High Quality
Open the downloaded document, and select print from the file menu (PDF reader required).
Kindergarten students at P.S. 276 in Tweed. The school’s principal, Terri Ruyter, and Nancy Harris, principal ofthe Spruce Street School, spoke to Downtown Express last week about the beginning of the schools’ first year,their educational philosophies and future plans for the new buildings.
BY JULIE SHAPIRO
Samuel Evensen stoodamong a crop of rubberizedcadavers recently and madean important distinction.“I’m not a doctor,” hesaid. “I’m an artist.”Evensen was speaking inthe darkened Bodies exhib-it at South Street SeaportMonday night, after thewaves of tourists and schoolgroups had gone home. Hisaudience, in addition to thecadavers, was a small groupof art enthusiasts, who hadcome to learn about whatlies beneath the human skinand how to draw it.“It’s an approach to draw-ing the figure from the insideout,” said Evensen, a profes-sor of anatomical drawingat the Pratt Institute, whois equally comfortable withmedical and artistic termi-nology. “Studying anatomyhelps you interpret what yousee from a live model, andthen translate that from athree-dimensional figure to atwo-dimensional drawing.”After a brief lessonfrom Evensen, the groupdispersed throughout theexhibit’s nine galleries, setup their easels and startedsketching.“My dream has cometrue,” said a grinning TimBoyle, 33, as he prepared todraw a preserved foot skel-eton. Inspired by Leonardoda Vinci’s examination of
BY LINCOLN ANDERSON
Returning to his oldLower East Side stompingground, Antonio “Chico”Garcia is back in town for amonth and a half to work onsome commissioned murals,on everything from peace tothe Rat Pack.On Wednesday, Chico —who recently relocated toTampa, Fla., to reunite withhis family — spray-painteda new graffiti-style mural forthe Power of Peace Coalitionat Houston St. and AvenueB. Helping him completethe one-day project were hiscousin Andres Borrero and William Pentecost, the coali-tion’s youth activities coor-dinator. When done, the muralwould say, “Stop theViolence” and “Another WayIs Possible.”“It’s a powerful message,”Chico said of the peace cam-paign, adding that, coinci-dentally, “They call me ‘TheMessenger.’“That’s from New York— and it’s going across thecountry,” he said of the ini-tiative.The Houston St. wallhas been one of Chico’ssignature canvases, spe-cifically for memorials,since the 1980s. Those he
A dead subject for these artists
Chico spreads messageof peace back on L.E.S.Nancy Harris,
SPRUCE STREET SCHOOL
Downtown Express:
What is your favorite moment of the school year so far?
Nancy Harris:
It’s so hard to choose. In the begin-ning, everyday felt like a highlight reel — our first this,our first that. Now that that has somewhat subsided, it’slike when you’re on vacation and the days start to blendtogether, but in a good way. Every moment is great, itreally is.
Terri Ruyter,
P.S. 276
Downtown Express:
What is your favorite moment of the school year so far?
Terri Ruyter:
I don’t know if I can say a favoritemoment. There are a lot of very lovely moments — whenthe students are really kind to each other. The other daya little girl was upset, and her classmates just totallykicked in, and they were just there to comfort her rightaway.
BY JULIE SHAPIRO
Nearly two months into their inaugural year, the principals of the new schools in Tweed Courthouse are keeping busy. Whenthey’re not watching kindergarteners learn how to read and share and play, Spruce Street School Principal Nancy Harris andP.S./I.S. 276 Principal Terri Ruyter are planning for their K-8 schools’ futures. P.S./I.S. 276 is scheduled to open at Second Pl.and Battery Pl. in Battery Park City in September. Spruce is expected to open in 2011 at Spruce and William Sts. After Downtown Express toured the schools last week, Harris and Ruyter both sat down to talk about what their studentsare learning. Some of the responses are condensed for space reasons.
