The BroadsheetDAILY – 1/27/22 – Data for Fifth Precinct Show Crime Rates Remain Steady

The Broadsheet: Lower Manhattan’s Local Newspaper

All Quiet in the Quinary

Data for Fifth Precinct Show Crime Rates Remain Steady

The NYPD’s Fifth Precinct, located at Elizabeth Street (between Canal and Bayard Streets) covers the Lower Manhattan neighborhoods of Chinatown, Little Italy, and the Bowery.

While Lower Manhattan neighborhoods like Battery Park City, Tribeca, and the Financial District (all of which fall into the NYPD’s First Precinct) take pride in being among the lowest-crime areas in New York, this status is eclipsed by the neighboring Fifth Precinct, which encompasses Chinatown, Little Italy, and the Bowery.

Bounded by the East River waterfront between the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges, Pike and Allen Streets on the east, Houston Street on the north, Broadway on the west, and a line extending from the Brooklyn Bridge through City Hall Park on the south, the Fifth Precinct saw a total or 796 crimes in the year 2021, or the equivalent of 15.1 crimes per 1,000 residents. These metrics are considerably better than those for the First Precinct, which experienced 1,380 crimes during the same period, or 20.7 crimes per 1,000 residents.

During the year that just ended, according to data from the NYPD, the Fifth Precinct logged five murders, along with 20 rapes, 74 robberies, and 133 felony assaults. These were in addition to 112 burglaries, 421 grand larcenies, and 31 grand larcenies of a motor vehicle.

While these data points contrast favorably with those for the First Precinct, they also point to rises for several categories of crime within the Fifth Precinct, when compared with the previous year. Chinatown, Little Italy, and the Bowery saw four additional murders and five additional rapes between 2020 and 2021, while there were seven additional robberies, but one fewer felony assault. The year-over-year comparisons also show a sharp decline in burglaries (which diminished by 41 percent), accompanied by fluctuations in grand larcenies (which jumped by 18 percent) and grand larcenies of a motor vehicle (up by 29 percent).

Taking a longer view, however, the Fifth Precinct in the year 1990 saw sharply higher incidences of almost every major category of crime than in recent decades. During the year that Iraq invaded Kuwait, the Fifth Precinct clocked a total of 4,776 crimes, with 19 murders, 10 rapes, 983 robberies, 251 felony assaults, 863 burglaries, 1,829 grand larcenies, and 521 grand larcenies of a motor vehicle.

Matthew Fenton

Chain Reaction

Hundreds of Local Storefronts Remain Rented to Corporate Brands, While Small Businesses Struggle, and Landlords Warehouse Empty Space

A new report from the Center for an Urban Future (CUF), a public policy think tank that uses data-driven research to bring attention to overlooked issues, documents that the proliferation of chain stores in Lower Manhattan has decreased slightly during the past 12 months, while the same tally for the City as whole ticked upward.

The CUF report, “State of the Chains, 2021,” defines chain stores (or “national retailers”) as businesses that have, “at least two locations in New York City and at least one location outside the City limits.” This analysis documents that there were 282 such stores in Lower Manhattan at the end of 2021, a slender retrenchment (of one-fifth of one percent) from the total of 288 at the close of 2020. Both of these measures pale, however, alongside the same figure for the year 2019, prior to the onset of the COVID pandemic, when there were 351 chain stores Downtown. The drop from the pre-pandemic metric to current levels represents a decline of 18 percent.

During the same period of comparison (2021 versus 2020), the tally of chain stores in Manhattan overall grew by 3.4 percent, and for the City as a whole by 2.7 percent.

For small businesses, the outlook appears to be bleaker. To read more…

Baruch Dayan Ha’Emet: Sheldon Silver

Former Assembly Speaker Who Represented Lower Manhattan Before Facing Prison Dies at 77

Sheldon Silver, the longtime Speaker of the State Assembly, who fell from power in 2015 and was imprisoned on federal corruption charges in 2020, died on Monday afternoon at age 77.

First elected to the State legislature in 1976, Mr. Silver represented Lower Manhattan in Albany. After 15 years in the Assembly, he moved up to the chairmanship of its powerful Ways and Means Committee. In 1994 (upon the death of the previous Speaker, Saul Weprin), he was elected to lead the chamber. Less than a year later, Republican George Pataki succeeded longtime Governor Mario Cuomo. That change had the effect of anointing Mr. Silver the most powerful Democratic Party elected official in New York State. Through the tenures of three mayors and six governors, nothing wanted by any occupant of City Hall or the Executive Mansion (from either party) got done without Mr. Silver’s consent.

Letter

To the Editor:

Thank you for a well-written obituary for Sheldon Silver ( The BroadsheetDAILY, 25 Jan 2022)

Although his conviction may have been warranted, I believe his sentence was manifestly unjust. During his term in office, Sheldon Silver did a great service to this community, and worked tirelessly to help many thousands of his constituents.

For that, I had—and still have—great respect for this man. I think it was a tragedy, and an abuse of justice and common decency to allow this man to die in prison without pardon or parole while terminally ill.

