THE WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF LOWER MANHATTAN

THE WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF LOWER MANHATTAN — Volume 19 • Issue 17 | September 8 - 14, 2006

Editorial
A dangerous world, half a decade later
Thoughts about the attack that changed our world and neighborhood five years ago intensify every September. In our community there is real progress, but as we look at where we are in the world on this milestone anniversary, we see the perilous consequences of bad choices and squandered opportunities.

Talking Point
How Günter Grass drummed me out of an interview
By Jerry Tallmer
My stepfather, Peter Müller-Munk — my mother’s second husband — emigrated to New York in 1926 from the Berlin where he’d been born and raised. He was 22, a silversmith and starving artist. Three years before he set sail for America, there had occurred what came to be known as the Beer Hall Putsch in Munich, and the name of Adolf Hitler entered the ledger of history.

Letters to the editor

Editorial Picture

Downtown Express photo by Jefferson Siegel
9/11 exhibit
Firefighters from Engine 6 on Beekman St., examine a gun nozzle for a hose that was recovered at the World Trade Center site and is now on display at Pace University. The firefighters helped unload the New York State Museum’s traveling exhibit, “The First 24 Hours,” last Friday at Pace University, 1 Pace Plaza, in the Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts lobby on Spruce St. The exhibit features articles recovered from the site, many of which have stayed in storage since the attacks, along with a 40-foot timeline, detailing the events of 9/11. The exhibit runs regular hours – 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. – through Sept. 10. It will be open 24 hours starting at 8:46 a.m. Sept. 11 through 8:46 a.m. Sept. 12. Admission is free.

Under Cover

Police Blotter

The Penny Post
Writers and decadence
By Andrei Codrescu
Werther was a man poised between two eras, two centuries, two millennia, dressed in khaki shorts from the Banana Republic, a Rebuild New Orleans tee-shirt and orange flip-flops.

News Briefs

Sept. 11 ceremonies

Emotional first look at 9/11 Tribute Center

Sports

Downtown Express photo by Elisabeth Robert First to school It was a big day Tuesday for Eva Coleman, 5, who looked over at P.S. 89 as she walked to her first day of kindergarten with her aunt Christina Coleman, left, and her mother, Mary Rose Coleman. Back to School. Pedalers and politicians get pumped about Houston lanes By Albert Amateau Elected officials and bicycle advocates created a temporary bike lane on W. Houston St. last week, protecting it from auto traffic with their own bodies in a demonstration demanding permanent bike lanes on the six-lane thoroughfare currently under reconstruction.		News Horror remains real for 2 Tribeca survivors By Ronda Kaysen Lori Mogol and Richard Zimbler plan to observe this 9/11 anniversary the same way they usually do. They will walk five blocks from their Tribeca apartment to the World Trade Center site for the ceremony honoring those who died. Later that evening, they will stand on their 35th floor balcony with the wife of a friend who died in the towers and say a toast for him.

INSIDE

Knickerbocker rents won’t bounce high, judge rules By Albert Amateau Tenants of Knickerbocker Village on the Lower East Side are rejoicing about a court decision last week they hope will keep the complex affordable. 9/11 health rally By Jefferson Siegel Protestors demanded better healthcare services for 9/11 rescue workers and residents at a demonstration in front of the World Trade Center site on Wednesday. The rally came just hours after Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a new plan to address mounting 9/11 related health concerns. Emotional first look at 9/11 Tribute Center A few family members stood quietly among reporters and photographers, some crying, others just holding hands Wednesday for a preview opening of the WTC Tribute Center across from the World Trade Center site. Three firefighters from Squad 18 in the West Village stood looking at a turnout coat in a display case.		Silverstein pledges environmentally friendly construction By Lori Haught For Downtown residents concerned about air quality in Lower Manhattan, it was a breath of fresh air to hear World Trade Center developer Larry Silverstein promise to limit sulfur, hydrocarbon, and nitrogen emissions at his construction sites. Connor faces challenge for State Senate seat By David Spett In State Senate District 25, which includes most of Lower Manhattan and part of Brooklyn, 28-year veteran and former Senate Minority Leader Martin Connor is facing a primary challenge from landlord and political neophyte Ken Diamondstone. Restaurateur chatty, hotelier mum at Tribeca’s coming Hilton By Ronda Kaysen A new French bistro is opening in Tribeca this December, but it’s not just any old French bistro, it’s a French-British pub fusion bistro called Bistrobeca.

