For breaking news, go to www.DowntownPostNYC.com

Tulips blooming in Battery Park City. May 2, 2014. (Photo: Terese Loeb Kreuzer)

Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, U.S Rep. Carolyn Maloney, NY State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, City Council Member Margaret Chin, local residents, first responders and organized labor announcing the formation of a committee to establish a monument to 9/11 responders and survivors sickened and dying from their exposure to Ground Zero toxins. (Photos: Terese Loeb Kreuzer)

The people who died on 9/11 have not been forgotten. Their names are engraved around the memorial pools on the footprints of the Twin Towers where they died. But thousands of people have sickened and in many cases, died, since Sept. 11, 2001 because of the toxins generated by the attack. Their struggles and those of their survivors have only been noted in passing.

Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer decided to do something about that. She is co-chair with Mario Cilento, president of the New York State AFL-CIO, of a committee to establish a monument to 9/11 responders and survivors. The committee, which includes elected officials, labor leaders and community residents, announced its plans today.

"From the beginning, those who came to help or those who came back to their homes began to suffer from symptoms brought on by their proximity to Ground Zero," said Brewer.  "Too many Americans do not realize that there are thousands still suffering and in some cases, dying, from the attacks that day. So today, we are here to announce the formation of an effort to remember and honor the thousands who are living with the illnesses and toxins that they breathed in at Ground Zero and the many who died from their illnesses with a monument here in Lower Manhattan, near Ground Zero."

 

She said that the committee would find a location, select a design and find the funding to pay for "a simple, elegant monument" so that people will always be reminded of "what the word 'honorable' means in practice, day to day."

 

U.S. Congressman Jerrold Nadler, a member of the committee, said, "In the years since 9/11, many of us here have watched our friends, our families, our colleagues and our neighbors continue to struggle with the aftermath of that day. For thousands who lived through 9/11, the effects of that day did not end when the towers fell nor even when the rest of the recovery efforts were completed at Ground Zero."

 

He said that after 9/11, the air quality in Lower Manhattan was worse than during the Kuwaiti oil fire. Responders, community residents, area students and workers breathed those fumes for months. 

 

"Thousands have since become ill or died as a result of exposure to 9/11 toxins," he said, "including now, increasingly from cancers."

 

Nadler said that it took 10 years to get the Zadroga Bill passed. It provided health care for those sickened by 9/11. A Victim Compensation Fund allowed those affected to file claims for economic losses due to physical harm or death caused by the September 11 attack.    

 

"Now we are beginning to work for the bill's reauthorization in 2016," said Nadler. "We cannot and will not stop fighting for those who are still suffering as a result of 9/11."

 

U.S. Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney.

U.S. Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, who fought with Nadler for the passage of the Zadroga Act, said that around 3,000 people had died on 9/11, but that since then, thousands and thousands more have died because of illnesses generated by exposure to Ground Zero toxins. Among others, she said that 77 firefighters have died since then and that 500 more are sick.  

 

"We have a moral obligation to those who fell ill in the days and months after the attack, to take care of them and to support them," said New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.

 

John Feal.

 

 

He said that if he had his way, the monument would be built as close to Ground Zero as possible.

 

 

Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. (Photo: Terese Loeb Kreuzer)

 

 

Bits & Bytes  

'QUASI-SUBURBAN' BATTERY PARK CITY; FIDI'S RETAIL SCENE;
5 BEEKMAN PLACE; PRIVATIZING THE SOUTH STREET SEAPORT

Ads for Le District, opening at Brookfield Place in the fall. (Photo: Terese Loeb Kreuzer)

"Battery Park City: Quasi-Suburban," New York Times, 4/29/14. It's always fun to read what an outsider has to say about a place that you know well. The New York Times described Battery Park City as "the 92-acre planned community developed since 1980 on landfill along the west side of Lower Manhattan." So far, so good.  Then John Freeman Gill goes on to say that "for many New Yorkers [BPC is] akin to a new guest bedroom added to the side of a beloved old house. It's sleeker and more functional than the main residence, but it lacks the character and inspired disorder of the creaky old place, and you never set foot in there without a very specific reason." Hmmpf.
"For those who have chosen to live in Battery Park City, that reason is quality of life," Gill says, quoting a resident who says of BPC, "It really is Smalltown, U.S.A., over here; all the parents know all the kids." Well, that's true. For the complete article, click here.

"Tracking the Financial District's Booming Retail Scene," Racked.com, 4/30/14. The Downtown retail scene is undergoing cataclysmic change. In the next couple of years, when dozens of new stores will have opened at Brookfield Place and at the World Trade Center, Downtown shopping will be unrecognizable from what it was five years ago. "Over the past several months, we've been bombarding you with news of the bursting Financial District retail scene," says Racked.com. Attempting to consolidate the information, Racked has "put together a handy guide of what's headed to a neighborhood once known solely for Wall Street wolves. We've lumped the luxe names together for the two major spots into handy lists, and highlighted some other notable entries in separate categories." For the complete article, click here.

