The Broadsheet – Lower Manhattan’s Local Newspaper
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Migrant Kids Scarce in Lower Manhattan
Downtown One of Three Communities in City Where Local Public Schools Have Not Absorbed Influx
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Highly regarded public schools in Lower Manhattan, such as Battery Park City’s PS/IS 276, have yet to be designated to take in children from the wave of homeless migrant families who have recently arrived in New York.
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Lower Manhattan is one of only three communities throughout the five boroughs of New York City where public schools have taken no students from the influx of more than 6,100 homeless migrant children shipped to New York from states like Florida and Texas in recent weeks. In a story first reported by Gothamist, the 26 public schools within Community District 1 (a collection of neighborhoods encompassing 1.5 square miles, bounded roughly by Canal, Baxter, and Pearl Streets, and the Brooklyn Bridge) have been called upon to absorb no students from migrant families who have been placed in the City’s homeless shelter system.
By contrast, the 41 public schools in nearby Community District Four (which stretches from 14th to 59th Street on Manhattan’s West Side, in a jagged line formed by Sixth and Eighth Avenues) have taken 429 migrant students, according to a Gothamist analysis of data from the City’s Department of Education. This is the highest total for any Community District in the City.
The only other communities anywhere in New York City to have absorbed no children from this wave are Brooklyn’s Community District 18 (encompassing the neighborhoods of Marine Park, and Canarsie, on the southern shore of Kings County) and Queens’s Community District 11 (comprised of Auburndale, Douglaston and Little Neck, in the northeastern corner of that borough).
The reasons for this are likely to be nuanced. City officials appear not to be attempting to siphon migrant families into (or away from) particular communities. Rather, they have inevitably directed the preponderance of these families to neighborhoods that have available homeless shelter capacity. Because Lower Manhattan contains relatively few shelters (and in particular, almost none designed to accommodate families, rather than single adult residents), such families are most often being guided elsewhere.
In a separate (but related) development, the Gateway Plaza Tenants Association has been collecting coats and cold-weather clothing since last week, as part of a drive organized by Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, to supply homeless migrant families (many of whom have arrived New York with only the clothes they were wearing) with outerwear appropriate to New York’s winter climate. This effort has garnered more than 300 clothing items, which will be transferred to Mr. Levine’s office today.
Matthew Fenton
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Si Monumentum Requiris Circumspice
If you seek his monument, look around.
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It is with deep sadness that the Broadsheet must announce the passing of its co-founder, Robert Simko, who died last Thursday morning, November 10, at age 68, after a long illness. He is survived by his wife (and Broadsheet co-founder), Alison, and their two children, Lucy and Theo. Plans for a memorial service will be announced soon. In the meantime, Robert will be remembered as someone who made better every life that he touched, and who helped build the fledgling community that he called home by giving it the gift of a voice.
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Arrivederci Benvenuti
Highly Regarded Delicatessen and Pizzeria Closes Doors
Another small business that was a building block of community in Battery Park City has been driven to extinction by the turbulent local real estate market, coupled with the lingering economic turmoil unleashed by the pandemic. Read more…
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Where There’s Smoke…
Convenience Stores Raise Concerns about Neighborhood Going to Pot
A new convenience store on Battery Place is sparking concerns about the possible sale of smoking and vaping products, particularly because the shop is located close to a local school, PS/IS 276. The store, which bills itself as Battery Park Convenience, is located at 98 Battery Place, between West Thames Street and Third Place. This places it along the route that the majority of students at the kindergarten-through-eighth grade facility take to and from school each day. Read more…
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Wagnerian Woes
Hotel Operator Implodes Amid Allegations of Loan Default, Fraud
Even by the standards of the distressed Lower Manhattan hotel industry, the spiraling adversity faced by the owners of the shuttered Wagner Hotel in Battery Park City is remarkable. On Thursday, the current owners of the hotel were sued by the company that sold them the property in 2018, which also provided a $96 million loan to enable the transaction. In a story first reported by Crain’s New York, Urban Commons (the current owners, who purchased the hotel for $147 million) is facing a court claim by Westbrook Partners (the former owners, who lent Urban Commons the $96 million) for defaulting on that loan. Read more…
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Ask and You Might Receive
Push for Seaport Community Center at Site of Demolished Waterfront Building
Community Board 1 (CB1) is reviving calls for a waterfront community center in South Street Seaport at the site of the New Market Building (which was demolished last fall). Read more…
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Monday, November 14
10am
Meet at the Netherland Memorial Flagpole, Battery Park
Learn about the park’s history, many landmarks and monuments, SeaGlass Carousel, gardens designed by Piet Oudolf, and more. Free.
