News and events in Lower Manhattan
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Volume 6, No. 62, Jan. 10, 2023 |
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CONTENTS:
Letter from the Editor: Local Journalism
New York Congressional District 10's Man in Washington
Bits & Bytes: Grace Lee Goes to Albany; Titanic Memorial Lighthouse Update
Bulletin Board: Fulton Fish Market Book Talk; Recycle Your Tree
Calendar: Silent Films with Live Music at Brookfield Place
Go to www.DowntownPostNYC.com for breaking news and for updated information on facility closures related to COVID-19
MASTHEAD PHOTO: Full moon over Tribeca (Photo: © Terese Loeb Kreuzer 2022)
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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR: LOCAL JOURNALISM |
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In the Nov. 8, 2022 election, the Republican candidate for New York's 3rd Congressional District covering part of northern Nassau County on Long Island and northeast Queens beat his Democratic opponent handily. Out of 271,228 votes cast, the Republican, George Santos, received 53.8% compared with 46.2% for Robert Zimmerman, the Democrat. Calling himself "the embodiment of the American dream," 34-year-old Santos was on his way to Congress.
Santos had a dazzling resumé. After graduating from Baruch College, he had worked for Goldman Sachs and for Citigroup. The son of Brazilian immigrants, he was the proprietor of a family-owned real estate portfolio of 13 properties. His financial acumen was legendary as was his charitable work on behalf of thousands of dogs and cats that he had rescued.
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George Santos taking the oath of office on Jan. 7, 2023 that officially made him a member of the
U.S. House of Representatives.
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But his charmed life was not untouched by tragedy. In an interview on WNYC he revealed that four employees of his company had been killed at the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Fla. in June 2016.
In addition, he was shadowed by other troubles. He was twice evicted from Queens apartments for unpaid rent but his financial affairs took a marked turn for the better by the time of his 2022 campaign for Congress. By then he was earning $750,000 a year and was the owner of the Devolder Organization, which paid him millions of dollars in dividends.
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Santos had already won his election, shifting a formerly Democratic Congressional district into the Republican column, when The New York Times decided to look into his background. An article published on Dec. 19, 2022 entitled "Who is Rep-Elect George Santos? His Resumé May Be Largely Fiction" indicated that none of Santos's claims could be substantiated.
This was not news to the North Shore Leader, a hyperlocal weekly newspaper with a conservative bias. In September 2022, the North Shore Leader had questioned Santos's claims about his net worth. The paper said that it would have liked to support a Republican but couldn't support Santos because "he's most likely just a fabulist — a fake."
No other newspaper picked up the story — not Newsday, which has substantial readership on Long Island, not The New York Times or any of the other large newspapers in the New York City area. By the time they got around to looking into Santos and his background, he had already won the election. It was too late. It would be difficult to dislodge him from Congress. Moreover, Kevin McCarthy needed Santos's vote in his quest to become the Speaker of the House.
"Many complain about the perceived failings of the news media," the article said, "but how many of us actually support American journalists financially? Newsrooms have been decimated by layoffs because we're not willing to pay for news. Even the mighty Times, which has defied many trends and grown its digital audience and subscription base, has trimmed its metro New York desk over the past decade. We're defunding the watchdogs."
On July 1, 2022, AP news ran an article called "US newspapers continuing to die at rate of 2 each week." Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media and Integrated Marketing Communications said that "The country had 6,377 newspapers at the end of May, down from 8,891 in 2005.... While the pandemic didn’t quite cause the reckoning that some in the industry feared, 360 newspapers have shut down since the end of 2019, all but 24 of them weeklies serving small communities."
Journalists who cover local communities are privy to information that often escapes larger newspapers. This means that local journalism has an important part to play in preserving democracy. There's little to no money to be made in local journalism but some people stick with it regardless. For some people, it's a calling.
As for George Santos, he may not escape scot-free from his lies after all. The government of Brazil is after him for using stolen checks to make purchases and two of his House of Representatives colleagues, Representatives Ritchie Torres and Daniel Goldman, both of them Democrats, are filing an official complaint with the House Committee on Ethics, calling for an official investigation.
"The House of Representatives has an obligation to police itself, and this is just the start of our mission to hold George Santos accountable to his constituents and the American people,"Goldman said in a statement to ABC News. (Goldman is in his first term in Congress, representing the 10th New York Congressional District in Lower Manhattan.) Newly elected House Speaker Kevin McCarthy wasn't so sure about that. According to ABC News, "McCarthy has avoided directly addressing any of the revelations about Santos, ignoring most questions from reporters."
