The BroadsheetDAILY ~ News of Lower Manhattan 10/21/19

Volleyball Players Rescued from Hudson, After Jumping Into River to Retrieve Ball

Two young men were pulled from the waters of the Hudson River on Saturday morning, after jumping from the Battery Park City Esplanade to retrieve a volleyball that went over the railing, near North Cove Marina.

The men, whose names have not been released, were playing volleyball on the court that overlooks that yacht basin at approximately 11:40 am, when a wild serve sent their ball into the Hudson. Impulsively, they both leaped in after it.

	The two men (whose names have not been released) shortly after they jumped into the Hudson River from the Esplanade, and realized that they didn’t have a way to get back onto dry land.

Although both appear to be in good physical condition, they seem to have underestimated the difference in elevation between the water’s surface and the Esplanade (more than ten feet), and not to have realized that the exterior of Battery Park City’s seawall does not contain any ladders or stairways from which a person in the water can climb back up to the Esplanade. (In 2018, the Battery Park City Authority, at the urging of Community Board 1, installed life preservers at five locations along the Esplanade, but the nearest of these to Saturday’s incident is located two blocks way, at Rector Place.)

The men may have assumed they would be able to swim north to the Marina, and then hoist themselves onto one of the floating docks at which boats moor. But they didn’t reckon with the strength or speed of the Hudson’s current, which was moving southward (away from the Marina) at that hour, and found themselves unable to swim against it.

The crew of the NYPD Harbor Unit vessel that pulled the men from the water.

The water temperature in the Hudson on Saturday morning was 62 degrees, according to the federal government’s National Oceanographic and Atmosphere Administration. Although this may strike many readers as comfortable level of warmth, it is actually 15 to 20 degrees cooler than the standard recommended for swimming pools, and cold enough for exhaustion and hypothermia to become serious threats within a relatively short period of time.

	The young men at North Cove Marina, after being fished out of the Hudson, with one of the officers who assisted in their rescue.

As the young men began drifting southward, toward the Battery, several bystanders called 911 and requested emergency assistance. A boat from the New York Police Department’s Harbor Unit happened to be nearby in the Hudson, and was on the scene within minutes. The two young men were plucked from the River, near Albany Street, and then deposited at North Cove.

Contrary to a widely held assumption, there is no law against swimming in the Hudson River, although the conduct of the young men does appear to violate two relevant administrative codes. The Battery Park City Parks Rules and Regulations state that, “no swimming or bathing shall be permitted in waters in or adjacent to the parks or other property under the jurisdiction,” of the Authority. And the Hudson River Park Trust’s official Park Rules and Regulations say that, “except as otherwise specifically authorized by the Trust, swimming or wading in waters under the jurisdiction of the trust is permitted only at authorized swimming and pool areas and only during the bathing season as may be designated by the Trust.” Nonetheless, officers of the Harbor Unit did not issue a summons to either of the men.

Condo Boards Question Need for South End Avenue Redesign After Installation of Traffic Signal

	A rendering of the BPCA’s plan for changes to the South End Avenue

At the October 2 meeting of the Battery Park City Committee of Community Board 1, Battery Park City Authority president B.J. Jones was apprised by the leader of a coalition of condominiums along South End Avenue of that group’s ongoing reservations about the Authority’s plan to revamp the thoroughfare.

Pat Smith, the board president of the Battery Pointe condominium (at South End Avenue and Rector Place) told Mr. Jones, “before you go too far on South End Avenue, please remember that six condo boards, representing more than 1,000 households along South End Avenue, from Albany down to West Thames, don’t want you to do this.”    To read more…

Margrethe ll, Queen of Denmark. As a girl growing up in Copenhagen, Ms. Reumert performed with the Saint Anne Girls Choir as a soprano and a soloist.

