Downtown Express, 10-2-2012

MORE STORM COVERAGE INSIDE

ONE METROTECH CENTER NORTH, 10TH FLR • BROOKLYN, NY 112013 • COPYRIGHT © 2012 NYC COMMUNITY MEDIA, LLC

VOLUME 25, NUMBER 11 NOVEMBER 3-NOVEMBER 13, 2012

Downtown Express photo by Milo Hess

SANDY THE AXE The storm knocked down a tree blocking the esplanade. See more on page 3.

B Y ALINE REYNOLDS & KAITLYN MEADEBattery Park City has received most of

the city’s media attention following Hurricane Sandy. But, of all the neighborhoods in Lower Manhattan, the South Street Seaport suffered the most damage, having experienced an eight-foot water surge that destroyed the interiors of many area businesses.

Front Street business owners, whose res-taurants and shops took the hardest blow, were emptying out their storefronts a couple of blocks away from the East River in the days and hours after the storm. While some are optimis-

tic about re-opening in the coming weeks, most of the entrepreneurs are leaving future business plans up in the air until they have a clearer picture of the extent of damage and expenses.

Fernando Dallorso, the owner of Stella Manhattan Bistro on Front Street, lost nearly all the furniture and equipment inside his seven-year-old restaurant to water damage.

“We don’t foresee any opening in the next month or so,” he said, distraught. “Ninety-nine percent of the stuff is going to be thrown away. Everything is useless.”

Keg 229 and Bin 220, both on Front Street,

also saw extensive losses, according to co-owner Calli Lerner. “It’s devastating — I don’t even know where to begin. These are our babies, these busi-nesses,” she said. “We have to throw everything away…the tables, the chairs, the refrigeration that might have gotten damaged from the water, the computer systems and most of the technology.”

Lerner continued, “We’re hoping that FEMA helps us out, we’re hoping that insurance comes through…and we can start to rebuild.” The Federal Emergency Management Agency has

Damage Overlooked:Seaport Area Businesses

Get Little Attention

Continued on page 28

Hurricane Sandy was only a storm by Oct. 29 when it smacked Downtown but it still caused record fl oods of

13.9 feet. Thousands evacuated the area and subways are still not running. Most of the city had electricity throughout the storm, but Downtown is not expected to get power back until Saturday. The storm also fl ooded our offi ces, which is why the hard copy edi-tion is being printed a few days late. We will continue to update DowntownExpress.com as well as our Twitter (@DowntownExpress) and Facebook (Downtown Express) pages.

DOWNTOWN HITHARD, STARTSTO RECOVER

B Y SAM SPOKONY

In a shaky yet mainly successful start to the National Guard’s increased presence in Downtown Manhattan following the impact

of Hurricane Sandy, on Thursday night hundreds of desperate resi-dents welcomed a massive delivery of food and water outside a Lower East Side public housing complex.

The Guardsmen were originally scheduled to arrive to deliver the rations at 1 p.m. that day outside Smith Houses on Catherine St., near Cherry St. — but the people lined up waiting for hours for the drop-off became increasingly agi-

NATIONAL GUARDSENDS TAKEOUT TO CHINATOWN


2 November 3 - November 13, 2012

B Y TERESE LOEB KREUZERIn Sandy’s wake, after the carnage and

terror of the night before, by Tuesday morning, Oct. 29, there was relative calm and silence in Manhattan. By then, most Battery Park City residents had heeded Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s mandatory evacuation order and had fl ed to other parts of the city or even to other states. They would have heard that on Monday evening, under a full moon that spurred tides on the Hudson River to greater heights than usual, the river had crested at a record of almost 14 feet and had surged over the sea wall. Beyond that, they were hungry for information.

By the next day, those who had power and email turned to the Internet to communicate with their neighbors. “It is my understanding that people are staying safe where they are at this point and not returning. Has anyone heard about schools being open?” Gateway Plaza resident Tom Goodkind asked. “I’ve seen people coming back to Gateway Plaza. Parking spaces are being taken on the street but the garage isn’t open,” Pat Gray replied.

The dispersed Battery Park City resi-dents wanted to know which buildings had power, how much food there was in the stores, which stores were open, how dif-fi cult it was to navigate the roads, whether the buildings were fl ooded, whether there

was telephone and Internet service. In addition to emails, they communicated on Facebook. Honey Berk, a technology spe-cialist at the CUNY Building Performance Lab, started disseminating information via the Battery Park City Block Party website at http://www.bpcblockparty.com and via her Twitter account.

Goodkind was the fi rst to point out that although most of the complex’s six buildings and 1,710 apartments had power, the 400 building did not. The basement had been fl ooded, shutting off the electricity. Gateway Plaza management had indicated that it would take three to fi ve days to restore power in that building.

Rosalie Joseph, who also lives in Gateway Plaza, responded that she had just heard that, too. She said she was, “Getting out word to CERT [the Community Emergency Response Team], B.P.C. CARES, and Gateway Tenants to organize. If anyone on this email list is able to help, let me know.”

Six people heeded Joseph’s S.O.S. and met at noon on Wednesday, Oct. 31, to try to help their stranded neighbors. They went to the dark lobby of 400 Gateway Plaza, where they talked to residents. How many people had stayed behind, they inquired. How many were elderly? How many needed help for other reasons? Among other things,

they learned that someone who had just had major surgery was on the 20th fl oor of the 35-story building.

They also discovered that tenants from the 400 building were sitting in the lobby of one of Gateway’s other towers to charge their laptop computers and their cellphones.

In response to concern from tenants about the conditions in the 400 building, management opened three vacant apart-ments in the 500 and 100 buildings so that tenants in the building without power could use toilets and take showers.

On Wednesday afternoon, Rosalie Joseph and Robin Forst drove to Costco on 117th Street to buy food, bottled water and batter-ies. That evening, assisted by other Gateway Plaza residents, they set out a spread of lasagna, chips, salsa, cheese and crudités and invited the residents of the 400 building to a hot meal. They also had Halloween candy for the kids.

Some neighbors brought additional food — pasta, sandwiches, wine and even a bottle of whiskey.

Around 30 people came for dinner that night. The next morning, when the rescue group put out a breakfast of coffee, muffi ns and croissants, around 50 people showed up.

The group said it would serve dinner again that evening and another round of breakfast the next day.

The funds to pay for this came from the Gateway Plaza Tenants Association, B.P.C. Cares, the Battery Park City Dog Association, the B.P.C. Community Network and B.P.C. CERT.

Elsewhere in Battery Park City, busi-nesses tried to help their neighbors. The Conrad hotel at 102 North End Ave. evacuated its guests on Oct. 27 but never lost power. It allowed residents to come in to recharge their computers and their cellphones and dispensed bottled water. The hotel reopened on Oct. 31 with lim-ited food, beverage and phone service until further notice.

Battery Park City residents brave Hurricane Sandy


Much of Battery Park City had power through the storm so Downtown residents used a charging station in the Conrad Hotel.


3November 3 - November 13, 2012

Downtown Express photos by Jay Fine 2012

B.P.C. photographer who stayed Battery Park City photographer Jay Fine took shots of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel entrance fl oods on the morning of Tues., Oct. 30, and during the surge that evening. Fine, 60, said his building on West Street had power throughout. In the face of public calls to follow evacuation orders from the mayor, governor and president, he stayed behind with his wife and poodle to take care of his father, 88, with Parkinson’s disease.

He thought it was smart for most people to evacuate, but “people who knew the outcome of evacuation would be worse,” like his family, stayed. He said his father would not have done well with the move. He estimated that three times as many people stayed in his building as during Hurricane Irene last year – roughly 75 families – but nevertheless a large majority left.


Moving voting sites for Nov. 6 Election Day

B Y KAITLYN MEADE The Board of Elections will probably have

to move some polling sites on Nov. 6, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced at a press con-ference on the morning of Nov. 1. In answer to a question on how Sandy will affect the voting process in the city, Bloomberg replied that while power was expected to be restored to all voting sites by Election Day, some of the locations, particularly in schools, had prob-lems with the transformers which may not be repaired in time for voters.

In a statement released online, the city Board of Elections commissioners Maria Guastella and Frederic Umane said that poll workers’ training had resumed and that the board was working with the Department of Education to assess damage to voting sites. B.O.E. is also working with private entities to review damage sustained at the other voting sites.

“Our trucks are loaded and ready for deliv-ery of all voting materials and equipment once we know that sites have not been damaged. B.O.E. will be working around the clock and through the weekend to make sure that all voting sites receive everything they need to be up and running on Election Day,” the state-ment said.

Meanwhile, absentee ballots have been delayed by the disruption to the U.S. Postal

Service. The B.O.E. will be distributing absentee ballots via U.S.P.S. overnight mail. The absentee ballot application dead-line for New York State was extended from Tues., Oct. 30 to Fri., Nov. 2. The deadline remains Mon., Nov. 5 for all applica-tions to be completed in person at the Manhattan Voting Machine Facility 450 W. 33rd St., 10th fl oor.

The receipt deadline was also extended to 13 days after Election Day. Ballots must still be postmarked Nov. 5, but have until Nov. 19 to reach the resident’s local B.O.E. offi ce to account for delays in the postal service. The processing of absentee ballot applica-tions has also been delayed by the storm. Other city agencies have assigned some of their workers to the B.O.E. with the absen-tee ballot process.

The Manhattan Borough office of the B.O.E. is closed due to loss of power. Operations have been temporarily relo-cated to W. 33rd St. Their hours are 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. through Sun., Nov. 4, and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. the following Monday. The office reminded residents that their vote is only valid at their assigned location which can be found on their poll site locator online at vote.nyc.ny.us. The latest information can also be found at this website.

Pub owner ‘saw surge coming,’though he didn’t actually see it

B Y L INCOLN ANDERSON“The most amazing thing is, it went from

there to here in about 30 seconds -- then it came back, went back, in its time.”

As a diesel generator thrummed loudly and gave off fumes outside the Ear Inn bar near the western end of Spring St. Wednesday morning around 10 a.m., owner Martin Sheridan described experiencing the storm surge Monday evening during Hurricane Sandy.

He didn’t actually see the surge, though, until he and his bar were in the middle of it. He had walked over toward the river to check out the storm conditions, and then when he was returning to the Ear Inn with his back turned to the river, the 3-foot-high wall of water suddenly came rushing.

The sound was just an enormous “whoooosh!” he said.

Anticipating the surge, he had turned off all power at the bar beforehand, hoping to save his electrical equipment from more serious damage from the corrosive salt water.

The water swept into the bar about 1 foot high, then went down into the basement, then came popping up through hatches in the fl oor, trying to fi nd any way out.

Sheridan had wisely kicked everyone out of the place a half hour before the surge hit,

though many had resisted exiting into the 50-mile-per-hour wind gusts and lashing rain.

“People didn’t want to get out. They were afraid to go home,” he said. “The women were frightened,” he said, adding, “Don’t be offend-ed -- if you want to put that a little better.”

The bar had beer stored in two large walk-in freezers in the basement and food in another. Of the three, the solid 1920s freezer was the one that fared the best in the deluge.

“The old things held up!” he said with a grin.

The bar has 40 beer taps and Sheridan said they’ll have to test each one to see if they’re salvageable.

Despite the basement having up to 7 feet of water in the rear, as well as 4 feet in the front, the historic building’s foundations are fi ne, he said.

People from the community pitched in to help, and it was inspiring for the bar owner.

“There was a lot of camaraderie around,” he said, “people coming in and helping, help-ing out with buckets. I haven’t seen it since 9/11 -- people just want to help.”

As he turned back to tend to pumping out the bar’s waterlogged basement, Sheridan said, “We’re all alive. The good news around here is no one got hurt. We can start again.”


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B Y ALINE REYNOLDS More than 200,000 residents and busi-

nesses in Lower Manhattan remained with-out power Wednesday, as New York began picking up the pieces from the record-break-ing destruction caused by Hurricane Sandy.

It will take until Friday or Saturday for power to be restored in Downtown and the Lower East Side, according to John McAvoy, senior vice president for central operations at Consolidated Edison, who gave a tour to reporters on Tuesday of the utility’s East 14th Street power plant.

The Cortlandt network — which fun-nels power to the area south of the World Trade Center and along West Street to the tip of Manhattan — was restored at 2 p.m. Wednesday.

“The restoration process is well under-way,” said John Miksad, senior vice president of electric operations for the utility at a press conference earlier today.

Con Ed has yet to come up with a time frame for restoring steam service in Manhattan south of 42nd Street, according to Jeff Simmons, a spokesperson for the Alliance for Downtown New York, the area’s business improvement district.

The storm surge caused by Sandy, the greatest the city has ever experienced in almost 200 years of tidal records, caused large amounts of salt water from the harbor to inca-pacitate electrical equipment, noted McAvoy.

“The amount of outages we’re expe-riencing are literally unprecedented in the company’s history,” said McAvoy. Up to 7,000 of its employees are working 12- to 16-hour shifts to expedite restora-tion. “We have hundreds of contractors that’re working for us, and we’re bringing mutual aid crews that are as far away as California so we can expedite recovery as quickly as possible.”

Despite heavy fl oods, much of Battery Park City was spared of power loss

because its electricity is supplied by a Con Ed transmission substation based in Brooklyn, according to McAvoy. Also, since the neighborhood is slightly ele-vated compared to other parts of Lower Manhattan, B.P.C. did not experience the same degree of fl ooding from the high tide Monday night as did other parts of Lower Manhattan, he noted.

But elsewhere, high tides reached levels of 13.9 feet, more than a foot higher than the highest previously recorded level of 11.2 feet in 1821, said McAvoy. When the water from the East River crossed the F.D.R. Drive at about 3.5 feet high, it covered the electri-cal equipment and contaminated it. As a result, 100s of Downtown vaults became out of service.

