The Broadsheet – Lower Manhattan’s Local Newspaper
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Getting to the Route of the Problem
CB1 Discusses BPCA Revamp of South End Avenue, Calls for ‘Soft Reboot’ of 2018 Plan
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South End Avenue, which functions as the equivalent of Main Street for Battery Park City’s southern neighborhood, has been the focus of a years-long effort to reach consensus on redesigning the thoroughfare.
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At the March 7 meeting of the Battery Park City Committee of Community Board 1 (CB1), the Battery Park City Authority (BPCA) announced that it is taking preliminary steps to move ahead with a controversial plan to reconfigure South End Avenue and West Thames Street. This project envisions safety improvements that narrow both South End Avenue and West Thames Street, widen nearby sidewalks, and relocate several bus stops.
Authority spokesman Nick Sbordone said, “we have for a number of years been working, hand in glove, with the Community Board, on the traffic conditions on South End Avenue and West Thames Street. This thoroughfare was built in the 1980s, and it was built probably larger than it needs to be given some of the uses of it in a residential neighborhood.”
“There was a very lengthy and comprehensive resolution that the Community Board passed in 2018, on concepts for what a redesigned South End Avenue and West Thames Street streetscape might look like,” he continued, “with widened sidewalks and narrower streets, and other ideas for pedestrian safety and beautifying the space. So we are now getting geared up to put out an RFP,” or Request for Proposals. “The RFP is to do the design, not to start the work yet,” he added. “We have taken all that feedback from the Resolution, which forms the basis for what would be the language in the RFP.”
Committee chair Justine Cuccia elaborated that the most recent version of the plan, from 2018, divided the concept into three sections: along South End Avenue from Liberty to Albany Streets, from Albany to West Thames Streets (also on South End Avenue), and West Thames Street itself. “Between Liberty and Albany Street is the area that needs the most work,” she explained, “because it is the most congested. On the Gateway side of the street, you can’t open the doors to the stores without being bumped off the street.”
“It’s the next section, around Rector Place,” Ms. Cuccia continued, “that has controversy associated with it. Since the resolution was written, there’s been a traffic light installed at South End and Rector, and there are stop signs that have been put in.”
Committee member Robin Forst observed that, “since this resolution was done, several years ago, there has been an incredible, incredible proliferation of black cars, but I don’t know how that’s being accounted for. That study from four years ago does not reflect the current reality, with black cars, Ubers, and the cul-de-sac at Brookfield Place that has increasing amounts of traffic. These are considerations that have to be incorporated into whatever comes next.”
Mr. Sbordone replied, “yes, this was the state of play as of 2018. When the designer comes on board, they will have to incorporate the new facts on the ground.”
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A rendering of the BPCA’s plan for changes to the South End Avenue streetscape, with widened sidewalks shown in red, new medians in green, and the new “speed table” in brown.
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Committee member Jeff Galloway reflected that, “lots of things have changed since 2018. I really think that almost everything all I can see right now in the north section, needs to be rethought.” Citing the example of a traffic median planned for the middle of South End Avenue (currently the site of painted lines, which allow cars to move around stopped traffic), he said, “people get past that line by going in the middle of what would become a median, which would further clog the traffic. I think people with traffic expertise really need to look at this, in light of the very significantly changed universe, with the drastic increase in deliveries, combined with different modes of deliveries that are used. Now, there are lots bicycles with trailers, instead of vans parking. The usage has just changed a lot.”
Kelly McGowan, a leader of the Battery Park City Neighborhood Association, voiced the concern that narrowing South End Avenue would push delivery trucks onto local side streets, “where they would be idling under people’s windows. I think we all love to see bike lines, medians, and tree-lined streets with wide sidewalks, but we have to have a plan that recognizes reality, not what we want it to be.”
Pat Smith, president of the Battery Pointe condominium, said, “when this plan first surfaced four years ago, the boards of six condos along South End Avenue, below Albany Street, took the position that south of Albany Street, we do not have a problem. And to go to the expense of fixing a problem that doesn’t exist south of Albany Street is a waste of our ground-rent dollars. So fix what you need to fix north of Albany Street. We support you 100 percent. But south of Albany Street, we don’t want to widen our sidewalks.”
