Month: April 2017

Where Every Swing Is a Home Run

Among many signs of Lower Manhattan’s triumphant emergence as a thriving residential community, one is perhaps more compelling than any other: the Downtown Little League (DLL), which will celebrate its 25th Opening Day tomorrow (Saturday, April 22), is now the nation’s largest. With more than 1,000 kids organized into 80 teams, led by 250 coaches...

April 19

AD 65 – The freedman Milichus betrays Piso’s plot to kill the Emperor Nero and all the conspirators are arrested. 1713 – With no living male heirs, Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, issues the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 to ensure that Habsburg lands and the Austrian throne would be inherited by his daughter, Maria Theresa...
Charles Duryea and his brother J. Frank in their 1894 gasoline-powered automobile

Linda Belfer Remembered

To the editor, What a beautiful and devastating portrait on the passing of Linda Belfer. (BroadsheetDAILY April 17, Matthew Fenton) When I first moved to New York City, Battery Park City was my home for four years. I, too, was pushed out by Gateway’s rising rents, but while I lived there, I spent time with...
Linda Belfer

How Bazaar

Lower Manhattan, with its historic streetscape, sweeping views, and robust access to transportation infrastructure, has long drawn more than its share of walks, runs, festivals, and fairs — all of which share one defining trait in common: They require the temporary closure of local streets. As Downtown has become ever more popular, more developed, and...
A Street Fair on lower Broadway

April 18

1025 – Bolesław Chrobry is crowned in Gniezno, becoming the first King of Poland. 1506 – The cornerstone of the current St. Peter’s Basilica is laid. 1775 – Paul Revere and William Dawes ride from Charleston to Lexington warning the “regulars are coming!” 1783 – Fighting ceases in the American Revolution, eight years to the...
Two geniuses: Albert Einstein and Charles Chaplin

Farewell to a Feisty Friend

At what would turn out to be the midpoint of her life, a woman in her late 30s was seeking a new direction. Still grieving from the loss of the father with whom she shared a bond that she would never replicate, recently graduated from St. John’s Law School, and in the process of setting...
Linda Belfer