Squadron Opens Mobile District Offices
When covering a district that includes two boroughs, it can be helpful to load up the staff, hop in a bus (we’re imagining) and meet with constituents. Instead of the bus route, State Sen. Daniel Squadron will open four mobile district offices this month in Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn in an attempt to get closer to residents and speak directly with community members. The offices will be located around the 25th District, which he serves. Locations will be located in Tribeca, at Brooklyn Borough Hall, the Lower East Side and Chinatown. For more info on these mobile locations, visit the senator’s website at www.nysenate.gov/senator/daniel-l-squadron.

Federal Government Makes a Return to World Trade Center
The U.S. General Services Agency (GSA) signed a lease last week to rent space in One World Trade Center, the soon-to-be-tallest building in the Western Hemisphere.

The administration will occupy about 270,000 square feet of space on six floors starting in 2015; with the signing of this agreement, more than 55 percent of the building has been leased.

“This reaffirms the federal government’s commitment to the redevelopment of the World Trade Center site and to this project that demonstrates the undaunted resilience of the American people,” said GSA Acting Administrator Dan Tangherlini. “There will once again be a federal presence in the World Trade Center, as there was from its beginning. We worked closely with the Port Authority and the Durst Organization to negotiate a lease that will result in the best value for taxpayers, the federal government and the City of New York.”

Lower Manhattan M9 Bus Changes Route for the Better
Transportation headaches for those living in Battery Park City might soon be soothed as the MTA is set to restore M9 bus service in January 2013. A large section of this particular bus route was forgone two years ago in order to close a gap of nearly $900 million in the MTA’s budget, to the dismay of residents.

Once the full route is reinstated, it will include stops in the East Village, the Lower East Side, Chinatown and City Hall, saving residents from wasting time taking multiple buses. The route will also extend northward, providing stops at Bellevue Hospital Center and the NYU Medical Center.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver applauded the news last Tuesday, saying the restored service will help rebuild the Lower Manhattan community.

“I recently approached MTA Chair Joseph Lhota to discuss the importance of restoring this service for the residents, workers and visitors to Battery Park City,” said Silver. “Enhancing important transportation links for residents, workers and students as well as visitors to my Lower Manhattan community is critical as we continue to grow and renew our neighborhoods.”

Senator Squadron Welcomes New Beer Production Tax Credit
It’s good news for breweries. Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently signed legislation to reinstate a beer production tax credit. New York breweries that produce less than 60 million gallons of beer will utilize the tax credit of 14 cents per gallon of beer sold in the state and 12 more cents per gallon of beer sold in the city for the first 200,000 barrels of beer.

This came after State Sens. Squadron and Lee Zeldin, U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer and Assemblyman Joe Lentol met with local brewers to announce a bipartisan plan to reinstate the credit and protect New York’s small brewers.

Such brewers include the local Brooklyn Brewery, which is in Squadron’s district, Kelso in Clinton Hill and about 90 others in parts of Long Island and New York.

“From the good jobs they create to the great beer they produce, New York’s brewers are key to New York’s economy,” said Squadron in a statement. “By reinstating the beer production credit, we’re serving New York’s brewers, consumers and economy alike, allowing our small businesses to keep growing while keeping their brews affordable,” he said.

Courtesy of Summer In The Square.

Attack of the Bubbles at Union Square
Kids and parents alike were bubbling over The Gazillion Bubble Show at Union Square last week. The performance, which has been popular at New World Stages since 2007, was part of the Union Square Partnership’s 2012 Summer in the Square series that holds events every Thursday from morning to evening. Bubbles of all shapes and sizes floated through the air at the bubble-making demonstration and performance, all to the delight of the young children in attendance.

Officials Push for Domestic Violence Penalty Laws
City officials, including Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr., are calling for immediate passage of a bill that would increase penalties for repeat domestic violence offenders. The legislation, led by State Sen. Daniel Squadron and Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal, would provide district attorneys with the tools to crack down on reoccurring violent abuse by establishing the felony-level crime of “aggressive domestic violence” for abusers who commit two or more offenses within five years. Under the current law, only those who cause serious physical injury or kill their victims face felony charges, and those who repeatedly commit domestic violence offenses can only be charged with a low-level misdemeanor.

