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You are here: Home / Uncategorized / The BroadsheetDAILY ~ News of Lower Manhattan ~ 11/7/19

The BroadsheetDAILY ~ News of Lower Manhattan ~ 11/7/19

November 7, 2019 By Robert Simko Leave a Comment

Lower Manhattan’s Local News
The Broadsheet Inc. | 212-912-1106 | editor@ebroadsheet.com | ebroadsheet.com
“A Fraudulent Scheme”
FiDi Renters Seek Recompense for Years of Rent Overcharges

A map, compiled by New York University’s Furman Center (which advances research and debate on housing, neighborhoods, and urban policy) illustrating the dozens of Lower Manhattan buildings — erstwhile office towers, converted to residential use — that have benefited from the 421-g program.
In the wake of a June ruling by New York State’s highest court that tenants in Financial District rental buildings had been illegally deprived of rent stabilization benefits, a pair of apartment dwellers is litigating to recoup the money they lost by paying inflated, market-rate rents for years.

At issue is the 421-g subsidy program, which was designed to encourage Downtown’s transformation into a residential district, by offering rich incentives (chiefly in the form of tax abatements) to developers who converted former office buildings — south of a line created by connecting Murray Street to City Hall and the Brooklyn Bridge — into apartment towers. But it also offered a potent lure for tenants who moved into such buildings: Their apartments would be subject to rent stabilization regulations for as long as building owners received the tax benefits.

10 Hanover Square

In October, Bruce Hackney and Timothy Smith, tenants at Ten Hanover Square, filed suit against their landlord, alleging that the owner’s, “failure to follow rent regulations was part of a fraudulent scheme to deregulate apartments in the building.” They are represented by attorneys Lucas A. Ferrara and Roger A. Sachar, of the firm Newman Ferrara. Mr. Ferrara says, “the shameless rapacity you see demonstrated here will only end when owners come to the realization that their illicit practices will come with a steep price. For too long, New York City’s tenants were hoodwinked by major landlords blinded by greed.”

Mr. Hackney and Mr. Smith are not alone. Their building, at Ten Hanover Square, has nearly 500 apartments, and all of them were covered by the same requirements in the 421-g program that applied to Mr. Hackney and Timothy Smith’s unit. But, according to court documents, “none of the units in the building were listed as rent stabilized,” or registered with City and State agencies as legally protected affordable units, which is required by law. The complaint goes on to argue that the landlord’s, “conduct demonstrates an attempt by the Defendant to circumvent the requirements of New York City’s rent regulations, all at the expense of the tenants residing in the building.”

50 Murray

This suit stems, in part, from a pair of related actions, brought by residents of two other FiDI buildings — 50 Murray Street and 90 West Street  — which were converted from office use to apartments in 1999 and in 2005, respectively.

The language of the 421-g statute that covered all three of these buildings (and 25 other structures, comprising a total of nearly 5,000 apartments) was unequivocal, stating that “the rents of each dwelling unit in an eligible multiple dwelling shall be fully subject to control under such local law.” Ambiguity arose, however, when this was considered in the light of another part of New York’s housing law, known as “luxury decontrol,” which allows for rent stabilization to be annulled on any apartment once the legal rent reaches a threshold of $2,700 per month.

The problem arose when developers unilaterally set the rent on the vast majority of the apartments they had created in these newly converted buildings at higher than $2,700 per month. This had the effect of erasing the rent stabilization benefit that the legislature had intended for tenants (usually before the first renter moved in), while preserving the tax benefit for landlords. In the years since, landlords and developers have, in the aggregate, reaped a windfall of tens of millions of dollars from this program. But tenants received very little benefit or protection from the rent stabilization that had been intended for them.

When residents of 50 Murray and 90 West realized that they were being charged market rents, with no limits on increases, and no right to automatic lease renewal (along with other privileges that come with stabilization), while their landlords reaped a bonanza in tax benefits at public expense, they sued for reimbursement.

