Under Cover

B.P.C. YMCA?
The YMCA could have a leg up on the organizations vying to operate the new Battery Park City community center. Though the Battery Park City Authority has yet to issue a request for proposals, Jim Cavanaugh, president of the Authority, kept mentioning the YMCA as a potential operator at a recent closed-door meeting, a source tells us. Apparently, it sounded like the YMCA was almost a done deal.

If that’s the case, the authority isn’t ready to go public with it.

“We have no particular provider in mind,” Cavanaugh told UnderCover this week. “Until we issue the R.F.P., we can’t be sure who might be interested.”

He did say the authority has spoken to several YMCA’s as well as the Jewish Community Center and a few for-profit organizations.

When the R.F.P. is released — “Hopefully momentarily,” Cavanaugh said — members of Community Board 1 will have a hand in selecting the winning organization, said Anthony Notaro, a C.B. 1 member involved in the community center plans.

The YMCA has been eyeing a Downtown west move on and off for at least a decade.

Shelly Silver the artist
An advertisement for a Lower Manhattan art show caught UnderCover’s eye this week because the list of artists included none other than Shelly Silver. Was it possible that our no-nonsense state Assembly speaker had a hidden artistic side and filmed creative documentaries in his spare time?

As it turned out, no.

For one thing, this Shelly Silver is female. For another, she’s a good few years younger than the speaker.

The artist spoke to UnderCover about what it’s like to have the same name as Downtown’s most influential politician.

“Sharing the name is great,” she said. “I love my name.”

The only downside is that the artist, who is listed in the phone book, has gotten a handful of phone calls from Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver’s angry constituents.

“They often don’t believe that this isn’t his household,” she said. “They think he doesn’t want to talk to them.”

The two Silvers have never met, but the artist wonders if the speaker could have come across her in search engine results. “We’re about 50-50,” the artist said of the Google page results when searching their name. “I hold my own.”

A skeptical UnderCover confirmed the lady Silver’s Google claim. Of course the speaker also gets a lot of hits for his full first name, Sheldon.

The artist Silver grew up in Brooklyn and moved to Lower Manhattan in 1980, then Chinatown in 1986. The speaker has been her representative “for a very long time,” she said. “I’ve always been quite happy to be associated with the name.”

If she could speak with the speaker, the artist would advocate for affordable housing for artists Downtown, something she said is sorely lacking. She wants to see more funding for the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. “If I was Sheldon Silver, that’s what I would be doing,” she said. Without affordable housing, artists “will all move to Berlin — far outside of his district,” she added.

She is working on a documentary about Chinatown for the Museum of Chinese in America, which has also received speaker support.

The artist’s work is on display as part of Human Resources, an L.M.C.C. exhibit curated by Sara Reisman, at 133 Beekman St. through Feb. 3.

Obama is to Hillary as…
Speculation that former City Councilmember Kathryn Freed might run for her old seat is “the biggest buzz in the community,” a source told UnderCover. Alan Gerson, who currently holds the seat, must leave office at the end of 2009.

Since Community Board 1 chairperson Julie Menin is positioning for a run as well, a Freed run would leave community board members with a tough decision. “Everyone’s torn,” our source said. While Freed “knows everything backwards and forwards,” he said, “everybody loves Julie — she helped unify the board and she’s the sweetest person ever.”

If they both run, though, our source is seeing a reenactment of the Iowa primaries.

“Freed is Obama and Julie is Hillary,” he said. “Freed would knock Julie out.”

Beekman movement?
For months, while the construction site of the Beekman St. school sat silent, Paul Hovitz has been asking what’s going on. Tuesday night, Paul Goldstein of Speaker Silver’s office had a partial answer: The superstructure may start going up in February. The large crane now on the site is a sign that construction is actually going to move forward. Goldstein added that the school is still on schedule to open in fall 2009.

Tough crowd
As he was taking his seat Monday night to speak to the C.B. 1 World Trade Center Redevelopment Committee, Borough President Scott Stringer looked a little nervous. The board meets in Sheldon Silver’s Assembly hearing room, a formal setting where the committee members sit on a raised platform, looking down on those called to testify.

“This is how the Bovis guys felt,” Stringer said, drawing laughs from board members. He was referring to the Deutsche Bank building’s general contractor, who were on the hot seats a few months ago after the deadly fire.

“They felt worse,” member Tom Goodkind reassured him.

Board changes
Joe Morrone will not reapply for his C.B. 1 seat this year. Fellow board member John Fratta read a letter from Morrone at the full board meeting Tuesday night, in which Morrone thanked many members and said his new work schedule was preventing him from attending meetings. Chairperson Julie Menin said she would appoint Morrone as a public member.