— Terese Loeb Kreuzer
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Downtown Post NYC's website (www.DowntownPostNYC.com) is updated daily. That's the place to check for urgent messages, breaking news and reminders of interesting events in and around Lower Manhattan. So be sure to look at the website every day, especially if you want to know about breaking news.
HOW TO SUPPORT DOWNTOWN POST NYC: I made Downtown Post NYC free to subscribers so that no one who was interested in reading it would be excluded because of cost. Downtown Post NYC is largely supported by advertising revenue. In addition, some people have made contributions, which are much appreciated. For more information about how to contribute or advertise, email editor@downtownpostnyc.com.
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Jan. 24: Philippe Petit’s crossing between the two towers of the World Trade Center on a wire strung 1,000 feet up in the air has inspired numerous films, books and articles, including the Academy Award-winning 2008 documentary "Man on Wire." On Jan. 24, the Downtown Alliance will host a special screening of the film followed by a conversation between Petit and groundbreaking choreographer and performer Elizabeth Streb. Place: Regal Cinema Battery Park Stadium 11 located at 102 North End Avenue. Time: 6 p.m. Tickets: $10 with all proceeds to be donated to the STREB organization. To buy tickets, click here. Attendees will be able to ask Petit about his legendary, death-defying crossing directly. Signed copies of his out-of-print book "To Reach the Clouds: My High Wire Walk Between the Twin Towers" will be for sale. |
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N.Y. CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT 10'S MAN IN WASHINGTON |
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Dan Goldman during a debate with other candidates to represent New York Congressional District 10 in the U.S. House of Representatives prior to the election on Nov. 8, 2022. |
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In the election of Nov. 8, 2022, the voters of New York Congressional District 10, formerly represented by Jerry Nadler, sent Dan Goldman to Washington, D.C. to represent them. Goldman won that election in a field of well-qualified candidates. Although Goldman has lived in Tribeca for many years, he was probably less conversant with local issues than some of his opponents but he was well and uniquely qualified for a seat in the House by virtue of his experience as a lawyer that included 10 years as a prosecutor for the U.S. Department of Justice and service as the lead counsel in the first impeachment investigation of then-President Donald Trump.
In a recent email to his constituents, Goldman deplored the frustration of having to wait to be sworn in to his Congressional seat until the debacle of who was to be the Speaker of the Republican-controlled House was settled, as it finally was on the 15th ballot.
This is what Goldman had to say:
Republicans moving in reverse would be comical if it weren’t so deeply concerning. In order to finally ascend to the Speakership, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, a man with no vision, values or ideology, ceded total control over the House to the extremist MAGA wing of the Republican Party.
Make no mistake, the MAGA Caucus is driving the Republican Party bus.
McCarthy’s concessions include:
1. Allowing any member of the MAGA Caucus to call a vote to remove McCarthy as Speaker for any reason. Remember, McCarthy only got 216 votes to become Speaker, which would not be enough if every member of Congress voted. This makes him completely beholden to the MAGA Caucus.
2. Any increase in the debt ceiling must be paired with a comparable decrease in spending. The practical reality of this concession is that McCarthy has agreed to raise the debt ceiling – which allows the United States government to pay interest on its debts previously agreed to – only if there is a dramatic cut to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
3. A rules package that guts the Office of Congressional Ethics – the body that conducts investigations on behalf of the House Ethics Committee – and prohibits congressional offices from unionizing. Indeed, just as the Republican Party welcomes serially liar and fraudster George Santos into their ranks, McCarthy and the Republicans are making it near-impossible for Congress to investigate him.
4. The creation of a special committee to investigate the “Weaponization of the Federal Government.” They can dress up the name, but, as I describe in more detail below, this special committee is solely intended to interfere with ongoing investigations of the Department of Justice, including those into possible members of the committee itself.
The GOP Committee to Obstruct Justice
I spent 10 years as a federal prosecutor with the Department of Justice, and charged numerous defendants with obstruction of justice.
In 2019, as Senior Advisor and Director of Investigations for the House Intelligence Committee, I spearheaded Congress’s effort to obtain documents and materials – some classified – underlying Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Report on Russian interference in the 2016 election, which included detailed evidence of then-President Donald Trump’s efforts to obstruct justice.
Later in 2019, I served as lead counsel in the impeachment investigation of then-President Trump, who was impeached for his abuse of power and for obstructing our investigation.
More recently, I, like many of you, have observed continued efforts by former President Trump to obstruct DOJ’s investigations into the 2020 election and his unauthorized possession of classified documents.
