THE BroadsheetDAILY – 3/18/22 – Rally Planned for Sunday to Oppose City Plan to Build World’s Tallest Jail in Lower Manhattan

The Broadsheet – Lower Manhattan’s Local Newspaper

‘A Decade of Dust’

Rally Planned for Sunday to Oppose City Plan to Build World’s Tallest Jail in Lower Manhattan

Above: NUBC co-founder Jan Lee: “This is a concrete-reinforced building with rebar steel as thick as my arm running throughout. Do you know hard it’s going to be to take down these buildings? It’s going to cost $150 million just for demolition.” Below: City Council member Christopher Marte: “Our City is at a crossroads. Which side do we choose? Incarceration and false criminal justice reform? A decade of dust for this community from the construction of the tallest jail in the world?”

Opponents of the City’s plan to build the world’s tallest jail in Chinatown plan to rally Sunday (March 20) in Columbus Park (near Worth and Baxter Streets) at 1:00 pm to voice their concerns about the risk that the project poses to the surrounding Chinatown community.

“The community has been protesting the detrimental environmental, economic, and human impact of this plan since 2019,” explains Jan Lee, a co-founder of Neighbors United Below Canal (NUBC), an advocacy group formed to oppose the jail plan. “And this is our last chance to change the Mayor’s mind,” he adds, in a reference to City’s announcement that demolition of the Manhattan Detention Complex, at 125 White Street, is imminent. (The current structure, which dates from 1983, is slated to be torn down in order to make way for a new facility at the same site, the design for which calls for a 400-foot edifice.) This plan envisions five to seven years of demolition and construction work, at a cost of $2.3 billion.

“When we choose to invest in jails, not people, it is institutionalized racism for people of color, especially low-income communities of color,” Mr. Lee argues. “There are serious, documented concerns about pollutants and environmental impacts. Particularly troubling are the impacts to our most vulnerable populations of elders, immigrants, and low-income populations.”

At a rally held on February 9, in front of the Manhattan Detention Complex, Mr. Lee pointed to the existing structure and said, “this is a concrete-reinforced building with rebar steel as thick as my arm running throughout. Do you know hard it’s going to be to take down these buildings? It’s going to cost $150 million just for demolition. If they build this mega-jail, will we be any safer?” The crowd at the February rally erupted in a chorus of “no!”

Above: Community Board 1 chair Tammy Meltzer: “I’m still waiting, three years later, for basic information. Silencing the community, when we have questions about the use of billions in public funds is not a valid process.” Below: Chinatown community leader Justin Yu: “What are we going to tell the next generation if we fail this time? That we left our problems to you?”

Justin Yu, a community leader who has been regarded for decades as the unofficial “mayor” of Chinatown, said, “I remember 35 years ago,” when construction began on the current Manhattan Detention Complex, “my daughters, five and six years old, demonstrated with me against this jail. Unfortunately, we didn’t stop them. What are we going to tell the next generation if we fail this time? That we left our problems to you?” (This was a reference to the fact that the existing Manhattan Detention Complex was built for the same reasons that the new jail is now planned: the assumption that a more modern building would necessarily translate into a more humane form of incarceration.)

City Council member Christopher Marte said, “our City is at a crossroads. Our community is at a fork. Which side do we choose? Incarceration and false criminal justice reform? A decade of dust for this community from the construction of the tallest jail in the world?”

“We believe in change, in a new direction, in investing in communities and housing and healthcare to end mass incarceration,” he continued. “And we’re here to ask Mayor Adams to stand with us.”

Chinatown businessman and resident Edward Cuccia: “Do you know how many times in three years the City of New York has sent someone to talk to me? Once, and it was somebody who had been in the job for two weeks.” Below: Democracy for Battery Park City co-founder Justine Cuccia: “Even if everybody here supported this jail, which none of us do, the City has still violated the law every step of the way, with no community outreach, no disclosure, and no transparent planning.”

Edward Cuccia, an immigration lawyer who lives and practices in Chinatown, said, “my office shares a common wall with the monstrosity they want to build here. They talk about community outreach — you know how many times in three years the City of New York has sent someone to talk to me? Once, and it was somebody who had been in the job for two weeks. There has been no community outreach. This is ridiculous!”

Community Board 1 chair Tammy Meltzer said, “the previous administration held public meetings, in which every question was answered with, ‘we’ll get back to you.’ I’m still waiting, three years later, for basic information. Their neighborhood advisory committee had meetings with no agenda and no way for the public to speak. Silencing the community, when we have questions about the use of billions in public funds is not a valid process. Spend those billions on people, instead of bricks.”

Justine Cuccia, a founder of Democracy for Battery Park City, told the crowd, “I share your outrage at broken process behind this jail and the planning for it. Even if everybody here supported this jail, which none of us do, the City has still violated the law every step of the way, with no community outreach, no disclosure, and no transparent planning. It is outrageous that this has gone on for three-plus years.”

Matthew Fenton

Where Kids Are the Focus

Trinity Church Debuts Free Afterschool Program with Sports, Academic Help, and More

A new, free afterschool program has been launched by Trinity Youth, the outreach arm of Trinity Church that focuses on middle- and high-school students. The 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.

“The Trinity Youth Afterschool reflects Trinity Church’s dedication to the young people in our community,” explains Rev. Matt Welsch, priest and director for Youth & Community Care at Trinity. “We’re hoping to help facilitate the kind of flourishing that’s only possible in diverse communities rooted in love.”