-Ro Sheffe

Mixed Metrics

Lower Manhattan Rentals Increase in Price, While Condo Sales Drift

A new study from the online real estate database company, StreetEasy, shows that the cost for renting an apartment in three Lower Manhattan neighborhoods spiraled during the fourth quarter of 2021, while the fluctuation in purchase prices was more complicated.

For tenants, median asking rents jumped (relative to the same period one year earlier) by 38.7 percent in the Financial District (to $4,300), 20.8 percent in Tribeca (to $7,700) and 13.1 percent in Battery Park City (to $4,441) per month.

For those wishing to purchase a condominium or cooperative, the picture was more mixed. In Tribeca, the median asking price climbed by 12.5 percent (to $4.49 million), but the median closing prices rose by a more modest 6.6 percent ($3.3 million). In FiDi, the median ask rose by 7.2 percent (to $1.28 million), but median closing prices actually fell by 0.2 percent, to $1.27 million. And in Battery Park City, the median asking price dropped by 8.8 percent (to $1 million), while the median closing price dipped by 13.8 percent (to $844,500).

Eyes to the Sky

January 24 – February 4, 2022

Halfway to spring, be mesmerized by winter stars, captivated by crescent moon, planets

Winter skies are the most inviting to naked eye stargazers, and for including children when the brightest stars in the heavens appear in early evening, before bedtime.

The mighty constellation, Orion the Hunter, floats above the southeast horizon as darkness gathers, by about 6pm. Fiercely twinkling Sirius the Dog Star rises around 5:30pm and appears above obstructed views by 6:30pm. Sirius, the brightest star in Earth’s skies, throws off magnificent flashes of full-spectrum colors. The constellation Canis major, aka the Great Dog, and Orion trace an arc from east-southeast to west-southwest, where they set at about 1:30am. See the brightest stars arrive in the south by about 9pm and over the Hudson River during the nighttime hours.

Groundhog Day, February 2, marks the halfway point between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox.

The Calendar

THURSDAY JANUARY 27

10AM

Museum of Jewish Heritage

In the aftermath of the Holocaust, many Jewish writers turned to pen and paper to reckon with the enormity of their loss. The stories they wrote—both fiction and nonfiction—bring to life the darkest moments of human history at the same time as they remind us of the human capacity for renewal and regeneration. On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, join the Museum for a reading of three such short stories: “The Road of No Return” by Rachel Häring Korn read by Jackie Hoffman, “The Shawl” by Cynthia Ozick read by Mili Avital, and “A Wedding in Brownsville” by Isaac Bashevis Singer. The program will premiere at 10 AM Eastern Time and be available all day.Free; suggested $10 donation,

12NOON

China Institute

“Long live Chairman Mao” was the first English language sentence the Lijia Zhang ever learned. “Foreign language is a tool of class struggle” was the second. On January 27, the author of Socialism is Great and Lotus, will take us back in time to the missile factory where she worked in the early 1980s, and discuss how learning English at night helped open her mind and break out into a career as an internationally acclaimed writer and journalist. She’ll share how English has helped millions of Chinese forge important bonds with the world, and how attitudes toward learning English are changing today.

CLASSIFIEDS & PERSONALS

Swaps & Trades, Respectable Employment, Lost and Found

To place a listing, contact editor@ebroadsheet.com

Sending Love to Janet Lovell

Last summer, Janet Lovell—“Ms. Janet” to her many young charges—retired after 35 years at the Battery Park City Day Nursery. As she stood outside the nursery school on her last day, kids of all ages and their parents came by to reminisce and wish her well. As planned, Janet soon retired to her native Belize.

In October, her sister Denise visited Janet and her husband in Belize. On their way to a resort to celebrate, they were in a car accident. Denise was killed and Janet sustained a devastating spinal cord injury.

Ms. Janet is back in New York for medical attention. If you would like to send good wishes to this wonderful woman who has meant so much to many of our children, the nursery school will collect notes, cards, letters and artwork and forward them to her. Please mail (or drop off) your messages to Janet Lovell c/o the Battery Park City Day Nursery, 215 South End Ave, New York, NY 10280, and administrative director Judy Sklover will forward them to her. If you have any questions, please email the nursery at info@bpcdaynursery.com and address your messages to Judy Sklover.

A fundraiser to help Janet pay mounting expenses has been set up by parents of her former charges.

Curb, His Enthusiasm?

Plutocrat with Passion for Historic Properties Buys American Stock Exchange Building

A Lower Manhattan landmark that nobody seems to know what to do with has been purchased by a billionaire known for buying properties that nobody knows what to do with.

Ron Burkle, who made his first fortune buying and consolidating chains of supermarkets in California during the 1980s, paid $155 million in October for the American Stock Exchange Building at 86 Trinity Place, which has been closed since 2008.

De Gustibus

Annual Food Fest Puts Lavish Meals within Reach of Thrifty Epicures

New York’s annual food celebration, Restaurant Week continues for five weeks, until Saturday (February 13).

