Today in History

1527 – Florence becomes a republic 1606 – 2,000 foreigners murdered in Russia 1792 – Denmark abolishes slave trade 1817 – Mississippi River steamboat service begins 1861 – Kentucky proclaims its neutrality Jean Joseph Étienne Lenoir (1822-1900), inventor of the gas engine 1862 – Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir a Belgian engineer developed the internal combustion engine in 1858. By 1859, Lenoir’s experimentation without...
From the NTSB: "About 1735 e.d.t.,on May 16, 1977, the right landing gear of a New York Airways, Inc., Sikorsky Model S-61L helicopter, N619PA, failed while the aircraft was parked, with rotors turning, on the rooftop heliport of the Pan Am Building in New York, New York.

Double-crested Cormorant

  The double-crested Cormorant is often seen fishing off the esplanade of Battery Park City.  If you see one in the water, keep an eye on it, as in a short amount of time, it’ll dive underneath the water in search of food.  Count to ten and look around and you will see it resurface,...
Double-creasted Cormorant

EYES TO THE SKY May 16 – 29, 2016

Observers of Mars are scattered throughout the world. This provides the opportunity to have continuous coverage of Mars since it is always night somewhere and thus Mars can (at least potentially) be constantly observed. There is a bit of a gap in the Pacific area, though, and Kwajalein [in the Republic of the Marshall Islands]...

Dulcinea Comes Downtown

Battery Park City’s own New American Youth Ballet (NAYB) will present next Sunday (May 22) a dance adaptation of “Someday,” the elegy to motherhood by children’s book author Alison McGhee. The dancers will be led by NAYB director and choreographer Elizabeth Flores and accompanied by a full, 40-piece orchestra, performing original music by Alan Turry,...
New American Youth Ballet

Forst Exit: BPCA Purges Only Battery Park City Resident from Its Senior Staff

The Battery Park City Authority (BPCA) has forced out its only senior executive who actually lives in the community, Robin Forst, according to multiple sources directly familiar with the situation. Ms. Forst has served as the BPCA’s vice president of external relations, a post that encompassed dealings with the community, other government agencies, and the...

Courageous or Crazy?

This Sunday, May 15th at 8am, Dr. Stein Hoff, will begin his attempt at rowing across the Atlantic, 120 years after George Harbo and Frank Samuelsen by Stanley Fine   It took an arduous search with a blueprint map in hand, in the “potter’s field” section of Brooklyn’s Green-Wood cemetery. But I finally found the...
George Harbo and Frank Samuelsen in their rowboat FOX