October 10, 2012 Weather: Partly Cloudy, High of 63 Degrees.
Notices:
Today: Dan Savage at B&N, more free film talks, free concerts, an organic food seminar, bar trivia and more.
The new TV show 666 Park Avenue is filming today on West 72nd Street. The show is supposed to be about the Upper East Side, but they just love filming on this side of the park. Who can blame them?
News:
In a random survey, motorist-advocacy organization AAA said it found that stoplights equipped with cameras to catch drivers running reds had shorter yellow lights than other stoplights by as much as 15%. Locations checked included 96th and 110th Streets on Amsterdam. The yellow lights ought to last for about 3 seconds, but tend to last for less, AAA said. (AAA said it believes in the cameras “in concept.”) Streetsblog, however, notes that the survey is far from scientific and that the red light cameras have been shown to improve safety. “Time and again, actual studies show that when drivers follow the speed limit and stop at lights, lives are saved.” Can we all just agree to slow down well before the light turns red? Way too many cars have been hitting pedestrians and bicyclists on the UWS. (NY Post and Streetsblog)
The city has been increasing the tax burden on landlords of apartment buildings through a new assessment policy in the past few years, but some co-ops and condos have gotten off with tremendously favorable valuations. “Take a notable co-op building such as The Dakota, a storied residence on the Upper West Side where apartments routinely sell for millions of dollars. The building in 2012 was valued at a paltry $65 million, at least a tenth of what most real estate experts say a true valuation of the building should be and well below what the city would appear to assess a comparable rental building.” (Observer)
Steven Spielberg made his first ever appearance at the NY Film Fest as he unveiled an unfinished version of the hotly anticipated movie “Lincoln.” (FilmLinc)
red light cams reduce t-boning accidents while increasing rear-end collisions. Drivers quickly learn the locations of the cameras, especially these days with apps and gps-enabled radar detectors, and they tend to stop short at these lights, leading to other drivers rear-ending them. And ‘adjusting’ yellow light times to snare more drivers shows that they are not about safety, they are about revenue enhancement.
PLEASE bring more red light cameras (and PLEASE can we get Albany to approve speed cameras?) to the Upper West Side. We need to slow down these out-of-control drivers and reclaim our streets for people and neighborhoods.