For those disinclined to venture above Canal Street, the goods news is that of all the 481 establishments participating throughout the City this year, more than five percent are located in Lower Manhattan.

Lower Manhattan Greenmarkets

Tribeca Greenmarket

Greenwich Street & Chambers Street

Every Wednesday & Saturday, 8am-3pm

Food Scrap Collection: Saturdays, 8am-1pm

Open Saturdays and Wednesdays year round

Bowling Green Greenmarket

Green Greenmarket at Bowling Green

Broadway & Whitehall St

Open Tuesday and Thursdays, year-round

Market Hours: 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Compost Program: 8 a.m. – 11 a.m.

The Bowling Green Greenmarket brings fresh offerings from local farms to Lower Manhattan’s historic Bowling Green plaza. Twice a week year-round stop by to load up on the season’s freshest fruit, crisp vegetables, beautiful plants, and freshly baked loaves of bread, quiches, and pot pies.

Greenmarket at the Oculus

Oculus Plaza, Fulton St and Church St

CLOSED FOR THE SEASON

The Outdoor Fulton Stall Market

91 South St., bet. Fulton & John Sts.

212-349-1380 info@fultonstallmarket.org

Fulton Street cobblestones between South and Front Sts. across from McNally Jackson Bookstore.

Locally grown produce from Rogowski Farm, Breezy Hill Orchard, and other farmers and small-batch specialty food products, sold directly by their producers. Producers vary from week to week.

SNAP/EBT/P-EBT, Debit/Credit, and Farmers Market Nutrition Program checks accepted at all farmers markets.

TODAY IN HISTORY

January 27

Chaffee, White, and Grissom training in a simulator of their command module cabin, January 19, 1967

AD 98 – Trajan succeeds his adoptive father Nerva as Roman emperor; under his rule the Roman Empire would reach its maximum extent.

1343 – Pope Clement VI issues the papal bull Unigenitus to justify the power of the pope and the use of indulgences. Nearly 200 years later, Martin Luther would protest this.

1606 – Gunpowder Plot: The trial of Guy Fawkes and other conspirators begins, ending with their execution on January 31.

1825 – The U.S. Congress approves Indian Territory (in what is present-day Oklahoma), clearing the way for forced relocation of the Eastern Indians on the “Trail of Tears”.

1880 – Thomas Edison receives a patent for his incandescent lamp.

1943 – World War II: The Eighth Air Force sorties ninety-one B-17s and B-24s to attack the U-boat construction yards at Wilhelmshaven, Germany. This was the first American bombing attack on Germany.

1967 – Apollo program: Astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee are killed in a fire during a test of their Apollo 1 spacecraft at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida.

1967 – Cold War: The Soviet Union, the United States, and the United Kingdom sign the Outer Space Treaty in Washington, D.C., banning deployment of nuclear weapons in space, and limiting use of the Moon and other celestial bodies to peaceful purposes.

1973 – The Paris Peace Accords officially end the Vietnam War. Colonel William Nolde is killed in action becoming the conflict’s last recorded American combat casualty.

1980 – Through cooperation between the U.S. and Canadian governments, six American diplomats secretly escape hostilities in Iran in the culmination of the Canadian Caper.

1983 – The pilot shaft of the Seikan Tunnel, the world’s longest sub-aqueous tunnel (53.85 km) between the Japanese islands of Honshū and Hokkaidō, breaks through.

2011 – Arab Spring: The Yemeni Revolution begins as over 16,000 protestors demonstrate in Sana’a.

1756 – 1791 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Austrian pianist and composer

Births

1585 – Hendrick Avercamp, Dutch painter (d. 1634)

1708 – Grand Duchess Anna Petrovna of Russia (d. 1728)

1756 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Austrian pianist and composer (d. 1791)

1850 – John Collier, English painter and author (d. 1934)

1859 – Wilhelm II, German Emperor (d. 1941)

1900 – Hyman G. Rickover, American admiral (d. 1986)

1908 – William Randolph Hearst, Jr., American journalist and publisher (d. 1993)

1919 – Ross Bagdasarian, Sr., singer-songwriter, pianist, producer, and actor, created Alvin and the Chipmunks (d. 1972)

1948 – Mikhail Baryshnikov, Russian-American dancer, choreographer, and actor

Deaths

947 – Zhang Yanze, Chinese general and governor

1592 – Gian Paolo Lomazzo, Italian painter (b. 1538)

1596 – Francis Drake, English captain and explorer (b. 1540)

1851 – John James Audubon, French-American ornithologist and painter (b. 1789)

1901 – Giuseppe Verdi, Italian composer (b. 1813)

1910 – Thomas Crapper, English plumber and businessman (b. 1836)

1967 – Crew of Apollo 1

Roger B. Chaffee, American pilot, engineer, and astronaut (b. 1935)

Gus Grissom, American pilot and astronaut (b. 1926)

Ed White, American colonel, engineer, and astronaut (b. 1930)

2010 – J. D. Salinger, American soldier and author (b. 1919)

2014 – Pete Seeger, American singer-songwriter, guitarist and activist (b. 1919)

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