James Cavanaugh Resigns from the Battery Park City Authority
James Cavanaugh, President and CEO of the Battery Park City Authority has resigned from the public entity, according to an emailed statement.
Citing the changes in the Battery Park City Authorities focus from buildings to people in the community, Cavanaugh also alluded to an attractive State offered early retirement option as one of his reasons for resignation.
He will officially leave his post in October and his successor has yet to be named. Sources speculate that the current Chief Operating Officer Gayle M. Horwitz would be a prime candidate for the President role.
William Thompson, current Battery Park City Authority chairman who himself was recently appointed by Governor Paterson, will be responsible for nominating the next President of the authority.
Cavanaugh joined the Battery Park City Authority in 2004 as its Chief Operating Officer and was named President in 2005. Prior to overseeing the public corporation he had served as a Supervisor for the Town of Eastchester in Westchester County, New York.
Although freedom of religion has been an important point in the debate surrounding the Park51 development, a new Quinnipiac Poll has been released confirming that New York voters defer to the sensitivities of 9/11 families.
According to the poll:
“By a 54 – 40 percent majority, voters agree “that because of American freedom of religion, Muslims have the right to build the mosque near Ground Zero,” the independent poll finds. Another 7 percent are undecided.
But these same voters agree 53 – 39 percent, with 8 percent undecided, “that because of the sensitivities of 9/11 relatives, Muslims should not be allowed to build the mosque near Ground Zero.
And by a 71 – 21 percent majority, voters agree “that because of the opposition of Ground Zero relatives, the Muslim group should voluntarily build the mosque somewhere else.
By a 45 – 31 percent margin, New York State voters say they have a “generally favorable” opinion of Islam, with 24 percent undecided.
The heated, sometimes angry, debate over the proposal to build a mosque two blocks from Ground Zero has New York State voters twisted in knots, with some of them taking contradictory positions depending on how the question is asked,” said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
A majority agrees that American freedom of religion gives Muslims the right to build the mosque near the site of the terrorist attack. Republicans disagree 54 – 39 percent.
Because of the sensitivities of relatives of the terrorist victims, an almost identical majority, including many of the same voters, believes Muslims should not be allowed to open the mosque.Overwhelmingly, across all party and regional lines, New Yorkers say the sponsors ought to voluntarily move the proposed mosque to another location,” Carroll added.
New York City voters say 63 – 28 percent that mosque proponents should voluntarily choose another site, compared to 76 – 17 percent among upstate voters and the same 76 – 17 percent among suburban voters.”
This weekend, I saw someone moving into this ridiculous apartment on Reade Street. Peeking into the place I wondered who was the lucky person who moved into our neighborhood.
I’m sure you’ve heard a lot about the challenging course of Park51, but we’re pretty sure New York became your “hole in one” once you heard about our even more infamous “Ground Zero Strip Clubs!”
There is the Pussycat Lounge on Greenwich or the New York Dolls on Murray Street!
Oh! I’m also sure that since New Yorkers don’t need cars — you won’t have to worry about crashing them in this part of the woods city! There’s always a cab around here somewhere.
Otherwise, we at BatteryParkCity.com offer you a warm welcome (if you are actually our neighbor) and would love to bump into you at the Whole Foods sometime.
Sincerely,
Your speculative Battery Park City and Tribeca neighbors
MTA's elimination of the M9 bus has affected Battery Park City residents
This summer’s cuts to MTA service left many Battery Park City residents in the lurch. The M9 bus was an important line to connect residents west of Broadway to points east, including Chinatown and much of the Lower East Side. (Of course, we also lost the convenience of the W train at area subway stops: a loss that, while not of the magnitude of the M9 removal, has added 15 minutes to this writer’s daily commute).
While the W train has waved its last goodbye, is there still hope for the M9?
Community Board 1’s Battery Park City Committee will be discussing the affects of losing the M9 bus in its next meeting on September 7th.
If you have been affected by the route elimination, please let us know how it has changed your commute — and what you have done to accomodate for the loss of service — by leaving a comment below or by emailing us at [email protected]. We’ll make sure to forward your stories to the committee to discuss during the September 7th session.
The Deconstruction of the former Deutsche Bank building.
