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Community Meeting June 26 on 55 Water St. Plaza
Redesign
A year after Goldman Sachs abandoned its controversial
plan to construct a building on the elevated public plaza behind 55 Water
St., now the city’s most massive office tower, the complex’s
owners have decided to redesign the plaza into "a vital destination
that contributes to the cultural life of Lower Manhattan."
(Posted June 24)
CB1 Approves Co-Naming First Place For Philanthropist
Community Board 1 voted last month to support a bid
by the Museum of Jewish Heritage to co-name First Place in Battery Park
City, where the museum is located, as Edmond J. Safra Place. Safra, who
died in a fire in his Monte Carlo home several years ago, donated millions
of dollars to New York City organizations, including substantial sums
to the museum. (Posted June 20)
Health Officials Begin WTC Study of Downtown
Residents
Researchers from the New York University School of
Medicine and the State Department of Health this month began a year-long,
10,000-apartment study of the impact of the collapse of the Twin Towers
on the health of Downtown residents. Surveys were mailed to tenants in
the Independence Plaza (IPN) complex. Residents of Gateway Plaza, Southbridge
Towers and other large residential buildings Downtown and in other parts
of the city will also be included, followed by pulmonary exams for a sample
of respondents. (Posted June 18)
CB1 Committee Critiques Hudson River Park Plan
At its June 6 meeting, the Waterfront Committee of
Community Board 1 rejected key elements of the recently unveiled plan
for the Tribeca section of the Hudson River Park. The committee questioned
some of the ecological programs in the preliminary design and called for
more open space and easier public access to the water. (Posted June
11)
Read "A
Lively Waterfront in Store for Tribeca"
(Posted June 3)
Gerson Requests $75 Million for Downtown Services
City Councilman Alan Gerson on June 5 called for $75
million in federal money to be spent on programs to help Downtown youths,
seniors and displaced workers, who he said have been hurt by the Sept.
11 terrorist attack but have been overlooked in the effort to rebuild
Lower Manhattan. (Posted June 6)
Time Is Slow Healer for Downtowners
Although the whiffs of acrid smoke from Ground Zero
are long gone, the utility lines are tucked back underground, and outdoor
cafés are brimming with customers again, some Downtowners say they
still think about the disaster and its aftermath every day. The cleanup
at the Trade Center site has officially ended, but residents’ emotional
recovery goes on.
(Posted June 3)
Are Planes Flying Lower Over Downtown?
The sight and sound of an airplane can still bring
up feelings of fear and peril for Downtown residents, many of whom say
they could swear that planes are flying lower since Sept. 11. That may
be the perception, the FAA says, but it’s not reality. (Posted June
3)
Minskoff Determined to Build His Tower
As the developer aggressively pursues tenants for his
600-foot tower on Tribeca’s Site 5B, which would include offices
for about 5,000 workers, opponents in the community are regrouping to
fight the project., which they say would have a disastrous impact on the
neighborhood. (Posted June 3)
Raging Man Throws Dog from IPN Terrace
At 80 North Moore Street in Independence Plaza, tenants
might not know their next door neighbors, much less like them. But they
almost certainly knew and loved Ribsy.
So when the frisky 17-year-old poodle-terrier mix was murdered on the
quiet Sunday morning of May 26, shock and anger rippled through the complex.
(Posted June 3)
EPA Launches Hotline For Residents to Request
Apartment Cleanup
The Environmental Protection Agency on June 3 launched
the telephone hotline for Downtown residents to call to request a free
government cleanup or air test inside their apartments. The hotline, 877-796-5471,
will be staffed Monday through Friday between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m, and Saturday
and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., for about three months. Residents can
also request the cleanup through the EPA’s website.
