Rough East Village pot bust stirs concerns
BY MARK HALLUM
Mayor Bill de Blasio said that the
conduct of the NYPD offi cers
who instigated a scuffl e in the
East Village on May 2 over social distancing
and “small amount” of weed is unacceptable.
However the mayor claimed the
rarity of such videos is default proof of the
progress the administration has made in
terms of healing the divide between communities
of color and the police.
The event went down at about 5:30 p.m.
on Saturday which NYPD said was because
the suspect became aggressive and resisted
arrest. The second man who was attempting
to intervene took a fi ghting stance,
according to cops.
The fi rst video depicts an offi cer breaking
away from a scuffl e between several
other offi cers and a suspect. He moves
toward the bystander moving too close,
clicks his taser at him before holstering it.
He then asks the man why he’s “fl exing”
and curses as he squares up to the man.
Then he initiates a takedown and proceeds
to punch the man in the face several times
before the video comes to an end.
A second video on YouTube disseminated
by the Legal Aid Society from the business
shows only only a man and woman standing
PHOTO VIA TWITTER/@JBLASCONYC
The NYPD is investigating an alleged police brutality incident on May 2, 2020
on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
Final height of mixed-income building in Seaport
development has yet to be determined
BY EMILY DAVENPORT
Renderings were released for the
New Market building in Lower
Manhattan’s South Street Seaport,
however the companies responsible for the
construction say that they were outdated
an inaccurate.
On May 4, New York YIMBY announced
that they had obtained renderings for a supertall
mixed-income building at 250 Water
Street in Manhattan’s South Street Seaport.
However, according to Howard Hughes
Corporation and Skidmore, Owings &
Merrill (SOM) – the companies behind the
project’s construction – the renderings and
information that YIMBY published were
released by a former employee of SOM.
“We believe that the images published
today on New York YIMBY represent work
samples that a former SOM employee sent
out, without authorization, as part of his
portfolio to demonstrate his individual effort
on the project at 250 Water Street,” said
SOM in a statement. “They do not in any way
represent the range of studies currently being
undertaken by the fi rm for this project, nor
near each other when police approach and
begin putting the two into grapple holds.
While one offi cer has been placed on
modifi ed duty and Manhattan District
Attorney Cy Vance has deferred prosecution
of all individuals involved while the
investigation is pending, de Blasio was able
to fi nd a silver lining.
A rendering of part of the proposed site at 250 Water Street.
do they illustrate our most current thinking.
We regret that these images were taken out
of context in this way and look forward to
our continued study of this site, and to sharing
designs at the appropriate time.”
In the YIMBY report, they stated that
the mixed-income project at 250 Water
Street rise 89 stories with 1,038,950 square
feet divided between commercial, hotel,
and residential components. However,
During a Monday morning press conference,
the mayor condemned the action
of the NYPD offi cer in question but said
these kinds of incidents between cops and
minority groups are on the decline; mostly
due to programs such as the Neighborhood
Coordination Offi cers.
“Remember the entire police force has
according to offi cials from Howard Hughes,
a fi nal height cannot be given at this time
due to development components.
The site at 250 Water Street is one key
part of a series of district-wide development
project for Lower Manhattan’s Seaport District
which includes upgrading the Seaport
Museum, constructing the New Market
building, plus making improvements
to Pier 16 and the Tin Building. Since
been retrained constantly in de-escalation
and neighborhood policing, very, very different
approaches to what existed in the past.
I’m very confi dent that these approaches are
taking hold in the NYPD,” de Blasio said.
“I want to note that that video is more and
more of a rarity. We still have a lot to do, unquestionably.
But the progress is very clear.”
According to de Blasio, individuals within
the force who are unwilling to “conform”
to the new strategies, that the NYPD has
the capacity to “deal” with them.
NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said
there are no “hard and fast” rules about offi -
cers in plainclothes enforcing social distancing
and instead pushed attention toward 16
fi rearms recently taken off the street and
other department accomplishments.
De Blasio and Shea did not address the
matter that the police account of the situation
did not match video footage in that
they described it as an attempt to break up a
group of people not social distancing turned
out to be only two individuals standing next
to one another outside of a store.
“I think the de-escalation training that
was put in place in years past, and continues,
is just yet another tool in the toolbox.
I wish it was 100% effective, but that’s
unfortunately not the world that we live
in,” Shea said.
September 2019, Howard Hughes has met
held workshops to present ideas for the
plan and engage the Seaport community
in ideas to help improve the area. After
receiving the feedback, Howard Hughes
and SOM would take this information and
make updated plans.
The site at 250 Water Street will encompass
the full block with the base of
the building matching the esthetic of the
Seaport District with a huge tower on top
to match the style of other tall buildings in
Lower Manhattan.
Another obstacle that the project as a
whole is facing is in regard to leftover zoning
rights. According to their fi ndings, the
project has 715,300 zoning square feet of
unused space. Howard Hughes and SOM
are working out ways to see if the unused
zoning rights can be transferred to the site
at 250 Water Street, which currently has
289,300 zoning square feet used.
Because the fi nal height is not yet
known, Howard Hughes Corp. and SOM
have come up with four different potential
tower layouts for the tower, the fi nal version
of which has yet to be determined.
Schneps Media May 7, 2020 3