Highly Regarded Maritime School on Governors Island to Expand
Building 515, the historic structure (and former hospital) into which the Harbor School will expand.
A years-long campaign by Lower Manhattan community leaders, elected officials, and parents came to fruition on Monday when an agreement to expand the Urban Assembly New York Harbor School on Governors Island was released.
The Trust for Governors Island and the School Construction Authority (SCA) announced that several long-standing priorities will be addressed in one package of funding: the Harbor School will grow into a building adjacent to its current home, where it will have room for an additional 18 classrooms, a pool and a gymnasium.
“The New York Harbor School exemplifies the unique promise of Governors Island,” reflected Clare Newman, president and CEO of the Trust for Governors Island, “a place of historic significance at the center of New York Harbor, with unprecedented opportunity for learning and engagement with our waterfront. The new facility will expand access to this unique curriculum to even more New York City high schoolers.”
For years, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and City Council member Margaret Chin have pushed for funding that would make the expansion possible. (In 2019, Ms. Chin committed $1.2 million of her discretionary capital funding to begin planning the project.) “This expansion is exciting news for the future of the Harbor School,” said Ms. Brewer. “The construction of a new pool will be appropriate for certification for marine diving and lifeguard training.”
“When I first visited the Harbor School for its groundbreaking in 2012,” added Ms. Chin, “I could see that this educational institution is truly special. This development will allow the Harbor School to welcome hundreds of new students, who are currently on a wait-list. Maritime students will now be able to scuba dive in their own facilities.”
State Senator Brian Kavanagh noted that, “for nearly 20 years the Harbor School has offered unique educational opportunities to a diverse student body. Learning marine biology, sailing and other watercraft skills, and participating in the Billion Oyster Project all prepare students for careers engaging with and being good stewards of our natural environment.”
The Harbor School’s current home on Governors Island.
Nan Richardson, president of the Harbor School Parent-Teacher Association described the plan as “the realization of this dream,” and said the families she represents, “are thrilled and grateful that after parent advocacy for a decade, the Harbor School will finally get the space and facilities needed to fulfill this unique school’s mission. As our City faces many challenges with climate change, our students—trained in marine and maritime science—hope to help meet that future with imagination and now will have the skills and tools to do so.”
Tammy Meltzer, chair of Community Board 1 (CB1), added that, “we were thrilled and deeply grateful to hear that the long-promised pool, including a gym and additional classrooms, for the Harbor School has at last become a reality on Governors Island.”
Tricia Joyce, chair of CB1’s Youth and Education Committee, said, “we understand the challenges sustained in prioritizing this important infrastructure. We look forward not only to opening day, but to all of the rich opportunities this pool will create for the students of this cherished and unique program at the Harbor School.”
The Harbor School’s Marine and Science Technology (MAST) Center, which supports water-dependent activities.
The structure into which the Harbor School will expand, known as building 515, is a 61,000 square-foot former hospital, built in 1935 from a 1902 design by the highly regarded architecture firm of McKim, Mead, and White. (The Harbor School currently occupies nearly 80,000 square feet across two structures: Building 550 and the Marine and Science Technology—or MAST—Center, which supports the school’s water-dependent activities.) Subsequently converted into Enlisted Bachelor’s Housing during the Island’s centuries-long use as a military post, Building 515 was gutted in 1980, but its historic exterior was preserved.
The Harbor School became the first year-round tenant on Governors Island, after its was transferred from federal to local control in 2003. The School’s mission is to provide a college-preparatory education, built upon New York City’s maritime experience, with a focus on environmental stewardship.
