Friends with money
Who knew it would be so hard to give away cash? Friends of Lower Manhattan, a nonprofit organization formerly tied to Community Board 1, teamed up with the C.B. 1 to disseminate $125,000 in grants. As the July 31 deadline came and went with only one applicant, it became increasingly clear that nobody seems to want the money. “We have not exactly been inundated with applications,” said C.B. 1 member Bill Love at a recent C.B. 1 meeting. The panel disseminating the money — comprised of five Friends members and five C.B. 1 members — decided to extend the deadline to Sept. 29. “We’ve got $125,000 we’re trying to give away to do some good and nobody wants it,” said a perplexed Love.
Free the cell phones!
Public school parents might turn to civil disobedience to fight the mayor’s cell phone ban, UnderCover hears.
In April, Mayor Mike Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein decided to enforce a pre-existing ban on cell phones, insisting the devices interfered with learning. The response to the news that city youngsters might be out of network sent a wave of sheer panic through the city, with parents calling foul. Since the mayor said parents could reach children the old fashioned way — by calling the school office—parents plan to do just that. They will inundate the schools with messages for their kids.
“It does in some ways represent a danger. It would tie up school phones in the event of an emergency,” said Community Board 1’s Youth and Education Committee chairperson Paul Hovitz.
Hovitz, a critic of the mayor’s plan, hopes to defeat the ban the old fashioned way: he’d like to see City Councilmember Alan Gerson and the rest of the City Council block the mayor’s ban.
Memorial sweet gum not so sweet
Famed landscape architect Thomas Balsley is not a big fan of the species of trees chosen to fill the World Trade Center Memorial—sweet gum. “That’s kind of a mistake,” he told UnderCover. “They’re messy. They’re really messy. The fruit that drops is nasty.” The entire plaza level of the Michael Arad and Peter Walker-designed memorial will be covered in sweet gum, which was chosen in part because of its delectable fall colors. Landscape architect Walker is so fond of the species that he chose it for the Freedom Tower plaza, too, which he is landscaping. Looks like the new Trade Center will be need in some serious brooms.
A Stone for 9/11
One thing is certain about Oliver Stone’s new 9/11 pic: Nicholas Cage is clearly not from Brooklyn. The trailer for “World Trade Center” has been frolicking through the Internet in recent days, with Cage showing off his painful rendition of a Brooklyn accent.
Stone, who is donating some proceeds from the film to the memorial foundation, enlisted several Downtowners last year to help him navigate the Downtown community. Jennifer Brown, a former Lower Manhattan Development Corp. staffer, Community Board 1 Chairperson Julie Menin and Charles Wolf, a Bleecker St. resident whose wife died in the attacks all stepped in to offer their support. Even with all the local advice, the three-time Oscar-winning director still couldn’t figure out how to get Cage to sound like a New Yorker.
South Street Revival
Theater and religion go hand in hand — or at least that’s what the folks at the Spiegeltent think. The Spiegeltent, a globe trotting, mirror-encased performance space, landed in the South Street Seaport last week and is clearly in the mood to make waves with the tourists who flock to the neighborhood. Among its 80-odd performances will be the Church of Stop Shopping Gospel Choir, which will sing some eyebrow-raising gospel tunes every Sunday until Oct. 1.
Led by the self-anointed Rev. Billy, the Church of Stop Shopping is famous for holding impromptu anti-consumerism revival meetings in Wal-Mart parking lots and Starbucks cafes. But the Spiegeltent will be only the second time the motley crew has actually performed in a real live tent. “A revival tent in Manhattan, I thought that was great!” gushed Rev. Billy.
Billy is known for his fiery anti-consumer oratory, and Spiegeltent will be no exception. “I agree with the residents in the area who complain that Seaport is packed with tourists,” he said. “If the Brooklyn Bridge wasn’t going right overhead, you wouldn’t know you were in New York.”
Billy initially intended to call the performance War on Tourism, but decided against it in light of recent fighting in the Middle East. “We’re for peace, we don’t want to hurt anybody,” he lamented. The show has now been dubbed the more innocuous Rev. Billy’s Revival Tent.
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