The BroadsheetDAILY ~ Lower Manhattan’s Local Newspaper ~ 7/20/21 ~ Landmarks Agency Confers Protection on Chinatown Monument

The Broadsheet

Lower Manhattan’s Local Newspaper

Homage to a Hero

Landmarks Agency Confers Protection on Chinatown Monument

Above: The Kimlau War Memorial, at Chatham Square. Below: Lieutenant Benjamin Ralph Kimlau (1918 – 1944)

The City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) has granted legally protected status on the Kimlau War Memorial, a granite ceremonial arch located in Chinatown, at the convergence of Chatham Square, Oliver Street, and East Broadway. This designation, made official at the LPC’s June 22 meeting, marks New York’s first individual landmark to commemorate the role of Chinese-Americans in the City’s history.

The arch, which is designed to serve as a gateway to Chinatown, is named for Benjamin Ralph Kimlau, who grew up in Lower Manhattan and graduated from what is now known as the U.S. Army War College in 1937. He signed up for pilot training after the United States entered World War Two four years later.

The crew of Lieutenant Kimlau’s B-24 Liberator, who perished with him on March 5, 1944\

Assigned to the South Pacific as part of the 380th Bomb Group (nicknamed the Flying Circus), Lieutenant Kimlau and the nine-man crew of his B-24 Liberator were ordered on March 5, 1944 to attack enemy positions on Los Negros Island, as part of the larger campaign to retake the Admiralty Islands from the Japanese. The battle was won by the Americans, but Lieutenant Kimlau and his entire crew were killed when their plane was shot down.

The monument that honors Lieutenant Kimlau (and all Chinese-Americans who have died defending the United States) was erected in 1962, as a gift to the City from the Chinatown American Legion post. It was designed by Poy Gum Lee, a renowned architect who built a career designing buildings in the Chinese community.

Veterans from the Chinatown post of the American Legion gather to remember sacrifices made by Chinese-Americans in defense of the United States

As the LPC notes in its profile of the monument, “the Kimlau War Memorial’s Chinese modern design reflects the diverse character of its location, situated between the oldest section of Chinatown near Mott, Pell, and Doyers streets dating to the late 19th century, and the stretch of East Broadway towards the Manhattan Bridge that has been a flourishing commercial corridor for the community since Chinese immigration increased in the 1970s.”

Matthew Fenton

Lower Manhattan Greenmarkets are open

Tribeca Greenmarket

Greenwich St & Chambers St

Every Wednesday & Saturday, 8am-3pm

Food Scrap Collection: Saturdays, 8am-1pm

Bowling Green Greenmarket

Broadway & Whitehall St

Every Tuesday & Thursday, 8am-5pm

Food Scrap Collection: Tuesdays only, 8am-11am

The Greenmarket at Oculus Plaza, City Hall Greenmarket,

and Staten Island Ferry Greenmarket are temporarily closed.

CLASSIFIEDS & PERSONALS

Swaps & Trades, Respectable Employment, Lost and Found

To place a listing, contact editor@ebroadsheet.com

Don’t Pay the Ferryman

Lower Manhattan residents once again have access to the ever-popular weekend summer ferry to Red Hook.

Provided by NY Waterway, the free service is nominally about providing access to Ikea, but also offers the bonus of a slew of waterfront restaurants and parks within walking distance of the furniture store.

The service departs from two Downtown locations (Pier 11/Wall Street and the Battery Park City ferry terminal) starting at 11:00 am.

For more information, please browse: www.NYWaterway.com.

Cry Me a River

The Battery Park City Authority’s highly regarded summer music festival, River & Blues, which has presented blues, folk, and roots music in Wagner Parkfor 20 years is returning with the Grammy Award-winning South Carolina-based quintet, Ranky Tanky (July 22), and Rev Sekou and the Freedom Fighters (July 29), who will perform their Delta Blues-infused anthems for social justice.

Each Thursday evening show begins at 6:00 pm, with DJ Susan Z. Anthony spinning an eclectic mix that sets the stage for the performance that follows. Admission is free.

Today’s Calendar

Tuesday July 20

10:3AM

Irish Hunger Memorial

Exercise in disguise! Join in on the fun featuring easy-to-follow Latin dance choreography while working on your balance, coordination and range of motion. Come prepared for enthusiastic instruction, a little strength training, and a lot of fun. Participants are expected to bring their own equipment: weights, water bottle, hand towel, etc. Masks required. Participants must maintain six feet of physical distance between households. All programs will be held in accordance with New York State reopening guidance. Battery Park City Authority Free

2PM

Museum of Jewish Heritage

Growing up in Hungary during the Holocaust, Erika Hecht was a “hidden child,” one of many Jewish children who were provided with false identities and survived the war as Christians. But when the village where they were hiding became a battlefield between the German and Soviet armies, Erika and her mother were forced to flee, hiding in damp cellars, seeking shelter on the porch of a house occupied by soldiers, and living in mountainside caves. It wasn’t until many years after the war that Erika reconnected with her Jewish identity. Erika’s harrowing story is the subject of her new memoir Don’t Ask My Name: A Hidden Child’s Tale of Survival, published by East End Press in June 2021. Join the Museum for a program exploring Erika’s experiences during the Holocaust and her struggle with identity, reinvention, and resilience. She will be interviewed by the Museum’s Senior Public Programs Producer Ari Goldstein. $10

6:30PM

Fraunces Tavern Museum

Round up your history-loving friends and test your knowledge of the American Revolution at one of the oldest taverns in New York City. Winners will be awarded prizes from the Fraunces Tavern Museum.

