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Tower Plan Draws Fire From Community Critics |
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| At a March10 community board meeting,
the developer of a planned 35-story residential tower behind
P.S. 234 got a taste of the fierce opposition he is likely to
face at a public hearing later this month.
Posted March 16
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| IPN Tenants and Owner Reach
Deal |
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After almost two years of anxiety over the future of their
homes, tenants at Tribeca's Independence Plaza North complex
are breathing a collective sigh of relief. Following months
of negotiations, their tenant association and landlord reached
an agreement in principle that will protect them from hefty
rent increases when the complex is withdrawn in June from
the government's Mitchell-Lama housing program.
Posted March 11
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Key
Dates and Developments in the Process
A deal to keep future IPN rents affordable,
struck last month between tenants and the complex's new owner,
was a long time in the making. It was also only the latest development
in what has been a long struggle for tenants and workers of
the complex. Here's a look at key dates and developments in
the process.
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| CB1
Committee Asks What's Up with Bridge Elevator |
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| Angry that the elevator of the Liberty
Street pedestrian bridge has worked only sporadically in the
two years since it was installed, Community Board 1's Battery
Park City Committee wanted to know why. On March 2, an executive
from Brookfield Properties, owners of the World Financial Center
and the operators of the bridge and elevator, came before the
committee to offer an explanation.
Posted March 8
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| Panel Will Study EPA's Actions After Sept.
11 |
A panel of independent experts and one community
resident, headed by officials from the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA), has been set up to look into the agency's handling
of the aftermath of the World Trade Center attacks and assess
any further actions to be taken.
Posted March 8 |
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| Biggest
Tot Boom Is Hitting Downtown |
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| The signs are everywhere that Lower
Manhattan-and Tribeca in particular-is experiencing what many
agree is the biggest baby and toddler boom that the neighborhood
has seen.
Posted March 4
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| A
Private Elementary School for Tribeca |
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| Bridie Gauthier doesn't need to
commission a study or conduct a demographic analysis to tell
her what every parent in Lower Manhattan already knows--if you
build classrooms down here, students will fill them. So she
had decided to expand her Montessori School of Manhattan, now
a preschool and kindergarten at 53-55 Beach Street into a full
elementary school. It will be Tribeca's first private elementary
school.
Posted March 4
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| Public Speaks on Rebuilding
Impacts |
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| In lengthy detail, the Draft Generic
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)--a 2,000-page document
released in January by the Lower Manhattan Development Corp.--outlines
the changes Downtown residents and workers can expect in air
quality, noise, traffic congestion and even sunlight levels
during and after the years of construction at the World Trade
Center site. Last month critics had their say on all that it
does not address.
Posted March 4
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| Mixed Reactions Near the Site |
With the start of rebuilding at the World
Trade Center site just a few months away, residents, businesses
and workers adjacent to the site are beginning to consider
the impacts of a decade or more of massive, simultaneous
building, road and transit projects on their doorstep.
Posted March 4 |
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| Wall Street Getting
Security Makeover |
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| Wall Street. Its very name
is rooted in the fear of attack, derived from the high
stockade that Dutch settlers built to repel a British
invasion. Now, more than three centuries later, security
is no less a worry on The Street. But the protective barriers
that are about to go up are very much 21st-century high-tech.
Posted March 4
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| Both Sides Cite Progress as IPN Talks
Are Drawing to a Close |
In a flurry of negotiations late last month,
the owner and tenant association of Independence Plaza North
were closing in on an agreement for the project's withdrawal
from the state's Mitchell-Lama housing program.
Posted March 4 |
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| Fulton St. Arts Complex,
Tower Proposed |
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| When it comes to new arts
projects Downtown, most of the public's attention has
been focused on plans for the cultural complex at the
World Trade Center site. More quietly, a group of architects,
arts organizations and city officials are pursuing a plan
to create a 60,000-square-foot arts center four blocks
east on Fulton Street.
Posted March 4
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| 9/11 Volunteers Reunite
in Tearful Joy |
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| They tended to the blistered
feet and soot-covered faces of the rescue and recovery
workers. They doled out coffee and comfort, blankets and
back rubs in 12-hours shifts. Last month they came together,
to reunite and to remember.
Posted March 4
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| CB1 and P.S. 234 Prepare to Fight
Tower |
Community Board 1 and the P.S. 234 PTA
are gearing up to fight a plan by the city and a private
developer to construct a 35-story residential tower at
Chambers and West streets, next to the elementary school
Posted March 4 |
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| Once Rubber-Stamped,
Street Fairs Get Scrutiny |
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| Each spring for the past
20 years, Joe Giovanni has donned a suit and stood before
community boards throughout the city in seeking permits
for the dozens of street fairs his company puts on in
the summer months. Each year, the president of Mardi Gras
Productions says, the sales pitch has grown more difficult.
Last month, before Community Board 1's South Street Seaport
and Financial District committees, the tension was palpable.
Posted March 4
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IN BRIEF
Deutsche
Bank to Be Torn Down
Bird Watching at BPC
Youth Fair
Lecture for Parents
Flea Market at IPN
Alzheimer's Help
Free Tax Prep Help
Downtown Writers
| P.S. 89 Kids Are All
Business at Book Sale |
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| A book sale held last month
in the school's third-floor hallway, was a culminating
lesson for P.S. 89 second-graders who had spent months
studying bookstore operations.
Posted March 5
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| Tribeca's 'Guitar Chicks' |
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| Once a month the Orange Bear
stage is for women only.
Posted March 5
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| Tribeca Business Group Brings 4
March Events to Downtown |
This month the Tribeca Organization kicks
off its "Tribeca Thaw," a series of four Spring
events that include a gospel concert, a singles' mixer,
a career day seminar for high school students and a gardening
workshop for families.
Posted March 5 |
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