Courtesy La MaMa Preliminary work on La MaMa’s white roof.The building that houses La MaMa got a new mural back in May, and now it’s getting another paint job – but not in the name of art.
The White Roof Project laid down a first coat of white paint on the theater’s rooftop on Wednesday, adding another 7,000 square feet of solar-reflective white roof to the neighborhood in an ongoing effort to reduce carbon emissions and encourage energy efficiency.
Juan Carlos Piñeiro Escoriaza, the project’s founder, told The Local that the Lower East Side is one the heaviest energy users in the city. “Our efforts there get you more ‘bang for your buck’ every time a roof is coated white,” he said, adding that he wanted to have contiguous rooftops along East Third and Fourth Streets between Bowery and Second Avenue painted white by the end of 2013. Read more…
Sarah Darville Tommy McKean in the air shaft of his building.This feud over an air conditioning unit certainly isn’t cooling off.
Employees of a Hamptons Market Place at 356 East 13th Street switched off power to their entire building this morning, leaving 16 apartments without electricity for about an hour. Outraged tenants said it’s only the latest disruption that has been inflicted on them by the deli, which installed an air conditioner and ventilator unit on the roof that has bothered them to no end.
The owner of the deli, who has grown weary of a year of noise complaints, is so fed up that today he raised the possibility of a harassment suit against the tenants.
“I can’t get a psychiatrist to come into their apartments but I wish I could,” the owner, Victor Nagi said, later adding, “The tenants are harassing me. They’re complaining every other day and getting me these fines.” Read more…
Stephen Rex Brown Tommy McKean points at the air conditioner that keeps him up at night.Last week, a city inspector validated what a group of residents in a 13th Street building had said for over a month: that a ventilator unit on the roof was too loud.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Environmental Protection said, “The kitchen equipment made more noise than is allowed by the provision that sets a standard in decibels and our readings.”
Now, the management of the Hamptons Marketplace deli that uses the unit must go before an Environmental Control Board in November, where a judge will levy fines (generally from $560 to $875) if it’s found the business is not in compliance.
But Tommy McKean, a resident who lives directly below the ventilator is not satisfied, and raised the possibility of picketing outside of the deli at First Avenue with his neighbors should the equipment on the roof continue to whir. Read more…
Stephen Rex Brown Tommy McKean says that the whir of the air conditioning units directly above his apartment is a constant nuisance.This time of year, the whir of an air conditioning unit is usually reassuring. But for several tenants living at East 13th Street and First Avenue, two industrial-strength air conditioning units on the roof of their building are instead a constant torment.
“It’s like a helicopter hovering overhead all day,” said Tommy McKean, who lives directly below the units on the fifth floor of the building. “For ten minutes, it’s not so bad. But for 24 hours a day it’s awful.” Read more…
