Elizabeth has been a resident of Battery Park City since 1985, where she and her sister were beneficiaries of the neighborhood's first school bus stop. She loves to travel, but loves even more to come home. The Battery Park Esplanade is her favorite neighborhood fixture, where you'll often find her soaking up the sun, rollerblading, or simply enjoying the view.
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For any New York City resident who calls a doorman part of their home, today is the fateful day for the settling of contract negotiations between the doormen’s union and New York City. If the two sides do not agree to a contract by midnight, doorman building residents will all turn into Cinderellas tomorrow, having to haul trash and accept their own packages (the horror!).
Here’s a quick rundown on how this possibly affects you — should you live in a doorman building. These are overall guidelines and may be different depending on your building.
Mayor Bloomberg in a land grab for Battery Park City
After successfully seeking control over Governors Island and Brooklyn Bridge Park, Mayor Bloomberg continues his game of Monopoly with his piece set on buying Battery Park City.
Comptroller John Liu is tasked with determining whether the takeover of Battery Park City from New York State makes sense for New York City. In a bid to help close the city’s budget deficit, acquiring Battery Park City would mean a constant flow of revenue from ground lease revenue and property taxes.
Although the city has had a longstanding option to acquire Battery Park City for a mere $1 dollar, tacked along with the purchase would be nearly $1 billion dollars in debt and high maintenance costs for the area.
The comptroller is also considering Battery Park City residents and commercial tenants opinions on the acquisition.
Whether or not the acquisition would follow through has yet to be seen, although it’s quite obvious that the plan has kicked in. Especially in light of Governor Patterson’s recent nomination of William Thompson as Battery Park City Authority’s new chairman.
New York Magazine’s Intelligencer has an interesting take on what this means, also mentioning that if the deal does not go through before September’s political primary — the likelihood that it deal would go through at all would be all but nullified.
How do you feel about about the possible acquisition of Battery Park City by the city and do you think this is a step in the right or wrong direction?
A 26-Year-Old resident was found dead donning latex and handcuffs in his apartment. Photo Credit: epicharmus (via Flickr)
A local lighting designer was found dead in his 90 West apartment yesterday, wearing a latex suit and mask, with his hands cuffed behind his back according to law enforcement officials.
Alejandro Bulaevsky, 26, a graduate of Parsons was discovered on his kitchen floor around 5:24 last night.
Police are saying there were no signs of forced entry and that there was no indication that anything had been stolen.
The authorities were tipped off by Bulaevsky’s boyfriend who had trouble reaching him, who in turned called his family — who contacted the super of his building. It was the super who found Bualevsky.
According to the NY Daily News article, Bulaevsky had been last seen on surveillance footage entering his building on Sunday night and did not report to work on Monday.
An autopsy is pending, a video reporting the death was posted on WPIX’s website.
Ciao Bella in the WFC vanished without a trace or clue.
You might have noticed that just in time for the early summer weather our local gelateria Ciao Bella has vanished.
The retail location of the popular Italian desert originally opened back on May 1, 2006, making the location a little less than 4 years old — although it has felt like it has been here forever.
-=UPDATE | April 22, 2010=-
While we were covering Tribeca Film Festivities, we were surprised to be greeted by a reopened Ciao Bella. Ciao indeed!
After shutting operations down for a week or so, it turns out the shop is back in working order and might make it’s 4th birthday after all. According to an employee in the shop — the owners had a dispute regarding renewing their lease forcing the store to close.
The employee also described the negotiations as “just like a marriage — when there is trouble you gotta work things out.”
It’s nice to know that the neighborhood’s best ice cream shop is back in business for the summertime.
With all the bridge construction confusion, comes an expensive solution — which might not be enough for the safety of our neighborhood.
The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LDMC) has issued a plan to spend $1.2 Million on a safety initiative to help increase the number of crossing guards in the area.
According to the Downtown Express, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver was the proponent behind the initiative which would hope to alleviate the hazards of school children crossing West Street to get to neighborhood schools including P.S./I.S. 276.
Although it seems like a large expense for the safety of our residents, the expenditure is below the estimated $2 Million it would take to have an “optimal solution” of 6 crossing guards manning Chambers, Warren, Murray and Albany Streets.
