Autumn is coming

Paris just implented vaccine passports.

This is what they look like in action. pic.twitter.com/NWVjGX7GF2

— The First (@TheFirstonTV) August 9, 2021

 

 Bloomberg

 Jennifer Vitagliano has been in perpetual pivot mode for over a year now. Since the start of the pandemic, the owner of the Michelin-starred Musket Room in Manhattan’s SoHo has hatched a delivery menu and a brunch menu to lure new customers and borrowed a 1962 van from a friend to sell doughnuts and cocktails in front of her eight-year-old restaurant, which is known for its inventive spin on new American dishes. Of all the flexes she’s made, playing bouncer has been the most exhausting.

In early June, after several Covid-19 cases hit the industry, Vitagliano and her business partners decided that Musket Room customers who wanted to dine indoors needed to be vaccinated. When a group of five guests arrived for dinner one evening, two covertly passed a phone between them, trying to prove that they were vaccinated by using the same Excelsior Pass, an electronic vaccination record created by New York state. Vitagliano, doubling as the vaccine card checker, caught the pair and stopped them from entering.

“It’s the largest cultural clash we’ve ever faced,” says Vitagliano of trying to enforce Covid-19 protections. “We didn’t get into business to be bouncers, but here we are.”

Vitagliano’s experience is a preview of what the thousands of New York City dining, fitness, and entertainment establishments will experience in mid-September, when Mayor Bill de Blasio’s new policy requiring vaccinations to enter these indoor venues kicks in. “If you want to participate in our society fully, you’ve got to get vaccinated,” de Blasio said at a press conference on August 3. “It’s time.”

Vaccination rates have stalled in recent weeks, even amid an uptick in cases and hospitalizations. Nationwide, 57.9% of the population has received at least one dose of the vaccine. New York City is just above the national average, with 59.5% vaccinated. The new mandate, which will begin on Sept. 13, requires that all employees and patrons in these establishments have at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine.

Under the system, patrons will have to show a vaccine card, the new NYC Covid Safe app (where users can upload their identification, vaccine card, and recent Covid-19 test results), or the state’s Excelsior Pass app. But forging fake cards, considered a felony, or using the legitimate cards of others will inevitably be an issue. The NYC Covid Safe app doesn’t actually check the validity of the vaccination card or cross reference it with outside databases, such as state records. There are also public concerns around handing more personal information over to the government.

Assessing vaccination status is the latest headache restaurant owners face. The industry was already dealing with the stresses of getting indoor dining back up and running, along with a labor shortage. The number of workers is down an estimated 1.3 million, 10% below what it was before the pandemic, according to the National Restaurant Association.

Meanwhile, restaurateurs find themselves in the crosshairs of a culture war. Salil Mehta, chef and owner of the Singaporean restaurant Laut, says the mayor’s announcement “freaks him out.” Although he’s pro-vaccine, he says this dynamic will be especially hard on Asian restaurants, where racism is already a problem. Mehta says that when he spoke with his local police precinct about the new mandate, officers told him they won’t be monitoring restaurants but he has a right to kick out customers who won’t leave. “Then you’re in close contact with someone who isn’t vaccinated, and it shouldn’t be our job,” says Mehta, who can’t afford to hire security. “I don’t want to be the guy policing these things.

Others are preparing their staff to disarm potentially heated situations. At Dhamaka, a new Indian restaurant on the Lower East Side, front-of-house lead Tina Dolker is anticipating cancelations when the rule goes into effect, along with contentious interactions. “We are going to have special training on how to say ‘no,’” she says. Danny Meyer, the chief executive officer of Union Square Hospitality Group LLC, says staff at his restaurants will receive guidance on how to deal with aggressive guests. “We have been working on de-escalation techniques for months,” Meyer says.

Now I'm sure you all noticed in that video above that the cops are checking people's vac passes outside. And whatever plan Shake Shack Shithead and NYC EDC figurehead Meyer has for de-escaltions, inevitably the NYPD will be summoned if it gets rowdy. Then the NYPD will inevitably wind up enforcing the mandate because of whatever latest iteration it is to keep customers, workers and business owners safe. And we will have to refund the police all over again...

This is going to be bedlam. You have been warned.