Con Ed successfully protected the major-ity of its machinery by preemptively shutting down service in the Bowling Green and

Fulton networks. McAvoy explained the process of restor-

ing electricity for the 225,000 affected customers in Lower Manhattan: “The fi rst thing you have to do is to remove salt water…it can be a very time-consuming process because there’s extreme fl ooding that affected not only our underground vaults but the customers’ premises as

well,” he said. He continued, “The equipment that’s

damaged that is affecting most of Lower Manhattan actually did not fail, we really just have to remove it, clean it, inspect it and test it.”

Lower Manhattan is divided into 14 dif-ferent networks, each of which will restore power at a different time this week as equip-ment and supplies related to the network are tested and reactivated. Traffi c lights, he said, will operate again as each of the networks is restored.

Asked about a more specifi c time frame, “There is no specifi c mapping,” he said. “We’re working on them all in parallel.”

McAvoy also showed reporters around the plant’s relay rooms, which were sub-merged in water earlier this week. “The relay protections are monitored constantly, and if they identify a fault, they’ll shut down a piece of electrical equipment, just like a fuse shuts off an outlet in your house,” he explained. “[The water was] about a foot-and-a-half above what our system and our station is designed for. So what we’re doing now to help support the restoration is literally going to every one of these relays, removing them, cleaning, inspecting and testing them, and restoring service. That’s a big part of what’s going to be done to support the restoration of Lower Manhattan.”

Downtown Will Have Power by Saturday, says Con Ed

The lights stayed on in some of Battery Park City because its transmission substation based is in Brooklyn.


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Seaport Museum: Plan Blocks Views So Block the Plan

B Y ALINE REYNOLDS After receiving much praise from locals,

developer Howard Hughes Corporation’s plan for the overhaul of Pier 17 is now getting a wave of negative feedback about the view obstructions the plan would cause at the Seaport.

In its application to the city, Howard Hughes has requested a waiver of require-ments concerning waterfront view cor-ridors in order to be able to build a permanent performance stage on Fulton Plaza and attach several new signs to the pier’s future mall.

But officials representing the South Street Seaport Museum oppose the plan, asserting that the stage will block crucial views of the harbor and will interfere with the museum’s planned educational programming.

Susan Henshaw Jones, director of the Museum of the City of New York, which runs the maritime museum, is calling on the city to issue a restrictive declaration that would mandate the continuation of existing view regulations and therefore prohibit the stage.

In its Uniform Land Use Review Procedure application, Howard Hughes argues that a mandate is unnecessary because all development rules would be spelled out in the written lease agree-ment between the developer and the city. The developer wrote that “Views of the water will be provided from several alternate locations on the zon-ing lot, and views of the water will be significantly enhanced overall by the proposed project.”

But Henshaw Jones said, “We believe the view corridor should be completely unimpeded going all the way to the waterfront.”

Additionally, the proposed performance stage for Fulton Plaza would infringe on the South Street Seaport Museum’s right to the Pier 16 apron, which the museum plans to use for educational workshops and other museum-related events in the coming months, according to Henshaw

Jones. Trapeze training, maritime classes and other such programming could bring more money to the struggling museum, she noted.

“This is the line between [Piers] 17 and 16,” she told Community Board 1 members during a tour of the area Oct. 23. “This [proposal] is such a clash of uses. You can’t teach kids there when it’s going to be obliterated with noise.”

C.B. 1 member Una Perkins, a resident of the nearby Southbridge Towers apartment complex, said the noise already emanating from the waterfront often prevents her and her neighbors from getting a full night’s sleep. “It’s like a big circus — it’s so com-mercial, it’s not indicative of the Seaport,” she said.

Perkins told the museum director, “I’m with you about this — this is a disgrace.”

Henshaw Jones is also fi ghting for rights to the water between the two piers, which she said is desperately needed to berth the Ambrose and some of the museum’s other historic ships.

“Everybody says that we have con-trol over Pier 16 and the north side of Pier 16, but what we’ve been told is that Howard Hughes has the water space, so in effect we can’t berth the Ambrose there,” she said. “If it’s not clarified in our favor, they presum-ably have the ability to say, ‘Move the Ambrose.’”

Alex Howe, a spokesperson for Howard Hughes, affi rmed that, while the city techni-cally owns the water between Piers 16 and 17, “per our lease, we have control of most of that water.”

C.B. 1 chairperson Catherine McVay Hughes envisioned a shifting of the performance stage’s location to the Link Building in order to protect the views from the upland. She would also like Fulton Plaza to be available for community-specific events. “One of the things C.B. 1 doesn’t have are open places for assemblies or groups



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Su makes peace off ering to displaced Hester tenantsB Y SAM SPOKONY

The owners of Chinatown’s new Wyndham Garden Hotel, which will open for business next week, are attempting to end years of controversy by offering com-pensation to the former tenants of 128 Hester St., whom they allegedly wronged when the building was demolished in 2009.

For the fi rst time since demonstra-tions against the Wyndham began earlier this year, co-owner William Su — the primary subject of virulent protests led by the Chinatown advocacy group Asian Americans for Equality — is attempting to clear a path toward a more peaceful open-ing for the hotel, situated at the corner of Hester Street and the Bowery.

Though his presence was certainly nota-ble, Su sat silently at a press conference the hotel owner convened on Fri., Oct. 19 at Ling Sing Association’s Mott Street offi ces as his associates gave statements and fi elded questions.

A letter recently mailed to the Hester Street tenants provides the contact infor-mation of Su’s spokesperson Vincent Wong and implores the tenants to call him in order to schedule face-to-face meetings.

“In good faith, the owners are extend-ing their hands,” said Wong. “We encour-age the tenants [of 128 Hester St.] to con-tact us so we can offer them appropriate compensation.”

AAFE and other community groups previously condemned Su for what they deemed to be his repeated refusal to pro-vide housing or compensation to the eight families — a total of 29 tenants — who were displaced when the city Department of Buildings ordered 128 Hester St. to be demolished in August 2009.

AAFE asserts that Su’s intentional neglect of the building after he purchased it in 2007 led to its eventual deterio-ration and demolition. Citing comments reportedly made by the D.O.B., AAFE has also claimed that Su’s construction of the Wyndham, adjacent at 93 Bowery, was so disruptive that it played a part in the structural deterioration of 128 Hester St. by causing cracks in the building’s walls and foundation.

But attorney Stuart Klein went on the offensive at the press conference by rebuk-ing AAFE and presenting city and state documents aimed at casting doubt on its claims that the owner neglected the build-ing and refused to comply with orders to compensate the former tenants.

“These rumors have been spread in a very unprofessional way, and in a very scandalous way, and they’re just not the truth,” he said.

Among the pieces of evidence Klein presented was a D.O.B. document show-ing that in 2007 the owners of 128 Hester

St. did in fact invest in structural repairs to the building’s masonry. But while the attorney claimed that the owners spent “well in excess of a hundred thousand dollars” on building repairs, the document he produced only revealed about $15,000 worth of work. D.O.B. records indicate there were two other proposals for repairs in 2009, but the costs of the fi xes are not specifi ed in the fi les.

The city records also reveal numer-ous complaints about structural problems with 128 Hester St. under the ownership of Su and his associates. Several of them described cracks in the walls of the build-ing, while others of them noted that con-struction on the adjacent hotel was causing the apartment building to shake and buckle.

A more compelling document was one Klein produced in order to refute AAFE’s repeated claims that Su is refusing to com-ply with a 2010 state order forcing him to fork over $1 million in relocation fees to the former tenants.

Klein proved that the order never exist-ed: According to a state Supreme Court disposition fi led in February 2011, the court ruled that the matter should be settled at the administrative level rather than by a judge.

Peter Gee, an AAFE spokesperson, declined to respond to specifi c questions about the accuracy of his group’s prior

claims, but insisted that they are still accu-rate. He also defl ected questions about a rumor swirling around that AAFE has asked the former tenants of 128 Hester St. to sign contracts that would require them to give the organization a portion of the fi nancial compensation they receive from the owner.

Instead, Gee accused the Wyndham owners of perpetuating dishonesty that he believes has characterized all of their inter-actions with the former tenants.

“There’s nothing new here,” he said, “because the reality is that they’re just stalling, and they’re not really serious about getting this resolved. It’s unfor-tunate, because the tenants have been waiting for three years for just and fair compensation.”

AAFE has plans to hold another protest outside the Wyndham, which is scheduled to open on Thurs., Nov. 1.

At 18 stories, the Wyndham will be the largest hotel in Chinatown. Klein asserted at the press conference that the hotel will be a “major boon” to the community and that it will provide jobs to approximately 60 area residents.

A Wyndham spokesperson declined to comment directly on the ongoing con-troversy, saying that the company is not involved in any negotiations or dealings undertaken by the hotel’s owners.


HUDSON RIVER PARK TRUST - Contract No. C4188 - Category: 03 C4188 - Segment 3 - Hubert to Laight Street - Stone Materials Construction

Description: The Hudson River Park Trust ("HRPT") is seeking proposals from qualified site contracting firms (“Bidders”) interested in performing landscape, irrigation, and site construction within the Hudson River Park. Typical construction operations would include but not be limited to: Protection of existing structures to remain; Temporary facilities, controls, and site protection; Excavation, earthwork, and grading; Field survey and layout; Site/soil preparation and the furnishing and installation of soil mixes; Furnishing and installation of all new lawns, trees, shrubs, perennials, grasses, ground cover, bulbs and annuals; Site irrigation supply and installation including piping, fittings, sleeves, valves and valve boxes, swing joints, sprinkler heads, drip line and emitters, quick coupler valves, filters, etc; Maintenance of all landscape materials until Substantial Completion acceptance by Owner; and Guarantee of installed plant materials for one-year after final acceptance; Testing and adjusting of irrigation equipment and distribution system; Demonstration and training for the Owner’s personnel; and other miscellaneous finished work as required. Work located along the Hudson River from Hubert to Laight Streets. Price for bid documents $200.00 per set. All payments must be made by check, and must be payable to the Hudson River Park Trust and must include the contractor’s Federal Identification Number. Document availability date Friday October 19th, 2012. Documents including required submission materials for this solicitation may be obtained by the following means: Mail: Mail your requests and a check to the Hudson River Park Trust – Project Management Office, 353 West Street, Pier 40 – 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10014. In Person: Directly from the Hudson River Park Trust located at Pier 40. Hours 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., Monday – Friday, except holidays. Overnight delivery via Fed Ex is available by providing your account information. Criteria for determining the lowest qualified bidder will include but is not limited to an analysis of: 1. Bidder’s site construction experience (minimum 5 years) on similar projects, including the name, location, and construction cost of the projects (include projects within the NYC metropolitan area); 2. Any NYS DOL, OSHA, ACOE, or NYS DEC violations issued to Bidder or any of its principals in the last five years; 3. Bidder’s complete team (prime contractor or joint venture partners and/or sub contractors) that it would commit to the project, including an analysis of the percentage of subcontracting; 4. Bidder’s proposed scheduling consultant, land surveyor, agricultural chemist, soils testing laboratory, and other specialty contractors required by the contract; 5. Bidder’s proposed location of soil material sources and certified test reports for the proposed soil materials; 6. Bidder’s proposed landscape materials sub contractor incl. analysis of landscape materials construction experience (minimum 5 years) on similar projects, including the name, location, and construction cost of the projects (include projects within the NYC metropolitan area wherever possible); 7. An analysis of the proposer’s sod and plant material nursery source listing(s); 8. Bidder’s proposed site irrigation sub contractor analysis of irrigation construction experience (minimum 5 years) on similar projects, including the name, location, and construction cost of the projects (include projects within the NYC metropolitan area wherever possible); 9. Qualifications of the personnel to be utilized for this project; 10. Detailed financial statements of Bidder or, in the case of a joint venture, the detailed financial statements of the joint venture partners; 11. Any debarments, litigation, and/or bankruptcy filings by Bidder or its principals in the last five years; 12. Completed and certified “Vendex” and New York State Vendor Responsibility questionnaires completed within the last three years; and 13. Bidder’s EEO policy statement and an M/WBE Utilization Plan. Submissions will be evaluated to assess the proposer’s responsibility, project specific and general site construction, landscape, and irrigation construction experience, project management personnel, percentage of subcontracting, and financial stability. HRPT is an equal opportunity contracting agency. Any resulting contracts will include provisions mandating compliance with Executive Law Article 15A and the regulations promulgated there under. Proposal Due: 11/15/2012, 1:00 p.m.

Contract Term: Not Applicable

Contact: Lupe Frattini Hudson River Park Trust - Project Management Field Office 353 West Street, Pier 40 – 2PndP Floor, New York, NY 10014 (917) 661 8740 phone, (917) 661 8787 fax

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Pathmark beats the Christmas rush and closes pharmacy B Y SAM SPOKONY

In an unexpected turn that left Lower Manhattan community leaders dismayed, the Pathmark pharmacy at 237-239 Cherry St. closed on Tues., Oct. 23, two months earlier than the company previously said it would.

A spokesperson for A&P, which owns Pathmark, declined to answer why the pharmacy was closed prematurely and why the company gave no warning to the residents, most of whom are low-income senior citizens who have relied on its services for decades.

Victor Papa, president of the Two Bridges Neighborhood Council, explained that, during a phone call last week, an attorney for A&P had told him that the pharmacy would be closing due to “practical and fi nancial considerations.”

The pharmacy had been located in a separate build-ing from the Pathmark supermarket (at 227 Cherry St.), which is still scheduled to close on Dec. 28.

While A&P relinquished the lease on the 30-year-old supermarket building last month to make way for a luxury residential development, the building that for-merly housed the pharmacy is owned by the Two Bridges Neighborhood Council. But that apparently has no bearing on the outcome of the situation.

Residents throughout the neighborhood, especially those from its heavily populated public housing projects, have rallied against Pathmark’s impending closure since A&P announced on Sept. 28 that it had sold the lease. But the pharmacy’s closed doors appear to have drained all community optimism, which grew after the area’s elected offi cials recently threw their support behind outraged and worried residents.

On Mon., Oct. 22, the A&P spokesperson said in a state-ment that the company would attempt to assuage neighbor-

hood concerns by making all of the shuttered pharmacy’s prescription records available to customers at a nearby Rite Aid pharmacy, located at 408 Grand St., beginning later this week.

