Lower Manhattan’s Local News
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The USNS COMFORT passes Lower Manhattan this morning.
Photo: Jeff Galloway
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Grim Harbingers
Local Luminaries Claimed by Pandemic, with Tally of Losses Poised to Grow
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A truck parked on Spruce Street, outside of New York-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital, that appears to be intended for use as a temporary morgue.
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Hospitals around New York, already coping with a tsunami of patients made critically ill by the pandemic coronavirus, have begun to prepare for a second onslaught: a wave of deceased victims.
Like healthcare facilities throughout the five boroughs, New York-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital now has an unmarked, refrigerated truck parked outside. On Spruce Street, surrounded by traffic barricades and caution tape, the trailer’s back end is discretely cloaked by a white tent, connecting it to a nearby exit from the building. This will allow movement between the doors and the truck, concealed from public view. As is the case at more than a dozen other hospitals around Manhattan, this truck appears to be earmarked for use as a temporary morgue.
In separate developments, a Battery Park City resident was taken from an apartment over the weekend, by an ambulance crew dressed in full hazard suits and wearing respirators, and two highly regarded local restaurateurs have been claimed by the epidemic.
In a story first reported by the Tribeca Trib, Andy Koutsoudakisk, founder and owner of the Gee Whiz and Tribeca’s Kitchen restaurants, died on Friday, at age 59. A beloved fixture in Lower Manhattan since the late 1980s, and a tireless civic booster who sponsored children’s teams in multiple leagues and sports, while also provided catered dinners for community meetings, Mr. Koutsoudakisk was regarded as family by his legions of loyal customers. Bob Townley, the founder and executive director of Manhattan Youth, and a close friend of Mr. Koutsoudakisk’s, said, “we are crying today. “He was the greatest restaurateur ever.”
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A selfie taken by highly regarded chef Floyd Cardoz (who presided over North End Grill) in the hospital, shortly before he died last week.
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This came on the heels of the Wednesday passing of Floyd Cardoz (also 59 years old), the founding chef of North End Grill, which opened in 2012 in Battery Park City’s north neighborhood. Before the restaurant closed at the end of 2018 (a victim of Downtown’s then-scorching real estate market), it became a favorite of locals who were passionate about food. Mr. Cardoz had been traveling in India (filming the Netflix series, “Ugly Delicious”), then returned to New York via Frankfurt, Germany on March 8. After landing at Kennedy Airport, he became ill, and checked into Mountainside Hospital in Montclair, New Jersey (not far from his home), where he tested positive for coronavirus on March 18. From the hospital, he posted to Twitter, “I was feeling feverish and hence as a precautionary measure, admitted myself into hospital.” A week later, his conditioned worsened, and and Mr. Cardoz died on March 25.
Matthew Fenton
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Eyes to the Sky
March 30 – April 12, 2020
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“Stars of the Forest: Elegy for 9/11”
by Naoto Nakagawa
Collection of National September 11 Memorial & Museum
Published with permission of the artist.
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Field guide to nightly entertainment
Are you missing the buzz at gatherings in theaters and movie houses? While we continue to learn how to dodge threats of the pandemic to our physical health, spring is arriving with opportunities to nurture mind and body in the safety of the outdoors. When I challenge my eyes to find planet Venus high in the west shortly after sunset, it could be that I am giving a boost to my immune system. Besides, it is a delightful pursuit for people of all ages every clear evening. Venus appears high in the west as a point of white light, the Evening Star, in blue sky about half an hour after sunset. Sunset is shortly after 7:15pm this week. The goddess planet increases in brilliance and decreases in altitude as the sky darkens: look for Venus all night until she sets in the west-northwest at about 11:30pm.
The early bird show continues to the left of Venus, in the south to southwest, where Sirius, the brightest star in the heavens, appears as the sky darkens. Then, find a lookout to the northeast horizon about 90 minutes after sunset to receive the golden light of the second brightest star in our sky, Arcturus.
In dark sky locations, at nightfall, from east to west, find Leo the Lion, The Big Dog, the triangular head of Taurus the Bull and Orion the Hunter. They are visible until about midnight. For a lifetime field guide to the stars through the year, consider purchasing a star wheel aka planisphere.
