Basketball Set for Sony Pictures "Friends With Benefits"
Before you run out and bring your trusty basketball today to live up your hoop dreams — this isn’t what you think it is…
…and for all the volleyball lovers, don’t worry your net is coming back.
Justin Timberlake fans, on the other hand, pay attention.
The esplanade space located immediately south of the North Cove Marina will be a film set for the Sony Pictures movie, “Friends With Benefits” starring Justin Timberlake. The basketball court will obviously not be for public use, but you can be sure to catch a glimpse of the actors putting up their best lay ups for the next two days.
The film purportedly stars Mila Kunis, Emma Stone, Cam Gigandet, Patricia Clarkson, Lisa Kudrow, Thomas Haden Church and Stanley Tucci.
Co written and directed by Will Gluck, Friends with Benefits is about the relationship between two good friends (Timberlake and Kunis) who take it to the friends with benefits level, who surprise surprise — are secretly in love. Which obviously ruins their good thing.
For those who live on South End Avenue, the taxi stand will be parking for the movie set trucks. Parking on either side of South End Avenue between Liberty and Albany Streets will be limited during the next two days.
Not quite sure how basketball plays into this, but if you happen to catch the filming of the scene between today and tomorrow, let us know in the comments!
To everyone in plain sight, Sean Kimerling was the bastion of health. The local WPIX sportscaster and Mets pre-game announcer exercised daily, ate healthy and enjoyed playing golf whenever he could.
The Battery Park City resident had it all, good looks a great career but also didn’t know he also had cancer. After suffering through which he thought was exercise induced back pain, Sean Kimerling was diagnosed with testicular cancer and after fighting a short battle — succumbed to the disease. He was 37.
It was during his battle that he wanted to make a difference by bringing preventative care awareness to men. Armed with his wishes, his family set up the Sean Kimerling Foundation and nearly 7 years later the organization continues to help fight the disease through awareness in honor of the late sportscaster and fellow Battery Park City neighbor.
Testicular cancer is the most common cancer among young men between the ages of 15 and 40. It also has one of the highest cure rates of all cancers, with a survival rate of over 95 percent if detected and treated early . Our goal is that all men will have the information they need about the disease, its symptoms and what to do about them so that more cases will be diagnosed early, and lives saved.
The 7th Annual Celebrity Golf Tournament and Dinner which is held in honor of Sean, himself an avid golfer, will take place on August 9. For more information on how you can join this event who’s guests include Rick Ackerman, Ottis Anderson, Ron Darling, Darryl Strawberry and other sports legends, please vista their website here.
In our neighborhood, going to the “movies” was often a code word to go shoe shopping. However, Battery Park City shoe lovers will need a dose of retail therapy when their beloved DSW is slated to close September 3rd. Proving another store bites the dust to make way for the new Conrad Hotel in Battery Park City.
While this is terrible news for some, this is fantastic news for others. As Battery Park City husbands who have married shoe addicts are secretly rejoicing. No more requests to go to the shoe store before a movie.
Store employees confirmed with us that the store’s lease was not renewed and that another location was not planned for Downtown Manhattan. They also wanted to mention that customers could visit their Union Square and Downtown Brooklyn locations, but admitted visiting those locations is tantamount to a full contact sport and a “zoo.”
A formal sign had been placed in the lobby of the Union Square Theater on Sunday to further confirm the stores closing.
As a shoe lover, this one really takes a hit on my heels. How does DSW closing affect you?
As we hope everyone has stayed cool this weekend, welcome to BatteryParkCity.com’s “Week in Review.’ Every week, we’ll highlight  selected comments from the site. We urge you to find and add more comments to all our articles as we hope that this keeps the conversation going! As always, feel free to leave suggestions/comments for the rest of us on the site and in our posts.
Bad Service
In ‘Battery Park City Can You Hear Me Now? … Nope!‘
Diane wrote: “wow – does this resonate! I moved from 50 Murray Street west four blocks to the Solaire last year and it’s almost comical (when it’s not) that my AT&T blackberry NEVER EVER works in my apartment. I’ve considered getting the microcell but what’s the point? as soon as I walk outside – or up to my roof – I have the SAME PROBLEM. I did discover a 5 bar hot spot the other day while having a coffee at the new Pain Quotidien but generally speaking, this is a MAJOR problem which I’ve been told is related to our lovely green environment which doesn’t permit the installation of antennas in parks… something’s gotta give! and articles like these are key to getting the situation addressed as for respondents who claim their calls never drop, they’re lying! thanks for the forum. – Diane”
Swing Saga
In ‘Op Ed: Tire Swing Saga: Media Outlets Call BPC Residents “Wimps”‘
Steve Getchell wrote: “When I was a kid, we swung on a steel barbell weight attached to a steel cable wrapped in barbed wire, hung over a dirt patch filled with shards of glass. But I must admit we never hit our heads on anything but the ground. Those were the days.”