Inside Downtown’s newest schools
Continued on
page 11
Continued on
page 12
Continued on
page 7
Continued on
page 7
do
w
nto
w
n
express
®
VOLUME 22, NUMBER 25 THE NEWSPAPER OF LOWER MANHATTAN
OCTOBER 30 - NOVEMBER 6, 2009
Downtown ProgressReport 2009,pages 15 - 29
October 30 - November 6, 2009
2
downtown express
T
IME
CHANGE
Margaret Chin
’s debut at Community Board 1 Tuesdaynight did not exactly go smoothly.The Democratic nominee for the First City CouncilDistrict started off on the right foot by speaking for onlyabout a minute during the board’s public session — her brev-ity earned her several approving whispers. (Councilmember
Alan Gerson
, whom Chin is likely replacing, spoke at themeeting for about 10 minutes.)But then, later in the meeting, C.B. 1 Chairperson
JulieMenin
mentioned that Chin requested the board move itsmonthly meeting to a different night of the week, sinceCommunity Board 3 also meets on the fourth Tuesday of themonth. Elected officials and their representatives often haveto scurry from one meeting to the other and can never stayfor too long at either.Community Board 1 — whose members have been knownto say, “We’re No. 1 for a reason” — did not seem amenableto this suggestion. Several people called out that C.B. 3ought to change its meeting time instead. Chin, who hadbeen a member of both boards at different times, said C.B. 3picked the time slot first.Sensing a brewing crisis, Menin said the board woulddiscuss the scheduling change another time.
P
RIDE
& D
UANE
Empire State Pride Agenda leader
Alan Van Capelle
chal-lenged
Tom Duane
last week to deliver on his promises toget gay marriage passed in New York.“Sen. Tom Duane, you have told us on multiple occasionsyou have the votes to pass this bill,” Van Capelle said atESPA’s fundraising dinner attended by Duane. “Give us thedignity, the rights, and respect we deserve.”Duane, who represents part of Downtown and is theState Senate’s first and only openly gay member, initiallycriticized Gov.
David Paterson
when he put the marriage billon the front burner this year.Van Capelle, who singled out other Democratic senatorsas well, said: “Some senators, even sponsors of the bill, in anattempt to slow us down, will say that we have not made ourcase. That is a lie.”Duane later told our sister publication Gay City News,which first reported Van Capelle’s remarks, that “I am angryalso. I don’t just gotta pray it’s going to happen. I know it’sgoing to happen. I have tremendous sympathy for the anger,the impatience, the fear that it might not happen.”Paterson though had the crowd laughing when he joked thatcommitment-phobic gays were going to lose a good excuse.“If you’ve been telling your loved ones, you know, ‘I’dmarry you, but we have a legal problem,’” Paterson said.“Maybe like many straight people have done, you’ve ledsomeone along …. You’d better leave now. Marriage equalityis coming to New York State.”
P
ROUD
ADDITION
Speaking of ESPA,
Erin Drinkwater
, community rep-resentative for U.S. Rep.
Jerrold Nadler
, announced thather three years with the congressman are coming to a close.Drinkwater will soon start a new job at the Empire StatePride Agenda as director of downstate organizing.
B
ILL
& C
HRIS
City Council Speaker
Christine Quinn
’s blink-and-you-missed-it endorsement of mayoral candidate
Bill Thompson
just eight days before the election should be enough forCouncil Democrats to deliver her back to the top spot,sources said. According to one councilmember, Quinn’s re-election as speaker was all but guaranteed when she offeredsupport for Thompson at an unrelated press conference atI.S. 89 in Battery Park City on Monday.“The speaker’s leadership in the City Council is secure;it was never in jeopardy,” said Brooklyn Councilmember
Letitia James
, a strident voice against the legislative over-turning of term limits that Quinn helped engineer last year.“An endorsement is an endorsement, despite its tepidity. Atleast [Quinn] mentioned his name, and even went furtherand added two additional sentences,” she quipped.
