PAC fight?
Even as the city is pushing forward with plans for a performing arts center on the north side of the World Trade Center site, we hear that the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. has quietly completed a study showing that another site is feasible.
That site currently houses the Deutsche Bank building, which is supposed to be demolished by the end of the year. The L.M.D.C. started looking at the Deutsche Bank site last year when it became clear that the planned PAC site near One World Trade Center wouldn’t be available for construction until 2014. The Deutsche Bank site should be available much sooner and would not require as much belowground infrastructure work.
Bob Douglass, chairperson of the Downtown-Lower Manhattan Association and an L.M.D.C. board member, tells us that the L.M.D.C. recently confirmed that the Deutsche Bank site could work for the PAC.
“My feeling is let’s have both sites in contention,” Douglass said. The Deutsche Bank site “may be the only site that works in a reasonable timeframe,” he added.
The L.M.D.C. did not return calls for comment.
Downtown lulus
After Daily News political columnist Elizabeth Benjamin recently softened up city councilmembers with several hard-hitting pieces, saying they should honor their supposed commitments to forgo their “lulus” — $10,000 – $20,000 stipends for chairing committees — Citizens Union has ratcheted up the pressure by launching a “Council Lulu Watch.”
Last year, Citizens Union, a good-government group, asked Council incumbents running for reelection and candidates to fill out a survey, one of the questions asking if they supported eliminating or limiting the stipends. Twenty-one councilmembers said they backed the idea, and 11 have followed through by not taking their lulus or donating them to charities or Haiti relief. But 12 ultimately took the perks, including local Councilmembers Rosie Mendez and Margaret Chin. Plus, three other councilmembers, according to C.U., have “flip-flopped” and now say they are pro-lulu.
Last week, Mendez told us she didn’t feel she signed a binding pledge when she answered the survey question, that, frankly, she needs the money and that, if lulus are going to be phased out, then the whole Council should hold a vote on it.
Citizens Union says liquidating lulus would save New York City taxpayers $500,000.
“Stipends are but one way the speaker [Christine Quinn] buys the loyalty of individual councilmembers instead of trying to win support for issues on the merits,” C.U. Director Dick Dadey said in a statement. “Stipends also are a reason why there are a large number of unnecessary committees.”
Chin’s spokesperson, Jake Itzkowitz said, “As of now, she’s not giving up her stipend. Does she maybe not think they’re the best component of city government? I’d say, yes.”
Cultural loss
Lower Manhattan Cultural Council President Maggie Boepple stepped down last week, and the arts organization has begun a broad search to replace her. Vice President Diego Segalini is serving as acting president in the meantime.
Boepple led the L.M.C.C. since 2007 and launched innovative projects including art studios on Governors Island, the Poems & Pints reading series and LentSpace, the temporary sculpture park at Canal and Varick Sts.
“Maggie was a stabilizing influence [on the L.M.C.C.],” said Bruce Ehrmann, a Community Board 1 member. The organization has been through three presidents and three interim presidents since 9/11, Ehrmann said.
Boepple decided to step down after the Jan. 11 death of her daughter, Clare Megan Weiss, of breast cancer. Weiss, 43, was curator of public art for the city Parks Dept.
C.B. 1 unanimously passed a resolution on this week commending Boepple’s leadership of the L.M.C.C. and expressing regret over her decision to resign.
CaVaLa to Capsouto
Community Board 1 members are searching for ways to commemorate Albert Capsouto, the Tribeca restaurateur and board member who died last month, and the idea that is gaining the most traction so far is to rename CaVaLa Park for him.
Capsouto advocated for the park, which opened last year and is named for the streets that bound it: Canal, Varick and Laight. Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe said at the groundbreaking that he came up with the park name himself, playing off of the nicknames for nearby Tribeca and Soho, so it’s not clear whether the Parks Dept. would be open to a change.
The community board may also work to raise money for Downtown Hospital, where Capsouto was very active, or Stuyvesant High School, where he graduated as valedictorian.
