18th Century Ship Found At World Trade Center Site (Courtesy: NYTimes/Fred R. Conrad)
If you dig up the past — you’re bound to find something. That’s exactly what archaeologists hired at World Trade Center site were hoping for by working alongside construction crews.
Lower Manhattan since the 18th century has been expanded through the use of landfill. In fact, Battery Park City, our lovely neighborhood, is built upon the land excavation of landfill from the original World Trade Center site in the 1960s. So when an approximately 32 foot hull of an 18th century boat was found — it wasn’t to anyones complete surprise, but the fact that the structure had been largely undisturbed for 200 years at the Liberty Street and Cedar was.
The New York Times has an amazing photographic accounting of the site is astounding and definitely check it out!
One great quote from their article is regarding how lucky they were to have rain yesterday, “Doug Mackey, the chief regional archaeologist for the New York State Historical Preservation Office, was greatful for the rainfall. “If the sun had been out,” he said, “the wood would already have started to fall apart.”
Also according to the article, “A 1797 map shows that the excavation site is close to where Lindsey’s Wharf and Lake’s Wharf once projected into the Hudson. So, no matter how many mysteries now surround the vessel, it may turn out that the ghost even has a name.”
Pretty cool. Who knows  what treasures lie under Battery Park City. Can you imagine? In the future someone is going to dig up a Volkswagon Beetle or a Pinto as they take the metal on their spaceships.
Network brass at CBS and NBC have declined airing ads from the National Republican Trust PAC calling for the opposition of the Ground Zero mosque, or Park51 during commercial breaks.
The ad which has been streamed on YouTube, posted almost 2 weeks ago — uses uneasy images from the attacks on 9/11 edited with the sounds of Muslim prayers and negative imagery of Muslim extremists. Comments have been suspended on this video, but have streamed almost 102K by the publishing of this article.
The video includes the following narration,
“On September 11, they declared war agains us… and to celebrate that murder of 3,000 Americans, they want to build a monstrous 13-story mosque at Ground Zero.”
According to Ben Smith at Politico, NBC Universal Ad Standards manager Jennifer Riley released the following statement,
“An ad questioning the wisdom of building a mosque at ground zero would meet our issues of public controversy advertising criteria. However, this ad which ambiguously defines ‘they’ as referenced in the spot makes it unclear as to whether the reference is to terrorists or to the Islamic religious organization that is sponsoring the building of the mosque. Consequently, the ad is not acceptable under our guidelines for broadcast.”
A similar statement was released by a counterpart at CBS.
Of course one might wonder what about ABC, Fox, CW and other major networks? We’ll have to literally stay tuned to see if these videos will make it into our living rooms.
James Blachly conducts Mahlers 4th to benefit All Souls Camp in New Orleans
As busy as we all get, everyone has a dream. James Blachly is no exception.
Navigating through the hustle and bustle of Lower Manhattan, this distinguished composer/conductor and Trinity Choir member often dreamt of re-creating the Lucerne Festival Orchestra.
“I attended and watched rehearsals and fell in love with the performance of Mahlers 4th Symphony. To me it was like paradise. I realized then, to work on this piece would be a great priviledge.”
Tonight that dream will be realized — as Blachly along with colleague Owen Dalby have assembled The Sheep Island Ensemble, in what they consider to be a “dream team” of young professional musicians across New York to perform Mahlers 4th 6PM tonight at Trinity Church.
Lucky for the rest of us, tonight’s performance is free — with a suggested $20 donation — in which proceeds will go to The All Souls Music Camp, which is dedicated to providing music education of children living in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans.
Although tonight’s concert isn’t explicitly connected with Trinity Church — being a Trinity Choir member helped the musicians score the location in light of supporting The All Souls Music Camp.
The All Souls Music Camp began in 2009 with 12 students, and has grown to 51. It’s a program for children from 3-16 and provides formal training in choral singing, strings, composition and music literacy. It was the brainchild of a local church that had began in an abandoned Walgreens turned community center for the children of the Ninth Ward.
As a volunteer for the All Souls Camp, tonights concert can be considered a full circle for Blachly. For he credits his education in Stuyvesant for the music education that led him to his profession.
“It was during my senior of Stuyvesant that I decided to be a classical musician professionally and practiced 5 hours a day to make it into and attend Oberlin.”
As part of the prestigious Trinity Choir, he appreciates being close to the World Trade Center site as keeping him connected to the post 9/11 world  — helping him to keep connected to the reality of what it takes to help a community after disaster. Many of the students of All Souls can relate to in their post Katrina world.
” [The All Souls Camp] is a really beautiful community and they have grown a lot over the past 5 years. We’ve been involved for the past 2 years and I realize that music can inspire and remind us of the most exalted state of humanity.”
