Volume 1, No. 31  Feb. 24, 2014

IN THIS ISSUE

* South Street Seaport task force still under wraps
* Elizabeth Alexander evokes poet Lucille Clifton at Poets House
* Bits & Bytes: New tenants for Stock Exchange; Wine dinner; Leonard Street penthouse
* Letter to the editor: Arriving in New York City aboard the S.S. United States
* Downtown bulletin board: Lower East Side CSA
* Community Board 1 full board meeting agenda
* Calendar

Masthead photo: An exhibit about poet Lucille Clifton at Poets House. Feb. 22, 2014
(Photo: Terese Loeb Kreuzer)

Six weeks have elapsed since the Jan. 13 Town Hall meeting convened by Community Board 1 to discuss plans and ideas for the South Street Seaport. At that meeting, most people said they opposed The Howard Hughes Corporation's stated plan to build a 50-story-tall tower on the site of what is now the New Market Building. But The Howard Hughes Corporation has given no indication that it has abandoned or modified those plans, which appeared in a filing that it put before the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Feb. 12, 2014.

Following that Town Hall meeting, the creation of a task force consisting of all the stakeholders was discussed. The idea was to get community members, the New York City Economic Development Corporation, The Howard Hughes Corporation, elected officials and representatives of the South Street Seaport Museum in one room to thrash out a solution for the Seaport that would be acceptable to all.

So far, there is no sign of that task force. Emails today to the elected officials asking about it went unanswered.

"We've been working on this very hard for a very long time," said Catherine McVay Hughes, chairperson of Community Board 1. "CB1 is still working with the elected officials and the relevant stakeholders to ensure that a task force is created. The goal of the task force would be to get all those players in the room at the same time."

Meanwhile, The Howard Hughes Corporation says "it is thinking big." In its SEC fiilng, it says, "Our vision is to be among the leading American brands of the 21st Century." In the SEC document, the Seaport tops the list of its projects.

Poet Lucille Clifton died on Feb. 13, 2010 at the age of 73 but, said Elizabeth Alexander as she stood before an audience at Poets House in Battery Park City on Feb. 22 to talk about Clifton, "Lucille is not gone. Her body is gone from this Earth."

Alexander, herself a poet and a professor at Yale University, knew Clifton as did many in her audience. They admired her, they loved her, they were in awe of her poetic gift, they recalled her generosity. Clifton was showered with honors during her lifetime including a National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize nominations, but she never made anyone feel small, one woman said.

Her poems were accessible - Alexander said she first read them when she was 10 years old - but layered with complexity. "Poetry isn't supposed to be so easy," said a woman in the audience, repeating a remark often made about Clifton's poetry.

"Read it 10 times and see if you think it's so simple," Alexander replied. She said that there was so much in Clifton's work that had not yet been explained.

Clifton, by most people's standards, had a difficult life. In a scrap of paper tucked into her daybook for 2010 she recalled some of it in what may be the last poem she wrote. It is in an exhibit now at Poets House.

 "'I stand here before you having survived 3 bouts with cancer, a kidney transplant, the loss of my husband and two of my children and arthritis like you wouldn't believe. Indeed won't you celebrate with me?'" she wrote.

The lines were intended for an acceptance speech for a medal to be awarded by the Poetry Society of America that Clifton did not live to receive.

Clifton wrote about life and death and about "what it means to survive in bodies that are black and female," said Alexander.

Some of Clifton's poems are funny, some are wrenching. "She is frequently and remarkably a poet of woe," Alexander commented.

One of Clifton's sons, who had drug and mental health problems, predeceased her. "Oh, Absalom, my son, my son," Clifton wrote in a poem that ends, "Oh, my son, my son, what does the Lord require?"

"It is not a rhetorical question," Alexander said. "It is not theatrical. It is a real question."

In another of her poems, Clifton wrote, "Over the mountains/ and under the stars it is/ one hell of a ride."

"In her poems that walked between life and death, Lucille Clifton found poetic truth," Alexander said.

She concluded her lecture by reading a poem that Clifton wrote as though her mother were speaking to her. Clifton's mother, Thelma Sayles, was herself a poet, who died young. When her husband refused to let her have her poems published, she burned them. Lucille Clifton's poem is called "The message of Thelma Sayles." Listen to it here.

The gallery at Poets House with an exhibit about Lucille Clifton. (Photo: Terese Loeb Kreuzer)

"Law Firm Leaves Midtown South for FiDi," Commercial Observer, 2/20/14. Lucas & Mercanti, a firm that specializes in intellectual property law, has signed a 10-year, 14,880-square-foot lease for the entire 21st floor at 30 Broad St., according to the Commercial Observer. The 46-story office building at 30 Broad St. is also known as the New York Stock Exchange building. In addition to the New York Stock Exchange, the tenants include Posner Advertising, Bank of New York and MAXIMUS. For the complete article, click here.