Quinn and Bloomberg Join to End Defense of Marriage Act
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently announced that they will file a joint amicus brief to support Edie Windsor’s constitutional challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Windsor sued the federal government after being forced to pay $363,000 in estate taxes on her late wife’s estate because the government did not recognize her marriage to her partner of over 40 years.
Under DOMA, homosexual marriages are not recognized as legitimate, and therefore only heterosexual couples are exempt from having to pay their spouses’ estate taxes.
“Edie Windsor’s case is a tragic reminder of the work that still needs to be done to extend equality to all people,” said Quinn. “As courts across the country continue to strike down DOMA’s unconstitutional assault on our civil liberties, I’m proud to join Mayor Bloomberg and the chorus of voices that have called to repeal DOMA once and for all.”

Safety Improvements on Spruce and Beekman Streets
After UPS worker Michael Rogalle, 58, was killed by an SUV on Spruce Street outside an elementary school, local parents have been petitioning for the addition of street signs and school crossing markings on Beekman Street between Gold and William streets.
According to the office of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, the petition passed and the signs will be put up in a matter of days and painted during the following weeks. Silver commented, “I look forward to further improvements so that we can do more to prevent tragedies such as the recent fatal accident at Beekman and Spruce streets.”
Newly Reconstructed Pearl Street Playground Gives Kids a Place to Cool Off
Last Thursday, June 21, Parks & Recreation Commissioner Adrian Benepe joined Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) President David Emil, City Council Member Margaret Chin, Community Board 1 Chair Julie Menin and neighborhood children to cut the ribbon on the $2.1 million reconstruction of Pearl Street Playground.
Generously funded by the LMDC, the reconstructed playground creates another improved public space along the Fulton Street corridor. The park was expanded into the roadbed of “Little Pearl Street” to provide an upgraded playground, including play equipment that meets current safety standards, a spray shower, swings and plantings. The enlarged park also has a pedestrian link to Beekman Street, several additional seating areas, a rock feature referencing the sandy bluff that once existed at the site and direct views of the South Street Seaport district.

First Tower on World Trade Center Site to be Completed
World Trade Center Developer Larry A. Silverstein joined more than 1,000 construction workers at a topping out ceremony to mark the completion of the steel erection for 4 World Trade Center on Monday, June 25 at the corner of Liberty and Greenwich streets. The last steel beam was signed by a representative group of construction workers before it was lifted 977 feet in the air and placed atop the building, which will be the first tower completed on the 16-acre WTC site when it opens in fall 2013.

Funding for Millennium High School’s new P.E. Space
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver announced that he has allocated $400,000 to Millennium High School in Lower Manhattan to replace its exercise equipment and renovate an auditorium so that it can serve as a space for physical education.
“Millennium High School is one of Lower Manhattan’s great success stories,” said Silver, “and I am proud to be able to allocate crucial funding to renovate this space and purchase new exercise equipment for students to have physical education. Providing the best possible environment for our children is a top priority of mine and I will continue to fight to ensure that Millennium High School, and all of our excellent Lower Manhattan schools, receive the resources they deserve.”
Compiled by Helen Matsumoto

50 types of cancer have joined the list of covered conditions for the World Trade Center Health Program linked to the Zadroga Bill that was passed in early 2011. This comes after Dr. John Howard, Director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, reviewed the link between exposure to the toxins at the World Trade Center site and developing cancer affecting the digestive and respiratory systems. He recently issued a proposed rule to accept all of the Science/Technical Advisory Committees recommendations.

The Zadroga Bill expands death benefits to workers assumed to have died due to the exposure of toxins at Ground Zero following the 9/11 attacks.

Senators Charles E. Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand released a statement Friday following the decision: “We thank Dr. Howard and the Science/Technical Advisory Committee for their hard work and diligence which will get more of our 9-11 heroes suffering from cancer the treatment they deserve,” they said.

Two more peer-reviewed scientific studies will also be done to determine if any additional cancers should be included in the list.

