Editorial
A winning coalition for W.T.C. arts and culture
If you believe that arts and culture have an important role to play at the W.T.C., it’s time to stand up and say so. Governor Pataki once believed that, and spoke glowingly about how a strong arts and cultural component at the W.T.C. reflected the excitement and diversity of New York City and would help to reenergize Lower Manhattan. He threw his weight behind the Libeskind master plan which had art and cultural institutions constituting a vital buffer between a powerful memorial and resurgent commercial activities.

Talking Point
O Mr. Mayor, will you bring us joy and sing ‘O Christmas tree’
By Victor J. Papa
“Happy Holiday” is a greeting that tries to ignore the elephant in the room. It’s delusional. It makes believe Christmas doesn’t really exist when all around us it does. It’s as delusional as Mayor Bloomberg proclaiming the Christmas tree he lights in City Hall Park as the “Holiday” tree — two blocks from where families of Southbridge Towers not only light a Christmas tree, but in a prayerful spirit have a priest bless it in their public square.

The Penny Post
New Orleans gentrification
By Andrei Codrescu
We’ve all seen the agony of the poor on television and heard it first-hand from our friends, who are mostly poor. The poor are everywhere, image-wise. They are the faces of the Katrina victims, they are the reason for massive charity drives, they are the subject of editorial laments, and the raw material for political rhetoric. Whether any of that attention is going to mean anything remains to be seen. The poor make good copy but are they going to be truly helped by all the noise? I doubt it.
Notebook
On the ’68 trail with Gene McCarthy
By Jerry Tallmer
He was a very nice kid, clean for Gene, and he had just finished telling me: “If this doesn’t work, I’m going to go off and join the crazies” — the blacks who were burning up their own cities, the whites who would someday soon be blowing up labs in Wisconsin, townhouses in Greenwich Village. Now he was cursing his own candidate, the dissenter for whom a thousand kids like this, Sam Brown’s brigade, were cutting their hair, dressing neat, going door to door throughout New Hampshire to knock politely, engage in civil discussion, spread the word.

Letters to the editor

Police Blotter

UnderCover

Downtown Express photo by Jefferson Siegel
Moving beyond ‘Law & Order’
Dick Wolf, who brought “Law & Order” to the Lower Manhattan courts, is back with a new NBC series, “Conviction.” Julianne Nicholson, above left, filmed a scene Tuesday outside 85 Centre St. Actors Anson Mount of “Lost” fame and J. August Richards, who played Gunn on “Angel” also came Downtown for the shoot.

Youth Activities

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