Author: Matthew Fenton

Redistricting Commission Proposes to Restore Former Boundaries

The New York State Independent Redistricting Commission (IRC) has issued yet another version of proposed boundaries for the New York State Assembly, which restores the lines of the districts representing Lower Manhattan to almost exactly where they were before the process began. For more than a decade, Lower Manhattan straddled two Assembly districts. Southern Battery...

People of the Book

Literary Festival Coming to Museum of Jewish Heritage On Sunday, December 11, the Museum of Jewish Heritage (MJH) will host the first annual New York Jewish Book Festival. Dozens of authors will participate in multiple panel discussions and book signings, while reflecting on themes ranging from Jewish heritage and culture, to literature, the Holocaust, and...

The Conversion Factor

Latest Office-to-Residential Switch May Bring Thousands of New Residents to FiDi A largely vacant office tower in the Financial District is being prepared for conversion into a massive apartment building. The 1960s-era commercial structure at 25 Water Street (on the corner of Broad Street) is slated for conversion into 1,200 rental apartments by a partnership...

A Squall in the Park

Activists Float Alternative to BPCA Plan for Wagner Park, Mull Legal Action As the Battery Park City Authority (BPCA) prepares to demolish and rebuild Wagner Park, to create resiliency measures designed to protect against flooding, opponents of this plan are advocating for their own alternative vision, which they say will preserve the park and provide...

The Agony of the Agora

Artisanal Market May Be Squeezed from Site of New York’s Earliest Trading Post The Fulton Stall Market, a highly regarded non-profit indoor/outdoor farmers market that has offered locally grown fresh food in the South Street Seaport neighborhood since 2015, is facing an uncertain future. This has prompted Community Board 1 (CB1) to push the City’s...

Portrait of the Artist as a No-Longer-Young Man

Mediation on Justice by Formerly Incarcerated Muralist Now on Display Battery Park City is home to a new piece of public art that is both poignant and provocative. “Justice Reflected,” artist James Hough’s installation of three stained glass panels, configured as five-foot circular medallions, was formally dedicated on the curved 90-foot-long granite wall overlooking Esplanade...