Two Bridges has also engaged in its own contingency plan to help unprepared residents deal with the sudden loss of their pharmacy. The council enlisted the help of Mannings Pharmacy, located in Chinatown’s Confucius Plaza, which has begun delivering prescriptions to elderly tenants of 80 and 82 Rutgers Slip who are unable to walk to the Rite Aid or any other drugstore.

“I feel that we’ve done the best we could,” Papa said over the phone.

As the situation develops, he and Two Bridges hope to convince A&P executives to run a shuttle bus from their neighborhood to another Pathmark location — either in Harlem or Gowanus — in order to further aid residents who need access to medication or fresh, affordable groceries.

During a conversation with A&P Chief Executive Offi cer Sam Martin on Mon., Oct. 22, Papa brought up the shuttle idea and the ongoing request for the company to ensure that any new development on the Cherry Street site will include a new supermarket-pharmacy combination that matches Pathmark’s affordability and quality.

Papa said the C.E.O. did not give defi nite answers to any of the requests and said he would respond at a later date after consulting with his colleagues.

It is now clear that initial hopes of a grassroots effort to stop Pathmark’s closure have defl ated. But even as the end of the cherished supermarket looms, Papa explained that, in his opinion as a veteran community organizer, the time for angry protests is over.

“We have to keep up pressure for an affordable super-market in the new building, but we also have to develop a better relationship with [A&P],” he said. “There’s just no use in keeping up the rancor, when a constructive relationship might allow us to get back some of the valuable services we could otherwise lose forever.”

Papa, who holds out hope, proposed to meet with Martin in person sometime before Thanksgiving in order to further discuss the future prospects for Two Bridges residents.

Meanwhile, the fi ve elected offi cials who sent a joint let-ter to Martin on Fri., Oct. 5, in which they expressed grave concern for residents who will struggle without their neigh-borhood Pathmark, have not yet received a reply.

NYC Community Media photo by Sam Spokony

Two Bridges neighborhood residents grappling with the loss of the Pathmark pharmacy on Cherry Street are now anticipating the closure of the supermarket itself on Dec. 28.


B Y TERESE LOEB KREUZER More than a year later than planned, a

52,000-square-foot community center may soon be opening in Battery Park City under the management of Asphalt Green. The opening was delayed in part by permit-ting problems but largely by a contract inked early in 2009 during the Battery Park City Authority administration of chairman James Gill and president James Cavanaugh that subsequent B.P.C.A. management found unacceptable.

The B.P.C.A. has paid nearly $60 million to build the shell of the center at 212 North End Ave. and furnish it with exercise equip-ment. Asphalt Green, a nonprofi t fi tness organization with a location at 555 E. 90th St., was hired to manage the community center under a 10-year contract.

At the B.P.C.A. board of directors meet-ing on Tues., Oct. 23, B.P.C.A. chairman Dennis Mehiel announced that a new con-tract with Asphalt Green had been proposed and tentatively agreed upon. Subject to approval by the B.P.C.A. board and a sign-off by Asphalt Green, the community center may open on Sat., Dec. 1.

Mehiel, who became B.P.C.A. chairman last July, said that the previous contract was untenable because it put the B.P.C.A. in a position of placing taxpayer dollars in the hands of a private enterprise without adequate transparency and supervision. That contract called for an “unending, no-cap commitment to subsidize any and all operat-ing losses at the community center,” he said.

“If the community center made money, there would be a division of those profi ts — 60 percent to the Authority, 40 percent to the operator. That didn’t make any fi nancial sense to me and it didn’t make any fi nancial sense to the members of this board.”

In addition to the fi nancial issues, the two parties had to reach an agreement on the terms of access to the community cen-ter facilities and to the B.P.C. ball fi elds. Asphalt Green runs a summer camp that is essential to its profi tability and would need to use the ball fi elds for that purpose. But historically, during the summer, the Manhattan Youth Downtown Community Center, based at 120 Warren St., has used the ball fi elds for its programming.

The B.P.C.A. previously considered simply defaulting on its contract with Asphalt Green, issuing a new Request for Proposals (R.F.P.) and bringing in a private commercial operator to run a health club, according to Mehiel.

But that plan was ultimately deemed impractical. Converting the center into a health club would have required millions more dollars and would have delayed the opening of the community center until the early part of 2014, at best. Mehiel also noted that the $900,000 of unused exercise equip-ment purchased by the Authority would have begun to deteriorate.

Moreover, the B.P.C.A. was advised by legal counsel that if it defaulted, it would lose in court, incur millions of dollars of legal fees and end up with a fi ne of some-where between $3.5 million and $13 million.

Asphalt Green could have enforced the

existing contract and thereby forced the B.P.C.A. to pay up, but it chose not to. “I just want to say publicly that I found the Asphalt Green chairman and the senior management of that group to be excellent people to work with,” said Mehiel. “They spent a day or two to think it over. They came back and said, ‘Let’s make a deal that’s fair.’”

The new contract, which is still in draft form and has to be reviewed and approved by the B.P.C.A. board before it goes to Asphalt Green, stipulates that Asphalt Green can spend its revenues from the community center as it sees fi t without accounting to the B.P.C.A.

“We have no oversight as to what they spend, why they spend it or how they spend it,” said Mehiel. “It’s none of our business. It’s not public money. They get their revenue stream. They have to run their operation.”

The B.P.C.A. will receive a portion of the center’s revenue starting in year six of the contract, he noted, and if Asphalt Green’s revenue projections should turn out to be less than 90 percent of what is anticipated, Asphalt Green would have to write a check to make up the difference. “If they cannot or do not write their check, their lease will be terminated,” said Mehiel, “so the risk for the Authority has been eliminated.”

He also said that anticipated costs for the B.P.C.A. under the new contract constitute a cash outlay during the fi rst fi ve years of the contract amounting to less than half of what had been envisioned under the original con-tract. Also, the B.P.C.A.’s expenditures for utilities have been reduced, and an estimated $225,000 a year to replace and refurbish equipment, originally for the life of the con-tract, has now been capped at three years.

No one who has publicly commented on the proposed deal is displeased that the com-munity center fi nally seems to be on the verge of opening. B.P.C. residents will get a dis-count on community center membership fees, because the B.P.C.A.’s subsidies for the facil-ity are derived from residents’ rents and com-mon charges. However, some in the B.P.C.

community have expressed reservations and concerns about certain aspects of the deal.

The managers of Downtown Little League and Downtown Soccer League, both low-cost sports programs, are worried that Asphalt Green’s usage of the ball fi elds will force their programs off the fi elds. Bill

Martino, president of the Downtown Little League, said that he was concerned about the organization’s business model. “What happened uptown was that they ended up taking over a few sports operations that were

New agreement reached between B.P.C.A. & Asphalt Green

Downtown Express photo by Terese Loeb Kreuzer

Demonstrators gathered next to the Battery Park City ball fi elds on Thurs., Oct. 18 called for the B.P.C.A. to work out a new contract with Asphalt Green to preserve community access to the neighborhood ball fi elds.

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Lady Liberty’s Crown Freed Just Before SandyB Y TERESE LOEB KREUZER

With the imminent arrival of Hurricane Sandy contributing glowering skies to the festivi-ties, the interior of the Statue of Liberty reopened on Sunday following a year of renovations.

The reopening ceremony took place the day before the subways shut down. It was the 126th anniversary of the statue’s dedication, with West Point cadets, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and David Luchsinger, the superintendent of the Statue of Liberty National Monument and Ellis Island participating. Salazar and several cadets were the fi rst to ascend to the crown. They were followed by 200 members of the public who had snagged tickets for the opening day.

Access to the interior of the statue much less the crown has been intermittent for more than a decade. After the destruction of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, Liberty Island was completely closed to the public. Access to the island resumed on Dec. 20 but both the statue and the pedestal remained closed. In 2004, the public was allowed inside the pedestal but not to the statue’s crown.

On July 4, 2009, the crown reopened to the public. Last year, on Oct. 28, the 125th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty was cel-ebrated with great fanfare. The next day, the interior of the statue was closed to the public in order to begin a $30 million, yearlong ren-ovation to enhance safety and accessibility.

The Princeton, N.J. fi rm of Mills +

Schnoering Architects, which had previously worked on the crown, was commissioned to come up with a design for the installation of three elevators and two fi re-code-compliant stairs. For the fi rst time, an elevator now enables people with mobility impairments to go the observation deck on the sixth level of the pedestal. A separate elevator big enough for two people now goes from that level to the shoulder of the statue in case of a medical emergency that would require evacuation. The renovation also includes air conditioning in the crown and improved bathroom facilities.

The open, double-helix stairs that lead to the crown were originally only for the very adventurous. Now they have been equipped with high bannisters to give people some-thing to hold onto as they climb.

Michael Mills, the chief architect for the renovation, remembered his fi rst trip to the statue’s crown when he was in high school. “I was kind of awed by it and scared by it,” he recalled. “I didn’t feel safe but I enjoyed it and I felt a sense of accomplishment that I actu-ally did it.” Now, he said the 315 people a day who go up to the crown will feel a lot safer.

Mills said that the contractor for the renova-tion, the fi rm of Joseph A. Natoli Construction Corporation, faced the challenge of building a project of this magnitude on an island in New York harbor. In addition to getting materials out to the island, “There were security issues,”

he said. “Everything had to be checked by dogs and by the guards. It was just amazing how they managed to do it.”

For his fi rm, he said the biggest challenge of the renovation was having to work in a tight space. The pedestal at its widest is 27 feet by 27 feet and is crisscrossed by a sup-port structure designed in the 19th century

by Gustave Eiffel, the famed engineer who also designed the Eiffel tower in Paris.

“We had to fi gure out a way to get an ele-vator straight up through the Eiffel structure without touching it and get two independent stairs up through that crisscross of beams,” said Mills. He said that for the fi rst time on any of its projects, his fi rm used three-dimensional computer modeling.

“The model enabled us to see things that we wouldn’t have seen,” he said. “There was one location where Stair B coming down from the top had a confl ict with Stair A at a land-ing. We didn’t notice it in a fl oor plan or even in an elevation but in a model all of a sudden it appeared so we had to modify the design. To do something like that during construction is very expensive. You don’t want to do that.”

The new fi re stairs are enclosed from each other but are also open so that visitors can appre-ciate the historic fabric of the pedestal. Eiffel used beams to support the statue reinforced by iron straps that run through the pedestal. “It wasn’t just the weight of the statue [that was a problem],” Mills said. “It was the wind and the overturning potential that they had to resist.”

On Oct. 29 Hurricane Sandy roared through New York harbor. Both Liberty and Ellis Islands suffered fl ood damage and are temporarily closed. However, the Statue of Liberty withstood the punishing winds, once again demonstrating Eiffel’s genius.

Downtown Express photo by Terese Loeb Kreuzer

The Statue of Liberty, which was not damaged by Hurricane Sandy, opened its crown to the public the day before the storm. It closed again for the storm and has not yet reopened.


Battery Park City resident Jenifer Rajkumar, 30, has just been named a “40 under 40” rising star by the politi-cal media outlet City & State. Rajkumar [RAHJ ko mar] became a Democratic dis-trict leader in 2011 for B.P.C., the Financial District and the South Street Seaport. A graduate of Stanford Law School, Rajkumar turned to politics after working in public policy at the National Women’s Law Center in Washington, D.C. She is the legal direc-tor of the New York State Young Democrats and the youngest board member of the Women’s Campaign Fund, a nonprofi t that assists females who are running for offi ce. In an interview with the Downtown Express, Rajkumar spoke about her journey toward becoming a local district leader and the issues she cares about most.

BY KAITLYN MEADE

What did it take to be elected district leader?

I have pursued social justice in many ways throughout the years as a civil rights litigator. I came to view government and politics as another important way to make a

difference and give a voice to the voiceless. I went all across Lower Manhattan, from the west side to the east side, and met all my neighbors — people from all different ethnic groups and income levels. This took me from public housing projects to the buildings of Wall Street. I discussed my candidacy with them and listened to their concerns. By the time I was elected, I was ready to act on those concerns.

What does a district leader do?

A district leader is a liaison between the people and the elected officials including Congress members, Assembly members and city offi cials. You also help select judges for the New York County courts. I make sure to go to local community board meetings and others around the district so I can keep my pulse on the concerns of the dis-trict. For example, in Battery Park City, one of the major concerns of my neighbors was that we no longer had a bus route that con-nected our neighbor-hood to the Lower East Side and Chinatown. I worked with Assembly

Member Sheldon Silver to bring the M9 bus back to the neighborhood. That is one of the ways that I helped as a liaison between the people and the government.

As a representative of your community, what are your current goals?

Reaching youth early and exposing them to political process has been a very excit-ing part of this job. We are also trying to register voters in Downtown and otherwise engage the locals fully in the political pro-

cess. There has been a huge population migration to Downtown, and with the

upcoming presidential election and the race to choose a new mayor next year, it’s very important to make sure everyone has a voice in this process.

Tell us about one of the most exciting projects you’ve worked on.

One thing I’ve been excited about is speak-ing to youths and working toward get-ting them involved in politics. I visited the Lower East Side Girls Club and spoke to girls ages eight to twelve about political leader-ship and government. I

had to find a way to communicate to them what it is about. I told them, “Politics is love. Politics is expressing love for your community, and I know you have that love inside of you.” By the end, one girl said she wants to be president, and one girl wants to be governor.

How were you nominated a rising star by City & State and what does it mean to you?

I was humbled and honored to be select-ed! It was a very competitive process — there were over 500 nominations. And it really allows me to be a positive example. My parents immigrated to this country from India with just one suitcase and $300, so if I can do it, you can do it. It is a way of recog-nizing that young people should be weighing in on the major decisions facing their genera-tion, such as the environment, the future of the planet, how they are going to take care of their parents and grandparents, poverty and gun violence. It shows that young people have a place at the decision-making table.

What do you like to do in your spare time?