He added that, “right now, our sidewalks, on the west side of the street, are 25 feet wide. This plan would widen them five feet more. And when you push into the traffic lane and widen the sidewalk, you are inviting motorized two-wheel vehicles to ride on the sidewalk. You are increasing the danger to pedestrians.”
“This proposal also calls for truck parking on West Thames Street,” Mr. Smith continued. “This assumes drivers will park trucks there and walk several blocks on foot to make deliveries. It’s just not reasonable to expect that to happen.”
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Ms. Forst observed that, “I have to question the appropriateness of this, particularly in light of the costs that are being born by the condominiums and indirectly by the rental properties. So I would encourage the BPCA, before an RFP is issued, to think hard and maybe have a community meeting to discuss what this is about at this moment. I think we need an evaluation and analysis, as to the costs and the benefits, and what this will bring us as a community, and in terms of the ground rent. We need to rethink the expenditure of this kind of money, the disruption to the community, which will certainly be incredibly large. Every time you rip up a sidewalk to widen it, there are so many implications—utilities, traffic disruptions, noise, and dust. The list is really long.”
Mr. Sbordone replied, “the next round of feedback comes with the design phase, which we have not yet started. So all of this feedback is really helpful. This should be exactly the conversation we have with the designer, when the design process starts. It hasn’t started yet.”
Ms. Forst countered, “given the fact that this plan has been on the shelf for years and is being dusted off for the issuance of an RFP, I think that it makes a lot of sense to have a discussion with the community before you meet with bidders on the RFP. I don’t know if that would be a town hall, or a meeting between Community Board leaders and the Authority’s leadership. But I don’t think that starting the process with this plan, as it would have been five years ago, is really sensible in light of the things that many of us have said.”
As Ms. Cuccia turned the Committee’s attention to the third section of the plan, which focuses on West Thames Street, she observed, “this area was a big concern for folks who live on West Thames Street, because there will be less room for people to load and unload if you narrow the street.”
Committee member Bob Schneck said, “bureaucracies sometimes try to take a very old studies and apply them as though they are new. I don’t think it’s right. Enough time has passed, and enough changes have happened that the resolution from 2018 is very dated and should simply be withdrawn.”
Barbara Ireland, who lives on Rector Place, said, “it frankly seems ridiculous that we’re doing this now. We have a lot of ripping up of the streets that will take place after resilience. And that would be better timing, in terms of what the streetscape really needs to look like.”
Ms. Cuccia concluded the discussion by saying, “we need a soft reboot, based on changes that have taken place since the resolution was written. This is just this is a different neighborhood than it was five years ago.”
Mr. Sbordone said afterward that, “addressing the design of South End Avenue and West Thames Street is primarily a safety initiative. CB1 has long been engaged on this matter and eager to give feedback. Soliciting public comment is a core element of the solicitation, too. There will be multiple public sessions required of the selected bidder, as well as numerous other ways for the public to contribute going forward. Like with the South Battery Park City Resiliency Project, where public engagement has yielded an improved final design, we see the community engagement elements of the design process to be key to its success.”
Matthew Fenton
Editor’s note: Ms. Cuccia is related to the editor of The Broadsheet.
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A Remnant Remembered
America’s First Synagogue Celebrates Anniversary at Site Where, Centuries Before Liberty’s Lamp, Lower Manhattan Offered Refuge to Persecuted Jews
On April 8, 1730, the seventh day of that year’s Passover, the fledgling Jewish community of New York City consecrated the Mill Street Synagogue, located on what is now South William Street. They called their new temple “Shearith Israel,” which translates literally as, “remnant of Israel.” It was the first Jewish house of worship in North America. To read more…
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Taking the ‘Our’ Out of ‘Arcade’
CB1 Opposes Deal to Hand Developer 4,000-Plus Square Feet of Public Space
Community Board 1 (CB1) is reiterating its opposition to a plan that will allow a real estate developer to privatize more than 4,000 square feet of public space, in exchange for a promise to enliven an adjacent plaza.