Sarah Palin
In ‘Sarah Palin “Refudiates” Ground Zero Mosque on Twitter’
john on west street wrote: “Americans & New Yorkers should welcome this mosque, masquerading as a community center, when Muslims invite America to build a community center or Dinosaur BBQ in Mecca/Makkah.
The America-hating, self-loathing political correctness that allows such an offense to materialize, is duplicitous, and to our own detriment.”
Bernard Kerik's opposition of mosque is released from prison.
Everyday another notable figure has come out in support or against building a mosque at Ground Zero. Today’s person of dissent is former New York City Police Commissioner, current inmate Bernard Kerik. This has left several people baffled — since most inmates are not allowed Internet access.
That did not stop Bernard Kerik to update both his twitter and his personal blog to oppose the development of Park51 by the Cordoba Initiative:
“Supporting the building of a Mosque just 600 feet from Ground Zero is absolutely outrageous, and for those politicians that are doing so under the guise of the First Amendment and Freedom of Religion, I would suggest that for once you not worry about being politically correct.
Think of the victims and the families they left behind on 9/11; the security implications for the surrounding area, the involvement in the project of those with questionable backgrounds and most importantly, the perception it will create in those countries and with those groups that sponsor Islamic terror. For them… this is the trophy that will stand as a symbol of victory.
This has nothing to do with religion… It’s just the right thing to do. Allowing this project to move forward is insensitive at best and should not be permitted.”
His twitter left a link pointing to a YouTube video produced by Frank Gaffney regarding the building of the mosque and an open message to America.
People speculate that Bernard Kerik has limited access to email approved family members, who in turn might have posted the items for him on his blog and Twitter account.
The latest politician to take an opposing stance regarding the Park51 Mosque at Ground Zero is Newt Gingrich. Which in itself isn’t very surprising. What is the most surprising revelation from his statement is that he’s bidding for the White House in 2012.
Gingrich’s statement on the mosque released last night reads as follows:
“There should be no mosque near Ground Zero in New York so long as there are no churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia. The time for double standards that allow Islamists to behave aggressively toward us while they demand our weakness and submission is over.
The proposed “Cordoba House” overlooking the World Trade Center site – where a group of jihadists killed over 3000 Americans and destroyed one of our most famous landmarks – is a test of the timidity, passivity and historic ignorance of American elites.  For example, most of them don’t understand that “Cordoba House†is a deliberately insulting term. It refers to Cordoba, Spain – the capital of Muslim conquerors who symbolized their victory over the Christian Spaniards by transforming a church there into the world’s third-largest mosque complex.
Today, some of the Mosque’s backers insist this term is being used to “symbolize interfaith cooperation” when, in fact, every Islamist in the world recognizes Cordoba as a symbol of Islamic conquest.  It is a sign of their contempt for Americans and their confidence in our historic ignorance that they would deliberately insult us this way.
Those Islamists and their apologists who argue for “religious toleration” are arrogantly dishonest. They ignore the fact that more than 100 mosques already exist in New York City. Meanwhile, there are no churches or synagogues in all of Saudi Arabia. In fact no Christian or Jew can even enterMecca.
And they lecture us about tolerance.
If the people behind the Cordoba House were serious about religious toleration, they would be imploring the Saudis, as fellow Muslims, to immediately open up Mecca to all and immediately announce their intention to allow non-Muslim houses of worship in the Kingdom. Â Â They should be asked by the news media if they would be willing to lead such a campaign.
We have not been able to rebuild the World Trade Center in nine years. Now we are being told a 13 story, $100 million megamosque will be built within a year overlooking the site of the most devastating surprise attack in American history.
Finally where is the money coming from? The people behind the Cordoba House refuse to reveal all their funding sources.
America is experiencing an Islamist cultural-political offensive designed to undermine and destroy our civilization. Sadly, too many of our elites are the willing apologists for those who would destroy them if they could.