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A note about artist Naoto Nakagawa’s painting, “Stars of the Forest.” It began as a reflection on “a glorious moment in nature’s drama.” Its beauty, like a stroll in a natural landscape and stargazing, is especially heartening as we suffer the COVID19 pandemic. Naoto Nakagawa started the painting a week before 9/11. He states, “At the time, I was unaware that it would be an elegy for that disaster. … after working on it for three months, I came to realize what is was about. The inner light that permeates the entire surface represents the victims of 9/11, expressed as shining stars.”
Resources
Judy Isacoff
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Where to Get Care
Lower Manhattan Health Resources for Residents with Concerns
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Government officials are asking that people with non-urgent health problems avoid showing up at hospital emergency rooms, which are already overburdened.
Instead, they ask that patients who have concerns consult with their personal physicians. Those in need of non-emergency medical help can also call (or walk into) one of the five Lower Manhattan urgent care clinics that remain open. As of Thursday afternoon, these are:
• CityMD Financial District (24 Broad Street). No appointment necessary. 646-647-1259.
• CityMD Fulton (138 Fulton Street). No appointment necessary. 212-271-4896.
• CityMD Tribeca (87 Chambers Street). No appointment necessary. 347-745-8321.
• NYU Langone at Trinity (111 Broadway). Appointment required. 212-263-9700.
• Mount Sinai Doctors (225 Greenwich Street, fifth floor). No appointment necessary. 212-298-2720.
That noted, anyone experiencing dangerous symptoms (such as trouble breathing or dangerous spikes in body temperature) is encouraged to go to a hospital emergency room.
Two Lower Manhattan healthcare providers are also offering Virtual Visits, in which patients can consult over the phone or video link with a physician or nurse practitioner.
To schedule such a session with NYU Langone, please browse: NYULangone.org, and click on Virtual Urgent Care. To make an appointment with New York-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital, please browse NYP.org, and click on Virtual Urgent Care. Patients enrolled in the World Trade Center Health Program are advised not to cancel or reschedule existing appointments. Clinic staff will be contacting you to make arrangements to convert these sessions into a tele-visits.
All program participants with prescriptions for their certified WTC-related conditions are strongly encouraged to sign up for Optum Home Delivery which allows for 90-day prescription fills and delivers directly to members by mail.
For more information, please call Optum at 855-640–0005, Option 2. For members who prefer to pick up prescriptions at retail pharmacies, the program is waiving early medication refill limits on 30-day prescription maintenance medications. Please call Optum at 855-640–0005, Option 3 for more information.
The World Trade Center Health Program is also covering limited COVID-19 testing for members with certain certified World Trade Center-related conditions that may put them at higher risk of illness from COVID-19. In addition to testing, treatment for COVID-19 is also covered, contingent on certain criteria being met, including that the member was eligible for COVID-19 testing, the treatment is authorized by the program, and the treatment is not experimental. Coverage of COVID-19 treatment costs requires approval by the program’s administrator, on a case-by-case basis.
Matthew Fenton
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NEWS FROM PREVIOUS EDITIONS
OF THE BROADSHEETDAILY
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Desperate Times for Street Food Vendors
Council Member and Advocacy Group Petition for Funds and to Suspend Most Enforcement Actions Toward Food Carts
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Street vendors, who are mostly ineligible for benefits like unemployment or health insurance, have recently suffered losses of more than 80 percent of their usual revenue.
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As the pandemic coronavirus continues to grip New York, one cohort of the Downtown community is experiencing a heightened level of distress, according to City Council member Margaret Chin and a non-profit advocacy group based in Lower Manhattan. To read more…
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The Niou Deal
Assembly Member Proposes Finance Reform as Funding Mechanism for Affordable Housing
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State Assembly member Yuh-Line Niou: “When you go shopping in New York City, how much extra do you pay for sales tax? This transfer tax of one-half of one percent is less than one-sixteenth of what you pay. But it would raise billions for public housing.”
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Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Monday that planning must begin immediately for how to rebuild the wreckage of the economy, once the health crisis brought on by the pandemic cononavirus has abated.
“We have to start to plan the pivot back to economic functionality,” he said during a press conference at the Jacob Javits Convention Center on Manhattan’s west side, where he announced the start of construction on a temporary hospital. “You can’t stop the economy forever.” To read more…Matthew Fenton
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Going to the Mattresses
Lower Manhattan Hunkers Down, as Coronavirus Crisis Grinds On
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Multiple residents of Lower Manhattan have now tested positive for the pandemic coronavirus, including one tenant at Gateway Plaza in Battery Park City, who has been hospitalized and is breathing with the assistance of a mechanical ventilator, according to a range of sources with direct knowledge of the circumstances.
