Downtown Express photo by Lorenzo Ciniglio
The city is working on a new building plan for North Tribeca, including this block at Canal and West Sts., whichalso has a closed a gas station. The City Planning Dept. is giving Community Board 1 leeway to decide if the newbuildings on the block could be made bulkier and go as high as 120 feet in exchange for getting about 50 lower-rentapartments, or if more slender buildings of 110 feet should be built to protect the neighborhood’s light.
BY JOSH ROGERS
It’s often darkest beforethe downpour, unless of course it’s right before thedawn.Most signs this weekpointed to the World TradeCenter storms getting worse. W.T.C. developer LarrySilverstein moved Mondaytoward a complex arbitra-tion proceeding, whichcould be the final nail in themediation talks spearheadedby Mayor Mike Bloombergand Assembly SpeakerSheldon Silver. The mayorand Silver both blamed thePort Authority for not budg-ing in the negotiations overwhen to build Tower 2 andhow to pay for it. And in thesurest sign that talks weregoing nowhere, Silversteinand the Port loosened theirresistance to making theircases directly to the public.Perhaps the only indi-cation that a compromisesettlement was not impos-sible was Bloomberg’s state-ment to reporters Tuesday inwhich surprisingly, he saidthe New Jersey faction of the Port was being “veryhelpful” in trying to bridgethe gap.Bloomberg said he has spo-ken with New Jersey Gov. JonCorzine on the W.T.C. disputeseveral times and the governor“has been pushing [Port chair-person] Anthony Coscia, avery competent person who’s… Corzine’s representative.And Coscia’s as smart and ascompetent a person as youcan find and Corzine assured
BY JULIE SHAPIRO
The city’s new descrip-tion of how 9/11 affectedchildren downplays the seri-ous health risks those chil-dren could face, one doctorsays.Dr. David Carpenterinitially worked with thecity to draft the document,which is designed to helppediatricians treat childrenwho were exposed to toxinsreleased with the destructionof the World Trade Center.But Carpenter said the cityrejected many of his sug-gestions, and before the cityreleased the health guide-lines last week, Carpenterremoved his name from thelist of authors.“The guidelines werecontinually watered down,”
Mayor says Jerseymight solve World Trade Center stalemateHealth guide for 9/11kids is released, withone doctor critical
BY JULIE SHAPIRO
The city’s plan for northern Tribecais starting to look a lot like the com-munity’s plan.After years of disagreeing withCommunity Board 1 over how to shapenorthern Tribeca’s future, the Dept. of City Planning has agreed to nearly allof the community’s suggestions. Andthe most controversial decision — overhow to balance affordable housingwith added bulk and height — the cityis leaving up to C.B. 1.“City Planning couldn’t have beenmore amenable,” said Julie Menin,chairperson of C.B. 1. “They reallyshowed a tremendous willingness towork with the community.”Menin and several community lead-ers met with Planning CommissionerAmanda Burden last week to discussthe future of a neighborhood that haschanged steadily from warehouses andfactories to condos and restaurants.The area’s zoning, though, still reflectsthe district’s manufacturing past, withuses like slaughterhouses and soap fac-tories allowed while residential unitsrequire a special permit. For years, resi-dents have pushed the city to rezonenorth Tribeca to make the rules matchreality.Although the city agreed with theresidents that the neighborhood need-
Hey Tribeca, how bigdo you want it to be?
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PADDLINGAROUND,P. 10
VOLUME 22, NUMBER 9 THE NEWSPAPER OF LOWER MANHATTAN
JULY 10 - 16, 2009
July 10 - 16, 2009
2
downtown express
U
NDER
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NEWS
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1-15, 18-19 Transit Sam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13 Mixed Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18
EDITORIAL PAGES
. . . . . . . . . . 16-17
YOUTH
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-21
ARTS
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22-27 Listings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25-27
CLASSIFIEDS
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26-27
C.B. 1
M
EETINGS
The upcoming week’s schedule of CommunityBoard 1 committee meetings is below. Unless other-wise noted, all committee meetings are held at theboard office, located at 49-51 Chambers St., room709 at 6 p.m.
ON THURS., JULY 9:
The Landmarks Committeewill meet.
ON MONDAY, JULY 13:
The WTC RedevelopmentCommittee will meet at 6 PM at 250 Broadway in theAssembly Hearing Room, on the 19th floor.
ON TUES., JULY 14:
The Seaport/Civic CenterCommittee will meet.
ON TUES., JULY 15:
The Planning and CommunityInfrastructure Committee will meet.
ON TUES., JULY 16:
The Quality of LifeCommittee will meet.
