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Downtown Express photo by Jefferson Siegel
To get a public beach all to yourself, youusually have to travel thousands of milesfrom New York City, but this Battery ParkCity family — Eve Mills and her children,Eden, 7, Hudson, 5 and Harrison, 2 —had their run of the sand Saturday at theSeaport, save for a few workers putting thefinal touches on Water Taxi Beach.This weekend the summer season beginsall over Lower Manhattan. The annual Riverto River Festival, with hundreds of free events,kicks off at the World Financial Center May31 with the Bang on a Can Marathon. Checkout our summer preview section with a lookat the some of the best bets Downtown, start-ing on Page 24, and find out about the tempo-rary “meadow” in Collect Pond Park.Also this weekend, Governors Islandreopens to the public with some new twiststhat will have cyclists going around in circlesand Prince Harry chasing a ball. See ourisland article, page 16.The Mills got a preview of the Seaportsand last weekend, but the beach’s mini golf course, Ping Pong and other games open infull on May 30.Let the summer fun start…
Summer Downtown
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VOLUME 22, NUMBER 3 THE NEWSPAPER OF LOWER MANHATTAN
MAY 29 - JUNE 4, 2009
BY JULIE SHAPIRO
One of the city’s oldest no-frillshotels is getting a facelift — and pos-sibly an expansion.The owners of the CosmopolitanHotel in Tribeca want to modernize the165-year-old building by adding a roof deck and a new entrance, and they wantto enlarge the hotel onto an adjacent lot,adding 25 hotel rooms in a new building.The white, seven-story CosmopolitanHotel is a perennial choice for budget-minded travelers, with mini-loft roomsstarting at $169 a night. The smalllobby, basic décor and sparse ameni-ties led a Frommer’s reviewer to write,“You must be a low-maintenance guestto be happy here.”The modest 125-room hotel nowappears to be gearing for an upgrade, inthe form of a six-story addition next-door.The modern addition at Reade St. and W. Broadway, opposed by CommunityBoard 1, would be red brick with an all-glass storefront. The design for the topfloor is inspired by the attics of Tribeca’solder buildings, the project’s architectsaid. The new building would replace thetwo-story goldenrod stucco structure onthat corner that now houses Mary Ann’sMexican restaurant.Although the recession has fro-zen construction financing and putmost development projects on hold,Cosmopolitan Hotel co-owner GeraldBarad said last week that he hadsecured money for the expansion.“It’s a little rough,” he said of gettingthe financing. When pressed, he said,“We have enough money to build.”The hotel owners did not return phonecalls this week and have not given a totalcost estimate for the project or a timelinefor when they want it to be complete.In addition to money, Barad and fellowowner Jay Wartski will also need approvalfrom the city Landmarks PreservationCommission to move forward, since thehotel and adjacent lot are in the Tribeca
EASY FAMILYMEALS, P. 8
Continued on
page 5
Budget hotel from2 centuries agohopes to expand
May 29 - June 4, 2009
2
downtown express
C
HIN
’
S
C
O
DA
WIN
The fourth time may be the charm for
Margaret Chin
,who’s running for City Council again. Chin, a formerexecutive with Asian Americans for Equality, was notable to secure the endorsement of the Coalition for aDistrict Alternative in her three previous tries for theFirst District, but she got the CoDA nod last week, win-ning handily. She’s of course running to win, but if shedoesn’t, the club endorsement wouldn’t be a bad coda toher political career.
M
ENIN
’
S
FOOTSTEPS
Tribeca resident
Noel Jefferson
is starting to look a lotlike her neighbor
Julie Menin
.Not only did Jefferson chair this month’s CommunityBoard 1 meeting (that’s usually Menin’s job), but just likeMenin, Jefferson is launching a TV talk show in which sheinterviews local leaders.Menin’s show, “Give and Take,” recently started airingin five-minute segments on NBC’s New York Nonstop chan-nel and focuses on women and entertainment and citywidepolitics.Jefferson’s show, called “As-of-Right,” will soon debuton Manhattan Neighborhood Network’s community chan-nel. The half-hour interview show will examine hot LowerManhattan issues, including school overcrowding and WorldTrade Center rebuilding.One episode of “As-of-Right” will feature contenders forCity Councilmember
Alan Gerson
’s seat this fall, includingMargaret Chin,
P.J. Kim
and
Arthur Gregory
. To balance itout, Jefferson will devote a separate episode to Gerson andhis accomplishments. (Note to Noel:
Pete Gleason
, the othercandidate, is likely to be in touch.)Jefferson also has executives from W.T.C. developerSilverstein Properties signed up for an episode, including
Janno Lieber
, president of Silverstein’s W.T.C. Properties.Jefferson said Menin doesn’t mind that they’re both doingTV shows — in fact, Menin will make a guest appearanceon Jefferson’s show, along with State Sen.
Daniel Squadron
,Jefferson said.The 13 episodes of “As-of-Right” will begin June 25 andwill run every Thursday night at 7 p.m. on Time Warnerchannel 34 and RCN channel 82.