In 1944, Hungarian physician’s assistant Olga Lengyel was deported to Auschwitz along with her parents, husband, and two sons. She was put to work in the Auschwitz infirmary, where she also secretly toiled for a French underground cell, helping to demolish a crematory oven. At the end of the war, she was the only member of her family to survive. Lengyel made her way to New York and, in 1946, published Five Chimneys: A Woman Survivor’s True Story of Auschwitz, which became one of the earliest testimonies to depict the barbarism of the Nazis. Thirty years later, her vivid exposé of the death camps inspired William Styron’s award-winning novel Sophie’s Choice. 20 years after Lengyel’s death in April 2001, join the Museum and The Olga Lengyel Institute for a program exploring her remarkable life and legacy. $10
6PM
Community Board 1 Transportation & Street Activity Permits Committee
Wright and New York turns upside down the conventional notion that Frank Lloyd Wright hated the city, and the city was antagonistic to him. In this illustrated lecture based on his new book, Anthony Alofsin outlines the developments in Wright’s life and work that demonstrate how New York turned around his career in the late 1920s and early 1930s to position him for the glory—and branding—of his final decades. The talk focuses on Wright’s visionary design for an immense Modern Cathedral to serve all religions and for the skyscraper, he designed for the church of St. Marks-in-the-Bouwerie in New York’s East Village. Free
Celebrate National Beer Day with a pint and another installment of Tavern Tastings. Join Keeler Tavern Museum Chief Curator Catherine Prescott and Fraunces Tavern Museum Education & Public Programs Coordinator Mary Tsaltas-Ottomanelli as they discuss the history of beer throughout 18th century taverns. $5
Until recently, a handful of fleet-footed Chinese companies and Tesla have dominated the Electric Vehicle market, as US “legacy” carmakers dragged their feet. But with a new administration in Washington and GM & Ford both recently announcing a full-fledged switch to EVs, the race is on. And the auto industry—from supply chains to labor force to data management—is being turned on its head. Can the U.S. catch up? Who are the Big Four Chinese companies already in the lead in China? Who will win the race? Where are the greatest opportunities? Ahead of the SH Auto Show, join China EV expert Tu Le, global auto industry expert John Paul MacDuffie, and BYD USA executive Frank Girardot, as they map out the road ahead. Free
The Plots Thicken
Liberty Community Gardens Wait Listers Will Finally Get Their Hands Dirty
Mounded with dark soil, teeming with earthworms, 26 new community garden plots are ready for action at the corner of Albany and West Streets. Thanks to the deconstruction of the Rector Street Bridge and ramp in 2019, and the support of the Battery Park City Authority, the New York State Department of the Transportation and the New York City Department of Transportation, Liberty Community Gardens (LCG), a cherished part of the neighborhood, has expanded by about a third.
Liberty Community Gardens were founded in 1987 by local residents with the guidance of Battery Park City Parks. Initially, there were 24 plots on the north and south sides of Rector lawn.
State’s Highest Court Blocks Suit by Brewer, Chin Opposing Two Bridges Plan
On Tuesday, the New York State Court of Appeals effectively ended a lawsuit begun in 2018, in which Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and City Council member Margaret Chin sought to compel the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio to subject several massive residential developments planned for the Lower East Side to the highest-possible degree of legal scrutiny. New York’s highest judicial review panel upheld an August ruling by the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court, which itself had overturned a 2019 lower-court decision favoring Ms. Brewer and Ms. Chin. To read more…
Getting Squeezed Coming and Going
Washington Okays Congestion Pricing Program that Local Leaders Fear will Penalize Lower Manhattan Residents
The prospect of Lower Manhattan residents being penalized for the privilege of driving to or from their homes moved a step closer to reality on Tuesday, when the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) sent word to City and State officials that they would allow the congestion pricing plan, devised by Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo, to move forward under the less rigorous of two possible environmental oversight standards.
The FHWA, an arm of the federal Department of Transportation, decided to allow New York to move ahead under the looser benchmark of an environmental assessment, rather than a full environmental impact statement. “An Environmental Assessment generally requires less time to complete than an Environmental Impact Statement, should no significant impacts be identified,” the agency said in a statement. To read more…
Compulsory Commemoration
Governor Opens Hurricane Maria Memorial
On Friday, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced the opening of the Hurricane Maria Memorial in Battery Park City, located at the corner of Chambers Street and River Terrace. Mr. Cuomo made this announcement at an unrelated event in the Bronx, which was closed to the press, as has become the embattled Governor’s custom in recent weeks, while he faces multiple accusations of sexual misconduct, along with allegations that his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic led to thousands of deaths in New York that might otherwise have been prevented. To read more…
Pearl of Wisdom
Brewer Pushes for FiDi Thoroughfare to Be Made Pedestrian-Friendly in Perpetuity
Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer is pushing the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio to expand and make permanent a trial implementation of the Open Street program in Lower Manhattan. Since last summer, the City’s Department of Transportation (DOT) has each day restricted vehicular access to Pearl Street, between Broad Street and Hanover Square, from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm and again from 5:00 pm to 11:00 pm To read more…
Alliance For Downtown New York Hosts 2021 Shred-A-Thon
And Clothing Drop-Off
After a year like the one we all just endured and the promise of a brighter day emerging, the idea of “spring cleaning” takes on new energy and meaning.
Now is the time to round up all the old clothes and unwanted documents that have been piling up and bring them over to Fulton Street (between Cliff and Gold Streets) for the Downtown Alliance’s annual dual shred-a-thon and clothing drop-off Saturday, April 17 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
A shredding truck parked on Fulton Street will securely dispose of and recycle all your sensitive documents, tax receipts, junk mail and old bills.
