The BroadsheetDAILY ~ 3/5/21 ~ Attempting to Prevent a Monumental Mistake

A Satiety of Cenotaphs

Attempting to Prevent a Monumental Mistake

Governor Andrew Cuomo (left) unveils the Mother Cabrini Memorial (overlooking South Cove) in October 2020. The statue portrays the Catholic saint and two children, precariously afloat in a paper dinghy crafted from folded paper, representing her devotion to the young, and her many voyages, often against daunting odds.

Community Board 1 is trying to preclude the possibility that the inevitable monument to New Yorkers who have perished as a result of the pandemic coronavirus might be situated in Battery Park City.

This is not an idle concern. Governor Andrew Cuomo has recently ordered the construction of two similar memorials within the community: the Mother Cabrini Memorial (which opened last October, and is located overlooking South Cove) and another to commemorate Puerto Rican victims of 2017’s Hurricane Maria (which is now under construction at Chambers Street and River Terrace).

Mr. Cuomo appears to have settled on Battery Park City for his recent spurt of memorial building, at least in part, because it is one of the few areas of New York City that, as chief executive of the State government, he controls directly. The Lower Manhattan location also effectively guarantees significant media coverage and public visibility for both projects. This is in spite of the fact that Battery Park City has scant significance in the narratives of Puerto Rican or Italian-American immigrants to New York, and is home to very few residents living below the poverty line. Similarly, the neighborhood has one of the lowest death tolls from COVID-19 of any community in the City.

A resolution enacted at CB1’s February 23 meeting notes that, “while we are receptive and thankful for the suggestion that Battery Park City should host a memorial to the victims of the pandemic, there are so many other New York City communities that were more deeply affected and impacted and we believe that should be reflected in the selection of a site for any memorial.” The same measure observes that, “the siting of the monument should be as carefully considered as the monument itself, respecting and honoring the communities that bore the brunt of this cruel virus.”

Designating Battery Park City as a reliquary for monuments has proved controversial. In a 2019 meeting of CB1’s Battery Park City Committee, Tammy Meltzer asked, “does the community get to have any kind of say in this conversation, or the chance to weigh in”?

“Always,” replaced Nick Sbordone, vice president of community relations at the Battery Park City Authority (BPCA), in a reference to the BPCA’s concerted effort in recent years to increase transparency, consult with residents on major decisions, and include community leaders in planning. Whether this commitment is shared by the Cuomo administration, however, remains an open question.

“But we did a resolution saying we didn’t want it in Battery Park City,” Ms. Meltzer said, in reference to the planned Hurricane Maria Memorial. This measure, enacted in December, 2018, observed that, “all public land within Battery Park City has already been designated for uses on which the community relies;” that, “Battery Park City has more memorials per square foot than any other neighborhood in New York City;” and that, “there are numerous locations within the State that could be better suited.”

A rendering of the Hurricane Maria Memorial, which is slated for completion early next year, will be located near the corner of Chambers Street and River Terrace. The profusion of monument building in Battery Park City has raised concerns among community leaders.

The same resolution called upon Mr. Cuomo to set up “a process [of] communication and transparency with the community prior to the placement of any new memorials in Battery Park City—or anywhere else in Lower Manhattan.” Neither of the commissions overseeing the planned memorials ever held a single public meeting, invited comment from residents, or liaised in any way with CB1 before the decisions to locate their respective memorials within Battery Park City were announced.

On a related note, the one possible memorial that would likely resonate on a local level has never been planned, funded, or even seriously discussed. “Can you tell me where in Battery Park City there is a memorial to anybody who lived in Battery Park City and was lost on September 11, 2001?” Ms. Meltzer asked at the 2019 CB1 meeting. “There is nothing here that represents the residents who were here on September 11. And yet, there’s a hurricane memorial coming. It could be beautiful, and I’m sure it will be very interesting. But it would be nice if the community got to have some input.”

Battery Park City activists and leaders have a record of opposing plans for additional memorials that they believed conflicted with the interests of the community. These include successfully derailing proposals to locate two relics of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 within the neighborhood: the so-called “Survivors Staircase” (a flight of 38 steps that once led from Vesey Street to the World Trade Center plaza above) and the Sphere (a metal globe sculpture originally located on the plaza between the Twin Towers, and heavily damaged when they collapsed). Both were initially slated for relocation to sites within Battery Park City. But each was instead incorporated into plans for the new World Trade Center complex when the community objected to these proposals.

