VOLUME 28, NUMBER 4
JULY 30-AUGUST 12, 2015
B.P.C.’S PARK LEADER IS BEING FORCED OUT, SOURCES SAY BY DUSICA SUE MALESEVIC AND JOSH ROGERS t appears that Tessa Huxley, who has been in charge of Battery Park City’s frequently praised parks for nearly three decades, is being forced out as executive director of the Battery Park City Parks Conservancy. Speculation that Huxley, who has been helming the conservancy since 1988, is being fired began on Monday with a New York Post article citing unnamed sources. Two sources — Vince McGowan, Huxley’s number two person from 1999 to 2012, and a person speaking on the condition of anonymity — confirmed that they’ve heard from multiple sources that she is being forced out. Dennis Mehiel, the Battery Park City Authority’s chairperson, told reporters Wed., July 29 that Huxley, 62, is “headed toward retirement,” and that she can speak for herself. She is serving jury duty this week and could not be reached for comment. “She’s a straight shooter,” said the source, who said he heard from authority people about Huxley’s apparent ouster prior to the July 27 Post article. “She says ‘this is the problem and this is what needs to be done,’ and they don’t want to hear it. When they say jump, they want you to say how high.” The state authority, which oversees the parks conservancy, is run by appointees of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a former neighborhood resident. McGowan, the former B.P.C. Parks Conser vancy executive, said “there’s always been tension between the political appointees
I Downtown Express photo by Milo Hess
Hot Night, White Picnic Thousands of elegantly dressed people walked through Tribeca Tuesday night for the “Diner en blanc” on Pier 26, the secret location this time for the event where guests are required to wear white.
In a switch, city nixes park cuts backed by neighbors BY D U SI CA SU E M A LE S E V IC t has been almost 14 years since Sept. 11, eight years since Community Board 1 approved a design, nine months since it championed a “simplified” plan and now it’ll be another two years for the plaza area to be complete at Peck Slip, between South and Water Sts. If construction begins on the halfacre Peck Slip Plaza next spring, then it will be finished spring 2017, said Lawrence Mauro, program manager for Lower Manhattan projects for
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the city’s Parks Dept. “Now the Peck Slip school will open in September and then there’ll be another construction project right there for the kids,” said Catherine McVay Hughes, C.B. 1 chairperson. Part of the delay, Mauro told the board’s Seaport Committee at their Tues., July 23 meeting, was that city approvals for the bidding process is taking about a year. But the most recent delay was not the only news the community board cared about. Members want less, not
more when it came to Peck Slip, with many saying it is fine in its current state. The design for the South Street Seaport Historic District that was approved in 2007 included more trees and decoration that were supposed to evoke ship’s ribs, but that many refer to as whalebones. The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, or L.M.D.C., which is funding the project to the tune of $4 million, met with Mauro about Peck Continued on page 6
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