In a separate development, a resident of Battery Park City died on Saturday after plunging from the 16th floor of his building at 400 Chambers Street, in an apparent suicide.
On a more encouraging note, a teacher at P.S./I.S. 276 (also located in Battery Park City), who exhibited symptoms that warranted a test for coronavirus, has been confirmed to be free of the disease.
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WANTED:
Your Coronavirus story in one hundred words.
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coveni
covidi
covici
Maryna Lansky
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COMMUNITY NOTICE:
Battery Park City’s parks are open for passive use
and solitary recreation only.
Governor Cuomo is urging all New Yorkers to stay home
as much as possible.
Beginning Monday, March 23, for the safety of all parks users and help to stop the spread of COVID-19, the Battery Park City Authority (BPCA) is implementing the following measures:
- BPC’s park lawns will begin opening on a rolling basis. When outdoors please be sure to practice good social distancing, keeping at least 6 feet apart from others. If you arrive at a park and crowds are forming, please return another time.
- To reduce density, BPC’s athletic courts, sporting fields, playgrounds, dog runs, and public restrooms are closed until further notice
- BPCA Programs are canceled until further notice
- The Community Center at Stuyvesant High School remains closed until further notice
Click here for additional guidance on how to protect yourself when enjoying the outdoors BPC Parks. We appreciate your support and patience as we navigate this public health crisis together. Learn more about COVID-19 at https://coronavirus.health.ny.gov or by calling (888) 364-3065.
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Necessity Is the Mother of Intervention
Repurposing of Rivington House Might Help Meet Need for Clinical Capacity Arising from Pandemic
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Rivington House on the Lower East Side
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A Lower Manhattan building steeped in controversy may become a lifeline for people infected by the pandemic COVID-19 virus. In a story first reported by Crain’s New York, Rivington House is being considered as a possible treatment site.
The Lower East Side building served for decades as an HIV/AIDS care facility. But in 2014, the structure was acquired by real estate speculators, who paid a fraction of its market value, because a deed restriction that committed the building to use as a clinic. To read more…
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Meditations in an Emergency
Our Hometown and the Myth of Eternal Return
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You tell yourself that you’ve seen this story before, and more than once: edifices falling; waters rising. And you reflect that the worst situations are not those that can’t get any worse. The worst situations are the ones that are going to get worse before they get better. So you hunker down.
You recall the Old Man deciding, a lifetime ago, that since you were too old for fairy tales, you were perhaps old enough for true confessions. To read more…
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A Lifeline for Mom-and-Pop Shops
Amid Coron-Apocalypse, City Offers Loans and Grants for Struggling Small Businesses
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The administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio has inaugurated a program to aid small businesses that have experienced financial hardship because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Firms with fewer than 100 employees, which have undergone sales decreases of 25 percent or more will be eligible for zero interest loans of up to $75,000 to help mitigate losses in profit. The City’s Department of Small Business Services is also offering small businesses with fewer than five employees a grant to cover 40 percent of payroll costs for two months, to help retain employees.
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COVID-19 NEWS/UPDATES
Downtown Community Notices
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Schools south of Chambers Street are distribution centers for grab-and-go breakfasts and lunches. Currently pickups for breakfast and lunch are from 7:30a to 1:30pm
P.S. 234 Independence School
P.S.-I.S. 276 Battery Park City School
P.S. 343 – Peck Slip School
I.S. 289 – Hudson River Middle School
Leadership & Public Service High School
Lower Manhattan Community Middle School
26 Broadway, 6th floor
l mc896.org 646-826-8100 Millennium High School
Murry Bergtraum High School for Business
The Urban Assembly School of Business for Young Women
Battery Park City Authority
The Community Center at Stuyvesant High School is closed until further notice.
All Battery Park City parks and BPCA offices remain otherwise open for business. (Parks lawns, currently closed for winter, are scheduled to re-open next month.)
Hotline: 1-888-364-3065
Church Street School of Music
The decision has been made to close Church Street School’s in-person programs at both onsite and offsite locations through the end of March, when we will reassess the situation. We are planning to initiate our online program offerings beginning Monday March 23rd, and you will hear more about that in the coming days.
Lisa Ecklund-Flores, PHD Executive Director, Founder
Church Street School for Music and Art
Manhattan Youth
As news has developed, our leadership team has determined that the best course of action for the immediate future is the following:
Our community center is closed and all our offices are closed!
