Adam Yoo and Ariana Lamser danced their ballroom hearts out for P.S. 89 last Thursday. The school’s six-couple
team of fifth graders beat 10 other Manhattan schools last Monday to advance to the semi-finals but they just
missed out making the fi nals, which will be in the Winter Garden in June. The students learned their fox trot,
tango swing and other dance moves from Catherine Gallant and Christine Bancroft. The school takes its dancing
seriously, starting some off in pre-K. That’s right in step with Lower Manhattan as P.S. 150’s dancers were fea-
tured in the 2005 documentary, “Mad Hot Ballroom”.

Facing a dire budget season, the state and city agreed this week to dip into a Battery Park City fund once intended for affordable housing.

deal, announced Monday, the state and city will each take $200 million from the B.P.C. fund to fill their budget gaps. The city will also bor- row an additional $200 mil- lion to build and preserve affordable housing and will eventually use another $200 million from the fund for general capital projects.

Any use of the B.P.C. money requires the signoff of Mayor Bloomberg, City Comptroller John Liu and the Battery Park City Authority board. Gov. Paterson negotiated the agreement with Bloomberg and Liu, and Monday morn- ing the authority board unanimously approved it.

Bill Thompson, the for- mer city comptroller and new chairperson of the author- ity board, advocated for the agreement on Monday.

“The intent of this money going to affordable housing is still met,” Thompson said

Two governors, a mayor, a developer and a public authority agreed last week to a general financing frame- work to redevelop the World Trade Center site.

The agreement, expect- ed to be finalized in four months, would allow the developer, Larry Silverstein, to complete construction of 4 W.T.C. as well as the retail complex at the Tower 3 site with the help of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. If Silverstein can

pre-lease 400,000 square feet of Tower 3, and raise $300 million privately, the Port, New York City and State would guarantee $390 million of financing support needed to build the tower over the stores.

One of the governors, Chris Christie of New Jersey, did not appear at the March 25 press conference to cel- ebrate the deal. He released a statement saying he was “supportive of the broad outline” of the agreement, but: “I remain steadfast that

Thompson helps
mayor and governor
grab B.P.C. money

Long before it’s a done
deal, a debate on
W.T.C. agreement

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Battery Park City Authority was such a foregone conclu- sion that board members skipped over a few steps in the formal voting process Monday morning.

After Thompson had been nominated, Lynn Rollins, a board member, asked, “Should we do this unani- mously?”

As expected, no one else stepped in — Gov.P a t e r s o n had already made it clear that Thompson was his pick, and the B.P.C.A. board complied by electing Thompson unanimously.

The board members weren’t the only ones who saw Thompson’s new title as a done deal — on March 22, a full week before Thompson was elected, a press release from B.P.C. groups on green-themed events quoted Thompson as chairman of the authority.

In this case, though, the partnership is just in the kitch- en: The Sons of the Revolution of the State of New York announced this week that Dublin-based restaurant com- pany The Porterhouse Group is moving into the historic Fraunces Tavern building.

The former Fraunces Tavern Restaurant, below the museum at 54 Pearl St., closed in February. The new owners will keep the restaurant’s name and historical feeling but may be changing the menu. The restaurant is scheduled to reopen June 1.

This will be Porterhouse’s first American location — founded in 1989, they operate restaurants, bars, clubs and a microbrewery in Dublin.

This week we may have gotten a little insight into how State Sen. Dan Squadron summons the patience to deal with Albany’s dysfunction. Squadron said he remained the youngest person in his family for many years, which meant it was up to him to read the four Seder questions for 14 consecutive years — an unusually long stint for a Jewish child.

The Hudson River Park Advisory Council has a new chairperson: Bob Townley, executive director of Manhattan Youth and chairperson of Community Board 1’s Waterfront Committee.

The leader of council rotates annually among the com- munity boards that contain pieces of the park, and this year was C.B. 1’s turn. Julie Menin, C.B. 1 chairperson, said she appointed Townley because he knows all the players on the Hudson River Park Trust from when he ran youth programs on the old Pier 25.

One of the biggest issues facing the Trust is what to do with Pier 40, which is crumbling into the Hudson and needs millions of dollars of work. At a recent community board meeting, Townley suggested using Pier 40 for the hundreds of commuter and tour buses that inundate Downtown. The Lower Manhattan Development Corp. has some money for a garage, and Pier 40 needs money, so “There could be a synergy there,” Townley said.

We hear that Tamarind Tribeca, the bigger, better out- post of Avatar Walia’s Indian restaurant in Flatiron, is opening on Monday. Located at Hudson and Franklin Sts., the 6,000-square-foot, two-story space is sumptuous and well lit, according to our tipster, who got a peek inside this week.

For those Lower Manhattan residents or aficionados who want to name their offspring after a neighborhood street, the Web site nameberry.com recently posted a list of sev- eral dozen Downtown streets that could make good baby names, along with their historical roots.

bestowing on an infant: Ludlow (a War of 1812 hero), DeLancey (a farmer on the Lower East Side) and Barclay (the Rev. Henry Barclay was a rector at Trinity Church), just to name a few.

EDITORIAL PAGES. . . . . . . . . . . 16 - 17 YOUTH. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 - 19 ARTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 - 22

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

Hoping to make the six-lane street safer for pedestrians, the city is adding a concrete median with trees on the Bowery between Canal and Division Sts. The construction on the two-block stretch will take place this month.

State Sen. Daniel Squadron pushed for the median after hearing from Chinatown advocates and residents of Confucius Plaza.

“The Bowery is the nexus of some of the worst traffi c in the city,” Squadron said. “You can’t fi x the Bowery entirely but you can ensure that some of the worst things aren’t hap- pening.”

Cars and trucks frequently make an illegal U-turn on the Bowery as a shortcut to the Manhattan Bridge, which is dangerous, Squadron said. Many senior citizens are afraid to cross the wide street, and the median will prevent the U-turns and will give people a safer place to wait in between light cycles, he said.

Jack Eng, the new president of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, said he was glad to see changes that would make the street safer, and an added benefi t is that the trees will add beauty to Chinatown.

The change is part of the city Dept. of Transportation’s Safe Streets for Seniors program. A D.O.T. spokesperson said the median will be in place this month and the cost is not yet final.

The Trinity/St. Paul’s Parish marked the beginning
of Easter Week with a Palm Sunday procession from
St. Paul’s to Trinity Church on Wall St. last weekend.
David Jette, head verger at Trinity, above, led the youth
groups. For Christians, Palm Sunday marks the day
when Christ returned to Jerusalem before his crucifi x-
ion and resurrection.