THE WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF LOWER MANHATTAN

THE WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF LOWER MANHATTAN — Volume 19 • Issue 13 | August 11 - 17, 2006

Editorial
Stop memorial cost bleeding and don’t shortchange Downtown
As we reported last week, $45 million of federal money the governor and mayor promised for Lower Manhattan “community enhancement” last year appears to have disappeared and coincidence or not, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation is finalizing an agreement to spend yet another $45 million if there are cost overruns on the billion-dollar World Trade Center memorial. Even if the enhancement money is found and is spent on community projects, the L.M.D.C. should not further escalate the enormous public investment in the memorial.

Letters to the editor

Editorial Picture

Bow-Wow...Ice!

Under Cover

Talking Point

Preserving the stairway is a path to spiraling costs
By David Stanke
The latest World Trade Center artifact under consideration is the “Survivors’ Stairway” also known as the Vesey St. staircase. If the Port Authority and the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. concede to protect this artifact, they will subject the W.T.C. to ongoing cost overruns and construction delays.

The Penny Post
Sweat school
By Andrei Codrescu
Classes in Sweat Management, both for beginners and advanced, were offered by the New Orleans School for the Imagination as far back as the late ‘90s.

In Pictures

Gotta be the shoes?

Ship focus

Downtown Express photo by Jefferson Siegel Span does what it can The Brooklyn Bridge looked as majestic as ever last Thursday night even with its decorative lights turned off as a blackout-preventive measure. There were however many government building and other office lights still on Downtown despite the warning.		News Stairway for survivors or delay? By Ronda Kaysen The stairs that once connected the World Trade Center plaza to Vesey St. led hundreds of survivors to safety on 9/11 and have become a symbol of soaring, airy hope. However, some see those same steps as an obstruction to the rebuilding of the site, which means they may not survive much longer. Hudson Park’s river center is sinking Plans for an Urban Estuary Center at Pier 26 might be swimming with the fishes. The Web site for the Hudson River Park Trust, the agency restoring the pier, makes no mention of the Urban Estuary Center, a place dedicated to the ecology of the Hudson River.

INSIDE

‘World Trade Center’ opens near the site By Nicole Davis Last week, Andrea Berloff, screenwriter for the film “World Trade Center,” was hearing a lot of skepticism about its storyline. How, many people wanted to know, could an Oliver Stone movie about September 11 be uplifting? Arman developer: Bulk is down, sculpture going up By Albert Amateau The developer of the vacant Hudson Sq. lot where the late sculptor Arman turned scrap metal into art has decided to scale down its application for a residential project that exceeds the neighborhood’s zoning. Trust gets ready to float another R.F.P. for Pier 40 By Lincoln Anderson Following its aborted process to redevelop Pier 40 three years ago, the Hudson River Park Trust is currently circulating a draft request for proposals for the 14-acre pier, soliciting feedback from Community Board 2 members and the Hudson River Park Trust Advisory Council. City looks to Fulton and beyond in East Side plan By Janet Kwon The city has expanded long-awaited plans to add park space and better storefronts to Fulton St., although construction on all parts of the project will not begin for several years.		Seaport debates tree question on Peck Slip piazza By Janet Kwon Seaport residents still want to transform Peck Slip into a rustic European piazza but can’t seem to agree on whether they want trees in the plan. The picture changes as street artists retract letter By David Spett Four of the five members of the Soho International Artists’ Cooperative Union have retracted a letter to the City Council requesting original-artist-only zones in Manhattan restricted to First Amendment vendors. Office evacuated after small fire A small fire erupted in the 15-story office building on 161 Sixth Ave. Wed. Aug. 9 around 5 p.m. Everyone from the building was forced to evacuate, but there were no injuries. B.P.C. agency approves affordable housing money By Ronda Kaysen The Battery Park City Authority will contribute $130 million to a fund for 4,300 units of affordable housing in the city, part of a 10-year initiative to preserve and create 17,000 units of affordable housing. City Council to vote on Jack Parker project The City Council will weigh in next week on a controversial proposal to transform part of the Tribeca waterfront.

Downtown Arts & Entertainment

Not your garden variety show
By Nicole Davis
Last Saturday night, behind the former Fulton Fish Market at the South Street Seaport, producer Ross Mollison walked up and down Pier 17, trying to appease the crowd.

Alt performances, brought to you by American Living Room 2006
By Rachel Breitman
Four blindingly-white, saccharine smiles greet the audience. The grins are obviously fake, impersonal, interchangeable.

N.Y. Fringe Fest celebrates 10 years
Brian Parks is being humble. During a recent rehearsal of his “two separate but related plays” that he paired together and titled “Americana Absurdum,” the playwright refuses to make any grand claim that his show launched the New York International Fringe Festival.

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