Ready or not, the Holiday Season is now upon Lower Manhattan. Santa Claus is coming to Brookfield Place, now through December 24, from noon to 8:00 pm on Tuesdays through Fridays, 10:00 am to 8:00 pm on Saturdays, and 10:00 am to 6:00 pm on Sundays (closed Mondays, except December 24). Photos are available (for […]

In what could be a major victory for Lower Manhattan community leaders and elected officials, the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio has backed away from a plan to build a new, 40-story jail on top of a historic government office building at 80 Centre Street. This proposal was part of a broader push to […]

The Battery Park City Authority (BPCA) plans to spend $600,000 to fix a leak in the roof of the Asphalt Green community center on North End Avenue. “From the outset there were some problems with leakage into the facility,” explained Gwen Dawson, the BPCA’s vice president for real property at the Authority’s October 29 board […]

You can see the building through Trinity Church cemetery as you walk along Broadway, just north of Wall Street. The large letters on the fourteen-story art deco façade identify it as the American Stock Exchange.      From inside the cemetery yard above Trinity Place, relief sculptures show ships, railroads, factories, and farmland that hint […]

The operators of the Hudson Club, the events venue on West Thames Street that was raided by the NYPD and shut down in July, after allegations of serving liquor without a license, have been issued a court order barring removal of property from the premises, and also banning further sales of alcohol. In the first […]

Fifty Novembers ago, in the hushed, complacent serenity of the suburbs east of Manhattan, a family barely one generation removed from fresh-off-the-boat shanty dwellings gathered among its lace curtains, and shared dreams of a cut-glass future.   The woman of the house, who imagined herself to be first among equals in her gaggle of siblings […]

More than 100 concerned students, parents, and community leaders turned out for a rally on the steps of P.S. 150 in Tribeca last Tuesday, to voice outrage at the school’s pending closure. Anshal Purohit, co-president of the P.S. 150 Parent-Teacher Association and the parent of a fourth grader at the highly regarded elementary school, told […]

The Battery Park City Authority (BPCA) and Community Board 1 (CB1) will co-host a public meeting tonight (Monday, November 19) to update residents about the state of planning for the resiliency project now being formulated for the neighborhood’s ball fields. The meeting, which begins at 6:00 pm, takes place at Six River Terrace (opposite the […]

Contrails of jet airplanes turn into clouds because of the unburnt particles of jet fuel. They are known as aerosols or ice nuclei. The minute carbon particles freeze at the -72°F temperatures at 30,000 ft. +. They then attract any moisture at that level and freeze into ice crystals. If there is not enough moisture […]

Lower Manhattan remains a preferred address for multiple kinds of business, as well as for New Yorkers seeking a place to live, according to a new analysis from the Downtown Alliance. The Lower Manhattan Real Estate Market Report for the third quarter of this year shows that the FIRE sector (comprised of firms focused on […]

Community Board 1 (CB1) is pushing for a study by the City’s Department of Transportation (DOT) of traffic at the intersection in northern Battery Park City, as a preliminary step toward having traffic control measures (such as a stop sign or traffic light) installed there. “We’re asking for a traffic control study at the intersection […]

Everyone knows Cass Gilbert’s Woolworth Building. But not everyone knows it’s the last of three Lower Manhattan office buildings he designed between 1900 and 1912. Seen together, they reveal the rapid advance in the structural and architectural development of the New York office building. With Gilbert’s two earlier buildings, we can see him working through […]

Today (Tuesday, November 13), concerned parents, community leaders, and local elected officials — including City Council member Margaret Chin, State Assembly member Deborah Glick, and State Senator Brian Kavanagh — will lead a rally to protest the planned closure of P.S. 150, an award-winning local elementary school that has educated generations of Downtown kids. The […]

In dissonant contrast with today’s observance of Veteran’s Day, Community Board 1 (CB1) recently grappled with the question of whether an intersection in Tribeca should be named in honor of James D. McNaughton, who, on August 2, 2005, at age 27, became the first New York City Police officer to be killed in action while […]

The largest outdoor food market in the United States, Smorgasburg, is coming to the Oculus Plaza of the Word Trade Center complex for three days, starting today (Thursday, November 8) and continuing through Saturday. Smorgasburg, which brings more than 100 vendors to at open-air locations in Williamsburg and Prospect Park in Brooklyn each week, and […]

United States Congressman Jerry Nadler spoke to a crowd of several hundred Battery Park City residents in the auditorium of P.S./I.S. 276 three weeks ago, during the annual meeting of the Gateway Plaza Tenants Association. During that talk, he offered a preview of what might happen, “if the Democrats take control of the House of […]

Dozens of visitors from the neighborhood and outer boroughs came to the rescue on Saturday as Animal Care Centers of NYC and Phil Castiglia’s Le Pet Spa hosted a Mobile Adoption event in Battery Park City. Judy Passer, manager of Le Pet Spa reports, “Five animals were adopted and many people signed up for fostering and/or volunteering […]

Community Board 1 (CB1) has concocted a subtle stratagem for opposing (or at last delaying) a plan by the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio to erect a new, 40-story jail in Lower Manhattan: proposing to confer landmark status on the existing building, above which the new structure would be perched. A resolution enacted at […]

Deborah Glick, who was first elected to represent Lower Manhattan in the State Assembly in 1990, is running for reelection this year. She is so popular and widely respected that the Republican Party has not bothered to nominate an opponent against her in tomorrow’s election. And yet, Ms. Glick is being opposed — albeit unwillingly. […]

A trio of elected officials representing Lower Manhattan have seized on a procedural argument for slowing down the push by the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio to build a large new jail in Lower Manhattan. Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, City Council member Margaret Chin, and State Assembly member Yuh-Line Niou are all urging […]