MARDI
GRAS
BENEFIT
BALL,
P. 29

Chinatown’s biggest Lunar New Year event:
Come for the flowers, the cultural shows,
and the display booths !

The future of St. Vincent’s as a full-service, acute- care hospital with a Level 1 trauma center and emer- gency room remained imperiled this week even as the state and creditors infused emergency cash to keep the 160-year-old institution going.

Governor David Paterson announced on Sun., Feb. 7, that the state agreed to put another $3 million into the hospital, and creditors who hold much of St. Vincent’s $700 million debt have agreed to put up another $3 million.

St. Vincent’s still
on life support,
as takeover is off

The Archdiocese of New York is shaking up a series of Catholic schools in Lower Manhattan, and parents are not happy.

Citing low enrollment, the arch- diocese plans to close St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral School on Mott St.

and St. James School on St. James Pl. at the end of this school year. The students in those schools would be shuffled around to others in the area, which would allow the overcrowded Transfi guration School to expand into St. James’ building.

about this,” said John Quinn, a Democratic district leader who gradu- ated from St. James in 1964.

St. Patrick’s was the fi rst Catholic school in the city when it opened in 1822, but its population has dwin-

Political insiders had been speculating that Gill, 78, would be forced off the board after his term expired at the end of 2008. Gill was appointed by former Republican Gov.George

But when Paterson announced Gill’s resignation Tuesday evening, he did so without naming a new member to take Gill’s place on the seven-person board. There is also specu- lation that Gill’s departure is linked to the state inspector general’s investigation into authority staff. Paterson’s offi ce and Gill did not respond to requests for comment.

current vice chairperson, will temporarily take over Gill’s role on the board. Urstadt and the other five remaining members will have to vote to designate a new chairperson, said Leticia Remauro, authority spokesperson.

Urstadt may not be on much more solid ground than Gill was — Urstadt’s term on the board expired at the end of 2009, and Paterson is not expected to reappoint him.

terror trials at the World Trade Center site, similar to an idea suggested by Jon Stewart in his interview with Bill O’Reilly last week.

Although some might think Stanke got the idea from watching the “Daily Show” host, we’re pretty certain that each came up with the idea independently. Stanke fi rst men- tioned the idea to us before the O’Reilly showdown (Sorry Jon for “showdown” but even though UnderCover is not M.S.M., we do perhaps hype things a little.). Stewart, our Downtown friend from afar, of course didn’t get wind of Stanke’s thoughts beforehand.

This week, Stewart sat down with Newt Gingrich and expressed a Stanke-esque willingness to have the terror tri- als near his home.in Lower Manhattan as well as frustration with slow W.T.C. progress — although the second part is far from an uncommon sentiment.

We think it’s high time for a neighbor-to-neighbor meeting between the pair, but UnderCover is going to have to insist on being there, even if, gulp, it must be off the record.

The merry, crimson-clad group that trashed the Seaport in 2008 and returned last Dec. 12 was part of SantaCon, an informal mob of dressed-up Santas who take over the streets, drinking from morning ’til night. SantaCon fi rst posed a problem for the Seaport in ’08, when the Santas destroyed Pier 17 owner General Growth Properties’ Christmas dis- play, Vaughan said.

So, when the fall of 2009 rolled around, Vaughan began tracking SantaCon chatter online, alerting the First Precinct and adding extra security for the day, which helped but didn’t stop the Santas from coming, Vaughan said.

G.G.P. has also stopped sponsoring alcohol-themed events like Brewfest that bring drunken crowds to the pier, Vaughan said.

“Post-9/11 we had to do whatever we could to draw people back,” Vaughan said of G.G.P.’s earlier sponsor- ship. Now, though, plenty of people are coming back to the Seaport — and Vaughan would rather that the inebriated masses stay away.

Tribeca lost an institution at the end of January when Bazzini grocery, cafe and nut shop closed its doors on Greenwich St.

As soon as August, the space will reopen as a Sarabeth’s, a bakery and brunch spot that has several other outposts in the city and in Key West. Bill Levine, who owns the chain with his wifeSarabeth, said this week that design work is underway for the 4,800-square-foot street-level space.

It’s been more than a month since Barry Skolnick left New York City for Rochester, Minn., but the former Community Board 1 member is still being invoked at nearly every meeting of the board.