(Posted June 3)
Read "EPA
To Clean Downtown Apartments" (Posted
May 11)
New Tribeca High School Will Open in Fall
It doesn’t have a home yet, but the new high school
planned for Downtown will open in September with as many as 125 ninth
graders, adding a grade each of the following three years and growing
to about 500 students. District 2 and Community Board 1 are searching
for a building to house the school for its first year, as well as a permanent
site for September 2003. (Posted June
3)
Read "Tribeca High School
Is in the Works" (Posted
May 2)
Little Alley Called Big ‘Safety Valve’
as CB1 Rejects Closing
The company constructing a 15-story residential building
at 3–9 Hubert St. hit a dead end at Community Board 1 last month
when the board denied its request to close Collister Street, between Beach
and Hubert streets, for nine months.
(Posted June 3)
CB1 Approves BPC Dog Run; Some Residents Howl
in Protest
Tempers flared at last month’s meeting of Community
Board 1. Some in the audience heckled from the back of the room, while
others scolded them for being rude. One woman called the board "dictatorial."
A man said he might sue. The board’s chairwoman, Madelyn Wils, threatened
to call security. (Posted June 3)
Rec Bubble Plan Deflated
Downtown’s hopes to erect a kids’ recreation
bubble in Tribeca were dashed last month when a foundation declined to
fund the project. (Posted June 3)
The Hudson Valley, Downtown: A New BPC Oasis
Is Coming
Ground was broken last month for the newest addition
to Battery Park City’s network of parks, a space that Battery Park
City Authority President Tim Carey says he envisions "as a glen in
the middle of the hills in the Catskills." (Posted June
3)
Community Gets Look at Design for Winter Garden
The World Financial Center’s Winter Garden, the
widely-adored Downtown space that was badly damaged by part of the collapsing
north tower on Sept. 11, is being reconstructed with a sleek new eastern
facade and entrance designed by the building's original architects. The
new design was presented to Community Board 1’s Battery Park City
Committee on May 7. (Posted May 11)
At Pier 25, a Quiet Finale to an Unfathomable
Job
Two weeks before the city ceremoniously ended its recovery
operation at Ground Zero, the barge men of Pier 25 had a little ceremony
of their own. (Posted June 3)
Plans for Trade Center Site Taking Shape
The redevelopment of the World Trade Center site moved
forward on several fronts last month. Developer Larry Silverstein presented
his plans for a new 7 World Trade Center building to Community Board 1
and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and Port Authority selected
a planning team, announced a timetable, and held its first public hearing.
(Posted June 3)
Read "Silverstein
Offers Peek at New 7 World Trade" (Posted
May 15)
More Assistance Offered to Small Businesses
Three assistance programs for small Downtown businesses
were expanded or created in May. (Posted June
3)
IN BRIEF (Posted June 3)
Hudson River Park Day
WTC Rebuilding Report
Tribeca Wine and Dine
"We Are Tribeca!"
Tree Requests
Tribeca Organization Meeting
River Project Internships
Tax-Free Shopping
CD and Record Sale
Fall Little League
I.S. 89 Track Wins
P.S. 89 Benefit
Little League, Big Time
In May, 200 Downtown kids and coaches spent a weekend
in baseball heaven, thrilling to the feel of playing on the most famous
Little League fields in the world. (Posted June
3)
Free Weekly Entertainment for Kids at Embassy
Suites Hotel
The Embassy Suites Hotel’s Kids Fest, a weekly
series of performances for children ages 3 and up, continues through this
month. (Posted June 3)
Family Music and Dance Fest in BPC on June
23
Celebrate the start of summer at Harmony on the Hudson,
a free family music festival on June 23 in Battery Park City’s Wagner
Park. The event includes seven hours of musical performances and community
dancing, as well as children’s activities such as double-Dutch jump
rope, relay and potato sack races and tug-of-war. (Posted June
3)
Alice Is Coming to ‘The Wall’
Say "so long" to the the dirty gray walls
outside the Washington Market Park’s tennis and basketball courts
on Chambers Street. Alice is bringing a fanciful wonderland of local color
to the popular Stuyvesant hangout. (Posted June
3)
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