The Broadsheet – Lower Manhattan’s Local Newspaper
Calling the Shots
Rate of Vaccination in Local Public Schools Among Highest in City
Lower Manhattan public schools rank among the highest in the five boroughs by the percentage of students who have been vaccinated against COVID-19, according to new data released by the City’s Department of Education.
Among local secondary schools, the leader is Stuyvesant High School, where 94.4 percent of students have had at least one dose of a vaccine, and 92.5 percent are fully vaccinated. At Millennium High School, the corresponding tallies are 91.3 percent and 89.8 percent.
Elsewhere among secondary schools, the Richard R. Green High School of Teaching, the Leadership and Public Service High School, and the High School of Economics and Finance have first- and second-dose totals in the 60- and 70-percent range. At the Murry Bergtraum High School for Business Careers, 60.5 percent of students have had one dose, while 54.4 are fully vaccinated.
Among primary and middle schools, Tribeca’s P.S. 234 is the leader, with 90.1 percent of students having received one dose, and 83 percent fully vaccinated. The lowest rate of protection is at the Peck Slip School, where 76.3 percent of students are partially inoculated, and 69.3 percent are fully vaccinated.
The overall catchment into which all these schools fall, District 2 (which covers most of Lower Manhattan, along with the Upper East Side), has the highest vaccination rate anywhere in the five boroughs, with an aggregate tally of 80 percent.
Join in on the fun featuring easy-to-follow Latin dance choreography while working on your balance, coordination and range of motion. Come prepared for enthusiastic instruction, a little strength training and a lot of fun. Participants are encouraged to bring their own equipment: weights, water bottle, hand towel etc. Proof of vaccination required. Free Battery Park City Authority
Stop by for a special “Yardi-Gras” moment right in our very own backyard.
BPCA staff will celebrate Fat Tuesday by transforming the Rockefeller Park House into a New Orleans style “House Float” celebrating the biodiversity of BPC.
Art projects, music, and a festive atmosphere provided. Free.
Through striking and humorous figurative drawings, the iconic artist and musician David Byrne depicts daily life in intriguing ways. His illustrations, created while under quarantine, expand on the dingbat, a typographic ornament used to illuminate or break up blocks of text, to explore the nuances of life under lockdown and evoke the complex, global systems the pandemic cast in bright light. Edited and designed by Alex Kalman in collaboration with Byrne, this book reflects on shared experiences and presents history as a story that is continually undergoing revision. Purchase a signed copy of A History of the World (in Dingbats) to reserve your spot at the talk and Q&A (note that David will not be signing books on the night).
100-year-old South African Holocaust survivor Ella Blumenthal is a force to be reckoned with. Meet Blumenthal in I Am Here (2021, 73 minutes, English with subtitles available), an award-winning new documentary from director Jordy Sank. I Am Here tells Blumenthal’s remarkable story, starting with her youth in Poland where she witnessed the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and was imprisoned in the Majdanek, Auschwitz, and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps. Filmed as Blumenthal celebrated her 98th birthday with family and friends in South Africa, I Am Here showcases Blumenthal’s magnetic personality and uses hand-drawn animations to illustrate stories from her life. This exclusive program will feature a live discussion with Blumenthal and Sank. Attendees will also receive a private link to view the film, which will be available for streaming now through Friday, March 4. Free; suggested $10 donation.
Online film streaming. In celebration of Women’s History Month, we present An Unmarried Woman (1978, Paul Mazursky). A wealthy woman from Manhattan’s Upper East Side begins to reevaluate her life and explore her newfound freedom after her 16-year marriage comes to a painful end. Registration required. Free.
In these two newly published plays, Andy Bragen examines the intimacies and shadows that exist between parent and child. The evening will include readings of excerpts from both plays, followed by a Q&A with Andy and Playco’s Founding Producer Kate Loewald, and a book signing with Andy. The excerpts will feature performers from the original casts, including Caroline Lagerfelt, who starred in Notes on My Mother’s Decline.
How do you get around your neighborhood? Young learners will be introduced to the many different modes of transportation available in large cities today, including trains, buses, ferries, and bikes. Through a read-aloud of Christopher Niemann’s picture book Subway, kids will learn about one special form of New York City transit, the subway! Afterwards, we will talk about our favorite way to get around the city and make drawings of subway art. All ages. RSVP required. This indoor program meets at the Skyscraper Museum, 39 Battery Place. Masks are required. For those who prefer the online option for this in-person program, email programs@skyscraper.org for the Zoom link. Free.
On Saturdays and Sundays, visit the exhibitions and the ships of the South Street Seaport Museum for free. At 12 Fulton Street, see “South Street and the Rise of New York” and “Millions: Migrants and Millionaires aboard the Great Liners, 1900-1914,” and at Pier 16, explore the tall ship Wavertree and lightship Ambrose.
