Do we really want former John Galt Corp. players working on 4 World Trade Center?
Regional Scaffolding and Hoisting Company, a contractor that was the focus of a criminal investigation into a 2007 fire at the Deutsche Bank building that resulted in the death of two firefighters (AND that remains under scrutiny for financial irregularities), is set to return to Ground Zero to work on the office tower at 4 World Trade Center.
According to The New York Times, documents filed with the city show that Regional Scaffolding was issued a permit two weeks ago to install a construction elevator at 4 WTC. And, yes, that means exactly what you think: A company being eyed for criminal negligence and fiscal shadiness has been rewarded with a prime gig at the office tower developer Larry A. Silverstein is constructing at the World Trade Center site.
Street spaces are coming! Street spaces are coming! (Flickr/nyctaxiphoto)
Fed up with the serious lack of parking spaces anywhere below Canal Street? Pretty soon you might — just might — have a reason to dance a jig and thank your lucky stars. The Department of Transportation (DOT) is looking to change street parking regulations in Lower Manhattan, beginning with Tribeca.
At a recent meeting of Tribeca’s Community Board 1, DOT spokeswoman Suchi Sanagavarapu announced the plans, admitting that the regulations governing street parking in Tribeca were devised when the area was an industrial and commercial hub… and do not reflect the neighborhood’s current residential state.
“Our regulations have definitely not kept up, and we’ve been hearing about it from the community for years now,†Sanagavarapu confessed. “There seems to be a mismatch in terms of what the current land uses are versus what the current parking regulations are.”
Pizza doesn’t grow on trees — but it does grow in a Battery Park City garden.
Being that this writer loves nothing more than Battery Park City and  pizza — the addition of a pizza garden has immediately increased the value of living here by about 1000%.
Better watch out Picasso, Pizzabola and Inatesso — Pizza may not grow on trees, but PS 276 has planted the seeds for an excellent idea.
So Congratulations PS 276 for thinking outside the pizza box and into the pizza garden. Today we declare you our first official “Neighbor of the Day!”
Andaz offers a farm-fresh new take on hotel amenities.
It used to be that a complimentary continental breakfast was the pinnacle of a hotel’s amenities. But in a time when 42-inch HD flat-panel TVs, iPod docks and free wireless Internet are considered the norm, hotels can be hard-pressed to impress.
Not so with the Andaz Wall Street Hotel, which (as its names suggests) is located on Wall Street and (as its name does not suggest) will be knocking the socks off its guests (as well as anyone else who wants to come) with a farmers market to be held on its premises every Saturday from July 10 through Nov. 20.
C'mon, how can anyone resist an invitation that looks like this?
If you’re cruising down the East River at sunset on a luxury yacht while sipping a cocktail, you must be some sort of celebrity or rich investment banker, right? Not necessarily. In fact, you could just be a really great person with a soft spot for homeless animals.
On Tuesday, June 22, Friends of Animal Rescue (FOAR) is hosting a charity sunset cruise from 7-10 PM aboard the beautiful 145-ft. luxury Atlantis yacht. The cruise boards at the Water Club (East River at 30th Street) and offers attendees, cocktails, a buffet dinner, a silent auction, breathtaking views… and peace of mind in knowing that their good time benefits a good cause: pets in need of a little shelter and a lot of love. And it’s all for the bargain price of $100 per ticket (in advance; tickets on the boat are $120) — not a bad deal considering how much peace of mind goes for on the black market these days.
There are 1,000 free reasons to stick around NYC this summer.
It might not be evident by the mass exodus that occurs during the weekends, but New York City is a wonderful place to be during the summer.
Case in point: The 2010 River to River Festival — which celebrates music, film, theater, dance, art, poetry and, of course, family with a summer full of free events –Â kicks off with a massive 100-band punk music festival on Randall’s Island next Sunday, June 20. Don’t worry if punk’s not your bag, though. There’s plenty on the American Express-sponsored festival’s agenda to please an array of age groups, interests and cultural tastes.
