Not so fast closing Downtown agencies, says Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.

Two public authorities focused on parts of Silver’s Lower Manhattan district are under discussion for closure. The Battery Park City Authority has no more vacant sites to develop and some are arguing it may be time to close, but not Silver, who was skeptical of the move in an interview because he wanted to make sure residents don’t lose ser- vices.

The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, which was created with fed- eral 9/11 rebuilding funds at the end of 2001, was set up to eventually close, but

Silver said legally it can’t close entirely, but more importantly, it would not be a good idea to give the city full control of the money, as Mayor Bloomberg first sug- gested several years ago.

“The other question is how focused they are on just Downtown as opposed to a citywide view of ‘hey we have money,’ Silver said Friday.

ultimately when they are fi nished being the vehicle for funding of the revitalization, should be out of business,” he said. But the corporation is once again fl ush with funds.

Within the last few months, the L.M.D.C. settled an insur- ance case for $100 million, providing the funds needed to

The tip of the new, longer Pier 25 got a coat of green Tuesday as Hudson River Park Trust contractors installed an artifi cial turf fi eld. When the rebuilt Tribeca pier opens this fall, the fi eld will be used for peewee sports and T-ball, along with passive recreation. The rest of the pier’s features are steadily taking shape as well, with the volleyball court already in place and the playground construction underway. Over the next few months, the Trust will continue installing utilities and building the concession for the miniature golf course.

After grabbing Governors Island and Brooklyn Bridge Park from the state, Mayor Bloomberg has now set his sights on a new acquisition: Battery Park City.

asked Comptroller John Liu earlier this year to study the feasibility of taking over Battery Park City, which is now under the state’s jurisdiction, Liu told report- ers at his offi ce last Thursday.

acquiring Battery Park City from the state for just $1, and Liu’s comments confirmed speculation that the city has begun to seriously consider doing so. Liu said he had not decided whether the takeover would be beneficial to the city.

“We’re certainly examining the pros and cons,” Liu said. “Not all the issues are fleshed out yet.”

The biggest advantage of a takeover is that the city would receive all the revenue that flows from the neigh- borhood each year in property taxes and ground rents. On the other hand,

the city would also have to assume the neighborhood’s $1 billion in debt and would face additional maintenance responsibilities.

Liu said he wanted to hear from Battery Park City residents and com- mercial tenants before he made a rec- ommendation.

“No decision is imminent,” he said, “but obviously my office is going to listen to the concerns of all parties involved very thoroughly.”

Everyone expects their elected representatives to fol- low the law (well, okay, maybe not in New York), but Councilmember Margaret Chin took that to a new level when she said this week that she does not jaywalk.

As Chin co-chaired a Council hearing on pedestrian safe- ty in Lower Manhattan this week, she said she was taught as a child to cross only in the crosswalk and at green lights.

Councilmember Rosie Mendez, who was also at the hearing, confi rmed Chin’s story. Mendez said she and Chin were recently walking around Downtown in a hurry, and Mendez had to “drag” Chin through the intersection to get her to cross against the light.

“It was totally my fault,” Mendez said, as their colleagues laughed. “[Chin] was waiting for the green light and I told her, ‘We’re running late.’”

There’s a good reason why Sean Sweeney, the Soho Alliance’s director, observed that about “one-third” of the Trump Soho condo hotel’s lights were off when he looked at it one evening last week as we were talking to him on the phone: Only the lower half of the 46-story building was open. As of last week, above the 25th fl oor, workers were still doing their fi nal “punch list” checks to make sure everything was ready to go. Meanwhile, last Wednesday afternoon, a group of about 40, mostly women, were lined up outside the building, waiting for job interviews. A hotel employee who was managing the line, said the hotel is still staffing up as it nears completion, and that it will fully open within two months. The building will employ a total of 350 people.

The oft-maligned raised subway grates the Metropolitan Transportation Authority installed to prevent flooding just won an urban design merit award from the American Institute of Architects New York Chapter.

The raised grates, by Rogers Marvel Architects with di Dominco + Partners, were installed in troubled spots all over the city after an August 2007 rainstorm flooded the subway system and halted trains. Along W. Broadway in Tribeca, the M.T.A. raised the grates just a few inches and put bike racks and benches on top of them.

waste of money. The board also objected to the design, which members felt was obtrusive in Tribeca’s historic districts.

The A.I.A. recognized two other Lower Manhattan projects: The Downtown Alliance’s Greenwich South plan- ning study, by the Architecture Research Offi ce, also won an urban design merit award, and the New Amsterdam Plein and Pavilion at Peter Minuit Plaza, by UNStudio with Handel Architects, won an architecture merit award.