6PM

CB1’s Transportation & Street Activity Permits Committee

1) City Hall to Battery Park Bicycle Connection; Broadway, White Hall Street – Presentation by NYC Department of Transportation

2) Barclay St, Greenwich St, and Murray St Greenway Connection – Presentation by NYC Department of Transportation

3) Bus Queue Jump; Battery Pl at West St – Presentation by NYC Department of Transportation

4) Verrazzano Bridge Two-Way Tolling – Discussion & resolution

5) Congestion Pricing Working Group – Update

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OLD WATCHES SOUGHT, PREFER NON-WORKING

Mechanical pocket and wristwatches sought and sometimes repaired

Click to watch monarch butterflies feeding on milkweed planted by the Battery Park City Authority to help them on their annual fall migration from Canada to the mountains of Mexico.  To read more…

Thank you, kind-hearted gardeners. We must all do whatever little bit we can to hold back the wave of extinctions that is a hair’s breadth from taking the last of our monarchs.

Lower Manhattan’s Old Syrian Quarter

This map from 1899 highlights  “Little Syria”

Today, the stretch of Greenwich and Washington Streets between Battery Place and Albany Street — bisected by the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel entrance — is known by the forgettable name, “Greenwich South.”

By all appearances it is an orphan of a neighborhood that never quite coalesced. But nothing could be further from the truth. A century ago, before the World Trade Center or the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel (the two giant public works projects that decimated this once-thriving quarter), it was an ethnic enclave as vibrant as Little Italy or Chinatown. To read more…

Taste of the Seaport Marks Ten Years on Saturday

	More than 40 Lower Manhattan restaurants participated in Taste of the Seaport.

The Taste of the Seaport annual food-apalooza, which raises funds for the Peck Slip and Spruce Street Schools, celebrated its tenth anniversary on Saturday October 19 at the South Street Seaport, on Piers 16 and 17.

City to Reduce Speed Limit on West Side Highway Tomorrow

Beginning (Saturday, October 12, the City’s Department of Transportation will begin installing signs on the five-mile length of the West Side Highway between Battery Place and West 59th Street, to reduce the speed limit from 35 to 30 miles per hour.

City Hall Hints at Scaled-Back Plan for Lower Manhattan Jail, While Pushing Ahead on Plan for New Prison Downtown

	A rendering that illustrates the bulk and shape of the 45-story, 1.27 million-square-foot prison complex that Mayor Bill de Blasio proposes to erect in Lower Manhattan.

The administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio is reportedly considering a scaled-back version of its controversial plan to erect a new, 45-story prison in Lower Manhattan, as part of a wider scheme to close the City’s notorious detention complex on Rikers Island, and replace it with four, large “borough-based jail” facilities — one in each county, except Staten Island.

Residents Riled about Tribeca Tavern

	Does this look like a dance club?

More than a dozen concerned Tribeca residents turned out for the September meeting the Licensing and Permits Committee, which weighs in on the granting or renewal of liquor licenses.

They showed up to voice concerns about MI-5, a bar located at 52 Walker Street, which has been a source of local complaints as far back 2007.

Neighbors of the bar allege that it operates as a dance club (in violation of its current license, which is now up for renewal), and that loud music penetrates the upper floors of the residential building located above the bar as late as 4:00 am. To read more…

City Agency Leaves Cash-Strapped Local Museum Off Roster of Cultural Institutions

The City’s Department of Cultural Affairs has omitted from its list of dozens of New York-based cultural institutions that receive public support the museum that chronicles the oldest community anywhere in the five boroughs.

BPCA Puts the Brakes on Conversions of Rental Buildings within Community

Local Leaders Urge Preservation of Justice Complex

	The New Deal-era Criminal Courts Building at 100 Centre Street is widely regarded as a historic treasure, but does not enjoy any legal protection that would prevent it from being sold, demolished, and replaced by a skyscraper.

The case of 100 Centre Street takes on special urgency in this context, because, as the CB1 resolution notes, “the Manhattan Criminal Court building shares the same underlying City lot with the south tower of the Manhattan Detention Complex. This appears to mean that if City Hall needed extra space for the proposed new jail, it would face no legal obstacle in demolishing all or part of the historic building.

