The BroadsheetDAILY ~ Lower Manhattan’s Local Newspaper ~ 7/27/21 ~ September 11 Survivors May Lose Rights to Compensation After Thursday Registration Cut-Off

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Lower Manhattan’s Local Newspaper

Urgent Deadline

September 11 Survivors May Lose Rights to Compensation After Thursday Registration Cut-Off

There is a drop-dead date approaching for all individuals who may someday wish to file a claim with the September 11th Victims Compensation Fund (VCF). Such people are required to register by this Thursday (July 29). This is a simple process, which can be completed in a few minutes, either online or over the telephone. Registering does not waive any legal rights, or commit you to filing a claim in the future. It merely preserves your legal right to file such a claim, if you someday choose to do so.

Those who must register by July 29 fall into two categories:

Failure to do so for people in either category may result in the loss of rights to file a claim in the future.

There are two other categories of potential claimants for whom the July 29, 2021 deadline is relevant, but less imminent. If you have not yet been certified by the World Trade Center Health Program for a September 11-related physical health condition, or if any such condition was certified after July 29, 2019, you may register by July 29, 2021, but you are not required to do so. (Such people must register within two years of being certified by the World Trade Center Health Program, however.) And anyone planning to file a claim on behalf of an individual believed to have died from a September 11-related physical health condition after July 29, 2019 must register with the VCF within two years of that person’s date of death.

To register by phone, please call the VCF Help Line at 1-855-885-1555. (If you think you may already be registered with the VCF, but are not sure, please call the same number to confirm your status.) To register online, please browse: www.claims.vcf.gov

Matthew Fenton

photo Alison Simko

Today’s Calendar

Tuesday July 27, 2021

2PM

Museum of Jewish Heritage

As one of the most influential disability rights activists in U.S. history, Judy Heumann has spent her career fighting to achieve respect, acceptance, and inclusion. The lawsuits she won, sit-ins she led, and legislation she championed all sparked a national movement that led to the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990. Heumann is also the daughter of refugees who fled Nazism in the 1930s, and the granddaughter of German Jews who were killed by the Nazis. Growing up in Brooklyn, she was acutely aware of her family’s story—and she understood, on multiple levels, the dangers of bigotry and the importance of speaking out against it. Her story is featured in the Oscar-nominated 2020 film Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution and in her recently-released book Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist. Join Heumann for a conversation with Bill Abrams, President of Trickle Up and former President of New York Times Television, about her family background in the Holocaust, her new memoir, and her remarkable career fighting to forge a society in which we all belong. $10

7:30PM

China Institute

Shot during the last days of the Civil War in China’s transition to socialism, Crows and Sparrows is one of the best crafted films of the 1940s. But its director, Zheng Junli, navigated some treacherous political waters to get it made. The original script was banned by the Nationalist government, presumably because of its unflattering depiction of corruption, inflation, and social inequity. Then after the Communists invaded, the filmmaker tacked on a politically acceptable ending. The film captures the frenzy of change through several households in a traditional shikumen Shanghai building. The tenants, or “sparrows,” share their dreams and uncertainties of the future while facing the threat of eviction by the “crows,” the landlord couple preparing to flee Communist rule. One of the finest examples of critical realism spiced up with a dose of slapstick comedy, Crows and Sparrows features some of China’s most celebrated stars. 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

Who Will Be Short Changed?

Local Leader Thinks Locally, Acts Nationally

New York is losing its voice, on the installment plan. From a peak of 45 seats in the House of Representatives (in the two decades preceding 1953), the Empire State has been gradually whittled down to 27 members of Congress.

In a reverse of the state motto of “Excelsior” (meaning “ever upward”), New York lost two seats each after each census in 1950, 1960, 1970, 2000, and 2010—plus five seats after 1980 and three seats after 1990. And now, after coming up 89 residents short in the 2020 census (in spite of a population that grew by almost five percent in the last decade), New York is slated to lose one more seat. But which one?

