NYC Reconnects ISSUE TWO

Page 1

VOLUME 1, NUMBER 2

RECONNECTING DOWNTOWN POST-SANDY

NOV. 14 - NOV. 21 2012

Statue of Liberty still standing, still shining BY TERESE LOEB KREUZER At 305 feet 6 inches tall from the base of her pedestal to her crown, the Statue of Liberty is the tallest freestanding statue in the United States. Atop her pedestal in New York harbor, she must have taken the full brunt of Sandy’s force. Sandy knocked out the power on Liberty and Ellis Islands, which are closed indefinitely. The storm destroyed the docks and the footpath around the Statue of Liberty, but so great was the genius of the designer of the Statue of Liberty, Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, and of her engineer, Gustave Eiffel, that the statue emerged unscathed. Dark for a few days after the storm, a team from the New Jersey contractor, Joseph A. Natoli Construction Corp., worked around the clock to restore temporary lighting to the statue’s torch and crown. By early evening on Friday, Nov. 9, they shone again. By Sunday morning, the Natoli crews working with subcontractor Turnpike Electric, Inc. had restored full power to the statue. The work was complicated by the fact that the docks that service the island had been shattered. “The physical and logistical obstacles we faced with this project weren’t easily solved,” said Paul Natoli, president and C.E.O. of Joseph A. Natoli Construction Corp.

The Natoli company knows the Statue of Liberty well having just spent a year working on safety upgrades to the statue for the National Park Service. That work had just been finished in the days before Sandy came ashore. Musco Lighting has provided temporary LED lights to illuminate the exterior of the Statue of Liberty until the permanent lighting on the grounds of Liberty Island can be replaced.

HARBOR CRUISES: Statue Cruises, which normally would be running ferry service from Battery Park in Manhattan and Liberty Landing in New Jersey to Liberty and Ellis Islands, is now offering harbor cruises instead. One-hour-long cruises have a recorded narration and depart daily from Battery Park at 45-minute intervals between 10 a.m. and 4:45 p.m. Ninety-minute cruises run Thursday through Sunday, three times a day at noon, 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. with a live narrator. Both cruises have heated indoor viewing areas as well as outside decks. Snacks are available on the onehour cruise. The longer cruise has a fullservice café. For more information, go to www.statuecruises.com.

Photo © 2012 Jay Fine

Sandy knocked out power on Liberty Island. Temporary LED lights now illuminate the Statue of Liberty.

Help for artists sideswiped by Sandy

IN THIS ISSUE

BY TERESE LOEB KREUZER As self-employed people who often work alone, New York’s artists were not the most visible casualties of Superstorm Sandy. Other business people were likely to have shops that were shuttered, goods that were strewn around, a horrific scar on their walls where the flood finally stopped. Artists were more likely to have waterlogged work and unpaid bills caused by sales they didn’t make, shows they couldn’t have, ruined materials they had to throw away. “It’s all so dispiriting,” one of them said. “Someone suggested grants. I don’t need a loan from FEMA, but I would be interested in learning about grants to artists or small businesses.

I wonder if there’s any help for someone like me?” The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) would have been the obvious go-to source to answer that question but Sandy darkened their office. “Thank you for the outpouring of concern about the impacts of Hurricane Sandy on LMCC and Lower Manhattan,” the LMCC says on its website, www.lmcc.net. “Due to Sandy-related flooding at 125 Maiden Lane, LMCC’s office remains closed.” Working remotely, the LMCC staff did post a list of emergency resources for artists, however. Some, such as disaster

unemployment insurance and small business disaster relief loans, would be available to anyone affected by Sandy. Some were specifically for artists. The Joan Mitchell Foundation, whose offices were flooded and left with limited power and no telephones, posted a website message that said, “If you are - or know of - a visual artist who has been affected by the hurricane please contact us. The Foundation has funding allocated specifically for emergency assistance to painters and sculptors affected by natural disasters... We

UNEMPLOYMENT . . . . . . . . . . 2 TRANSIT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 & 5 CLOSINGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

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HEALTH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7


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