“We are confident that with the benefit of new peer-reviewed studies to come, we will be successful in ensuring that first responders and community survivors suffering from other cancers will also get the access to the program they so desperately need,” said Schumer and Gillibrand.

The idea of a cultural building at the World Trade Center has at times been likened to a forgotten orphan, but the idea inched further away from fantasy and closer to reality last week when it unofficially got something its WTC brothers and sisters have always had: an address.

Though the site for the proposed Performing Arts Center was determined years ago, it has usually been identified as “PAC” on WTC maps.

Tom Goodkind, a member of Community Board 1’s WTC Committee, said that with 7 WTC open across the street, there is a missing number that should be reserved for the PAC.

“That should be a 6,” he said at a committee meeting on Monday, Jan. 9. “It’s just logical.”

Glenn Guzi, a program director at the Port Authority, which owns the WTC, agreed, saying “unofficially,” the Port considers the arts building to be at 6 WTC.

The original 6 WTC was the smallest building in the complex and housed the U.S. Customs House before it was destroyed in 2001.

The Center got a bigger boost three weeks ago when Mayor Michael Bloomberg, chairperson of the 9/11 Memorial Foundation, named five members to a fundraising board.

They are Julie Menin, chairperson of Community Board 1; Christy Freer, CEO of Vidicom, whose husband was killed on 9/11; Larry Silverstein, the WTC developer; John Zuccotti, co-chairperson of Brookfield Properties; and Zenia Mucha, executive vice president of the Walt Disney Company.

The move was made to free up $100 million of Lower Manhattan Development Corp. money, which was conditioned on the city and state creating a PAC board. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has not named any members to the board.

Each board member has promised to raise $5 million, the Wall Street Journal reported, and will serve with Dep. Mayor Patricia Harris, an ex-officio member who has not made a pledge.

The LMDC had previously committed $55 million to the PAC. Bloomberg administration officials first said they would take the lead role in getting the PAC built in 2006, but little progress was made as fundraising and construction priorities centered on the WTC Memorial and train station.

The 2003 site plan for the WTC designed by Daniel Libeskind included several arts buildings as a buffer between the memorial and office buildings, but over the years, content objections raised by some 9/11 family members ,as well as the competition for space, reduced the size of the cultural center.

“The fact that East River Ferry ridership is shattering projections in only six months is proof that commuters and tourists alike are discovering both the beauty and convenience of traveling borough to borough on the East River by ferry,” said Quinn.

The East River Ferry service provides increased access to the waterfront and additional transportation options in areas along the Brooklyn and Queens waterfront, giving them a connection to each other and to two key business districts in Manhattan. The fast, frequent, reliable mass transportation option makes these emerging waterfront locations more desirable, hopefully triggering more economic development in New York City.

The ferry service was launched on June 13 as part of a three-year pilot program to provide year-round ferry service between East 34th Street and Pier 11 in Manhattan, Long Island City in Queens and Greenpoint, North Williamsburg, South Williamsburg and DUMBO in Brooklyn. Seasonally, the ferry also makes stops at Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn and Governors Island.

Having averaged about 20,000 weekly riders in revenue service and now in its winter schedule, passengers are still taking to the water as a more convenient and enjoyable alternative for commuters and tourists in the growing neighborhoods along the Queens and Brooklyn waterfronts. The service costs riders $4 for a one-way ticket, $12 for an unlimited day pass and $140 for an unlimited monthly pass.

WORLD TRADE CENTER
Board Still Unnamed For PAC
While Gov. Andrew Cuomo has yet to name his appointees to the board of directors for the World Trade Center Performing Arts Center (PAC)—a decision that must be made by Dec. 31—Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver noted last week in a release that the Port Authority remains committed to developing the PAC.

On Dec. 19, Silver arranged a meeting with Port Authority Executive Director Pat Foye and members of the community, who met to ask questions about a number of ongoing issues in Lower Manhattan. On the subject of the PAC, Foye said that, based on reports of fundraising progress from the city, there is no risk that the $100 million allocated by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation will be lost at the end of the year, as had been reported.