At issue are the arcades—columned porticos that adorn the ground-floor facade of 200 Water Street—which the building owner hopes to enclose, thus creating additional retail space, which can be monetized. (The same owner plans to create three new market-rate rental apartments at the second floor level, and to use several hundred square feet of outdoor space on the plaza in front of 200 Water Street, for a cafe.)
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The Lessor of Two Evils
Elected Officials Want Prospective Buyer of Affordable Housing Complex to Share Info
A coalition of elected officials are cautioning the prospective buyer of a Lower Manhattan affordable housing complex not to get any ideas about making the development any less affordable.
Nestled in the shadow of the Manhattan Bridge, Knickerbocker Village is a giant apartment complex in the Two Bridges neighborhood (bounded by Monroe, Market, Cherry, and Catherine Streets), which was built by a public-private partnership in the 1930s. Consisting of 12 buildings with a total of 1,590 apartments, it has been a bastion of affordability for nearly a century. As recently as 2019, a one-bedroom apartment rented there for $810 per month, and a three-bedroom units were priced at $1,250. To read more…
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The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is a four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft designed as a troop and cargo transport aircraft. Its top speed is 367 mph with a range of 2,361 miles. They weight 75,000 lbs and cost between $12 million and $30 million to manufacture.
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Dour Demographics
City Health Data Covering Entire Pandemic Show 150-Plus Local COVID Deaths, Among More Than 20,000 Cases
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, a total of 163 residents of Lower Manhattan have died from the disease, while more than 21,356 residents have been diagnosed according to an analysis of data from the City’s Department of Health. For the eight residential zip codes of Lower Manhattan, these metrics break down as follows: To read more…
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Social Climbing
Alliance Launches Program to Help Local Small Businesses Connect with Customers Online
The Downtown Alliance, as part of its broader effort to help Lower Manhattan’s business community recover from the COVID-19 crisis, has launched Get Social, a free program teaches local firms how best to use social media to bolster their bottom line. The Alliance will pair ten businesses with social media consultants, each of whom has demonstrated skills and strategic insight on building an audience across a variety of platforms. The program also provides each participating business with a $1,500 grant to spend on advertising and content creation. To read more…
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Floating an Idea
Port Authority Interprets Governor’s Order Littorally
Lower Manhattan residents could soon have a new option for accessing LaGuardia Airport, if planners at the Port Authority approve an option to launch ferry service between the Wall Street pier and the aerodrome in northern Queens.
The Port Authority has been compelled to take a fresh look at ways to access LaGuardia after Governor Kathy Hochul killed plans formulated by her predecessor, former Governor Andrew Cuomo, to build a new AirTrain. That proposal would have connected the airport to both the Long Island Rail Road and the subway’s 7 train—in both cases by moving passengers eastward for those transfers, when the vast majority of users would likely be headed to destinations west of the LaGuardia (such as Manhattan). This scheme was slated to cost several billion dollars.
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MONDAY APRIL 11
6PM
Community Board 1 Land Use, Zoning & Economic Development Committee
AGENDA
1) South Street Seaport Concession and Request for Proposals (RFP) – Presentation by Gigi Li, Vice President, Government & Community
2) Relations & Orion Hinkley, Assistant Vice President, Economic Development Corporation
3) Downtown Alliance Quarterly Update – Taina Prado, Chief of Staff, Downtown Alliance & Joshua Nachowitz, Senior Vice President, Research & Economic Development, Downtown Alliance
4) Water Street Privately Owned Public Spaces (POPS) Interim Installation Regulations – Report
TUESDAY APRIL 12
10:30AM
Adult Zumba
6 River Terrace
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 encouraged to bring their own equipment: weights, water bottle, hand towel etc. Free.
