Who knew there were provisions for wagons and regulations for kite flying around the city's telegraph system within the city's fire code.
Well, no more.
After a three-year review, the City Council unanimously approved a revised fire code on Wednesday. The code was last revised in 1913. In response to changing times, the update requires more informative evacuation plans and includes construction sites into fire safety management.
In addition to updating the code, the council also approved a budget modification to fiscal year 2008 -- initially approved last June -- which included an additional $2.2 billion surplus from tax revenues. The move sparked some opposition from several council members, who said they did not have enough time to review the documents and questioned the additional surplus found by the administration.
The council also approved a lease for a recycling station in Sunset Park.
The city's new fire code ( Intro 732-A ) will bring the city's standards in line with the International Fire Code and with the city's recently revised building code in order to improve safety conditions, said officials.
The plan, which goes into effect in July, will require the development of a fire safety program for construction sites and provisions for rooftop access. Under the new code, temporarily vacant buildings will also have to maintain their fire safety systems.
"Oh course it's not as sexy as the building code," said Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta. "But it's still very, very important."
Many of the new provisions might pertain to tragedies like the Deutsche Bank fire last August, where the fire safety system, including the building's standpipes, was not fully maintained while it was being taken down floor by floor.
Though some buildings, like the the United Nations, will not be covered by the fire code, because they are out of the fire department's jurisdiction. Scoppetta said the department is in the process of reviewing some of these so-called loopholes.
Scoppetta said the department's primary focus was on safety, but it did consider some of the code's economic impact on construction and building costs. Officials said the City Council and the department received feedback from multiple industries, from fire extinguisher companies to real estate boards.
What is typically a procedural issue turned controversial on Wednesday when the City Council considered a budget modification that took a unexpected $2.2 billion surplus and used it to prepay debt in 2009 and 2010.
Though the council approved the change unanimously, members raised concerns that they had not had enough time to review the documents. The budget modification, which is an inch thick and about 130 pages, was released to some members during a political meeting 24 hours before the vote.
"There should be a minimum time period," said Councilmember Alan Gerson.
The vote came on the heels of an effort by Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who has presented herself as a reformer and champion of transparency, to make the budget process more transparent following the City Council's slush fund scandal.
Other members questioned the use of the city's surplus -- especially when the Department of Education is facing budget cuts.
Both Quinn and the council's Finance Committee chair David Weprin said paying down debt was a smart move.
"It may appear that the city is flush with money, but we're not," said Quinn. "We have to use that money to pre-pay debt or we'll be in a worse place."
Councilmember Lewis Fidler and others questioned the administration's motive for this newfound surplus. Fidler suggested the over estimation of spending and under estimation of revenues during budget negotations could be a tactic to keep the City Council's spending in check. The council has to approve a balanced budget by June 30. But if a surplus appears later in the year, the mayor can determine where the extra money will go.
"The Office of Management and Budget underestimates revenue every year so we don't spend money they don't want us to spend," said Fidler. It's just another way of maneuvering the budget dance, he added.
As part of the Bloomberg administration's solid waste management plan, approved by the City Council in 2006, the city is dispersing the recycling and waste facilities throughout the five boroughs.
As a result, Sunset Park will host a large recycling station, operated by the Sims Group, to manage part of the city's sorted trash. The station, which will receive material via barge, will be more than 1 million square feet. The council unanimously approved the lease of the 30th Street Pier to the Sims Group for the facility.
To see how else the city manages its waste, check out Gotham Gazette's Garbage Game. Â
When Jimmy Byrd went on trial for nearly murdering the woman he lived with -- the mother of their young daughter -- the victim did not appear in court and Byrd's lawyer never cross-examined her. Byrd was convicted anyway. This, he said, violated his constitutional right to confront witnesses. The trial judge disagreed and now, so has the Supreme Court Appellate Division in Manhattan.
Byrd had abused Jill J, as the victim is identified in court papers, physically and mentally for many years. On July 26, 2002, he became enraged when she poured water into a glass in which there was a residue of juice, an action that, in Byrd's view, demonstrated her incompetence. The evidence established that he slammed her head on the tile floor, repeatedly stomped on her abdomen, breaking her ribs and causing her pancreas to split in half. He then refused to take her to the hospital. The police were not called, and it was only when Byrd left the house six days later that Jill J managed to get herself to the emergency room, nearly dead. Surgery saved her life.