The renaissance of the World Trade Center is coming into its own. As the new buildings carve out their space in the new skyline, there is one building we are happy to see come down.
The former Deutsche Bank building at 130 Liberty Street has been an unfortunate eyesore in the neighborhood for far too long. As fast as things are going up around here, it’s hard to ignore how slowly the building has come down — until recently. After a tough road for the demolition, including allegations of mismanagement, safety issues and the unfortunate deaths of two firefighters, the building is finally on-schedule for complete disassembling.
In June the New York City Department of Buildings approved a new method of demolition for the building that allows for the disassembling of large steel pieces. This new method has improved the process: nearly 20 stories have been deconstructed since last November.
The approval of an “around the clock” schedule has also helped, as construction crews have worked daily on the site from 7am until midnight. The new methods and accelerated schedule have brought about show swift progress in tearing down the last vestige of the 9/11 terror attacks.
As of the end of this month, only 8 stories of the building remain. Demolition is expected to be completed by December 2010/January 2011.
Illustration of the 9/11 Memorial at the World Trade Center site. (Credit: Renewnyc.com)
New life has been planted giving way to the birth of the 9/11 Memorial Center at the Ground Zero site over the weekend.
A welcomed change and a stark contrast to the hulking metallic structures we have grown accustomed to in our area.
The first trees have been planted after being transported from a New Jersey nursery. At least a dozen oak trees had been slated to be planted before the 9th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks.
Nearly 400 trees will be planted when the entire Memorial Plaza is completed. The trees are expected to be fully grown at 80 feet and will tower over a planned rooftop garden. The trees will be planted around the perimeters of the original footprints of the Twin Towers.
NJ Nursery where the memorial trees were cultivated (Credit: Renewnyc.com)
The planned location of the Park51 Community Center
Publishing a public statement this morning, Julie Menin, chairperson of Community Board #1 in Manhattan, made a public statement about the Park51 development.
CB#1 has been one of the earliest proponents for the development, but in today’s statement — shows that in light of national discord, the community board may be changing their tune. Julie Menin suggests an interfaith project should replace the original intent of the Park51 development.
The statement published in the NY Daily News reads as follows:
“The lower Manhattan community board 1 chair, Community Board 1, voted overwhelmingly to support the Islamic cultural center to be built two blocks away from Ground Zero when the project was presented to our board in May.
I stand by my vote.
That said, the project has now become a symbol of discord and dissidence, the white hot emotional center of a volcanic shouting match. Raw nerves have been exposed on both sides of an ugly religious and ethnic divide – and the gulf between supporters and opponents has only grown with each protest, each argument, each accusation.
Both sides claim the moral high ground – sustained on the one side by religious freedom and the other by preserving the sanctity of hallowed ground.
What started out as largely a local issue has now been overtaken by national partisan politics, with national politicians, many with their own agendas, weighing in on what is best for this community.
Now it is very clear that something must be done to address this dissension and to move to heal, not divide. I believe it is still possible to bridge the gap without compromising the core principles of what this project is about – not by moving the mosque further away from the site of the attacks, but by bringing other faiths in.
The mosque and community center near Ground Zero should not be enshrined as a battleground of discord, but rather be transformed into an inter-faith center for reconciliation and peace-containing nondenominational houses of worship to be shared by Muslims, Christians and Jews. Its purpose – to bring us closer together, not split us further apart – could be reaffirmed in modified plans.
Under this idea, there could be, as currently planned, two floors for the mosque – but there could also be a floor dedicated to an inter-faith, nondenominational space. In addition, a major national or local organization dedicated to spreading religious tolerance could establish a meaningful presence there. There are many such reputable groups that would surely welcome the opportunity to help heal.
The project, open to all, would celebrate all faiths and inter-faith understanding.
Government, of course, has no role, and should have no role, in determining the use of an as-of-right project (meaning, a project such as this that requires no city zoning approvals to be built.) This is particularly true when a religious use is involved. Only the developer of the project can and should decide what the use of the project will be.
With that said, the dissension surrounding this issue is simply not productive. We need to try to overcome the divide on this issue and teach the next generation how New York and America unified after 9/11 and how this country was founded on respect for all religions, freedom of religion and the right and ability for religions to peacefully co-exist in the melting pot that characterizes New York and America.