According to Silver in the article, “We’ll manage the $1.2 Million judiciously to see how long we can stretch it, obviously it’s going to have to supplemented — we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
If you’ve happened to pass by the Winter Garden you may have seen a stage set up for the New York – Transoceanic Sailing Record. Like so many of the random events occurring amongst the palm trees, you might have wondered what was this about? It really wasn’t until they screened the promotional video this week, did you realize the magnanimity of the event.
Apparently, two teams of sailboats sponsored by W Hotels and Estrella Damm, are in a race against themselves to make the journey across the Atlantic Ocean pond to be the first from New York to make it to Barcelona, which would be a new world sailing record. Each have three sailors from both nations. No matter which team wins, the recipe for the record will always go down as 2 Parts Spanish: 1 Part American.
The race commenced today with the Estrella Damm, co-skipped by Alex Pella, Pepe Ribes and Stan Schreyer, and the W Hotels, with Pachi Rivero, Tono Piris and Peter B. Becker led an inaugural departure at 11:00am (ET) in front of the North Cove Marina, where the boats were located since their arrival in New York two weeks ago. From there, they sailed through the Lower Bay and towards the Verrazano Bridge to their starting point: the Ambrose Light Meridian that they crossed in unison at 14:33h local time when the World Sailing Speed Record Council judges set the official chronometers that will record each boat’s time.
The improvement of the weather conditions, with southwest winds between 25 and 30 knots, has determined the departure date in order to achieve the best conditions to complete the record in the best possible time. According to Marcel Van Triest, official meteorologist of the New York – Barcelona Transoceanic Sailing Record, the conditions are ideal for the boats to sail at very high speeds during the first few hours.
According to the official website, the aim is not only to achieve this amazing record but “to strengthen the connection between New York and Barcelona with a strong socio-cultural, educational and sporting program.” What they probably didn’t tell us is that Soccer was their first choice sport, but would undoubtedly fall upon ambivalence on the United States side.
Sailing could not be a better choice of sport for our neighborhood, and an excellent way to kick off the spring sailing season in the North Cove Marina.
On a side note, we can’t help but mention that the 2:1 Spaniard ratio makes a heck of a lot of sense. I mean Ponce de Leon, Cortes, Balboa were experts in navigating the Atlantic pond — it’s in their Spanish blood!
We wish them well on their endeavors and if you’d like to find out more about the race, including a GPS tracking of their routes — check out the official website.
You have to admit. Battery Park City has the reputation of being an ostracized neighborhood. The big gaping hole we call Ground Zero doesn’t help much either. At times, BPC is more similar to a not so far New Jersey town than, you know… an actual Manhattan neighborhood.
While traveling up and down the West Side Highway, it’s a pretty sure bet that you’ve reached the Battery Park City limits with your first approach of a pedestrian bridge. Since it’s founding in the early 80’s, the pedestrian bridges were the traffic veins into our community. Unfortunately on September 11th, we lost one of our bridges due to the terrorist attacks — which introduced a system of some lesser beautiful, but still functional introduction of new bridges to help us cross our own boulevard of death — The West Side Highway.
For anyone who uses the Rector bridge daily, it’s access has been spotty with construction on the elevator and much needed repairs on the West Side Highway. As some of the surprises have been more of a hassle, there are also some friendly new experiences — like the waft of Christmas time you smell once you step onto the ramp. Back to the hassles – What is with this roundabout detour that we’re expected to add a good 3 minutes in our daily commute? I’m sure I’m not the only one who meets with great pleasure the renegade who insists on breaking through the cross tape and string that holds the futile barricade in place. Whoever you are, you’ve become my small daily hero.
It’s hard to ignore the fact that one of the longest standing bridges, The Liberty Bridge, is undergoing what looks like the birth of a new arm or something. The fact that it spits out to Albany causes some concern for the already difficult maneuver to the C&E trains.
Battery Park City has become the Sugar Mama of New York City
Any condo owner in Battery Park City knows that the cost of living in our neighborhood can be astronomical. Our land lease subsidies were originally meant to fulfill a need for affordable housing that had been usurped with the building of the Twin Towers back in the early 60’s. The fund has largely gone towards it’s original intent and maintenance of Battery Park City itself.