I remind you of my background because it is important context when I say unequivocally that the so-called “special Committee to Investigate the Weaponization of the Federal Government” is a thinly-veiled effort to achieve a single objective:
Obstruct the new Special Counsel’s current investigations into a conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election and former President Trump’s unauthorized possession of classified materials and – you guessed it – to obstruct justice.
That is why I call this new special committee the GOP Committee to Obstruct Justice. This improper and unwarranted committee would be bad enough if it were simply trying to do Donald Trump’s dirty work. But it gets worse.
The Special Counsel’s investigation into the 2020 election also includes Republican members of Congress, including Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA), whose cell phone was seized and searched pursuant to a court-authorized search warrant based on a finding of probable cause that the phone would contain evidence of a crime related to his role in trying to overturn the 2020 election.
Yesterday, Rep. Perry said he hopes to get a seat on the Committee to Obstruct Justice. Put another way, Scott Perry hopes to get a seat on a Congressional committee designed to obstruct a federal criminal investigation into himself.
This isn’t just a conflict of interest. This is a Trump-level abuse of power, and the latest Republican attempt to normalize authoritarian behavior and ensure those who tried to overthrow our government never face consequences.
We can’t forget that the same Republicans who fomented the attack on our democracy on January 6 continued their assault on democracy this week by making it impossible for Congress to do the people’s work. And they now intend to continue to undermine our democracy by interfering in lawful investigations to protect Donald Trump and themselves.
I ran for Congress to stand up to these authoritarian forces in the Republican Party. And I promise you that I will do everything I can to prevent further attacks on our democracy and the rule of law.
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The U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C. (Photo: © Terese Loeb Kreuzer) |
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Start the New Year With Tea, Cookies
and Tea Ware From Té Company
This year, the Mid-Autumn Festival fell on Sept. 10.
It featured mooncakes, which are round pastries, gifted to friends and family during the festival. If you missed the festival, you can usually buy mooncakes from Té Company at other times of the year.
Pineapple linzer are the signature cookies at tea company.
Cost: 6 linzer for $20.
The tea room at 163 West 10th St. is open Wednesdays through Sundays from noon to 6 p.m.
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Bits & Bytes
GRACE LEE GOES TO ALBANY; TITANIC MEMORIAL LIGHTHOUSE
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Grace Lee sworn in as a member of the New York State Assembly representing District 65 in Lower Manhattan. |
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On Jan. 4, 2023, Grace Lee was sworn in as the Assembly member for New York State District 65, which includes the Financial District, the South Street Seaport, Chinatown, the Lower East Side and Two Bridges.
“I am honored to represent District 65 in the New York State Assembly,” she said. “Today, I made a commitment to serve the people of my district and to uphold the constitution of New York State. I promise to fight for working families and use the full power of my new office to deliver real solutions to the people of Lower Manhattan and New York State."
Previously, Lee has been a community organizer and a small-business owner. She is a first-generation American and is the mother of three children. She was a co-founder of Children First, a parent-led coalition demanding the safe cleanup of a mercury brownfield in the South Street Seaport. She is the first Korean-American woman elected to New York State government.
"During my campaign, I spoke about the need for elected officials to be on the ground in every neighborhood doing the heavy lifting to get our communities the resources they need to thrive," she said. "As a community organizer, I’ve spent years working with the community on the issues we face; I am excited to now take this work to Albany.”
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The Titanic Memorial Lighthouse at the corner of Fulton and Water Streets in the South Street Seaport. (Photo: © Terese Loeb Kreuzer) |
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"Restoration of New York City’s Titanic Memorial Lighthouse moves forward," 6sqft.com, 1/9/2023. "Plans to restore New York City’s Titanic Memorial Lighthouse are moving forward," according to 6sqft.com. "Built in 1913 to honor those who died aboard the Titanic, the 60-foot-tall lighthouse featured a working 'time ball' that dropped down the pole each day, along with a green light.
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After a four-year campaign, a request for proposals has been issued to restore the monument to its original working condition. Designed by Warren and Wetmore, the architects behind Grand Central Terminal, the memorial was installed on top of the Seamen’s Church Institute at 25 South Street one year after the April 15, 1912 shipwreck. The lighthouse was fully functioning, with a time ball that would drop each day to signal noon to ships in the harbor. For the last four years, the Friends of Titanic Memorial Lighthouse, a group made up of preservationists and descendants of passengers and crew who were aboard the Titanic, have campaigned for the restoration of the monument to its original working condition. The Seaport Museum recently issued a request for proposals seeking architects to provide 'architectural and preservation services,' including the protection of the exterior and interior lighting so it can be lit again." For the complete article, click here.