After Jill J gave her testimony to a grand jury by videotape while in the hospital, Byrd, who had already been arrested, was indicted, charged with attempted murder and assault, and held at Riker's Island. But as frequently happens in domestic violence cases, Jill J refused to cooperate any further with the prosecution, deciding that she loved Jimmy Byrd and that perhaps he needed help, but not punishment.
The question to be decided by Justice James Yates was whether her refusal to testify was a decision Jill J made of her own free will or under duress from Byrd. Criminal defendants do have an almost absolute right under the Sixth Amendment to hear and see their accuser's testimony and to have that witness cross-examined by the defense. There is, however, an exception. If the accused himself is responsible for the witness's refusal to come forward, he cannot then use that to his own advantage. He cannot both cause the witness to recant or retreat and then say that, without her testimony, his conviction is unconstitutional.
In this case, People v Byrd, Jill J testified at a pre-trial hearing that she wanted to forgive Byrd and did not want him to go to prison. However, she also admitted, after first saying he had only called her a couple of times, that he had been calling her regularly from jail, sometimes as often as 10 times a day, asking her to send him money and proclaiming his love for her, telling her how wonderful life would be when he got out. All of this violated an order of protection, which prohibited Byrd from contacting Jill J.
The court allowed an expert to testify in front of the trial jury that these were typical interactions in cases of domestic violence and battered woman syndrome. (The appellate court, perhaps for reasons of political correctness and notions of gender neutrality, refers to the battered person syndrome, but the literature on the subject does not, since the victim is almost always the woman.) Jill J fit the profile of a battered woman. She is isolated, fearful and emotionally dependent and vulnerable to her tormentor's protestations of love and remorse, which, she believes, will end the cycle of violence. She is therefore willing to believe that it is better not to testify against this man and have him taken from her. If only he can come home, she believes, there will be peace and harmony and a happy family life, though that has never existed before. In fact, although not part of the appellate opinion, court records show that Byrd had a history of violence with other women.
Dr. Ann Burgess, a recognized authority on violence and victim counseling who testified for the prosecution, told the jury that the victim's poor self esteem, frequently a result of her batterer's treatment of her as well as her fear of him, often makes the battered woman believe that it is better not to continue the prosecution. While there was no evidence that Byrd actually told Jill J not to testify against him, Jill J had received more than 400 calls from Byrd while he was held at Riker's Island, and so, according to Burgess, was under his "coercive control."
Burgess described the three stages of domestic violence: the tension building phase, the violence phase and the honeymoon phase. It is during the honeymoon phase, Burgess said, that the victim is "seduced into believing that the abuse will cease and that the family will remain intact. This cycle repeats itself over many years."
Justice Yates found that Jill J's unavailability to testify was a direct result of the defendant's misconduct and allowed the videotape of her grand jury testimony to be shown to the trial jury. Byrd, who did not present any witnesses or evidence, was convicted of first and second degree assault.
An opinion by Justice Karla Moskowitz, newly appointed to the appellate bench, affirmed that decision. According to the opinion, the defendant procured the witness's refusal to testify "through violence, threats or chicanery," and it was established that Byrd's actions following his arrest showed a pattern meant to, at least in part, silence the witness. The court concluded that Byrd had therefore forfeited the constitutional right to confront his accuser and to raise certain other legal objections.
Emily Jane Goodman is a New York State Supreme Court JusticeÂ
The results of last month's Chinatown raid were dramatic: over $1 million in seized counterfeit goods, 32 illegal vendors closed down and an entire block emblazoned with orange "closed by court order" stickers.
"Whoever you are, whatever you are, we are going to shut you down," Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced at a news conference.
Yet only a few days later a visitor to Canal Street could easily purchase fake Gucci bags and other brand-name products, a testament to the deeply rooted nature of the counterfeit trade. A Daily News headline said it all: "Chinatown block shuttered in huge raid, but brassy bootleggers still hawk fakes."
Welcome to the wild world of counterfeiting, which nets $23 billion in New York City annually and enriches a shadowy international underworld of smugglers and criminals - all supported by shoppers looking to save a buck.
