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CB 1 Gets a First Look at New Goldman Sachs Tower
Community Board 1 got a first viewing
at what Goldman Sachs’s new 800-foot-tall headquarters
in Battery Park City is going to look like in a presentation
by lead architect Henry Cobb, of the high-profile Downtown firm
Pei Cobb Freed and Partners.
Posted May 20
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| Pataki Wants “Significant” Downtown Funds
for Tunnel |
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Gov. George Pataki came out in favor of building a new East
River tunnel to connect the Long Island railroad and JFK airport
to Lower Manhattan , at a cost of as much as $6 billion. To
pay for the LIRR/JFK link, Pataki said, “significant
funding” would come from the remaining $1 billion of
community development block grant money controlled by the
Lower Manhattan Development Corporation.
Posted May 7
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| Bomb Scares Routine Near Fed
Plaza |
When Adam Mohmad is away from Tate’s
Fine Men’s Wear, the small clothing shop he manages at
325 Broadway, he routinely calls in to check on daily sales
figures and other shop concerns. But nowadays, he also asks
another question: “What’s happening across the street?”
Businesses like Mohmad’s, which happen to be across the
street from Federal Plaza, increasingly find themselves caught
in the center of cordoned-off bomb threat investigations that
effectively close Broadway and its sidewalks for blocks.
Posted May 1
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| Street Naming Honors
Fallen Fireman |
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“The landscape of Lower Manhattan has significantly
improved with the addition of a single sign,”
Lt. James Donuhue said last month to more than 100 firefighters,
friends and family that packed into the Ladder Company
8 firehouse at the corner of a street that used to be
called just North Moore. The street sign at North Moore
and Varick now reads “Lieutenant Vincent G. Halloran
Street”—newly named for the Ladder 8 firefighter
who died in the World Trade Center collapse.
Posted May1
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| Artists Above Eatery
Protest Their Eviction |
Tenants facing eviction from
their lofts at 131-135 Duane Street took their cause to
the street last month in hopes of embarrassing one of
the building’s owners, Henry Meer. Meer, along with
his investment partners, are seeking to evict the tenants
and possibly turn the building into a condominium hotel.
Posted May 1
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Lease Ends and Youth Center Goes,
Too
Middle schoolers come to
Manhattan Youth’s community center to have fun and
hang out with their friends—much like kids in any
other after-school program. But unlike most programs,
this one requires students to do their homework first,
and provides the academic help they need to do well in
school. It is just that structure and extra support that
parents say they are going to sorely miss when the center
shuts down.
Posted May 1
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| Critics Speak Out on
Arts-Tower Project |
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The Southbridge Towers co-op
board last month continued to explore a controversial
proposal to build an arts center and residential tower
along Fulton Street, on the south side of the complex’s
property. They have asked the project’s developers
to present their plans to all Southbridge residents.
Posted May 1
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CB1’s Priorities for Grant Money Exclude Rail Link
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As the time approached for the Lower Manhattan
Development Corporation to announce its plans for divying up
the remaining $1 billion of federal money for revitalizing Downtown,
Community Board 1 voted on its own wish list for the money.
Posted May 1 |
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| Suspicions But No Suspects
in Vandalism |
Police said last month that
they had no suspects in the April 11 vandalism that shattered
the storefront window and glass door of Koh’s Kids,
at 311 Greenwich St. But store owner Grace Koh has her
suspicions.
Posted May 1
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| Tower Developer, Hospital Are No Shows
Before CB1 |
More than two dozen concerned residents packed
into a cramped Community Board 1 meeting room last month in
hopes of learning details about a new development in their neighborhood—a
50-story residential tower planned for the parking lot on Spruce
Street next to N.Y.U. Downtown Hospital. They were met by a
single lawyer from the hospital, which owns the lot, and he
was short on specifics.
Posted May 1 |
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| Committee Looks for Ways to Head Off Crowding
at P.S. 234 |
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A meeting of Community Board 1’s Youth and Education
Committee April 27 turned into a brainstorming session over
how to stave off overcrowding at P.S. 234.
Sandy Bridges, the school’s principal, who attended
the meeting, offered her own solution.
“I’d ideally like another school and I’d
like one soon,” she said.
Posted May 1
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| Pedestrians Who Cross
West Street Are Getting a Big Lift |
Crossing West
Street is getting a good bit easier.
The Vesey Street pedestrian bridge is being outfitted
with escalators and elevators, with an escalator on the
bridge’s west side up and running last month and
the east side escalator expected to be working by mid-June.
Elevators at either end of the bridge will be running
in early summer, according to the state Department of
Transportation.
Posted May 1
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| Miniature Golf
Course Makeover Starts with ‘Dumpster Dive’ |
Miniature golf devotee
and dedicated “dumpster diver” Maria
Reidelbach is on a mission to transform the Pier
25 course into an enchanted garden, using trash,
recycled materials and the elbow grease of community
volunteers.
Posted May 1
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| Downtown Alley Ripe
for Rat Research |
Live in this city long enough
and chances are good you’ll have a rat story to
tell. Robert Sullivan has collected enough to write a
book.
Posted May 1
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IN BRIEF
IPN Tenant
Caught in 9/11 Fraud
Museum Seeks Guides
Mission Meals for Moms
Yard Sale at Southbridge
Arts Benefit Auction Set
Arthritis Walk May 16
Calling All Cooks
Bake Sale Battles Bush
Reading at Rector Park
Hey, Sailor
| A ‘Giant’ Success
at Children’s Theatre |
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Preaching to kids about the evils of selfishness is easy,
but who wants to? “The Selfish Giant,” playing
at the Manhattan Children’s Theatre through May 23,
does the dirty work in just an hour, and gets the message
across in a far more charming, upbeat—and probably effective—manner
than any parent could.
Posted May 7
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