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Bulletin Board
FULTON FISH MARKET BOOK TALK; RECYCLE YOUR TREE
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Night at the Fulton Fish Market. (Watercolor painting by Naima Rauam) |
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Jan. 10: Fulton Fish Market Book Talk: In an online talk, historian Jonathan H. Rees will discuss his new book "The Fulton Fish Market: A History" (Columbia University Press, 2022). Among other things, Rees describes the market’s workings and significance, tracing the transportation, retailing, and consumption of fish. Today, the once bustling fish market in lower Manhattan's South Street Seaport is a rebuilt retail destination with a new kind of marketing – but from its founding in 1822, through its move to the Bronx in 2005, the Fulton Fish Market was an iconic New York institution. At first a neighborhood market for many different kinds of food, by the late nineteenth century, it became the nation’s largest fish and seafood wholesaling center. Thousands of immigrants worked at the Fulton Fish Market and introduced the rest of the city to their seafood traditions. In popular culture, the market evoked images of the animated East River waterfront, late-night fishmongering, organized crime, and a vanished working-class New York. Date: Jan. 10. Time: 6 p.m. Free. T o register for the book talk, click here.
Community Board Application Period Now Open: Applications for Community Board membership are open through March 17, 2023 at 5 p.m. Current members who wish to serve another term must reapply.
Manhattan's 12 Community Boards provide an opportunity to participate in local democracy and decision making. Community Boards discuss and make recommendations on every aspect of life in New York City, from parks, sanitation, education, land use, resiliency issues, health, and more. Each Community Board has 50 members, half of whom are selected by the Borough President and the other half by the City Council members whose districts overlap with the Community District.
Community Board members must live, work, or have an otherwise significant interest in the neighborhoods served by the Community District, and be New York City residents. In addition, preference is given to applicants with a history of community involvement, expertise, skill sets, and attendance at Community Board meetings who can serve a two-year term.
Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine is committed to ensuring that Community Boards authentically reflect the diversity of the neighborhoods they represent. Youth, 16 years or older, public housing residents and people holding marginalized identities should apply if they are interested in Community Board service.
Each Board has a budget, a district manager and a staff however Community Board members are volunteers.
Recycle Your Tree: Through Jan 27, help Battery Park City stay green this holiday season! Please deposit your tree without decorations at the curb where Parks Operations will pick it up.Trees are chipped and used for mulch in the parks of Battery Park City. For more information, call 212-267-9700.
New City Council District Map for Manhattan: The New York City Districting Commission recently published new City Council district maps that will be in place for the next decade. The maps resulted from over eight months of work during which there were 20 public meetings and hearings where public testimony was presented both in person and virtually. To see an enlargement of the map, click here.
NYPD First Precinct Community Council Meetings: The monthly meetings of Manhattan's NYPD First Precinct Community Council are usually held on the last Thursday of each month starting at 6 p.m. at 16 Ericsson Place. The Community Council welcomes residents and businesses interested in police and security issues. Crime statistics and crime prevention tips are presented and quality of life issues are discussed. For more information, contact the First Precinct Community Affairs Officer, Nicolaos Iordanou at (212) 334-0640 or nicolaos.iordanou@nypd.org
Rapid At-Home COVID-19 Test Kit Pickup: Free, Covid-19 rapid-testing kits can be picked up in Lower Manhattan at the following locations:
Battery Park City Library
,175 North End Ave.; Chatham Square Library, 33 East Broadway. Monday to Friday, 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. Tests can be used on people 2 years old and older. One kit is recommended per person
At-home Testing: At-home testing for COVID-19 is now available to all immunocompromised New Yorkers and those ages 65 and older. To schedule an in-home appointment, call (929) 298-9400 between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. (7 days a week).
Governors Island ferry access: Access to Governors Island is by ferry, with timed ticket reservations required. Ferries run daily from the Battery Maritime Building at 10 South St. in Lower Manhattan. The ferries are always free for kids 12 and under, for seniors 65 and up, for residents of NYCHA housing, for military servicemembers, Governors Island members, and for everyone on weekends before noon. Starting later this year, NYC Ferry will serve Governors Island daily via the South Brooklyn route. A launch date for this expanded service will be announced soon. NYC Ferry's shuttle from Wall Street/Pier 11 to Yankee Pier on Governors Island will continue on weekends until the launch of 7-day/week service along the South Brooklyn route. NYC Ferry riders on any line that makes stops at Wall Street/Pier 11 may transfer to a shuttle service to Governors Island on Saturdays and Sundays. Governors Island weekend ferry service from Brooklyn (Pier 6 in Brooklyn Bridge Park and Atlantic Basin in Red Hook) is currently not in service and will return in Spring, 2022. The first ferry to Governors Island from 10 South St. leaves at 7 a.m. The last ferry from Governors Island leaves at 6 p.m. Learn more about Governors Island ferries and book tickets by clicking here.