About 8 percent of the approximately $287 billion in counterfeit goods sold in the United States annually is sold in New York City, resulting in over $1 billion in lost tax revenue, according to a 2004 report released by New York City Comptroller William Thompson. Counterfeiting also represents a drag on the economy: An estimated 750,000 jobs have been lost in the United States to counterfeiters, according to the United States Customs and Border Protection Agency.
New York City is one of the world's chief counterfeit hubs. In addition to being a major tourist and retail destination, the city's ports handle 13.4 percent of U.S. container traffic, providing ample opportunities for illegal shipping. For example, last December, the New York Times reported that federal officials seized over $200 million in smuggled goods at the Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal in New Jersey, including counterfeit Nike Air Jordan sneakers listed as "refrigerated noodles" on the ship's manifests.
Most counterfeits come from China, where experts believe that anywhere between two-thirds and 85 percent of all fake goods are manufactured. According to Caroline Joiner, executive director of the Global Intellectual Property Center at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a quarter of China's non-farm workforce, or 35 million people, are engaged in the production of counterfeits. Many work the so-called "ghost," or third shift, in which factories produce two shifts of legitimate items but stay open overnight to produce counterfeit goods.
These goods are typically shipped to wholesale vendors in the United States and other Western countries, and then distributed to smaller-scale street vendors like those in Chinatown. Sales of other goods like knock-off drugs and auto parts may bypass the street-level vendor and go directly to the consumer, who often does not know they are buying a fake.
"There are very powerful market forces at work here" said Moises Naim, the editor of Foreign Policy Magazine and the author of Illicit: How Smuggler, Traffickers and Copycats are Hijacking the Global Economy. "There are hundreds of millions of hungry customers and hundreds of thousands of very sophisticated entrepreneurs."
While most people associate counterfeiting with high-profile brand-name goods like Gucci bags, virtually everything we consume today is traded illegally. That includes "boot-leg" electronics, illegally downloaded music, toys, pharmaceutical drugs, software and even fake auto and airplane parts. Author Tim Phillips calls this thriving trade in fake goods "Knockoff Incorporated," because it represents 7 percent of world trade, twice the size of Wal-Mart. "Arguably it's the business success story of the modern era," Phillips writes.
Bloomberg has won high praise from experts for his aggressive anti-counterfeiting enforcement efforts. Since 2003, the city has seized $60 million in knock off goods and collected $1.5 million in fines. A number of observers also credit the city with shutting down bootleg CD and DVD manufacturers in Manhattan's Garment District.
"People tend to sense what's OK by what is allowed to go on openly in public," said Brad Buckles, executive vice president of anti-piracy for the Recording Industry Association of America, which has led an effort to reduce music piracy. "Actions like Mayor Bloomberg took on Canal Street help make people realize that this is sleazy behavior and not legal."
Many observers believe that, aside from New York City, government agencies do not take the problem of counterfeiting seriously enough. Distracted by terrorism and other more traditional crime, law enforcement has little time or energy left to address this issue. "One intellectual property lawyer told me that he was told by law enforcement that unless there was a dead body involved, 'don't even pick up the phone'" writes Phillips.
In its Canal Street raid, the Office of Special Enforcement followed an innovative "landlord-based" approach that targeted the estate of Vincent Terranova, the owner of three buildings that housed the illegal vendors. The estate had been named in an earlier lawsuit filed in the Federal District Court in Manhattan by luxury good brands such as Burberry and Marc Jacobs, according to the New York Times. Before the raid, undercover police officers and city agents made over 40 purchases of counterfeit goods. The city obtained a temporary restraining order against Terranova Properties which keeps the building closed until proof is provided that there is no more illegal activity.
"This is the largest operation we've done," said Office of Special Enforcement Director Shari Hyman.
However, most experts agree that ending, or at least limiting, the sale of counterfeit goods requires more than a law enforcement approach. The key is to challenge the widely held notion among consumers that buying counterfeit goods is a victimless crime and a harmless exercise in bargain hunting. "Until we deal with the demand side of the equation, it's a lost cause" said Joiner.
"We need consumers to help us instead of burying their heads in the sand," said Commissioner Ray Kelly in a press release. "No matter how 'victimless' a crime may appear, when you scratch the surface you are bound to find some unpleasant realities. That's true in the knock-off trade."
Arguments about lost tax revenues and jobs might not dissuade most individuals from buying a knockoff Gucci bag for $40 when the real thing can go for close to $2,000.