LOWER MANHATTAN
First newborn of NY Downtown Hospital Give Birth
Gloria I. B. Ramos gave birth to her first child, Olivia Monique Estevez, Dec. 17 at New York Downtown Hospital.

Of the almost 3,000 babies delivered each year at the hospital, Olivia’s birth was remarkable since her mother, Gloria Infirmary Beekman Ramos, was herself the first newborn in the New York Infirmary (New York Downtown Hospital’s predecessor) some 30 years ago.

“This has always been my hospital since the day I was born. Ever since I started to come for my pre-natal care right up to my delivery, everyone here has provided excellent care to me. I feel like having my second baby right away!” said Ramos. Her mother, Nancy Ramos, is a particular fan of the hospital and noted, “I’ve had a total of 11 grandchildren born in this hospital. My other daughter just had her son delivered here this morning.”

With the growing number of families moving into Lower Manhattan, New York Downtown Hospital is anticipating even more deliveries in 2012. The hospital’s new nursery and NICU have received numerous accolades from patients and their families.

BATTERY PARK CITY
Memorial Held For Stuyvesant Senior
A memorial service was held Wednesday, Dec. 28, in Chinatown for Stuyvesant High School Senior Terence Tsao, who was killed earlier this month by an allegedly drunk driver. Tsao, 17, was reportedly within a block of his Brooklyn home the night of Friday, Dec. 16, when a Dodge minivan ran into him. DNAinfo reported that Vitali Korzavin, 46, was arrested in association with the crime.

BillyBey Ferry Company President Paul Goodman, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, City Council Member Margaret Chin and NYCEDC President Seth Pinsky at the East River Ferry entrance.

Texas native Robert Jackson spent three and a half years compiling a complete history of a structure far from his home, something 33 million East Coasters pass through every year—the Holland Tunnel. Built in 1927, this daily part of New Yorkers’ lives was at the time the longest and largest vehicular tunnel in the entire world, the first to utilize a ventilation system.

Robert Jackson

In Highway Under the Hudson, Jackson delves into not only the history of this famous tunnel but the drama behind its construction, the people involved and the unique engineering that took place. “Engineering has played a major role in the social and economic development of our country, impacting our character and our attitudes,” he said. “In nearly every instance, there are fascinating and untold stories behind the creation of ‘engineered’ elements of our built environment, such as bridges, tunnels and highways.”

Since 1995, Jackson, who also works as an urban and environmental planner, has written about the nation’s engineering and industrial heritage, including in his previous book about St. Louis’ Eads Bridge.

What drew you to writing about the Holland Tunnel?

A few years ago, Director of New York University Press Steve Maikowski decided that a book on the Holland Tunnel needed to be written and he began searching for an author. I was recommended to him and was eager to accept the challenge due to my strong interest in the history of transportation engineering. After reading my history of the Eads Bridge, Steve decided that I was the right person to tackle the story and the rest, as they say, is history.

This is a very rich history; how did you start your research?

I began my research by contacting the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to see what records it retained from the state commissions that built the tunnel, before they merged with the Port Authority in 1930. Unfortunately, all of those records had been stored in the Port Authority library in the World Trade Center and were lost on 9/11. But the New York State Library and Archives in Albany and the New York Public Library had enough material to get me started. I also relied upon the C. M. Holland Collection at Case Western University and found other bits and pieces of documentation in other libraries as I went along.

What surprised you most about the Holland Tunnel?

When I began, I assumed that the tunnel had been built primarily for use by passenger vehicles, with truck traffic being of lesser importance. Just the opposite was true; it was built to facilitate the movement of freight from New Jersey to New York, with accommodation of passenger vehicles a secondary consideration. I was also surprised to find that, around the time of World War I, approximately 50 percent of the nation’s foreign trade annually passed through the port of New York.

What did not surprise me because I have studied other great construction projects but might surprise others is the cost in human life of building and maintaining a major piece of urban infrastructure. By my count, at least 14 workers died during construction of the tunnel, though it was thought that only 13 had died until I did my research. Also, two men, one firefighter and one patrol officer, died during the fire of 1949. It had previously been assumed that no one died because of the fire. In addition, two of the chief engineers died from overwork while the tunnel was under construction.

