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Corraling Chinatown’s cowboy buses
By Sruthi Pinnamaneni
Holding fluorescent-colored signs calling for a halt to a proposed relocation of bus zones in their neighborhood, hundreds of Chinatown and Lower East Side residents poured into the M.S. 131 auditorium on the evening of Tues., July 24. Some had waited almost an hour for the start of the Community Board 3 meeting. 

Downtown’s East Siders to get temporary dog run
By Jennifer Milne
On a sunny Saturday morning, a pack of dogs gleefully trotted off-leash at the end of Pier 16 at the South Street Seaport. They sniffed one another, spoke in happy barks and played chase on the pier’s wooden planks.

Swig takes drink from cup of human kindness
Many a developer has pledged to be a good neighbor to Downtown residents, but on Tuesday Kent Swig of Swig Equities put his pocketbook behind his promises, shelling out $1.3 million for the Burling Slip playground.

A taste of Downtown’s sweetest stores
By Anindita Dasgupta
Growing up in communist Romania, Carmen Botez did not have luxuries like chocolate. It wasn’t until she left the country at age 14 that she tasted it for the first time. She has spent the rest of her young life studying chocolate.

NEWS
Beep says stop on West St. condos
By Josh Rogers
Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer rejected a $550-million hotel and condo project at 50 West St. Wednesday because it includes no money for affordable housing.

Connor likes mayor’s traffic idea, knocks his tactics
By Skye H. McFarlane
Let the debate continue. Last Thursday, the state Legislature voted to keep the congestion mitigation conversation alive. By Tuesday night, two Downtown legislators — Assemblymember Deborah Glick and state Senator Martin Connor — stood before Community Board 1, suggesting changes and alternatives to Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s original congestion pricing proposal.

College wins robotics grant
The Borough of Manhattan Community College announced this week that it received a grant of $190,000 from the National Science Foundation to fund an educational robotics program.

Visitors revel in City Hall Park north on reopening day
By Anindita Dasgupta with Jefferson Siegel
Fernando Lagares, a Staten Island resident who works on Chambers St., remembers relaxing in the northern section of City Hall Park before it was closed because of post-9/11 security concerns.

Some families demand 9/11 ceremony at W.T.C.
As somber 9/11 family members gathered at Zuccotti Park at noon on Wednesday, Aug. 1, they faced a press group with more people than their own. Despite the small turnout, the family members had come to announce big actions, the filing for a permit to have their own remembrance ceremonies on 9/11, in the actual ground zero site itself.

Neighbors: Garbage tower changes still not a pretty picture
By Lincoln Anderson
The Department of Sanitation has made some significant modifications to its plans to build a 14-story, three-district garage at Spring and Washington Sts. But community members still say the project is too big — and a terrorist threat to boot.

Rowing, rowing Whitehall boats; Life is but a dream
By Lucas Mann
New Yorkers enjoying the Hudson River Park on Sat., July 28, might have been surprised to see a fleet of six-person, wooden row boats flying international flags, resolutely battling the current. No, this was not a race to rediscover America, it was the International Rowing Federation’s annual rowing tour.