That's why advocates are trying to enlarge the discussion to a broader set of public health and safety issues. The goal is to "make the problem more real to consumers," said Joiner.
For example, according to the Office of Special Enforcement, the buildings housing the wholesale vendors often lack basic fire safety protections such as sprinkler systems. "These buildings violate every code in the book," John Feinblatt, the city's criminal justice coordinator, told the New York Times. "The exit signs are obliterated, or the fire exits are locked or blocked by boxes of merchandise. They're fire traps." In addition, for security reasons, customers are often carefully escorted in and out of buildings and locked into rooms while they search for items, making it a "frightening experience" according to Hyman.
Advocates also argue that knock-off goods, which are impossible to regulate, are also potentially life-threatening. Author Phillips called these "counterfeit killers," citing such examples as fake insulin used by diabetics and fake Lipitor, used by patients with high cholesterol levels. "Talking about medicine that can kill is a very different conversation than talking about the latest Britney Spears album," said Naim.
Anti-counterfeiting observers charge that counterfeit goods are often produced in factories that pay little attention to labor standards. "Raids in Asia in counterfeit plants disclose deplorable conditions that would boggle your mind," Lorne Lipkus of the Canadian Anti-Counterfeiting Network, told CBC News. "We're talking [about] four year old kids mixing chemicals in factories."
More broadly, advocates make a moral argument about counterfeiting, contending that what lies behind a seemingly innocent transaction with a street vendor could be a vast criminal enterprise. "The same groups which smuggle goods are also involved in prostitution, drug dealing and money laundering," Marc Ramondi, spokesman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, told ABC News.
Still, it's unclear how widespread the counterfeit-criminal link is: The evidence presented tends to be anecdotal, perhaps a reflection of the shadowy nature of the business itself. The presence of the so-called "ghost" shift in many Chinese factories also points to an increasingly blurry line between knock off and "legal" manufacturing. Many of the social harms attributed to counterfeit production are also present when the rules are being followed, as evidenced by such high-profile cases as tainted pet food and reports of child labor in factories making Nike shoes.
Nonetheless, the Chamber of Commerce is actively wading into the public relations battle. They helped underwrite a documentary version of Naim's book Illicit, which will premier on public television on April 16. Naim hopes that the documentary will help spark a broader dialogue about the negative impacts of counterfeiting and illicit trade. "We need to change the conversation at dinner tables in America," he said. He sees the debate on global warming as analogous to what he wants to accomplish. "Five years ago, people talking about climate change were often laughed out of the room. Now it's skeptics who are getting the same treatment."
At the same time, business groups have responded by pursuing a number of new anti-counterfeiting strategies.
One approach involves technology. Kodak, for example, markets a "traceless" system that embeds invisible markers into labels that can only be detected by specialized readers. The technology is already being used by drug companies and high-end wineries to reduce fraud. "In fighting counterfeiting, it's better to call your scientists and engineers than your lawyers and lobbyists," Naim said.
The recording industry provides an interesting example of an attempt to target counterfeit consumers directly, though their experience defies any simplistic analysis. Industry groups have pursued an aggressive enforcement strategy, sending out thousands of so-called "pre-litigation" letters to college students illegally downloading music. The letters are first forwarded to universities, which are asked to pass along the information to students. The main impact of these letters has been the wave of publicity they have generated, particularly in campus newspapers. According to industry documents, the strategy has had an effect: The number of young people downloading music without paying has declined from 53 percent in 2004 to 30 percent in 2007, while the percentage of young people who say that downloading music for free is illegal has increased from 37 percent to 73 percent. According to surveys, fear of lawsuits is the reason most often cited by young people as the main reason they no longer download music or videos illegally - even though the likelihood of any individual being sued is very low.
It is still, though, relatively easy to download free music from the Internet illegally. Though the music industry succeeded in shutting down Napster, the most popular early distributor of pirated music, hundreds of smaller and harder to detect sites have grown up in its wake.
Fighting counterfeiting is an uphill battle, particularly when its victims lack the deep pockets of such groups as the recording industry. "The numbers are moving in the wrong direction," said Joiner. Ultimately, convincing bargain-loving New Yorkers that counterfeiting poses hidden costs may be a tough sell.
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