Cops keeping an eye out during Ramadan
NYPD officers monitoring Downtown Manhattan will be on high alert during Ramadan, the Muslim month-long holiday that begins around August 11.
Among other locations, cops will be amping up security near the prayer space at 45 Park Place, the future home of the Cordoba Initiative’s community center, which has been the source of endless moral controversy since the spring.
A few hundred people attended a conference at police headquarters on Tuesday night, where officers talked to religious authorities about how to deter hate crimes against Muslims during the high holiday.
Meanwhile, protestors of the “mosque” are not giving up on their mission to keep the community center at 45 Park Place, near Ground Zero, from being built. Another rally is scheduled for September 11, the anniversary of the terror attacks at the World Trade Center.
Silver vs. Downtown rodents
In response to complaints from area residents, State Assemblyman Sheldon Silver is taking action to address the rodent epidemic around construction zones in Lower Manhattan.
The Health Department, which took a tour of the area, recommended unclogging basins, baiting sewers and other rat hideouts and power-washing the sidewalks surrounding the construction zones. The Department also suggested speeding up the garbage pick-up so that waste doesn’t sit on streets for hours on end and using trash cans that are less accessible to rats.
We’ll see if these strategies are implemented and if the rodents stop scattering about.
Playground pals?
It was all fun and games at the opening of the Imagination Playground at Burling Slip on Tuesday, and not just for the kids.
When a reporter asked Mayor Bloomberg if he had tried out any of the playground equipment, the mayor jokingly responded and in turn brought Assembly Speaker Silver into the fray.
“Not yet. But I’m sure the speaker and I will sneak down here at night and try it out.”
Wouldn’t that be trespassing?
