Repairs at Peck Slip
Kudos to the city for finally starting repairs on the heaved and hobbled cobblestones of Peck Slip. Many Seaport area residents had feared that the street would stay in a state of permanent crumble until the Parks Department turns it from a de facto placard parking lot into a piazza/park space.
However, we hope that the Department of Transportation plans to do more than repair the small square it currently has coned off near the corner of Water St. But hey, if the giant holes out in front of the Seaport Inn Best Western go unrepaired, the hotel could always add spelunking to its list of guest activities.
Unintended Consequences
Family members of 9/11 victims hoped that their rally last Thursday would inspire Mayor Bloomberg to call in the military experts at the Joint P.O.W.-M.I.A. Accounting Command to do a systematic search for remains at ground zero and surrounding sites. So far, Bloomberg has stayed firm on his stance that the city should conduct additional searches, but the rally did have other effects.
The rally itself, held outside the World Trade Center PATH station, drew in a heavy audience from the tourists filing off nearby buses to visit the site. A sense of history in action seemed to be the appeal
One teenage tourist turned to her friend, pointed at the podium, and said, “It’s like, the actual people.” To which her friend responded, “Woah. I know.”
The additional foot traffic in the area proved to be a boon for the bi-weekly Greenmarket as well. A cider-seller at the Migliorelli apple stand said that while no one had told the vendors that there would be a rally, the event had definitely been good for business.
Once the rally hit the news, it was picked up by MSNBC commentator Keith Olbermann as the No. 2 story on his nightly “Countdown.” Using the rally to support his general theory of governmental ineptitude, Olbermann said that the families had every right to be angry that remains are still being discovered five years after the initial search concluded.
But while the 9/11 groups have Olbermann on their side, fellow New Yorkers, apparently, are on the fence. The results of a NY1/Newsday poll, published Sunday, showed that 57 percent of voters in the New York metro area think that the original recovery efforts at the W.T.C. site were adequate.
The poll also showed that a majority of respondents (55 percent) want construction on the site to continue, even as the city renews its search for remains. The 9/11 family groups have insisted they are not asking for a work stoppage, only for federal involvement in the search.
City Hall move
Word is that Jennifer Falk, a top spokesperson for Mayor Bloomberg and his deputy, Dan Doctoroff, on matters of economic development, is going Uptown to be executive director of the Union Square Partnership business improvement district.
It’ll go far
Marty’s junk shop on Lafayette St. north of Spring St. — always a fun place to jam on a secondhand electric guitar — has closed.