NYC's feckless officials finally help NYC's homeless services...workers

 

AMNY 

With homelessness one of the most pressing issues in the 2021 mayoral race, it’s more important than ever that those on the street have somewhere safe to sleep. Oftentimes, that means a non-profit shelter. Yet many of the private security officers who work at these shelters are paid so little they can barely afford health insurance  – and are even in danger of homelessness themselves.

Now the New York City Council and Mayor Bill DeBlasio are moving to change this, committing 40.5 million dollars to ensure that these essential workers are paid fair, livable wages.

“For over 4,000 working families – their lives are going to change, this year,” said Mayor DeBlasio at a press conference this afternoon. A group of working people, each wearing union shirts, stood behind him. “You can’t ask someone to help solve one of the most challenging problems in society, but not give them enough to put food on their tables, or pay their rent, or take care of their families.” 

His description was borne out by a number of speakers. Homeless shelters can be rife with violence; yet many security officers are paid minimum wage, barely enough to sustain an individual, let alone a family.  “We cannot afford to live in the city we work,” said Shaquille Sheppard, a private shelter security officer who himself grew up in-and-out of shelters. “Private security jobs are poverty jobs.” Kyle Bragg, president of Local 32BJ, a chapter of the Service Employees International Union, substantiated this, saying that, “while helping the City’s most vulnerable, many of these workers struggle to afford things themselves,” and, “may even find themselves homeless.” 

Impunity City 

 

Mayor de Blasio, who promised to end the tale of two cities, and City Council Speaker Corey Johnson and his Democrat majority City Council Cronies waited 8 years to finally do something about the homeless crisis by finally allocate funding for a long overdue wage hike for security guards. Sure there’s nothing wrong with wanting to give the people more money especially when tasked to supervise the city’s notoriously violent and decrepit homeless shelters. But there are a bunch of conflicting problems with this.

First, why haven’t the non-profit providers of these city shelters who are already receiving city funding already gave these security guards the living wages they needed?

 

Security guards fear contracting coronavirus in homeless shelters

 NY Post

New York City’s homeless shelters have become “breeding grounds” for the coronavirus because of a lack of protective gear and sanitary procedures, claims the head of the union representing shelter security guards.

“I believe the shelters have become breeding grounds for the coronavirus,” Gregory Floyd, president of Teamsters Local 237 told The Post.

“The security officers have been given no masks, no gloves, no nothing.”

He said some of the 58,000 homeless individuals who seek shelter are ill and have compromised immune systems.

Floyd said he decided to go public after hearing complaints from officers at the shelters. His members patrol 41 shelters.

For example, three clients at Pam’s Place, a shelter for women in Long Island City, were ill and coughing on Sunday, seeking medical attention.

Security officers accompanied them in the shelter’s lobby after calling EMS — without the protection of face masks.

“They’re coughing. They’re not wearing masks. We don’t have masks,” a security source at the shelter, who requested anonymity, said.

“We’re sitting ducks.”

A person who identified herself as the shelter’s director of social services declined comment and referred questions to the city Department of Homeless Services.

Glass panel falls, kills worker on job site

From CBS 2:

A security guard was killed and a worker was hurt when a large panel of glass fell at a construction site near Central Park Saturday morning.

The FDNY said it responded to calls for a construction related accident at 217 West 57th St. just after 10:30 a.m.

When medics arrived they observed that a large glass panel had fallen onto 67-year-old Harry Ramnauth.

He was rushed to Mt. Sinai Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

A 27-year-old construction worker was hurt, as well. His injuries are believed to be non-life threatening.

Police said the glass panel was in the process of being moved when it fell and crushed the 67-year-old, who was working as as security guard at the location.

The incident remains under investigation.

The property already had a stop work order in effect when this happened.

What a tangled web they tweed

From the NY Post:

The career politicians in the administrative class like to call themselves “public servants” when they’re feeling humble, or “leaders” when a moment of vanity strikes.

They’re really more like imperial overlords. Sometimes they’re elected, sometimes they’re not, but either way what they love most is to spend our money on their own glorification.

Often they’re completely oblivious to how they look as their gilded chariots cruise past us, their vassals tossing rose petals in the air.

Manhattan’s newest little Caesar is Scott Stringer. If you read the papers over recent decades you’ve been vaguely aware of this dough-faced homunculus, who in a life light on accomplishments has nevertheless been happily drawing a taxpayer salary for more than 20 years.