90 West Street
Lawyers for the tenants argued that legislators would not have written the language about rent stabilization into the 421-g statute if they had intended for such protections to be made moot by rents that began above the threshold of luxury decontrol. Attorneys for the developers and landlords made the case that, if Albany’s lawmakers had intended the 421-g catchment to be an exception from the rules about luxury decontrol that apply elsewhere, they would have made this explicit in the statute, but had not. (They noted, also, that in other, similar situations — such as the 421-a and J-51 tax abatement programs — legislators had specifically exempted such apartments from luxury decontrol, but no such carve-out was created for 421-g.)
That suit wound its way through State courts for a decade, before being finally settled in June, when the New York Court of Appeals found (by a margin of six to one) that, “apartments located in buildings receiving tax benefits pursuant to 421-g are not subject to the luxury deregulation provisions of the Rent Stabilization Law.” The Court’s decision hinged both on a plain reading of the language in the 421-g statute, and a distinction between rent stabilization versus all the other provisions contained in the rent stabilization law. In effect, the judges found that the 421-g statue made the apartments created under this program subject only to rent stabilization itself, but not subject to other codicils within the law that governs it, such as vacancy decontrol.

The clarity provided by this ruling opened the door to Mr. Hackney and Mr. Smith’s lawsuit, but they are likely to be only the beginning of a wave of litigation, as thousands of current and former rental tenants throughout the Financial District realize that they should have been paying significantly less rent than they were charged for years at a time.

Mr. Ferrara, who is also an adjunct professor at New York Law School, says, “government may be asleep at the wheel, but justice is most certainly not. This lawsuit sends a clear signal that the days of cheating and profiteering at the expense of rent-regulated tenants are over.”
Matthew Fenton
Click to watch a home run.
Eighteen Years Later, What about the Children?
Schools Agency Begins Belated Outreach Effort to Former Lower Manhattan Students at Risk of 9/11 Illness

The City’s Department of Education is partnering with the United Federation of Teachers union for an unusual mission: tracking down former New York City public school students who were pupils at Lower Manhattan schools on September 11, 2001 (or in the months that followed) and informing them that their health may be at risk. The project will also seek to put these students in touch with the World Trade Center Health Program and the September 11th Victims Compensation Fund.
To read more…
In September, the DOE began mailing out the first of more than 19,000 letters to the last known addresses of students who attended schools such as P.S. 89, I.S. 289, P.S. 234, P.S. 150, and Stuyvesant High School, along with dozens of other elementary, middle, and high schools below Houston Street.
Matthew Fenton
Steven Amedee Gallery
Jefferson Hayman : New Amsterdam

Still Life with Oranges, 6 3/8″ x 13 5/8″

Exploring themes of nostalgia, common symbols, and memory, Jefferson Hayman invites the viewer to partake in the narrative process that is both intimate and deeply personal.

Each photograph is handcrafted as a silver gelatin, platinum or pigment print, capturing a delicacy in tonality reminiscent of early Pictorial photography as well as the subsequent modernism movement’s refined interplay of light and shadow.

Entitled New Amsterdam, this exhibition will focus in part on Dutch inspired still lives as well as images of the once Dutch colony New York City.

OPENING RECEPTION
Thursday, November 14th, 2019  6pm – 9pm
Steven Amedee Gallery 41 N Moore Street in Tribeca
steven@stevenamedee.com
Rents Within Reach for 50 Years
Lower East Side’s Depression-Era Equivalent to Gateway Plaza Preserves Affordability Through 2069
Knickerbocker Village, in Two Bridges
City Council member Margaret Chin has brokered an agreement that will preserve affordability for rental tenants at Knickerbocker Village, a giant apartment complex in the Two Bridges neighborhood, which was built by a public-private partnership in the 1930s.

The complex bears striking similarities to Battery Park City’s largest residential development, Gateway Plaza. Both boast multiple buildings (12 on the Lower East Side and six in Battery Park City), surrounding a central garden. Each has a similar number of apartments: 1,590 for Knickerbocker Village and 1705 in Gateway Plaza. And the two projects were conceived as bulwarks of affordability.