No mosque.
No self deception.
No surrender.
The time to take a stand is now – at this site on this issue.”
How is your cell phone reception in Battery Park City?
Caller: Hello?
Me: Yes.. Can you..
Caller: You’re really breaking up.
Me: Yes I know… can you..
Caller: I can’t — You’re really breaking up.
No, this is not a scene from a bad romantic comedy, this is a seemingly every call occurrence made from my cellphone in Battery Park City.
Added to the litany of issues I have with my iPhone 4 and my ever super human “death grip,” I’ve had quite enough with the cellular service, or lack thereof in this neighborhood.
In an effort to find some answers — or at the very least attempt to find some maps letting me know where in Battery Park City one would have the best shot at making an important call, an interesting website surfaced.
Cellreception.com is a cell review site which does product and service reviews throughout the United States. Although it’s pretty rudimentary in collecting data (you have to sift through piles of comments), sometimes leaving you to wonder if the phone issues are actually more user error than cell reception dead zones.
Some Battery Park City related complaints I found on the Internet include:
A Verizon Customer:
“Verizon’s signal fades in and out, and there is no consistency. Very high probability of call being dropped.” – Person in Rector Place
A Cingular/AT&T Customer:
“My roommate has Cingular and can only get reception in 1 corner of our apartment” – Person in Battery Park Area
A T-Mobile Customer:
“I live in NYC, Battery park city and I have had little or no service the last year I have been living here, The customer service is Horrible, THEY REALLY DO NOT CARE AND CANNOT FIX THE PROBLEM! tried to switch to a new phon(which they made me pay for, LOL) PLEASE DO NOT GO WITH T-MOBILE IN NYC, THIS IS HORRENDOUS SERVICE AND RECEPTION.” -Christine from Battery Park City
In another cell reeption data study, the Wall Street Journal had published an article stating that the worst cell reception areas are located in and around the West Side Highway. In an included reception map, the area near Battery Park City suggests that no one in our neighborhood ever experiences dropped calls. Which I find incredibly hard to believe.
According to the recent Nielsen study, only 92% of all cell phone calls go through in New York City. Those figures are not enough, what I really want to know is how many phone calls actually go through in Battery Park City.
So now we ask you the question: How is your cell service?
The "Tire Swing Saga" has media outlets calling residents "wimps."
For the past few months, the arrival of the new West Thames playground on Memorial Day weekend has been warmly received. An elaborate ribbon cutting was witnessed by dozens of parents and their children to open the long awaited new tire swing park. On that very same day, a couple of children swinging on the now vilified tire swing “conked” their heads, a term used by Curbed to describe the incident. Curbed went on to mock parents who continue to bring their children to the park by describing them as leading their “children to slaughter.”
As a former kid who enjoyed the original tire swing park, there will always be a soft spot in my heart for the old wooden structure and a little bit of sadness that the park is now gone. There are times where I’ve believed that  maybe all of this hullabaloo is a bit of karma from the tire swing gods in the sky — or is it?
Curbed writer Joey reported the story the way it should have been covered — with a bit of jest and humor. While other local news outlets have been reporting this situation with disconcerting seriousness, the candor and ribbing from Curbed is appreciated. Joey proceeds to call Battery Park City residents “wimps” for complaining about a tire swing that has been installed in the same manner in parks — including a dozen in Central Park — all across the city. To placate the controversy, new signs are being installed to warn parents with height-blessed children (of over 4 feet) to avoid using the tire swing.
Yet, there is another thread running through the “Tire Swing Saga.”
When the original tire swing park was slated for demolition (to make way for the extension of the pedestrian path last year), a coalition in support of keeping the original park surfaced. The “Coalition to Save Tire Swing Park” was lead by Matthew Fenton. Ironically, the same man whose own child was one of the very first to be injured by the new tire swing — on the exact day the park opened to the public.
(Matthew Fenton is a writer for the local paper, The Broadsheet — which has been following the tribulations of the on-going tire swing saga very closely. Mr. Fenton didn’t attribute himself as “one of those parents” within the article, but the connection was indicated by a small editors note at the end of the article).
In a recent hearing, Jeff Galloway, CB1 member and BPC resident asked, “Is there something peculiar about Battery Park City where we’re not prepared to take a risk everyone else is willing to take? Kids will get hurt in this playground. Kids get injured all the time. Is this risk greater than other risks?”
