Happy Birthday Earth Day! Today is the 40th anniversary of Earth Day and in celebration of this occasion there will be all-day events in and around the neighborhood. Being that our neighborhood is considered one of the greenest in the nation, we cannot back down on festivities. Events which include everything from Bird Watching with the BPC Parks Conservancy to arts and crafts event at the NYPL for children, there is something for everyone today. Find out more about the events with our rundown.
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The pedestrian detour on the Liberty Street Bridge.
The Liberty Bridge has survived many years of pedestrian traffic, not to mention the events Sept. 11. Starting today, daily users of the bridge will be forced to follow the new pedestrian traffic patterns.
The Port Authority has commenced construction on a pedestrian detour that will take people off the side of the Liberty Street Bridge and stretch all the way to Church Street on the east side of the World Trade Center (WTC) site.
Traffic patterns are changing to accommodate for the construction of a new underground parking facility. The annex and pedestrian detour will add some time to your daily commute, but will ultimately help commuters to completely bypass crossing the 16-acre WTC construction zone.
According to a report from 1010 Wins, “the change will pave the way for excavation to begin for the Vehicle Security Center, the main entrance to the underground parking and delivery areas at the trade center complex.”
TFF goes green for 'Shrek Forever After' premiere.
What do Shrek, Robert De Niro and Beastie Boys band member Mike D have in common? They’re all descending upon Lower Manhattan this week to celebrate the ninth birthday of the Tribeca Film Festival, running April 21 to May 2.
The 2010 fest, which kicks off tonight at the Ziegfeld Theater with the star-studded red-carpet premiere of Shrek Forever After, has come a long way since its inaugural run in 2002. Back then, with Tribeca still trying to shake off the sorrow and dust of the unimaginable tragedy of Sept. 11, acting legend and Tribeca resident Bobby De Niro, his producing partner Jane Rosenthal and her husband Craig Hatkoff banded together to found the annual celebration of film, music and culture with one ambitious goal in mind: rejuvenate the neighborhood economically, culturally, spiritually.
Their gambit seems to have succeeded. What began as a modest forum for the work of indie filmmakers and documentarians has blossomed into one of the premier film fests in America, attracting tiny independent movies and gargantuan blockbusters alike. But, more importantly, the festival coaxes visitors to Tribeca, once again a vibrant community bursting with beautiful parks, exceptional restaurants and a bounty of things to do.
Residents all over the city let out a sigh of relief this morning when they were able to greet their doorman on their way to work today. The doorman strike, which threatened to cripple the privileges of the upper crust by way of losing the ability to having Fresh Direct sent to their door.
The Service Employees International Union, Local 32BJ that represents doorman and the property owners of nearly 3,2000 buildings which employ them were able to reach a resolution, averting a strike that was to start at 7am this morning.
The major point of contention was the proposed cuts in doormen’s health care and other benefits. Ultimately both sides agreed to a four year contract which includes a 10% increase and no cuts to benefits.
One can make light of the possibility of a strike as affected only the high brow parts of society, except that history proves the severity of a doorman strike. In 1991, a strike lasted for 12 days during which garbage had piled up on sidewalks and deemed a public health nuisance because sanitation workers refused to cross picket lines. A more serious aggravation as compared to losing the ability to have someone help you with your luggage.
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.
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.