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‘A
NYTHING
GOES
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The old Harmony Theater burlesque club in Tribeca couldbe staging a comeback.
Madeline Droege
, who ran the Harmony and still ownsits 279 Church St. building, posted an online ad solicitingrenters for the ground floor and basement space.“‘Anything goes’ uses include bar/night spot/party space/restaurant/live theater/store,” she wrote in the ad. She is ask-ing $10,000 a month for the 3,750 square feet.Separately, Droege, a k a Madeline
D’Anthony
, also hasa Web site advertising the space as the Fig Leaf Theater andPink Fig juice and raw food snack bar. The site offers thetheater space for rent for themed parties and events, andpromises, “Coming soon.”Droege did not return calls for comment, but one sourcesaid she had approached at least one burlesque group aboutperforming in the space. Another source said costumedpeople turned up at the building on a recent night lookingfor an S&M party, and a sign posted on the front door toldthem to go to a different location.The city closed down the original Harmony Theater in1998, but burlesque dancing crept back in. From 2006 to2008, during nonprofit Collective:Unconscious’s lease of the space, a group called Pinchbottom held monthly shows,said a Pinch performer and producer who goes by the name
Jonny Porkpie
.A burst sewer pipe forced Collective:Unconscious to leavein the middle of last summer, and the space appears to havebeen empty since then. Local residents, who long objectedto the stripping, likely prefer it that way, but they recentlygot wind of Droege’s plans, and they are not happy. Severalpeople from the area turned up at a Community Board 1meeting last week to urge the board to reject a liquor licensefor the space, should Droege choose to seek one.
M
ILLENNIUM
GYM
Millennium High School is very close to getting its long-desired gym, but the location isn’t final yet.The School Construction Authority toured two potentialspaces last month: 25 Broadway, the Cunard Building, anda double-height space on Wall St., said
Angela Benfield
,Millennium’s parent coordinator.Meanwhile, we’re hearing from two other sources that thecity is actually focusing on 26 Broadway, the former SportsMuseum of America space, for Millennium’s gym. The Dept.of Education is already leasing space in that building forschool seats and could be looking to expand its holding, thesources suggested. Wherever the gym winds up, City Councilmember
AlanGerson
thinks its delivery is imminent.The D.O.E. appears to have very specific plans in mind,because they asked Gerson to increase his planned $250,000allocation for Millennium’s gym to $350,000 in June, Gersonsaid.“We allocated money at the last minute based on[D.O.E.’s] representation that they would be able to proceedwith the gym immediately,” Gerson said.Marge Feinberg, D.O.E. spokesperson, said only, “We areexploring possibilities for a Downtown gym site and cannotcomment further at this time.”If city officials are indeed looking at 25 Broadway for agym site, they could face competition from Claremont Prep,a private K-8 that is reportedly looking to lease 200,000square feet there.
G
ARDEN
BARBECUE
From the owners of SouthWest, the Merchants cafeand Pound & Pence will soon come a new, more casualdining option: an as-yet-unnamed barbecue stand on theplaza just outside the World Financial Center WinterGarden.Merchants Hospitality will open the stand as soon as theBattery Park City Authority signs off and will add beer andwine whenever the State Liquor Authority approves, said
Richard Cohn
, a vice president with Merchants.Tables and chairs recently arrived on the plaza, not farfrom P. J. Clarke’s, courtesy of Brookfield Properties, whichowns the Financial Center. The stand will be open seasonallyfrom 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., Cohn said. Some of cooking will bedone at the nearby SouthWest, with the grilling completed alfresco at the stand.“I think it’s a great idea,” said
Jeff Galloway
, co-chairper-son of Community Board 1’s B.P.C. Committee, upon hearinga presentation this week. The committee approved the beerand wine license in an advisory vote.
N
EWELL
’
S
DEBUT
Paul Newell
didn’t manage to beat Assembly Speaker
Sheldon Silver
in last fall’s Democratic primary, but hiseffort is now chronicled in a documentary film.“Excuse Me, Mr. Speaker…,” by filmmaker
JustinSullivan
, debuted last month at the Vision Festival inTribeca. The 71-minute documentary follows Newell’s candi-dacy through its ups and downs, and even travels with him tothe Democratic National Convention in Denver. In an e-mailannouncing a recent screening, Newell promises plenty of humor along with the politics.
B
LOCK
PARTY
SQUEEZED
The Goldman Sachs construction is putting a bit of adamper on the annual Battery Park City block party, slatedfor Sun., Sept. 13. The party usually closes off Vesey St.between West St. and N. End Ave., but this year half of thatarea is already blocked off for the Goldman construction.