All our programs are closed until we figure this out.
Bob Townley, Founder and Executive Director
Manhattan Youth
Fraunces Taven Museum
The Museum will be closed through March 30.
New York Public Library
After carefully considering a multitude of factors and the rapidly changing situation in New York City around novel coronavirus (COVID-19),all New York Public Library locations will be closed to the public through, at least Tuesday, March 31.
All late fees will be suspended and due dates extended during the closure period.
The Library is working to expand access to e-books and increase awareness of our vast array of online resources. All branches will be sanitized before they reopen.
Anthony W. Marx
President, The New York Public Library
Poets House
Poets House is postponing all public programs scheduled throughout the rest of March. The library will be closed until further notice.
China Institute
The decision was made to suspend March programs. We are setting up live-streaming options for programs moving forward and we already have online learning options for adult language and literature classes for our spring semester starting on April 6. Kids classes will follow.
South Street Seaport Museum
South Street Seaport Museum will close to the public for at least two weeks.
National Museum of the American Indian
The National Museum of the American Indian will close to the public starting Saturday, March 14. We appreciate your understanding at this time. The museum staff and I look forward to welcoming you back when we reopen.
Thank you,
Kevin Gover (Pawnee) Director
Staten Island’s Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden
The majority of our public programming, including the Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art’s gallery hours,is posgtponed until March 31.
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Child’s Play at the Battery
Local kids help break ground for the Battery Playscape
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Joined by elected officials, Lower Manhattan leaders, and a couple of excited Downtown kids, the Battery Conservancy broke ground on March 12 for the Battery Playscape, an unusual playground for children of all ages and abilities. To read more…
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Church Street School Celebrates 30 Years
Art and Music School Honors Local Family
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Church Street School of Music and Art could not have made it to its 30th birthday without the support of families like the Kleimans of Battery Park City. This year, in celebration of 30 years of music and art making, the school honored the Kleiman family on March 10 at its annual fundraiser, The Event.
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Today In History March 30
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1818 – Physicist Augustin Fresnel reads a memoir on optical rotation to the French Academy of Sciences, reporting that when polarized light is “depolarized” by a Fresnel rhomb, its properties are preserved in any subsequent passage through an optically-rotating crystal or liquid.
1842 – Ether anesthesia is used for the first time, in an operation by the American surgeon Dr. Crawford Long.
1855 – Origins of the American Civil War: “Border Ruffians” from Missouri invade Kansas and force election of a pro-slavery legislature.
1861 – Discovery of the chemical elements: Sir William Crookes announces his discovery of thallium.
1867 – Alaska is purchased from Russia for $7.2 million, about 2-cent/acre ($4.19/kmІ), by United States Secretary of State William H. Seward.
1944 – Out of 795 Lancasters, Halifaxes and Mosquitos sent to attack Nuremberg, 95 bombers do not return, making it the largest RAF Bomber Command loss of the war.
1945 – World War II: Soviet forces invade Austria and capture Vienna; Polish and Soviet forces liberate Danzig.
1965 – Vietnam War: A car bomb explodes in front of the United States Embassy, Saigon, killing 22 and wounding 183 others.
1981 – President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by John Hinckley, Jr.; three others are wounded in the same incident.
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Births
1432 – Mehmed the Conqueror, Ottoman sultan (d. 1481)
1632 – John Proctor, farmer hanged for witchcraft in the Salem witch trials (d. 1692)
1853 – Vincent van Gogh, Dutch-French painter and illustrator (d. 1890)
1902 – Brooke Astor, American socialite and philanthropist (d. 2007)
1913 – Richard Helms, American soldier and diplomat, 8th Director of Central Intelligence (d. 2002)
1919 – McGeorge Bundy, American intelligence officer and diplomat, 6th United States National Security Advisor (d. 1996)
1945 – Eric Clapton, English guitarist and singer-songwriter
Deaths
943 – Li Bian, emperor of Southern Tang (b. 889)
1925 – Rudolf Steiner, Austrian philosopher and author (b. 1861)
1981 – DeWitt Wallace, American publisher, co-founded Reader’s Digest (b. 1889)
2002 – Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother of the United Kingdom (b. 1900)
2008 – Dith Pran, Cambodian-American photographer and journalist (b. 1942)
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395 South End Avenue,
New York, NY 10280
212-912-1106
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No part of this document may be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher © 2020
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That photo of the truck is not Beekman Street. It is Spruce Street.