The BroadsheetDAILY ~ News of Lower Manhattan ~ 2/27/20

Meeting Tonight Will Discuss Resiliency Plans for Northern Battery Park City

The three “alignment options” under consideration, by which flood protection measures in northern Battery Park City would reach into Tribeca.

Tonight, the Battery Park City Authority (BPCA) and Community Board 1 (CB1) will co-host a public meeting focused on the North Battery Park Resiliency Project. This session will be held at the Richard C. Harris Terrace of the Borough of Manhattan Community College, at 199 Chambers Street (between West and Greenwich Streets), starting at 6:00 pm.

This evening’s meeting is a follow-on to a public discussion held last October, at which the BPCA introduced the team of engineers and architects who will be designing the measures intended to make the northern edge of the community resistant to sea-level rise, climate change, and future extreme-weather events.

	Aecom’s Garrett Avery

At the earlier session, Garrett Avery, the project manager from engineering firm Aecom, said that, “we are entering an age when community assets that we rely on for protection, recreation, and for environmental and economic benefit are now at risk. The trend is headed toward storms much larger than Hurricane Sandy. And it doesn’t always take a hurricane. Sometimes high tide combined with heavy rain will be enough to cause flooding.”

“Our first goal is to manage long-term risk,” he added, noting that another priority, “is independent utility — a project that can stand alone, even though it’s part of a larger system.”

He continued that, “one of our strategies is to use elements in the landscape that, for the majority of their lives, actually function positively as other objects: benches, planters, and walls. These can be designed in a way that doubles or triples their use, so that for every dollar spent building them, you get several, additional dollars in return, while also attenuating wave action and reducing forces against the flood wall.”

The elevations to which flood barriers will have to rise at various points in northern Battery Park City, and along the Tribeca waterfront.

Mr. Avery went on to explain that the Aecom design team is considering three “alignment options” for the eastern end of the new flood barrier, each of which would extend outside of Battery Park City, and into Tribeca. The need for such an accommodation is driven by the requirement to bridge between two high elevations, creating a flood bulwark between them.

“The first is the northern edge of Esplanade, and then along the southern edge of Chambers Street, most likely a block to a block and a half east into the City, reaching beyond Greenwich Street,” he said. “The second would turn left on West Street, instead of continuing along Chambers, proceed north along West Street to Harrison Street, and then reach inland. And the third follows a similar path, but extends to North Moore Street.”

	CB1’s Wendy Chapman

In the months since the October meeting, the Aecom team has been conducting further studies to determine the specific height to which these barriers will need to rise. That elevation, along with a recommendation about which of the three alignment options outlined above they will endorse, and the unveiling of preliminary design concepts, will provide the focus of tonight’s meeting.

After the October meeting’s presentation, BPCA and Aecom staff took questions from residents. When CB1 member Justine Cuccia asked what would guide the recommendation about alignment options, Mr. Avery replied, “the hundreds of years of underground utility infrastructure beneath each of these streets will be a factor.”

Alice Blank, chair of CB1’s Environmental Protection Committee

CB1 member Alice Blank queried, “why is Canal Street not being considered, instead of Harrison or North Moore Streets,” as the northern terminus of the barrier. “This seems like an obvious demarcation, and would protect one of the most acutely affected areas.”

Gwen Dawson, the BPCA’s vice president for real property, replied, “our mandate and objective are to protect Battery Park City, which is why we can justify using Authority funds. We’re going to wind up protecting other assets in Lower Manhattan, because without doing that, we wouldn’t be able to protect Battery Park City. We are trying to determine most cost-efficient way of getting to that high point, achieve the greatest good and have the fewest negative impacts. But it’s difficult for us to go beyond that primary objective.”

Jordan Salinger, a representative of the Mayor’s Office of Recovery and Resiliency, observed that, “every time BPCA goes out of their jurisdiction, into the Battery or Tribeca, that entails additional cost, risk, and responsibility.” He added, “the City is looking at interim flood protection measures north to Canal and beyond. We are also working with the Army Corps of Engineers on their New York/New Jersey Harbor and Tributaries Study of coastal flood-protection measures, and we tentatively expect a plan from them in the spring.” (Earlier this week, the federal government announced — abruptly and without further explanation — that the Army Corps had suspended that study.)

	BPCA’s Gwen Dawson

Ms. Dawson continued, “the further north you take it, the longer it is, and the harder the time we have justifying the expenditure of BPCA funds. But these three options give us the best shot at achieving the project’s objective in the most efficient way possible.”

BPCA president B.J. Jones observed that, “these options are designed with Battery Park City in mind, even when we go outside the neighborhood, because we’re trying to get from high point to high point.”

When asked about the timeline and the cost for the project, Ms. Dawson responded, “we hope to begin construction in 2021 and end by 2023. And our initial, rough cost estimate is $85 million.”

	CB1 member Justine Cuccia

This prompted Ms. Cuccia to ask, “who is paying for this?”