State officials have an equally long record of vetoing these concerns and locating within the community monuments that often seem calculated to curry favor with politically significant constituencies. One illustrative case in point is the Irish Hunger Memorial, which was dedicated in 2002, at the corner of North End Avenue and Vesey Street, in spite of the fact that Battery Park City has little discernible connection to the history of New York’s Irish-American community.

A further measure of this perceived disregard was evident in the October ceremony unveiling the Mother Cabrini Memorial: Not a single resident or community leader was invited to participate. Justine Cuccia, a co-founder of the grassroots organization Democracy for Battery Park City (which seeks a greater voice for residents in governing the community), observed, “this was one of those rare opportunities in politics that is easy to get right, and difficult to get wrong. You actually have to work at getting it wrong. But they still managed to drop the ball, by making clear that the Cuomo administration sees no role for people who live here in making decisions about this community.”

The resolution enacted by CB1 in February, “calls upon the State of New York and the City of New York to put their differences aside and come together on a design competition to allow New Yorkers and the world to have a place to honor the loss and sacrifice of too many people,” and argues that, “the location of such a memorial should be carefully selected to honor those communities that unjustly bore the brunt of this pandemic.”

Matthew Fenton

Editor’s note: Justine Cuccia is related to the reporter.

‘Please Resign’

Niou Calls Upon Cuomo to Step Down

State Assembly member Yuh-Line Niou, who represents Lower Manhattan in the Albany legislature, has a request for Governor Andrew Cuomo, amid a growing chorus of accusations related to alleged sexual harassment, an alleged cover-up of nursing home deaths resulting from the pandemic coronavirus, and alleged verbal abuse by the Governor of staff members and other elected officials: “Please resign.”  To read more…

Downtown Depreciates

Reports Show That Lower Manhattan Properties Are Dwindling in Value

A range of reports indicates that the Downtown real estate market has imploded in the wake of the recession brought on by the pandemic coronavirus. The Downtown Alliance’s “2020 Lower Manhattan Real Estate Year in Review” documents that office leasing fell by almost 70 percent from 2019 levels, to deeper troughs than those that followed the 2008/2009 financial crisis, while local office vacancies spiked to 20-year highs.

Perhaps the most radical undoing, however, was on the residential front. “According to our research, an estimated 40 percent of the local population left amid the pandemic,” To read more…

Make more music! Make more art!

Make more music! Make more art! For 30 years, the Church Street School for Music and Art has been helping downtowners do just that.

A week from tonight, on March 10, from 7:30pm to 8:30pm, the Church Street School is hosting The Event, Virtual, its annual fundraiser.

Last year’s partygoers fondly remember the 2020 Event as the last social function many attended before pandemic reality hit. This year, The Event takes place online, offering brilliant musical performances, special guest appearances, and auctions with live bidding. Attendees are invited to then cap the night off at a Zoom after-party.

Tickets and sponsorships are available at multiple price points, including a discounted ticket for families currently enrolled at Church Street School and school alums. View auction items here; get ticket details here.

Above, in a photograph taken before the pandemic, Lisa Ecklund-Flores, executive director of the Church Street School, stands at the school’s White Street front door and welcomes families inside.

CLASSIFIEDS & PERSONALS

Swaps & Trades, Respectable Employment, Lost and Found

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Today’s Downtown Calendar

Friday March 5

12NOON

China Institute

Learn and practice Mandarin, while engaging with Chinese literature, poetry, history and more with fellow enthusiasts. Participants will enjoy live, interactive learning sessions with our language and cultural experts from home. Free

5PM

Brookfield Place

Studio BFPL returns in partnership with New York Chinese Cultural Center. Experience intimate, one-of-a-kind, live performances that are socially distant, within the indoor spaces of Brookfield Place. Up to six people who have traveled together can expect to be entertained for up to 15 minutes. Registration opens on the Monday before each show at 10 AM. Free

A Guide To Lower Manhattan’s 2021 Light Installations

Winter is a little brighter in Lower Manhattan, where you can bask in a whole bunch of colorful light installations this season.

There are two Downtown Alliance-sponsored public art projects on loan from Amsterdam’s Light Art Collection at the public plaza adjacent to 85 Broad.

The sculpture “C/C,” designed by Singapore-based artist Angela Chong, is a bench for seating that transforms into a colorful LED light show at night.

“Talking Heads,” designed by Hungarian artist Viktor Vicsek, is made up of two massive heads dotted with 4,000 LED lights that change to reveal different facial expressions in conversation.

