Gerson Says BPC Library Funding Is Secure
City Councilman Alan Gerson assured members of CB1’s Battery Park City Committee that he will make up more than $1.7 million in estimated construction overruns for the planned Battery Park City Library from the coming year’s city budget.
More Improvements Planned For Financial District
Make New York’s financial heart more terrorist-proof, but beautify the streets and make them more pedestrian friendly, too. That was the city’s charge to Rogers Marvel Architects, whose designs for handsome sculptural bollards and “euro-cobble” are already in place near the New York Stock Exchange. The bollards replaced concrete barriers and large trucks filled with sand that blocked intersections and protected the exchange after Sept. 11.
Water Main Break Closes and Disrupts Church Street
A break in a 20-inch water main under Church Street flooded some adjoining basements and cut water service to residences and businesses along Church Street between Lispenard and Franklin Streets Tuesday, March 11. A large sinkhole, filled with water, occupied much of the intersection of Church and White streets.
Bouley's Liquor License Voted Down A Second Time
For the second time in as many months, Community Board 1’s Tribeca Committee shot down chef David Bouley’s request for a liquor license for Brush Strokes, his planned new Japanese restaurant at 109 West Broadway.
Artists In Shadow Of A Planned New Building
Champion Parking, the owners of a parking lot on White Street between Broadway and Lafayette, want to rezone the two blocks east of Broadway between Walker and White Streets. That means changing the M1-5 mixed industrial zoning to C6-2A commercial zone. And for Champion Parking, it means the chance to put a profitable 120-foot-high apartment building on their lot.
Advocates For Light At Duane And Greenwich Denied Again
Residents calling for a traffic light at the intersection of Duane and Greenwich Streets in Tribeca were rebuffed yet again last month when the city’s Department of Transportation refused to reverse its earlier decision saying that a traffic light is not warranted there.
Memorial Museum Next Stop For Survivor Stairs
Cushioned and cradled atop a framework that looked like part of an old roller coaster, 38 disembodied stair treads inched forward on Sunday morning, March 9. Known as the “survivor stairs,” they were lifted by crane onto the carrier and moved a mere 200 feet. But for preservationists and survivors of the Sept. 11 attacks, the effort to save those stairs—the only above-ground remains of the World Trade Center—has been a very long journey.
An Artful Entrance
Visitors to Manhattan Youth’s new Downtown Community Center may come to use the library, the digital recording studio or the culinary arts center. But Valerie Carmet’s mosaic is designed to stop them in their tracks.
Mamas' Group Offers Care, Camaraderie
Last month, more than 100 Lower Manhattan moms tucked in the kids, turned out the lights and went out for cocktails. The occasion was the annual winter feast of the Hudson River Park Mothers’ Group, affectionately known as HRP Mamas. They gathered at Grace, a bar and restaurant on Franklin Street, for hors d’oeuvres, empathy and shop talk.
Ageless Joy
The Hallmark Chorus had just finished one of its weekly rehearsals last month, but Anne Schiff had plenty of song left in her. So when asked, she belted out her favorite. “You made me love you, I didn’t want to do it, I didn’t want to do it. You made me want to. And all the time you knew it.”
Tribeca Film Fest Directors Speak Out
Paola Freccero and Nancy Schafer, appointed last year as co-executive directors of the Tribeca Film Festival, oversee the day-to-day operations of the 13-day event, which begins April 23.
Freccero’s focus is on content production, the website and special events. Schafer, who has been with the festival since it began in 2002, is in charge of logistics and oversees film programming with Peter Scarlet, the artistic director.
Tribeca Trib editor Carl Glassman spoke to Freccero and Schafer about this, the 7th annual festival and its relationship to the Downtown community.
As Time Ran Out, New Jobs For Striking Workers
After fighting for their salaries and benefits for nearly two months, 20 longtime employees of the 26-story office tower at 123 William St. gave up their struggle last month. But it appears that they will be employed—somewhere—after all.
Artful Eyeful
It’s fun. It’s free. It’s TOAST.
One hundred artists will once again welcome the public into their studios for the annual tour—the acronym stands for Tribeca Open Artist Studio Tour—beginning the last weekend of this month.
Bit Of Irish Luck Saves Boy In Winning Tale
It takes a lot of magic to keep a room full of preschoolers quiet. Thankfully, “The Story of Jack, The Prince of Ireland,” a Manhattan Children’s Theatre’s production, was equipped with enough dragons and leprechauns to preoccupy even the antsiest little ones.
Having A (Costume) Ball
One rabbi dressed as the Tin Man, another was a ’70s hipster—capped with disco-ball head covering. William Cohen, age 7, disguised himself as a garbage can, because, as he said, it was “easy to take the lid off.”
Feminist Passion Fuels Tribecans' Film
Amy Sewell and Susan Toffler’s 250 Pickup Productions is housed in a cramped but cozy room in Sewell’s Reade Street apartment. On the wall, a whiteboard scrawled with a seemingly impossible list of to-dos and deadlines serves as a sobering reminder of what lies ahead if this two-woman team is to reach an audience with “What’s Your Point, Honey?,” their newly completed documentary, soon to be released.
At CB1, Bouley Wins Fight For License
David Bouley will get a liquor license for his new restaurant after all, barring any new obstacles. Community Board 1 voted overwhelmingly to support a license for Brush Stroke, his planned Japanese restaurant at 109 West Broadway.
The Jews Of Sosua
In 1938, as the Nazis tightened their vise on German and Austrian Jews, President Roosevelt called for an international conference to discuss the refugee problem. Thirty-two countries attended the Evian Conference, held in Evian, France, during which every country, except for one, offered excuses for not letting in more refugees.
Vision Becomes Reality On Warren Street
Back when Manhattan Youth’s Downtown Community Center was little more than a messy construction site, Bob Townley, its executive director, would stop by on weekends and sit, alone, amid the scaffolding and hanging wires and building debris, and imagine the possibilities.
J. Crew To Open A Shop In Former Tribeca Bar
They’ll be selling shirts, not shots, at the former Liquor Store Bar in Tribeca.
A J.Crew menswear store, the chain’s first men’s-only shop in Manhattan, is expected to open this summer in the long-vacant space at the corner of West Broadway and White Street.
Vendors Vie With Greenmarket For Space
One by one, the food vendors approached the microphone in the St. John’s University auditorium last month and, in faltering English, pleaded their cases.
“I’ve worked in this place a long time, but the Greenmarket came last year and told me I have to move,” Mohammed Ali told the meeting of Community Board 1 on March 24. “Please, help me.”
Tribeca Film Festival Is Back, Beginning April 23
The Tribeca Film Festival is a leaner affair this year, with most screenings limited to Lower Manhattan and Union Square and a fourth fewer features. But it still manages to pack the calendar with more screenings, panel discussions and other events than can reasonably be attended by even the most dedicated film buffs
Streetscape Makeovers Near Exchange
Make New York’s financial heart safe from terrorists, but beautify the streets and make them more friendly to pedestrians, too.
That was the city’s charge to Rogers Marvel Architects, whose designs for handsome sculptural bollards and “euro-cobble” are already in place near the New York Stock Exchange. The bollards replaced concrete barriers and large trucks filled with sand that blocked intersections and protected the exchange after Sept. 11.