Work seems to have ground to a halt in recent weeks at the site of the new West Thames pedestrian bridge, which has been under construction since November, 2016, although this appears to be a temporary hiatus. The span is being partially funded by the Battery Park City Authority (BPCA), but its construction is being […]
Archives for March 2018
The Children’s Crusade
I was one of more than 500 students from Lower Manhattan schools who left our classrooms at 10:00 am on Wednesday morning and assembled in the streets outside to raise our voices in grief and protest, on the one-month anniversary of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida that ended 14 young lives. At my school, […]
March 14
1489 – The Queen of Cyprus, Catherine Cornaro, sells her kingdom to Venice. 1558 – Ferdinand I appointed Holy Roman Emperor 1743 – First American town meeting (Boston’s Faneuil Hall) 1757 – On board HMS Monarch (his own flagship), British Admiral John Byng is executed by firing squad for neglecting his duty “Pour encourager les […]
‘Vox Clamantis in Landfill’
Some sections of Battery Park City are effectively invisible to the City’s 311 service and complaint hub, which fielded 36 million requests in 2016 alone. According to a presentation by Lucian Reynolds at the March 6 meeting of the Battery Park City Committee of Community Board 1 (CB1), several areas of New York City that […]
March 13
607 – 12th recorded perihelion passage of Halley’s Comet 1519 – Cortez lands in Mexico 1639 – Cambridge College renamed Harvard for clergyman John Harvard 1677 – Massachusetts gains title to Maine for $6,000 1759 – 27th recorded perihelion passage of Halley’s Comet 1781 – Sir William Herschel sees “comet” which turned out to be […]
Separation of Church and State
The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) has recruited Lili Chopra to join the organization as its new executive director for cultural programs, grants and services. She is slated to become part of an unusual dual-leadership team, in which she will share authority with Diego S. Segalini, currently LMCC’s interim executive director, who will fill the […]
March 12
538 – Vitiges, king of the Ostrogoths ends his siege of Rome and retreats to Ravenna, leaving the city in the hands of the victorious Byzantine general, Belisarius 1894 – Coca-Cola is bottled and sold for the first time in Vicksburg, Mississippi, by local soda fountain operator Joseph A. Biedenharn. 1918 – Moscow becomes the […]
Image and Likeness
Four sculptures commissioned in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, as part of the former Catholic Memorial to September 11 in Battery Park City, are slated to move to a new home in Tribeca. Saint Michael The statues, by acclaimed sculptor John Collier, were once part of the Saint Joseph Chapel, […]
March 9
141 BC – Liu Che, posthumously known as Emperor Wu of Han, assumes the throne over the Han dynasty of China. 1009 – First known mention of Lithuania, in the annals of the monastery of Quedlinburg. 1566 – David Rizzio, private secretary to Mary, Queen of Scots, is murdered in the Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh, […]
National Lighthouse Museum Presents
On Thursday March 15, the National Lighthouse Museum will present Bill Miller, an international authority on the subject of ocean liners and cruise ships. Mr. Miller will give a 45 minute talk about the Port of New York and all the great ships that have visited. Includes will be those great ships of the past, […]
All Over the Map
A new analysis from an online real estate marketplace, StreetEasy, finds that three Lower Manhattan neighborhoods are among those where market conditions are most favorable to homebuyers, and least advantageous to sellers. The evaluation, released Thursday by StreetEasy’s senior economist Grant Long, documents that Tribeca is the fifth-most auspicious environment for buyers anywhere in the […]
March 8
1618 – Johannes Kepler discovers the third law of planetary motion. 1736 – Nader Shah, founder of the Afsharid dynasty, is crowned Shah of Iran. 1775 – An anonymous writer, thought by some to be Thomas Paine, publishes “African Slavery in America”, the first article in the American colonies calling for the emancipation of slaves […]
Celebrating Washington’s 286th Birthday And Benefiting Fraunces Tavern Museum
On February 16, 2018, Sons of the Revolution in the State of New York, Inc. hosted the 141st Annual George Washington Birthday Ball in honor of George Washington and to benefit Fraunces Tavern Museum. Even Martha danced at George’s party. This year’s Distinguished Patriot Award was presented to Robert M. S. McDonald of the United States […]
Giving credit where credit is due
To the editor: In Monday’s BroadsheetDAILY, I was quoted expressing concern that the financial presentation that the BPCA promised to provide at Monday’s Open Community meeting would not be a deep enough dive. But, they did it!!! Using illuminating PowerPoint slides, BJ Jones, President and COO, gave a terrific explanation of the creation of the Authority, […]
Express Distress
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has reorganized its network of Express Bus service between Staten Island and Manhattan, announcing 21 new consolidated routes. Two of these planned routes will bring as many as a dozen large buses into Battery Park City each rush hour. The SIM7 and SIM33 routes are slated to exit the Hugh […]
Church Street School of Music and Art’s Event was Quite an Event
More than 250 people attended last night’s annual event celebrating and supporting one of Lower Manhattan’s most cherished institutions, Church Street School for Music and Art. Peter Braus and Dwight Yellen were honored for their guidance in enabling the school to, literally, have “a new lease on life,” as Dr. Lisa Ecklund-Flores, put it. Earlier […]
March 7
321 – Emperor Constantine I decrees that the dies Solis Invicti (sun-day) is the day of rest in the Empire. 1277 – Stephen Tempier, bishop of Paris, condemns 219 philosophical and theological theses. 1573 – A peace treaty is signed between the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Venice, ending the Ottoman-Venetian War and leaving […]
Friends in High Places
A pair of Albany lawmakers representing Lower Manhattan have been appointed to committees in their respective houses of the State legislature that work on areas of acute concern to Downtown residents. State Assembly member Yuh-Line Niou has been named chair of the Assembly Subcommittee on Catastrophic Natural Disasters, which is a subsidiary panel of the […]
March 6
12 BC – The Roman Emperor Augustus is named Pontifex Maximus, incorporating the position into that of the emperor. 1521 – Ferdinand Magellan arrives at Guam. 1788 – The First Fleet arrives at Norfolk Island in order to found a convict settlement. 1820 – The Missouri Compromise is signed into law by President James Monroe. […]
Sing Praise For the Parks
To the editor: I enjoyed your recent piece, “‘Sustainability and Safety; Collaboration and Character’: Fourteen Questions for BPCA President Benjamin Jones,” but was dismayed to read that the wonderful staff who tend to the public spaces in Battery Park City described as “the unsung heros of the BPCA.” Unsung?! Well let the singing begin. […]