It may be hard for many to imagine in the wake of 9/11 that we can rise above gut feelings of pain and retribution. But we can take the harrowing horrors of 9/11 and bridge our differences, without erasing them.
There actually already is such a facility dedicated to bringing us all together. It exists on the grounds of the Pentagon, which was also attacked on 9/11. As part of an effort to heal and recover, an interfaith chapel was built on that hallowed ground. Its construction stirred no controversy. It is a place where Christians, Muslims and Jews can and do worship.
It is a small interfaith chapel, but it shines as a bright beacon.
How inspiring it would be for a similar beacon of hope to shine in lower Manhattan. We are the survivors of two attacks by terrorists. We need to reach out once again to our better selves, find common ground that reasserts our commonality of purpose and that unifies our community, our city and our nation.
The proposed Park51 cultural center offers many benefits, including recreational, cultural, educational and meeting facilities that our growing lower Manhattan community needs. And a floor or two devoted to celebrate Jewish, Christian and Muslim worship in a nondenominational setting would not simply help to overcome divisions, but serve as a model to the world of the resourcefulness, harmony and strength of this city, and this nation of immigrants we call America.
Menin is chairperson of Community Board 1 in lower Manhattan.”
As we at BatteryParkCity.com are quite partial to our pizza and Italian food, it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that our favorite community gardens are both P.S. 276’s Pizza Garden and The Mercy Corps Lasagna Garden.
From the opening of the brand new community garden plots around Memorial Day, we’ve been excited to see the growth of both plots as we approach Labor Day weekend.
Truth be told, we were initially confused by Mercy Corps’ lasagna technique, as the plot looked looked abandoned, covered in cardboard. Happily, Mercy Corps knew what they were doing, and their plot is growing taller than several others.
The Winter Garden will go back to it’s original roots as a connection to the World Trade Center.
In a move that is set to break hearts in our community, a likely victim will be the beloved World Financial Stairs. After several weeks of speculation and a protest from the SEBC union workers in the World Financial Center, the stairs will be demolished to make way for a connection path from the Fulton Street Transit Hub.
The World Financial Center was connected to World Trade Center mass transportation through the Vesey Street bridge, which was destroyed during the 9/11 terror attacks.
In light of the rebuilding of both the World Trade Center and Fulton Street Transit hub, Brookfield Properties has announced a plan to connect Battery Park City with an underground tunnel. According to Brookfield, keeping the Winter Garden Stairs “would not only create an obstacle between the escalators from the underground tunnel and the Winter Garden, but would also waste a once-in-a-century opportunity to open the interior of lower Manhattan to the waterfront,†according to letter correspondence between Brookfield and City Planning officials according to the Downtown Express.
It is speculated that by eliminating the stairs would also provide increasing retail space in the World Financial Center, increasing revenue for Brookfield Properties.
In July, Community Board 1 officials have put in a formal request that the stairs be preserved. They are often seen as a standing landmark of the terror attacks and also provide unparalleled views of the waterfront. Officials from City Planning as well as Brookfield properties are set to address the demolition of the stairs when the Community Board is back in session in September.
The top of the stairs is currently used by tourists as a prime viewing area of the World Trade Center site.
Residents have been disheartened by news of the potential demolition of the stairs,
“The Winter Garden, and especially the Staircase, has become an iconic symbol of renewal as well as being the most beautiful space downtown,” says Betty Heller on BatteryParkCity.com,“Â Destroying it would be an act of vandalism akin to the destruction of the Pennsylvania Railroad Station. Brookfield has been a remarkably good guardian of this precious space until now. It would be a shame to destroy their reputation.”
Lauryn Hill performing at Rock the Bells (Credit: Sway Calloway)
The Battery will not be the most electric spot this weekend.
The Rock the Bells tour will call upon some of hip hop music’s greatest will converge to perform it’s second to last show on Governor’s Island this weekend.
Musical legend and R&B recluse Lauryn Hill has come out of hiding to perform on this tour to fantastic reviews. Her performance in Governor’s Island is only a couple days after the 12 year anniversary of  ‘The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.’
Other artists set to perform include, Snoop Dogg, A Tribe Called Quest, Wu-Tang Clan, Slick Rick, KRS-One and many others.
