downtown ®
VOLUME 24, NUMBER 38
express s THE NEWSPAPER OF LOWER MANHATTAN
BOB STILLMAN’S IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE, PG. 27
FEBRUARY 8 - 14, 2012
L.M.C.C.C. staff is slashed by five BY ALINE REYNOLDS The city-state agency charged with coordinating Downtown construction projects since the mid-2000s will be losing the bulk of its staff come March. And, though the agency pledges to continue to fulfill its core mission, exactly how it will go about mediating and monitoring some 60 major Lower Manhattan redevelopment projects valued at an estimated $30 billion, in light of the layoffs, is unknown. Various sources have confirmed that five of the seven full-time staff members of the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center will be let go by the end of next month. The agency’s remaining employees, External Relations Director Robin Forst and Capital
Planning-Construction Coordination Director Dave Frucher, will be transferred to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s Lower Manhattan offices at 115 Broadway, according to Port Authority Spokesperson Steve Coleman. Since summer 2009, the L.M.C.C.C. has shared office space with the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation at One Liberty Plaza, across from the World Trade Center. The layoffs purportedly include the axing of David Ortega, director of the agency’s website, Lowermanhattan.info, which boasted more than one million page views in 2011. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the website would be continued as is once Ortega is gone.
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Downtown Express photo by John Bayles
As confetti fell from above on Tuesday, New York Giants running back Brandon Jacobs (in blue vest) stared up at the sky. For Jacobs, it was his second trip through the “Canyon of Heroes.”
When a typical Tuesday turns into a ‘Big Blue-day’ BY JOHN BAYLES As early as 7:30 a.m., commuters to Lower Manhattan on Tuesday emerged from the subway stations along Broadway to thunderous chants of “Let’s Go Giants!” The chants only got louder and they lasted well into the afternoon. Hundreds of thousands of die-hard New York Giants fans began arriving in the wee hours of the morning to claim a spot along the Super Bowl XLVI Parade route, which started at Battery Place and headed north, through the
“Canyon of Heroes,” to Worth Street. The parade began at 11 a.m. but the celebration started well before the sun rose over the East River. On the morning after the Super Bowl, Mayor Michael Bloomberg issued a statement that read, “Big Blue gave us a game to remember, and on Tuesday we’re going to give them a parade to remember.” Many people probably saw the sun rise as they rode in from various spots on Long Island. The Long Island Railroad added 16 extra trains for
the occasion: seven westbound trains between 9 and10 a.m. and nine eastbound trains between 2 and 4 p.m. The Metro-North Railroad provided six extra trains throughout the day and there were additional PATH trains to bring in fans from New Jersey. Though the sidewalks along the parade route were open to all, the official ceremony at City Hall, where Mayor Bloomberg presented the team with the “Key to the City,” was not.
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B.P.C.’S BLUE SMOKE Danny Meyer’s Blue Smoke, which recently opened in Battery Park City, is a little different than its uptown counterpart. Turn to page 6.