Preservation as Privatization

Historic, Publicly Owned Battery Maritime Building Has Reopened, But Only for Paying Customers

Community Board 1 (CB1) is raising questions about the use of what was supposed to be public space at the Battery Maritime Building, located at Ten South Street.

The publicly owned structure, located next to the Staten Island Ferry, is a landmarked Beaux Art ferry terminal built in 1909. It served for three decades as the gateway for boats taking passengers across the East River, but after commuters and vehicles gained direct access to Manhattan with the advent of bridges, tunnels, and subways, ferry usage declined and the building fell into disrepair.

Αποχαιρετισμός

BPCA Chair Will Depart to Serve as Next American Ambassador to Greece

Battery Park City Authority (BPCA) chairman George Tsunis has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the next American Ambassador to Greece, after being nominated to that post by President Joe Biden in October.

This development follows a hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in January, in which Mr. Tsunis won praise from Senators on both sides of the aisle for his performance. To read more…

CLASSIFIEDS & PERSONALS

Swaps & Trades, Respectable Employment, Lost and Found

To place a listing, contact editor@ebroadsheet.com

News Analysis & Opinion: Stop Driving Us Out of Our Homes

Why Parity Is a Parody of Affordability

If you live in Battery Park City, you likely received a letter in the mail recently from the Battery Park City Authority (BPCA), spreading a false narrative about how the Authority is “keeping Battery Park City affordable.” The truth is that the BPCA appears to be doing everything in its power to create and preserve luxury housing, along with a token number of low-income rental apartments. This is forcing out moderate- and middle-income homeowners and renters—who have built Battery Park City into the vibrant, thriving community it is today. And it is worth noting that 40 percent of owner-occupied homes in Battery Park City fall into the moderate- and middle-income categories. To read more…

Esplanade or Espla-Nada?

City Says Planned Improvements to East River Waterfront Are On Hold

The February 22 meeting of Community Board 1 (CB1) included an update about long-planned improvements to the East River Esplanade, some of which are being cancelled.

Paul Goldstein, the chair of CB1’s Waterfront, Parks & Cultural Committee, said, “we got a report from Economic Development Corporation [EDC] regarding some of their waterfront assets and projects that are ongoing—or not.” (The EDC is a not-profit corporation controlled by City government, which oversees development of assets, such as publicly owned property.)

“Unfortunately, a lot this project is not moving ahead for a variety of reasons,” Mr. Goldstein explained, “the biggest one being that the City is focusing much more on resiliency, and they don’t want to go ahead with improvements that may interfere with that.” To read more…

Lower Manhattan Greenmarkets

Tribeca Greenmarket

Greenwich Street & Chambers Street

Every Wednesday & Saturday, 8am-3pm

Food Scrap Collection: Saturdays, 8am-1pm

Open Saturdays and Wednesdays year round

Bowling Green Greenmarket

Green Greenmarket at Bowling Green

Broadway & Whitehall St

Open Tuesday and Thursdays, year-round

Market Hours: 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Compost Program: 8 a.m. – 11 a.m.

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.

The Outdoor Fulton Stall Market

91 South St., bet. Fulton & John Sts.

212-349-1380 info@fultonstallmarket.org

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 18

Charles Darwin

37 – The Roman Senate annuls Tiberius’ will and proclaims Caligula emperor.

1314 – Jacques de Molay, the 23rd and the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, is burned at the stake

1541 – Hernando de Soto observes first recorded flood in America (Mississippi River)

1673 – Lord Berkley sells his half of New Jersey to the Quakers

1835 – Charles Darwin departs Santiago Chile on his way to Portillo Pass

1881 – Barnum & Bailey’s Greatest Show on Earth opens in Madison Square Garden

1891 – Britain is linked to the continent by Telephone

1899 – Phoebe, a moon of Saturn is discovered by Pickering

1922 – British magistrates in India sentence Mahatma Gandhi to 6 years imprisonment for disobedience

1922 – The first public celebration of Bat mitzvah, for the daughter of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, is held in New York City

1937 – The human-powered aircraft, Pedaliante, flies 1 kilometre (0.62 miles) outside Milan.

1961 – Poppin’ Fresh Pillsbury Dough Boy introduced

1965 – Cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov, leaving his spacecraft Voskhod 2 for 12 minutes, becomes the first person to walk in space.

1989 – In Egypt, a 4,400-year-old mummy was found near the Pyramid of Giza, in Egypt.


1990 – Largest ever art robbery at Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston. 13 works valued over $500 million are stolen

Births

1927 – George Plimpton, sports writer (Paper Lion), born in NYC, New York

1932 – John Updike, Shillington Pa, poet/novelist (Rabbit Run)

Anniversaries

1869 – US Abolitionist Harriet Tubman marries civil war veteran Nelson Davis in Auburn NY

Deaths

235 – Marcus Aurelius Alexander, Syrian emperor of Rome (222-235), murdered

1584 – Ivan IV [Ivan the Terrible], Russian tsar (1547-84), dies at 53

1845 – John Chapman, [Johnny Appleseed], American pioneer agronomist dies in Allen County Indiana

1997 – Willem de Kooning (abstract artist), dead Alzheimer’s at 92

2006 – Bill Beutel, American journalist (b. 1930)

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