I like to sing karaoke. City Council Member Rosie Mendez and I do a mean rendition of “Empire State of Mind.” I sing the Alicia Keys part, and she does Jay-Z. I also like to sing Beyonce, Gwen Stefani and Broadway show tunes. “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” is a new favorite!

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To the Editor:

Re “Rabbi Meyer Hager, spiritual compass of Downtown, dies at 76” (news article, Oct. 17):

Your reporter Helaina Hovitz captured the essence of the late Rabbi Hager, the leader of the Wall Street Synagogue. Truly, he was a man of kindness, compassion and sensitivity to young and old people alike. My two sons were always made so welcome and comfortable when we attended the temple’s Sabbath services, and he was always eager to have all members of the community attend the synagogue’s holiday services and par-ties. One more possibly unknown character trait of the rabbi: He had a genuine sense of humor, loved a good joke and his laughter was genuine and joyous. His abundant kindness and consider-ation toward others will be sorely missed by Jew and Christian alike.

Walter Silverman

To the Editor:

Re “Chinatown coalition slams widely praised SPURA plan” (news article, Oct. 17):

With regard to coalition’s opposition to the SPURA plan, a 50 percent

proportion of affordable housing is nearly a mir-acle, and the opposition makes no sense. This ratio means that every market-rate apartment supports one affordable apartment, an incredibly progres-sive ratio which is the highest proportion achieved anywhere. It is a miracle that the real estate market is expected to support this ratio, and even more so that it is expected that a developer and a fi nancier will be able to work with this ratio.

Take the deal! If people insist on 100 percent affordable, then where are the market-rate apart-ments that will subsidize the affordable apart-ments? Nothing would ever be built. It seems that the opponents would rather have zero afford-able apartments and have vacant lots for the 20 more years than take the offer on the table. Why?

Larry Gould

To the Editor:

Re “Youths continue to battle anxiety caused by 9/11” (news article, Oct. 18):

I want to congratulate Aline Reynolds on a thought-provoking article. She did research and discovered what we have been saying, which is that there are more than a few teens in the area who have post-traumatic stress symptoms. I have personally discovered this to be true as the executive director of Manhattan Youth, the largest community organization in Lower Manhattan. While different families react differ-ently to events in their lives, it is clear that the events of 9/11/01 infl uence many of our teens’ present-day experiences.

Bob Townley

To the Editor:

Re “‘Jenga’ building doesn’t fl y with local resi-dents” (news article, Oct. 17):

Tribeca residents need to prevent future zon-ing disasters like this. As a resident of a land-marked area, we are unable to change anything with our own buildings without going through

the city Landmarks Preservation Commission, yet a developer who knows “inside baseball” is able to build a post-modern monster. Needless to say, our school overcrowding situation will only get worse. I’d bet dollars to donuts that nobody at the Department of Education knows about it.

Jonathan

To the Editor:

Re. “‘Jenga’ building doesn’t fl y with local resi-dents” (news article, Oct. 17):

This article is frankly silly. First, why do

you assume that people don’t support this tower? Obviously if you ask the NIMBY “com-munity activists”, they will be against any and all development.

Most people I know support this develop-ment, as it will be a future landmark and is designed by one of the most respected architec-tural teams on earth. Second, all the arguments for why this tower should be built somewhere else are totally nonsensical. The building is not in any landmark district, therefore landmark rules are irrelevant. Paris does have plenty of high-rise towers, especially in recent years, so Paris would be a very poor argument against the tower.

Finally, the accusations against Lend Lease are absurd, given that the company is active in almost every country on earth. I’m pretty sure they know what they’re doing. And it was Jon Galt, a totally unrelated fi rm, that was responsible for the Deutsche Bank debacle.

Crawford

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PUBLISHER Jennifer Goodstein

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Letters to the Editor

D O W N T O W N E R S O N C E A G A I N are coming together, helping their neighbors -- so the comparisons between Hurricane Sandy and 9/11 are natural. The key difference is that the devastating and tragic loss of life this time does not approach the magnitude of the attack 11 years ago. That of course does not make it any easier for each grieving family.

The scramble back to homes for evacuees, the frantic group emails, the search for infor-mation, for places to charge cell phones, has an all-too-familiar ring to many. Once again we are inspired by the stories we’ve seen and heard about people helping – offering everything from beds to showers to food to batteries. At the Seaport, devastated busi-nesses are helping each other recover. In northern Chelsea we saw a small group of police officers Monday lifting heavy wood from the street clearing a dangerous situation rather than waiting for another agency to do it. In the Two Bridges area on the Lower East Side, residents banded together to help senior

citizens trapped in their high-rise apartments without access to food or water.

There are so many more stories like these.As we look at what comes next, foremost in

our minds is that low-lying Lower Manhattan is one of the most vulnerable areas to storms. We hope by now, you the reader, have your lights back. We also hope the subways return to Lower Manhattan as they the rest of the city. It did not seem that long ago when the trains could run rain or shine but that day has passed and will never return without the political will for large scale investment.

The science is clear that these storms will con-tinue with more frequency and ferocity going for-ward. We shouldn’t rush in with massive expendi-tures on storm protection, but on the other hand we can’t throw our hands up and wait for better environmental policies to reverse the tide. That’s what Mayor Bloomberg seemed to do the other day. While he has been a leader on climate issues he should not be so dismissive of costly measures that would likely help.

We’re riding in subway stations built over a century ago. Short-sighted politicians will scoff at spending hundreds of billions both to protect people living near the water as well as at least some of our transit system. If that’s what it costs, it would still pay when you consider the multi billions of dollars everyone loses when our lives and jobs are so disrupted.

How many times a year will Lower Manhattan be asked to pack up and fl ee?

In the meanwhile, we still stay on the Sandy aftermath story from our new temporary offices, updating our web sites as well as two most welcome post-9/11 advances – Facebook and Twitter.

Lastly don’t forget to vote on Tuesday. For those with diffi culty getting to the polls, you may still get an absentee ballot application Monday if you go to 450 W. 33rd St. 10th fl oor. It’s too late to get thendidates to promise better protec-tion this year but you can still hold the winners accountable.

EditorialTrying to See Clearly as the Lights Come on After Sandy


An Editor Returns to Downtown Express“During his prior tenure with Downtown

Express, Josh established a strong reputa-tion for understanding the needs of the Downtown neighborhoods and the issues at hand,” said Jennifer Goodstein, publisher of Downtown Express and CEO of its parent company, NYC Community Media L.L.C . “We are fortunate to have him back, and I look forward to seeing how the paper will grow editorially.”

Rogers fi rst joined Downtown Express as a part-time reporter in 1995, and man-aged the paper’s coverage of the aftermath of Sept. 11th. The Express’ 9/11 reporting and its expansion to a weekly earned fi rst place community leadership awards from the National Newspaper Association and the

New York Press Association. His editorials on topics ranging from World Trade Center memorial plans, the fatal Deutsche Bank fi re and school rezoning battles were twice judged best in the state by NYPA.

He left the paper in 2010 to take care of his newborn son, and more recently had been a columnist and contributing editor for Manhattan Media.

“Thomas Wolfe was wrong — you can go home again,” Rogers said in a statement. “I’m so excited to be working with Jenn, Aline Reynolds, Therese Loeb Kreuzer and the rest of the team at the Express and NYC Community Media. I can’t wait to reconnect with the Downtown community, and meet the new leaders who

have emerged in this ever-changing, excit-ing part of New York City.”

Reynolds will remain the paper’s associ-ate editor and Loeb Kreuzer will continue her coverage of Battery Park City and the rest of Lower Manhattan.

“At the Express, we covered many Lower Manhattan families fi ghting to keep their school zone, and now as a Chelsea parent, I’ve gotten to know fi rsthand what it’s like when you are threatened with losing your fi rst choice neighborhood school,” Rogers said. “It’s one of many vital issues we will continue to cover. In the coming months we’re going to build on the strengths of Downtown Express with wrinkles — a few old, and many new.”

Josh Rogers, former editor of Downtown Express, has just been named the paper's new editor.

LAWSUIT OVER 1 W.T.C. ANTENNAE SETTLEDOne World Trade Center is back on track to becoming

the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, as the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has settled its feud with A.D.F. Steel Corporation to get the steel needed to com-plete the 400-foot antenna. In recently issued statements, A.D.F. and the Port Authority said they had come to an agreement, though the terms were not disclosed.

The Port Authority had accused A.D.F. Corp., a company based in Terrebonne, Quebec, of holding the custom-made steel pieces of antennae hostage until the Authority paid off a multi-million dollar debt for another project.

In a suit brought to the New York State Supreme Court, the Port Authority said that A.D.F. was refusing to ship the steel for the tower’s $10 million spire until it received $6 million for materials of unrelated projects, but that under the terms of the contract for the antennae, the Port Authority was only required to pay for the spire itself — alleging that these payments were up to date.

If the steel is not shipped soon, the Port Authority stressed that the St. Lawrence River could freeze and thereby delay construction at 1 W.T.C. until the spring.

The tower, currently 104 stories high, will be raised to the symbolic height of 1,776 feet with the addition of the anten-nae. Construction of 1 W.T.C. is set to be completed by 2014.

NEW STUDY FINDS THAT DOWNTOWN IS EPICENTER FOR REGION’S YOUNG TALENT

A new study by the Downtown Alliance Business Improvement District shows a monumental shift in the popu-lation of educated young professionals from out of the suburbs and into metropolitan areas that can be reached via public transit. According to the study, Lower Manhattan has lately drawn more and more high-value workers and is becoming the center of revitalized neighborhoods in Manhattan, Brooklyn and the cities along New Jersey’s Hudson River waterfront.

“High-value workers” are young professionals and mid-career adults ages 18 to 44 that work in the fi elds of advertising, media, arts and entertainment, professional services, management, information technology, fi nance, insurance and real estate. This group includes a wide spectrum of households, from new college graduates to married couples and those raising children.

The number of residents working in these fi elds that live within a 30-minute PATH or subway commute of Lower Manhattan rose by 67,000 in the last ten years, marking an increase of 14 percent. The remaining areas in the

30-county region gained only about 12,000 people, a one percent growth.

With educated professionals increasingly opting for an urban lifestyle rather than a suburban one, Downtown is uniquely posi-tioned as a hub of corporate activity, according to the Alliance. The report states that 360 companies have chosen to relocate south of Chambers Street since 2005 and that more are likely to move to the area to take advantage of this pool of workers.

The Downtown Alliance compared data of the 2000 Decennial Census and the 2010 American Community Survey to fi nd out who these workers are and where they live. Population counts in neighborhoods situated within a 30-min-ute commute of Downtown were measured against those taken in a 30-county region stretching from New York City, New Jersey, Long Island, Westchester and the Hudson Valley, Southern Connecticut and Pennsyl¬vania’s Pike County.

The results show that young professionals are increasingly living within a 30-minute commute of Lower Manhattan. Nine of the ten fastest growing neighborhoods in the region are within this radius, including Park Slope, the Lower East Side and Jersey City’s Newport-Grove Street area. The suburbs outside this range, on the other hand, contribute far less to the region’s creative and professional workforce and in some cases lost a portion of workers in professional and creative fi elds.

CHEN TRIALS RESULT IN DISHONORABLE DISCHARGE, FACE MORE DELAYS

Travis Carden, the fi fth soldier to be tried in relation to Danny Chen’s suicide, will be dishonorably discharged from the U.S. Army and will receive a $1,000 fi ne for attempting to impede the Chen investigations at Fort Bragg in August. He has also been sentenced to a prison term of 10 months.

Carden, 25, pled guilty on Oct. 11 to a number of charges stemming from an altercation with members of his unit, including striking and pushing another soldier, threatening another soldier, negligently using a fi rearm and damaging government property, as well as negligently discharging a pistol in a government van and attempting to impede an investigation.

Danny Chen, who grew up in Chinatown and was the only Asian-American in his military unit, was subjected to several weeks of hazing while deployed in Kandahar, Afghanistan last year. Eight soldiers in all were charged in connection to his death, but only Carden and one other, Specialist Ryan Offutt, have been ousted from the military.

Carden had been found guilty on Aug. 22 of hazing

Private Chen by taunting the soldier with racial slurs and ordering him to do push-ups with water in his mouth. Carden was consequently sentenced with a reduced rank and a fi ne and avoided dishonorable discharge.

The recent development in the Carden case is seen as a victory by City Council Member Margaret Chin and the New York Chapter of the Organization of Chinese Americans (O.C.A.), who contend that all eight soldiers should be removed from the army.

“During the previous summary court-martial, Specialist Carden was not punished for his crimes,” said Chin in a statement released to the press. “This time, I am relieved to see that the army has dishonorably discharged Specialist Carden.”

The remaining three soldiers have yet to be tried by the courts-martial at the army’s Fort Bragg, South Carolina military base. The trial of First Lieutenant Daniel Schwartz, originally set for Oct. 24-26, has been delayed due to procedural motions by the government and the defense, according to army spokes-person Benjamin Abel. More time is required to prepare for the trial, he noted, and a new trial date has not been set.

This news follows the previously announced delay of the fi nal two trials in the Chen case of Sergeant Jeffrey Hurst and Staff Sergeant Andrew Van Bockel, whose trials were moved to Nov. 5-9 and Nov. 13-21, respectively.

Community Board 1’s offi ces at 49-51 Chambers St. were closed this week due to area-wide power outages and have been working remotely. For updates and other information, please e-mail the board’s administrator, Lucy Acevedo, at [email protected], or Evan Lacher at [email protected].

ON MON., NOV. 5: The Executive Committee will meet.

ON TUES., NOV. 6: The offi ce will be closed for Election Day.

ON THURS., NOV. 8: The Executive, Planning, Seaport-Civic Center,

Waterfront, Landmarks Committees — in addition to the Arts & Entertainment Task Force — will meet

to discuss the Pier 17 Uniform Land Use Review Procedure application. The location of the meeting is

yet to be determined.


B Y SAM SPOKONYAs people across the city worked to

recover from the impact of Hurricane Sandy, a group of seniors trapped in a Lower East Side building — without elec-tricity, water or adequate food supplies — were being saved from the brink of despair by community leaders, city work-ers and volunteers who came to their aid.

