FEBRUARY 2006

 

 

 
Will Women's Museum Finally Rise?
Rendering of the museum's cafe and lobby as seen from the street. Rendering: Smith-Miller+Hawkinson
It has been almost six years since Gov. George Pataki announced that a women's museum would rise on a site in the southern end of Battery Park City. But since the announcement there has been little word about the museum's progress, much less a shovel in its designated ground along Battery Place. Is the $150 million project still on track?
Posted February 1
 
Rent Stabilization at Issue in IPN Law Suit
As contentious as it was, the four-year battle between Independence Plaza's tenants and owner over the withdrawal of the complex from a government housing subsidy program, and over future rents at IPN, was fought outside the courtroom. Now, almost two years after it was seemingly settled, the issue of IPN rents has landed in court. And while the earlier struggle was led, on the tenant side, mostly by longtime IPN residents, it is a group of new, market-rate tenants who are at the legal forefront.
Posted February 1
 
Parents Coping with New School Hours
Students leave P.S. 234 following dismissal one afternoon last month. Photo: Allan Tannenbaum.
Photo: Allan Tannenbaum
A mid-year change in the school schedule that takes effect Feb. 6 has local parents, principals and after-school program providers scrambling to deal with a school day that will be 10 minutes shorter for some students and as much as 50 minutes longer for others. "This is the kind of mandate no one likes," said Maggie Siena, principal of P.S. 150. "Two dismissals is not my idea of a good time."
Posted February 1
 
Community Fears City's Zoning Plan
Community Board 1 and local residents hope to block a developer's initiative for high-rise rezoning of four blocks of riverfront property in north Tribeca.
Posted February 1
A Cool Reception to Building Higher on Varick Street
 
Residents Appeal City's OK of Fuel Tanks
Norman Siegel, representing residents near 60 Hudson Street, argues before the Board of Standards and Appeals that fuel storage tanks in the building are a neighborhood hazard. Photo: Allan Tannenbaum.
Photo: Allan Tannenbaum
A contingent of Downtown elected officials and neighbors of the Western Union building at 60 Hudson St. went to the city's Board of Standards and Appeals (BSA) last month seeking to reverse the city's decision to legalize the building's fuel storage tanks, which they say pose a hazard to the neighborhood.
Posted February 1
 
 
Pearl Street Symbol Is Center of Mystery
An enhanced photo of the brickwork symbol.
It could be the artistic flourish of a bored bricklayer, or may have been crafted more deliberately by a Freemason. Maybe it was a chimney flue. Alan Solomon, a former real estate broker who now deals in antique lumber, does not know for certain what the mysterious shapes built into the wall of a 168-year-old building at 211 Pearl Street are all about. But he has his theories.
Posted February 1
 
'Tribeca Tree Corps' Proposed for Healthier Trees

A local group is seeking recruits for an adopt-a-tree program that would pair trees with residents and workers who, with some basic instruction, could give their tree (or trees) some modest maintenance.
Posted February 1

 
Tribeca Can Now Tune to Its Own Station
Leigh Crizoe broadcasts from his home radio studio. Photo: Carl Glassman
Photo: Carl Glassman
Launching a radio station from his Hubert Street loft was the easy part for musician and producer Leigh Crizoe. He already owned the microphones, mixing boards and seemingly endless coils of cable that it takes to move a signal across the room. It was only a matter of connecting the cables to a computer and paying for a hookup to an Internet radio provider, and Crizoe was moving a signal across the World Wide Web. He made the connection last month, launching Tribeca Radio at www.tribecaradio.net.
It was only then that he was confronted with the hard part-filling all the dead air.
Posted February 1
 
 
Funny Business
In 2002 and 2003, thousands of apartments were tested and/or cleaned, including this one on Warren St. Photo: Carl Glassman
Did you hear the one about the Battery Park City café owner who gave local parents a stage to be comedians for a night?
Posted February 1
 
 
Restaging History
Charles Urstadt, at the north end of Battery Park City, wants to extend the development. Photo: Carl Glassman
I.S. 89 actors recreate the comedy that was the setting for Lincoln's killing.
Posted February 1
IN BRIEF
Brokers: Retail Rents To Rise
Film Fest Volunteers
Downtown History Talk
Artist Colonies
Seeking 9/11 Stories
Musicians Wanted…
…And Singers, Too
Small Business Guide
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
1,000 residents have spoken: Do not build north Tribeca 'wall'
A gateway to Tribeca is a dead end for a shoe store owner
Canal St. post office should match efficiency of Church St. branch
What can community do to discourage rude dog owners?