downtown
express
Part 3 in a series on the New York City
Housing Authority
BY ALINE REYNOLDS
The New York City Housing
Authority has neither the funds nor the
personnel to implement all the security
measures the residents want, such as
monitored cameras and an enhanced
Resident Watch program. Yet crime
has risen by 2.8 percent in Lower
Manhattan’s public housing develop-
ments over the past year.
N.Y.C.H.A.’s Safety and Security
Task Force, created last year, is
reviewing security and police issues
to amend its services. The task force
will soon release a report documenting
N.Y.C.H.A.’s security problems and
solutions. But under the current sys-
tem, many public housing residents
are afraid.
At 2:53 a.m. on September 1, armed
men confronted Smith Houses resident
Anthony Evans, 28, in the playground
facing the 46 Madison Street residence.
Evans was shot in the head, torso and
right arm. He was taken to Downtown
Hospital, where he was pronounced
dead.
Surveillance cameras recorded the
Downtown Express photo by Milo Hess
The F.D.N.Y.’s newest weapon
Firefi ghter II, sister ship to Three Forty Three, entered service in the spring and is now moored at Pier 40. It
was offi cially inducted into the F.D.N.Y. fl eet last Sunday. Turn to page 15 for the story.
BY ALBERT AMATEAU
The city’s 11-member
Design Commission took just
fifteen minutes on Monday
morning to unanimously
approve the Department
of Sanitation’s design of
the enclosed salt shed to
be built in connection with
the D.S.N.Y. three-district
Spring Street garage.
The design of the shed,
which evolved over the past
two years as part of the
garage project, calls for a
concrete structure 67 feet
tall at its high end on West
Street and 40 feet tall at
its eastern end behind the
Holland Tunnel ventilation
tower.
The architect, Richard
Dattner, D.S.N.Y.’s design
consultant who made
the presentation before
the commission, said the
shed, which is to replace
the present one on the
Gansevoort Peninsula 19
blocks to the north, will be
a minimum of 30 feet away
from the tunnel ventilation
tower.
The shed exhaust will
be from the roof on the
high West Street side of
the building. D.S.N.Y. has
engaged Reg Huff, whom
Dattner described as “a
world renown concrete
guru,” to advise on con-
crete material and con-
BY JOHN BAYLES
What started as a parent-
run playgroup in the East
Village has transformed into
a full-fledged elementary
school that will soon call
Lower Manhattan home.
The Blue School, founded by
members of the renowned
Blue Man Group, recently
entered into a contract to
purchase the building at 241
Water Street.
“It’s such a phenomenal
Committee sees
problem with shed
Blue School moves
to Water Street
Residents want more than cameras
Continued on page 19
Continued on page 19
Continued on page 16
®
VOLUME 23, NUMBER 27
THE NEWSPAPER OF LOWER MANHATTAN
NOVEMBER 17 - 23, 2010
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November 17 - 23, 2010
3
GENERAL GROWTH SKIRTS LARGEST REAL
ESTATE BANKRUPTCY
General Growth Properties Inc., whose headquarters are
at 88 Pine Street, has divided into two companies, thereby
avoiding the biggest real estate bankruptcy in U.S. history,
according to Bloomberg News.
The businesses, General Growth and Howard Hughes
Corp., began trading on the New York Stock Exchange last
week. G.G.P. fi led for Chapter 11 protection in April 2009,
when it found itself $27 billion in debt. Earlier this year, the
company restructured about $15 billion in mortgage debt
linked to approximately 40 properties. Brookfield Asset
Management Inc. won over other investor groups to get
G.G.P. out of bankruptcy.
The company owned and operated more than 183 malls
in 43 states around the country. It recently documented
an operating loss of $29.3 million in third-quarter 2009,
compared to an $88.9 million profit in third-quarter 2009,
attributing the loss to restructuring costs.
LEAK NEAR W.F.C. CAUSED NO W.T.C. DELAYS
On the evening of November 4, water from the Hudson
River began leaking into a construction pit close to the
World Trade Center Site.
