Month: June 2018

Two Out of Three Wouldn’t Be Bad…

A coalition of six elected officials representing Lower Manhattan are pushing Governor Andrew Cuomo to replace two members of the Battery Park City Authority (BPCA) board with residents of the community governed by the agency. In a letter dated June 11, State Senator Brian Kavanagh, U.S. Congressman Jerrold Nadler, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, State...
U.S. Congressman Jerrold Nadler

EYES TO THE SKY June 11 – 24, 2018

When we look up to the night sky we see beyond Earth’s protective atmosphere to the planets in our solar system and the universe of stars that comprise our galaxy, the Milky Way galaxy. Observatory Director, Dr. Eileen Ryan, explains this image, “I’m observing with the telescope from the control room in the observatory building....
Magdalena Ridge Observatory at 10,612ft Photo: Mackenzie Waggaman

Today in History June 11

1578 – England grants Sir Humphrey Gilbert a patent to explore and colonize North America 1644 – Florentine scientists describe invention of the barometer 1742 – Benjamin Franklin invents his Franklin stove, a metal lined fireplace with a hollow baffle and inverted siphon. The stove serves to produce more heat but less smoke than an ordinary stove....
1895 - Charles Edgar Duryea was the engineer of the first-ever working American gasoline-powered car and co-founder of Duryea Motor Wagon Company

The Fine Line Between ‘Discerning’ and ‘Discriminating’

Elected officials representing Lower Manhattan are casting a skeptical eye on proposed changes to the admissions process for New York City’s specialized high schools, a group of eight selective secondary schools, where students are admitted on the basis of a competitive examination. Mayor Bill de Blasio has proposed scrapping this exam in favor of a...
Stuyvesant High School

Richard Stratton

Lower Manhattan resident Richard Stratton is an award-winning writer and filmmaker whose fiction and journalism have appeared in GQ, Esquire, Details, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, Spin, Playboy and Story Magazine.  Nation Books published his collection of journalism, Altered States of America: Outlaws and Icons, Hitmakers and Hitmen. Mr. Stratton’s article, Godfather and Son published in Playboy, won the 2011 New York Press Club Award...
Richard Stratton

Today in History June 7

1099 – First Crusade: The Siege of Jerusalem begins. 1628 – The Petition of Right, a major English constitutional document, is granted the Royal Assent by Charles I and becomes law. It was passed by the House of Commons in 1628 in response to years of abuse by the King regarding forced billeting of soldiers,...
Lusitania arriving in New York