In the News: BPC Security Insanity

••• Manhattan borough president Scott “Stringer Opposes Sale of City Buildings He Finally Has the Power to Stop—If Big Name Developers Don’t Get in the Way.” Many developers have taken a look at the properties (346 Broadway, above; 49-51 Chambers; and 22 Reade). —New York Observer

••• Another tale of Parks Enforcement officers abusing their power in the Broadsheet. Also in the Broadsheet: “I’m not sure this place is broken,” said new BPCA present Dennis Mehiel, “so maybe we won’t try to fix it.”

••• “A crazed Brooklyn man was ordered held without bail on Tuesday for allegedly trying to kill a Spanish tourist with a hammer in a rant-filled attack near City Hall Park.” The incident occurred at Murray and Broadway—not sure how that could be anywhere but in City Hall Park, if the tourist was indeed sitting on a bench. —New York Daily News

••• A DNAinfo article on the recent petition had this tidbit: “Under a signed agreement between Asphalt Green and the Battery Park City Authority, obtained by DNAinfo.com New York, the BPCA has until Jan. 1, 2014 to open the center.” That’s over a year from now, for those of us who have trouble remembering what year it is.

••• “Chris Anderson, the lead scuba diver for The River Project, discovered what may be the beginning of a colony of oysters amid a field of pilings in the Hudson River, near Morton Street.” —Broadsheet

••• “Alta, the company that was supposed to have put 10,000 bicycles on the street starting today, has asked the lead sponsor [Citibank] to accelerate payments of $3.5 million in case the program is delayed until next spring and runs out of cash, sources said.” The thinking is that if the launch is delayed until the fall, it might make more sense to wait till the spring. —New York Post

••• “Popular waffle purveyor Wafels & Dinges […] will soon be a regular fixture just outside Park Slope’s Prospect Park and in Lower Manhattan’s City Hall Park, where it will set up shop on the eastern plaza by the entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge.” It’d be a shame if the tourists around there missed a snacking opportunity.—DNAinfo

••• Manhattan Loft Guy looks at a sale at 65 N. Moore. And he also recently posted about 60 Beach; it’s been recently updated with reader input.

••• The New York Times recaps Brookfield’s challenges facing the World Financial Center.

••• FYI here’s the 2008 New York Times article on the dads-who-breakfast klatsch that was  inspiration for Karl Taro Greenfeld’s Triburbia. I had read about it but didn’t get around to look it up—so thanks to the reader who sent it in.

 

2 Comments

  1. The dads-who-breakfast klatsch (DWBK), written about in the 2008 NYT article were not the first DWBK in Tribeca. In the late 80’s there was a group of dads who were painters, photographers & sculpters who would meet after dropping their kids off at 234 & we mothers laughingly referred to them as the “Breakfast Club”.

  2. Wow-wee, this whole dads eating breakfast together exposé is some of the most compelling journalism that I have been fortunate enough to read in the last 30-50 seconds. Fascinating stuff. I hate to pull “we-did-it-first” rank, but back in the EARLY ’80s, there was a group of breakfast dads, who we neighbors would mockingly refer to as “Duds.”