‘A New Day for The Oldest Part of Our City’
New Council Member Inaugurated at Ceremony on Lower East Side
Christopher Marte, the new City Council member representing Lower Manhattan, was ceremonially inaugurated on Sunday afternoon, in a festive celebration held at the Museum at Eldridge Street, on the Lower East Side.
“The only way to start and win a campaign,” Mr. Marte noted, “is doors—so many doors: knocking on doors, people opening doors, people slamming their doors in your face, literally and metaphorically. Sneaking past doors so you can knock on other doors. Any waking minute you can’t spend knocking on doors, you spend thinking about doors: What doors, how many doors, where are the doors, who is behind that door?” To read more…
Win a Staycation
The Downtown Alliance is raffling off a couple’s getaway in Lower Manhattan, which includes a two-night stay at the Beekman Hotel, dinner for two at the Michelin-starred Crown Shy restaurant, tickets to the One World Trade Center observation deck, and a $500 voucher for qualifying travel-related expenses.
To be entered in the contest automatically, download and use the Alliance’s new augmented reality Instagram filter (while tagging @downtownnyc), which allows users to superimpose three-dimensional renderings of the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge, Fearless Girl, the Oculus and One World Trade Center on any landscape they choose. For more information, please browse: downtownny.com
Safe Space for Teens
Starting Monday, March 14, Trinity Church’s Youth Afterschool program will offer everything from basketball and mindfulness to test prep and use of a teaching kitchen.
All activities, which are free and open to students in grades six through 12, will be hosted in the teens-only space on the fifth floor of Trinity Commons (the new community building behind Trinity Church), located at 76 Trinity Place.
Trinity Youth strives to practice “radical welcome” by including not only parishioners and students from Trinity’s school partnerships, but youth from across New York City, and the inclusion all people regardless of background, beliefs, or experience. (Proof of vaccination against COVID-19 is required.) For more information, or to enroll, please browse: trinitywallstreet.org/youth
Get Crafty
Seaport Kids will partner with Private Picassos to present Pipe Cleaner Craft for kids of all ages on Wednesday, March 9, from 4:00 to 5:00 pm at the Corner (25 Fulton Street).
Professional arts instructors will guide children in the use of wood blocks, colorful wire, pipe cleaners, beads and foam stickers to create their own free-standing sculptures. Admission is free. For more information, please browse: theseaport.nyc/events/
No Time for Sergeants
Police Union Boss Who Pushed Lie about Cops Being Poisoned at Downtown Shake Shack Charged
A disgraced former police union official, who spread a false narrative about officers being deliberately poisoned at a Lower Manhattan Shake Shack restaurant during the height of the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, was indicted Wednesday by federal prosecutors.
Ed Mullins, the former head of the Sergeants Benevolent Association (SBA) was charged with wire fraud, in connection with a scheme to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from the union, through the submission of fraudulent expense reports. To read more…
At Debt’s Door
Downtown Developers Go Belly Up on Two Marquee Properties
Two Lower Manhattan trophy properties have defaulted on their mortgages, according to multiple published accounts and public records.
China Oceanwide Holdings, the owners of the development lot at 80 South Street, in the South Street Seaport, failed to make a $1.3-million payment to creditors in January, which has spurred lenders to declare the entire $175-million note on the property in default, and to demand immediate payment of the full amount.
Neighborhood Association Provides Analysis of Community’s Future
A February 6 meeting of the Battery Park City Neighborhood Association (BPCNA) included a sobering analysis of the financial outlook for people who own homes in the community, as well as for those who rent.
The presentation was led by Pamit Surana, one of the leaders of the 501(c)(3) association, which formed last summer (under the social media banner of #PauseTheSaws) after successfully protesting to block a plan by then-Governor Andrew Cuomo to locate a monument to Essential Workers in Rockefeller Park.
Black History Month: Lower Manhattan Taken for a Ride on Monument It Actually Needs
While the saga of Rosa Parks and the 1956 Montgomery bus boycott has become a canonical American parable, New York played out its own version of the same drama, more than a century earlier. In July, 1854, Lower Manhattan resident Elizabeth Jennings Graham was on her way to church, and boarded a horse-drawn street car at Chatham and Pearl Streets.
Like much else in mid-19th century New York, street car service was segregated, with most coaches reserved for white riders, but some bearing signs that read, “Negro Persons Allowed in This Car.”
Leading the Sun at dawn: eye-popping Venus, our solar system’s hottest planet
Planet Venus, an orb of white fire gleaming in darkness, rises above the southeastern horizon in early dawn. Venus is the third brightest object in Earth’s sky, next to the Sun and moon. Similar in size to Earth and our closest planetary neighbor, its brilliance is not to be attributed to its proximity. As described by scientists at EarthSky.org, “Venus is bright … because it’s blanketed by highly reflective clouds. The clouds in the atmosphere of Venus contain droplets of sulfuric acid, as well as acidic crystals suspended in a mixture of gases. Light bounces easily off the smooth surfaces of these spheres and crystals. Sunlight bouncing from these clouds is a big part of the reason that Venus is so bright.”
