Posts from — December 2007

JKJ Federal Building by AllWaysNY on Flickr.

Jacob K. Javits Federal Building by Kahn & Jacobs with Poor & Swanke and The Eggers Partnership, 1967. Learn more about Senator Javits here.

Bronx River restoration: In the 1600’s, the Bronx River was a drinking water source and a haven for beaver, oysters, and herring. It became blighted as urbanization progressed, reincarnating as an industrial power source, an open sewer, and a garbage dump. Today, landscape ecologists are reconstructing the waterway’s ecological history as a reference point for its restoration effort. Watch conservation teams coax new life into the Bronx River as they restock it with native fish, lay down oyster beds, and remove invasive species along its shores.

Our friends at the Sculpture for Living celebrate the season with an oh so minimal string of lights along Astor Place–what’s the rest of the city doing?

Classic Pelham Gardens “Schlockfest” (Forgotten NY)

A Couple Curious Christmas Decorations (Lost City)

Shopping Winter Wonderlands (Village Voice)

Put your Fedders to work this holiday season (NY Sh*tty)

Xmas vs. Chanukah at Grand Army Plaza (Flickr)

On View: The Flushing Remonstrance
5 December 2007 — 7 January 2008
Queens Library at Flushing
41-17 Main Street
Flushing, NY 11355
718-661-1200

The Flushing Remonstrance is celebrating its 350th birthday, and to celebrate, it has been moved from its vault in the New York State Archives in Albany and put on public display at the Queens Public Library in Vlissingen Flushing.

The remonstrance is one of the earliest formal declarations of religious freedom and tolerance in North America. When Peter Stuyvesant, Director General of the colony of New Netherland, barred the practice of religions other than that of the Dutch Reformed Church, 29 largely Quaker farmers and townspeople (mostly English immigrants) signed the remonstrance in 1657 objecting to the order. The Dutch West India Company eventually sided with the Quakers (due in large part to the pleading of Flushing resident John Bowne, whose house you can still visit) and in 1663 ordered Stuyvesant to wthdraw his order.

The original document is lost to the ages, so on display is a 1657 record of the original, copied contemporaneously by a local official and included in the colonial-council minutes of New Amsterdam–civil servants rejoice, your work may stand the test of time! The three-page letter was burned around the edges during a fire in the State Capitol in 1911.

Below is the full text of the Remonstrance.

“Remonstrance of the Inhabitants of the Town of Flushing
to Governor Stuyvesant,
December 27, 1657

Right Honorable

You have been pleased to send unto us a certain prohibition or command that we should not receive or entertain any of those people called Quakers because they are supposed to be, by some, seducers of the people. For our part we cannot condemn them in this case, neither can we stretch out our hands against them, for out of Christ God is a consuming fire, and it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

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What’s wrong with this picture? Hint: The leaves (still mostly green) have yet to fall from the trees during New York’s balmy autumn, but the city is already covered in a thin blanket of snow. More than a couple of people, including those over at Lost City, are both perplexed and pissed at this new seasonal weather pattern that bypasses fall and plunges New York from the humid heights of October into the cool, wet winter of November and December. One can only hope the city’s street trees (many of which don’t seem to realize it’s almost winter) can keep up with the wacky weather.

Luckily the 2005-2006 Tree Census released earlier this year by the Department of Parks and Recreation shows that the majority of New York’s street trees are of the hearty sort–the London Planetree and Norway Maple. The Arbor Day Foundation highlights that the London Planetree’s “attributes were discovered in London where the new hybrid first appeared around 1645. It was found to thrive in the sooty air and provide wonderful shade. Its ability to withstand air pollution, drought and other adversities assures its popularity as an urban tree. Its strong limbs also help make it a good choice where site conditions allow for its large size.” The results from the tree census are below–click on each for more information about each species.

New York City Street Tree Population Percentages
London Planetree: 15.3%
Norway Maple: 14.1%
Callery Pear: 10.9%
Honeylocust: 8.9%
Pin Oak: 7.5%
Littleleaf Linden: 4.7%
Green Ash: 3.5%
Red Maple: 3.5%
Silver Maple: 3.2%
Ginkgo: 2.8%

Deutsche Bank by larryosan on Flickr.

The latest news from the Deutsche Bank building in Lower Manhttan is–guess what–the various stakeholders can’t get their act together to even restart the deconstruction. According to Crain’s, deconstruction was planned to restart in the beginning in November, but now the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation will not commit to a new timeline for the work. LMDC chairman said that the “situation was “complicated” and “things took a little more time.”

The tragic fire that ripped through part of the building in August took the lives of two firefighters and brought to light the dangerous and incomprehensible working conditions maintained by the the company overseeing the demoliton. It also brought to light that the contractor leading the demolition, the John Galt Corporation of the Bronx, was a front for a bunch of smaller seemingly shady companies that had no experience in deconstructing a building the size of the Deutshce Bank building at 130 Liberty Street. The New York Times reported that:

Galt does not seem to have done much of anything since it was incorporated in 1983. Public and private records give no indication of how many employees it has, what its volume of business is or who its clients are. There are almost no accounts of any projects it has undertaken on any scale, apart from 130 Liberty Street. Court records are largely silent. Some leading construction executives in the city say they have never even heard of it.

Galt was released from the demolition contract after the fire, but it seems that the various City and State agencies and Bovis Lend Leasing aren’t doing much of a better job in getting the building down. If the delays continue, it could jeopardize the plan for JP Morgan Chase to construct a new headquarters building at the location as well as larger plans for the World Trade Center redevelopment site.