parkway.

Yet, I can't help but be concerned that the addition of the concrete barrier will actually make things worse - narrowing the already narrow lanes even further. From how the report is worded, the new barriers will actually sit inside the concrete curb that helped fling the vehicle into the air rather than atop the curb - making it more unlikely that a vehicle could overtop the safety barriers and crash to the ground below.

Also, why did it take this particular accident to get action when there was similar crashes along this same stretch over the past several years that highlighted the importance of improving the safety barriers.

Obsolete and Dangerous Infrastructure Contributed To Deadly Bronx River Parkway Crash

Over the weekend there was a deadly accident on the Bronx River Parkway adjacent to the Bronx Zoo. Seven people were killed when their vehicle somehow managed to cross four lanes of traffic and over the side barrier and crashed more than 60 feet below into a storage yard at the zoo.

Local politicians are clamoring for action and wondering why the elevated section has high curbs and insufficiently high railings to prevent vehicles from careening off the roadway.

A perfect storm of factors — including a measly 4-foot guardrail and a concrete curb bizarrely placed along a section of the Bronx River Parkway — could have contributed to the crash that killed seven relatives there Sunday, experts said.

“Highways are not supposed to have curbs,” said Robert Sinclair, spokesman for AAA New York, referring to the 2-foot-high ledge along the right side of the highway that the SUV struck, sending it over the guardrail before it plunged 60 feet onto Bronx Zoo turf.

“And not only is there a curb there, [but] it’s particularly high,” he said.
In addition, the guardrail “would need to be higher for that area because you’re trying to keep vehicles from flying off because of the 60-foot drop. And you’ve got that catapulting curb there.”

Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. also zeroed in on the 4-foot-high rails, calling for state officials to reassess their height in that spot.

“I believe strongly if the railing was higher, at the very worst we would have had a very bad car accident and not a vehicle going over and killing seven,’’ Diaz said.
“We [need] them at least 10 feet or more so this doesn’t happen again.’’

He said he also asked authorities, “Why is the rest of the parkway always smooth and [in] the elevated portion there is always potholes?”

There are indeed a host of reasons why this roadway is so dangerous - and those reasons aren't confined to the Bronx River Parkway viaduct in question.

The same issues can be raised of a stretch of the Cross Bronx Expressway where the viaduct seems to roll up and down by several feet - especially in and around the expansion joints and the drains along the center of the highway. It is all too easy for a vehicle to lose control under those circumstances.

It comes down to the fact that many highways in the area, and indeed around the nation, are obsolete and need major reconstruction or repair to bring them up to a state of good repair. Patching potholes on these structures is a temporary fix - it would take a reconstruction to provide a significant upgrade to the facilities.

However, there are some fixes that could improve safety along the Bronx River Parkway - though drivers might not necessarily like it.

Reduce the number of lanes of traffic from three to two in each direction and provide a breakdown lane that can give drivers a chance to correct themselves. Work should not have to wait until the next decade to reconstruct the highway. This is a stretch that has already taken lives due to poor and obsolete design. We shouldn't have to see more lives lost on this stretch due to the fact that the money can't be found sooner to rebuild the highway so that it is safer for all who use it.

This horrific tale once again highlights the need to maintain and upgrade existing infrastructure to current design standards to reduce the chances for deadly accidents that could be prevented using modern design techniques that keep vehicles on elevated structures and eliminate obstacles that could launch vehicles over the side.

Yankee Stadium Parking Deal A Disaster For New York City

In their efforts to build a new stadium, the New York Yankees convinced the Bloomberg Administration that more parking was needed for the stadium. So, the Bloomberg Administration lined up financing for building parking garages and lots around the new stadium.

Well, it turns out that fans have avoided the parking like the plague and it's such a disaster that the parking lot bonding may default costing the City $237 million in the process.

Time is running out, in other words, to avoid one of the biggest failures in decades of bonds issued by a New York City agency.

The simple fact is that Bloomberg and his aides made a costly mistake when they succumbed back in 2005 to the Yankees’ demand for a 9,000-space garage system. It was all part of the deal for the team to build a new stadium in the Bronx.

But Yankees fans have shunned the garages, where gameday self-parking rates soared last year to $35 — up from $23 previously and more than double the original $14 charge. Valet parking now goes for $48.

So many fans are staying away, in part due to the lure of cheaper local competition, that Bronx Parking Development now projects only 3,500 paying customers per game for the upcoming season.

And that occupancy rate — a measly 38% — will exist only on days when the Bronx Bombers take the field. For the rest of the year, the garages will remain a ghost town, since a mere 70 South Bronx residents currently park there each day.

At the same time, Bronx Parking Development has turned into a giant tax deadbeat. The firm, which is not connected to the Yankees, has failed to pay any rent or property taxes, even though the garages sit on 21 acres of leased public land.

It currently owes the city a whopping $25 million.

The City's solution to this mess? Another bond proposal to build a hotel complex around the stadium.

I'm sorry, but the better solution is to restore parkland that was destroyed as part of relocating Yankee Stadium across the street, and to open up bidding for prime locations for affordable housing and combined retail/residential development. This is a prime location in the City, and the proximity to both a Metro North train station that leads directly into Grand Central Terminal and subways means that it's an easy commute to the heart of the city. Parking should have taken a back seat considering that fans are doing whatever they can to avoid paying through the nose for parking - even circling streets nearby to find on-street parking or lower cost lot alternatives.

The City and the agency that issued the bonds (the IDA) claims that the city and IDA aren't going to be on the hook for the costs. Instead, they claim that the bondholders will be stuck with any potential default. I don't find that completely reassuring, and it also means that the IDA will have a harder time issuing bonds in the future on more worthwhile projects, and bondholders might be more leery of IDA bond issuances.

Thus far, developers have not put forth proposals for hotels or housing on the affected lots, unless they receive sufficient incentives (read as tax credits). Due to the way that the City has mismanaged this resource, the City will have a hard time getting top dollar for the properties.

Busted Bronx Politician Faces Possible Perjury Charges

Election fraud by a politican? You don't say. You're hard pressed to find the political affiliation Nelson Castro anywhere in the New York Daily News article either. He's a Democrat.

The charges against Assemblyman Nelson Castro are expected sometime this or next week, sources told The News.

Castro was accused in last September's primary of electoral shenanigans after nine voters were found to be registered to his one-bedroom flat in the west Bronx.

A judge still cleared him to run - and he won the 86th Assembly District. Opponents complained later that he lied under oath when he said he was unaware of the registration situation.

It turned out some of the nine were his and his girlfriend's relatives. The alleged lies under oath are what now have Castro in hot water and facing possible criminal charges, sources said.

A spokesman for Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson had no comment.

Castro, former chief of staff for Manhattan Assemblyman Adriano Espaillat, was designated by then-Bronx Democratic Party boss Jose Rivera to run for the seat after Assemblyman Luis Diaz stepped down to work for Gov. Paterson.

Castro, 37, immediately was criticized after it was disclosed he had a criminal record for collecting unemployment while he had a job and that he was also facing trial at the time for a string of unpaid traffic tickets and driving with a revoked license.

For those who aren't paying attention, all those involved here are Democrats. Castro wasn't exactly a winner even before joining the Assembly as he had a criminal record and shows a casual disregard for the law.