Providing Companion and Home Health Aide Care to clients with dementia.Help with grooming, dressing and wheelchair assistance. Able to escort client to parks and engage in conversations of desired topics and interests of client. Reliable & Honest
Ethical and respectable gentleman, an IT Wizard, seeks a living/work space in BPC. Can be a Computer help to you and your business, or will guarantee $1,500 for rental. Reciprocal would be great!
Please contact: 914-588-5284
HAVE SPACE?
Folk dance group seeks empty space of 400+ sq feet for 2 hours of weekly evening dance practice.
Average attendance is 10 women. This is our hobby; can pay for use of the space.
Call 646 872-0863 or find us on Facebook. Ring O’Bells Morris.
NURSES AIDE
Kind loving and honest Nurse’s aide seeking FT/PT job. Experience with Alzheimer’s patients
Excellent references available please call Dian at 718-496-6232
HOUSEKEEPING/ NANNY/ BABYSITTER
Available for PT/FT. Wonderful person, who is a great worker.
Refs avail.
Worked in BPC.
Call Tenzin 347-803-9523
PERSONAL TRAINING,
REFLEXOLOGY,
PRIVATE STUDIO
917-848-3594
Get Rich or Get Out
Analysis By Housing Group Cites Declining Affordability in Lower Manhattan
A leading housing advocacy organization has completed an exhaustive look at threats to affordability in every community in the five boroughs, and has found that Lower Manhattan ranks among the ten most at-risk neighborhoods by one key metric, while also placing in the 20 most-endangered by another.
The Bowling Green Greenmarket brings fresh offerings from local farms to Lower Manhattan’s historic Bowling Green plaza. Twice a week year-round stop by to load up on the season’s freshest fruit, crisp vegetables, beautiful plants, and freshly baked loaves of bread, quiches, and pot pies.
Fulton Street cobblestones between South and Front Sts. across from McNally Jackson Bookstore.
Locally grown produce from Rogowski Farm, Breezy Hill Orchard, and other farmers and small-batch specialty food products, sold directly by their producers. Producers vary from week to week.
SNAP/EBT/P-EBT, Debit/Credit, and Farmers Market Nutrition Program checks accepted at all farmers markets.
TODAY IN HISTORY
March 1
1893 – Electrical engineer Nikola Tesla gives the first public demonstration of radio in St. Louis, Missouri.
1562 – Sixty-three Huguenots are massacred in Wassy, France, marking the start of the French Wars of Religion.
1565 – The city of Rio de Janeiro is founded.
1628 – Writs issued in February by Charles I of England mandate that every county in England (not just seaport towns) pay ship tax by this date.
1692 – Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne and Tituba are brought before local magistrates in Salem Village, Massachusetts, beginning what would become known as the Salem witch trials.
1790 – The first United States census is authorized.
1815 – Napoleon returns to France from his banishment on Elba, start of the Hundred Days.
1845 – President John Tyler signs a bill authorizing the United States to annex the Republic of Texas.
1872 – Yellowstone National Park is established as the world’s first national park.
1893 – Electrical engineer Nikola Tesla gives the first public demonstration of radio in St. Louis, Missouri.
1917 – The Zimmermann Telegram is reprinted in newspapers across the United States after the U.S. government releases its unencrypted text.
1932 – Charles Lindbergh’s son is reportedly kidnapped.
1936 – The Hoover Dam is completed.
1953 – Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin suffers a stroke and collapses; he dies four days later.
1954 – Nuclear weapons testing: The Castle Bravo, a 15-megaton hydrogen bomb, is detonated on Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, resulting in the worst radioactive contamination ever caused by the United States.
1966 – Venera 3 Soviet space probe crashes on Venus becoming the first spacecraft to land on another planet’s surface.
Births
1611 – John Pell, English mathematician and linguist (d. 1685)
1810 – Fredric Chopin, Polish pianist and composer (d. 1849)
1904 – Glenn Miller, American trombonist, composer, and bandleader (d. 1944)
1914 – Ralph Ellison, American novelist and literary critic (d. 1994)
1917 – Robert Lowell, American poet (d. 1977)
1927 – Harry Belafonte, American singer-songwriter and actor
2012 – Andrew Breitbart, American journalist and publisher (b. 1969)
Deaths
1643 – Girolamo Frescobaldi, Italian pianist and composer (b. 1583)
1991 – Edwin H. Land, American scientist and businessman, co-founded the Polaroid Corporation (b. 1909)
Credit: Wikipedia and other internet and non-internet sources
