THE WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF LOWER MANHATTAN | Volume 19 Issue 29 | Dec 01 - 07, 2006

Editorial
No need for fantasies on Governors Island
Our optimistic side sees that with each failed effort on Governors Island, officials may actually learn a little bit.

Downtown businesses want you
The holiday lights are on at the Winter Garden, the Seaport’s lovable Santa and Christmas tree carolers are back, and all around Lower Manhattan signs of the holiday season are springing up.

Editorial Picture

Downtown Express photo by Jefferson Siegel
Smelling crime a mile away
Police Officer David Gomez and his trusty partner, Loki, 1, kept watch of the Brooklyn Bridge subway station Monday. The N.Y.P.D.’s new Transit Canine Unit began patrolling the subway several weeks ago.

Letters to the editor

Police Blotter

Under Cover

The Penny Post
Let us now revise famous men
By Andrei Codrescu
Walker Evans is best known for his black and white photographs of the Geat Depression, most notably in James Agee’s book “Let Us Now Praise Famous Men.” He did a lot of other remarkable work, including the wartime “Subway” series where he photographed New York subway riders with a hidden camera, revealing the deep anxieties of the age.

Picture Story

Christmas begins at the Seaport
Santa Claus banished the Grinch from the South Street Seaport during the kick-off celebration for the Seaport’s annual holiday festivities Fri., Nov. 24.

Soulful secret dance

Downtown Express photo by Jefferson Siegel

Josh Middleton, a Borough of Manhattan Community College student, joined the Army for adventure and now struggles with memories of Iraq.

Painful lessons learned for Iraqi war veteran
By Chris Bragg
It was nearing the nightly 9 p.m. curfew in Baghdad when Josh Middleton saw the headlights approaching.

Groups will get by with $125,000 of help from Friends
By Josh Rogers with Priya Idiculla
Food for the hungry, voting help for the unregistered, and a dock for kayakers on Governors Island are some of the things $125,000 will help buy with eight grants announced this week by Friends of Lower Manhattan.

Cyclists say put brakes on new parade regs
By Albert Amateau
A Police Department hearing attracted more than 500 people to Police Plaza on Monday to denounce the department’s proposed new rules defining what constitutes a parade requiring a police permit.

Preacher’ prays for possessed post-holiday shoppers
By Lori Haught
The end is near, the Shopocalypse is coming.
Reverend Billy Talen, of the Church of Stop Shopping, tried to spread that message on Black Friday, or as he and his followers called it, “Buy Nothing Day.”

Free train exhibit floats Downtown

ARTS
For this mime, the body speaks volumes
By Sara G. Levin
With decades of experience beneath his white painted mask — first as a ballet dancer trained in noh theater, then modern dance and corporeal mime — Yass Hakoshima still considers his childlike instincts a great source of inspiration.

A mind-bending work of staggering science fiction
By Orli Van Mourik
British novelist Scarlett Thomas has discovered something many of us right-brainers have been slow to pick up on: contemporary science is the new philosophy.

Where the Downtown sound remains the same
By Andrey Henkin
Bruce Gallanter and Manny Maris defy all the snooty stereotypes surrounding record store clerks. Since opening their shop, Downtown Music Gallery (DMG) in May of 1991, the two have fostered an open, inviting atmosphere in their scruffy little record store on the Bowery.

Stoppard’s ‘Utopia’ opens with some soul searching
By Jerry Tallmer
Nikolai Gogol only appears in “The Coast of Utopia: Voyage” — that is to say, gets mentioned in passing — as a young writer who, coming along in the wake of the great but all too tragically dead-by-duel Alexander Pushkin, may someday give the benighted dark-ages 19th-century Russia something to be proud of.

NEWS
Cirque tries to swing Pier 40 deal
By Lincoln Anderson
Not too long ago, when people spoke about swingers on the Lower West Side waterfront, they were probably referring to the gay cruising scene on the crumbling former shipping piers.

Island planners want visitors now, big money later
By Skye H. McFarlane
The redevelopment of Governors Island may have taken a detour earlier this fall with the rejection of a set of master plan proposals, but island managers say that the abandoned Coast Guard facility is finally building momentum in its quest to become a premier New York City destination.

Making the most of park setbacks
Community Board 1 members vowed on Nov. 27 to make metaphorical lemonade at Pier 26 – turning setbacks into time to perfect the community’s vision for the pier, which is supposed to host a new boathouse, a restaurant and an estuarium.

Downtowners tell Port to mind the gap
By Skye H. McFarlane
In making a case for its secured World Trade Center parking facility this week, the Port Authority garnered support for the project while simultaneously fueling fears that the garage will not arrive in time to prevent a host of traffic problems in Lower Manhattan.

Red Cross offers Chinatown emergency training
The Red Cross is making sure Chinatown is ready for any disaster.

Sports

Downtowners knock off city’s baseball dynasty
By Lori Haught
The Gorilla coaches and players had their doubts going up against the renowned Youth Service League, even if their opponents were only 10 years old.

L.E.S. Gaucho is definitely getting the message
By Judith Stiles
In street clothes, Nelson Jimenez looks like a regular teenager as he briskly trots down Avenue A, occasionally pausing to text message his friends.

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