"An Early Skyscraper Becomes a Hotel With a View," New York Times, 4/29/14. One of New York City's first skyscrapers, the gorgeous, nine-story brick-and-terra-cotta building at 5 Beekman St., is being converted into a 287-room hotel with restaurants, bars and a condo tower next door, says The New York Times. The hotel is scheduled to open in the summer of 2015. The Victorian structure, dating from 1883, is centered by "a tall atrium topped by a large pyramid-shaped skylight that was sealed up for much of the 20th century," according to The Times. The Beekman Hotel, as it will be called, will mostly be contained in the existing brick building, which is actually two joined structures: the one with nine stories from 1883, and an annex with 10 stories from 1890. "In recent years," says The Times, "it served as an office building but essentially has been empty for more than a decade." For the complete article, click here.

"Privatizing South Street Seaport a Flawed Process," The Epoch Times, 5/1/14. In an opinion piece in The Epoch Times, David Sheldon, coordinator and member of the community advocacy group Save Our Seaport, wrote about the Seaport Working Group, which was convened earlier this year to formulate advisory plans for the development of the South Street Seaport. "In our view, it is becoming obvious that the Seaport Working Group is being steered through a flawed process designed to resemble participatory consensus building," Sheldon said. "In reality, the NYC Economic Development Corporation [landlord for much of the South Street Seaport], is trying to create a belated cover to legitimize what it has always wanted to do: unilaterally assign and privatize all unique and irreplaceable Seaport Historic District public piers, properties, and land for the benefit of the developer, Howard Hughes Corporation. Rather than create a master plan to re-establish their potential to celebrate the city's maritime past and present, EDC would offload its own failed responsibility for maintaining, programming, and managing these cultural and historic sites." Sheldon described the Seaport Historic District as the remnant of the city's oldest seaport.
"It is from here that New York, and the nation, grew," he writes. "It is more relevant to our history than most any other part of town. It is an irreplaceable asset." For the complete article, click here.

"Woman gives birth in backseat of NYC cab," NY Post, 5/2/14. A taxi driver in Tribeca picked up one passenger and ended up with two. "A woman gave birth to a baby boy in the backseat of a yellow cab in TriBeca Thursday night," according to the New York Post. "Police Officer Pasquale Carpentiere was on routine traffic enforcement when he was flagged down by a cab driver at Laight and Hudson streets around 11:30 p.m. Carpentiere tended to the woman until emergency responders arrived to help deliver the baby." For the complete article, click here.

Downtown bulletin board   

PECK SLIP SCHOOL'S COMMUNITY NIGHT OUT; KNICKERBOCKER CHAMBER ORCHESTRA; MANHATTAN YOUTH; SOS TOWN HALL MEETINGS

Peck Slip. (Photo: Terese Loeb Kreuzer)

Peck Slip School's Community Night Out
The Peck Slip School Community Service Committee will be showcasing the Old Seaport neighborhood on May 3 during its First Annual Community Night Out. Residents, families and friends of the Peck Slip School are invited to attend.

The historic Seaport district runs from Fulton to Dover Streets and from Pearl Street to the East River, with numerous shops and restaurants. Participants in the Community Night Out are encouraged to walk around the district between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m., supporting the establishment(s) of their choice.

Volunteers will staff a table at the corner of Peck Slip and Front Street from 7 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. to greet participants, distribute merchant maps, and hand out Peck Slip School stickers (designating them as a participant of the event).

The Peck Slip School PTA planned this event to connect with one another, and to get to
know the district that will serve as host to their permanent school location, currently under
construction on the site of the former Peck Slip Post Office. Volunteers will staff a table at the corner of Peck Slip and Front Street from 7 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. to greet participants, distribute merchant maps, and hand out Peck Slip School stickers (designating them as a participant of the event).

For more information, email Community Service Committee Chairperson Denise
Courter (Denise@FiDiFamilies.com) or call (917) 513-0011.

Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra concerts
Downtown's own orchestra, the Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra conducted by Gary Fagin, is holding two concerts in May. On Thursday, May 15, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., there will be a soirée in the South Street Seaport at the home of KCO board members Lynda Davey and Alan Schiffres, overlooking the Brooklyn Bridge. Shir Victoria Levy, a renowned 19-year-old violinist, will perform works by Debussy and Poulenc. KCO board member Sharon Phair Fortenbaugh is co-host for the event. Tickets are by donation starting at $125 a person. Click here for more information or to make a reservation, or call (917) 929-8375 and contribute at the door.

On Sunday, May 18, at 2:30 p.m., the KCO returns to the Museum of Jewish Heritage to perform Piece de Résistance: Music Celebrating the Polish Spirit. Shir VictoriaLevy will play Karol Szymanowski's haunting Violin Concerto No. 1, Op. 35. Also on the program are works by Wladyslaw Szpilman, subject of the award-winning film "The Pianist;" Wojciech Kilar, composer of the film score for "The Pianist;" and more! Tickets are $18; $15 (students and seniors); $12 (museum members). For more information or to buy tickets, click here.

A sculpture called "Totem" by Benjamin Dowell is part of an exhibit in the 250 Vesey St. lobby at Brookfield Place through June 1. (Photo: Terese Loeb Kreuzer)