1146 – Bernard of Clairvaux preaches his famous sermon in a field at Vézelay, urging the necessity of a Second Crusade. Louis VII is present, and joins the Crusade. 1651 – Great earthquake at Cuzco, Peru 1850 – US population hits 23,191,876 1861 – Confederacy takes over mint at New Orleans 1870 – First black […]
Archives for March 2017
LETTERS ~ re: Your Word Is Their Bond
What an eye-opener this article is!! I have asked the BPCA repeatedly for better information about the bonds that underpin our land, but it takes a bond rating company to elucidate how our bonds really work. So, the reversion of our homes to NY State and to the Bondholders is ultimately why our bonds are […]
Where Little Cable Cars May Someday Climb Halfway to the Stars
The backers of the proposed East River Skyway are expanding their plan to include a phase that would connect Battery Park with Governors Island, and Red Hook, Brooklyn. The project is the brainchild of Daniel Levy, president of the CityRealty website, who first proposed in mid-2016 to build a cablecar network with large gondolas that […]
March 30
1815 – Joachim Murat issues the Rimini Proclamation which would later inspire Italian unification. 1822 – The Florida Territory is created in the United States. 1841 – The National Bank of Greece is founded in Athens. 1842 – Ether anesthesia is used for the first time, in an operation by the American surgeon Dr. Crawford […]
A Grand Alliance
The New York City Department of Small Business Services (SBS), which oversees the operation of the City’s Business Improvements Districts (BIDs), has completed a report that sheds light on the work of the Downtown Alliance, which covers Lower Manhattan, roughly between between City Hall and the Battery, from the East River to West Street. A […]
March 29
502 – King Gundobad issues a new legal code (Lex Burgundionum) at Lyon that makes Gallo-Romans and Burgundians subject to the same laws. 1792 – King Gustav III of Sweden dies after being shot in the back at a midnight masquerade ball at Stockholm’s Royal Opera 13 days earlier. He is succeeded by Gustav IV […]
Surge Protection
At its March 22 Open Community Meeting, the Battery Park City Authority (BPCA) presented an updated version of its plans to fortify Wagner Park, at the community’s southern tip, from future extreme weather events. The area was the site of serious flooding during 2012’s Hurricane Sandy. The two centerpieces of the plan are a large […]
Earth To Sky: Paintings by Debra Drexler
Commuting between Hawaii and New York, Debra Drexler thrives on living at the edge of two oceans. Hawaii has a unique form of tropical light diffused through blazing skies, resplendent with colors so intense that they can seem almost synthetic. New York has its own urban pulse with twenty-four seven illumination, flashing the frenetic energy […]
March 28
AD 37 – Roman emperor Caligula accepts the titles of the Principate, entitled to him by the Senate. 193 – Roman Emperor Pertinax is assassinated by Praetorian Guards, who then sell the throne in an auction to Didius Julianus. 364 – Roman Emperor Valentinian I appoints his brother Flavius Valens co-emperor. 1802 – Heinrich Wilhelm […]
Letters
To the editor: Your BPC Bond article: (BroadsheetDAILY March 27) ‘Your Word is Their Bond’ 1. Additional reason why locals should be in control of the Board 2. Resale value of home-residents should decrease rapidly as 2069 approaches 3. Younger people will not move into BPC since they will have nothing to gain in the […]
The Trump Interview
Upon learning that Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, and Shinzō Abe, the Prime Minister of Japan, read Glenn Plaskin’s 1990 Playboy interview with Donald Trump, we asked for and received a comment from the author, a Lower Manhattan resident, president of the Gateway Tenants Association and celebrity interviewer. Over the years, as Entertainment reporter for […]
Immobile Miss
After State Assembly member Yuh-Line Niou held a rally and led fellow-female elected officials in co-signing a letter demanding that the City find a way to keep the “Fearless Girl” statue at Bowling Green, the sculpture has been given a one-year reprieve. Mayor Bill de Blasio and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer hosted a joint […]
March 27
196 BC – Ptolemy V ascends to the throne of Egypt 1513 – Spaniard Juan Ponce de Leon discovers Florida 1625 – Charles I, King Of England, Scotland and Ireland, ascends English throne 1668 – English king Charles II gives Bombay to East India Company 1790 – The modern shoestring (string and shoe holes) invented […]
Safety of Our Children
Dear Neighbors, I am writing to you at this time to both alert you and ask for your support in writing to BPCA about the current issues, regarding the safety of our children. As you are aware in BPC of late, there has been a group of teens coming into BPC and terrorizing our children […]
Your Word Is Their Bond
At the March 22 meeting of the board of the Battery Park City Authority (BPCA), chairman Dennis Mehiel noted that, “our triple-A rating was reaffirmed. So our credit is better than the U.S. government. Not bad.” He was not exaggerating. On March 17, Fitch Ratings (one of the “big three” credit rating agencies that review […]
March 24
1664 – Roger Williams is granted a charter to colonize Rhode Island 1721 – Johann Sebastian Bach opens his Brandenburg Concerts 1765 – Britain enacts Quartering Act, required colonists to provide temporary housing to British soldiers 1832 – Mormon Joseph Smith beaten, tarred and feathered in Ohio 1883 – First telephone call between New York […]
Remembering Rockefeller: A Personal Appreciation
(Editor’s Note: The passing of David Rockefeller earlier this week struck a personal chord for one person who helped create Lower Manhattan in its modern form — Charles J. Urstadt, who, as State Commissioner of Housing and County Renewal in the 1960s and 70s, founded and built Battery Park City, along with several other government-sponsored […]
March 23
1540 – Waltham Abbey is surrendered to King Henry VIII of England; the last religious community to be closed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. 1775 – American Revolutionary War: Patrick Henry delivers his speech – “Give me liberty, or give me death!” – at St. John’s Episcopal Church, Richmond, Virginia. 1801 – Tsar Paul […]
Holding Back the Tide
At its Wednesday board meeting, the Battery Park City Authority (BPCA) shared the preliminary findings of its two-year resiliency study, conducted by consulting firm Parsons Transportation, as part of an effort to formulate plans that will make the community more resistant to future extreme weather events, such as 2012’s Hurricane Sandy, which flooded much of […]
March 22
238 – Gordian I and his son Gordian II are proclaimed Roman emperors. 1508 – Ferdinand II of Aragon commissions Amerigo Vespucci chief navigator of the Spanish Empire. 1621 – The Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony sign a peace treaty with Massasoit of the Wampanoags. 1622 – Jamestown massacre: Algonquians kill 347 English settlers around Jamestown, […]