To read more…
Matthew Fenton
CLASSIFIEDS & PERSONALS
Swaps & Trades  ~  Respectable Employment ~ Lost & Found
212-912-1106   editor@ebroadsheet.com

CERTIFIED HOME HEALTH AIDE SEEKING
Full-Time Live-In Elder Care
I am loving, caring and hardworking with 12 years experience. References available.  Marcia 347-737-5037  marmar196960@gmail.com
ELDER CARE NURSE AIDE
with 17 years experience seeks PT/FT work. Refs available Call or text 718 496 6232  Dian
DO YOU NEED A PERSONAL ASSISTANT?

I am experienced, reliable, knowledgeable and able to work flexible hours.
bestassistantnyc@gmail.com 917-410-1750

CHINESE AIDE/CAREGIVER FOR ELDERLY
Cantonese/Mandarin-speaking and Excellent Cook for Battery Park City.

917-608-6022

SEEKING FREE-LANCE PUBLIC RELATIONS PROFESSIONAL OR SMALL PR FIRM
Work with well-reviewed author of five E-books, developing and implementing outreach strategies. Includes writing, placement, research, new outlets and on-line advertising. Savvy social media skills a must. Downtown location.

Please send resume and fee schedule to: Email: poetpatsy@gmail.com

HOUSEKEEPING/NANNY/BABYSITTER
Available starting September for PT/FT.

Wonderful person, who is a great worker. Reference Available
Working in BPC. Call Tenzin  347-803-9523

ELDERCARE
Available for PT/FT elder care.  Experienced. References Angella
 347-423-5169 angella.haye1@gmail.com
DITCH THE DIETS & LOSE WEIGHT FOR GOOD
Call Janine to find out how with hypnosis.

janinemoh@gmail.com  917-830-6127

EXPERIENCED ELDER CARE
Able to prepare nutritious meals and light housekeeping

Excellent references 12yrs experienced   347-898-5804

Call Hope   anasirp@gmail.com

NOTARY PUBLIC IN BPC
$2 per notarized signature  Text Paula at 917-836-8802
IT AND SECURITY SUPPORT
Experienced IT technician.  Expertise in 1-on-1 tutoring for all ages.Computer upgrading & troubleshooting.  Knowledgeable in all software programs.

James Kierstead james.f.kierstead@gmail.com 347-933-1362. Refs available

OLD WATCHES SOUGHT, PREFER NON-WORKING
Mechanical pocket and wristwatches sought and sometimes repaired

212-912-1106

If you would like to place a listing, please contact editor@ebroadsheet.com

Today’s Calendar
November 7, 2019
1PM
Pipes at One
St. Paul’s Chapel
The weekly Pipes at One series showcases leading organists and rising stars from around the country in this year-round series at St. Paul’s Chapel, featuring its celebrated three-manual Noack organ. Free
6PM
The Means of Protection: 14 Poems, Many Voices

Poets House
Security-it’s something we all seek. But we also know that finding true safety requires taking risks along the way. How does it feel to live this paradox? These poems offer some clues, as does the format of my readings. I invite audience members to perform my work, standing up and reading unknown words out loud to strangers. Will taking the risk bring its own reward? So far, at readings in other cities, audiences have created sturdy sanctuaries using those most powerful of tools: rhythmic words bravely spoken.

FREE 10 River Terrace.

6PM
Transportation & Street Activity Permits Committee

Community Board 1 – Conference Room 1 Centre Street, Room 2202A-North
AGENDA
1) Stop Sign Request – Beekman & Water St – Resolution
2) Rector Street Bridge – Report by
a. Douglas Adams, Mayor’s Office of Capital Project Development
b. Len Greco, Economic Development Corporation
c. Matt Krenek, Skanska
d. Shilpan Patel, New York State Department of Transportation
e. Nick Sbordone, Battery Park City Authority
f. Dan Cinello, LMDC (Invited)
3) City Hall to Battery Park Bicycle Connection; Broadway, White Hall Street – Resolution
4) 5 Points Co-Naming Application – Resolution

7PM
Snapshots from a Lost World

Museum of Jewish Heritage
In 1986, during a tour of Auschwitz, Ann Weiss discovered a storage facility and came across an archive of 2,400 personal photographs, which had been confiscated from Jewish deportees. In this lecture and presentation, Dr. Weiss, author of The Last Album: Eyes from the Ashes of Auschwitz-Birkenau, will share 200 of these unforgettable images. FREE 36 Battery Place.

