YOUR WEEKLY COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER SERVING CHELSEA, HUDSON YARDS & HELL’S KITCHEN
Seminar Preps Advocates for Albany Housing Rally BY WINNIE McCROY On a day when the sun shone brightly over happy children playing in a bouncy castle at the street fair on W. 26th St., few people would have opted to stay indoors. But for the 70 individuals who gathered at Hudson Guild’s Elliott Center on the afternoon of Sat., May 30, the promise of affordable housing offered an even brighter option. “The costs of rent, food, the subway and clothing are going up, but people who’ve lived in this neighborhood for their entire lives are wondering how long they can hang in there, especially on the West Side,” said the symContinued on page 2
10th Precinct Counsels on Crime Spikes BY ZACH WILLIAMS Police from the NYPD’s 10th Precinct highlighted identity theft, felony assault and grand larceny as top criminal challenges afflicting Chelsea at the May 27 meeting of its community council. Increased vigilance from private citizens could help temper recent spikes in those crime categories, according to Deputy Inspector Michele Irizarry, who commands the precinct. The disparate locations of incidents stretches precinct resources — especially when unexpected police-intensive events arise, such as the #BlackLivesMatter Continued on page 3
HUDSON RIVER PARK GAMES See page 12.
vision42.org
A light rail system on 42nd St. could help make internal combustion engine cars a curiosity of the past.
Planning Today for a Midtown Tomorrowland BY ZACH WILLIAMS Predicting what life will be like in the future is a tricky business — one that often involves scenarios residing on the extreme end of the sci-fi spectrum. We will not live underground to escape the effects of nuclear winter, nor will we be vacationing on the moon. Those who envision flying cars or other truly transformative technologies should glance at the Empire State Building and note that airships never took to the docking station up top. Although many things will change in the next 25 years, the means by which we move around Midtown
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does not appear to be one of them. In many respects, the dominance of the automobile is ending in favor of railways, buses, bicycles and good old-fashioned walking. Four wheels (and some extra ones for buses) or two legs are still the best means we have. In respect to public transit, however, we are already seeing the future unfold in forms likely to hold for decades, especially given the length of time required for major infrastructure projects. The Port Authority began the planning process
Continued on page 4 VOLUME 07, ISSUE 17 | JUNE 04 - 10, 2015