Another Alliance sponsored installation is Ziggy. At the public plaza at 200 Water Street, this interactive piece by design studio Hou de Sous uses cords tied to a steel structure illuminated by colorful lights to create exciting views of the surrounding landscape. You can enter the installation from all angles, and sit on the several “gateways” that serve as benches. At night, Ziggy’s lights add an inviting extra pop of brightness.

Head up Water Street to the Seaport and find “Electric Dandelions,” created by artist Abram Santa Cruz and LA-based art collective Liquid PXL and presented by The Howard Hughes Corporation. In daylight, the ten 28-foot steel-and-acrylic structures look like dandelion flowers; at night, LED lights turn the structures into colorful, rhythmic animations.

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Great Scott

Comptroller Renews Calls for BPCA to Commit Funds to NYCHA Upgrades

New York City Comptroller and mayoral candidate Scott Stringer is proposing to divert more than $400 million in excess revenue from the Battery Park City Authority to the cash-strapped New York City Housing Authority.

In a 27-point policy outline, “Housing Is a Right, Not a Privilege,” released on Thursday, Mr. Stringer proposes to, “reroute hundreds of millions from the Battery Park City Authority to NYCHA,” arguing that, “NYCHA’s needs are enormous, and it will take sustained commitment at every level of government to address them. To read more…

Beyond The Fringe

Two Extremists Face Charges for Online Threats

A pair of men for whom Lower Manhattan holds a troubling allure have been separately charged with making threats to assassinate public officials.

Rickey Johnson (who refers to himself as “Nigel Dawn Defarren” in online postings) was arrested February 11 on federal charges of using interstate communications to make threats, and an additional count of threating United States officials. To read more…

Wall Street’s Secret Santa:

“It was love right away”

Rest in Peace, Arturo Di Modica

Charging Bull, the monumental bronze sculpture secretly fabricated by artist Arturo Di Modica with $360,000 of his own money, and then plunked down on Broad Street in front of the New York Stock Exchange in the middle of the night.

Arturo Di Modica’s Charging Bull stands poised at the foot of Broadway, seemingly sizing up the Canyon of Heroes as a potential urban Pamplona. He feels so perfectly sited, it’s surprising to learn that he began his New York life somewhere else. The Bull holds a few other surprises too.

   On December 15, 1989, downtown New York woke up to find an 18-foot, 7,000-pound present below the 60-foot Christmas tree in front of the New York Stock Exchange. Unwrapped and without a card, no one knew who sent it—or how it got there. To read more

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.

Breakfast time for the Blue Jay  (Cyanocitta cristata)

Eyes to the Sky

February 22 – March 7, 2021

Sun’s return north, Lion springs tonight

It seems that we are born knowing that we can tell the time of day by the position of the Sun in the sky. The time of year is evident when we observe the changing location of the rising and setting Sun along the horizon, the trajectory of the Sun’s arc on the sky dome, and the length of day. In the illustration, February is represented by the third line. The whole image reflects our experience of the Sun’s northerly movement on the horizon from winter to summer solstice. We observe our star, the Sun, climb higher in the sky each day. On the vernal equinox, March 20, the sunrise point is due east on the skyline. To read more…

TODAY IN HISTORY

March 5

1953 – Joseph Stalin, the longest serving leader of the Soviet Union, dies at his Volynskoe dacha in Moscow from a cerebral hemorrhage.

1616 – Nicolaus Copernicus’s book On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres is added to the Index of Forbidden Books 73 years after it was first published.

1770 – Boston Massacre: Five Americans, including Crispus Attucks, are fatally shot by British troops in an event that would contribute to the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War five years later.

1933 – Great Depression: President Franklin D. Roosevelt declares a “bank holiday”, closing all U.S. banks and freezing all financial transactions.

1946 – Cold War: Winston Churchill coins the phrase “Iron Curtain” in his speech at Westminster College, Missouri.

1953 – Joseph Stalin, the longest serving leader of the Soviet Union, dies at his Volynskoe dacha in Moscow from a cerebral hemorrhage.

Births

1853 – Howard Pyle, American author and illustrator (d. 1911)

1898 – Zhou Enlai, first Premier of the People’s Republic of China (d. 1976)

1901 – Louis Kahn, American architect and academic (d. 1974)

1949 – Bernard Arnault, French businessman, philanthropist, and art collector

Deaths

1695 – Henry Wharton, English writer and librarian (b. 1664)

1945 – Lena Baker, African American maid and murderer (b. 1900)

1953 – Joseph Stalin, Soviet dictator and politician of Georgian descent, 2nd leader of the Soviet Union (b. 1878)

1982 – John Belushi, American actor (b. 1949)

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