The Eagle has landed Do you love tall sailing ships? The US Coast Guard training ship The Eagle has docked at the foot of pier 17, at the South Street Seaport. The ship is great (no signs of its Nazi origin), the coast guardsmen and women charming; tours from 9:00-6:30 Sat & Sun. If you go Sat. morning, check out the asbestos decontamination exercise run by Fire at the Sanitation garage at the foot of Montgomery Street.

After years of torture and harsh confinement, US officials have decided to allow some "high value" Guantanamo detainees to lawyer-up . (Although at least one of them, already represented by counsel, has not been allowed to get letters from her).

The poor get sicker than the rich. Great and serious congratulations are due to Comptroller William Thompson who (I guess with staff support) has produced a really smart interesting and important analysis of the NYC health impacts of class and cash. Surpise!  read more »

Several news outlets have covered the Duffield Abolitionist homes.

The Real Estate Observer gives us a nice shout out.

Curbed summarizes the last DailyGotham post.

The Gowanus Lounge also wades in, and NY Magazine offers a few words.

NoLandGrab offers original analysis by picking up a point published here. AKRF/NYCEDC chose to print a map without its legend, and NoLandGrab suggests that the missing legend offers support of the residents' oral histories.

Thanks y'all for keeping this on the burner!

Warning: the following post includes confusing details meant to discourage public participation. Some patience and bravery is advised.

In a stunning move of extreme waffling, the office of Melinda Katz has rescheduled the public hearing on Duffield Street from April 11 to May 1. Or maybe it will be April 17, but we won't know for sure until a few days before the meeting.

Action Advisory:
Email Christine Quinn at quinn@council.nyc.ny.us and
Melinda Katz at katz@council.nyc.ny.us

Write that the destruction of the Underground Railroad deserves a fair hearing. The City should not waddle through the seizure by eminent domain of private homes in a haphazard manner.

Stick to the announced date of May 1 for the public hearing on the Duffield Street Abolitionist homes!

In their messy attempt to help squelch any further exploration of this history, the City Council has in the space of about three weeks rescheduled the public hearing on this three times. The EDC, with AKRF (a private entity dedicated to destroying communities in the way of big development plans), spent two years studying the historical record. The 500+ page report was released 3/13/07 and the first public hearing was scheduled 3/20, giving the public no time to review the report. After some pressure from Tish James and others, they rescheduled the meeting to 4/11. On April 5 at about 5:00 pm, Council Member Katz's office let word out that the meeting will be delayed until May 1. Or maybe not.  read more »

[via The Daily Gotham - Chuck Schumer at Stuy-Town Press Conference]

Upon reviewing these video clips, there's one thing that I just realized about Schumer's shpiel : He's calling out MetLife's possible use of public land for free due to eminent domain as a playing card in the negotiations.

Does this mean, if it is true they did not pay for the land, that there are potential grounds for demanding from the company to pay what is owed to the city and with interest? Could there actually be any repercussions to MetLife's weaseling out of paying for the land they used to develop Stuy-Town?

More importantly, what effects, if any, could this have on development projects like Atlantic Yards and Williamsburg?

Hmmmmm.

You can find this clip at YouTube as well.

If we do, here's a fantastic reminder created by National Geographic and made available to the public through www.video.google.com :

I agree with the National Trust for Historic Preservation : Don't build anything until all details for preservation are sorted out.  read more »