The nearly 50 elderly tenants of 80 Rutgers Slip who didn’t leave the build-ing — which is in Zone A, the area that was under mandatory evacuation orders before the storm hit — faced a dire situ-ation when their lobby was flooded and power was lost on Monday night.

Following the storm, the Two Bridges Neighborhood Council spearheaded a col-laborative effort that provided a vital lifeline to the ailing seniors.

“We’ve been extremely pleased with the turnout so far,” said Victor Papa, president of Two Bridges, speaking on Wednesday afternoon.

Earlier that day, three meals for each of the 80 Rutgers tenants were delivered by the nonprofit organization Citymeals on Wheels, in an arrangement arranged and overseen by Two Bridges.

And Papa explained that on Thursday, the seniors would be receiving 200 more meals from the city’s Department for the Aging.

He also said that, in an equally heroic effort, a local volunteer dropped off 60 gallons of water at 80 Rutgers Slip on Tuesday. The water was shared between that building and the adjacent 82 Rutgers Slip, which, like many other buildings in the area, was also without power and running water in the days fol-lowing Sandy.

The Two Bridges staff also bought doz-ens of flashlights on Wednesday for the elderly tenants, but Papa added that more were needed for that building and others in the area.

He continued to encourage area resi-dents to donate flashlights and other sup-plies to 80 Rutgers, since aid to the build-ing was only immediate and didn’t con-stitute even a consistent short-term plan. The meal deliveries, Papa stressed, would not be continuous and were secured only for the days on which the food was deliv-ered.

Although Internet reception was spotty and keeping cell phones charged was a constant struggle, social media and other Internet resources helped the swift responses to the seniors’ desperate needs, as well as to other struggling buildings within Lower East Side communities.

A new community-based volun-teer Web site, lowereastside.recovers.org, went online on Tuesday morning.

The product of volunteer collaborations between Occupy Wall Street and 350.org (an environmental organization), the “recovers” site allowed local residents to communicate and organize in support of ailing neighbors, as well as allowing com-munity organizations like Two Bridges to post requests for donations for specific buildings.

Recovers.org is a for-profit operation that licenses its software to cities and major organizations that are preparing for disasters, and was founded last year by survivors of a tornado in Massachusetts.

“I think the site will make things a lot easier during the big transition that’s

going to take place between the immedi-ate disaster response and planning for long term needs,” said Caitria O’Neill, co-founder and C.E.O. of recovers.org.

Those who wish to donate specifi cally to Lower East Side buildings in need can visit lowereastside.recovers.org and con-tact community representatives by phone or e-mail.

As of 5 p.m. on Wednesday, the Web site also had requests for donations to 46 Hester St. in Chinatown, 242 E. Second St. in the East Village, and numerous other buildings in need.

Nearly 250,000 people were still without electrical power in Manhattan as of Friday. On Wednesday at noon, Con Edison released a statement saying that people in Manhattan and Brooklyn who are served by under-ground equipment should have power back within three days.

Papa acknowledged that Con Ed’s ability to restore power would be the most important part of recovering from the impact of Hurricane Sandy, but he stressed that, for the moment, it was up to Lower East Side residents to keep them-selves going.

“In the end, we can’t rely on the cir-cumstances of crisis, and the predictions of the authorities,” Papa said. “We have to rely on ourselves. We’re the ones have to live through this.

Two Bridges community rallies to help trapped seniors

‘In the end, we have to rely on ourselves. We’re the ones have to live through this.’

— Victor Papa

to meet,” she said. “Having that area open would be very helpful.”

C.B. 1’s Landmarks Committee is objecting to another aspect of Howard Hughes’s Pier 17 proposal — its signage. The Howard Hughes plan calls for a nine-foot-high illuminated rooftop sign that reads “Seaport” and up to 18 other non-illuminated blade signs attached to both sides of the mall that would bear the names of the indoor shops.

The committee has written seven resolutions in response to the plan, two of which ask the city Landmarks Preservation Commission to reject the developer’s request for a modification of existing regulations that would allow for the proposed signage.

According to Howard Hughes, “these signs will be critical to the identifica-tion of the building and its tenants and will be appropriate to the scale and design of the building.”

But C.B. 1 asserts that the blade signs

would detract from the future building’s overall design and contravene L.P.C. sig-nage guidelines.

“To have it in that location is totally inappropriate for the South Street Seaport Historic District, in our opinion,” said committee chairperson Roger Byrom. “The whole scale of the Seaport is low and small, and while there are precedents on [certain parts of] the waterfront for industrial signs, there was never anything like that in the Seaport.”

Byrom continued, “We understand tenants rightfully need signage, but in many historic districts, you can limit the signage to simple lettering. That would be more appropriate than having lots of different logos swinging around the place.”

The full board has until Tues., Nov. 13 to review the application, after which the redevelopment plan will be evaluated by Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, the City Planning Commission and City Council. If approved, construction on the pier is slated to begin next summer.

Pier 17 plan encounters festering opposition

Continued from page 6

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B Y ALINE REYNOLDS Most buildings in Tribeca survived the

record-breaking Superstorm Sandy that ravaged the area — with the exception of Downtown’s largest youth community center.

The Manhattan Youth Downtown Community Center was completely sub-merged in water in the hours after the storm passed through the city, rendering its space kaput, according to executive director Bob Townley. Rebuilding the center will likely take months and cost several million dollars.

Following the peak of the storm at around dawn on Tuesday, Townley wrote an e-mail describing the scene at Manhattan Youth. The exterior and interior of 120 Warren St. had been heavily damaged from 15 to 20 feet of fl oods. “Pipes have burst, ceilings have collapsed and the elevator is under water,” he wrote that morning. “I thought of the teen program due to start next week.”

Starting on Monday, the community cen-ter will be running its after-school programs — in addition to basketball and other eve-ning and weekend sports programs — at six neighborhood schools. But its swim-ming program and other activities previously housed at the center have been cancelled for now.

Manhattan Youth staff and volunteers, who were staying at Townley’s apartment, spent most of the week pumping the water out of the community center — including several hours on line at gasoline stations to fuel up on gas for the pumps’ engines. As of Friday, they were two-thirds of the way done.

The center has yet to receive donations for the extensive repairs that lie ahead.

The desolate situation reminded Townley of the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2011, when sev-

eral neighborhood buildings were destroyed. “When 9/11 happened and parts of the Trade Center fell into our swimming pool [at 225 Rector Place], and when Sandy over-fl owed the banks and went into our swim-ming pool, both of those incidents made me feel the same way — like, ‘What am I going to do?’ he said.

Townley continued, “What I learned is that rebuilding is possible when you stay focused and remain optimistic. Let’s take a breath and begin to do what we all do so well Downtown: help and rebuild.”

“We’re going to need everybody’s help.” Pier 25, whose playground was uprooted,

will remain closed until further notice. Staff and contractors of the Hudson River Park Trust are currently cleaning the site and are holding off on assessing the pier’s electrical system until the power is turned back on in the area and the wires dry out. Hudson River Park’s basketball courts were also fl ooded.

And, over at Independence Plaza North on North Moore Street, many residents stayed put during the hurricane despite the evacuation notice, according to for-mer Community Board 1 chairperson Julie Menin — who along with Council Member Margaret Chin and other local leaders stopped by the apartment complex to check on tenants this week.

Following the storm, there were desper-ate searches for food and volunteers knocked on every I.P.N. door offering supplies and medical assistance to the residents, Menin noted. There was also a doctor on site. “People really needed food and water,” she said. “There are a lot of seniors that literally lacked mobility.”

—With reporting by Josh Rogers

Tribeca fared better but Manhattan Youth heavily damaged

Photo courtesy of Manhattan Youth

The Downtown Community Center was heavily damaged by the storm.

Photo courtesy of Manhattan Youth

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Statue Cruises’ B.P.C. entrance batteredThe Battery Park City entrance to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island ferry services took a beating during Hurricane Sandy’s brief but hard-hitting visit to the New York area.


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Hurricane Sandy leaves W.T.C. largely unscathed

B Y ALINE REYNOLDS Though the World Trade Center didn’t

incur signifi cant damage, the complex had sizeable water accumulation in its basements that workers were still pumping out at press time on Friday.

Some 200 million gallons of water from New York Harbor poured into the 16-acre site during the storm, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. As a result, the complex’s sub-grade levels were fl ooded by up to 30 feet of water that might have damaged equipment and electrical systems. The W.T.C. Transportation Hub is under 25 feet of water, while the chiller plant that ventilates the site is submerged by seven feet.

By Friday, 30,000 gallons of water were eliminated from the sub-basements of the W.T.C. by the minute, accord-ing to spokesperson Steve Coleman. Ironically, the infrastructure of the underground Vehicle Security Center facilitated the flooding. “They’re pump-ing significant amounts of water out of the site,” he said. “Approximately 20 percent has been pumped out — they’re making good progress.”

Drying out the towers’ sub-grade areas will take another few days, he noted.

Meanwhile, representatives of devel-oper Larry Silverstein’s construction team and the devleoper’s contractors conducted a full inspection of the east-ern portion of the World Trade Center site earlier this week. Following the inspection, the developer reported that all cranes are in working order and that the towers — including 4 W.T.C., which remains on schedule for completion next year — escaped damage.

Seven W.T.C., which also sur-vived the storm, will reopen once Consolidated Edison is able to restore power to Lower Manhattan, according to Bud Perrone, a spokesperson for Silverstein Properties.

“No harm was detected to Silverstein’s major mechanical systems, including a major electrical room beneath the 2 W.T.C. construction site, which supplies power to each of Silverstein’s towers,” he said. “The only major services at present are water and restoration of electrical service. Neither problem is expected to significantly impact the overall construc-tion schedule.”

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also made it through okay. In preparation for Sandy, Memorial officials took several preventative steps, such as draining its pools and harvest tanks, according to president Joe Daniels. “The museum’s collection is largely stored offsite,” he said, “and we are reviewing the condition of these items to assess any impacts and

ensure their care.”The massive flooding, however, took

a toll on the museum’s visitor center. “We will have a clearer picture of the extent of the damages as our dedicated response teams continue their assess-ments,” said Daniels. “We are working closely with the state, city and the Port Authority to reopen the memorial as soon as possible, as well as make any necessary repairs.”



The World Trade Center has remained closed since the hurricane.


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Beauty after the storm While Sandy wreaked havoc in many areas near Downtown’s rivers, somehow Battery Park City’s South Cove was sparkling last Wednesday.


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HUDSON RIVER PARK TRUST - Contract No. C4189 - Category: 03 C4189 - Segment 3 - Hubert to Laight Street - Landscape Materials Construction

Description: The Hudson River Park Trust ("HRPT") is seeking proposals from qualified site contracting firms (“Bidders”) interested in performing landscape, irrigation, and site construction within the Hudson River Park. Typical construction operations would include but not be limited to: Protection of existing structures to remain; Temporary facilities, controls, and site protection; Excavation, earthwork, and grading; Field survey and layout; Site/soil preparation and the furnishing and installation of soil mixes; Furnishing and installation of all new lawns, trees, shrubs, perennials, grasses, ground cover, bulbs and annuals; Site irrigation supply and installation including piping, fittings, sleeves, valves and valve boxes, swing joints, sprinkler heads, drip line and emitters, quick coupler valves, filters, etc; Maintenance of all landscape materials until Substantial Completion acceptance by Owner; and Guarantee of installed plant materials for one-year after final acceptance; Testing and adjusting of irrigation equipment and distribution system; Demonstration and training for the Owner’s personnel; and other miscellaneous finished work as required. Work located along the Hudson River from Hubert to Laight Streets. Price for bid documents $200.00 per set. All payments must be made by check, and must be payable to the Hudson River Park Trust and must include the contractor’s Federal Identification Number. Document availability date Friday October 19th, 2012. Documents including required submission materials for this solicitation may be obtained by the following means: Mail: Mail your requests and a check to the Hudson River Park Trust – Project Management Office, 353 West Street, Pier 40 – 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10014. In Person: Directly from the Hudson River Park Trust located at Pier 40. Hours 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., Monday – Friday, except holidays. Overnight delivery via Fed Ex is available by providing your account information. Criteria for determining the lowest qualified bidder will include but is not limited to an analysis of: 1. Bidder’s site construction experience (minimum 5 years) on similar projects, including the name, location, and construction cost of the projects (include projects within the NYC metropolitan area); 2. Any NYS DOL, OSHA, ACOE, or NYS DEC violations issued to Bidder or any of its principals in the last five years; 3. Bidder’s complete team (prime contractor or joint venture partners and/or sub contractors) that it would commit to the project, including an analysis of the percentage of subcontracting; 4. Bidder’s proposed scheduling consultant, land surveyor, agricultural chemist, soils testing laboratory, and other specialty contractors required by the contract; 5. Bidder’s proposed location of soil material sources and certified test reports for the proposed soil materials; 6. Bidder’s proposed landscape materials sub contractor incl. analysis of landscape materials construction experience (minimum 5 years) on similar projects, including the name, location, and construction cost of the projects (include projects within the NYC metropolitan area wherever possible); 7. An analysis of the proposer’s sod and plant material nursery source listing(s); 8. Bidder’s proposed site irrigation sub contractor analysis of irrigation construction experience (minimum 5 years) on similar projects, including the name, location, and construction cost of the projects (include projects within the NYC metropolitan area wherever possible); 9. Qualifications of the personnel to be utilized for this project; 10. Detailed financial statements of Bidder or, in the case of a joint venture, the detailed financial statements of the joint venture partners; 11. Any debarments, litigation, and/or bankruptcy filings by Bidder or its principals in the last five years; 12. Completed and certified “Vendex” and New York State Vendor Responsibility questionnaires completed within the last three years; and 13. Bidder’s EEO policy statement and an M/WBE Utilization Plan. Submissions will be evaluated to assess the proposer’s responsibility, project specific and general site construction, landscape, and irrigation construction experience, project management personnel, percentage of subcontracting, and financial stability. HRPT is an equal opportunity contracting agency. Any resulting contracts will include provisions mandating compliance with Executive Law Article 15A and the regulations promulgated there under. Proposal Due: 11/15/2012, 1:00 p.m.