Ms. Dawson replied, “we’ll be using bond funds to pay for it.”

Ms. Cuccia answered, “kudos to the Authority for taking resiliency the farthest in protecting Lower Manhattan, but it infuriates me that it is falling to the BPCA to bear the cost. I am against my ground rent paying for this. Why not the City or the State? This plan is wonderful, but it should not fall to us alone.”

CB1 member Wendy Chapman urged the BPCA and Aecom to find vendors and suppliers, “who manufacture materials and equipment in New York State, or at least in the northeast. Please partner with our amazing engineering schools and bring jobs to our state.” Ms. Dawson agreed to make this a priority.

	Community Board 1 vice chair Tammy Meltzer

Noting that the various alignment options enclosed (and would thus protect) valuable Tribeca real estate belonging to large corporations, CB1 vice chair Tammy Meltzer asked, “if you’re going to protect property owned by for-profit companies outside of Battery Park City, and those companies pay zero for anything within the neighborhood, what kind of giveback can the City help the community get? Because there are many needs within this community, and it seems like it would be only fair.”

Ms. Dawson replied, “that is a fair discussion to have.”

CB1’s Youth and Education Chair Announces Plaza for Front of New Fidi School

Tricia Joyce, the chair of the Youth and Education Committee of Community Board 1 announced at the Tuesday night meeting of the Board that local leaders and elected officials had won a long-sought victory for Downtown school kids.

To read more…

Enoteca on the Hudson

City Winery Prepares to Open at Pier 57

	A rendering of City Winery’s new, soon-to-open location on Pier 57

As Lower Manhattan has morphed into a residential community and dining destination, another ongoing evolution has attracted less notice: Downtown is becoming a performing arts district. The highest-profile illustration of this shift is the Perelman, which (thanks to the largesse of its eponymous benefactor) has become the shorthand name for the World Trade Center Performing Arts Center that is slowly rising out of the ground near the intersection of Vesey and Greenwich Streets. But the opening of this facility is still several years away.  To read more…

CB1 Skeptical about New Performance Venue in FiDi

	A performance venue, planned for  20 Exchange Place, has sparked opposition  in the Financial District.

In a preliminary vote, the Licensing & Permits Committee of Community Board 1 has enacted a resolution calling upon the State Liquor Authority to reject an application by Ermusive, a production company that wants to open a new performance venue in the basement of 20 Exchange Place, in the Financial District.

The first addition to Downtown’s bike grid will consist of dedicated cycling lanes on Broadway and Whitehall Street, extending from City Hall southward to Bowling Green and the Staten Island Ferry, where this route will link with the existing Waterfront Path, which connects the Battery to bike easements on the East River shoreline and in Battery Park City.

1PM

4PM

Borough of Manhattan Community College, Richard Harris Terrace, 199 Chambers Street.

Municipal Think Tank Urges City to Weigh BPCA Takeover

The City’s Independent Budget Office, a publicly funded agency that provides nonpartisan information on critical issues confronting the City, is proposing that the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio consider a municipal takeover of Battery Park City.

This recommendation hinges upon the unique, hybrid nature of the community, which was built on acreage newly created from landfill in the 1970s.  To read more…

Tenants at Another Financial District Building Seek Class-Action Status in Suit Against Landlords

A map, compiled by New York University’s Furman Center (which advances research and debate on housing, neighborhoods, and urban policy) illustrating the dozens of Lower Manhattan buildings — erstwhile office towers, converted to residential use — that have benefited from the 421-g program.

Alliance Readies First Steps in Master Plan to Balance Beauty with Security Around Stock Exchange

	A rendering of the proposed street furniture the Downtown Alliance wants to install on Broad Street.

The Downtown Alliance is preparing to implement the first phase of a master plan unveiled in May, 2018, which aims to transform the “frozen zone” — a 3,000-feet security perimeter surrounding the New York Stock Exchange, which has enclosed (and limited access to) 19 acres of the Financial District since shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. To read more…

City Council Announces Design Competition to Improve Pedestrian Access to Brooklyn Bridge

Some 15,000 pedestrians and 3,600 cyclists compete with each other and souvenir vendors for as little as ten feet of width on the deck of the Brooklyn Bridge

The City Council has partnered with the Van Alen Institute (a New York nonprofit architectural organization, dedicated to improving design in the public realm) in sponsoring a contest to incubate fresh ideas for better pedestrian access to the Brooklyn Bridge.  To read more…

 February 27

Photos and information culled from Wikipedia and other internet sources

———————————————————————

CLASSIFIEDS & PERSONALS

Swaps & Trades  ~  Respectable Employment ~ Lost & Found

212-912-1106   editor@ebroadsheet.com

HOUSEKEEPING/NANNY/BABYSITTER

Available starting September for PT/FT.

ELDERCARE

Available for PT/FT elder care.  Experienced. References Angella

 347-423-5169 angella.haye1@gmail.com

EXPERIENCED ELDER CARE

Able to prepare nutritious meals and light housekeeping