The BroadsheetDAILY ~ 11/17/20 ~ Giving Locally, Impacting Globally Eleemosynary Advice for Reaching Out and Making a Difference Downtown

BLOOD DRIVE TODAY

12 pm – 6 pm 6 River Terrace New York, NY 10282

Giving Locally, Impacting Globally

Eleemosynary Advice for Reaching Out and Making a Difference Downtown

An iconic photograph of homeless children in Lower Manhattan, by pioneering photojournalist Jacob Riis, from his 1890 classic, “How the Other Half Lives.”

As we embark upon the giving season, many Lower Manhattan residents are interested in finding a way to give back. To help connect prospective volunteers with organizations that need help doing good, LMHQ, the collaborative workspace operated by the Downtown Alliance for companies in the technology, advertising, media, and information industries, will offer a free, online showcase for local volunteer opportunities tomorrow (Wednesday, November 18) at noon.

Panelists from five NYC-based non-profits will offer advice on how to get involved with local causes. Featured organizations include the Bowery Residents’ Committee, the Food Bank for New York City, New Yorkers for Parks, New York-Presbyterian, and the Opportunity Network.

Following the presentation, attendees will have the opportunity to attend a breakout session with the organization they find most interesting.

Homeless clients line up outside the New York City Rescue Mission, in Tribeca, seeking help.

The Bowery Residents’ Committee—which operates more than 30 programs, including homeless outreach, transitional housing and permanent housing, substance abuse treatment, and mental and physical health services—is seeking volunteers for meal pre-packing, holiday celebrations and meal service, onsite social activities, (e.g., creative writing, arts and crafts, poetry clubs, etc.) and virtual tutoring.

New York-Presbyterian—one of the nationʼs most comprehensive academic health care delivery systems—needs volunteers for patient services, patient care, administrative services, and its Golden Spoons program.

The Opportunity Network—which offers robust college access and persistence supports, as well as dynamic career exposure and readiness for more 1,000 students from underrepresented backgrounds—is seeking help with resume and mock-interview workshops, career-exposure panels and roundtables, and longer-term mentorship opportunities.

To register, please browse: https://lmhq.nyc/events/giving-back-nyc-volunteer-opportunity-showcase

Matthew Fenton

Getting into Hot Water

Court Rules That FiDi Condo Buyers Can Recover Damages from Developer for Shoddy Construction

More than a decade ago, real estate developers in Lower Manhattan were performing a feat that seemed akin to alchemy. Buying up unglamorous office buildings (abandoned by financial firms that had decamped for Midtown after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001) and converting them into high-priced residential towers, such developers rode the wave that was transforming Downtown into a chic residential district.

One example among many in this narrative was 90 William Street, a 17-story back-office facility constructed in 1967, that was rebranded as “Be@William,” a 113-unit condominium in 2008.

But residents began to notice problems with the building within weeks of plunking down a million dollars or more per apartment. To read more…

Matthew Fenton

A Victim’s Vengeance

New Sculpture on Centre Street Inverts Myth to Send a Feminist Message

In a caustic counterpoint to the “Fearless Girl” statue that attracted worldwide attention after it was unveiled at Bowling Green in 2017, a new feminist icon is calling Lower Manhattan’s streetscape home.

Standing in the center of Collect Pond Park (bounded by Centre, Lafayette, and White Streets), “Medusa with the Head of Perseus” makes a stark statement about violence against women. The bronze depicts the Medusa of Greek myth holding aloft the head of the hero who is said to have slain her. To read more…

Matthew Fenton

Decrying the Decree

CB1 Backs Stringer on Rescinding Mayor’s Emergency Authority

Community Board 1 is taking the unusual step of demanding that the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio alter a policy that is citywide in its breadth, and does not specifically apply to Lower Manhattan.

