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.
Larry Silverstein, Developer of World Trade Center
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, owners of the World Trade Center Site will be holding a special meeting today to vote on the funding required for two towers being developed by Larry Silverstein.
The vote that takes place today will solidify tentative deals announced between the Port Authority and Larry Silverstein in recent weeks.
The financing terms call for $1 billion dollars help from the Port Authority to develop a 64-story tower at the World Trade Center site. The Port Authority will also provide $600 million in backup funds for another 71-story tower, contingent on Silverstein being able to raise $200 million in cash as well as tenants for the building.
These two buildings are being constructed in tandem with 1 World Trade Center which was previously known as the Freedom Tower.
It’s quite unbelievable that we are embarking on the 9th anniversary of 9/11.
For years after the attacks, I refused to face Ground Zero while passing south on the West Side Highway.
Partially because it pained me to see the area, but also because I wanted to remember everything that I loved so much about the Twin Towers. Simple memories, like tasting my first Krispy Kreme donut to meeting my high school sweetheart at the Path station.
This time, the road to the anniversary has been paved in controversy surrounding the Park51 center. The political firestorm has overshadowed the progress and positive rebuilding of our area that so many of us are looking forward to.
So, in light of the anniversaries — We’d like for you to share your memories, pre and post 9/11, thoughts and hopes for our neighborhood as we are moving through its metamorphosis.
We’re looking for pictures and stories from our neighbors and community members in our area. We will post as many as we get! Even if it’s only 1 or 2!
This site is as much yours as it is ours here at BatteryParkCity.com and it would be an honor to help share some of your stories with all our readers on the site.
To submit your shared stories, pictures and thoughts please reach out to us:
Mayor Michael Bloomberg held a dinner at Gracie Mansion in celebration of Ramadan. We’ve included a transcript and video of his dinner speech:
“Well, good evening, and Ramadan Kareem, and I want to welcome everyone to our annual Ramadan Iftar at Gracie Mansion.
“We call this ‘The People’s House,’ because it belongs to all 8.4 million New Yorkers who call this city home. And people of every race and religion, every background and belief. And we celebrate that diversity here in this house with gatherings like this one.
“And for me, whether it’s marking St. Patrick’s Day or Harlem Week or any other occasion, these gatherings are always a powerful reminder of what makes our city so strong and our country so great.
“You know, America is a nation of immigrants, and I think it’s fair to say no place opens its doors more widely to the world than New York City. America is the land of opportunity, and I think it’s fair to say no place offers its residents more opportunity to pursue their dreams than New York City. And America is a beacon of freedom, and I think it’s fair to say no place defends those freedoms more fervently, or has been attacked for those freedoms more ferociously, than New York City.
“In recent weeks, a debate has arisen that I believe cuts to the core of who we are as a city and a country. The proposal to build a mosque and community center in Lower Manhattan has created a national conversation on religion in America, and since Ramadan offers a time for reflection, I wanted to take a few minutes to reflect on that very subject.
“There are people of good will on both sides of the debate, and I would hope that everyone can carry on a dialogue in a civil and respectful way. In fact, I think most people now agree on two fundamental issues: First, that Muslims have a constitutional right to build a mosque in Lower Manhattan and second, that the site of the World Trade Center is hallowed ground. And the only question we face is: how do we honor that hallowed ground?
“The wounds of 9/11 are still very much with us. And I know that is true for Talat Hamdani, who is here with us tonight, and who lost her son, Salman Hamdani, on 9/11. There will always be a hole in our hearts for the men and women who perished that day.
“After the attacks, some argued – including some of those who lost loved ones – that the entire site should be reserved for a memorial. But we decided – together, as a city – that the best way to honor all those we lost, and to repudiate our enemies, was to build a moving memorial and to rebuild the site.
“We wanted the site to be an inspiring reminder to the world that this city will never forget our dead and never stop living. We vowed to bring Lower Manhattan back – stronger than ever – as a symbol of our defiance and I think it’s fair to say we have. Today, it is more of a community neighborhood than ever before, with more people than ever living, working, playing and praying there.
“But if we say that a mosque or a community center should not be built near the perimeter of the World Trade Center site, we would compromise our commitment to fighting terror with freedom.
