THE WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF LOWER MANHATTAN — Volume 19 • Issue 3 | June 2 - 8, 2006

BREAKING NEWS

Sciame hints at cuts to the W.T.C. memorial
By Josh Rogers
Frank Sciame is likely to recommend moving the names in the proposed World Trade Center memorial up to street level, and may suggest eliminating the waterfalls, according to sources who have met with the construction expert tapped to reduce the rising costs of the design.






Editorial
Rivers, islands and summer fun
You are never too far from water in Lower Manhattan and this is the best time of year to appreciate it. Last weekend, over 100 hearty swimmers dove into the Hudson River for the first race of the season. This week the fifth annual River to River Festival kicks off and this weekend public access to Governors Island resumes with a free family festival June 3.

The Penny Post
Memorial can’t afford to exclude W.T.C. equipment
By Andrei Codresc
I saw an angel. She was tall, sculpted like a high-bred horse, walking proud down Chartres St. in a sleeveless blouse with our 504 area code tattooed on the pristine flesh of her left arm three inches tall. What’s reality when angels like that roam the city?

Talking Point
Memorial can’t afford to exclude W.T.C. equipment
By David Stanke
The stiff wind of reality is finally blowing across the World Trade Center memorial plaza. The $1-billion-dollar estimate has shocked everyone, and even this estimate includes only direct construction costs. At the same time, weakness in fundraising clearly indicates that the public considers this memorial out of proportion. In response to this crisis, the comments from 9/11 family members groups are what we’ve heard before: demands for more features with no indication of compromises or sacrifices to reduce the cost.

Downtown Notebook
Remembering R.F.K. and some uncomfortable questions in ’68
By Bonnie Rosenstock
On June 5, 1968 — 38 years ago — Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles. The day before, he had won the California and South Dakota Democratic presidential primaries.
The phone call came while I was at college. My mother gave me the message, somewhat perplexed.

Editorial Picture

Picture Story

Youth/ Sports

B.P.C.A. wets down artificial turf idea
By Ashley Tusan Joyner and Anindita Dasgupta
These days, chatter about the lack of safe play space for children in Downtown Manhattan isn’t hard to come by. Some Downtowners are hoping to convert the Battery Park City ballfields to artificial turf to increase the available playing time.

Youth Activities


Downtown Express photo by Jefferson Siegel

The Hudson River’s swim season began Sunday from Gangway 1 in Battery Park.

News

Making a splash at the crack of dawn
By Jefferson Siegel
It was 6 a.m. last Sunday morning in the middle of a three-day holiday weekend. Most of Battery Park was deserted except for the occasional cyclist or dog-walker. While the rest of Downtown was still dreaming, a dream-like scene was unfolding near the Staten Island ferry terminal.
INSIDE

G-man accidentally shoots Downtown sidewalk
By Anindita Dasgupta
A single shot was fired in an incident involving federal agents and two suspects last week near Grand St. on Sixth Ave. The shot was not fired by either of the suspects, nor was it fired in an agent’s effort to subdue them. Nobody was hurt, and the only apparent property damage was to the unsuspecting sidewalk.

Keep the cell phones, jam the lines, Duane says
By Anindita Dasgupta
“Can you hear me now?” is not a phrase that applies to the often shrill debate over cell phones in the city’s public schools. Parents, students, teachers, school administrators, the mayor and other elected officials have all weighed in loudly on the matter.

Pols want bouncer law after latest murder
By Albert Amateau
The arrest of a bouncer for the May 23 shooting outside a Chelsea nightclub that ended in the death of one man, left another paralyzed and two injured, has prompted City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and State Senator Tom Duane to propose legislation to close down clubs whose bouncers carry unlicensed guns.

The man behind life’s joy
By Jerry Tallmer
The sculptor will be there when they dedicate the little park next to his Big Red X Thursday, but his mouth will be zipped.

Clinton gets Customs promise
The return of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection to Lower Manhattan now appears more likely. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton allowed the confirmation of Ralph Basham as agency commissioner to pass by unanimous consent last week after Basham promised in a letter to try and bring 200 Customs jobs back Downtown.

Chinatown funeral procession delayed by traffic tickets
By Willa Paskin
Police officers delayed a funeral procession last Thursday to hand out parking tickets outside a Chinatown funeral home.

Free ferries to Governors I. this year
By Janet Kwon
It’s hard enough to find anything for free in this world – let alone in New York City where price tags reign supreme. But New Yorkers can give their strained wallets a break when visiting the Governors Island, which launches its seasonal opening day on June 3. The ferry fares, entrance to the island and island tours are all on the house until the island closes again on Sept. 2.

Downtown Arts & Entertainment

Chinatown dancers add a little funk to Shakespeare
An unusual performance of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” was held last Friday at P.S.124 in Chinatown. And it was obvious to the delighted children filling the school’s auditorium that this was not your father’s Shakespeare.

A con at first sight
By Jerry Tallmer
She, Adelaide Pinchin, a lonely, self-effacing virgin of a certain age who slaves away in the back room of a shop just off London’s Edgeware Road, making hats for fine ladies, is convinced she’s “too fat to be seen” (she isn’t) and has never stopped dreaming that some day the right man will come along.

Multimedia production brings ‘Dead City’ to life
By Nicole Davis
There is a reason I’ve not yet tackled James Joyce’s “Ulysses,” and it’s passages like this, selected at random from the Modern Library edition on my bookshelf:

River to River returns with a bang
By Anne O’Neil
The fifth anniversary of the River to River Festival returns this weekend with a bang — literally. Following the Boat, Bike & Buoy Parade, which officially kicked off the festival on Thursday, the premier opening weekend event will be held this Sunday at the Winter Garden, where music organizers Bang on a Can will present an eight-hour-long concert featuring everyone from jazz composer Anthony Braxton to electronica legend Aphex Twin.

For one Tribeca artist, playtime is a way of life – and art
By Neal Schindler
After taking the elevator up to Tribeca artist Roland Gebhardt’s sunshiny loft space, I suddenly got the urge to play. Gebhardt has a warm German accent, gray hair, and an avuncular gentleness about him, and a quick look around his studio only added to my impression that he was some kind of art-world Santa.

First rule of Chuck Palahniuk readings: don’t faint
By Rachel Fershleiser
Book authors measure success in many ways: stints on the New York Times Bestseller list, National Book Award nominations, going rate for signed first editions on Ebay. But beloved cult novelist Chuck Palahniuk has devised his own criterion.

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