Wine dinner at Acqua: Acqua at 21 Peck Slip is hosting the first of four five-course wine dinners this Thursday, Feb. 27, at 7:30 p.m. For more information, click here.

"Final 56 Leonard Penthouse To Hit the Market for $18.75M," Curbed.com, 2/24/14. If you missed the boat on snagging a penthouse at 56 Leonard St., you're in luck. "Reps sent word today that the building's final penthouse, no. 52A, is set to be put on the market for $18.75 million," reports Curbed.com. The 3,658-square-foot apartment, which includes 510 square feet of exterior space, could be combined with one of the other two unclaimed penthouses in the building." For the complete article, including a floor plan, click here.

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)s in New York City enable New Yorkers to buy shares of vegetables and sometimes other food from regional farmers who deliver to a central place every week, or every other week, for their shareholders to pick up.

Just Food, a non-profit organization that has helped to start more than 100 CSAs in New York City, has a list of where these CSAs have been located in the past, though for various reasons, that information changes.

The Grand Street CSA, which is definitely returning for the upcoming season (June to early November), is on the Lower East Side and is currently accepting applications.

CSA members and their local providers will be available to answer questions and provide samples  on Tuesday, Feb. 25 at 7 p.m. in the Seward Park Co-Op Community Room (268 East Broadway, also known as Building 1).

Grand Street CSA partners with Norwich Meadows Farm in Norwich, N.Y. and Lebanon, N.J. for fresh vegetables, eggs, meat, and poultry, and fruit from Red Jacket Orchards in Geneva, N.Y.

This CSA also offers add-ons to the basic vegetable share, including organic pasta from Brooklyn's Sfoglini Pasta Shop, organic maple syrup from Circle C Maple Farm upstate, an expanded selection of dairy products from Milk Not Jails, and local fish from Village Fishmongers.

The weekly pick-up is on Tuesday evenings in front of Abrons Arts Center at 466 Grand St. The summer season starts in June and runs for 22 weeks.

For more information about what's offered and how much it costs, click here. To register online, click here.

Community Board 1's full board meeting takes place on Tuesday, Feb. 25 at the Hunter College MFA building, 205 Hudson St. (The entrance is on Canal Street between Hudson and Greenwich Streets.) The meeting starts at 6 p.m. and will begin with a public hearing on the Mayor's preliminary budget for fiscal year 2015.

All are welcome to attend and to speak in the public session of the meeting. For more information call (212) 442-5050.

Matters that may be of special interest are indicated in red.
 
AGENDA:
 
I. Public Hearing
II. Welcome
Jennifer J. Raab, 13th President of Hunter College, the largest college of the City University of New York

III. Public Session
Comments by members of the public (6 p.m. to 7 p.m.) (1-2 minutes per speaker)

IV. Business Session
A) Adoption of January 2014 minutes
B) Chairperson's Report - C. McVay Hughes
Nomination of members to serve on Nominating Committee
C) District Manager's Report - N. Pfefferblit

V. Committee Reports
A) Executive Committee -- C. McVay Hughes
1) New York City Council Int. No. 28 to require that all community board full board meetings be webcast - Resolution
3) Con Edison cost analysis and discussion on the use of non-corrosive sidewalk salt - Resolution
4) City Council hearing on best practices for recruitment and appointments to community boards - Discussion
5) Downtown Alliance - Report
6) Commissioner Marco A. Carrión, Mayor's Community Assistance Unit - Report
7) CB1 Monthly Meetings for 2014 - Report

B) Quality of Life Committee --  P. Moore
2) Bus parking and idling policy enforcement - Report
3) RoadRunners Half Marathon - Report
4) Community District 1 subway station survey by Pace University students - Report
5) Police misconduct and citizen rights - Report
6) Rodent Academy - Report
7) Fire Safety Forum - Report
8) Concerns regarding radon levels in gas delivered to NYC homes - Report

C) Tribeca Committee -- P. Braus
1) Spring Studios - Report
2) Bogardus Capital Project - Report
4) 5 White Street, application for transfer of liquor license to entity to be formed by Dan Abrams - Resolution
5) Tribeca Family Festival activity permit application for Greenwich Street between Hubert Street and Chambers Street; Beach Street between Hudson Street and Greenwich Street; North Moore Street between West Street and Hudson Street; Franklin Street between Hudson Street and Greenwich Street; Harrison Street between West Street and Hudson Street; Jay Street between Hudson Street and Greenwich Street, Duane Street between Hudson Street and Greenwich Street; Reade Street between Hudson Street and Greenwich Street, Saturday, April 26, 2014 10:00 am to 11:59 p.m. - Resolution
6) 175 Franklin Street, application for liquor license for 175 Franklin LLC - Resolution
7) 190A Duane Street, sidewalk café renewal application for Nonna Restaurant Corp, d/b/a Roc - Resolution
8) Bastille Day 2014 Street Activity Permit application for West Broadway between White Street and Walker Street, Thursday, July 10, 2014, 11:00 am to 7:00 pm - Resolution

