THE WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF LOWER MANHATTAN

		NEWS Rouse, Seaport mall agree to takeover By Elizabeth O’Brien A South Street Seaport merchant community concerned about its future once the Fulton Fish Market leaves in early 2005 was further rocked last week by news that the Seaport retail operator would be sold. Protest march won’t go south of 14th Street By Lincoln Anderson Following a judge’s rejection on Wednesday of United for Peace and Justice’s 11th-hour lawsuit seeking the right to rally in Central Park, U.F.P.J. on Thursday announced revised final plans that will avoid going south of W. 14th St. West Side Highway workers look to stop stone thieves By Lincoln Anderson Cobblestones lining the sidewalks along the West Side Highway have been disappearing, and the stone setters whose job it is to replace them are pretty sure they know why: Suburban homeowners are using the highway as a free Home Depot for lawn improvement.
Environmental groups critical of the Bush administration’s post-9/11 cleanup of the neighborhoods surrounding the World Trade Center site gathered Thursday on Wall St. at Federal Hall, the place where George W. — Washington, that is — was sworn into office. The groups began an eight-day vigil that will run through the end of the Republican convention Sept. 2, from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. each day, at the corner of Liberty St. and Broadway. The elephants are coming, but not stampeding Downtown By Elizabeth O’Brien While Madison Square Garden will be the center of activity for the Republican National Convention next week, Downtown will also feel the impact of the event as delegations from American Samoa to Nebraska descend on local hotels. Canal St. unsafe but getting safer, group says By Albert Amateau There were 14 pedestrian deaths on Canal St. from auto accidents in the seven years from 1995 through 2001, according to a new study by Transportation Alternatives, a group that advocates for traffic safety.

Protestors to ring bells and form ring around W.T.C.
By David H. Ellis
In a dimly lit room in the back of Cafe Figaro on Bleecker St. on a recent Sunday afternoon, Christian Herold and nine other individuals were getting down to details.

Kerry visits Downtown before convention
By Josh Rogers
Sen. John Kerry came Downtown Tuesday to deliver a speech at the place where five successful presidential candidates have spoken, and at the same time to shift the debate away from a Republican-financed campaign challenging his Vietnam War record.

Seniors plan G.O.P. protest in B.P.C.
By Elizabeth O’Brien
Their bodies may have gotten frail, but their minds — and their opinions — remain strong. On Aug. 31, a group of Battery Park City seniors will make their voices heard when they protest the Bush administration during the second day of the Republican National Convention at Madison Square Garden. The seniors, residents of the Hallmark retirement home, are planning a demonstration outside their North End Ave. building that will be more sit-in than march.

Anti-war signs overlook the W.T.C. site
By Josh Rogers
Convention delegates and tourists who venture down to the World Trade Center site to pay their respects to the victims of 9/11 will also see a series of anti-war signs in condominiums owned by rap mogul Russell Simmons and two of his former neighbors.

Village man freed in Iraq; Christopher St. held hostage
By Lincoln Anderson
The West Village heaved a sigh of relief on Sunday afternoon as news came that photojournalist Micah Garen, being held hostage in Iraq, would be released by his captors.

Independent media center sets up in Tribeca
By David H. Ellis
As the major news organizations and seasoned political reporters keep their attention trained on the nomination of President George W. Bush from the vantage point of the Farley Post Office across from Madison Square Garden, several hundred grass roots journalists are making Lower Manhattan their home during their coverage of the Republican National Convention.

Board 4 gives its recommendations on Hudson Yards
By Albert Amateau
Community Board 4 responded in August to the city’s far-reaching Hudson Yards proposal intended to transform the far West Side over the next 20 years with an extension of the No. 7 subway, high-rise commercial towers, decks over the rail yards and a new boulevard and parkland.

Manhole accident turns up heat on Con Edison
By Albert Amateau
The sizzling-hot manhole cover on Second Ave. at E. 13th St. where Elizabeth Wallenberg fell from her skateboard and suffered severe burns on Aug. 11 is one of 4,800 between the Battery and 96th St. that provide service access to Con Edison’s steam delivery system.

BACK TO SCHOOL
A Downtown Express special supplement

Learning to read at home with Stuart Little
By Jane Flanagan
Thank God for E.B. White.
The man’s dead nearly 20 years now, but I will go on being grateful that he lived. White, who was born in 1899, was a writer for the New Yorker and co-author of “The Elements of Style,” a working bible for writers. I’ve long been inspired and delighted by his work.

The New Year really begins in September
By Wickham Boyle
The real New Year is September. Just ask anyone who has attended school for the first 20 odd years of their life. January is a weak sister. There is nothing but that damn ball and a hang over as you get older. Especially here in New York, where even non-Jewish citizens celebrate a school holiday on Rosh Hashana, the real deal for the New Year is September.

Catholic school principal moves Downtown
By Melanie Wallis
Since 1926, Our Lady of Pompei Church has been an integral part of the Downtown community, which the new principal of its attached Catholic school is recently finding out.

ARTS Lessons from the sensual East End By Joe Fyfe On a Saturday evening early last month, the writer and curator Klaus Kertess interviewed the painter Jane Freilicher as part of the lecture series that accompanies the two part exhibition, “North Fork/South Fork: East End Art Now” at the Parrish Art Museum. Building Blocks meet the sky By John Reed “Have you been up to the roof garden at the Met? Oh, you should go. So and so and I went just the other night. It’s open late you know. There’s free music. And a bar.”		FILM Koch on Film By, Ed Koch “The Manchurian Candidate” (-For the life of me, I cannot understand why so many critics gave this flick kudos. I found it boring. “We Don’t Live Here Anymore” (+) Good but not as great as it could have been due to the banal dialogue. Reestablishing an existence By Jerry Tallmer The only thing you could really call action in a quite nice movie called “Almost Peaceful” is when Monsieur Albert, the boss of a small tailoring and garment-making workshop in 1946 Paris, disgustedly drops an ill-made coat out of a third-story window. Neuwirth’s certainly got legs By Chris Schmidt Who is Jenny, the title character of “Here Lies Jenny,” the high-concept Kurt Weill revue at the Zipper Theater starring Bebe Neuwirth?

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