End of the Road

Resilience Plans for Hudson River Cul de Sacs Include Eight-Foot Walls and Underground Tide Gates

The Bad News Keeps on Coming

At the November 17 meeting of the School Overcrowding Task Force, Eric Greenleaf, a Tribeca parent who has served for almost a decade on the panel, sounded a dire demographic warning. Amid ongoing jubilation about plans (announced in earlier this year) to open a new public elementary school on Trinity Place, in the Financial District,...
School Overcrowding Task Force member Eric Greenleaf: Students who grow up in apartments now being built in Lower Manhattan, "will not be in the position of waiting for the new Trinity Place school to open. They will be in the position of having no school at all. No school for them has been funded, or is even currently planned."

December 5

771 – Charlemagne becomes the sole King of the Franks after the death of his brother Carloman. 1456 – Earthquake strikes Naples; about 35,000 die 1492 – Columbus discovers Hispaniola (El Espanola/Haiti) 1766 – London auctioneers Christie’s hold their first sale 1792 – George Washington re-elected  president 1876 – Fire at Brooklyn Theater kills 295,...
O. J. Simpson

Lower Manhattan Pedestrian Traffic Safety and Mobility Study

Petition: Funding Request for Lower Manhattan Pedestrian Traffic Safety and Mobility Study https://campaigns.transalt.org/petition/lower-manhattan-mobility-study With a street grid from the Dutch settlement and Colonial era, overlaid with modern residential high rises and a 24/7 live-work community, Lower Manhattan faces unique challenges from car, bus and truck traffic, garbage collection, and pedestrian and tourist flows. Manhattan’s Community...

The Urge to Purge the Surge

Tomorrow night (Tuesday, December 6), the Battery Park City Committee of Community Board 1 (CB1) will discuss plans by the Battery Park City Authority (BPCA) to redesign Wagner Park to strengthen it against future storm surges. The Committee will also hear a presentation by the design team from Perkins Eastman, the consulting firm hired by...
This image shows the possible location of flood barriers in Wagner Park (dotted red line), along with the positions of similar storm protection systems in Battery Park (solid red line at upper right) and along the Esplanade (solid red line at lower left). But while planning has begun for such a project in Wagner Park, no such plans have been announced for either of the adjoining areas.

December 2

1409 – The University of Leipzig opens. 1697 – St Paul’s Cathedral is consecrated in London. 1804 – At Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Napoleon Bonaparte crowns himself Emperor of the French. 1823 – Monroe Doctrine: In a State of the Union message, President James Monroe proclaims American neutrality in future European conflicts, and warns...
In May 1927, after 15 million Model Ts were produced, Henry Ford closed his factories and began to retool for a new Model that would be known as the "Baby Lincoln." (The Model T was nicknamed the "Tin Lizzie".) Among the Model A's improvements were brakes to all 4 wheels, a 4 cylinder motor producing 40 horsepower and a three speed gear box allowing for a cruising speed of 40-45 MPH and top speed of about 65 MPH. It featured hydraulic shock absorbers and a gas tank that fed the carburetor by gravity, eliminating the need for a fuel pump. And with the gas tank behind the instrument panel, it was possible to check the fuel level by peering through a small port-hole.