7:30PM
2019 New York Comedy Festival No Such Thing As A Fish Live

Tribeca Performing Arts Center
A podcast from the QI offices in which the writers of the hit BBC show huddle around a microphone and discuss the best things they’ve found out this week. $33 199 Chambers Street.

Click to watch
Today in History
November 7
1910: Pilot Philip Parmalee, ready for take off in a Wright Model B.
1492 – The Ensisheim meteorite, the oldest meteorite with a known date of impact, strikes the Earth around noon in a wheat field outside the village of Ensisheim, Alsace, France.
1665 – The London Gazette, the oldest surviving journal, is first published.
1811 – Tecumseh’s War: The Battle of Tippecanoe is fought near present-day Battle Ground, Indiana, United States.
1837 – In Alton, Illinois, abolitionist printer Elijah P. Lovejoy is shot deadby a mob while attempting to protect his printing shop from being destroyed a third time.
1874 – A cartoon by Thomas Nast in Harper’s Weekly, is considered the first important use of an elephant as a symbol for the United States Republican Party.
1908 – Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid are reportedly killed in San Vicente, Bolivia.
1910 – The first air freight shipment from Dayton, Ohio, to Columbus, Ohio.
One day in 1910, Orville and Wilbur Wright received an unsolicited letter from Max Morehouse, a Columbus, Ohio department store owner inquiring “How much will you charge to bring a roll of silk ribbon from your city to our establishment?”
This led to a contract between Morehouse and the Wright brothers to fly 200 pounds of silk worth $800 from Dayton to Columbus. For this, their first commercial transportation job, they wanted to get it right. They used the latest version of their Model B plane that included a significant design change of moving the vertical stabilizer from the front of the plane to just behind the tail. Powered by a 40 horsepower engine (think late 1950’s VW Beetle for power output comparison) and like the Beetle, the Model B had wheels instead of a sled design landing gear. Its wingspan was 39 feet.
They chose their best student,  24 year old Philip Parmalee arming him with a map and instructions to follow the railroad track to Columbus.
His destination was a racetrack 65 miles away marked with white flags for better visibility. He touched down 66 minutes after lift off, setting a new world speed record.
Morehouse, the department store owner, not only received worldwide publicity, but also made a profit on his $5,000 investment. In addition to selling tickets to the thousands of racetrack attendees, he sold swatches of the silk on a post card for five cents a card as well at lengths of silk for $1.35 a yard.
Philip Parmalee went on to fly the U.S. Mail and eventually piloted Wright Model Bs conducting  Army experiments dropping live bombs from aircraft. A year later, his plane crashed and he perished in Yakima, Washington
1914 – The first issue of The New Republic is published.
1929 – In New York City, the Museum of Modern Art opens to the public.
1933 – Fiorello H. La Guardia is elected the 99th mayor of New York City.
1940 – In Tacoma, Washington, the original Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapses in a windstorm, a mere four months after the bridge’s completion.
1941 – World War II: Soviet hospital ship Armenia is sunk by German planes while evacuating refugees and wounded military and staff of several Crimean hospitals. It is estimated that over 5,000 people died in the sinking.
1944 – Franklin D. Roosevelt elected for a record fourth term as President of the United States of America.
1967 – Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967,establishing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
1973 – The US Congress overrides President Richard M. Nixon’s veto of the War Powers Resolution, which limits presidential power to wage war without congressional approval.
1989 – David Dinkins becomes the first African American to be elected Mayor of New York City.
1996 – NASA launches the Mars Global Surveyor.
Births
1728 – James Cook, English captain, navigator, and cartographer (d. 1779)
1832 – Andrew Dickson White, American historian, academic, and diplomat, co-founded Cornell University (d. 1918)
1879 – Leon Trotsky, Russian theorist and politician, founded the Red Army (d. 1940)
1903 – Konrad Lorenz, Austrian zoologist, ethologist, and ornithologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1989)
1926 – Joan Sutherland, Australian-Swiss soprano (d. 2010)
Deaths
1962 – Eleanor Roosevelt, American humanitarian and politician, 39th First Lady of the United States (b. 1884)
2011 – Joe Frazier, American boxer (b. 1944)
National Lighthouse Museum
Model Ship Show