Back to School 2006 P.S. 134 parents fume over generators and ongoing work By Lincoln Anderson with Jefferson Siegel On Friday, local elected officials held a press conference in front of P.S. 134 at E. Broadway and Grand St. to express their concern that the building is not ready for the start of the school year and about the use of diesel generators to power the school temporarily. Creativity, rigorous academics draw middle school students By Anindita Dasgupta This year graduates from P.S. 89 in Battery Park City and P.S. 234 in Tribeca are flocking to all corners of Downtown with the four most popular schools being Manhattan Academy of Technology, I.S. 89, New Explorations into Science Technologies and Math and Clinton School for Writers and Artists. Sixth grade is now in middle school, at least in District 1 By David Spett With the Sept. 5 opening of public schools, sixth grade is now a part of middle school in Manhattan’s District 1. A Tribeca breather Marbury gives mom assist with affordable sneakers By Jane Flanagan Have you purchased your kid’s back-to-school sneakers yet? Me neither. If past experience is any guide, I’ll get around to it by mid-October. But that’s O.K., by then the lines will have gone down. Yes, the sneaker lines. School politics prove popular in state senator’s class By Lawrence Lerner On a crisp, golden Friday morning this past spring, students dressed in jeans, T-shirts and other informal attire filed intermittently into a classroom at the Institute for Collaborative Studies, or I.C.E., a small, progressive school that occupies the fifth floor of the former Stuyvesant High School, on 15th St. just west of First Ave. We’ve come a long way in less than a millennium By Angela Benfield Despite graduating thier first senior class this past June, the principal and staff of Millennium High School have barely had a moment to reflect on their sizeable accomplishment. Millennium now has its largest incoming class since it opened four years ago. It also hopes to construct a gymnasium and form its first advisory board, an important fundraising vehicle for its top-notch programs. Heavy metal drama

Downtown Arts & Entertainment

Finding catharsis through power chords By Steven Snyder Taking the ferry across the Hudson on September 11, drifting slowly away from the devastation, Tim Tuttle whipped out a piece of paper and starting making sense of what he had just seen. In ‘Path to 9/11,’ everyone is to blame By Ronda Kaysen If anything sets the fifth anniversary of 9/11 apart from the other 9/11 anniversaries, it’s the plethora of movies about the attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. Even ABC has jumped into the pile with a five-hour long miniseries based on the “9/11 Commission Report.” The result is a surprisingly riveting account of the events leading from the 1993 W.T.C. bombing to that horrific day in September.		Political, provocative Impact festival packs a punch By Jerry Tallmer Im-pact – n. 1. a striking together; violent contact; collision 2 the force of a collision; shock 3 the power of an event, idea, etc. to produce changes, move the feelings, etc. Bringing the Commission Report to life By Ronda Kaysen “Path to 9/11” executive producer Marc Platt has an impressive resume. He produced “Legally Blonde” and “Legally Blonde 2,” the creepily funny “Happy Endings,” the HBO miniseries “Empire Falls” and the Broadway shows “Wicked” and “Three Days of Rain” with Julia Roberts. Five years later, still one of ‘The Guys’ By Tim Cummings Five years ago, around this time of year, I was working as an assistant at a design firm two blocks from the World Trade Center. At the end of each day I would walk north to The Flea Theater, where I was a member of the “Bats,” the nickname for the 20-member company at the Flea, founded in 1996 by director Jim Simpson.

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