The hole in the concrete foundation wall has since been
patched up with steel casing, preventing further water from
streaming in. Similar potential leaks, the construction staff
reported, were properly managed. “The contractor is begin-
ning to pump out the floor water and the repair appears to
be working,” the construction staff said. In the meantime,
work on the site has been stalled, however the overall exca-
vation project remains on schedule.
The ground is being excavated for the pedestrian con-
course below West Street that will eventually connect the
World Trade Center and the World Financial Center, accord-
ing to Steve Coleman, spokesperson for the Port Authority of
New York and New Jersey. The site above ground will serve as
an exit point for the Route 9a tunnel, exiting to the W.F.C.
“This portion of the project required the removal of
existing platforms and old bulkheads that likely complicated
[concrete foundation] wall installations,” according to the
W.T.C. construction staff.
Coleman assured that none of the water spilled onto the
W.T.C. site itself. “The water is confi ned to the excavation
area, right in front of the W.F.C. where the pit is located,”
he said.
The construction team is setting up a system for detecting
and mitigating future water leaks.
PLANTING OF CHERRY TREES IN CHINATOWN
Thirty-seven trees, mostly cherry, have been planted in
front of Confucius Plaza and along the road median on
Bowery Street. The project is part of a larger effort initiated
by State Senator Daniel Squadron to improve the quality of
life for area residents.
Squadron, Manhattan Borough Parks CommissionerBill
Castro and local community leaders convened on Tuesday to
celebrate the plantings.
“With these new trees, the community’s experience in
Chinatown will be just a little bit better,” Squadron said.
“The trees will add even more color and character to the
neighborhood, clean the air and provide much needed green
space.”
“With the addition of the new cherry trees at Confucius
Plaza, Chinatown is a considerably greener place,” said
Manhattan Parks Commissioner Bill Castro. “The newly-
planted trees will work hard for New Yorkers by cleaning the
air we breathe, cooling summer air temperatures, providing
shade and beautifying our community.”
Other recent additions to Chinatown include the con-
struction of the road median on Bowery street as a pedestri-
an safety measure and the Chinatown Million Trees Initiative
that Squadron spearheaded last year to increase the amount
of green space in the neighborhood.
NURSES DEMONSTRATE
Angry nurses from the New York State Nurses Association
marched from Vesey Street and Broadway to City Hall last
week to submit a petition to MayorBloomberg’s administra-
tion about renewing their union contract.
They approached the mayor’s aide with a “City Nurses
Bill of Rights,” which states that nurses, like all other city
employees, deserve fair and equitable treatment. “We give a
great deal of ourselves to some of the neediest populations
of the city, and deserve treatment equal to other municipal
employees,” said Anne Bove, president of N.Y.S.N.A.’s
H.H.C. bargaining unit and a nurse at Bellevue Hospital.
N.Y.S.N.A. also lobbied at the rally for retirement benefi ts
offered to city workers with physically taxing jobs. Currently,
they’re denied “physically taxing” status, which is consid-
ered gender discrimination by the U.S. Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission.
Since September 2009, more than 7,000 nurses have
unsuccessfully tried to negotiate with the city about the con-
tract, which expired last January.
The nurses work for the city’s Health and Hospital
Corporation and the Mayoral Agencies.
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NEWS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1-9, 12-20
EDITORIAL PAGES..........10-11
YOUTH. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21
ARTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22-27
CLASSIFIEDS....................26
C.B. 1
MEETINGS
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.
ON WED., NOV 17:C.B. 1’s Landmarks Committee
will meet.
ON THUR., NOV 18: C.B. 1’s Quality of Life
Committee will meet in the cafeteria of P.S. 234.
ON MON., NOV 22: C.B. 1’s Financial District
Subcommittee will meet to review the Battery Park
off-leash dogs resolution.
ON TUES., NOV 23: C.B. 1’s Full Community
Board will meet at Dance New Amsterdam, 280
Broadway.
D
OW NTOW N
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