S
ONIA
-
MANIA
It seems in New York, you can put nominating the firstHispanic to the Supreme Court right up there with beingin favor of mom, apple pie and rent protections. The rushto praise the nomination of New York federal Judge
SoniaSotomayor
by President
Obama
was so fast Tuesday, wefigure we’d let you know how the race finished in our e-mailinbox. Sen.
Kirsten Gillibrand
won, followed by Sotomayor’sold boss, District Attorney
Robert Morgenthau
, then Mayor
Mike Bloomberg
, State Attorney General
Andrew Cuomo
,Manhattan Beep
Scott Stringer
, Gov.
David Paterson
,Council Speaker
Chris Quinn
, U.S. Rep.
Carolyn Maloney
,Assembly Speaker
Shelly Silver
, and finally late in the day,U.S. Rep.
Jerry Nadler
.Nadler actually came in after our first draft was written,thus saving Silver from the rear. Maybe one of the perilsof being chairperson of the House’s subcommittee on theConstitution is you feel compelled to think several hoursbefore rendering a judgment. We’ll let Gmail be the judge if any politico wants toappeal our results.
P
IANO
MAN
Curbed picked up our tweet last week that a sourcetold us that developer
Larry Silverstein
briefly played thepiano during the amicable World Trade Center “summit”at Gracie Mansion. The blog had a post-concert request:“Please tell us he did a rendition of TLC’s ‘No Scrubs’ butchanged the lyrics to ‘No Stumps,’” as in retail stumpsinstead of office towers. The parties are scheduled to meetagain June 11. In the meantime, you can find out what allthis Twitter fuss is about by following us at twitter.com/downtownexpress.
T
RIBECA
NOMINEES
The Tribeca Performing Arts Center and ManhattanChildren’s Theater are among the eight New York Citynominees for “best theater or theater group for kids” inNickelodeon’s Parents Picks’ contest. Go to http://goci-tykids.parentsconnect.com/parents-picks/new-york-ny-usa/best-new-york-theatre-group-for-kids to vote early and oftenfor Downtown’s favorite sons.
C
ALLING
ONE
CAR
Car 7468 where were you at 11:15 a.m., Thurs., May 21?Letting your driver, an N.Y.P.D. Traffic patrol officer, driftinto the Washington St. bike lane in the Village. Then hestopped and completely blocked the lane to chat with a fel-low patrol car driver. The second offense theoretically couldhave been legitimate since perhaps it was an emergency sodire that you did not have time to … we don’t know, maybesee if the radio in the car worked. We hope your supervisorstake note. If you don’t want to enforce the traffic laws, atleast don’t break them.
NEWS
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1-19 Mixed Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Transit Sam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
EDITORIAL PAGE
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
YOUTH
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
ARTS
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
24-31Summer Arts Picks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24-28 Listings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29-31
CLASSIFIEDS
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30-31
C.B. 1
M
EETINGS
Correction
Community Board 1 has not yet released its sched-ule of June committee meetings. For more information,check CB1.org.In an UnderCover item in our May 15 –21 issue,“Royal Pony” we printed the wrong date for the openingof Governors Island, where Prince Harry will be playingin the Veuve Clicquot Manhattan Polo Classic. The polomatch and opening will be Sat., May 30, not the 31st.
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over
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END
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OWNTOWN
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downtown express
May 29 - June 4, 2009
3
Deal is sealed for pre-K classes in the Village
BY ALBERT AMATEAU
Village parents who feared there would beno seats in their two zoned schools for theirchildren entering kindergarten in Septembercan breathe easier. The Department of Education reached a lease agreement Fri.,May 22, with Greenwich House for spaceat 27 Barrow St., providing a short-termsolution to the over-enrollment at P.S. 41and P.S. 3.The agreement calls for space atGreenwich House for three classrooms of pre-kindergarten children, thereby makingroom in the two Village schools for most of the children on the incoming kindergartenwaiting list. It also avoids moving stu-dents to crowded Lower Manhattan schools,which had been under consideration.City Council Speaker Christine Quinn,who organized the task force of elected offi-cials, D.O.E. staff and parents that searchedfor space for the overcrowded schools, calledthe lease agreement a great victory.“Having reached the agreement, we areable to guarantee space for 4-year-olds toattend pre-kindergarten in the neighbor-hood next year and provide all those on thekindergarten waiting list with a seat,” Quinnsaid in a prepared statement. “This doesn’tanswer all of our overcrowding problems inGreenwich Village or in New York City. Butit is a step in the right direction and a realexample of what can be accomplished whenthe community comes together.”Manhattan Borough President ScottStringer, Congressmember Jerrold Nadler,City Councilmembers Alan Gerson andRosie Mendez, state Senator Tom Duaneand Assemblymember Deborah Glick, allmembers of the task force, joined in thestatement.However, Rebecca Daniels, presidentof the District 2 Community EducationCouncil, said it was not certain that the threeclasses of pre-K at Greenwich House wouldfree up space for all the children on the P.S.41/3 kindergarten waiting list.Three pre-K classes, at an optimumnumber of 18 children per class, wouldaccount for 54 seats, she noted. TheGreenwich Village kindergarten waitinglist last week had 79 names, but had beenshrinking as parents chose other programsfor their children. With the new lease, theDepartment of Education estimates thatthe waiting list will disappear when thegifted and talented kindergarten programsin Manhattan offer seats to Village-zonedchildren.Daniels, however, said that seats offeredat the gifted and talented programs in nearbyschools — at P.S. 11 and P.S. 33 in Chelsea— were more likely to attract Village kinder-gartners than programs on the Lower EastSide or the Upper West Side.“It’s a neighborhood issue. Parents wantto be able to walk their children to kin-dergarten,” she said. “The jury is still outon whether the wait list will disappear bySeptember.”Daniels, whose education council dis-trict also covers Lower Manhattan, Chelseaand the Upper East Side, also noted thatovercrowding is an issue throughout thedistrict.Nevertheless, Daniels said the leasing of the Greenwich House space was a tremen-dous relief for parents of the GreenwichVillage school community.“I have viewed the 27 Barrow St. spaceand see this as a very good solution,” shesaid.John White, a D.O.E. staff member whohas been working with the District 2 C.E.C.,told task force members last week that theGreenwich House space is elevator acces-sible and offers the use of a gymnasium anda play yard.“It will be a fine space for the children itserves,” White said, adding, “After the 2009-2010 school year, pre-kindergarten servicewill be returned to P.S. 3 and P.S. 41 wherespace will have been made available by therelocation of area middle schools.”
