The Chinatown B.I.D. will tax Property Owners and Businesses to clean up The City's Property !!!!

" The BID will clean the sidewalks in front of the parks, as it will clean all the sidewalks, including those in front of schools, churches, government buildings and your home and place of business."  - David J. Louie, Chinatown BID steering committee - Chairman Chinatown Chamber of Commerce




Hundreds of hours will be billed to Chinatown property owners and businesses to clean up NYC's government and public spaces if a Chinatown B.I.D. is passed in City Council.

• The CPLDC has quietly, very quietly added these properties to their service area. Not one piece of 56,0000 mailed "outreach" materials explains that Chinatown Businesses will be paying to keep City property clear of litter. Talk about triple taxation. 
• How many hours will BID workers spend cleaning in front of government owned property? 
• Non Profit organizations don't own brooms and dustpans? Aren't BIDs supposed to be failsafes against free loaders? Last we checked NYC school budgets come from NYC Taxes - so does the school janitor's salary.
• Why arent' the public buildings cleaned by the BID pointed out in the BID literature?

Since they don't tell you all facts associated with the Chinatown BID, we will:


There's quite a number of city-owned government properties that the community will have to pay to maintain the blocks. They include:

• Columbus Park (which was promised to be removed by CPLDC, yet remains in the BID)
• Roosevelt Park
• DCAS building at 125 Walker Street (between Centre & Baxter Street)
• Former school at 70 Mulberry Street
• Police Department at 19 Elizabeth Street
• Federal parking garage at 137-145 Lafayette Street
• School at 145 Baxter Street
• School at 137 Baxter Street
• DEP at 57 Monroe Street
• DEP at 144 Madison Street
• DOT at 127 Madison Street
• Sanitation at 72 Henry Street
• DEP at 141 Madison Street
• School playground at 34 Catherine Street
• School at 2 Henry Street
• New York Public Library at 33 East Broadway
• Park at 10 Market Street
• DOT at 87 East Broadway
• DOT at 85 East Broadway
• City of NY Building at 88 East Broadway
• Post Office at 128 East Broadway
• Fire Department at 75-79 Canal Street
• IS 131 at 36 Forsyth Street
• NYCHA housing (Seward Park Extension) at 45 Allen Street
• DCAS at 117 Chrystie Street
• Fire Department at 363 Broome Street
• DEP at 142-148 Grand Street
• And finally the Louis J. Lefkowitz Building at 141 Worth St. (the ENTIRE SQUARE BLOCK!) which is now the City's marriage Bureau, formerly the motor vehicles building.

City owned properties and all houses of worship are BID tax exempt. Also Asian Americans For Equality's office at 109 Division Street is BID tax exempt. Asian Americans For Equality is lead agency in support and creation of a Chinatown B.I.D. for well over a decade. Councilmember Margaret Chin is a principal at Asian Americans For Equality as a founding member. According to The Chinatown Partnership Local Development Corp. (also founded by Councilmember Margaret Chin) IRS 990 filings for fiscal year 7/1/06 to 6/30/07  $71,508.00 was paid to Asian Americans For Equality from The Chinatown Partnership LDC.

Parks have no business being in the CHINATOWN Business Improvement District

Chinatown resident and small business owner Shane Yamane testified at Community Board #2's Economic Development and Land Use Committee and asked Chinatown Partnership LDC to remove Columbus Park from the proposed Chinatown BID - they did not respond.

"The Park is new, the sidewalks are clean, it has no business being in a BID" said Yamane.

"Park" no more! - Commissioner responds to Parks Department vehicles on sidewalks surrounding Columbus Park in Chinatown

Columbus Park is a safer place thanks to the attention of NYC Parks Department Commissioner Adrian Benepe. Over a month ago, the Civic Center Residents Coalition reported objections to the Parks Department using the sidewalks surrounding Columbus Park as their parking area. This unsafe condition sent the wrong message to the community.

Commissioner Adrian Benepe has sent a letter acknowledging the problem of unsafe parking. He informs us that the condition has been rectified and that his staff has been instructed not to park on the sidewalks any longer.