Jokes about “What would Barry do?” abound, especially when the subject turns to schools or Barnes Dance traffic signals or noisy construction equipment.

At a recent meeting of the Battery Park City Committee, B.P.C. Authority spokesperson Leticia Remauro said she thought she saw Skolnick in the hallway, only to realize it was someone else. And at a meeting of the Planning Committee, Skolnick’s name came up during a discussion of seniors who decide to leave the city and head south.

“Then there’s the exception like Barry that goes in the wrong direction,” joked Jeff Galloway, chairperson of the committee and Skolnick’s former neighbor.

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The upcoming week’s schedule of Community Board 1 committee meetings is below. Unless other- wise noted, all committee meetings are held at the board office, located at 49-51 Chambers St., room 709 at 6 p.m.

The article “Downtowners look to put brakes on bus cuts” in the Feb. 11 issue of Downtown Express gave the wrong address for the first of a series of Metropolitan Transportation Authority hearings on the cuts. The hearing will be March 4 at the Fashion Institute of Technology, Seventh Ave. and 27th St., at 6 p.m.

Alarmed by a growing litany of safety violations at the former Deutsche Bank building, the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. demanded last month that contractor Bovis Lend Lease replace managers on the job.

In a Jan. 29 letter that has not been made public, the L.M.D.C. told Bovis that the latest problems at the troubled building — including a melted light, a falling wrench and a fuel spill — were unacceptable. Errol Cockfield, L.M.D.C. spokesperson, called the letter “strongly worded.” The Daily News first reported on the L.M.D.C.’s letter earlier this week.

“We’re asking the same question you’re asking of the contractor,” Cockfield replied, “and we share that dis- pleasure.”

Ameruso continued to press Cockfield, saying the recent problems sounded disturbingly similar to the trail of accidents leading up to the 2007 fire in the building that killed two firefighters.

“I thought that after the fire, there were protocols put in place where things like this really were not supposed to happen,” Ameruso said. “It seems like a series of things is happening again.”

Bovis avoided being indicted after the fire but admit- ted shortcomings in an agreement with former District Attorney Robert Morgenthau. A Bovis supervisor and two supervisors with subcontractor John Galt Corp. have been charged with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in the firefighters’ deaths and their cases have not yet come to trial. The city was not charged but also admitted fault for not adequately supervising the proj- ect.After the fire, government agencies stepped up inspec-

tions of the job and Bovis replaced Galt with the more reputable LVI Environmental Services. Bovis made many changes to make the job safer, including separating the decontamination of the building from the demolition and giving workers additional training. In January 2008,

Bovis created the new position of project safety manager for the Deutsche Bank building and assigned it to Ray Master, who previously oversaw 80 Bovis projects.

A few months later, he told Community Board 1 that demolition “is a much more dangerous job” than decon- tamination, and he planned to retrain all workers before demolition started.

“It’s outrageous that there are still so many violations, said Catherine McVay Hughes, chairperson of C.B. 1’s World Trade Center Redevelopment Committee and one of the project’s closest watchdogs. “This is a high-profile job with a lot of people supervising it.

On Jan. 28, the day before the L.M.D.C. sent the let- ter, an unapproved light on the 21st floor of the building melted and workers failed to report the incident, as they are required to do under safety plans, according to the city Buildings Dept.

Other recent problems include workers using torches near a fuel tank, and workers accidentally damaging the protective sidewalk shed and spilling diesel fuel on Greenwich St. Downtown Express had previously report- ed on two of the most serious recent violations, involving the torches and the falling wrench.

A Bovis spokesperson did not return a call for com- ment. Cockfield said Bovis had promised to conduct a review of the project, and the L.M.D.C. was awaiting the results. Cockfield refused to release the L.M.D.C.’s letter to Bovis.

The Deutsche Bank building, at 130 Liberty St., was 41 stories tall when it was heavily damaged on 9/11 and was down to 26 stories at the time of the 2007 fire. Since the L.M.D.C. resumed demolition late last fall, a few more floors have come down, and now the building stands at 21 stories. This weekend, Bovis will be lower- ing the crane and hoist several stories to allow the work to continue.

The L.M.D.C. expects Bovis to finish demolishing the building by the end of the year. Cockfield said the recent violations have not slowed progress on the job.