Costs to Rent or Own in Lower Manhattan Are Matched by Lofty Local Earnings

A slew of recent reports documents what everyone who lives or works in Lower Manhattan already sensed in their bones: This is a mind-numbingly expensive place to call home.

In September, RENTCafé issued a new analysis of the most expensive neighborhoods for renters in the United States that finds northern Battery Park City (zip code 10282) is the priciest enclave in America, with an average rent of $6,211 per month.  Coming in at second place is zip code 10013, which covers western Tribeca, along with part of Soho.  To read more…

New Arts Center on Governors Island Will Provide Studio Space and Cultural Programming

	The historic building at Soissons Landing at  Governors Island.

Lower Manhattan has a new cultural hub. The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and the Trust for Governors Island have partnered to create the LMCC Arts Center at Governors Island, a 40,000-square foot studio space and education facility, housed within a restored 1870s ammunition warehouse — a relic from the days when the island was a military outpost.

CB1 Makes Exception to New Policy; Okays Naming Street for Former NYPD Commissioner

	Baxter Street

A public figure from the 1980s may soon be honored by having a street co-named in his memory, if Community Board 1 gets its way. The panel recommended that Benjamin Ward, New York’s first African-American police commissioner, be commemorated by rechristening one block of Baxter Street as Benjamin Ward Way.

This comes on the heels of a controversial decision by CB1 in 2018 to decline such a request on behalf of James D. McNaughton, who, on August 2, 2005, at age 27, became the first New York City Police officer to be killed in action while serving in “Operation Iraqi Freedom.”

Battery Park City Resident Charged with Two Home Invasions, and Sexual Abuse

Onetime Non-Profit Nursing Facility Sold to Anonymous Buyer for Five Times Original Price

	Rivington House

If there is an Exhibit A in the case of fevered speculation in Lower Manhattan real estate, it must be Rivington House

After purchasing the block-long, 150,000-square-foot structure (located at 45 Rivington Street, near the Williamsburg Bridge), the developer, the Allure Group, paid the City an additional $16 million to remove the deed restriction that limited the property to its legacy use of non-profit, residential healthcare. To read more…

Composting Catches on in Battery Park City

	Jake Jacevicius and Joshua DeVoto of BPCA parks operations dump out a binful of fruit and vegetable scraps where the neighborhood’s composting process takes place.

You’re probably heard of the farm-to-table movement. Thanks to the Battery Park City Authority’s compost initiative, there’s a burgeoning table-to-earth movement in this Lower Manhattan community.

City Transportation Study Finds That Lower Manhattan Bus Service Is Among Most Sluggish in Five Boroughs

	Bus speeds in Lower Manhattan average below eight miles per hour

The annual New York City Mobility Report, produced by the City’s Department of Transportation, contains two data points that will come as no surprise residents of Lower Manhattan. The first of these is that the median speed for Downtown bus service ranks among the slowest of any community in the five boroughs. And the second is that this creeping pace is, if anything, getting creepier. To read more…

	In an instant, both wagon and horse were vaporized, and the closest automobile was tossed twenty feel in the air. Incredibly, the iconic bronze of George Washington surveys the devastation from the steps of the Sub-Treasury without so much as a scratch.

As the noon hour approached on a fall Thursday morning in 1920, a horse-drawn wagon slowly made its way west down Wall Street toward “the Corner,” the high-powered intersection of Wall and Broad. Its driver came to a gentle stop in front of the Assay Office, where stockpiles of gold and silver were stored and tested for purity. But theft was not his motive.

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Many ships pass Lower Manhattan on their way to and from the Midtown Passenger Ship Terminal.  Others may be seen on their way to or from piers in Brooklyn and Bayonne.  Stated times, when appropriate, are for passing the Colgate clock in Jersey City, New Jersey, and are based on sighting histories, published schedules and intuition. They are also subject to tides, fog, winds, freak waves, hurricanes and the whims of upper management.