“We would undercut the values and principles that so many heroes died protecting. We would feed the false impressions that some Americans have about Muslims. We would send a signal around the world that Muslim Americans may be equal in the eyes of the law, but separate in the eyes of their countrymen. And we would hand a valuable propaganda tool to terrorist recruiters, who spread the fallacy that America is at war with Islam.
“Islam did not attack the World Trade Center – Al-Qaeda did. To implicate all of Islam for the actions of a few who twisted a great religion is unfair and un-American. Today we are not at war with Islam – we are at war with Al-Qaeda and other extremists who hate freedom.
“At this very moment, there are young Americans – some of them Muslims – standing freedoms’ watch in Iraq and Afghanistan, and around the world. A couple here tonight, Sakibeh and Asaad Mustafa, have children who have served our country overseas and after 9/11, one of them aided in the recovery efforts at Ground Zero. And I’d like to ask them to stand, so we can show our appreciation. There you go. Thank you.
“The members of our military are men and women at arms – battling for hearts and minds. And their greatest weapon in that fight is the strength of our American values, which have already inspired people around the world. If we do not practice here at home what we preach abroad – if we do not lead by example – we undermine our soldiers. We undermine our foreign policy objectives. And we undermine our national security.
“In a different era, with different international challenges facing the country, President Kennedy’s Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, explained to Congress why it is so important for us to live up to our ideals here at home. Dean Rusk said, ‘The United States is widely regarded as the home of democracy and the leader of the struggle for freedom, for human rights, for human dignity. We are expected to be the model.’
“We are expected to be the model. Nearly a half-century later, his words remain true. In battling our enemies, we cannot rely entirely on the courage of our soldiers or the competence of our diplomats. We all have to do our part.
“Just as we fought communism by showing the world the power of free markets and free elections, so must we fight terrorism by showing the world the power of religious freedom and cultural tolerance. Freedom and tolerance will always defeat tyranny and terrorism – and that’s the great lesson of the 20th century, and we must not abandon it here in the 21st.
“Now I understand the impulse to find another location for the mosque and community center. I understand the pain of those who are motivated by loss too terrible to contemplate. And there are people of every faith – including, perhaps, some in this room – who are hoping that a compromise will end the debate.
“But it won’t. The question will then become, how big should the ‘no-mosque zone’ be around the World Trade Center site? There is already a mosque four blocks away. Should it be moved?
“This is a test of our commitment to American values. We have to have the courage of our convictions. We must do what is right, not what is easy. And we must put our faith in the freedoms that have sustained our great country for more than 200 years.
“Now, I know that many in this room are disturbed and dispirited by the debate. But it’s worth keeping some perspective on the matter. The first colonial settlers came to these shores seeking religious liberty and the founding fathers wrote a constitution that guaranteed it. They made sure that in this country government would not be permitted to choose between religions or favor one over another.
“Nonetheless, it was not so long ago that Jews and Catholics had to overcome stereotypes and build bridges to those who viewed them with suspicion and less than fully American. In 1960, many Americans feared that John F. Kennedy would impose papal law on America. But through his example, he taught us that piety to a minority religion is no obstacle to patriotism. It is a lesson I think that needs updating today, and it is our responsibility to accept the challenge.
“Before closing, let me just add one final thought: Imam Rauf, who is now overseas promoting America and American values, has been put under a media microscope. Each of us may strongly agree or strongly disagree with particular statements that he has made. And that’s how it should be – this is New York City.
“And while a few of his statements have received a lot of attention, I would like to read you something that he said that you may not have heard. At an interfaith memorial service for the martyred journalist Daniel Pearl, Imam Rauf said, quote, ‘If to be a Jew means to say with all one’s heart, mind, and soul: Shma` Yisrael, Adonai Elohenu Adonai Ehad; Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One, not only today I am a Jew, I have always been one.’
He then continued to say, ‘If to be a Christian is to love the Lord our God with all of my heart, mind and soul, and to love for my fellow human being what I love for myself, then not only am I a Christian, but I have always been one.’
“In that spirit, let me declare that we in New York are Jews and Christians and Muslims, and we always have been. And above all of that, we are Americans, each with an equal right to worship and pray where we choose. There is nowhere in the five boroughs of New York City that is off limits to any religion.
“By affirming that basic idea, we will honor America’s values and we will keep New York the most open, diverse, tolerant, and free city in the world. Thank you and enjoy.â€