Robert Gibbs
, President
Obama
’s press secretary, didn’tmention Thompson’s name a few weeks ago when heannounced that the Big Man was endorsing the Democraticnominee.“So we’ll accept it, and we’ll run with it,” James added,“and we look forward to the next four years with her as ourleader.”Quinn had apparently approached Thompson earlier aboutthe endorsement, but due to tensions between the two — thespeaker is seen as too close an ally of Mayor
Mike Bloomberg
— he put off an announcement. So Quinn slipped in the nodwith little fanfare when speaking to reporters after the pressconference, framing her position as an afterthought despitebroad speculation over what she would ultimately do.“I’ve spoken to Comptroller Thompson,” she said at theevent. “I told him that I am supporting him and I’m ready tobe helpful in any way.”The back and forth between Quinn and Thompsonhelps explain why even her staff seemed confused as to theendorsement’s timing, with one Council employee intimat-ing last week that the announcement would come beforethe weekend. Still, the last-minute tip of the cap should beenough to propel Quinn to another term as speaker, regard-less of any lingering enmity between her, Thompson andsome Council Democrats.
M
ERRY
GIFT
?
Salvatore Strazzullo
thought he was giving his neighbor-hood a gift it wouldn’t refuse.Strazzullo, a lawyer and recent Tribeca transplant,wants to sponsor a Christmas tree this year in Duane Park.He wants to collect toys to put under the tree and hold aceremony in early December to give the gifts to underprivi-leged children.But when Strazzullo presented his idea to CommunityBoard 1 on Tuesday, board members were turned off by whatthey saw as Strazzullo’s attitude of self-promotion. Severalboard members said it would be a bad precedent to allowpeople to advertise their businesses (in this case, Strazzullo’sprivate law firm) in public parks.“I have a problem with it,” said
Pat Moore
, a board mem-ber. She suggested that Strazzullo, who by then had left themeeting, instead make a quiet donation to the new BatteryPark City library.As opposition to the tree grew, board member
Jeff Galloway
finally used the “g” word.“I don’t think we should be grinches,” Galloway said.“It’s nice that [Strazzullo] wants to do something nice forthe community.”But the majority of the board disagreed, voting 19-16against the tree. The board’s vote is only advisory, and aParks Dept. spokesperson said the city was still reviewingStrazzullo’s application and would likely make a decisionnext week. Strazzullo did not return a call for comment.
NEWS
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1-14 Transit Sam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Mixed Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13Progress Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15-29
EDITORIAL PAGES
. . . . . . . . . . . .30-31
YOUTH
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
ARTS
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
33-38 Listings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
CLASSIFIEDS
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
C.B. 1
M
EETINGS
Community Board 1 has not yet released its sched-ule of November committee meetings. For more infor-mation, check CB1.org.
Read the Archives
www
.
DOWNTOWNEXPRESS
.
com
U
NDER
c
over
S
END
YOUR
Letter to the Editor
N
EWS
@D
OWNTOWN
E
XPRESS
.
COM
145 S
IXTH
A
VENUE
, NYC, NY 10013P
LEASE
INCLUDE
YOUR
PHONE
NUMBER
FOR
CONFIRMATION
PURPOSES
ONLY
88 Fulton Street(Corner of 33 Gold St.)New York, NY 10038212.587.8930212.587.8935
Free Delivery!