Ship Model Show
This coming Saturday, November 9, the Ship Model Society of New Jersey will be hosting a show at the National Lighthouse Museum on Staten Island featuring models of different kinds of ships.
Models will be on display and their builders will demonstrate the steps taken to build the Lilliputian vessels. The Society’s members span all skill levels, from neophyte to highly accomplished, with a wide range of interests, from gadget guru to historical re-creator.
If you are a model ship builder and would like to participate and even display your model in this event, please contact the museum to make arrangements as soon as possible.  If you have a ship model in need of repair or you need an appraisal, bring it along!
Admission for this exhibit is included in your museum entrance fee.
General Admission:  Adults $5,  Seniors (65+) & Military $4,  Students (12+) $3, Children under 12 & Members FREE
National Lighthouse Museum, 718-390-0040,
info@lighthousemuseum.org,  www.lighthousemuseum.org
RECENT NEWS
Quay to the Future
Hudson River Park Trust Hints at Estuarium Partnership with River Project
The Hudson River Park Trust has signaled that the River Project might be welcomed back to the newly refurbished Pier 26 in Tribeca (now entering the final stages of reconstruction), to operate the Estuarium, the white structure at the top of the image.
A discussion at the October 15 meeting of the Waterfront, Parks & Cultural Committee of Community Board 1 (CB1) pointed toward a possible resolution of a question that has remained unanswered for years: Will a highly regarded non-profit that has served Lower Manhattan for decades continue to have a home on the waterfront?
To read more…
Matthew Fenton
Lower Manhattan Forecast: It’s Getting Cloudier
Downtown Alliance and BPCA Expand Free Wireless Coverage by 1.5 Million Square Feet
The Battery Park City Authority  and Downtown Alliance have teamed up to bring improved or new free WiFi service to an additional 1.5-million square feet of outdoor space in Rockefeller, Teardrop, and Wagner Parks along the Hudson River in Battery Park City.
To read more…
The next phase of the project, slated for 2020, will aim to cover large swaths of the Battery Park City’s Esplanade. For more information about free WiFi coverage in Lower Manhattan, please browse: www.downtownny.com/wifi
Matthew Fenton
A Bridge Too Few
Community Leader Rallies Support to Halt Planned Demolition of Pedestrian Span Over West Side Highway

Bob Schneck: “I have collected more than 1,800 signatures by residents who want to keep the bridge.”
A Battery Park City resident and community leader is mobilizing support to preserve the Rector Street Bridge, the pedestrian span that is slated for demolition as a newer overpass at nearby West Thames Street (which unofficially opened in September) is gradually integrated into the local streetscape.
Bob Schneck spoke during the public comment session of the Battery Park City Authority (BPCA) board meeting on Tuesday, pointing to a petition drive he has spearheaded, and noting that, “I have collected more than 1,800 signatures by residents who want to keep the bridge. Rector Street lines up with almost every subway line in Lower Manhattan, and ferries on both ends.”

To read more…
Matthew Fenton
Putting the Tension in Detention
City Council Approves de Blasio Controversial Plan for New Jail Complex in Lower Manhattan; Legal Challenges Likely

A rendering that illustrates the original bulk and shape of the 45-story, prison complex that Mayor Bill de Blasio proposes to erect in Lower Manhattan, which has now been scaled back by approximately one-third.
The administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio won City Council approval on October 17 for a modified version of its controversial plan to erect a new, skyscraper prison in Lower Manhattan, as part of a wider scheme to close the City’s notorious detention complex on Rikers Island, and replace it with four, large “borough-based jail” facilities-one in each county, except Staten Island.
At the session during which the plan was approved, City Council member Margaret Chin said, “to my constituents-I hear you.
To read more…
Matthew Fenton
The Subtle Art of Not Giving A Shoot
Chin Pushes Legislation to Rein in Production Permits

