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| The
Tribeca Film Festival |
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The Tribeca Film Festival
ended Sunday May 11, with its offerings of a staggering
163 feature-length films and over 100 shorts at
eight local venues, with some 11 world premieres
and 22 North American premieres. But the nine-day
extravaganza was more than just a movie-maven and
paparazzi paradise. There was also the huge family
festival on Greenwich Street, panel discussions,
a rock and comedy concert, free “drive-in”
screenings, and more.
Posted May 7
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And the Winners Are:
Martin Scorsese, Whoopi Goldberg,
Kevin Spacey, and others presented awards to the
film competition winners of the festival. The ceremony
took place Sunday, May 11, at Stuyvesant High School.
Click
here for the winners. See
celebrity arrivals at the ceremony |
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| Film
Openings |
Red Carpet
arrivals for the world premiere of "The In-Laws"
at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Celebrities arrive for the premiere of "The
Italian Job" at the Tribeca Film Festival.
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| A Mega
Street Fair |
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Suppose
they gave a party and everyone came. That’s what Greenwich
Street felt like on Saturday, May 10, the day of the second
Tribeca Film Festival street fair.
Posted May 12
For one mother's account and more photos click here
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| Rebuilding Must
Address Community Needs, Gerson Says |
Councilman Alan Gerson on May
8 called on Downtown rebuilding officials
to adopt a set of redevelopment guidelines
that prioritize the needs of people who live
and work in the community.
Posted May 12 |
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| New Dog Run Planned
for Northern BPC |
The Battery Park City Authority on
May 6 unveiled preliminary plans for a new dog run
on North End Avenue between Warren and Murray streets,
in an area of the neighborhood where dog owners
have long said a dog run was needed.
Posted May 7 |
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Pataki Sets Timetable for
Rebuilding
Gov. George Pataki
called for “bold and daring and swift” action as
he laid out an aggressive timetable for rebuilding
Lower Manhattan. Responding to growing criticism
that the redevelopment campaign was moving too slowly,
the governor last month outlined $50 million in
projects that he wants implemented within the next
year to improve the quality of life Downtown.
Posted May 3
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Residents Respond to Mayor’s Rebuilding
Plan
Mayor Bloomberg has laid
out his own vision for reinvigorating Downtown around
the World Trade Center site, with “exciting new neighborhoods”
and parks, a revitalized East River waterfront, a tree-lined
boulevard along Water Street, and new schools and cultural
centers. The mayor announced his plans to great fanfare
in December. But not until last month, when Deputy Mayor
Daniel Doctoroff presented the administration’s vision
to Community Board 1, did residents have a chance to respond.
Posted May 3
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| High School Has Money But Little
Time |
Just as community and school officials were losing
hope that Millennium High School would move to 75 Broad Street
in September, Gov. George Pataki announced on April 24 that
government money will ensure that the school gets its Downtown
home. But even after the governor’s speech, there were still
doubts about whether the site can be ready by the start of the
school year.
Posted May 3 |
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Ferries Now Float Cream Cheese Ads
NY Waterway has turned three
of its ferries between Lower Manhattan and Hoboken into
billboards for a bagel-and-cream-cheese breakfast product,
aimed at thousands of ferry commuters and anyone enjoying
the river. But whether the ads whet people’s appetites
or offend their tastes, in the city’s eyes they are illegal.
Posted May 3
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| In Tribeca, a Mixed Picture of Omansky |
The bizarre allegations leveled against a longtime
Tribeca resident have left his friends reeling in disbelief,
while others in the neighborhood evince little surprise. Police
say that Lawrence Omansky, 54, a criminal lawyer and real estate
investor, put a knife to the throat of Lawrence Schlosser, 63,
his business associate of many years, and threatened to kill
him. They say Omansky bound and blindfolded Schlosser until
he agreed to sign a property over to him, then stowed Schlosser,
bound and gagged, beneath the floorboards of the bathroom in
his duplex apartment at 160 Chambers St.
Posted May 3 |
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Bond Traders Propose 11-Story Building
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A prominent family of bond traders wants to move their
business and their homes to Tribeca, and they’ve found
just the place for an 11-story building to house both.
But they are hardly getting a welcome from their intended
neighbors.
Posted May 3
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AT&T Antenna Radiates Fear at Southbridge
Ever since AT&T installed
two wireless phone antennas outside their third-floor
bedroom window, Joseph and Josephine Silvaggio, 30-year
residents of Southbridge Towers, have been thinking of
little else. The Silvaggios say they worry night and day
about the possible health effects of the equipment, and
many other Southbridge residents say they are also afraid
and they’re campaigning to get AT&T to remove the equipment.
Posted May 3
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| Lobbyists to Face Off in Battle
Over IPN |
As the city continues to review the proposed
sale of Independence Plaza, tenants and the prospective buyer
of the residential complex are squaring off for battle, pitting
one high-powered lobbying and public relations campaign against
the other.
Posted May 3 |
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| Long Battle Ends as Council Approves
Seaport Rezoning |
For 20 years Community Board 1 and a coalition
of residents and business groups have fought to prevent large-scale
development in the South Street Seaport Historic District, where
most buildings, many from the 19th century, are four or five
stories. They can now rest easier. The City Council on April
30 unanimously approved CB1’s plan to change zoning in the area,
significantly limiting the size of any future development there.
Posted May 3 |
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| Anti-Graffiti Army Blitzes Northern
Tribeca |
Before daybreak, six two-man teams dressed in
white jumpsuits, white caps and gauze masks jumped from their
trucks at strategic points around the neighborhood and began
deploying gear with the speed and precision of a SWAT Team.
It wasn’t bad guys this group was after but the spray-painted
scrawlings defacing the walls and metal gates of northern Tribeca.