How does the Holland Tunnel compare to other large passenger tunnels?

There are many other vehicular tunnels that exceed the Holland Tunnel in size, length or visual beauty, but the Holland Tunnel holds a unique place in the history of tunnel engineering as the first such structure that was mechanically ventilated. It thus influenced the design of virtually every vehicular tunnel that came after it. It will never relinquish its place as a seminal work of civil and mechanical engineering.

How long do you think the tunnel will last?

All great works of humankind are destined to fade away at some point, but, as the title of my last chapter states, the Holland Tunnel was built to last. I believe that with proper maintenance, it will remain in use long after you and I are gone.

What structure would you like to write a book on next?

I’m currently working on a historical fiction crime novel set in Dallas in 1936. After that, I want to do a documentary film about a subject that I’m keeping to myself, for now. I would hate for someone else to beat me to it.

Sandhogs waiting during the construction of the Holland Tunnel.

I look at the World Trade Center a little more broadly than I used to, and the most remarkable thing I saw on a visit there last week was the trees. It was not a surprise to me that they were there or that someone had made sure there were clear views of them on the public walkways, while other views were blocked—we’ve had nearly 10 years of officials going out of their way to show progress at the site. Sometimes the progress was real, many times not.

Special Sections Editor, Josh Rogers

The trees, which will consume most of the memorial plaza, are a pittance of the mega-billion-dollar redevelopment and memorial project, but their value is much greater than their cost. When I was in my twenties, I noticed something friends and acquaintances often said on deciding to leave New York City after a few years: “You never see trees here.”

I grew up in the city, so I had to learn to appreciate nature. I was gratified when groves of trees were added to the selected WTC design by architect Michael Arad. The memorial falls short for me in some ways, as it will inevitably do for thousands of family members—and perhaps millions of people—each with their own individual notion of what the memorial should be. Over the years, at least a few of those who lost loved ones on 9/11 said the memorial should include more artifacts from the attack, and some wanted to see pictures of those who were killed. Maybe only a few people feel this way, maybe a lot. Regardless, they are right.

Someday, it will undoubtedly be a striking vision to come upon a forest of trees in the middle of a completed office/retail center, but without having remnants of the attack more prominent and visible to workers, residents and passersby in the decades to come, the memorial’s significance could easily be lost with time. Generations from now, most of those who see the memorial will be unlikely to trek down to the underground museum. A century or two from now, pictures of the victims would presumably make it harder to forget them. If you take a short walk away from the WTC, you can find many memorials with names on a wall. Do many people without personal ties to these memorials think about the lives that were lost when they see them?

But I’m happy to have the trees. No one gets everything they want in a memorial, and I’m not even what’s called a stakeholder.

I covered the WTC redevelopment’s ups and mostly downs intensely for the first eight and a half years of its progress for another paper, and watched it from further away for the last 15 months. I remember the timing of my turning point perhaps even better than I do 9/11 itself, because that’s when I began spending most of my time taking care of my infant son.

His progress since then is unmistakable. He had no teeth at that point, could not crawl and struggled to stay on his tummy for more than a few seconds. Now he runs, climbs on windowsills and usually prefers to “read” books on his own.

We strolled around the WTC site last week, and its progress was also dramatic. Shadows from the two towers under construction are considerably larger, and the facade of 1 WTC is tall enough to imagine what the building will look like. (I heard one visiting Fire Department officer refer to the tower using the now unfashionable F-word, “Freedom.”) My son loved the construction vehicles and all of the pedestrian activity. The trees were too far away for him to notice or care. The site was noisier than I remember—so much so that the World Financial Center sounded eerily ghost-like after we crossed the area.

We made it over to Battery Park City’s Teardrop Park, two blocks from the site but, with its hills and rocks, a world away. I had not been back to the park much since its opening seven years ago. It did feel as if we were somewhere like the Catskills, as was intended. My son splashed in the boulder sprinklers. It was a toddler’s paradise.

We’ll be back.