A late-night film shoot on
 Tribeca’s Staple Street
City Council member Margaret Chin is co-sponsoring a package of bills to clamp down on rampant film and television production in Lower Manhattan.
Although the new laws, if enacted, will have City-wide effect, their impact would be especially significant in the square mile below Chambers Street, where dozens of movies and TV shows commandeer local streets (sometimes for days at a time) each year.
To read more…
Matthew Fenton
Eyes To the Sky
October 28 – November 10
Worldview: Origin of our Sun, solar system, ourselves

“Fly Like An Eagle” Nebula imaged by Astrophotographer Terry Hancock,   Grand Mesa Observatory and Down Under Observatory.   All rights reserved.
During the dark time of year here in the northeast, our visual environment is more of the moon and stars than earthly phenomena. In this “Eyes to the Sky”, as in a post a few weeks ago, I offer you the opportunity to reflect on the natural world as revealed to us by astronomers and astrophotographers. I have the pleasure of presenting the words and images of astrophotographer and educator Terry Hancock, the creator of “Fly Like an Eagle” , the nebula image featured above. To read more…
by Judy Isacoff 
Things That Make You Go ‘Hmm…’
Lawsuit Over Similarity Between One World Trade and Architecture Student’s Design Moves Ahead

Jeehoon Park’s 1999 design for a skyscraper with eight sides that taper between a square base and a square roof.
One thing is reasonably certain: In 1999, Jeehoon Park, then a student at the Illinois Institute of Technology’s College of Architecture, created a design for a very tall building with a large square base tapering to a smaller square top. In Mr. Park’s vision, the square formed by the roof was rotated 45 degrees relative to the one at the ground level, so that the center-points on each side of the quadrilateral below corresponded to the corners of the one above, and vice versa. And instead of four vertical walls, the structure’s facade consisted of eight elongated triangles.
That structure was never built. Or was it?

To read more…
Click to 30 seconds of morning sounds on the esplanade
You Can Hit-and-Run, 
But You Can’t Hide
Driver Alleged to Have Run Over Tribeca Pedestrian in May Indicted for Separate Manhattan Traffic Death

Reckless driving has become a chronic safety menace in Lower Manhattan in recent years.
The New York County District Attorney’s Office has indicted Jessenia Fajardo, a resident of the upstate town of Walden in two separate incidents involving reckless driving that caused injury to pedestrians. The more serious of these took place on July 19, when Ms. Fajardo is accused of having run a red light on the Upper West Side and then slamming into an elderly couple in a crosswalk. One of these pedestrians, 62-year-old Alfred Pocari, was killed, while the second (whose name has not been released) was seriously injured.
When police took Ms. Fajardo into custody at the scene of the July incident, they discovered that she was also involved in a similar (albeit less gravely serious) incident two months earlier.   To read more…
Matthew Fenton
What’s In Store?
Amid a Booming Economy, Lower Manhattan Retail Space Languishes
Vacant storefronts dot the landscape of Downtown
A new report from City Comptroller Scott Stringer finds that in one Lower Manhattan zip code — 10013, which covers parts of western Tribeca SoHo, and the Canal Street corridor in Chinatown — there are 319 empty retail spaces, comprising almost 300,000 square feet of unused property. To read more…
Matthew Fenton
Adding Insult to Penury
Ridership Survey Indicates That Ferry Coming Soon to Battery Park City Primarily Serves Affluent Riders

An analysis of who uses the NYC Ferry service, which the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio plans to expand to Battery Park City next year, shows that riders are primarily white passengers who earn more money than average New Yorkers.
To read more…
RiverWatch
Cruise Ships in New York Harbor
Click to watch MSC Miraviglia outbound for sea
Arrivals & Departures
———————————————————————
Thursday, November 7
Silver Wind

Outbound 5:30 pm

 Norfolk, VA/Charleston, SC/San Juan, PR
Many ships pass Lower Manhattan on their way to and from the Midtown Passenger Ship Terminal.  Others may be seen on their way to or from piers in Brooklyn and Bayonne.  Stated times, when appropriate, are for passing the Colgate clock in Jersey City, New Jersey, and are based on sighting histories, published schedules and intuition. They are also subject to tides, fog, winds, freak waves, hurricanes and the whims of upper management.
Damascus on the Hudson
Lower Manhattan’s Old Syrian Quarter

This map from 1899 highlights  “Little Syria”

Today, the stretch of Greenwich and Washington Streets between Battery Place and Albany Street — bisected by the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel entrance — is known by the forgettable name, “Greenwich South.”

