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EDITORIAL

Hands off the gardens
Two weeks ago, Adrian Benepe, the city’s Parks Department commissioner, assured community garden advocates that the proposed new rules for governing the nearly 300 gardens currently under Parks’ jurisdiction would not threaten the green spaces’ existence.

Letters to the Editor

What do you think?

DOWNTOWN NOTEBOOK

Nagasaki and blue skies, forever linked in my mind
By JERRY TALLMER
Sixty-five years ago this week — 65 years ago Monday of this week, August 9, 1945 — sturdy, cryptic little Max, the tail-gunner on a B-24 named Pacific Passion that was headed north over Japan, gave a scream over the intercom.

RECREATION

Downtown’s best blacktops
BY Joseph Rearick
Summer is the season for hooping it up on the blacktops of the basketball capital of the world, and the Downtown area is no exception.

Read what the Downtown Alliance has to say!


Gov and POTUS create media firestorm after Park51 comments; local pols react BY John Bayles Last week both President Obama and Governor Paterson chose to break their silence on the proposed Park51 cultural center in Lower Manhattan. At hearing, gardeners say rules will sow disaster By Lesley Sussman A handful of protesters briefly disrupted a public hearing held Tuesday by the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development on the agencies’ new rules for regulation of community gardens throughout the city. Squadron’s cheers and jeers for the Gov Governor David Paterson signed a bill, sponsored by Senator Daniel Squadron, into state law last Sunday, which will tighten the reins on nightlife operators who routinely break the law. Bending the rules to create a sidewalk café BY Aline Reynolds The Financial District now has a one-of-a-kind lunch spot, the city’s first “pop-up” café. It opened last week on Pearl Street between Broad Street and Coenties Slip, and is meant to stimulate economic growth among food businesses and provide a new hangout for the neighborhood’s residents and workers.	News Park51 Developer refuses Govs Offer to Move Center Millennium will hold classes in hallways, three years in a row BY Aline Reynolds Millennium High School will be holding classes in hallways for the third year in a row, and the school’s principal, Robert Rhodes, is not happy about it. Chambers Street Chaos begins The City Department of Design and Construction began work on Chambers Street last week. The three-year project will affect the traffic between West Street and Broadway. Lawsuit calls for opening of St. Vincent’s books BY Albert Amateau Yetta Kurland filed a freedom of information lawsuit on Monday demanding that the New York State Department of Health and its commissioner, Dr. Richard F. Daines, make public “any and all documents” relating to the closing of St. Vincent’s Hospital. Southbridge parking rate increase? BY Aline Reynolds The battle is on about whether to increase garage rates for residents of Southbridge Towers. More spin and counter-spin on protected bike lanes By Lilly O’Donnell New York City already had a “green” way to commute — one of the world’s best subway systems — but city planners are taking it a step further, trying to make the city as bike friendly as Amsterdam. But before the Bloomberg administration can pat itself on the back about the new bike lanes on First and Second Aves., one has to ask if the alterations are having the desired effect, to encourage more people to bike in the city by making it safer to do so. Cancelled federal hearing stalls fracking moratorium BY Albert Amateau Despite a New York State Senate vote earlier this month for a 10-month moratorium on hydrofracture natural gas drilling, drilling opponents fear the recent cancellation of a federal hearing was a setback in efforts to protect New York City’s supply of drinking water. Guide assists seniors BY Aline Reynolds Community Board 1 has come out with a new guide that is proving popular among Downtown seniors. Tom Goodkind, C.B.1 member and the guide’s editor-in-chief, saw a need for a resource that particularly caters to Lower Manhattan elders.
ARTS DOWNTOWN	Downtown origins of American lit BY STEPHEN WOLF It’s not that nothing happens anywhere else in the world — it’s just that in New York, so much of it occurs with acceptional size and intensity. FESTIVALS Something for everyone? Six summer theater fest shows BY Scott Stiffler The Fringe Festival and Dream Festival after the fact. Koch on Film By Ed Koch “The Disappearance of Alice Creed” (+) and “Cairo Time” (-) The three ages of soprano BY ELI JACOBSON Like all things in life, a soprano’s career has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Defiant yet salable homoeroticism BY STEVE ERICKSON A cynic could say that Chinese director Lou Ye has used his frequent run-ins with his country’s censors to compensate for his films’ flaws.

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Volume 20, Number 35
The Newspaper of Lower Manhattan
August 18 - 24, 2010

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