D) Youth & Education Committee -- T. Joyce
2) Parks free mobile event units - Report
3) CB1's Educational Priorities - Resolution

E) Financial District Committee -- R. Sheffe
Seaport/Civic Center Committee -- J. Fratta
Financial District Committee
1) 30 Park Place - Report
4) 133 Greenwich Street - Report
5) Proposal for canopy at the Pier 11 waiting area - Resolution
6) 123 William Street - Resolution
7) 66 Pearl Street, application for wine and beer license for Pachanga Inc., b/d/a Fika - Resolution
8) Street permit application by Chabad of Wall Street (Mardi Gras Festival Productions, promoter) on Monday, May 26, 2014, Liberty, Broadway and Trinity Place - Resolution
9) Street permit application by NYC Police Museum Fair (Mardi Gras Festival Productions, promoter) on Friday, June 6, 2014, Broad Street, South Street and Water Street - Resolution
10) Street permit application by ZIUA (Mardi Gras Festival Productions, promoter) on Sunday, June 22, 2014, Broadway, Liberty Street and Battery Place - Resolution
11) Street permit application by Sons of Italy Freedom (Mardi Gras Festival Productions, promoter) on Friday, August 1, 2014, Liberty Street, Broadway and Trinity Place - Resolution
12) Street permit application by the 1st Pct (Mardi Gras Festival Productions, promoter) on Friday, August 30, 2014, Liberty, Broadway and Trinity Place - Resolution
13) Street permit application by Bowling Green Association (Mardi Gras Festival Productions, promoter) on Sunday, October 13, 2014, Whitehall, Stone, Water, Morris, Liberty Streets, Battery Place and Broadway - Resolution
14) Street permit application by IPTA (Mardi Gras Festival Productions, promoter) on Monday, November 11, 2014, Broadway, Liberty Street and Battery Place - Resolution

Financial District Committee and Seaport/Civic Center Committees
1) Street permit application by CB 1 (Mardi Gras Festival Productions, promoter) on Friday, June 27, 2014, Fulton, Water and Gold Streets - Resolution
2) Street permit application by CB1 (Mardi Gras Festival Productions, promoter) on Friday, July 18, 2014, Fulton Street, Water Street and William Street - Resolution
3) Street permit application by Seaport Community Coalition (Mardi Gras Festival Productions, promoter) on Saturday, August 2, 2014, Water Street, Fulton Street and Broad Street - Resolution
4) Street Activity Permit Application by Deepavali Festival (Association of Indians in America, promoter), Sunday, October 5, 2014, Water, Fulton, Fletcher, John, Front Streets and Maiden Lane - Resolution

F) Battery Park City Committee -- A. Notaro
1) Peck Slip School - Report
2) RoadRunners Half Marathon - Report
6) 225 Liberty Street, application for liquor license for The Little Kitchen Restaurant Group LLC d/b/a Little Muenster - Resolution

G) Seaport/Civic Center Committee -- J. Fratta
2) Street Co-Naming: Peck Slip & Harold Reed Way - Report
3) Old Seaport Alliance - Report
4) Brooklyn Bridge public space project by Pace University students - Report
5) 230 Canal Street, application for a new liquor license for 230 Canal Rest. Inc. - Report
6) Change in traffic direction on Peck Slip - Resolution
7) Street Activity Permit, application by Dushahra festival, Thursday, September 18 - Monday September 22, 2014, South Street between John and Beekman - Resolution
8) Street Activity Permit, application by Downtown Independent Democrats Festival, Sunday, April 20, 2014, Lafayette Street between Canal and Leonard - Resolution
10) 225 Front Street, application for a liquor license alteration for Dona Gallo Inc.d/b/a Barbalu - Resolution
11) 111 Fulton Street, application for a new wine and beer license for 111 Fulton LLC - Resolution
12) 27 Cliff Street, reconsideration of an application for a restaurant liquor license for Dalglish 7 Inc. - Resolution

H) Planning Committee -- J. Galloway
1) Proposed signage for East River Esplanade, New York City Economic Development Corporation - Resolution
I) Landmarks Committee -- B. Ehrmann
1) 44 Lispenard St., application for one story plus penthouse addition - Resolution
2) 105 Hudson St., application for reconstruction of platform and installation of new handicap lift - Resolution
4) 32 Avenue of the Americas, application for installation of emergency generator on setback roof at 22nd floor - Resolution

VI. Old Business
VII. New Business
VIII. Adjournment

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Editor: Terese Loeb Kreuzer

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