By all appearances it is an orphan of a neighborhood that never quite coalesced. But nothing could be further from the truth. A century ago, before the World Trade Center or the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel (the two giant public works projects that decimated this once-thriving quarter), it was an ethnic enclave as vibrant as Little Italy or Chinatown. To read more…
Click to watch an autumn storm cross the harbor
Wildlife in Lower Manhattan
 
photo: Sarah McGowan
The dogwalking and jogging crowd on the esplanade yesterday morning had quite a show, when an unidentified Buteo (Buzzard Hawk) lazily flapped past a few heads and landed on a branch to enjoy his breakfast: a tasty pigeon.
Alison Simko
Aesthetic Inventory
BPCA’s Public Art Collection Represents Multiple Layers of Value

The Pylons, a pair of granite and stainless steel obelisks by sculptor Martin Puryear
The Battery Park City Authority, has completed an inventory and appraisal of its public art collection. This is part of a broad effort to take stock of the Authority’s ongoing role as a patron and custodian of pieces that represent an integral thread in the fabric of the community, as evidenced by the fact that space and funding for public art were both set aside decades ago, in the neighborhood’s first master plan, before the first building was erected.

To read more…
Matthew Fenton
Keep It Light
Condo Boards Question Need for South End Avenue Redesign After Installation of Traffic Signal

A rendering of the BPCA’s plan for changes to the South End Avenue
At the October 2 meeting of the Battery Park City Committee of Community Board 1, Battery Park City Authority president B.J. Jones was apprised by the leader of a coalition of condominiums along South End Avenue of that group’s ongoing reservations about the Authority’s plan to revamp the thoroughfare.
Pat Smith, the board president of the Battery Pointe condominium (at South End Avenue and Rector Place) told Mr. Jones, “before you go too far on South End Avenue, please remember that six condo boards, representing more than 1,000 households along South End Avenue, from Albany down to West Thames, don’t want you to do this.”    To read more…
Matthew Fenton
Music to Our Ears
When she was ten, Julie Reumert was selected
to sing at a celebration marking the birthday of
Margrethe ll, Queen of Denmark. As a girl growing up in Copenhagen, Ms. Reumert performed with the Saint Anne Girls Choir as a soprano and a soloist.
To read more…
Saloon Scuffle
Residents Riled about Tribeca Tavern

Does this look like a dance club?
More than a dozen concerned Tribeca residents turned out for the September meeting the Licensing and Permits Committee, which weighs in on the granting or renewal of liquor licenses.
They showed up to voice concerns about MI-5, a bar located at 52 Walker Street, which has been a source of local complaints as far back 2007.
Neighbors of the bar allege that it operates as a dance club (in violation of its current license, which is now up for renewal), and that loud music penetrates the upper floors of the residential building located above the bar as late as 4:00 am. To read more…
Matthew Fenton
Although still relatively abundant, recent surveys indicate declines in the Yellow-shafted Flicker population.  With its wide range, from Alaska to Nicaragua, the Flicker can be found in almost any habitat with trees.
Aggressive Starlings compete for their nesting sites and negotiating the tall reflective glass structures that make up Lower Manhattan during their seasonal migration takes a toll as well, as evidenced here.

One Broadsheet reader sent this photo with a comment that they’ve been noticing these birds on the walk from the BPC ferry terminal to the Winter Garden.