For those interested in attending, please find the information below:
The New York City Summer Mahler Project
Mahler’s 4th Symphony
Date: Wednesday, July 14th, 2010
Time: 6:00 PM
Location: Trinity Church Wall Street
At the Intersection of Wall Street and Broadway
Tickets: Free with $20 Donation to benefit the All Souls Music Camp in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans
Telephone: (212)-866-0468 (GEMS) or (646) 320-5583 (Blachly)
Park 51 is the new name for the Cordoba House Mosque
In a swift marketing move, the Cordoba Initiative Mosque has a new name — Park51.
The name changed is seen as an effort to quell the controversy from the development of the mosque and Muslim community center by giving it an almost innocuous, generic name, sounding more like a new condominium construction than a mosque.
According to a report in the New York Daily News, “Spokesman Oz Sultan said the new name puts emphasis on the community center aspect of the project rather than religion.”
The address of the planned center is slated to take the entire block region 41-51 Park Place, which one could assume inspired the World Trade Center mosques new name.
It’s a sharp move considering that the part of the block that has been in contention is the portion of 45-47 Park Place. This may be a preemptive branding move and a statement by developers to say that regardless of the ruling, the community center will at the very least reside at 51 Park Place.
The Commission will determine the Landmark fate of 45-47 later in the summer. A ruling which is seen to determine the development of the mosque in our neighborhood.
A representative from the management company sent Batteryparkcity.com an email:
“As you may have seen, the former JJ Deli is once again going to be a deli of higher quality. They should be open in the next few months.”
Further questions about the name, types of food and whether or not it will be 24 hours are unconfirmed, but information will be forthcoming!
Thankfully it’s not a Duane Reade!
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Whenever I think of JJ’s deli, I’m brought back to 1989-1990 when in an undiagnosed ADD stupor, I left my clarinet at the candy section while waiting for the school bus — sadly, the clarinet was never found again.  A traumatic experience for me and a costly mistake for my parents who wanted to make sure I had no excuse to drop out of the school’s band. I digress.
On Monday, around 5pm — I received 3 emails within a 10 minute period from readers asking the same question:
“What’s going on with the old JJ’s Deli?”
As this site can only find its true potential through contribution — suggestions and questions included — I embarked on my first investigative report on behalf of our neighborhood and readers.
After taking some quick pictures of the permits on the door, I made my transformation into gumshoe.
First stop on the beat — Gatehouse. (I was hungry and it was dinner time). Friend and manager Joe had told me that he thought that JJ’s was turning into another 24 Hour deli or a 7-Eleven. He too hoped I would reveal the identity of Gatehouse’s impending neighbor. After dinner, I decided to dream of Slurpees on the esplanade, determined to try and find answers the next morning.
Yesterday, emails and calls were made immediately to the most logical source — the RY Management office.
A quick search through the NYC Department of Buildings site did not yield any information on what is to replace JJ’s. Information I did discern from the search was that the use of the location would not be changed and new refrigeration units would be installed. The construction company on the permit gave two names: Happy Garden Construction Corp. and Peter Plumbing Associates Inc.
Undergoing a search of the Happy Garden Construction Corp, I yielded an address of their last construction site on 7th avenue in Chelsea which included an area in which a Baskin Robbins/Dunkin Donuts combo was located. Since franchises almost always come in multiples (and a new location had opened at 88 Greenwich street), I felt this was a good direction.
Calls to Dunkin Donuts Corporate confirmed there were new locations scheduled for lower Manhattan, just not for 300 Albany Street. Additional calls to 7-Eleven Corporate Offices and Happy Garden Construction Corporation were not returned.
I did finally receive an email back from the property manager at RY Management. In his cordial email he said, “At this time, I can not release any information on this site, but once I am able to, I will let you know.”
At first I asked my computer screen, “Why not?” — then I realized that contracts might not be finalized, or any number of other reasons could be behind the secrecy.
I reached out to the readers who emailed me with the information so far, and will continue to update everyone as I learn more. One of those readers, Stephen, came up with a brilliant idea of what should happen with the now vacant location:
“Turn it into a 24 shop/cafe. During the day — have it setup for strollers and families of all sorts, serve ice cream, fro yo, etc — it will be an afterschool paradise… post 9PM — serve alcohol and light fare — believe me as one of them — the parents of BPC have nowhere close to go for a quick drink or meet-up AND buy milk… would do gangbusters… now i just need a million to get started! :)”
An all and all excellent idea in my book. Or an IHOP might be nice too!
If you should have any information — please share with the rest of us!
Debris landing from 9/11 attacks used in hearing for landmark status.
As the rain poured outside, people poured inside the New York City Landmarks Commission public hearing. Despite the inclement weather nearly 100 people were in attendance at the hearing in Hunter College. A dozen or so individuals were able to take the floor including public opponent and New York State Governor hopeful Rick Lazio — who offered a different strategy to halt the Mosque’s construction by claiming the building at Park Place was worthy of landmark recognition. Even citing debris that had fallen on the building during the 9/11 attacks.
“I urge the commission to grant landmark status to 45 Park Place, [to] take into account important historical facts.”