Min. $10
Authentic Thai& Vegetarian
downtown express
October 30 - November 6, 2009
3
BY JULIE SHAPIRO
Developer Larry Silverstein sometimesthinks about leaving the quagmire of the WorldTrade Center site behind and casting off on hisyacht, but he said he’s afraid that without him,the site will never get rebuilt.“Without a push from the private sectorto move this damn thing forward, it wouldn’thappen,” Silverstein said Wednesday at theRealShare New York real estate conference inMidtown.Silverstein’s comments were among the firsthe has made on the Trade Center since he andthe Port Authority entered arbitration this sum-mer. Back then, in a well-publicized dispute,Silverstein charged that the Port was yearsbehind on key infrastructure projects at the site,preventing Silverstein from building his threeoffice towers on Church St. To compensatefor the delays and the frozen credit markets,Silverstein wanted the Port to help him financetwo of the Church St. towers. The Port offeredsome assistance, but said Silverstein needed toput in more money as well.The argument has largely disappeared fromthe spotlight as Silverstein and the Port maketheir cases privately before an arbitration panel.As Silverstein pointed out Wednesday, “There’snot a hell of a lot I can say, for obvious reasons.”But he went on to speak about the World TradeCenter for half an hour with moderator JohnSalustri, editorial director for the ALM-RealEstate Media Group.One problem with rebuilding the TradeCenter has been the revolving door of NewYork and New Jersey governors, who share con-trol of the Port Authority, Silverstein said.“Every time there’s a change of executive,there’s a change of agenda,” Silverstein said.“And every time there’s a change of agenda, itwreaks havoc with everything you’re trying toaccomplish if you’re trying to hold a specifictimeframe.”Silverstein also criticized the Port Authority,though he started by saying they’re “not badpeople.”“The unfortunate thing,” Silverstein said, “isthe people who built the Trade Center — thelast major high-rise project they were involvedwith — are long since gone. And the peoplewho are there today don’t have the experience,don’t have the ability, don’t have the compre-hension of what it takes, the need for timelydecisions.“You know,” Silverstein continued, “theattitude is, ‘I’ll get back to you for the decision.’Construction doesn’t wait for people who say,‘I’ll get back to you.’ You need the decisionnow.”Silverstein said he committed shortly after9/11 to stay at the World Trade Center for 10years to rebuild it. Now an optimistic estimatelooks more like 17 years, but he said he’s notgoing anywhere.“My attitude is you’ve gotta stay there,”Silverstein said. “On a daily basis, you’ve gottamake the decisions that you are required tomake so the construction will flow unimped-ed…. I want very much to be around to see itaccomplished. So as far as I’m concerned, I’mgoing to stay right where I am.”Silverstein said he was not worried that thePort would find a way to complete the projectwithout him.Silverstein expects the arbitration to finishbefore the end of the year. A source familiarwith Silverstein’s position said a few monthsago that the developer would ask the arbiters toaward him at least $2.75 billion as compensa-tion for Port delays and for all of the rent andinsurance he has paid to the authority.The panel just finished hearing two weeksof testimony from Silverstein and is now hearingtwo weeks from the Port, Silverstein said. If thepanel rules in favor of Silverstein and forces thePort to give him the resources he needs to buildthe towers, Silverstein said the entire site withall three of his office towers could be completeby 2016. The Port previously wanted Silversteinto only build Tower 4 and wait to build Towers2 and 3 until the market improved.A Port Authority spokesperson declined tocomment on the arbitration but said in a state-ment, “We are 100 percent committed to restor-ing Downtown and continue to make importantprogress on all of the public projects on the site,including the 9/11 Memorial, which is our high-est priority.” Previously, the Port has objected torisking billions of dollars on Silverstein’s privateoffice towers, saying the expense would com-promise the Port’s ability to complete publicinfrastructure projects elsewhere.Silverstein also gave a brief update on 99Church St., the fenced-off site next to the Woolworth Building that was supposed to bean 80-story condo and hotel tower run by theFour Seasons. Silverstein stopped constructionon the tower this summer after finishing thefoundation because he could not get a loan tocontinue building above street level.“We’re going to have to be patient,”Silverstein said. “Four Seasons’ attitude is,‘Hey, whenever it comes, it comes. We’re there,we’re ready.’”Silverstein said he feels the same way andhe expects to get a loan in 2011 and finish thebuilding in 2013 or 2014.
Julie@DowntownExpress.com
Silverstein breaks the silence in W.T.C. dispute
Reade Street
Reade Street
Animal Hospital
Animal Hospital
Dr. Mary XanthosDr. Amy Kantor
“We provide the vital, preventive careneeded for your petsto live a long,healthy life”
NOW OPEN!
Photo courtesy of RealShare New York
World Trade Center developer LarrySilverstein.
Add a Comment