THE WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF LOWER MANHATTAN

THE WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF LOWER MANHATTAN | Volume 17 • Issue 4 | JUNE 25 - JULY 01, 2004

Inside

Editorial
Gay Pride Month, celebrating progress
In this Gay Pride Month, there is much to celebrate.
For starters, the very presence of former Deputy Inspector Seymour Pine — the police commander who led the infamous raid on the Stonewall Inn that sparked the gay-rights movement — at a panel on the event this month shows how greatly times have changed.

Penny Post
Godfight at the Supreme Court
By Andrei Codrescu
The Supreme Court delayed on a technicality deciding whether the word “God” belongs in the Pledge of Allegiance. When the issue pops up again, I suggest that the word “hat” be used instead.

Talking Point
Building on last year’s decision on gays
By Kevin Cathcart
It was one of those rare moments when you just know that you’re witnessing history.
A year ago, while waiting to hear the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Lambda Legal’s case challenging Texas’ “homosexual conduct” law, I thought about the last two decades leading up to that moment. I remembered sitting in the same chamber 17 years earlier when the Supreme Court issued a stinging defeat and upheld Georgia’s anti-gay sodomy law.

Letters to the Editor

Downtown Local

Riding the wave at the Seaport

Slow go on Tribeca tower talks

Will Smith’s B.P.C. shoot

School on The Street

Police Blotter

Soho Gallery offers special summer exhibit

Tribeca Beasties

Food

Homemade, Latin and with love
By Melanie Wallis
A Battery Park City mom has defied the odds and fulfilled a personal dream – she’s opened an appealing café offering Latin specialties and homemade baked goods. But more than that, she did so right in her own neighborhood. Pan Latin, located on the corner of Chambers Street and River Terrace, just north of Rockefeller Park, is a 40-seat café that opened last month.

Picture Story

Clinton-mania in Lower Manhattan
Thousands came to the Wall St Borders Books Wednesday to get a glimpse of former President Bill Clinton, who signed copies of his new 900-page book, “My Life.” Daryl Mattson, spokesperson for Borders, said it was the biggest turnout for a book signing they have had at that branch with more than 1,800 people joining the line.

Youth/Children's

Downtown third graders score well on new tests
Local third graders produced strong scores on the standardized English and math exams on the first year of the city’s strict promotion policy.

Summer’s here – the facts about Lyme
By Dr. Michel Cohen
Tick bites, especially from deer ticks, are of special concern in the northeastern United States, because deer ticks are known carriers of Lyme disease. This malady starts with a rash on the skin that appears, on average, ten days after the tick bite. If unnoticed and untreated, the illness can progress into a wide range of other symptoms, such as fever and joint pain.

YOUTH ACTIVITIES

Sports

Downtowners close with a bang on new fields
By David H. Ellis
Summer may have just started, but some ball players have already packed up their bats and gloves, as last weekend signaled the end of the season for the Downtown Little League.

9/11 business groups looking for money 3 years later
By Erica Stein
In the months after Sept. 11, a wide array of organizations sprang up in the wake of the attacks with the purpose of rebuilding – literally, financially, culturally – Lower Manhattan. Over two years later, many of the organizations have folded or largely completed their projects.

Bar owner wins Community Board 3 race
By David H. Ellis
In a two-person race between David McWater and Barden Prisant, McWater was elected the new chairperson of the East Side’s Community Board 3 at Tuesday night’s full board meeting. McWater won by a vote of 28-12. He will take over as chairperson on July 1.

City brainstorms on the E. River
By Elizabeth O’Brien
A beach at the base of the Brooklyn Bridge, 1,000 river birch trees along the esplanade, recreation and retail under the F.D.R. Drive. These are among the possibilities for a revitalized East River waterfront that the city presented to the community this week.

El Teddy demolition to resume in August
By Albert Amateau
The 2,500-pound replica of the Statue of Liberty’s crown is gone and so is the stained glass canopy from the small building where El Teddy’s potent margaritas and Mexican fare had been a magnet for Tribeca neighbors and visitors for 15 years.

E.P.A. panel continues to debate what to do
By Elizabeth O’Brien
Members of the public told an Environmental Protection Agency panel on Tuesday that the agency was losing time and jeopardizing their trust in its efforts to determine whether World Trade Center toxins remain in their communities.

‘I’m sorry,’ says police inspector who led Stonewall raid
By Lincoln Anderson
The police commander who led the raid that spiraled out of control into the Stonewall rebellion left his assisted-living home in Whippany, N.J., for one evening earlier this month to join a discussion about the infamous event — and apologized for his role in it.

Preserving and making legal history in landmark
By David H. Ellis
In the face of the stock market crash in October of 1929, famed New York attorney William Nelson Cromwell insisted on the December groundbreaking for a limestone facade building in 18th century classical style at 14 Vesey St between Broadway and Church Sts.

Silver’s subway decision receives raves at South Ferry
By Josh Rogers
South Ferry subway commuters were happy to hear that Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver had dropped his opposition to the station’s planned renovation Friday in exchange for $15 million worth of improvements to Battery Park.

Sound exhibit based on Zen garden
By Jaclyn Marinese
Sound, something that takes place in many forms, is being utilized in new and creative ways, outside the realm of the everyday experience. Sound art is infiltrating downtown with an auditory exhibition curated by Ron Kuilvila entitled Rock’s Role (After Ryoanji).

Taking a tour of Governors I.
By Janel Bladow
What do George Washington, Wilbur Wright, Burt Bacharach, Mikhail Gorbachev and the Smothers Brothers have in common?

Once Again, with Feeling
By WINNIE MCCROY
When I first saw Kathy Najimy and Mo Gaffney’s first HBO comedy special, I was a budding baby dyke, barely 18. I laughed hilariously at their “Holly and Molly” sketch, two lesbian performance artists spouting li

A Wit Freighted With Fatigue
By Jerry Tallmer
The Monster sank into a chair and arranged the glasses before him—one glass of ginger and fizz, the other of wine. It is from both liquids, he confirmed, that he sips at close intervals throughout the hour and a half of his show—in between the constant drags on cigarettes.

Koch on Film
By, Ed Koch
“Valentin” (+) This is a tour de force for Rodrigo Noya, who plays the role of Valentin, a 9-year-old boy living with his grandmother, played by Carmen Maura, herself a superb actor.