Albert@DowntownExpress.com
BY JULIE SHAPIRO
P.S. 130 students flooded back into thebuilding Tuesday morning, a week after thecity closed the school because of concernsabout swine flu.None of the elementary school’s 1,081students have been diagnosed with swine flu,but 76 students had flu-like symptoms in theweek before the closure, the city said.Attendance was still down a bit onTuesday, with 8 percent of the childrenabsent. Principal Lily Woo said some par-ents may not have heard that the schoolreopened, or they may be following theschool’s advice to keep their children homeif they are ill. Woo said she was surprised to find outlast week that her school would be the firstin Manhattan to close.“The best thing is not to panic,” Woosaid in a phone interview. “There’s legiti-mate concern because of what’s beengoing on [but] everyone is suspiciousabout everything.”The closure came after the most impor-tant testing was done for the year, and theschool was moving into fun activities likefield trips and arts performances, some of which have been postponed or cancelled, Woo said.P.S. 130 was among 20 public schools,mostly in Queens, to reopen Tuesday. Ninepublic schools remained closed. Four adultswith swine flu have died in New York City,and all had underlying health conditionsthat the city has not disclosed.Many of the parents dropping theirchildren off at school Tuesday morningsaid they were glad the school had closedto give sick children time to recover.“They did the sensible thing,” saidSulabha Patel, whose 6-year-old daughtergoes to P.S. 130.Patel, a stay-at-home mom who lives onthe Upper East Side, said her daughter fellill just after the school closed last week,but she recovered quickly.“I’m glad she didn’t miss any school,”Patel said.P.S. 130 draws mainly from Chinatown,and most parents who brought their chil-dren to school Tuesday morning did notspeak English. But those who did saidmany students were sick with the flu lastweek. Some also said teachers were sick,but Woo said no teachers had the flu.Several parents who spoke to DowntownExpress said the closure sent them scram-bling to find someone to watch their chil-dren during the day.A woman who gave only her familyname, Lee, said it was difficult to find ababysitter for her 6-year-old daughter.She said the school was right to close as aprecaution, but she was worried about herdaughter missing out on class time.“They lose one day, and they lose oneday of education,” Lee said as she gatheredher daughter’s hair into a ponytail outsideof P.S. 130. “That’s very important.”Richard Rizzo, another parent, said henoticed more people taking their childrento work while the school was closed. Theclosure came at a good time for Rizzo’s6-year-old son, who would have had tomiss school last week anyway because hegot his tonsils out. Rizzo, who lives in theFlatiron District, said his wife stayed homefrom work to watch their son.Not everyone was happy that the schoolclosed. Oksana Todorova said the closurecreated unnecessary paranoia, since theschool did not have any confirmed casesof swine flu.“Suddenly everyone got worried,”Todorova said as she dropped off her6-year-old daughter Sascha Alcoce.Todorova, an artist who lives in Brooklynbut has a studio near P.S. 130, said shehad to rework her schedule to watch herdaughter during the week off. Sascha wassick just before the school closed, butTodorova said it never occurred to her thatSascha could have anything more seriousthan an ordinary bug. Sascha recoveredquickly and expected to return to school,but by then the school was closed.“I thought it was just like spring break orsomething,” Sascha said Tuesday morning,grinning. “It was fun.”
Julie@DowntownExpress.com
Chinatown school reopens after flu closure
Downtown Express photo by J.B. Nicholas
Students returned to P.S. 130 Tuesday. The school closed last week after 76students had flu-like symptoms, but none have been diagnosed as swine flu.
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Downtown Express May 29, 2009
Downtown Express, May 29, 2009
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