Month: June 2017

The Descent of You

Tucked away on the third floor of the U.S. Custom House at Bowling Green, above the National Museum of the American Indian, is an unassuming room filled with a few dozen computers, some printers, and a couple of staff members and volunteers. Give that this office is the National Archives at New York City, it...

Who Speaks for You?

Governor Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday nominated three new appointees to fill empty seats on the board of the Battery Park City Authority (BPCA), one of whom is a part-time resident of Battery Park City, another of whom lives elsewhere in Lower Manhattan, while the third has no direct connection to the community, but has extensive...
Former Community Board 1 chair and Lower Manhattan resident Catherine McVay Hughes, who has been nominated by Governor Cuomo to join the board of the Battery Park City Authority. Ms. Hughes has been a leading advocate and expert in local resiliency measures.

POETS HOUSE

“Look how many of us there are!” exclaimed Sharon Olds. By “us,” the esteemed poet meant poetry lovers. It was June 12, and 600 poetry fans had just strolled together across the Brooklyn Bridge in the annual Poetry Walk sponsored by Poets House. Ms. Olds stood before them-the Brooklyn Bridge, the East River and the...
Poetry lovers parade over the Brooklyn Bridge photo: POETS HOUSE

June 15

763 BC – Assyrians record a solar eclipse that is later used to fix the chronology of Mesopotamian history. 1215 – King John of England puts his seal to the Magna Carta. 1502 – Christopher Columbus lands on the island of Martinique on his fourth voyage. 1520 – Pope Leo X threatens to excommunicate Martin...
Nik Wallenda walks over Niagara Falls on a tightrope in 2012.

Lower Manhattan’s Guardian Angel Gets His Wings

A three-year campaign by Charles J. Urstadt, the founder of Battery Park City, to name the new pedestrian bridge, now being constructed over West Street, in the memory of Downtown leader Robert Douglass, appears to have come to a successful conclusion. Mr. Urstadt, the founding president and chairman of the Battery Park City Authority (BPCA),...
The bridge to be named in Mr. Douglass's honor, shown here in an architect's rendering, will be a 230-foot long lenticular truss, stretching diagonally across the junction of West and West Thames Streets, from the southwest to the northeast corners of the intersection.

Old Seaport Alliance Gala

It was June 6, but the weather had the feel of early October. It didn’t matter though, as a few hundred neighbors gathered for a night of festive drinks, music, food and fun aboard Wavertree. The Old Seaport Alliance was hosting its second annual gala to raise money for neighborhood improvements. The Old Seaport Alliance,...