Contract Term: Not Applicable

Contact: Lupe Frattini Hudson River Park Trust - Project Management Field Office 353 West Street, Pier 40 – 2PndP Floor, New York, NY 10014 (917) 661 8740 phone, (917) 661 8787 fax

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Crumbling pier proves to be unsustainableB Y KAITLYN MEADE

Despite widespread alarm when the Consolidated Edison Company of New York shut off power to protect Lower Manhattan from Hurricane Sandy, the Hudson River Park Trust could only breathe a sigh of relief. Pier 40, the deteriorating pier near Houston St., narrowly avoided catastrophe during the storm.

Madelyn Wils, president of the Hudson River Park Trust (H.R.P.T.), said that while power could be shut off in most of Hudson River Park’s buildings, they were unable to do so at Pier 40 because the substation was very old.

“We’re very lucky that Con Edison turned off power for the whole area,” Wils said Thursday in a phone interview. “If they hadn’t turned it off, the transformer would have exploded and that would have started a fi re. It could have been a disaster.”

The storm did extensive damage to the ball fi elds although the turf was already near-ing its end.

This is only one of many problems plagu-ing the structure of the pier, which turned 50 years old on Oct. 24. Long before Hurricane Sandy, the pier was in dire need of repair.

At a recent tour of Pier 40 with Community Board 1, Madelyn Wils and Mark Conti, project manager of construction and design for the LiRo Group, a consultant for Pier 40, discussed the myriad problems

facing the pier and the necessary measures to bring the building back into working order.

When the H.R.P.T. inherited the building from the Department of Buildings and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in 2003, the roof was caving in and extensive water damage had occurred from rainwater pouring through the leaks.

“Instead of fi xing the ceilings, they actu-ally built giant bathtubs for the rainwater,” said Conti. But even these contained asbes-tos in the lining that had to be removed.

Meanwhile, the concrete ceiling panels have corroded. In fact, in certain parking sections, every car is given a plastic cov-ering as protection from falling concrete.

Sometimes this is not enough and the vehi-cles incur cracked windshields from loose pieces of the garage’s ceiling.

The sanitation system collapsed about a month ago. Inclement weather caused the river to snap the pipe that runs beneath the pier, adding a whole new set of worries to the already cash-strapped reconstruction project. A pump has been set up, but it is one of a long line of temporary fi xes that must be implemented to keep the pier running in the short term. Another temporary solution is the external emergency stairway placed on the outside corner of the building in lieu of the internal staircases, all six of which are condemned.

According to Wils, it is the basic structure that is in most need of immediate attention. “What we’re seeing is the deterioration of structures that are vital to the life and safety of the building,” she said regarding the 3,600 steel piles that make up the pier’s skeleton. “Steel is good if you take care of [the piles], but they didn’t.”

Nearly a fi fth of the roof has been repaired at a cost of $6.2 million, but the H.R.P.T. lacks the funds to fi nish the job.

With a footprint of 15 acres, Pier 40 is the largest of the Hudson River Park’s piers by fi ve to six times. and is the only large, com-mercial pier in the lower section of Hudson

Downtown Express photo by Arnold Rozon

Pier 40 was already deteriorating.



Assemblyman Shelly Silver

If you need assistance, please contact my office at

(212) 312-1420 or email [email protected].

Fighting to make

Lower Manhattan

the greatest place to live, work, and raise a family.

volunteer driven,” he said. “Community members with a wide variety of incomes were able to participate in youth sports. That is no longer the case.”

Marshal Coleman, a former board mem-ber of the Downtown Little League, said he thought a scholarship program at the new community center would fall by the wayside if were left up to Asphalt Green. “They are a facility that’s under pressure to turn a profi t,” he commented.

At Community Board 1’s full board meet-ing on Oct. 23, Anthony Notaro, acting chair of the board’s B.P.C. Committee and head of its B.P.C. Community Center Task Force, showed a graphic that urged the B.P.C.A. to make programming available on an affordable basis and to not impinge on existing community organizations’ historical use of the ball fi elds.

B.P.C. resident Jamie Propp, who orga-nized a rally on Oct. 21 in support of Asphalt Green’s management of the community center, viewed objections such as these as potentially destructive to a deal that is still “very delicate,” in his words. He fears that C.B. 1 would try

to “impose an agenda” before the commu-nity center opens. He thought it possible that “other forces and other interests in the com-munity that are represented by Community Board 1 may try to make a last ditch attempt to get their agenda pushed forward” and scuttle the B.P.C.A.’s deal with Asphalt Green.

The good news is that the center will open, according to Anthony Notaro, acting chair of C.B. 1’s Battery Park City Committee and head of the board’s Community Center Task Force. “The bad news is that, to my knowl-edge, there was no community involvement in the process,” he said.

With the many changes at the B.P.C.A., he added, there seemed to be no institutional mem-ory of the fact that C.B. 1 was an active partici-pant in planning the ball fi elds and had worked with the B.P.C.A. to select Asphalt Green as the operator of the new community center.

Now, Notaro said, C.B. 1’s involvement seems to be an afterthought. “For the past several weeks, the B.P.C.A. has been unre-sponsive to our requests to meet or even to attend our committee or board meetings. So while they may have repaired their relation-ship with Asphalt Green, the community now must be addressed.”

B.P.C. community center may open in early December


Downtown Express photos by Terese Loeb Kreuzer

Jamie Propp and Liz McCabe addressing Community Board 1’s full board meeting on Oct. 23, where they advocated for Asphalt Green as the operator of the future Battery Park City community center.

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Surviving the next stormB Y L INCOLN ANDERSON

Downtowners once again are coming together, helping their neighbors -- so the comparisons between Hurricane Sandy and 9/11 are natural. The key difference is that the devastating and tragic loss of life this time does not approach the magnitude of the attack 11 years ago. That of course does not make it any easier for each grieving family.

The scramble back to homes for evacu-ees, the frantic group e-mails, the search for information, for places to charge cell phones, has an all-too-familiar ring to many. Once again we are inspired by the stories we’ve seen and heard about people helping -- offer-ing everything from beds to showers to food to batteries.

At the South Street Seaport, devastated businesses are helping each other recover. In northern Chelsea we saw a small group of police offi cers Monday lifting heavy wood from the street clearing a dangerous situa-tion rather than waiting for another agency to do it. In the East Village, an out-of-town samaritan trucked in a generator to help the Ninth Precinct keep functioning, which was also used to help local residents charge up their phones. A local bar on Avenue A stayed open with a generator after the storm and, again, let people power up their phones. In the West Village, there were cookouts to help feed the hungry, as food became scarce and the contents of peoples’ refrigerators in their

homes became inedible. In the Two Bridges area on the Lower East Side, residents band-ed together to help senior citizens trapped in their high-rise apartments without access to food or water.

There were so many more stories like these.

As we look at what comes next, fore-most in our minds is that low- lying Lower Manhattan is one of the most vulnerable areas to storms. We hope by now, you the reader, have your lights back. We also hope the subways return to Lower Manhattan as they did for the rest of the city. It did not seem that long ago when the trains could run

rain or shine, but that day has passed and will never return without the political will for large-scale investment.

The science is clear that these storms will continue with more frequency and ferocity going forward. We shouldn’t rush in with massive expenditures on storm protection without careful study, but on the other hand, we can’t throw our hands up and wait for better environmental policies to reverse the tide. That’s what Mayor Bloomberg seemed to do the other day. While he has been a leader on climate issues, he should not be so dismissive of costly measures that would likely help. A system of storm-surge barriers

-- as advocated for most notably on the polit-ical level by Chelsea activist Bob Trentlyon – may be the only thing that can protect us from another devastating storm of Sandy’s proportions. But constructing these barriers is “not an easy process,” as Trentlyon says, so it’s something that we should start studying now to see if it’s the way to go to ensure that Lower Manhattan continues to be a viable place to live and work in a world with a rapidly changing climate.

Meanwhile, we’re riding in subway sta-tions built more than acentury ago. Short sighted politicians will scoff at spending hun-dreds of billions both to protect people living near the water, as well as at least some of our transit system. But consider the multibillions of dollars lost when our lives and jobs are so disrupted. How many times a year will

Lower Manhattan be asked to pack up and fl ee? In the meanwhile, we’ll stay on the Sandy aftermath story from our new tempo-rary offi ces, updating our Web sites as well as two most welcome post-9/11 advances — Facebook and Twitter.

Lastly don’t forget to vote on Tuesday. For those with diffi culty getting to the polls, you may still get an absentee ballot application Monday if you go to 450 W. 33rd St., 10th fl oor. It’s too late to get the candidates to promise better storm protec-tion this year, but you can still hold the winners accountable.

Downtown Express photo by By Terese Loeb Kreuzer


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River Park. Historically, it supplied about 40 percent of the park’s revenue at about $7.5 million. But that amount dwindled to $5 mil-lion in the past year.

“Pier 40 was supposed to support Hudson River Park, but now, the park is supporting Pier 40,” Wils told C.B. 1 members during the tour.

At an Oct. 15 meeting of C.B.1’s Waterfront and Tribeca Committees, H.R.P.T.’s monetary tribulations were dis-cussed along with tentative plans to partially close the pier in sections.

The meeting opened with committee chair Bob Townley discussing crime preven-tion on the waterfront — prompted by the recent assault of a young woman in early October. He noted an increase in crime on the waterfront, especially petty larceny but also in “serious crime.” He advocated for a community dialogue on how to make the waterfront safer and expressed his desire to engage with residents about their experi-ences late at night on the waterfront.

The next order of business was a presen-tation by Wils to the board on the fi nancing woes and options currently facing Pier 40. One year ago, Wils worked with a task force consisting of members from Community Boards 1, 2 and 4, which Hudson River

Park traverses, along with local groups to determine the pier’s needs. The good news: Hudson River Park draws a lot of people, second only to Central Park in Manhattan. Approximately 400,000 people play sports in the park yearly, while 6,000 children use its educational programs and 3,300 people are employed within its boundaries.

The bad news is that Pier 40 is an unsus-tainable part of the park. In fi scal year 2013, the pier ended with a $7 million defi cit. Furthermore, the roof repairs alone will cost $24 million in addition to the approximately $6 million already spent. The steel piles need

to be encapsulated in fi berglass or plastic. The fi xes to the steel piles would amount to $90 million if they were all to be done within a year, but that estimate will rise if they are stretched over a decade.

“We need $250 million to fi nish the pub-lic portions of the pier,” Wils reported. “If we continue at this rate, there will be an $82 million defi cit in ten years.”

The option that Wils laid before the board was a managed shutdown of the pier, which would entail closing one section at a time for repairs and moving parking to areas that are not under construction and keeping

the ball fi elds open. The pier currently has the capacity for 2,600 parking spaces, but usually only 1,700 of them are used. Such a shutdown could save the H.R.P.T. up to $5 million per year, allowing it to keep the pier open for another fi ve-to-six years as it fi gures out how to pay for repairs and raise revenue to support the park.

Wils said the Trust was “agnostic” when it came to forms of development and other uses of the pier that could raise revenue, but she warned that too much retail would cause traffi c problems that the pier could not sup-port. Revenue potentials include increased commercial use, residential development and head fees on commercial ships that dock at the pier and use its facilities. She also cited three different parking studies that deter-mined that parking alone could not save the pier. “There’s not one answer — but we need all the answers to make Pier 40 work,” she said. “We need to have many different sources.”

The community, however, is skeptical of the impact of commercial and residen-tial development, as shown by two failed Requests for Proposals issued by the Trust.

New York State Assembly Member Deborah Glick responded by asking the H.R.P.T. to present a “holistic vision of the entire park before we try to plug the gap

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with an ‘anything goes’ philosophy at Pier 40.” She suggested looking at the Hudson River Park Act to see what revenue streams are already feasible, to assess an “adaptive reuse” of the existing building and to solicit public funds for repairs.

“The notion that the collective will of the entire West Side is incapable of getting some of the deferred maintenance covered is actu-ally wrong,” Glick said.

The assembly member agreed that retail would not be a good option — besides over-crowding the pier, it would struggle between November and February with the cold wind rising from the river. Yet the idea of a high-tech campus or gallery space with consolidated park-ing, she said, were both options that should be investigated before residential development.

“We don’t have open space. We can’t make more open space. We can only prevent the loss of more open space,” said Glick.

The Pier 40 Champions, a new coalition of sports leagues that includes the Downtown United Soccer Club, the Gotham Girls Football Club, the Greenwich Village Little League and the Pier Park and Playground Association, believe that residential develop-ment at the pier might be the best way to salvage their playing fi elds. These leagues funded a study last April, which concluded that limited residential development would

have the lowest impact for the highest rev-enue compared to other options. With this in mind, Pier 40 Champions has hired WXY Architecture & Urban Design to plan a nar-row, 15-story tower situated between the pier and the Hudson River bike path that would be comprised of residential and pos-sibly commercial units. This would require rezoning and a change to the Hudson River Park Act, since both prohibit residential use.

Friends of Hudson River Park, which is less concerned with the use of the pier itself, has presented its own idea for supplying funds for the park. The group has proposed a waterfront Neighborhood Improvement District stretching from 59th Street all the way to about Chambers Street and extending two to four blocks away from Hudson River Park. The N.I.D. would set up an annual property owners assessment fee of 7.5 cents per square foot for residential property (excluding public housing) and 15 cents per square foot for commercial lots.

The assessment would generate a pro-jected $10 million annually, with 40 percent going toward community needs and 60 per-cent going to the park.

“The feedback has been mostly positive,” said Matthew Washington, a member of the Friends’ N.I.D. committee. However, the Friends can’t submit the proposal to the city Department of Small Business Services until it can prove in ballot form that the major-ity of neighborhood property owners are in

favor of it. The group will be distributing and collecting the ballots between November and next February.