12NOON
Museum of American Financial History
Webinar. Is there an ideal portfolio of investment assets, one that perfectly balances risk and reward? In Pursuit of the Perfect Portfolio examines this question by profiling and interviewing ten of the most prominent figures in the finance world―Jack Bogle, Charley Ellis, Gene Fama, Marty Leibowitz, Harry Markowitz, Bob Merton, Myron Scholes, Bill Sharpe, Bob Shiller and Jeremy Siegel. We learn about the personal and intellectual journeys of these luminaries―which include six Nobel Laureates and a trailblazer in mutual funds―and their most innovative contributions. In the process, we come to understand how the science of modern investing came to be. Each of these finance greats discusses their idea of a perfect portfolio, offering invaluable insights to today’s investors. Talk followed by audience Q&A. Advance registration is required. Registered guests will receive the link prior to the program.
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5:30PM
Skyscraper Museum
The third session of the Construction History series focuses on Facades. Steel frames freed exterior walls from structural duties, allowing architects new freedom to develop facades that could respond to changing functional and aesthetic criteria. Developers’ desire for efficiency and natural daylight led to thinner, lighter walls – “veneers” in the dismissive language of early critics and “curtain walls” in the parlance of more enthusiastic designers. Electric lighting, building materials, and environmental controls all played roles in changing skyscraper skins in both New York and Chicago. However, each city’s proximity to varying sources of stone, glass, and terra cotta – coupled with differing approaches to fire codes and the politics of local labor unions – created subtly different approaches to skyscraper facades. Free.
6PM
Community Board 1 Youth & Education Committee
AGENDA
1-High School admission progress for calendar year 2023 – Discussion and possible resolution
2-Trinity Church after school program – Update (Tentative)
3-Harbor School Pool and Gym – Update
7PM
McNally Jackson, 4 Fulton Street
Book Launch
In a genre-defying book hailed as “exquisite” (The New York Times) and “spectacular” (The Times Literary Supplement), the best-selling memoirist and critic Daniel Mendelsohn explores the mysterious links between the randomness of the lives we lead and the artfulness of the stories we tell.
WEDNESDAY APRIL 13
6PM
Community Board 1 Licensing & Permits Committee
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6PM
Community Board 1 Landmarks & Preservation Committee
AGENDA
1) 90 West Street, application for the replacement of 5 railings on the 4th floor with fiberglass posts – Resolution
2) Recommendation on new LPC Commissioners – Resolution
8PM
Gibney
53A Chambers Street Dance performance $15-$20
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FRIDAY APRIL 15
11AM – 5PM
South Street Seaport Museum
On Saturdays and Sundays, visit the exhibitions and the ships of the South Street Seaport Museum for free. At 12 Fulton Street, see “South Street and the Rise of New York” and “Millions: Migrants and Millionaires aboard the Great Liners, 1900-1914,” and at Pier 16, explore the tall ship Wavertree and lightship Ambrose. Free.
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Morose Metric
Local Rates of Infection with BA.2 Version of COVID Among Highest in City
In a sharp reversal of previous trends, four Lower Manhattan neighborhoods are ranking among the top five anywhere in the City for rates of infection with the new BA.2 subvariant of the Omicron mutation of COVID-19.
In data released by the City’s Department of Health (DOH) on Sunday (covering the period from March 18 through March 24), southern Tribeca, two areas of the Financial District, and southern Battery Park City all placed among the five communities with the highest percentage positive test results for COVID infection. The four local zip codes with the highest level of positive test results were:
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The Way We Live Now
Census Analysis Indicates Downtown Has Become a Lot Younger, Quite a Bit More Crowded, and Slightly More Diverse
The population of Lower Manhattan has grown by almost 20,000 residents in the decade preceding the 2020 Census, according to an analysis co-authored by James Wilson-Schutter, a Community Planning Fellow affiliated with the Fund for the City of New York, who is consulting with Community Board 1 (CB1), and Diana Switaj, CB1’s Director of Planning and Land Use.
