City Beats

Mo Rum worries how the upcoming road work in Hell's Kitchen will affect his business. (Photo: Rachel Rogers | City Beats)

Carl Capotorto looked like he was in shock at a block association meeting held on Nov. 7.

“I’m overwhelmed. I’m trying to figure out where I can move,” said Capotorto, 52.

He has lived in Hell’s Kitchen for 16 years, but is now considering relocating because of a water main replacement project that will tear up the street in front of his apartment on West 51^st Street.

The meeting, hosted by the West 47^th/48^th Streets Block Association and Community Board 4, was the first time many of the approximately 50 residents in attendance were hearing about the project. The Hell’s Kitchen initiative is headed by the city Department of Design and Construction and is scheduled to begin in February and is one of many planned to improve the city’s water system, some of which are already in progress.

Residents and shopkeepers have expressed alarm at the scope of the project and the number of problems that would come with it. Noise was a primary issue for residents already frustrated by recent ConEd construction in the area. Local stores fear a loss of business and products damaged by dirt and fumes from construction. The fact that the plans are not well known throughout the community has also upset Hell’s Kitchen shopkeepers.

The approximately 100-year-old water mains are being replaced on portions of 48^th, 49^th, and 51^st streets between Broadway and 10^th Avenue to update the infrastructure. They will also connect the west side to Tunnel 3, a project that began in the 1970s to bring water down from the Hillview Reservoir just north of the city. To connect the 8-foot deep water mains to the tunnel about 450 feet underground, a shaft will be excavated on 10^th Avenue between 48^th and 49^th streets.

One of the biggest concerns is noise.  The project consists of four phases, so work will take place at different locations over the five-and-a-half years. But this did not assuage Community Board Member Jean-Daniel Noland’s apprehensions.

“Eight months of noise can be pretty disturbing,” Noland said.

A Hell’s Kitchen resident for 20 years, Noland worries the disturbances he has experienced in the past with ConEd projects, such as being kept up at night and feeling his building shake, will plague the area. He hopes to negotiate the work hours approved by the city, which currently include 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekends.

Having already dealt with past construction and the raucous bar scene, Capotorto was also worried about the impending disruption.

“I love this neighborhood,” Capotorto said. “I feel attached to it very deeply, but it’s become impossible to live there.

The design department takes precautions to lessen the noise, like using jackhammers with mufflers and monitoring noise in the field, according to Tom Foley, the assistant commissioner at the department. The city’s Department of Environmental Protection will also test noise levels periodically.

In spite of these precautions some shopkeepers in Hell’s Kitchen are expecting to lose business.

“I certainly don’t look forward to it,” said Mo Rum, 42, who opened Scent Elate on West 48^th Street six years ago.

Scent Elate sells an assortment of soaps, candles, and essential oils. Clothes and accessories are displayed in a vestibule in front of the store. When the department begins work on the road, Rum sees it greatly affecting his business. During past roadwork projects, people have tracked in tar on their shoes. And because fabric absorbs odors from the construction, he said he wouldn’t be able to sell clothing because there is no room to display it inside the store.

Barry Shain, the sales manager at Alpha Engraving Company on West 51^st Street, is also worried about the financial losses.

“There’s no regard for the effect on business,” Shain said.

As an on-site engraving company, Alpha Engraving markets its city locations and says it provides fast service so patrons do not have to ship their items elsewhere, according to Shain. He thinks this project will ruin street traffic, discourage walk-in clients, and make accessibility difficult for regular customers.

“I sell convenience. This reduces the value of my service because it becomes inconvenient,” Shain said of the department’s plans.

Hell’s Kitchen shopkeepers and residents need only look downtown to see what they’ll experience in coming years. The Chambers Street Reconstruction Project is another part of the city’s overall water main renovations. It began in August, with work currently being done on Chambers Street between Greenwich and Church streets. Half of the two-lane road is cordoned off, and the top portion of the street removed, exposing tubing for utilities.

“I think it’s affected the lunch crowd,” said Beau Faulkner, 36, a manager at the Chambers Street restaurant Mudville Nine. He added that afternoon customers have decreased because the roadwork dissuades them from walking down the street. The eatery has maintained the dinner crowd, including its regulars and destination clientele.

Sylvia Anonova, 51, has had an experience similar to Faulkner’s. She works at reception at the ABI School of Barbering, Manicure, and Cosmetology, which has been on Chambers Street for nine years. Business has slowed since the construction started, and the work does not seem to be progressing, Anonova said.

“Today I see nobody’s here,” Anonova said one Monday in November. “They’re fixing very slow.”

At the block association meeting in November, Norberto Acevedo, Jr., the design department’s citywide community liaison, said a project representative will be appointed to facilitate communications between the agency and residents. The representative’s job is to keep residents abreast of the work as it progresses and of disruptive events such as the water being shut off.

