Month: June 2018

Today in History

618 – Coronation of the Chinese governor Li Yuan as Emperor Gaozu of Tang, the new Emperor of China, initiating three centuries of the Tang Dynasty’s rule over China. 860 – Swedish Vikings attack Constantinople 1178 – Five monks at Canterbury report explosion on moon (only known observation) 1682 – William Penn founds Philadelphia 1812...
Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber

Transforming a Deadline Into a Lifeline

A bill sponsored by State Assembly member Yuh-Line Niou, which aims to enhance the benefits available responders and rescue workers made sick by exposure to environmental toxins after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, has passed her house of legislature. The bill, if enacted, will extend through the year 2022 the deadline by which...

A Vanished Skyline

A new analysis by the Skyscraper Center (the global tall building database of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, a organization with expertise on skyscrapers) indicates that of the 100 tallest buildings ever demolished anywhere in the world, 17 were in Lower Manhattan. Of the top ten, the same study finds, five were...

Would You Like Some Dead Bird in Your Drink?

An investigate report by City & State, the media organization dedicated to covering New York’s local and regional politics, has found that thousands of New York City buildings have failed to file timely (and legally required) documents verifying the safety and cleanliness of their rooftop water tanks. In Lower Manhattan, the report indicates, more than...
This map denotes buildings (shown in red) for which an investigative report by City & State could find no record of rooftop water tanks having been inspected for one or more years.

Nolan Contendere

A federal appeals court has breathed new life into a suit against the Battery Park City Authority (BPCA) by rescue, recovery and cleanup workers who were made sick by exposure to toxins while laboring in the community in the weeks and months following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. At issue is Jimmy Nolan’s...

Letters Save History

To the editor:    It has become apparent more than ever that the the current Mayor is going to follow Mayor Bloomberg’s actions in allowing NYC’s historical treasured South Street Seaport district to be fed to the voracious  Howard Hughes Corp. with the collusion of the city’s EDC to be turned into an upscale mall....