Some committee members questioned whether such a broad range of neighbor-hoods would share enough of a common interest to agree on the proposal. “How are you separating the neighborhoods? How would you know if one neighborhood didn’t agree?” asked C.B.1 Waterfront Committee member Marc Ameruso.

Michael Levine, C.B. 1’s director of land use and planning, maintained that all three com-

munity boards are behind the plan. “The issue is going to be the property owners,” he said.

The F.H.R.P. hopes to have the N.I.D. up and running by fi scal year 2014. In the meantime, the staff of the Trust is in the process of assessing Pier 40’s condition after hurricane Sandy.

However, Wils noted that the newer piers and bulkheads fared “remarkably well,” and that the staff is thankful that what dam-age they have so far encountered can be repaired. “We had a very close call here,” she said.

Downtown Express photo by Kaitlyn Meade

All cars entering this parking zone are covered as protection from falling concrete from the deteriorating Pier 40 structure.


The Vince Smith Hair Experience at 300 Rector Place was undamaged by Sandy. With power, hot water and WiFi intact, owner Vince Smith invited his neighbors to stop by to charge their mobile devices and to use the WiFi. He also said he would shampoo their hair if they lacked hot water at home.

Many thought the Battery Park City Authority was notable for its absence. Authority spokesperson Matthew Monahan issued a statement a few days after the storm: “The pre-emptive shutdown of B.P.C.A.’s server saved it, enabling it to

operate again. The ball fi elds are closed until further notice. B.P.C.A. and its Parks Conservancy are engaged in property assessment from Pier A to Chambers Street and will immediately implement plans to remediate likely impacts.”

On Friday Monahan said officials have been surveying the damage and speaking to residents along the way in addition to sending regular updates to building managers.

But in contrast, some Battery Park City residents recalled how helpful the Battery Park City Authority had been in other emer-gencies such as the Sept. 11, 2001 attack and the 2011 evacuation of Battery Park City during tropical storm Irene.

“This is unprecedented silence,” said Community Board 1 member and B.P.C. resident Tammy Meltzer. Many of her neigh-bors agreed.

Sandy turned the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel into a torrent that resembled a raging stream in springtime and the Battery Park City underpass was completely fl ooded and remains so.

The Ritz-Carlton hotel lost power. So did Merchants River House on the Battery Park City esplanade, which was flooded. Owner Abraham Merchant, who lives in Battery Park City, said that he didn’t know when power would be restored. Because of power loss, he also had to close his two other Downtown restau-

rants — Merchants NY Café and Pound and Pence. Construction at his fourth restaurant, SouthWest NY at South End Avenue and Albany Street, will be slightly delayed, he said.

But most of Battery Park City was spared the storm’s worst ministrations. Some build-ings never lost power. “HOME HOME HOME!” Carolyn Louise Newhouse exulted on Facebook after she returned to Battery Park City. “Such irony, my building directly on the river went unharmed in any way. Power on throughout, Internet, phone and TV on, Teardrop Park as I left it, leaves still on trees, beautiful river! I’m a Happy, Grateful woman wishing hot showers for everyone.”

B.P.C. residents brave hurricaneContinued from page 2


B Y TERESE LOEB KREUZER

NEW PRESIDENT TAKES HELM AT BATTERY PARK CITY AUTHORITY:

At the Battery Park City Authority Board of Directors meeting on Tues., Oct. 23, B.P.C.A. chairman Dennis Mehiel announced that Demetrios A. Boutris has been appoint-ed president and chief operating offi cer, subject to a routine background check by the New York State Police.

The position of president had been vacant since Gayle Horwitz departed at the begin-ning of October. The B.P.C.A. has not had a chief operating offi cer since Horwitz’s brief time in the position during summer 2010, prior to her appointment as president.

The B.P.C.A. president is responsible for the Authority’s day-to-day operations. However, in announcing the appointment, Mehiel said, “I want to continue to involve myself in a relatively detailed way in major issues of policy that confront the Authority, particularly as we go through this change from a development-oriented entity to one that is essentially managing real estate.”

Boutris, 51, has a background in law, real estate and investments. He founded The Boutris Group, a business and pol-icy advisory fi rm focused on consulting with key executive and corporate deci-sion-makers on such matters as business development, strategic planning, corporate governance and risk management. He has also worked in California’s state gov-ernment and was executive director and associate general counsel to U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor during the Bill Clinton administration.

After accepting the B.P.C.A. appoint-ment, Boutris resigned from all public and private sector boards and commissions, and all of his business interests and investments are now passive.

Boutris, who emigrated to the U.S. from Greece at the age of 12, graduated from the University of California at Berkeley,

where he majored in economics, and from Harvard Law School. He is married to Aurelia Mika Chang, a concert pianist. They have two sons and live on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

After the B.P.C.A. board of direc-tors meeting, Boutris said that, while his appointment as Authority president had been considered for quite some time, “I wasn’t privileged to know that I was being considered for quite a while. The Governor’s offi ce obviously and Dennis approached me, and it got interesting in the last three days.”

He looked pleased and abashed as the board of directors welcomed him with applause.

WORLD FINANCIAL CENTER TO GET NEW NAME:

Next fall, when the underground con-nector between Battery Park City and the World Trade Center transit hub opens along with the West Street pavilion entrance on

the B.P.C. side, what is now known as the “World Financial Center” will be offi cially renamed “Brookfi eld Place.”

Brookfi eld owns the W.F.C. along with similar real estate in other cities such as Toronto, Canada and Perth, Australia, where the “Brookfi eld Place” name is already used. Logo and signage for the new name will be introduced in the coming months.

The reason for the name change is that “World Financial Center” suggests a tenant demographic that “is shifting to a broader base of industries beyond fi nance, including media and tech fi rms that embrace the 24-7 live/work/play lifestyle the area affords,” according to Matthew Cherry, a spokesman for Brookfi eld Offi ce Properties.

Beginning in spring 2014, each of the complex’s four towers will be known by its street address. One W.F.C. will become 200 Liberty St., 2 W.F.C. will be designated as 225 Liberty St., 3 W.F.C. will be 200 Vesey St., and 4 W.F.C. will be 250 Vesey St.

The Winter Garden and the dining and retail areas are located at 100 West St. The grand opening of the new waterfront dining, European-style marketplace and neighbor-hood fashion corridor will also take place in Spring 2014.

PICK A BAGEL TO REOPEN ON IZZY & NAT’S SITE:

Izzy & Nat’s at 311 South End Ave. has closed, but B.P.C. residents who liked to stop there for a meal, a snack or take-out should not despair. Pick a Bagel will be opening at the same address in early November.

Harry Nussbaum, a partner with Alan Phillips in Pick a Bagel, said the new restau-rant will have extensive take-out in addition to booths for sit-down meals. Some of the Izzy & Nat’s menu items will be available in the new restaurant, which will be open daily, he said — tentatively between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m.

Currently, the restaurant is being refur-

bished and redecorated, but city Department of Buildings permits aren’t needed for the cosmetic work that is being done, Nusbaum noted. Pick a Bagel has a take-out shop at 102 North End Ave. in B.P.C. as well as other stores elsewhere in Manhattan.

DANCE SCHOLARSHIPS AT NEW AMERICAN YOUTH BALLET

The New American Youth Ballet School at 98 Battery Place is offering scholarships for new Battery Park City residents. The scholarships will cover all costs and are for the balance of the fall/winter term, which ends on Jan. 19, 2013.

Director Elizabeth Flores, who was named the 2008 Dance Teacher of the Year by Dance Teacher Magazine, trained with the Bolshoi Ballet Academy and the Juilliard School. She founded New American Youth Ballet, a nonprofi t organization, in 1997. Children as young as 2 can begin to study with her.

“Our students and graduates have trained and performed with The Bolshoi Ballet, the School of American Ballet, The Juilliard School, The Royal Danish Ballet, the New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theater,” she said. But she also wel-comes and encourages students who have no professional aspirations and simply want to learn about music and dance.

The monthly fee for one class per week is $135 as a “suggested donation.” Two classes per week cost $198 a month. There are lim-ited scholarship openings at the school. To apply, email [email protected] with “Welcome scholarship” in the subject line. For more information about the school, visit www.newamericanyouthballet.org or call 212-945-2926.

To comment on the Battery Park City

Beat or to suggest article ideas, e-mail Terese Loeb Kreuzer at [email protected]

Demetrios A. Boutris (left) at a B.P.C.A. Board of Directors meeting in October with chairman Dennis Mehiel.

Downtown Express photos by Terese Loeb Kreuzer

Students from B.P.C.’s New American Youth Ballet School performing at the B.P.C. block party in September. The school is offering full scholarships for new B.P.C. residents.


Exterminator of assorted religious illusionsAsner gives ‘Grace’ its spine

BY JERRY TALLMERDon’t look now, but crusty, lovable Lou

Grant has returned amongst us as a certain Karl, last name unknown — a bitterly caustic exterminator of ants, termites and assorted religious illusions.

Oh heck, you can look, especially if you have always loved Ed Asner as gruff news boss Lou Grant, on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” — always respectfully addressed as “Mr. Grant” by producer Mary Richards — and everything else this all-purpose invalu-able actor has in all the media done for us from the mid-1950s to now.

Ed Asner is back, live, on Broadway, after a quarter century absence, as this German-born atheist exterminator fellow, Karl, in a new play. It’s what they call a supporting role, but “Grace” would be lacking a spine without it. Or him.

The three other fi gures in Craig Wright’s “Grace” are born again Christians Steve (Paul Rudd) and Sara (Kate Harringon) — a Midwestern married couple come down to Florida, where Steve is awaiting the arrival from some millionaire in Switzerland of a $90,000 check with which to launch the fi rst of a string of faith-healing hotels. Completing a triangle is their reclusive neighbor, Sam (Michael Shannon), whose wife was killed in an automobile accident that left him, Sam, badly burnt and scarred. But not too scarred to attract the interest, not to say the affec-tion, of lonely Sara.

The play begins and ends with a con-

tradictory stroke of theater, while Karl the exterminator — a non-Jewish sur-vivor of Nazi brutality capped by the July 1943 British and U.S. fire-storm aerial bombings (“Operation Gomorrah”) that destroyed Hamburg, Germany, and 45,000 of its people, among them young Karl's entire family — barges in and out of the scene, supplying a sort of Goya-esque atheistic chorus.

By the way, is Edward Asner, born in Kansas City, Kansas, raised in Kansas City, Missouri, the lifelong committed radical son of Orthodox Jewish Russian-American par-ents — is Asner himself an atheist?

“Well,” he says as he nurses an early coffee, “to save conversation and specula-tion, and in line with the World War II slo-gan that there are no atheists in foxholes, let’s just say I call myself an agnostic until proved otherwise.” Pause. Then, dryly: “If there was a God, He wouldn’t have invented man.”

“The Mary Tyler Moore Show ran from 1970 into 1977, followed, for Asner, by fi ve years of “Lou Grant” (terminated in 1982 by CBS, without explanation, when its ratings were still high). To this day, much of America is still in love with the whole “Mary Tyler Moore” team at WJM-TV in Minneapolis: Gavin Macleod as newswriter Murray Slaughter, Ted Knight as bumbling, egotistical anchorman Ted Baxter, Cloris Leachman, Betty White, Valerie Harper, Georgia Engel and of course Ed Asner and wonderful Mary Tyler Moore herself.

The script was written and the weekly story put together in Los Angeles. “I did a lot of touring in that area,” says Asner, “visit-ing news rooms, and they were always eager to show us their Ted Baxter.” Pause. “Ted Knight’s the only one who’s gone.”

Was it fun, Mr. Asner?“Marvelous fun. Seven years of Yellow

Brick Road.”Was everything scripted? Could the

actors make changes?“We were all seasoned performers. But

we didn’t change a comma without consult-ing the scriptwriter.”

Asner was last on a New York City stage as blustering Harry Brock — a much less likable guy than Lou Grant — opposite Madeline Kahn as “Drop dead!” showgirl Billie Dawn, in a 1989 Broadway revival of “Born Yesterday.” Between then and now, and before then and now, he’s done a ton of movie work, television work, voice work, won a batch of Emmy Awards and other honors, served a couple of stormy terms as president of the Screen

Actors Guild and been politically and socially active in various causes on a score of fronts.

His parents — “who spoke fractured English” — were Morris Asner, originally of Lithuania, “who came to the United States in 1899 or 1900, and I think actually sailed for America from Hamburg,” and Lizzie Seligson Asner, who came to the United States from the Ukraine in 1913.

“My father was a junk dealer” — more elegantly, the proprietor of a second-hand store in Kansas City.

“I did radio in high school, but did not think of acting as a career.” It was at the University of Chicago, after a hitch in the Signal Corps, “where I fallaciously waved my signals” — that Asner had a roommate who was in a Paul Sills theater group doing T.S. Eliot's “Murder in the Cathedral.” When the roommate had to drop out, Asner took over as Thomas (Archbishop) Becket. But when Paul Sills “wanted to go into improvisational theater” — the Compass, which became The Second City — “I wanted to stay legit, and came to New York.”

And what did you do here? “Pounded the pavement. Looked for an

agent. And in February or March of 1956, got into [Off-Broadway’s record-setting] Brecht-Weill ‘Threepenny Opera’ as J.J. [Jonathan Jeremiah] Peachum, corrupt father of Polly Peachum, Did that for two and a half years, became a good friend of the show’s Jerry Orbach and his wife Marta Curro, and then did a Papp” — as the Duke of Exeter in Joseph Papp’s New York Shakespeare Festival 1960 production of “Henry V.”

“James Earl Jones was in it, Tom Aldredge was in it, and” — searches memory — “Jimmy…Jimmy” — the late James Ray as the king.

What now lured you back to Broadway?“The two producers, Paula Wagner and

Debbie Bisno, who sent me a script and asked if I’d be interested in playing Karl. I thought it a very interesting role, a challenge, this exterminator and atheist who’s confront-ing that born again couple.”

How’s your Germanic English?“Vot you vont to know?” said Asner.

Followed, straight-faced, by: “They couldn’t get Arnold Schwarzenegger.”

Had Asner known playwright Craig Wright?