7:30PM

China Institute

Street Angels, the most celebrated Chinese musical of the 1930s, was released in Shanghai in July 1937 just as full-scale war broke out with Japan in northern China. Its themes—sexual and economic exploitation offset by fun and camaraderie—were at once shocking and entertaining. Set in the slums of Shanghai in 1935, the film presents the precarious lives of the urban lower classes in a tragicomic mode. War looms in the background of this story of a refugee singer. The Japanese army was soon to invade Shanghai, but, to accommodate China’s censors, the film never mentions the enemy by name. The film showcases the popularity of film musicals, the charm and charisma of its “golden voice” star, the multiple influences of Hollywood on the Chinese talkies, and the violent realities of 1930s China. In Mandarin, with English subtitles. In person screening at China Institute today, with a virtual lecture about the film tomorrow. A link to view each film online is also available for viewing at home. Free

Hostile to Hostels

CB1 Endorses Plan to Limit Hotel Development

Community Board 1 (CB1) is getting behind a proposal by the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio to limit future hotel development. Although this proposal, if adopted, would affect communities throughout the five boroughs, it would have a particularly strong impact in Lower Manhattan, where hotel development has been rampant in recent years.

From 2007 to 2020, the City as a whole added more than 54,000 new hotel rooms — an increase 73 percent increase over the previously existing inventory. A disproportionate share of this growth took place in the square mile below Chambers Street.

The Battery Park City Authority asks that the public not interact with or feed the urban wildlife in the neighborhood’s parks and green spaces, and at the waterfront.

9/11 Victim Compensation Fund Report

More Survivors than Responders Now are Submitting Claims

The September 11th Victim Compensation Fund (VCF) has released its annual report for 2020, which documents some significant developments.

Over the course of its ten years of operation thus far, the VCF has awarded $7.76 billion to more than 34,400 individuals who have suffered death or personal injury as a result of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and their aftermath. The vast majority of these injuries take the form of illness caused by exposure to toxic materials that were released by the destruction of the World Trade Center.

Tribeca Sailing offers two-hour private sailing charters of the Harbor, setting sail five times each day, seven days a week. Captain David Caporale, the owner and captain of Tribeca Sailing and a Lower Manhattan resident, also offers private sailing charters for a maximum of six passengers, for those having a staycation, or celebrating birthdays, anniversaries and other special occasions. His sailboat, Tara, is a 1964 custom Hinckley Pilot 35. Hinckleys are noted as a Rolls Royce of sailboats, based on their solid construction, the artistry of the wood trim, and other design features. For more information or to book a sail, contact David Caporale 917-593-2281 or David@Tribecasailing.com

TODAY IN HISTORY

July 20

A portrait of astronaut Buzz Aldrin, taken by his fellow astronaut Neil Armstrong, standing on the lunar surface on July 20, 1969.

AD 70 – Siege of Jerusalem: Titus, son of emperor Vespasian, storms the Fortress of Antonia north of the Temple Mount. The Roman army is drawn into street fights with the Zealots.

1592 – During the first Japanese invasion of Korea, Japanese forces led by Toyotomi Hideyoshi captured Pyongyang, although they were ultimately unable to hold it.

1831 – Seneca and Shawnee people agree to relinquish their land in western Ohio for 60,000 acres west of the Mississippi River.

1903 – The Ford Motor Company ships its first automobile.

1934 – Labor unrest in the U.S.: Police in Minneapolis fire upon striking truck drivers, during the Minneapolis Teamsters Strike of 1934, killing two and wounding sixty-seven.

1934 – West Coast waterfront strike: In Seattle, police fire tear gas on and club 2,000 striking longshoremen. The governor of Oregon calls out the National Guard to break a strike on the Portland docks.

1940 – California opens its first freeway, the Arroyo Seco Parkway.

1951 – King Abdullah I of Jordan is assassinated by a Palestinian while attending Friday prayers in Jerusalem.

1960 – The Polaris missile is successfully launched from a submarine, the USS George Washington, for the first time.

1969 – Apollo program: Apollo 11’s crew successfully makes the first manned landing on the Moon in the Sea of Tranquility. Americans Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first humans to walk on the Moon six and a half hours later.

1977 – The Central Intelligence Agency releases documents under the Freedom of Information Act revealing it had engaged in mind-control experiments.

1997 – The fully restored USS Constitution (a.k.a. Old Ironsides) celebrates its 200th birthday by setting sail for the first time in 116 years.

2012 – James Holmes opened fire at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, killing 12 and injuring 70 others.

2015 – The United States and Cuba resume full diplomatic relations after five decades.

2017 – O. J. Simpson is granted parole to be released from prison after serving nine years of a 33-year sentence after being convicted of armed robbery in Las Vegas.

Births

356 BC – Alexander the Great, Macedonian king (d. 323 BC)

1304 – Petrarch, Italian poet and scholar (d. 1374)

1822 – Gregor Mendel, Austro-German monk, geneticist and botanist (d. 1884)

1847 – Max Liebermann, German painter and academic (d. 1935)

1849 – Robert Anderson Van Wyck, American lawyer and politician, 91st Mayor of New York City (d. 1918)

1919 – Edmund Hillary, New Zealand mountaineer and explorer (d. 2008)

1920 – Elliot Richardson, American lieutenant and politician, 11th United States Secretary of Defense (d. 1999)

1943 – Chris Amon, New Zealand race car driver (d. 2016)

Deaths

1704 – Peregrine White, English-American farmer and soldier (b. 1620)

1937 – Guglielmo Marconi, Italian physicist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1874)

2013 – Helen Thomas, American journalist and author (b. 1920)

courtesy historyorb.com, Wikipedia and NYTimes.com and other internet sources

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