Downtown Express illustration by Ira Blutreich

Governors Paterson and Corzine are expected to put more of their weight toward Chris Ward, far left, on the Port Authority side of the “seesaw,” but Mayor Bloomberg and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver are already leaning more toward World Trade Center developer Larry Silverstein. See News Analysis.

Businesses hurt by Chinatown fire
By Julie Shapiro
Nearly a week after a four-alarm fire that tore through 109 E. Broadway, the residents and small businesses on the Chinatown block are still waiting for a return to normalcy.

Seaport firm gets money to continue operations
By Julie Shapiro
General Growth Properties, which owns South Street Seaport, secured a $400 million loan last week that will allow the Seaport mall and G.G.P.’s other shopping centers around the country to remain open for the foreseeable future.

It was just a drill, but the fear was real
By Julie Shapiro
Deep in the tunnel connecting the World Trade Center to Jersey City, dozens of volunteers from Community Emergency Response Teams sat in a darkened PATH train and waited for a bomb to explode.

Downsized young professionals look for new directions
By Chelsea-Lyn Rudder
Analysts, traders and asset managers under 35 who saw themselves as financial whiz kids are reevaluating their options and interests.

New ideas for Greenwich South, Downtown’s underbelly some wouldn’t have to take many years
By Julie Shapiro
Another big idea for Greenwich St. South comes along every few years, but the neighborhood just south of the World Trade Center site remains largely unchanged: scaffolding-covered sidewalks, some seedy strip clubs and few residential amenities.

News

NEWS ANALYSIS
The ups and downs of the W.T.C. talks to come
By Josh Rogers
Thinking of the World Trade Center impasse as a seesaw might be a good guide to predicting how a negotiated agreement will end up.

Discovering voices in Columbus Park
By Julie Shapiro
The voices speaking from the walls of Columbus Park are not audible, but they are impossible to miss.

M.T.A. puts $424 million of Obama money in Fulton station
By Julie Shapiro
The long-delayed Fulton Transit Center has a budget and a schedule at last, thanks to a $424 million boost from the federal government.

Downtown school panel sues over kindergarten spots
By Albert Amateau
The parent members of the District 2 Community Education Council filed a lawsuit on Monday charging the city Department of Education and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein with violating state education law.

Demos for last two 9/11-damaged buildings approved
By Julie Shapiro
The two damaged towers looming over the World Trade Center site moved one step closer to disappearing last Friday when the city approved plans to demolish them.

P.S. 130 closes with 76 possible flu cases

Bar threatens to call the police on L.E.S. Girls Club
By Lincoln Anderson
In the East Village equivalent of “man bites dog,” a club is accused of being a quality of life nuisance, but the club is actually the Lower Eastside Girls Club, and the accuser is a restaurant/bar, which threatened to call the police on the girls.

Playwright Sherman mines the ‘Rashomon’ effect
BY JERRY TALLMER
Greeks, professors know the most clever truth wins.

Tumultuous landscapes reveal full force of nature
By Stephanie Buhmann
Favoring storms, turmoil over meditative tranquility.

Playing a boss and a bum, with equal aplomb
BY JERRY TALLMER
Multitalented actor multitasks, with multiple roles.

Koch on Film
By Ed Koch

Truly, deeply mad — or merely performing? 
BY ELENA MANCINI
Surreal life and work leave many questions unanswered.

Out with the Ragu, in with the Mambo Mouth
BY JERRY TALLMER
Historic, hard-to-kill theater renovates, rises again.

Will it Rock-n-Roll away with a Tony?
BY SCOTT HARRAH
Flashy but thematically hollow
jukebox musical amuses.

When reality meets fantasy 
BY STEPHANIE BUHMANN
Audubon denizens: awaiting Apocalypse or regeneration?