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Local Legacies Lionized
Three Downtown Preservation Projects Cited as Exemplars of Landmark Protection
Three of Lower Manhattan’s architectural masterpieces have been singled out for the prestigious Lucy G. Moses Preservation Award, conferred each year by the New York Landmarks Conservancy, a highly regarded non-profit organization (itself based in Lower Manhattan, on Whitehall Street) that seeks to protect New York’s architecturally significant buildings. To read more…
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CLASSIFIEDS & PERSONALS
Swaps & Trades, Respectable Employment, Lost and Found
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Babysitter / nanny looking full-time position years of experience loving kind smart sense of humor excellent reference available please contact javielle at 6466452051 javiellewilliams@icould.comAVAILABLE
NURSES’ AIDE
20+ years experience
Providing Companion and Home Health Aide Care to clients with dementia. Able to escort client to parks and engage in conversations of desired topics and interests of client. Reliable & Honest
FT/PT Flexible Hours
References from family members. Charmaine
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HAVE MORE FUN PARENTING
Learn how to raise a capable child and reduce friction at home.
Come learn parenting
the Positive Discipline way!
ML Fiske is a
Certified PD Parent Educator.
NANNY WITH OVER 15 YEARS EXPERIENCE
Reliable, nurturing and very attentive. Refs Avail.
Full or Part time
Maxine 347-995-7896
PERSONAL TRAINING,
REFLEXOLOGY,
PRIVATE STUDIO
917-848-3594
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NURSES AIDE
Nurses Aide looking full-time Elderly Care loving caring have sense of humor patience experience with Alzheimer’s patient excellent references please call
Dian at 718-496-6232
HOUSEKEEPING/ NANNY/ BABYSITTER
Available for PT/FT. Wonderful person, who is a great worker.
Refs avail.
Worked in BPC.
Call Tenzin
347-803-9523
NOTARY PUBLIC
IN BPC
$2.00 per notarized signature.
Text Paula
@ 917-836-8802
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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.
The Outdoor Fulton Stall Market
91 South St., bet. Fulton & John Sts.
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.
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Today in History
April 11
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Abraham Lincoln urged a spirit of generous conciliation during reconstruction, shortly before his assassination.
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1775 – The last execution for witchcraft in Germany takes place.
1865 – Abraham Lincoln urges a spirit of generous conciliation during reconstruction.
1868 – The Shogunate is abolished in Japan.
1890 – Ellis Island designated as an immigration station.
1906 – Albert Einstein introduces his Theory of Relativity.
1941 – Germany blitzes Conventry, England.
1951 – President Harry Truman fires General Douglas McArthur.
1961 – Bob Dylan makes his first appearance at Folk City, Greenwich Village.
1976 – The Apple I is created.
1986 – Dodge Morgan sailed solo nonstop around world in 150 days.
1986 – Halley’s Comet makes closest approach to Earth this trip, 63 M km
2002 – An attempted coup d’état takes place in Venezuela against President Hugo Chávez.
2006 – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announces that Iran has successfully enriched uranium.
2013 – Two women are beheaded for sorcery in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea.
2013 – Fossilized dinosaur eggs with embryos are discovered in China.
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Births
1866 – Carla Ford, wife of Henry Ford
1869 – Kasturba Gandhi, wife of Mohandas Gandhi (d. 1944)
1890 – Donna Rachele Mussolini, wife of Benito Mussolini (d. 1979)
1913 – Oleg Cassini, Paris France, fashion designer
1925 – Ethel Kennedy, wife of Robert
1932 – Joel Grey [Joe Katz], actor (Cabaret, Remo Williams, 7% Solution)
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Deaths
1875 – Heinrich Schwabe, discoverer (11-year sunspot cycle), dies
1890 – Joseph Merrick, “The Elephant Man” (b. 1862)
1906 – James A Bailey, circus showman (Barnum & Bailey), dies at 58
1987 – Primo Levi, Italy, chemist/writer (Survival in Auschwitz), dies at 67
2007 – Kurt Vonnegut Jr, American author, dies from head trauma at 84
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395 South End Avenue NY, NY 10280
212-912-1106
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