Daily Archives: May 27, 2016

Ray Kelly recalls life as New York’s top cop

Ray Kelly

Ray Kelly

By Maria Rocha-Buschel

Former NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly joined his son, Fox5 anchor Greg Kelly, in a discussion about his life and career at the National Arts Club on Tuesday, May 10.

The pair discussed Kelly’s service as the city’s longest serving police commissioner, but Greg also said that he wanted to highlight parts of his father’s story that people might not know about during the discussion, such as the fact that his father was first in his class at the police academy, receiving a commemorative weapon for the honor.

“Just to illustrate the power of Bloomingdale’s in those days, that was known as the Bloomingdale’s trophy,” Kelly said. “Bloomingdale’s had a lot of juice in those days.”

The event at the Arts Club in Gramercy Park was in promotion of Kelly’s newly released memoir, Vigilance: My Life Serving America and Protecting Its Empire City.

“We rehearsed nothing for this and he has a history of trying to submarine me,” Kelly joked about his relationship with his son before the conversation started.

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Feeling the urn: Residents weigh in on smoking areas

Cigarette urns like this one will soon appear throughout Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village. (Photo by Chuck Hartsell)

Cigarette urns like this one will soon appear throughout Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village. (Photo by Chuck Hartsell)

By Sabina Mollot

Earlier in the month, Blackstone’s new management arm, StuyTown Property Services, announced that designated smoking areas were coming to Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village. As General Manager Rick Hayduk later explained to T&V, 70 urns would be placed around the property to serve as smoking areas and receptacles for cigarette butts. Still, the plan would be more about suggesting a modification in behavior — getting smokers to take their butts (and the ends of their cigarettes) — off of stoops and away from buildings, rather than a clear cut rule about where to light up.

We’ve since reached out to community residents who mostly seemed to support the project, though some complained it didn’t go far enough.

Longtime resident and former smoker Bill Whitney said he thought having the urns around “is a good idea. There are so many dogs and kids around here and they pick things up.”

Elaine Healis, who said she lived in Stuy Town for 30 years, had no problem with smoking areas but suggested that management start off by just placing one or two urns around and seeing if they work before putting in the rest of them. (Hayduk had said previously that the endeavor would be a costly one with Blackstone purchasing 80 urns, each costing $500 including installation.)

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