Gubernatorial hopeful Carl Paladino was also represented by his lieuenant governor Tom Ognibene who agreed with Lazio stating the building of the mosque would be “an affront to the families that have died.”
Linda Rivera, a family member of a 9/11 victim suggested, “the building should be a landmark building. It should not be a mosque.”
Brooklyn resident, Barbara Sommer decried the sentiments and questioned “How can we allow something to eradicate that memory — the pain and suffering.”
While nearly a dozen others voiced their opinions at the hearing, a religious turf war had been established when Bill Keller of LivePrayer.com (of no relation to the New York Times editor) had sent out a press release stating he would bid on creating a Christian center within the heart of Ground Zero. As of yesterday, his site had been actively seeking donations to fund the construction and is slated to start a satellite prayer center at the Embassy Suites hotel in the northern section of our neighborhood every Sunday starting September 5th until December 26th — until a final home has been found for the Christian center. (I wonder if the group knows that Goldman Sachs is planning on closing the hotel down soon?)
It seems our neighborhood has become a religious battle ground overnight. Are we OK with this?
In the most contentious and controversial real estate construction plan in recent memory, today a meeting will be held to determine the fate of the Cordoba House Mosque on 45-47 Park Place.
Although most New York voters are against the building of the mosque slated for construction only 600 feet from the World Trade Center site based on a Quinnipiac poll,
Although a Quinnipiac Poll had suggested that nearly half of all New York voters are opposed to the construction of the Cordoba House — politicians in New York have been split. Gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio called upon current Attorney General Andrew Cuomo for a formal investigation into Cordoba’s funding, but yesterday Mayor Michael Bloomberg made a public response to Lazio’s investigation requests and any opponents of the mosque as being “un-American” and as going “against what the nation stands for.”
The last hurdle for mosque proponent has hinged on approval from the New York City Landmarks commission who’s hearing will be held today and is open to the public.
For those who are interested in attending, the public hearing for 45-47 Park Place application will take place at:
681 Park Avenue
Hunter College Assembly Hall
Entrance on East 69th Street between Park Avenue and Lexington
(Please bring a picture ID for entrance into the building)
The hearing will start at 2:00pm and ends at 5:00pm.
We’ll update the site when the ruling comes down from the hearing today.
In a story that is eerily reminiscent of the Clark Rockefeller saga, a Detroit fugitive was arrested after hiding out in an apartment at 300 Albany Street.
Going by the alias “Prince Josef von Habsburg-Lothringen of Austria” he was well recognized as an eccentric neighbor who often gallivanted in lederhosen and hair dryers. Authorities say that his real name was Josef Meyers — a 50-year-old deadbeat Dad from Michigan.
According to a report in the New York Post, “Meyer — a former mental patient who was once committed to a psych ward in Pontiac, Mich. — had attacked his mother at age 21 and was arrested in a 1987 drug raid, where police confiscated 2 kilos of cocaine and an automatic weapon.”
During that indiscretion, Meyer became an FBI informant. He was never formerly charged in that arrest but was later convicted in 1989 of stealing $100,000. It wasn’t until his arrest as a deadbeat dad that his life on the run came to an end.
Meyers was arrested at his 300 Albany Street apartment. According to the NY Post, “It was a small one-bedroom. We heard people inside, and we knocked, but they refused to answer,” said a source. After unhinging the door, authorities found Meyer standing inside a closet clad in a ripped T-shirt. [His wife, Michel] Trico, 35, and their three young kids were also inside the apartment, sources said.
Battery Park City's Best Bets for NY Restaurant Week
It’s that time of the summer again, for foodies all over the city to figure out how to spend their $24.07 for lunch (or $35 bucks for dinner) in honor of New York Restaurant week!
There are seemingly hundreds of restaurants to choose from at these prices — a bargain by New York City standards. Â The only problem is “Where should I go?” Fret no more, we’ve got some suggestions. Although Battery Park City is never mentioned in the Official New York Restaurant Week site as an actual location, we rounded up the restaurants that are closest to home. Our list aggregates both Tribeca and Financial District restaurant offerings and their menus. Â It’s nice to be able to give back to the businesses in our neighborhood — because quite frankly if we don’t…who will? Most everyone else thinks Battery Park City is closest to Sibera anyways.
As for some honorable mentions — fans of food television will not be disappointed. Centrico, The Harrison, Nobu and Les Halles count Aaron Sanchez, Amanda Freitag, Masuharu Morimoto and Anthony Bourdain as executive chefs and chef’s at large of these restaurants. Visiting these neighborhood restaurants is tantamount to visiting culinary television amusement parks!
Here’s the round up of restaurants in our area offering a special restaurant week menu, we’ve done our best to include restaurant menu’s as we find them — so check back for new menus being added, all to help you choose where you’ll be placing your reservations this summer!
Bar Artisanal
Bobby Van’s Steakhouse & Grill (Broad Street) Â MENU