2pm-3:30pm
6 River Terrace
Weekly walk and writing session led by poet Jon Curley. Free.
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Tuesday, November 15
10:30am-11:30am
6 River Terrace
Easy-to-follow Latin dance choreography. Free.
1pm
St. Paul’s Chapel
Theo Walentiny Trio. Free.
3:30pm-5pm
Rockefeller Park
Play the popular strategy game while getting pointers and advice from an expert. For ages 5 and up (adults welcome).
6pm
South Street Seaport Museum, 12 Fulton Street
Slides and stories shared in this presentation will illustrate the history of the Fish Market, from its 1822 founding as a neighborhood retail market, through its time as the nation’s largest fish and seafood wholesaling center, to its 2005 relocation to the Bronx.Advanced registration is required. Free.
7:30pm
6 River Terrace
Learn how to make the perfect pie dough with a chef-instructor from the Institute of Culinary Education. Try a sample and get tips and tricks on making homemade dough and shaping fancy crusts. Free.
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Lower Manhattan Greenmarkets
Tribeca Greenmarket
Greenwich Street & Chambers Street
Wednesdays and Saturdays, 8am-3pm (compost program: Saturdays, 8am-1pm)
Bowling Green Greenmarket
Broadway & Whitehall St
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 8am-5pm (compost program: 8am-11am)
The Outdoor Fulton Stall Market
91 South Street, between Fulton & John Streets
Indoor market: Monday through Saturday,11:30am-5pm
CSA pick-up: Thursday, 4pm-6pm; Friday, 11:30-5pm
Outdoor market: Saturdays, 11:30am-5pm
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Today in History
November 14
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Today is the birthday of Buckwheat Zydeco (Stanley Dural, Jr.), one of the few accordion players to hit the big time. Have a listen here.
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1770 – James Bruce discovers what he believes to be the source of the Nile.
1851 – Moby-Dick, a novel by Herman Melville is published. Melville was born at 6 Pearl Street and grew up at 55 Cortlandt Street.
1889 – Pioneering journalist Nellie Bly (aka Elizabeth Cochrane) begins an attempt to travel around the world in less than 80 days. She completes the trip in 72 days.
1908 – Albert Einstein presents his quantum theory of light
1914 – The Ottoman Empire declares war against Britain, France, Russia, Serbia and Montenegro during the early months of World War I.
1960 – Ruby Bridges becomes the first black child to attend an all-white elementary school in Louisiana.
1982 – Polish Solidarity chairman Lech Wałęsa is freed from prison after having been incarcerated for 11 months. The next year, he is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
2018 – Attempt to move 720,000 Rohingya back to Myanmar from Bangladeshrefugee camps amid international criticism. They refuse to go.
Births
1765 – Robert Fulton, engineer, invented the steamboat (d. 1815)
1840 – Claude Monet, French painter (d. 1926)
1889 – Jawaharlal Nehru, lawyer, first Prime Minister of India (d. 1964)
1908 – Joseph McCarthy, lawyer, and politician (d. 1957)
1922 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Egyptian diplomat, sixth Secretary General of the United Nations (d. 2016)
1947 – P. J. O’Rourke, American political satirist and journalist (d. 2022)
1947 – Buckwheat Zydeco (Stanley Dural, Jr.), accordion player (d. 2016)
1948 – Charles, Prince of Wales
1954 – Condoleezza Rice, academic, 66th US Secretary of State
Deaths
1864 – Franz Müller, German tailor and murderer (b. 1840)
1915 – Booker T. Washington, educator, essayist and historian (b. 1856)
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The Broadsheet Inc. eBroadsheet.com editor @ ebroadsheet.com ©2022 All Rights Reserved All photos © Robert Simko 2022 unless otherwise credited
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