Click here to hear some Flicker calls.
Here is a recent New York Times article about disappearing birds.
—————————————————————————————–
What do I do with an injured or orphaned bird?
If you find an injured bird, carefully put it in a cardboard box with a lid or a towel over the top, and place in a cool, safe place. Birds go into shock very easily when injured, and often die from the shock.
If a bird has hit a window and is still alive, it may just need a little time to regain its senses, then may be able to fly away. Do not try to force feed or give water to the bird. If it is still alive after a few hours, you can try to find a local wildlife rehabilitator.
The Wildlife Rehabber website has a listing by state of many rehabbers that might be useful.
From the www.wildbirdfund.org website:
Is the Bird Injured?
If the baby bird is unable to flutter wings; bleeding, wings drooping unevenly; weak or shivering; attacked by cat/dog, gently pick up the baby and put it in a paper bag or small box with holes in it.
If the baby is shivering, wrap a warm water bottle in a towel and place it next to the baby. Do not give the baby food or water. Do not bother or handle it. Keep children away. Call us at 646-306-2862. Note exactly where you found the bird.
Condo Embargo
BPCA Puts the Brakes on Conversions of Rental Buildings within Community

Residents of rental apartments in Battery Park City who fear being thrown out of their homes as developers plan to convert those buildings to condominiums can rest a little bit easier, according to the Battery Park City Authority.

At the October 2 meeting of the Battery Park City Committee of Community Board 1, Authority president Benjamin Jones said, “I want to talk about some of the potential condo conversions that people are concerned about. We have been very clear with developers over the last year, and then some, about our position — that we want to preserve the rental housing that exists in Battery Park City.” To read more…
Matthew Fenton
Vertical Values
Costs to Rent or Own in Lower Manhattan Are Matched by Lofty Local Earnings

A slew of recent reports documents what everyone who lives or works in Lower Manhattan already sensed in their bones: This is a mind-numbingly expensive place to call home.
In September, RENTCafé issued a new analysis of the most expensive neighborhoods for renters in the United States that finds northern Battery Park City (zip code 10282) is the priciest enclave in America, with an average rent of $6,211 per month.  Coming in at second place is zip code 10013, which covers western Tribeca, along with part of Soho.  To read more…
Matthew Fenton
From Bunker to Incubator
New Arts Center on Governors Island Will Provide Studio Space and Cultural Programming

The historic building at Soissons Landing at  Governors Island.
Lower Manhattan has a new cultural hub. The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and the Trust for Governors Island have partnered to create the LMCC Arts Center at Governors Island, a 40,000-square foot studio space and education facility, housed within a restored 1870s ammunition warehouse — a relic from the days when the island was a military outpost.
To read more…
Rapport to the Commissioner
CB1 Makes Exception to New Policy; Okays Naming Street for Former NYPD Commissioner

Baxter Street
A public figure from the 1980s may soon be honored by having a street co-named in his memory, if Community Board 1 gets its way. The panel recommended that Benjamin Ward, New York’s first African-American police commissioner, be commemorated by rechristening one block of Baxter Street as Benjamin Ward Way.

This comes on the heels of a controversial decision by CB1 in 2018 to decline such a request on behalf 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 serving in “Operation Iraqi Freedom.”
To read more…
Breaking It Down
Composting Catches on in Battery Park City
Jake Jacevicius and Joshua DeVoto of BPCA parks operations dump out a binful of fruit and vegetable scraps where the neighborhood’s composting process takes place.
You’re probably heard of the farm-to-table movement. Thanks to the Battery Park City Authority’s compost initiative, there’s a burgeoning table-to-earth movement in this Lower Manhattan community.
What happens to the scraps after you’ve dropped them in the bin? How do your apple peels and corn husks turn into rich, beneficial compost?
The Broadsheet set out to investigate. To read more…
Death Came Calling at the Corner of Wall and Broad Streets, in Lower Manhattan’s First Major Terrorist Attack
In an instant, both wagon and horse were vaporized, and the closest automobile was tossed twenty feet in the air. Incredibly, the iconic bronze of George Washington surveys the devastation from the steps of the Sub-Treasury without so much as a scratch.
As the noon hour approached on a fall Thursday morning in 1920, a horse-drawn wagon slowly made its way west down Wall Street toward “the Corner,” the high-powered intersection of Wall and Broad. Its driver came to a gentle stop in front of the Assay Office, where stockpiles of gold and silver were stored and tested for purity. But theft was not his motive.
To read more…
John Simko
Cass Gilbert and the Evolution of the New York Skyscraper
by John Simko
To read more…
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 © 2019
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