“I do now. And I loved ‘Six Feet Under,’ ” a television series written by Wright.

Do we see any symbolism in Karl the atheist as an exterminator?

“I think it’s a wry twist.”So’s the title, wouldn’t you say?“Well, everyone in the play is seeking a

state of grace. Have you noticed the graphics

for the show, the posters out there? The ‘A’ in “Grace” is tipped and falling, upside down. Karl seeks his own grace for what he had to do as a teenager during the war” — betray to the rapacious Storm Troopers — and worse — his teenage hidden Jewish girlfriend.

Asner has actually been, more recently, on the living stage, solo — though not in New York — as his hero (and mine), Franklin Delano Roosevelt. “Been doing it for three years, and will do it again after this show” has run its course.

“No speaker that we’ve got now can approximate FDR. Obama? A cold fi sh. But I don’t want to cost him votes.” Measured pause. “Besides, he might send a drone after me.”

Oh yes, Asner will vote for Obama — again — but with something less than wild enthusiasm.

“Where is FDR today? He’s up in the mountains, on a horse, isn’t he? He’s gonna come down, one of these days….”

Twice married, one and a half times divorced, seven times a grandfather, Asner is the father of three middle-aged off-spring: Michael, director of a California autism clinic; Kate, “who is working toward her internship in psychiatry, and who could still be an actress” and Liza, “my assistant.”

Do you have a lady now?“I have some.” Pause. “I see my ex-es”

— Nancy Sykes and Cindy Gilmore — “quite a lot.”

Thank you, Mr. Grant. Thank you, Mary Tyler Moore. Thank you, Karl. Let’s all say grace.

THEATERGRACE

Written by Craig Wright

Directed by Dexter Bullard

Through Jan. 6

At the Cort Theatre

138 W. 48th St. (btw. 6th & 7th Aves.)

Tue.-Thu. at 7pm; Fri.-Sat. at 8pm;

Wed., Sat. at 2pm; Sun. at 3pm

Tickets: $32-$132

To order, visit telecharge.org or call

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Also visit graceonbroadway.com

Photo by Joan Marcus

Couch trip: Asner’s caustic exterminator lords over a triangle.


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provided generators, supplies and medical centers to the city in advance of the storm.

On the bright side, the destruction caused by the storm is an opportunity for the busi-nesses on the block to collectively start over, she and other business owners noted. “We’re going to rebuild Front Street together, like how we did in the beginning…we all started together,” Lerner said of the historic build-ings renovated fi ve years ago.

Jeremy Holin, owner of Jeremy’s Ale House across the street, insisted that he wouldn’t let the storm shutter his 40-year-old business — even though interior renovations have cost him at least a week’s worth of business. “We’ll reopen it if it takes my last penny,” he said.

Stephen Smith, co-owner of the Cowgirl Sea-Horse, a restaurant perched on the cor-ner of Frankfort and Front Streets, will have to gut and renovate most of his business’s interior and chuck $20,000 worth of food that was stored in its West Village location. “Everything [exposed to the fl ooding] needs to be destroyed, so we’re trying to do an inventory,” he said.

With no paycheck for days or weeks on end, Smith and several other area employees might have to register for unemployment subsidies as a last resort. “Half of those people aren’t going to be able to return, ‘cause they can’t survive how-ever many weeks it’s going to be,” said Smith. “They’re going to have to fi nd another job.”

As for the restaurant’s future — which employs 35 people — while Smith and the other owners are soliciting help from FEMA and elsewhere in hopes of re-opening, the restaurant’s future is currently up in the air. “We’re keeping our fi ngers crossed and hoping for the best,” said Smith. “We have a lot of money, a lot of time and a lot of effort invested in the place.”

Miraculously, the vessels docked at South Street Seaport Museum, located at 12 Fulton St., fared better during the hurricane than many of the neighborhood’s landlocked busi-nesses. All seven ships made it through the storm with little to no damage.

In a press release issued by the maritime muse-um on Wednesday, president Susan Henshaw Jones said, “At the South Street Seaport Museum,

all the vessels rode out Hurricane Sandy and the surge with very little diffi culty, thanks to days of preparation and a right-on-the-money calcula-tion about the amount of slack needed for the lines securing the Peking, the Wavertree and the Ambrose to Pier 15 and Pier 16.”

Captain Jonathan Boulware, the museum’s waterfront director, and his crew logged about 350 hours of work over the weekend to prop-erly secure the ships before the storm reached the area. The work paid off, as the lines endured a direct hit from the storm surge on Pier 16.

The historic vessels moored at the Seaport include the Ambrose, the Wavertree, the Peking, the W.O. Decker, as well as a car fl oat, the barge Progress and the Pioneer’s dock. Two of the Seaport Museum’s vessels, the schooner Pioneer and the Fredonia-model fi shing schoo-ner, the Lettie G. Howard, were not in Lower Manhattan during the storm because they were previously moved elsewhere for repairs.

Dedicated staff volunteers also made storm preparations at the museum’s Fulton Street space throughout the weekend, sand-bagging and taping the windows. A few staff members stayed there overnight during Sandy despite the evacuation notice for the entire neighborhood.

Several areas in the building sustained dam-age from about fi ve feet of fl ooding on the fi rst fl oor, including the café, the admissions desk and the gift shop. The exhibitions and collec-tions, however, escaped harm. The museum will remained closed as long as it’s without power.

While expressing gratitude for its vol-unteers, Henshaw Jones was dismayed by the water damage in the museum’s interior. “It’s not just that there was fi ve feet of fi lthy, oil-laced surge in our lobby, wiping out the systems that run the escalator, the elevators and the heating and air conditioning,” said Henshaw Jones. “It’s the loss of revenue that we had been building so diligently.”

“Even if we are able to open next week, we face outside a huge loss in passersby and tourists. To date, there are only gawkers.”

Many of the buildings in the South Street Seaport historic district also sustained heavy fl ood damage. The museum reported the letterpresses and type at Bowne & Co., Stationers, the museum’s old-fashioned printing house, were damaged by two and a half feet of fl oodwater.

Hurricane Sandy Ravages Front Street, Spares the ShipsContinued from page 1

Downtown Express photo by Aline Reynolds

It’s going to take another two or three weeks for Il Brigante to re-open to the public. On Wednesday, the Front Street Italian restaurant, whose interior was signifi cantly damaged by the storm, was disinfecting its furniture and silverware with vinegar and alcohol on the sidewalk.

Downtown Express photo by Aline Reynolds

Stephen Smith, co-owner of the Cowgirl Sea-Horse on Front Street, might have to go on unemployment during the closure of his restaurant.


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tated until the trucks fi nally arrived around 6:15 p.m.

Despite many harsh words over the late-ness of that arrival, the residents certainly appreciated the vital supplies, as their neigh-borhood continues to sit in darkness.

“We would’ve gone crazy if they didn’t come,” said Tony Chan, 40, who came with his family several blocks from their home on Mott St. to pick up a box full of food and water bottles.

Chan explained that, even though other problems still loom large, the rations provided an important lifeline to people like himself, who simply hadn’t been ready for such a diffi -cult aftermath to the storm. Before the delivery, he had no food or water.

“The only thing we could’ve eaten was a rat,” Chan joked, as he walked home.

Governor Andrew Cuomo had originally mobilized the National Guard on Oct. 28, the day before the hurricane struck. And on Thursday morning, at the behest of local politi-cians, Cuomo announced the Guard would be delivering one million meals — supplied by the Federal Emergency Management Agency — to Downtown Manhattan and affected areas in Brooklyn and Queens.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and State Senator Daniel Squadron, both of whom were part of a group that urged the governor to implement the deliveries, were outside Smith Houses on Thursday night with their aides to help oversee the arrival hand out the rations. Although the crowd of hungry residents never became mob-like, the scene was somewhat frantic, as dozens of Guardsmen rushed to stack hundreds of cases of water bottles and sealed boxes of emergency meals.

Silver noted that, in terms of a potentially life-saving delivery, it was better late than never.

“It’s unfortunate that it isn’t taking place quite when they expected it to, but the need is being met,” Silver said. “This is just what hap-pens when people are making decisions and trying to fi nd answers in real time.”

The speaker added that, shortly after the National Guard arrived, he called the governor to say that the timeliness of deliveries would have to improve over the next few days.

According to an onsite member of the Salvation Army, which is helping to coordinate the shipments of the FEMA rations, the Guard will continue the deliveries at about 15 sites through-out the aforementioned areas until Sunday.

“I said to [Cuomo] that we’ve got to beef up the distribution process, because there were people here waiting for hours,” Silver said. “He told me that the sites were actually chosen by the city, and not his offi ce. But it’s not about blaming anyone, because we’re all in this together. At this point we just need to make sure that people get what they need, because these are trying times for everybody.”

They were especially trying times for the many Chinatown resid ents who were left dis-appointed, and perhaps still hungry, by the National Guard’s late arrival on Thursday.

A drop-off similar to the one at Smith Houses was scheduled to take place outside Confucius Plaza, on Bowery between Canal and Division Sts., at 1 p.m. that day. But the arrival was reportedly rescheduled to 3 p.m., and then, after hours of miscommunication and speculation, the Guard did not arrive in time to actually hand out rations.

The delivery was in fact made to Confucius Plaza after the Guard fi nished its work at Smith Houses, but since it was already dark at that point — past 7:30 p.m. — the food and water was report-edly put into storage at the Chinatown building, so it could be handed out the following day.

It wasn’t only residents of the 44-story Confucius Plaza complex who were left want-ing by the Guard’s failure to reach the building in time — as with the Smith site, residents from around the neighborhood showed up, many carrying a visible sense of desperation.

“We have nothing,” said a 24-year-old woman named Shatima, who has lived her entire life in the Baruch Houses projects, on Delancey and Columbia Sts., and declined to

Better late than never, as National Guard delivers food Downtown



Downtown Express photo by Sam Spokony

National Guardsmen unload boxes of FEMA-supplied rations outside Smith Houses, where hundreds of desperate locals had swarmed on Thursday night to get much-needed food and water.


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give her last name. “It’s gotten so bad that people are actually just taking shits in bags and throwing them out in the incinerator.”

Shatima, who arrived at Confucius Plaza around 3 p.m. on Thursday with several neigh-borhood friends, echoed the Mott St. ten-ant’s earlier explanation by stressing that they were all without food and water at that point because not enough people were ready for the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

“I just didn’t expect it to be this bad,” she said. “We all remembered Hurriane Irene last year, that nothing really happened, and we just weren’t prepared for all of this. It sounds sad, but now we’ve just been asking people for food on the street, and we’ve been wearing the same clothes since Monday.”

Shatima and her friends were forced to fi nd other options for food and water that night, but they were able to charge their cell phones outside Confucius Plaza at Speaker Silver’s “mobile district offi ce” van, which was there from 3 to 6 p.m.

Silver and his top aides had rented a large van, staffed with volunteers, that they stocked with water and an array of electrical outlets available for charging phones and other devic-es. The mobile offi ce began its much-needed journey on Wednesday afternoon, and was at the corner of Madison and Gouverneur Sts. on Thursday before heading to Confucius Plaza.

“We’re just trying to do all we can,” Silver said.As people waited fruitlessly for the National

Guard to arrive between 3 p.m. and around 5:30 p.m., Silver was joined outside Confucius Plaza by a host of other local politicians and community leaders who have been active in recovery efforts ever since Hurricane Sandy struck on Monday night. Along with Squadron, they included Councilmembers Margaret Chin, Jessica Lappin and Robert Jackson; Community Board 3 Chair Gigi Li; and staff members of Asian Americans for Equality, the Chinatown BID and the Chinatown Partnership.

While waiting there before he and Silver headed over to Smith Houses, Squadron asserted that the real test of the storm’s impact is beginning now.

“It’s really important to remember that the crisis didn’t end when the wind died down, or even when the waters receded,” Squadron said, adding that he and his colleagues “pushed the city very hard” to implement in the FEMA

ration deliveries via the National Guard.“It was clear that we needed to be more

proactive in dealing with the challenges posed by a long-term blackout in high rises with low-income or senior residents, or people with other needs,” he explained.

As for future National Guard deliveries to the Downtown area — whether through Sunday or, if Con Edison fails to restore power by then, perhaps longer — it’s clear that better communication will be key to reaching resi-dents more swiftly.

The Salvation Army member who was at Confucius Plaza on Thursday — and who was supposed to be the main point of contact between the National Guard and the people at the drop-off site — was at a loss each time the politicians asked him for an update on the sta-tus of the delivery. He explained to this news-paper that he could only communicate with Guardsmen at headquarters, rather than those in the actual delivery trucks, thus there was no way for him to reach the Guardsmen driving to the site in order to give them directions or get an accurate estimate for their arrival.

N.Y.P.D. Fifth Precinct offi cers who were controlling the crowd outside Confucius Plaza were equally confused. Throughout the eve-ning, they repeated that they were receiv-ing confl icting or false information about the whereabouts of the delivery trucks.

As she stood waiting in vain for the trucks to arrive, assuming that the drivers didn’t know the best route to take, Chin vented her frustration.

“People have been waiting a long time for this, and [the National Guard] should have somebody driving with them who knows the city,” she said. “At a time like this, how could they send drivers who don’t know our streets?

But later, after the delivery at Smith Houses was completed and at least some of the earlier tension was lifted, Silver put the events of the day into the perspective.

“Look, sure, it’s been a little chaotic, but this whole situation is chaotic,” he said. “And once you go through a process like this on the fi rst day, you can hopefully understand what went wrong, and have it go a little more smoothly the next day.”

As for his own plans, Silver pointed out that he and his staff would be taking their van through the Downtown area again the following day, to speak with residents while providing some valuable resources as the post-hurricane crisis continues.

“I’ll be around,” he said.


Downtown Express photo by Sam Spokony

National Guardsmen unload boxes of FEMA-supplied rations outside Smith Houses, where hundreds of desperate locals had swarmed on Thursday night to get much-needed food and water.

Downtown Express, 10-2-2012

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Transcript of Downtown Express, 10-2-2012