In other award-winning news, the Urban Land Institute picked the Visionaire this week as one of 10 outstanding developments in the Americas. The 35-story Platinum LEED- certified residential building by the Albanese Organization attracted notice for its use of geothermal wells, photovoltaic solar panels and other green features.

The Urban Land Institute also granted a Heritage Award to the 1979 Battery Park City Master Plan. The award is given to projects that have had a large impact on the com- munity for at least 25 years.

When local residents find several blocks of Fulton St. closed off for one day this August, they won’t be able to blame the city’s water main project, or the state’s subway construction, or utility companies’ equipment upgrades. Instead, they’ll be able to blame Community Board 1.

C.B. 1 is planning a street fair on Fulton St. between Water and Gold Sts. for Fri., Aug. 6 to raise money for the board’s operations. C.B. 1 had hoped to hold the fair on Broad St. but the city disapproved that spot and the board picked Fulton St. as another high-traffic location.

said the board counts on this particular fair to be one of the biggest, bringing in $7,000 to $8,000 that the board desper- ately needs during tight budget times.

“That whole area is such a calamity when it comes to getting around,” he said at the board’s Seaport/Civic Center Committee meeting last week.

Lower Manhattan’s own Andy Jurinko is opening a new show of recent paintings next month at Ron Jagger Fine Art on W. 26th St. Called “Women,” the aptly named show features large, lush portraits and opens with a recep- tion on Thurs., May 6 at 6 p.m. So far it looks like Jurinko hasn’t taken any artistic inspiration from the World Trade Center construction that’s been going nonstop right outside the apartment he shares with his wife and former model, Community Board 1 member Pat Moore.

The Association for a Better New York has a new execu- tive director: Jennifer Hensley, who comes from the Empire State Development Corp. Hensley also worked for eight years at the Downtown Alliance, overseeing recovery efforts after 9/11.

EDITORIAL PAGES..........20-21 YOUTH. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22-23 ARTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24-30 CLASSIFIEDS....................31

The upcoming week’s schedule of Community Board 1 committee meetings is below. Unless other- wise noted, all committee meetings are held at 6 p.m.

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The mural deemed not “extraordinary enough” for the construction fence around the World Trade Center site is now wrap- ping a construction fence near the Whitehall Ferry Terminal instead.

Called “Beyond the Garden Wall,” the 400-foot mural by Sage and Coombe Architects depicts a lush green hedge, with familiar New York figures and sym- bols peeking out through the gaps. Dept. of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan unveiled the mural at a quiet ceremony last Friday afternoon, as Staten Island commuters rushed past.

“New Yorkers are notorious for keeping their heads down,” Sadik-Khan said. “But we’ve given them a reason today to pick up their head and check out this vibrant mural.”

Last year, the colorful Sage and Coombe design beat 162 other entries in the D.O.T. and Port Authority’s competition to deco- rate the Church St. fence at the W.T.C. site. The mural was supposed to be installed last December, but the Port Authority nixed the idea in the final stages, with a spokesperson telling the New York Times in January that none of the entries, including Sage and Coombe’s, was “extraordinary enough.”

Perhaps coincidentally, Sadik-Khan used the word “extraordinary” to describe Sage and Coombe’s design as she stood in front of it last Friday.

“The artistry was so extraordinary and the artwork was so strong that we wanted to get it out there as soon as possible,” Sadik-Khan said. “This seemed to be an ideal site.”

The mural masks the construction of Peter Minuit Plaza just outside the Whitehall Ferry Terminal. It will be taken down in September when the plaza is expected to be complete. The plaza will include entrances to the R/W and No. 1 subway lines and the New Amsterdam Plein and Pavilion, a gift from the Dutch government that will house a concession and tourist information.

Jennifer Sage, principal at Sage and Coombe, said the hedge shown on the mural “evokes the sense of excitement when a construction fence is up — to find out what’s behind it,” regardless of whether that fence is at the World Trade Center site or in Peter Minuit Plaza.

The design is largely unchanged from the original that was slated for the W.T.C., but Sage said her firm added more historical fig- ures, like Peter Stuyvesant, when the mural was moved. The mural also features Jackie Robinson, Jane Jacobs and a slew of others who shaped the city. It may even include Sadik-Khan herself, but she isn’t telling.

“Beyond the Garden Wall,” a temporary mural which was selected then rejected
for the World Trade Center a few months ago, was put up near the Whitehall Ferry
Terminal on Friday.

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