Spiderbands Squashed

The trendy and chic Asian Eatery Qi (31 West 14th Street, 212 929-9917) combines environmentally conscience design and hip ambiance with an adventurous menu of options, including seasonal and macrobiotic selections that help detox and cleanse the body to reset energy flow. Dishes include Lemongrass Tuna Tartar and Ginseng Duck with Five Spices. Lunch specials start at just $6.90, everyday from 11 AM – 3:30 PM, including a free appetizer and rice.

The annual holiday market runs till 8PM nightly (7PM on Sunday) through 4PM on Christmas Eve.

From The New School:

Next week (September 19 to September 23), Contractors will continue to excavate earth and rock, and load out material. Installation of bracing rakers and line drilling will progress as well. Concrete foundation walls around the perimeter of the site and slab on grade work will continue. Interior core foundation work and underground electrical and plumbing will proceed. Contractors will be removing the interior earth ramp. DOT approved street connections to underground utilities on Fifth Avenue will progress. A small cherry picker crane will arrive on site next week, and be stationed inside the Fifth Avenue fence. This crane will remain on site for approximately two months.

The following week (September 26 to September 30 ), we will continue with concrete foundation walls and slabs, line drilling, rock excavation, loading out, interior core foundation work, street utility connections on Fifth Avenue, and underground electrical and plumbing.

DEP continues to repair the water main along 13th Street. As part of this work, the DEP may periodically shut water service off. This work is out of our control.

The site will be open on Saturday, September 17th. Work hours are between 9AM and 5PM as permitted by the City. To control noise levels, work activities will be limited to the placement of formwork, plumbing and electrical work, site utility connections, waterproofing and rebar for concrete placement, and the installation of walers and braces. There will be no rock excavation, rock chopping, or hauling on Saturday.

DNAinfo reports:

 

The streets around Union Square will get a set of new protected bicycle lanes this summer in an effort to fill holes in the neighborhood’s bike network, according to the Department of Transportation. 

The DOT will install a new protected bike lane going north along Fourth Avenue, a protected two-way lane on 17th Street between Union Square East and Sixth Avenue, and a series of unprotected lanes on East 15th and East 16th streets that will allow bikers easier travel between Union Square and the east side, according to Ted Wright, director of the agency’s Bikes and Greenway Program.

The new Fourth Avenue lane will be installed on the west side of the street, allowing cyclists to turn left at East 17th Street without having to leave their bike route or cross lanes of traffic, according to the proposal.

As the bike network currently exists, bikers have a protected lane on Fourth Avenue until 12th Street, where the lane loses its buffer and ends at East 14th Street. The new lanes will extend the protected lane with a buffer of flexible bollards until 15th Street, where an unprotected lane will continue north on Union Square East and connect with the new two-way protected lane at East 17th Street, according to the DOT.

The crosstown lanes, meanwhile, will help cyclists access northbound and southbound protected lanes on First and Second avenues, as well as a new protected northbound lane on Sixth Avenue, which the DOT is set to install this summer as well.

The agency’s goal is to have the lanes completed this summer, according to Wright, speaking at a Community Board 5 Transportation and Environment Committee meeting on Monday.

“That’s how we like to do it, quick and dirty,” he said.

In addition, patching up holes in Union Square’s bike lane network will help calm traffic and give cyclists more options to access other parts of the city’s maze of bike routes, but pedestrians will also benefit from the narrower roadways, Wright said.

“Protected bike lanes do make streets safer,” he said. “We see pedestrian injuries go way down with these kinds of projects.”

There was a 15 percent drop in pedestrian injuries along Second Avenue between 14th and 34th streets from 2010, when a protected bike lane was installed, until 2015, according to NYPD crash data.

Community Board 5 Transportation Committee voted on Monday to recommend approving the DOT’s plan, which was long in the making, according to board member Nancy Aber Goshow.

“We’ve been asking for something like this for a decade,” she said.

Still, some members, including Goshow, raised concerns that the plan could add to traffic problems on 17th Street, where they said a construction site and a bus pick-up zone for the Shield Institute, a school for students with developmental difficulties, regularly snarls traffic.

“Have you thought about how this could complicate traffic on East 17th Street?” Goshow asked. “It’s already a very congested street.”

Check out this New York Times profile.

Glaze Teriyaki Grill has opened up near Union Square. Their signature teriyaki entrees ($6.75 to $9.50) include chargrilled chicken thigh or breast, Japanese BBQ hanger steak, fresh-never-frozen organic salmon, boneless pork loin, wok vegetables or soy marinated tofu. It’s on 4th Ave. between 13th and 14th.