Anthony Notaro
, one of the organizers of the party, saidthey’ll make do with just half the block.“We’ll just have to adapt,” he said.
S
END
YOUR
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downtown express
July 10 - 16, 2009
3
Reports of island firehouse savior were greatly exaggerated
BY JULIE SHAPIRO
City Councilmember Alan Gerson thought he had secureda coup for Lower Manhattan: During the city’s budget nego-tiations, the Fire Dept. promised to restore services at fire-houses across the city.Pleased, Gerson announced last week that two Downtownfirehouses, Engine 4 on South St. and the station onGovernors Island, would both reopen full-time.But as it turned out, Gerson did not secure as much ashe thought. While Engine 4 and other firehouses around thecity received a reprieve, the Governors Island firehouse willremain closed, F.D.N.Y. said this week.“I’m furious,” Gerson told Downtown Express Wednesday.“The Fire Dept. is playing games with words and lives.”In January, the city closed the Governors Island firehouseand cut the nighttime hours of four other companies, includ-ing Engine 4. This spring, the mayor proposed further cutsthat would have closed Engine 4 and others entirely.During the negotiations for the 2010 budget, Gerson saidthe Fire Dept. agreed to provide “full coverage” at all thehouses that were previously cut. Gerson thought “full cover-age” on Governors Island meant reopening the firehousefull-time, but the Fire Dept. says that is not necessary.Governors Island has no residents, but thousands of people visit on summer weekends and an artist residencyprogram and a high school will soon bring even more peopleto the island year-round.Until six months ago, three firefighters were posted on theisland all the time. Since January, firefighters only staff thefirehouse when more than 100 people are on the island. Therest of the time, first responders are a boat ride away, and thecity estimates that it could take them half an hour to arrive.“There should be no part of the city that is without emer-gency coverage,” Gerson said. “We’re going to continue tofight this.”Steve Ritea, F.D.N.Y. spokesperson, said the island fire-house was used very infrequently, with only 12 calls in threeyears and no major fires.The Governors Island firehouse closure will save almost$600,000 this year, Ritea said.Elizabeth Case, a research associate with the GovernorsIsland Alliance, was surprised to hear of the city’s decision.“That’s incredible if they were to restore everything elseand leave Governors Island out in the cold,” Case said. “It’sreally unfortunate.”Case is particularly concerned about not having firefight-ers on the island during construction and demolition opera-tions in the off-season.Peg Breen, president of the New York LandmarksConservancy, said it’s shortsighted of the city to put theisland’s many wooden, historic buildings at risk of fire.“Without those buildings, you’ve lost a lot of the draw of the island,” Breen said.The absence of firefighters also poses a risk to the securityguards posted on the island at night, who would not havefast access to emergency medical care, Gerson said.The Governors Island Preservation and Education Corp.,which runs the island, deferred questions to the city.Pat Moore, chairperson of Community Board 1’s Quality of Life Committee, was glad to hear that the city was restoringservice at Engine 4. She and others had worried that responsetimes would increase after the city closed Engine 4 at night.Ladder 15, which shares the house, remained open full-time,and now Engine 4 is returning to full-time operation as well.Moore also said she understood the city’s decision to onlyhave firefighters on Governors Island when many people arethere.“We’ve all got to give up something in this econo-my,” Moore said. “We love the beautiful architecture [onGovernors Island] and we would love to keep it, but what’smore important is people’s lives.”
Julie@DowntownExpress.com
The city restored all of the proposed firehouse cuts except to the one on Governors Island, which closed inJanuary.
‘That’s incredible if they were torestore everything else and leaveGovernors Island out in the cold.’
City Councilmember Alan Gerson hasbeen missing in the action recently, andfor good reason: He’s been battling a caseof swine flu.Gerson fell ill two-and-a-half weeksago, shortly after the city budget nego-tiations concluded. He went to the doctorwhen his fever spiked, and a test for swineflu came back positive.After a lengthy recuperation, Gersonreturned to his office full-time on Tuesday.“I’m fine,” he told Downtown Express Wednesday. “I’m still tired, but I’m fine.”As of July 1, a total of 1,262 NewYorkers had been diagnosed with swineflu, but the city Health Dept. estimatesthat many more people likely fell ill butwere not tested. Also as of July 1, 38people had died of swine flu in the city.Gerson’s illness forced him to missor reschedule many Downtown events,including a Council hearing on the WorldTrade Center, which was postponed, andone of his reelection fundraisers.
— Julie Shapiro
Councilmember Gersonhad swine flu
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