The policy at issue is Emergency Executive Order 101, proclaimed by the Mayor in March of this year as the pandemic coronavirus was beginning to threaten New York. The original rationale for this order was to suspend temporarily the cumbersome regulations that usually apply to purchases of goods and services by the City government. The Mayor argued that this discretion was necessary, in order to facilitate the rapid procurement of medical supplies, such as personal protective equipment (PPE) and ventilators. To read more…

Excise Revise

Downtown Traffic May Ease with Split Verrazzano Toll

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is poised to implement federal legislation (enacted in 2019) that will modify the tolling regimen on a bridge barely visible on the horizon from Lower Manhattan, but this may nonetheless reduce traffic congestion Downtown. To read more…

The Downtown Calendar

Tuesday November 17

6PM

Waterfront, Parks & Cultural Committee

Live Remote Meeting – https://live.mcb1.nyc

AGENDA

1) Brooklyn Bridge Banks and Dugout Space along Robert F. Wagner Pl. and community desire to re-open and activate these spaces for community recreation – Discussion (Rodney Rosado, NYPD-5th Precinct attending & NYC Dept of Transportation invited)

2) Encouraging the formation of “Friends of” groups for parks in Community District 1 – Discussion with Kyle Kelly, Partnership for Parks Outreach Coordinator

3) Hudson River Park Advisory Council recent meeting regarding Pier 76 – Update by Andrew Zelter, Manhattan Community Board 1 member

4) Proposal for nearly 2-acre park in the Holland Tunnel Rotary – Presentation by Dasha Khapalova and Peter Ballman, Ballman Khapalova Architecture (postponed until December)

7PM

Museum of Jewish Heritage

To most people, “3G” and “4G” refers to cell phone data – but to the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Holocaust survivors, these terms are shorthand for something far more meaningful. What does it mean to be a third- or fourth-generation survivor? Is trauma transmitted through epigenetics, or inherited along with family stories and heirlooms? Join Tablet Magazine Deputy Editor Stephanie Butnick, co-host of the leading Jewish podcast Unorthodox, for an MJH Live series exploring these questions and more with a changing roster of guests. In this episode, Butnick will be joined by Beth Kean, CEO of Holocaust Museum Los Angeles. Kean worked for more than 25 years in the finance sector and served on her museum’s Executive Board for 10 years before becoming its CEO in 2017. As the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, she brings a powerful personal connection to her work running the nation’s oldest Holocaust museum.

9PM

China Institute

Learn about the great culinary traditions of China. The food of Zhejiang province, whose capital is Hangzhou, is known for its soft flavors, mellow fragrance, and freshness. And now, a new farm-to-table sensibility, focused on freshness, health, and sustainability, is driving restaurants like Dragon Well Manor. Its visionary founder Dai Jianjun is leading a movement to return to traditional values driven by nature: he keeps a notebook documenting every farmer and every chicken and vegetable that comes into his storied kitchen.

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November 18

Licensing & Permits Committee

1) Agenda to be determined

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November 19

Quality of Life & Service Delivery Committee

AGENDA

1) DDC Oversight – Discussion

Unexpected Development

Local Small Business Swims Against the Tide by Reopening

In Italian, the word “inatteso” means “unexpected”—which is an apt adjective to describe what a small business in Battery Park City is doing. At a time when large enterprises, from the Century 21 department store to the restaurant, bar, and catering facility at Pier A, are shuttering, a spunky upstart is voicing optimism by reopening.

CLASSIFIEDS & PERSONALS

Swaps & Trades, Respectable Employment, Lost and Found

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The Tale of the Ticker Tape, or How Adversity and Spontaneity Hatched a New York Tradition

What was Planned as a Grand Affair became a Comedy of Errors

New York’s first ticker-tape parade erupted spontaneously from bad weather

and an over-zealous stockbroker.

While the festivities in New York Harbor didn’t go as scripted that afternoon, the spontaneous gesture it generated from the brokerage houses lining Broadway famously lives on more than a century later.

On October 28, 1886, Liberty Enlightening the World was to be unveiled to New York City and the world as it stood atop its tall base on Bedloe’s Island. But the morning mist had turned to afternoon fog, blurring the view of the statue from revelers on the Manhattan shore and the long parade of three hundred ships on the Hudson River.

What was planned as a grand affair-with President Grover Cleveland as the main speaker-became a comedy of errors. The fog prevented efficient communication between the dignitaries on the island and the ships awaiting orders to fire their salutes and blast their horns at the given signal.