But some Hell’s Kitchen business owners are already frustrated with a lack of information.

“They don’t notify us,” said Rum.

He and Shain were informed of the project by City Beats. Rum said he would probably go to the next meeting, which Community Board 4 plans to hold in January when the department should have more details about scheduling.

The Alpha Engraving showroom will likely move to the company’s second location on West 58^th Street, Shain said. As for the machinery set up in the West 51^st Street store, Shain is not sure what will happen.

“My lease is up in two years,” Shain said. “I’ll probably not be renewing.”

Chanting prayers quickly into a microphone, Brazilian pastor Rev Woolmar Faria leads his congregation in Portuguese, accompanied by a pianist and a keyboard player, who then goes on to play an extensive solo on a saxophone. The congregation spans all ages, from teenagers born in America who translate the proceedings into English for non-Portuguese speakers to older Brazilians with little command of their adopted country’s language.

Nestled on 57th Street in Hell’s Kitchen, this church is one of the signs of a growing Brazilian community in the heart of Manhattan. The 2010 census showed there to be 23,670 Brazilians in New York, but there are still few established places where Brazilians can gather. Members of the congregation speak of their excitement upon finally finding a place where they can gather with their fellow countrymen twice a week.

Nizla Sobel, who has been attending the church for seven months, also plays the piano during sermons. (Photo: Nastaran Tavakoli-Far | City Beats)

Nizla Sobel, 72, plays the piano during services, and has been attending the church for seven months. Despite living in New York for 42 years, this is the first time she’s attended a church mostly made up of fellow Brazilians, she said. The experience enhances her worship.

“It’s my roots,” Sobel said. “My language.”

Psychologist and Hell’s Kitchen resident Alberto Gomes agrees.

“You’ve people of the same culture together speaking the same language,” said Gomes, who has been attending the church for two years. “We share news from Brazil.It makes life a little easier when you find people from your own culture.”

The church shares its space with three others and holds services twice a week. The interior is bright and warm, with grey and black linoleum tiles and an array of colorful eclectic paintings lining the walls and gold curtains on either side of the altar. Music plays a big part in proceedings. Rev Faria is always accompanied by a pianist while giving his sermons, and his 30 year old daughter, Helia, closes Sunday services with her powerful and soulful voice.

Having started the church in July 2008, Rev Faria notes that in a city as large as New York it can be hard to develop a community. He now has a growing flock of people who attend from all over Manhattan.

“My plan was to preach the gospel to Brazilian people,” Rev Faria said, “so they can have a better life in New York.”

Two decades ago Brazilian migrants came to New York came to make money. Today they are still coming for this reason despite their country’s impressive current economic performance. Brazil’s strong growth has been largely export led. Demand for goods and services within Brazil are still not strong enough to sustain a satisfactory standard of living for many. In addition, Rev Faria says that the lack of a welfare state in Brazil makes the US a more attractive place to live in.

Sustaining a middle class lifestyle in Brazil is very difficult, according to Maxine Margolis, who is professor emeritus in anthropology at the University of Florida and has written extensively about Brazilians in the US. She says that this explains why so many Brazilian immigrants continue to be middle class and professionals, in contrast to many migrants from the rest of the continent.

“I haven’t seen any data showing that despite the boom the average well-educated middle class person is getting a job that will sustain a middle class lifestyle,” she says.

Despite years of back and forth between Brazil and the United States, Brazilians seem to be developing roots in New York, which means they are forming communities. Twenty years ago the majority of Professor Margolis’ case studies were young unmarried Brazilians who planned to return once they had made enough money. Given that they expected their stay to be so temporary, many didn’t see a reason to form a community. Now as some of those migrants have ended up staying and marrying each other, there is more of a need for a community, and especially so for those who’ve had children. Furthermore, for migrants who entered the US without the necessary documents, going back to Brazil can render them unable to return to the US again.

“A lot of American-born Brazilian children have no familiarity with Brazil so they anchor the parents here,” she said.

But it is not just the monetary aspect of the “quality of life” argument which keeps attracting Brazilians to America. Thirty-five year old Francine Arroyo, a language student who lives on the Upper West Side, has been in New York for a year and finds life here more favorable to her native Sao Paulo. Though she was pleased with her life as a personal trainer back home, she sees the US as being a far better place to further her career. She also notes another very important aspect of life that she lacks in her homeland: security.

“Here you can walk through the city, talk on the phone and open your bag in the middle of the street and nothing will happen,” she said, explaining that muggings and thefts are standard in Sao Paulo.

But for Arroyo, the personal ties and sense of community in her homeland are overriding factors in her decisions. While family has kept many Brazilian migrants anchored here, family is the very factor that will likely take Arroyo back home.

“I wish I could stay and live here forever,” she said. “If I could bring my family it would be perfect.”