Apparently Stringer mainly uses his Praetorian guard as chauffeurs, both for himself and his wife.

Twenty-odd years inside the palace walls have damaged Stringer’s memories of what life was like for the average plebeian, or even the average millionaire.

Stringer maintains a taxpayer-funded security detail of six, which you probably wouldn’t even know about if he hadn’t gotten peevish, leading four to ask to be reassigned.

Letitia James is the New York City public advocate, another ceremonial position that exists mainly to provide ambitious politicos a platform from which to conduct press conferences that build name recognition before running for mayor. (The previous public advocate was a guy named Bill de Blasio).

Somehow we managed to do without a public advocate before the office was created in 1993, yet James is such an important figure she also has a six-member security detail, as does the speaker of the City Council.

Among her dozens of staffers are two “first assistants” making $240,000 total and two directors of communications who earn a combined $200,000.

Throwing rose petals pays well.

Ray Kelly taking security detail with him

From DNA Info:

The bill taxpayers will have to pay to protect Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly when he leaves office next month just got bigger.

The NYPD's Intelligence Division — with Kelly’s input — is recommending that Kelly take with him a 10-officer complement of taxpayer-funded bodyguards, up from the six-officer detail the commissioner had wanted last month.

The detail will now include a lieutenant, three sergeants and six detectives to chauffeur and protect Kelly and his family around-the-clock in the Big Apple and even out of town after he ends his 12-year run atop Police Headquarters — at an estimated cost of more than $1.5 million a year, sources estimate.

In six months, the NYPD will reassess Kelly’s security needs, the sources say.

Airport security catching 40 winks on the job

From CBS New York:

Protecting some of the world’s most strategically important sites in the New York area – including the airports, bridges and the new World Trade Center and memorial site – is a matter of vital concern and large sums of money.

But as CBS 2’s Steve Langford reported, a series of stunning security blunders at John F. Kennedy International Airport in particular is raising more questions about just how secure the sites are.

The private security firm that has a big contract with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is again getting the blame for the problems.

In March, a private security guard employed by the company, FJC security, was spotted fast asleep. The company is paid hundreds of millions of dollars by the Port Authority to help protect sensitive sites such as JFK.

And the trend was not an isolated incident, said former FJC Security Manager Stephen Jackson.

“I found several there sleeping — one female at night I photographed, but I found this gentleman there twice during broad daylight,” Jackson said.

Jackson said he shot video and took photos of two security guards ostensibly watching Jamaica Bay at Kennedy Airport, when a man managed to land his jet ski at JFK, and cross two active runways, without being stopped in August of last year.

“I was told: ‘Don’t show it to me. I don’t want to see it, because if I see it, I have to deal with it,” Jackson said.

Justice is served

From the NY Post:

A former correction officer who was facing up to 25 years in prison for shooting two men outside of a Queens bowling alley was acquitted of double attempted murder and assault charges.

“His defense was one of self-defense,” said Michael Iavecchio’s trial attorney, Stephen Worth, after a jury cleared his client of all charges on Monday night.
Iavecchio, 55, was working as a security guard at the AMF bowling alley on 34th Avenue in Jackson Heights on Feb. 6, 2010 when he asked Justin Donaghy and Gerard Hourigan to leave the building.

“There was a videotape of the crime which showed the two men attacking him one at a time,” said Worth, who proved that Iavecchio’s actions were justified because, “He was worried they would overpower him and take the gun.”

Liu accused of making more crap up

From NY1:

City Comptroller John Liu is facing allegations he inflated salaries for security guards employed by city contractors, all for political gain.

Two private security firms are suing Liu, saying he unfairly hiked the minimum hourly rate as high as almost $19, including benefits.

That is up from a minimum rate of $11.50 in 2007.

Critics say Liu made the change to curry favor with organized labor as he prepares for a much rumored run for mayor in 2013.

A spokesman for the comptroller says his office received the complaint and will review it.

This is not the first time Liu has been accused of unfairly hiking the prevailing wage, as a similar suit was filed last year involving moving companies.

Meanwhile, the comptroller continues to be on the hot seat in regards to his fundraising, after a prominent supporter was arrested and charged with wire fraud for allegedly funneling money to the campaign using illegal straw donors.