And in the course of a few days last month, the men transformed
more than 100 graffiti-covered storefronts into pristinely coated
facades.
Posted May 3 |
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Tribecan Comes to Rescue of ‘Abused’
Trees
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After a Greenwich Street resident reported to the Parks
Department that the roots of honey locust and oak trees
in Washington Market Park were buried under too much
mulch, a contractor was fined $4,000 for “abuse of trees.”
Posted May 3
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| 12 Downtowners Appointed to CB1 |
Twelve people who live or work in Lower Manhattan
were appointed last month to Community Board 1, replacing members
who stepped down. Here is a roundup of brief bios for the new
additions to the group that, on behalf of Downtowners, tackles
everything from the design of street furniture to noisy bars
to the redevelopment of the World Trade Center site.
Posted May 3 |
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Can Anyone Get This Phone to Work?
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For five months the elevator
on the Rector Street bridge couldn't be turned on because
it didn't have a phone. In February, a phone was installed,
but no one--not the Battery Park City Authority, which
is responsible for maintaining the bridge, nor the State
Department of Transportation (DOT), which built the bridge,
nor Motorola, which built the phone, nor Verizon, which
provides the phone service--has been able to make it work.
Posted May 3
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IN BRIEF
LMDC
Residential Grant Deadline Approaches
Teen Night May 30 on Pier
25
Hearing on Park Stripes
Menin on Memorial Jury
Tribeca Walking Tours
Rafflemania for P.S. 89
Library Book Sale
Glee Club at St. Paul’s
Proposed BPC Dog Run
Greenmarket
Terror Drill
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The call went out around 10:30, on the quiet Sunday morning
of April 26: a chemical terror attack in the Broad Street
subway, just down the block from the New York Stock Exchange.
In all, 20 fire and 16 Emergency Services units, along with
hundreds of emergency response workers, would fill the narrow
streets. The "disaster" was practice for emergency workers,
but seemed all too real.
Posted May 3
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Sod Goes Down on BPC Ballfields
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As Downtown Little League play continued on fields
that were anywhere but Downtown, the biggest action
was happening on the unfinished ballfields in Battery
Park City. Over three days last month, a tractor rolled
out long strips of the cushiony green carpet that will
become the fields of long-held dreams.
Posted May 3
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| Family Festival: Jugglers, Scavenger
Hunts and More |
The Tribeca Film Festival features a host of
family activities, including scavenger hunts, presentations
by the creator of Clifford The Big Red Dog, and a massive daylong
street fair.
Posted May 3 |
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| Children's Festival at Indian Museum |
Ride a pony on Bowling Green, race a stick horse,
make a beaded bracelet and learn how to dance Plains-style at
the National Museum of the American Indian’s children’s festival
on Saturday, May 17 and Sunday, May 18 from noon to 5 p.m. The
festival will also feature sing-alongs, storytelling, games
and a “treasure hunt” through the museum’s galleries. All activities,
as well as admission to the museum, at One Bowling Green, are
free. For information, go to www.americanindian.si.edu.
Posted May 3 |
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| Puppets and Popcorn on May 17 |
The puppets are coming. Fourteen puppeteers will
give free performances in Washington Market Park on May 17,
from 1:30 to 4:00 p.m., at the fourth annual Spring Popcorn
and Puppet Festival.
Posted May 3 |
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| May 29: Celebrating the Italy-Tribeca
Connection |
The Italy-Tribeca connection will be celebrated
with a fundraising dinner and auction on May 29. "La Famiglia
Tribeca," with truffles and other specialties from local Italian
restaurants and a silent auction of items donated by stores
and artists in Tribeca and Florence, will be held at Tribeca
Rooftop, 2 Desbrosses Street, at 7:30 p.m.
Posted May 3 |
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| Waterfront Tours |
On May 5, from 6:30–8:30 p.m., the Metropolitan
Waterfront Alliance leads a free bike tour of Lower Manhattan’s
waterfront. The tour, part of the city’s Bike Week, departs
from the Municipal Building, 1 Centre St. For information, go
to www.waterwire.net. On May 17, Working Watercraft of New York
Harbor and the North River Historic Ship Society host two boat
tours of shipyards, container ports, railroad bridges, sunken
ships and other sites around the harbor, with presentations
by maritime experts. Tours leave from Pier 11, near the end
of Wall Street. Minimum suggested donation: $2 for adults, $1
for children, students and seniors. For details, go to www.ny-hiddenharbor-nj.com
or call the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance at 800 364 9943.
Posted May 3 |
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| Taste of Tribeca, the 9th annual,
on May 17 |
Neighborhood chefs will take their skills and
skillets to the streets on Saturday, May 17, for the 9th annual
Taste of Tribeca. Fifty-five restaurants will serve tastings
from 11:30 a.m. until 4 p.m. on Duane Street between Hudson
and Greenwich streets.
Posted May 3 |
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Brits’ New Garden Gets a Royal Kickoff
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A project that promises to transform the triangle of
benches and trees at Hanover Square into a sculpted
English garden moved a step forward with the selection
of a design team and the visit by a princess.
Posted May 3
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Women Cops
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The story of women in the New York City Police Department--New
York's Finest Femmes, you can call them--is told through
memorabilia, news clippings, artifacts and videos at
the “Women in Policing” exhibit at the New York City
Police Museum in the financial district.
Posted May 3
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To Be or Not to Be: The Bard Downtown?
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As big-name cultural institutions from the City Opera
to the 92nd Street Y jockey for a place—and for money—in
the revitalization of Downtown, a lone Battery Park
City resident is vying for a home for the biggest name
of all. Shakespeare.
Posted May 3
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