The Alliance is also partnering with NYC clothing recycler Wearable Collections, which is providing a bin to collect all dry, used clean clothing including shoes, sneakers, belts and hats, as well as household items such as linens, towels and handbags.
Rain or shine, the Alliance will be there to dispose of your much-loved old outfits and no-longer-needed memories, minus a few items (e.g., carpeting, rugs, bath mats, comforters, pillows, large luggage). This spring will be even sweeter when you’ve got some extra space.
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Banks Heist
Local Leaders Get Irredentist to Reclaim Park Space Dispossessed for a Decade
Community Board 1 (CB1) wants the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio to give back park space beneath the Brooklyn Bridge that was “temporarily” closed more than a decade ago. The area, informally known as “Brooklyn Banks,” is an iconic destination for skateboarders, because the streetscape provides an undulating terrain of ramps, rails, ledges, and jumps. Long before any of these stunts were legal in New York, boarders from around the United States would come to the City to compete there, and connect with one another. To read more…
CLASSIFIEDS & PERSONALS
Swaps & Trades, Respectable Employment, Lost and Found
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 FT/PT Flexible Hours
Matt Keating is a singer/songwriter who lives in Lower Manhattan with his wife Emily. In a recent post on Facebook, he described his friendship with a man who took shelter outside his building, and how he helped this man receive his federal stimulus check.
This is my neighbor Jamal. We became friends about a month ago when I met him taking shelter outside of my building under the construction scaffolding that’s been put up for a while now. He is currently without a home and asks politely for any help from me whenever I walk by so I started giving him something every once in a while whenever I had it. He was very grateful and we struck up a conversation about politics and the current situation of inequality in this country.
About two weeks ago, as Emily and I were leaving to do our weekly visit to the Union Square Farmers Market, he came up to us and showed us that his shoes were falling apart. His soles were flapping and it was wet out. To read more…
9/11 Victim Compensation Fund Report
More Survivors than Responders Now are Submitting Claims
The September 11th Victim Compensation Fund (VCF) has released its annual report for 2020, which documents some significant developments.
Over the course of its ten years of operation thus far, the VCF has awarded $7.76 billion to more than 34,400 individuals who have suffered death or personal injury as a result of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and their aftermath. The vast majority of these injuries take the form of illness caused by exposure to toxic materials that were released by the destruction of the World Trade Center.
46 BC – Julius Caesar defeats Caecilius Metellus Scipio and Marcus Porcius Cato (Cato the Younger) in the battle of Thapsus.
1199 – King Richard I of England dies from an infection following the removal of an arrow from his shoulder.
1580 – One of the largest earthquakes recorded in the history of England, Flanders, or Northern France, takes place.
1712 – The New York Slave Revolt of 1712 begins near Broadway.
1808 – John Jacob Astor incorporates the American Fur Company, that would eventually make him America’s first millionaire.
1841 – U.S. President John Tyler is sworn in, two days after having become President upon William Henry Harrison’s death.
1895 – Oscar Wilde is arrested in the Cadogan Hotel, London, after losing a libel case against the Marquess of Queensberry.
1896 – In Athens, the opening of the first modern Olympic Games is celebrated, 1,500 years after the original games are banned by Roman emperor Theodosius I.
1909 – Robert Peary and Matthew Henson reach the North Pole.
1930 – At the end of the Salt March, Gandhi raises a lump of mud and salt and declares, “With this, I am shaking the foundations of the British Empire.”
1965 – Launch of Early Bird, the first commercial communications satellite to be placed in geosynchronous orbit.
1998 – Nuclear weapons testing: Pakistan tests medium-range missiles capable of reaching India.
Births
1483 – Raphael, Italian painter and architect (d. 1520)
1773 – James Mill, Scottish historian, economist, and philosopher (d. 1836)
1820 – Nadar, French photographer, journalist, and author (d. 1910)
1888 – Hans Richter, Swiss painter, illustrator, and director (d. 1976)
1903 – Harold Eugene Edgerton, American engineer and academic (d. 1990)
1928 – James Watson, American biologist, geneticist, and zoologist, Nobel Prize laureate
Deaths
1147 – Frederick II, duke of Swabia (b. 1090)
1520 – Raphael, Italian painter and architect (b. 1483)
1971 – Igor Stravinsky, Russian-American pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1882)
1992 – Isaac Asimov, American science fiction writer (b. 1920)
2015 – Ray Charles, American singer-songwriter and conductor (b. 1918)
2017 – Don Rickles, American actor and comedian (b. 1926)
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