Lower Manhattan Greenmarkets: There are Lower Manhattan Greenmarkets in Tribeca (at Chambers and Greenwich Streets) and at Bowling Green, City Hall, the Oculus and the Staten Island ferry. GrowNYC asks that shoppers wear a face covering inside the market space and maintain a six-foot distance between themselves, Greenmarket staff, farm stand employees and other customers. Dogs and bicycles should be left at home.
Click here for a list of the fruits and vegetables now in season.
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Many of the Downtown Post NYC bulletin board listings are now on the Downtown Post NYC website. To see the bulletin board listings, click here.
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To see the events and activities on the Battery Park City Authority's winter calendar, click here. Most events are free. For some, reservations are required. |
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CALENDAR
Spotlight: Silent Films with Live Music at Brookfield Place
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Under the direction of John Schaefer, the host and producer of WNYC's long-running new music show "New Sounds," on Jan. 25, Jan. 26 and Jan. 27 three silent films accompanied by live music will be screened in the Winter Garden at Brookfield Place. (Photo: During "New Sounds" at the Winter Garden in January 2020, “The Unknown,” a 1927 silent horror film with Lon Chaney and John George, was screened at Brookfield Place. Chaney played a carnival knife thrower called Alonzo the Armless with George as his friend, Cojo. The film, was accompanied by a new score by Vernon Reid. © 2020 Terese Loeb Kreuzer) |
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Jan. 25, Jan. 26 and Jan. 27: "Silent films were never really silent," says John Schaefer, the curator of a popular annual series of silent film screenings at Brookfield Place in Battery Park City. The screenings, accompanied by live music, were temporarily discontinued in 2021 and 2022 because of the COVID pandemic but now they're back.
"Throughout the 1910s and '20s," Schaefer continues by way of introduction to the films, "these movies would be shown with live musicians, often improvising or incorporating popular songs and classical music. Since the turn of this century, we’ve been presenting silent films in the Winter Garden at Brookfield Place with live music from some of today’s most adventurous musicians, who extend that tradition with their own scores. This annual series has been popular for a couple of reasons: the Winter Garden atrium, with its huge size, live palm trees, and dramatic lighting, dwarfs even the grandest of the old-time movie palaces – to say nothing of today’s tiny screens. And hearing new instrumental music in this setting is an easy way to enter the world of contemporary composition."
This year’s silent films include two all-time classics ("The Kid" with Charlie Chaplin and a young Jackie Coogan and "The Passion Of Joan of Arc") as well as a contemporary silent film, "Electric Appalachia," created specifically with the live musicians in mind. This film, assembled from archival footage by Eric Dawson, the director at TAMIS – the Tennessee Archive of Moving Image and Sound, offers “a poignant and engaging meditation on electricity and modernity in East Tennessee” says Schaefer. "Guitarist William Tyler and harpist Mary Lattimore add a moving, occasionally cosmic score. After that, the extraordinary guitarist Yasmin Williams will give us the world premiere of a new score to the Charlie Chaplin classic 'The Kid.'" Schaefer calls this film "both funny and deeply humane." About "The Passion Of Joan Of Arc,' he notes that it "regularly tops the lists of the best silent films" and "is considered one of the best films of any kind....Composer David Cieri has written music for many of Ken Burns’ documentaries, among others, and brings a sizable ensemble of instruments and vocalists to this grand finale of our 2023 series."
The film screenings are free and begin at 7:30 p.m. Seating is on a first-come, first served basis. Jan. 25: "Electric Appalachia;" Jan. 26: "The Kid;" Jan. 27: "The Passion of Joan of Arc"
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Charlie Chaplin and Jackie Coogan in "The Kid," which will be screened on January 26 in the Winter Garden at Brookfield Place, accompanied by the world premiere of a new score by guitarist Yasmin Williams. |
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Downtown Post NYC is emailed to subscribers once a week.
Editor: Terese Loeb Kreuzer
All articles and photographs in Downtown Post NYC are copyrighted and
may not be reprinted or republished without written permission.
© 2023
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