Question: When Is a Promise Not a Promise?

Hint: When the Department of Education Gives Its Word

Community leaders and education advocates are fuming over an apparent about-face by the City’s Department of Education (DOE), which has backed away from a 2016 promise about the design of the new public elementary school on Trinity Place, in the Financial District (slated to open in September, 2022).

As Tricia Joyce, chair of the Youth and Education Committee of Community Board 1 (CB1) explained at the Board’s June 22 meeting, “the School Construction Authority and the DOE gave a presentation to Community Education Council that included the design of the new school, and it showed gymnatorium.”

What’s Up, PAC?

Construction Milestones and Hiring Mark Progress Toward Planned Arts Venue at World Trade Center

Lower Manhattan is two steps closer to the 2023 debut of its next great amenity. The Ronald O. Perelman Performing Arts Center, at the World Trade Center, topped off the 138-foot structure in June, and the organization has hired a Director of Civic Alliances, who will cultivate relationships with community-based organizations, public housing residents, community boards, immigrant groups, cultural institutions and elected officials.

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 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 Park for 20 years, presents Rev Sekou and the Freedom Fighters (July 29), who will perform their Delta Blues-infused anthems for social justice.

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

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 27

1890 – Vincent van Gogh shoots himself and dies two days later

1549 – The Jesuit priest Francis Xavier’s ship reaches Japan.

1663 – The English Parliament passes the second Navigation Act requiring that all goods bound for the American colonies have to be sent in English ships from English ports. After the Acts of Union 1707, Scotland would be included in the Act.

1775 – Founding of the U.S. Army Medical Department: The Second Continental Congress passes legislation establishing “an hospital for an army consisting of 20,000 men.”

1794 – French Revolution: Maximilien Robespierre is arrested after encouraging the execution of more than 17,000 “enemies of the Revolution”.

1866 – The first permanent transatlantic telegraph cable is successfully completed, stretching from Valentia Island, Ireland, to Heart’s Content, Newfoundland.

1890 – Vincent van Gogh shoots himself and dies two days later

1900 – Kaiser Wilhelm II makes a speech comparing Germans to Huns; for years afterwards, “Hun” would be a disparaging name for Germans.

1921 – Researchers at the University of Toronto, led by biochemist Frederick Banting, prove that the hormone insulin regulates blood sugar.

1929 – The Geneva Convention of 1929, dealing with treatment of prisoners-of-war, is signed by 53 nations.

1955 – El Al Flight 402 is shot down by two fighter jets after straying into Bulgarian air space. All 58 people onboard are killed.

1974 – Watergate scandal: The House of Representatives Judiciary Committee votes 27 to 11 to recommend the first article of impeachment (for obstruction of justice) against President Richard Nixon.

1990 – The Jamaat al Muslimeen attempt a coup d’йtat in Trinidad and Tobago.

1996 – In Atlanta, United States, a pipe bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park during the 1996 Summer Olympics.

2002 – Ukraine airshow disaster: A Sukhoi Su-27 fighter crashes during an air show at Lviv, Ukraine killing 77 and injuring more than 500 others, making it the deadliest air show disaster in history.

2005 – After an incident during STS-114, NASA grounds the Space Shuttle, pending an investigation of the continuing problem with the shedding of foam insulation from the external fuel tank.

Births

1882 – Geoffrey de Havilland, English pilot and engineer, founded the de Havilland Aircraft Company (d. 1965)

1905 – Leo Durocher, American baseball player and manager (d. 1991)

1908 – Joseph Mitchell, American journalist and author (d. 1996)

1922 – Norman Lear, American screenwriter and producer

Deaths

1101 – Conrad II, king of Italy (b. 1074)

1844 – John Dalton, English physicist, meteorologist, and chemist (b. 1776)

1946 – Gertrude Stein, American novelist, poet, and playwright (b. 1874)

2017 – Sam Shepard, American playwright, actor, author, screenwriter, and director (b.1943)

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

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