A panel discussion tonight (Monday, October 29) will seek to provide information for Lower Manhattan voters about the three ballot proposals they will be asked to decide upon in next week’s election. Although these measures have profound implications for local politics and government, very few voters are familiar with the proposals, which were announced over […]
October 26
1689 – General Piccolomini of Austria burns down Skopje to prevent the spread of cholera. He died of cholera himself soon after. 1774 – The first Continental Congress adjourns in Philadelphia. 1775 – King George III of Great Britain goes before Parliament to declare the American colonies in rebellion, and authorizes a military response to […]
Frightinerary
You will frightened to hear how many things there are to do with children in and around Lower Manhattan in the days leading up to Halloween. Start this evening with Halloween Teen Night at the Whitney Museum (99 Gansevoort Street, near West Street), where music, dancing, costume making, tarot card readings, and snacks are all […]
Local Elected Officials: Save Our School
City Council member Margaret Chin and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewerare pushing back against a plan to close P.S. 150, a highly regarded local school also known as the Tribeca Learning Center. In a letter sent Tuesday, the elected officials urge Stellar Management, the owner of the residential portion of Independence Plaza (the giant housing […]
Freedom of the Press… Before Freedom of the Press
In 1735, forty-one years before thirteen British colonies stepped onto the world stage in 1776 to declare independence and throw off their royal shackles, twelve common New Yorkers (and one prominent Philadelphian) made a bold statement about the crucial role a free press must play in a truly free society-and it happened right here on […]
Inn Operators Are Out
The troubled hotel at Battery Park City’s southern tip has changed owners. The former Ritz-Carlton, which was rechristened the Wagner Hotel in March, has been sold by developers Westbrook Partners (which bought the property in 2012) at a 25 percent discount from its recent asking price. Shortly after acquiring the hotel from its original developer, […]
Grand Concourse Meets Tribeca
The Bronx Museum of the Arts has announced plans to opening a satellite facility in Lower Manhattan, as part of its Artists in the Marketplace (AIM) program. The new annex will be located at 80 White Street, a landmarked building in eastern Tribeca. The AIM program offers guidance to emerging New York City-based artists related […]
Go for Broke
While Amazon considers whether to site its much-vaunted second headquarters in Lower Manhattan (one of 20 prospective locations that the company has shortlisted, from a previous total of more than 100 contenders), it appears already to have decided to open an outpost of its experimental retail brand here. According to a story first reported by […]
The Fate of a Neighborhood
City Council member Margaret Chin and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer are leading a last-ditch effort to slow down the aggressive push by developers to erect a string “super-tall” luxury apartment towers in an area of the Lower East Side that has historically been a low-to-midrise haven for immigrants, as well as New Yorkers of […]
Each to Their Own Taste
On Saturday, October 20, the ninth annual Taste of the Seaport food festival will offer fare from dozens of Lower Manhattan’s best restaurants and purveyors, among them Eataly, Wolfgang Puck’s Cut, Insomnia Cookies, Lobster GoGo, Mad Dog & Beans, Barbalu, SUteiShi, and Toro Loco. Complimentary family-friendly activities will feature creative cardboard ship-building, children’s tennis […]
The Lease You Can Do
The annual membership meeting of the Gateway Plaza Tenants Associationwill be held tomorrow (Wednesday, October 17), in the auditorium of P.S./I.S. 276 (55 Battery Place, near the corner of First Place). The doors will open at 6:00, and the meeting will begin at 6:45 pm. There will be presentations by multiple elected officials — among […]
The Price of Resiliency
At an October 2 Open Community Meeting, officials from the Battery Park City Authority (BPCA) discussed for the first time the overall budget for the resiliency plan they are formulating for the community. Authority president B.J. Jones said, in response to a question, “the overall resiliency cost for all four phases is about two-thirds of […]
Survivor Skills
A Town Hall meeting to answer questions and provide information about medical care and financial compensation available to Lower Manhattan residents who lived through the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and their aftermath will be held on Monday (October 15) at the Municipal Building (One Centre Street, near the corner of Chambers Street). This […]
Pile On!
What is currently a “sea of asphalt”, in the words of NY State Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation Commissioner Rose Harvey, will soon morph into a full-fledged construction site. In 2020 the Hudson River Park’s first ecology themed pier will open with “something for everyone” – with woodlands, wetlands, and even soccer fields. Diana […]
Local Elected Officials: Save Our School
City Council member Margaret Chin and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewerare pushing back against a plan to close P.S. 150, a highly regarded local school also known as the Tribeca Learning Center. In a letter sent Tuesday, the elected officials urge Stellar Management, the owner of the residential portion of Independence Plaza (the giant housing […]
The Felicity of the Commons
The Battery Park City Authority (BPCA) has completed a year-long study, conducted in partnership with the sociology faculty at Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC), to determine how many people use the community’s parks, who they are, and what those parks users think of the 36 acres of public space spread throughout the neighborhood. The […]
The Lessor Evil
A new online data tool from a leading housing advocacy group, the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development (ANHD), indicates that Lower Manhattan is undergoing a gradual, but inexorable, transformation: Affordable housing, in the form of rent-regulated apartments, is steadily disappearing from the local landscape. ANHD’s Displacement Alert Map, which went live earlier this week, […]
Asking for the Millennium
Community Board 1 (CB1) is pushing the City’s Department of Education (DOE) to lease more space within the historic Financial District skyscraper that houses Millennium High School. Tricia Joyce, who chairs CB1’s Youth & Education Committee, said at the Board’s September 25 meeting, “Millennium High School is the gem of our community. It was started […]
Vendor, Vidi, Vici?
The City Council has enacted a bill, sponsored by Margaret Chin, which will expand the zone surrounding the World Trade Center that is off limits to street vendors. The original catchment, in effect since 2004, barred food vendors and souvenir hawkers from a district bounded by Liberty, Vesey, and West Streets, and Broadway. The larger […]
Chin Rails about Jail
City Council member Margaret Chin is raising a broad range of concerns related to the plan, currently being pushed by the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio, to build a new, 40-story prison in Lower Manhattan. In a letter sent to City Hall on Monday, Ms. Chin objects first to what she sees as a […]