Truer words were never said, Jeff. Can we now put the Tire Swing Saga to rest and let what happens in the playground stay in the playground?
After a decade long battle over a painting that had been seized by its original owner during WWII by Nazi troops is finally coming to a close.
In 1997, The Leopold Museum in Vienna had loaned Egon Schiele’s Portrait of Wally to the Museum of Modern Art. Once on display, US officials then seized the art piece in 1998 after the estate of original owner Lea Bondi Jaray made claims that the art work was handed over by the Nazi’s under duress, right before she fled Austria.
Lea Bondi Jaray died in 1969.
The US government has the right to seek paintings under the National Stolen Property Act, which allows for the confiscation of property over $5000 which have been known to be stolen or taken by fraud. The value of the painting at that time was estimated to be around $2 million dollars.
In a deal settled yesterday in Manhattan federal court, the Leopold Museum agreed to pay the heirs of  Lea Bondi Jaray as stipulated in a settlement documents released by the estate lawyers. The terms of the settlement are as follows:
(a) the Leopold Museum pays the Estate $19 Million;
(b) the Estate releases its claim to the Painting;
(c) the United States Government dismisses the civil forfeiture action it brought against the Leopold Museum and releases the Painting to the Leopold Museum;
(d) the Leopold Museum will permanently display signage next to the Painting at the Leopold Museum, and at all future displays of the Painting of any kind that the Leopold Museum authorizes or allows anywhere in the world, that sets forth the true provenance of the Painting, including Lea Bondi Jaray’s prior ownership of the Painting and its theft from her by a Nazi agent before she fled to London in 1939; and
(e) before it is transported to the Leopold Museum in Vienna, the Painting will be publicly exhibited at the Museum of Jewish Heritage — A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, in New York, beginning with a ceremony commemorating the legacy of Lea Bondi Jaray and the successful resolution of the lawsuit.
And so, it is almost a decade later the saga of the stolen painting ends but is available to us to view for the next three weeks right here in Battery Park City. Representatives of the estate wanted to highlight the importance of showcasing the work at the Museum. According to the statement by Jaray’s estate:
“Representatives of the Estate expressed their appreciation at reaching this historic settlement, which reflects the true value of the Painting, and acknowledges Lea Bondi Jaray’s ownership of the Painting and her and her family’s long quest for justice. In addition, they underscored that the public display of the Painting at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York will mean that visitors will be able to view the Painting in a setting that memorializes the sufferings of so many in the Holocaust and the resilience and resolve of those who escaped and/or survived. They added that the permanent signage reflecting the Painting’s true provenance will ensure that future generations are told the real story of the Painting’s theft from Lea Bondi Jaray during the Nazi era.”
According to the family, “Finally after more than 70 years, the wrongs suffered by Lea Bondi Jaray are at least being acknowledged and, to some degree, corrected.”
Former supervisors plead not guilty to manslaughter charges.
Supervisors being charged for the deadly fire at the former Deutsche Bank building in 2007 are claiming they are being “scapegoated.”
Mitchel Alvo, Jeffrey Melofchik and Salvatore DePaola have pled not guilty to manslaughter in the fire that killed two firefighters responding to the blaze.
The three men all had roles related to the safety of the site including asbestos-removal foreman to site safety manager.
According to a report from the Associated Press, prosecutors allege that “Alvo, Melofchik and DePaola knew that a vital firefighting water pipe was broken, did nothing about it and covered it up. The disabled pipe called a standpipe, cost firefighters critical time in getting water on the flames, playing a crucial role in creating the smoky inferno that ultimately killed firefighters Robert Beddia and Joseph Graffignino.”
However, the defense team claim the men did not realize the pipe was in fact a standpipe as it had never been identified by inspectors as such before the blaze. The inoperable pipe has been blamed as instrumental in the deaths of the firefighters. Their attorneys have claimed their clients are nothing short of taking the fall for other infallible organizations on the chain, including government agencies who are immune from criminal prosecutions.
“Why are they scapegoating a few defenseless people at the bottom of the line?” Edward J.M. Little, Melofchik’s attorney questioned during the hearing.
The lawyers of the defendants are calling for a dismissal of the case for a lack of evidence, while also claiming that had the standpipe been in proper working order, “The firefighters would have died anyway.”
The trial is set for January 18 and the dismissal motion will be heard on October 21.
