Daily Archives: September 2, 2019

Opinion: As The World Turns

By former Assemblymember Steven Sanders

Some weeks feel like a year in the life of national politics, especially as it concerns President Trump. He likes saying that no president in history has done more than he. Maybe, but is it good? If last week felt like a half dozen episodes of a soap opera, you are forgiven. It was produced by the recently self-proclaimed “chosen one.”

In just one week, Trump attacked members of Congress who have been critical of him and the Israeli government. He proceeded to pressure Israel to forbid the planned visit of two of them. Evidently the First Amendment has no meaning to this President.

He went on to lecture the Jewish community about anti-Semitism and said that any Jew who voted against him and for a Democrat was either ignorant or “disloyal.”

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Teens arrested for Kips Bay robbery

By Maria Rocha-Buschel

Police arrested three teenagers for robbing an elderly woman in Kips Bay earlier this month.

Police said that the victim, who is in her 70s, was standing in front of 332 East 29th Street on Sunday, August 4 at 8:30 p.m. when the three teenagers approached her. The victim said that the teens pushed, punched and shoved the woman, then forcible removed her iPhone from her hand.

Police said that the woman lives nearby and further information about her condition was not immediately available.

The teens, who police said are all residents of the Administration for Children’s Services facility at 492 First Avenue, were caught at the ACS building on Monday, August 5 at 12:44 a.m. and were charged with robbery.

Their names are being withheld due to their young age.

Elevator licensing law proposed after man falls to his death in Kips Bay

344 Third Avenue (Photo by Sabina Mollot)

This story originally appeared in Real Estate Weekly.

By Sabina Mollot

State Senator Brad Hoylman is co-sponsoring a law that would require elevator inspectors to be licensed is expected to be signed by Governor Cuomo following the death last week of a man in Kips Bay.

Sam Waisbren, 30, died trying to escape from a plunging elevator at 344 Third Avenue, the apartment building where he lived.

City records show the property, owned and managed by ATA, had a previous violation for a door zone restrictor, a safety device that had been tampered with, disabled and rendered inoperative, according to the Department of Buildings.

The building’s owner was fined $1,280 and slapped with two further violations this past May for not taking proper safety measures for unrelated construction work at the building, known as Manhattan Promenade. The death came as legislation languishes in Albany after being passed by both the State Senate and the Assembly.

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