Even the dramatic unveiling moment itself went awry. To read more…

John Simko

TODAY IN HISTORY

November 17

1973 – Watergate scandal: In Orlando, Florida, President Richard Nixon tells 400 Associated Press managing editors “I am not a crook.”

1511 – Henry VIII of England concludes the Treaty of Westminster, a pledge of mutual aid against the French, with Ferdinand II of Aragon

1558 – Elizabethan era begins: Queen Mary I of England dies and is succeeded by her half-sister Elizabeth I of England.

1603 – English explorer, writer and courtier Sir Walter Raleigh goes on trial for treason.

1800 – The US Congress holds its first session in Washington, D.C.

1820 – Captain Nathaniel Palmer becomes the first American to see Antarctica.

1837 – An earthquake in Valdivia, south-central Chile, causes a tsunami that leads to significant destruction along Japan’s coast.

1869 – In Egypt, the Suez Canal, linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea, is inaugurated.

1939 – Nine Czech students are executed as a response to anti-Nazi demonstrations prompted by the death of Jan Opletal. All Czech universities are shut down and more than 1,200 students sent to concentration camps. Since this event, International Students’ Day is celebrated in many countries, especially in the Czech Republic.

1947 – The Screen Actors Guild implements an anti-Communist loyalty oath.

1947 – American scientists John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain observe the basic principles of the transistor, a key element for the electronics revolution of the 20th century.

1962 – President John F. Kennedy dedicates Washington Dulles International Airport, serving the Washington, D.C., region.

1970 – Vietnam War: Lieutenant William Calley goes on trial for the My Lai Massacre.

1970 – Luna programme: The Soviet Union lands Lunokhod 1 on the Moon. This is the first roving remote-controlled robot to land on another world and is released by the orbiting Luna 17 spacecraft.

1973 – Watergate scandal: In Orlando, Florida, President Richard Nixon tells 400 Associated Press managing editors “I am not a crook.”

2013 – A rare late-season tornado outbreak strikes the Midwest. Illinois and Indiana are most affected with tornado reports as far north as lower Michigan. In all around six dozen tornadoes touch down in approximately an 11-hour time period, including seven EF3 and two EF4 tornadoes.

2019 – The first known case of COVID-19 is traced to a 55-year-old man who had visited a market in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China.

Births

AD 9 – Vespasian, Roman emperor (d. 79

1749 – Nicolas Appert, French chef, invented canning (d. 1841}

1901 – Lee Strasberg, Ukrainian-American actor and director (d. 1982)

1904 – Isamu Noguchi, American sculptor and architect (d. 1988)

1942 – Martin Scorsese, American director, producer, screenwriter, and actor

1943 – Lauren Hutton, American model and actress

1944 – Rem Koolhaas, Dutch architect and academic, designed the Seattle Central Library

Deaths

188 – Usama ibn Munqidh, Arab chronicler (b. 1095)

1776 – James Ferguson, Scottish astronomer and instrument maker (b. 1710)

1796 – Catherine the Great, of Russia (b. 1729)

1917 – Auguste Rodin, French sculptor and illustrator (b. 1840)

2013 – Doris Lessing, novelist, poet, playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1919)

Contract One, Station One

The Jewel in

the Crown

Just below the surface of City Hall Park sits one of New York’s architectural gems. Built during the City Beautiful movement, its design sought to uplift the spirits of New Yorkers on their daily commute.

City Hall Loop station—Contract One, Station One—was the flagship of New York’s first subway and the focus of the international press on October 27, 1904, when Mayor George McClellan connected the Tiffany-designed motorman’s handle to propel the first train north to its endpoint on 145th Street and Broadway.

The design of the other twenty-seven stations it stopped at that afternoon was dictated by the practical needs of subway efficiency—the architect’s only role was to choose the tile work that would cover the structural columns and walls. But the station below City Hall Park is different. Here, design and structure are one in the same.

John Simko

City Hall subway station, was designed to be the showpiece of the new subway system with its elegant platform and mezzanine featured Guastavino tile, skylights, colored glass tilework and brass chandeliers.

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