The Chinatown community is grateful for this acknowledgment and improvement. The removal of vehicles from the sidewalks around Columbus Park could not have been achieved without traffic enforcement by the NYPD. For days, the NYPD patrolled the area to ensure there was sufficient curbside parking for the Parks Department garbage truck and towed away persistent violators of parking rules.

We are hoping the Park's staff will be able to plant trees in the vacant tree pits at Worth and Baxter Streets, as well as Worth and Mulberry.

The Civic Center Residents Coalition remains committed to pedestrian safety issues in and around Chinatown. And through the efforts and cooperation of the NYC Parks Department Commissioner we have achieved a safer park experience.

Thank you Commissioner Adrian Benepe.

NYPD makes room for Parks Department vehicles adjacent to Columbus Park after public outcry

Chinatown residents have reported to CCRC that NYPD tow trucks have been seen towing cars from Baxter Street parking spaces over the last week.

In previous postings on this blog we have shown Parks Department pick up trucks, garbage trucks, and vans parked on the sidewalks at Worth and Baxter Streets. The practice of driving on sidewalks, in some cases five feet from the entrance to the playground at Columbus Park, is not only dangerous and irresponsible, but also downright disrespectful to the Chinatown community.

At a recent town hall on transportation hosted by Councilmembers Liu and Gerson, CCRC alerted D.O.T. Lower Manhattan Commissioner Luis Sanchez of the problem. He assured us that he would pass this information on to the Parks Department.

Some weeks later, with no progress, CCRC brought the issue, armed with photos to the doorstep of Adrian Benepe NYC Parks Commissioner via a letter.

Another two weeks after that we approached the Lower Manhattan Parks Department Commissioner while he was attending the Chinatown Working Group's Town Hall, and again presented the photos and a copy of the letter sent to Adrian Benepe. He promised to call us the next day. He did not.

In fact no representative from the NYC Parks Department has ever acknowledged in writing CCRC's complaints of sidewalk driving despite hand delivered photos to:
D.O.T.'s Luis Sanchez, messenger delivered photos to Adrian Benepe, hand delivered photos and letter to the Lower Manhattan Parks Dept. Commissioner, photos handed to Transportation Alternatives Communications Director Wiley Norville,
hand delivered letter and photos to Council members Liu and Gerson, our Community Board Chair and the Community Board Transportation Committee Chair.

We'd like a commitment from the Parks Department that this "trend" will permanently stop throughout the City's parks.

Without so much as an acknowledgement of receipt of the letter and photos there appears to be progress two months after the initial issue was raised by CCRC.

As you can see from the photos shown here, a truck that habitually parked on the sidewalk at Worth St. and Baxter, has parked at the sidewalk curb instead.

The NYPD must be "helping" the Parks Dept. "find" spaces at the curb by removing offending placard holding vehicles that park in "no standing anytime" spaces.

Moral of the story: If you show photo evidence of unsafe conditions caused by government vehicles, take those photos to two council members, a D.O.T. commissioner, the Lower Manhattan Commissioner of Parks, the Commissioner of Parks, the Community Board Transportation Chair, the Community Board Chair, Transportation Alternatives, two Chinese language newspapers, publish the photos on three blog entries on the internet, then YOU TOO can get results from the Parks Dept. and D.O.T.

Let's hope we can have a safe summer at Columbus Park.

UPDATE: June, 20 '09
The NYPD makes regular patrols of Worth and Baxter Streets. The offending vehicles, a grey van, a Parks Department pickup truck, and a white pickup truck are no longer around, proof that park goers suspicions were correct - that the drivers of these vehicles were simply parking to use the outdoor jungle gym for exercise. WATCH OUT they are probably at a park near YOU now.

Parks Department Vehicles on Columbus Park Sidewalks send a message to Chinatown

Despite the presentation of photos depicting Parks Department vehicles parked on Columbus Park sidewalks at a recent Transportation Town Hall on the L.E.S. the parks department insists on endangering Chinatown kids and seniors who use the park.

Lower Manhattan D.O.T. Commissioner Luis Sanchez expressed to CCRC at the Town Hall that he would be calling Parks Dept. reps to put a stop to this practice, but only three days after the Town Hall the same vans and trucks are back again.

The Parks Dept. can be reached here.