For non-punk music lovers, there are a cornucopia of concert options, including a gratis show from singer-songwriter Beth Orton (June 30), a live blues performance by John Hammond and his band (July 1), and countless others.
Film buffs should be happy to hear that beginning on July 29, the festival is screening classic New York films every Thursday at 55 Water Street, as part of a “Movie Nights on the Elevated Acre” series. The flicks include Broadway Danny Rose (July 29), Auntie Mame (Aug. 5) and, for the kids, The Muppets Take Manhattan (Aug. 19).
Theater aficionados will swoon over “Summer Stock 2010: An Evening of Broadway Blockbusters,” a 70-minute show featuring some of the biggest Broadway musical hits of all time.
Dance enthusiasts will dig a free performance by the Rochester City ballet (July 10), as well as a series of performances directed by renowned choreographer Deganit Shemy (July 12-15).
And for families there’s the Children’s Festival & Fireworks on July 26.
There are also a ton of events we haven’t mentioned, but it’d take way too long to list them all. So please forgive our summer-induced laziness, and get more info and a complete itinerary of this summer’s free events at the River to River Festival official site.
A few years from now, New York University students may be calling the World Trade Center’s Tower 5 their “dorm.”
That’s right, according to the New York Post, NYU officials are eying the yet-to-be-built tower as part of an ambitious 20-year plan to expand by a whopping 40 percent, adding 6 million square feet of housing, classrooms and administrative space in the process. Around half of that behemoth square footage will likely be added in the school’s current Greenwich Village neighborhood, but space constraints in the area have forced NYU to look elsewhere for the rest of the expansion. That’s where the WTC and Lower Manhattan figure in to the plan.
Bill Murray will be there... so it's got that going for it, which is nice.
What do $250, a love of poetry and a lifetime wish to meet Bill Murray have in common? Well, if you have all three, you might want to snag a ticket to tonight’s 15th Annual Poetry Walk Across Brooklyn Bridge.
Legendary actor Bill Murry will be joined by Brooklyn Poet Laureate Tina Chang, award-winning poets Anne Carson, Glway Kinnell and Thomas Lux, and (hopefully) you for a stroll across the famed NYC bridge. There, under the Roebling’s arches, you’ll be serenaded by the poetry of Walt Whitman, Marianne Moore, Langston Hughes and other stalwarts of poetic verse.
The annual pilgrimage, which raises funds for non-profit Poets House, begins at 6:30 PM tonight in Manhattan and culminates in Brooklyn with a celebratory dinner and readings in honor of Poets House’s 2010 Elizabeth Kray Award winner, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, known for such works as A Coney Island of the Mind, Americus and Poetry as Insurgent Art.
Tickets start at $250, though Poets House members can procure them for a cool $225. Reservations are required, so give Krista Manrique a holler at 212-431-7920 (ext. 2830) if you’re interested in letting Bill Murray make your acquaintance this eve.
Yair Levy accused of raiding the coffers of 225 Rector Place.
Andrew M. Cuomo, the New York attorney general, has a beef with real estate developer Yair Levy. The reason for that aforementioned beef: Levy allegedly purloined $7.4 million from the reserve fund of a luxury building he was developing in Battery Park City.
According to The New York Times, Cuomo filed a lawsuit in State Supreme Court on Wednesday, accusing Levy of leaving the 304-unit luxury building at 225 Rector Place, with a measly $70 in its reserve fund, probably not quite enough to cover the “capital repairs, replacements and improvements necessary for the health and safety of the residents” for which the fund was intended.
Claremont Preparatory School is in search of a new headmaster.
Administrators from the exclusive and very expensive for-profit school e-mailed parents on Wednesday, June 9, to let them know that headmaster Irwin Shlachter “is no longer with us.” In addition, the message, which was also posted on the school’s official website, announced that Kenneth Wrye, formerly of the United Nations International School, will step in as interim headmaster while Claremont hunts for a permanent new leader.
