CITYWIDE

Second Avenue Subway Construction To Start By Year’s End

The Second Avenue subway line, a project many New Yorkers have begun to believe will never get started, will break ground by the end of the year, according to the President of the MTA’s Capital Construction Company, Mysore Nagaraja. Mr. Nagaraja said he hopes to issue a contract for phase one of the project, the construction of a two-track line between 96th and 63rd streets, by December. If all goes according to plan, construction will officially commence shortly after a contract is awarded with the creation of an underground launch box, where the tunnel boring machines will be assembled. The launch box will be constructed between 96th and 92nd streets. Construction will remain underground until next summer. The budget for phase one of the project is $3.83 billion, and is scheduled for completion by 2013.

— Special to the Sun

Lawmakers Pressuring Stuy Town Buyer On Maintaining Affordability

A gang of local elected officials is pressuring Tishman Speyer to preserve affordable housing at Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village beyond what is mandated by the state’s rent regulation laws. Last week, Tishman Speyer agreed to purchase the East Side apartment complexes, which house about 25,000 residents, for $5.4 billion from Met Life. Yesterday, City Council speaker Christine Quinn, along with Senators Clinton and Schumer and 13 other elected officials sent a letter to the CEO of Tishman Speyer, Jerry Speyer, encouraging the company “to be part of stemming this affordable housing crisis.” Currently, more than 70% of the complexes’ apartments are protected by rent regulation, but over the next 15 years or so, real estate experts said that most would be deregulated under existing law, driving up rents to market rates. Tishman Speyer has said that neighbors should not fear a sudden or dramatic shift in the neighborhood’s character.

— Staff Reporter of the Sun

Bloomberg To Speak At Clinton Library Event

Mayor Bloomberg may say he’s not running for president, but he’s traveling in the same circle as those who have already occupied the White House. Mr. Bloomberg and President Clinton will be delivering keynote speeches at an event next month at the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Ark. The two are speaking at Slate 60, a two-day conference being sponsored by the online magazine and Mr. Clinton’s foundation, which will honor top philanthropists.

— Staff Reporter of the Sun

POLICE BLOTTER

In Two Accidents, Two Workers Fall to Death

Two construction workers died yesterday after each fell from scaffolding in two separate incidents, police said. In the first, around 11 a.m., police said Manno Oh, 45, of Clinton, Md., fell off a scaffold on the Roosevelt Island Bridge in Queens. Police said the accident occurred near the intersection of Vernon Boulevard and 36th Avenue in Astoria, when Oh and two other workers were lowering themselves manually from the bridge. Police said the scaffold tipped and Oh fell. He was not wearing a safety harness at the time, police said. In the second, around 1:15 p.m., police said a 63-year-old worker fell from scaffolding on Fifth Avenue near East 69th Street, just after he had removed his safety harness to readjust it.

— Special to the Sun

STATEWIDE

Clinton Says Spencer Getting Swampy

ALBANY — Senator Clinton said yesterday that Republican challenger John Spencer was treading into “swampy territory” with his reported comments that she wasn’t very attractive when she was younger and may have had a lot of work done to improve her looks. “It’s unfortunate that when you don’t have anything positive to say about the issues that we can get off in some pretty swampy territory,” Mrs. Clinton said.

— Associated Press