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BY JOHN BAYLES
Starting a new business is alwaystough. But when Ellen Baer was tappedto run the Hudson Square Connectionshe was hired without a staff in place,without an office and without a boardof directors. And, the steering com-mittee that sought her out and gaveher the job in May 2009, informedher they wanted the business up andrunning with its doors open in a meretwo months.“Personally, I don’t think theythought I could do it,” Baer said. “ButI never thought about that. I just gotto work.”Baer rented a small space in the WNYC offices on Varick Street. Shehad to ask herself what exactly shewas hiring for before she could evenbegin posting the job descriptions. Shelooked at her mission, determined herstaffing and began the interviewingprocess.The Hudson Square Connection isone of roughly 65 Business ImproveDistricts in the city and its major pri-orities are streetscape and sustainabil-ity and marketing. Unlike almost 90percent of the other BIDs, the H.S.C.is unique in that it does not havean operations component. Many BIDshave a sanitation and/or a security ele-ment; the H.S.C. does not.Baer pored over resumes and inter-viewed over 60 people to fill four posi-tions: Senior Economic DevelopmentAnalyst, Director of Marketing, Directorof Streetscape and Sustainability and aSpecial Assistant.“I had a temporary office at WNYCand one day a guy who worked therelooked at me and said, ‘Wow, you’reinterviewing a lot of people’,” recalledBaer.Baer said she was lucky.“It was June 2009 and a lot of people in New York were out of work,”
Downtown Express photo by John Bayles
 SoHo or Hudson Square?
The plaza below Sixth Avenue and Spring Street is on the Hudson Square Connection’s radar as one projectthey hope to tackle and try to make it more of a communal space. Some call it SoHo Park, but it’s located in theHudson Square business district.
BY JOHN BAYLES
Last week Luis Sanchez,NYC’s Department of Transportation commis-sioner for Lower Manhattanattended a Lower ManhattanMarketing Associationmeeting at the NationalSeptember 11 Museum andMemorial preview site. Hegave an update on all thingsrelated to Lower Manhattanand honed in on the upcom-ing tenth anniversary of the9/11 attacks.Sanchez reminded every-one that the tenth anniver-sary was only “360” daysaway, but assured the audi-ence that his office wasdoing everything possibleto prepare for the expectedinflux of tourists and buses.“We’re open to any andall suggestions,” Sanchezsaid in regard to how to bestaccommodate the surge.The concern is thatLower Manhattan willbecome inundated with tourbuses from all across thecountry when the memo-rial opens on September 11,2011. So far, the D.O.T. isentertaining ideas includinga “park and ride” scenario
BY ALINE REYNOLDS
Environmentalists at theLower ManhattanConstruction CommandCenter and elsewhere havemade strides towards lessen-ing airborne soot coming fromthe plethora of neighborhoodconstruction projects.But, according to theEnvironmental DefenseFund, there is an equallydamaging form of air pol-lution that has somewhatflown under the radar: blacksmoke billowing from build-ings that use dirty diesel toheat their interiors.The E.D.F. studies
 
revealed 130 residential,commercial and institu-tional buildings in LowerManhattan below HoustonStreet burn the dirti-est grades of heating oil.Buildings such as thesemake up only one percentof the city’s building stock,yet they contribute 86 per-cent of the city’s heating oilsoot pollution; more sootthan the aggregate amountthe city’s cars and trucksproduce.
 
Largely because of its soot problem, New Yorkhas fallen short of nationalair quality standards setby the U.S. EnvironmentalProtection Agency for manyyears in a row, dating backto the early 1990s.“You can hardly call itheating oil, because it’s justsludge,” said E.D.F. staff 
Holland Tunnel traffic to swell; DOT readying for 9/11/11Downtown pollution not just from construction
Hudson Square Connectioncelebrates first birthday
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 VOLUME 20, NUMBER 40 THE NEWSPAPER OF LOWER MANHATTAN
SEPTEMBER 22 - 28, 2010
DISCOVERING HUDSON SQUARE
SPECIAL SECTION, PGS. 16-21
 