As the city and state face their own budget crises, Battery Park City’s surplus’ are now being allocated at a city and state level to fill their budget gaps. This controversial move has the blessing of the Governor, Mayor, Comptroller and the BPC Authority board.
The terms of the deal include allocating $400 Million to fill budget deficits on both city and state levels. The city will also borrow another $200 Million for affordable housing initiatives and another $200 Million for general capital projects. The deal involves borrowing nearly $900 Million dollars that will take two decades to restore from land lease charges from owners.
The city promises that the money borrowed will be matched and be dedicated to providing additional affordable housing between now and 2017.
This deal may have some unrealized ramifications to our neighborhood, including decreased property value. How do you feel about the allocation of Battery Park City funds throughout the city and state?
William Thompson newly appointed Battery Park City Authority Chairman
Governor Paterson announced his confirmation of former NYC mayoral candidate and Comptroller William C. Thompson to the Board of Directors of Battery Park City Authority.
According to a press release from the governor, “I am pleased to announce the confirmation of my colleauge and friend, Bill Thompson, to the Battery Park City Authority. Bill is a proven leader with significant experience in government. As the City’s former Comptroller, he worked tirelessly on behalf of all New York City residents. I look forward to working with him in making New York City and Battery Park City a better place to live, work and raise a family. ”
Mr. Thompson was most recently elected to serve two consecutive four-year terms as Comptroller of New York City, leading a team of 720 employees and managing a $66 million annual operating budget. Mr. Thompson’s early career roles included serving as Chief of Staff to a United States Congressman, and Deputy Borough President for the Office of the Brooklyn Borough President. Later, in the private sector, Mr. Thompson was a Senior Vice President in Public Finance at an investment banking firm. He returned to public service and was appointed to the New York City Board of Education where he served five terms as President of the nation’s largest school system with more than 130,000 employees and an annual budget of nearly $12 billion. As President, Mr. Thompson led policy development and implementation in a city of over 8 million residents with 1.1 million public school children.
Mr. Thompson received a B.A. in Political Science from Tufts University, where he currently serves as a Trustee Emeritus. He has received honorary degrees from Metropolitan College, Pace University, Mercy College and Long Island University.
Do you know how the MTA cuts affect your daily commute?
During this widespread recession, New Yorkers everywhere have tried to save on their daily commutes by relying heavily on public transportation. For us residents of Lower Manhattan, specifically Battery Park City, our commute just got crappier. On June 27, the transit changes go into effect which include the loss of key subway and bus lines in the downtown area. The W train, which directly served the Battery Park City community will stop it’s regular service on Friday, June 25th. It’s all a wee bit ironic, considering the state could be considered biting the hand that fed them some much needed financial infusion for their large budget gap.
The most contested transit change, the elination of the M22 was saved at the 11th hour. Saving an important route that served both the BPC and LES communities.
So what other changes will effect our area? We seek to list out some of the major changes and how many people will be affected by these changes:
Trains by Station:
1/9 – The 1 line will continue to have interrupted service on the weekends to accommodate the construction of the South Ferry/Fulton Street transit hubs.
W– Completely eliminated.
R-Â The R will replace the stops serviced by the defunct W line.
4/5/6– Unaffected. Service as usual to Fulton St., Wall St., Whitehall and Bowling Green stops.
A/C/E-Â The A/E will continue to have interrupted service on Sundays to accommodate the construction of the South Ferry/Fulton Street transit hubs.
J/M/Z– Reduced train frequencies on the weekends to accommodate the construction of the South Ferry/Fulton Street transit hubs.
Bus Routes:
M22- Weekend and Overnight service will be shortened.
M20- Service will be restructured and is TBD. Weekday and Weekend service will be shortened.
M9 – Service will be restructured and is TBD
Express Bus Routes:
X25 – Total Elimination (Route served Grand Central to Lower Manhattan)
X20-Â Total Elimination (Lower Manhattan to Staten Island)
X18– Total Elimination (Lower Manhattan to Staten Island)
X16– Total Elimination (Lower Manhattan to Staten Island)
X90– Total Elimination (Lower Manhattan to Yorkville)
