VOLUME 28, NUMBER 2
JULY 2-JULY 15, 2015
PARADE, SHIPS & FIREWORKS FOR JULY 4 B Y M I A RU PA NI or the first time in nearly 40 years, Downtown Manhattan will host an Independence Day Parade that will cover the historic streets of Lower Manhattan. Historian and tour guide James Kaplan helped organize the event, which is run by the Lower Manhattan Historical Society, a group he co-founded last year. He said the parade will honor the arrival of the French ship Hermione and its crew at South Street Seaport, as well as help revive the Fourth of July tradition. “July 4th has become about backyard barbeques, trips to the beach and visiting relatives,” Kaplan said in a phone interview. “It used to be a major celebration in the city but the actual purpose of the day has since been lost.”
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PRE-SCHOOL TODDLER WANDERS OFF PG. 5 SANDY RESTAURANT REOPENS PG. 12 X-MEN & GAY MARRIAGE PG. 19
Downtown Express photo by Milo Hess
Tribeca’s Bravest staying for now Ladder 8 firefighters at the “Ghostbusters” firehouse repainted their sidewalk logo Tuesday. They said they did not know when they will have to relocate from N. Moore St. The F.D.N.Y. confirmed in May that the firehouse where the 1984 blockbuster was filmed would have to move for a few years for major renovations.
Tenants fight for rent limits B Y D U S IC A SUE MAL ESEVIC essica and Taylor West have been living with their three children at 90 West St. for seven years. Two of their children go to P.S. /I.S. 276 in Battery Park City and they hope their third will attend there as well. They were recently informed, however, that the rent for their two bedroom apartment would increase by 33 percent. “We were floored, no, we were shocked,” she said. West was talking to her neighbors at a meeting she helped orga-
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nize at Hudson Eats in Brookfield Place on Mon., June 29. They were there to discuss 421g, a tax abatement program from the ‘90s that offered developers tax incentives to turn Lower Manhattan offices into residential buildings. In return, the apartments in those building were to be rent stabilized. “I heard whispering in the building about 421-g,” West said. At least 35 people — including a few who came in strollers — gathered to hear about the possibility that their apartments at 90 West could be rent stabilized.
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Melissa Harrington has lived at 90 West St. for nine years and had heard conversations in the building about this issue. She wanted to learn more, Harrington told Downtown Express before the meeting began. She loves the building and the neighborhood. The Wests read a recent Wall Street Journal about a tenant facing a similar rent increase in another Financial District building. They contacted Joel Roodman, featured in the article. Roodman and his wife Jill Tafrate have lived at 85 Continued on page 14