September 22 - 28, 2010
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downtown express 
September 22 - 28, 2010
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NEWS
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EDITORIAL PAGES
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Hudson Square . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-21
 YOUTH
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 ARTS
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 25-30 Listings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28 
CLASSIFIEDS
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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 MON., SEPT. 27:
CB 1’s Affordable HousingTask Force will meet.
ON TUES., SEPT. 28:
CB 1’s full board meetingwill be held at Access Community Health Clinic, 83Maiden Lane, ManhattanThe fifth annual Tribeca Meet-and-Greet is slated forSeptember 28. This year, it will be held at Reade Street’snewest business, FasTracKids. But don’t let the name of thebusiness fool you, this function is not for the little ones.Frankly Wines will provide the libations and there willalso be some tasty appetizers. It’s primarily a networkingevent and it is by no means limited to Tribeca residents.Anyone is welcome so long as the idea of benefiting fromsome friendly chitchat and the exchanging of business cardsseems appealing.Tribeca Meet-and-Greet is organized by the TribecaPerforming Arts Center. For additional information contactDavid Cleaver. New business owners are especially encour-aged to drop by.New York State Senator Daniel Squadron took a trip to Washington D.C. on Wednesday to advocate for “benefitcorporations” at a national symposium dedicated to “PublicPolicy and Sustainable Portfolios.” The Social InvestmentForum sponsored the symposium.In a press release the State Senator said, “In New York andacross the country, there are entrepreneurs and investors whowant to participate in traditional profit making business, butalso want to do good for society and the environment. Theidea of benefit corporations ‘doing well by doing good’ is tak-ing hold nationwide, and New York has the opportunity tobecome a national leader in corporate social responsibility.Due to the recent controversy surrounding Park51, agroup of Muslim-led organizations convened in front of the proposed Islamic Cultural Center on Monday to discusscountering religious intolerance.“Once it became a rallying cry for extremists, we hadno choice but to stand with [Imam] Feisal [Abdul] Rauf,”said Shaik Ubaid of the Islamic Leadership Councilof Metropolitan New York in an interview with theAssociated Press.The Muslim leaders plan to hold a nationwide “Weekof Dialogue” in late October, when they will organize openhouses at their respective houses of worship.“We stand for the constitutional right of Muslims,and Americans of all faiths, to build houses of worshipanywhere in our nation as allowed by local laws and regu-lations,” the group leaders said in a joint statement readaloud at Park51 on Monday, according to the CordobaInitiative website.The statement continued, “It is our hope and desire thatthese events will help to allay tensions in civil society causedby the Park51 controversy and will build bridges of under-standing that unite and strengthen our nation.”
 Tribeca Meet-and-Greet turns five!Mr. Squadron goes to Washington!
Muslim leaders plan nationwide “Week of Dialogue”
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BY JOHN BAYLES
The long-awaited Request for Proposalsfor the Lower Manhattan DevelopmentCorporation’s latest round of grants hasofficially been released. The Community andCultural Enhancement Program will offer$17 million worth of grants to nonprofitsand government organizations located southof Houston Street, river to river.As stated on the L.M.D.C. website theprogram “will support cultural and com-munity programs and projects in LowerManhattan that would meet the needs of Lower Manhattan residents, workers, andcommunities resulting from the events of September 11, 2001.” However, the grantsare also available to organizations that“address or prevent blight, and/or benefitlow and moderate income persons.”“This is a very important moment fornonprofit and cultural institutions that havebeen struggling,” said Julie Menin, L.M.D.C.board member and Community Board 1chair.Menin, as well as numerous other LowerManhattan residents, has been pushing forthe release of the R.F.P. since the L.M.D.C.announced it would make available themoney earlier this summer.“The Community and CulturalEnhancement Program presents an impor-tant opportunity for New York City,” saidMayor Michael R. Bloomberg, accordingto the L.M.D.C. website. “Through thisinitiative, the L.M.D.C. will provide crucialsupport for nonprofit organizations and rein-force Lower Manhattan’s identity as an excit-ing destination for New Yorkers and visitorsfrom around the world.”The funds are left over from an originalround of grants provided by the L.M.D.C.four years ago. Originally, the pool of fundswas divided into two separate categories.Now, both categories have been combined.Menin stressed the importance of makingclear that the money is not just for culturalnonprofits. Indeed, she hopes schools applyas well. During the original round of grants,many schools in Lower Manhattan, specifi-cally P.S. 89 and P.S. 234 did not apply forthe grants. Menin said she believes the rea-son was due to a lack of publicity concerningthe programs.However this time around, the L.M.D.C.has agreed to a public session at which theywill spell out the specific organizations thatare eligible for the grants in an attempt tobe as transparent as possible. As of presstime, the date of the public session had notyet been set.
L.M.D.C. releases community and cultural enhancement R.F.P.
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