Schumer proposes new park along the coastline of lower Manhattan

News Radio 88 ^ | 6/29/02

[areafiftyone]

(New York-AP) -- Senator Charles Schumer has proposed a new park that would wind along the coastline of lower Manhattan.

Schumer said yesterday that the park would be a downtown version of Central Park that would attract new businesses and residents to the area, which has struggled since September 11th.

The proposed $110 million park would ring the southern part of the island. It would stretch south from Canal Street on the east side to Battery Park -- then north along the water to Canal Street on the west side.

Schumer's plan would involve turning a Coast Guard building into parkland, renovating Pier 42 and converting Castle Clinton National Monument into a performance arts theater.

The democratic senator said money for the park could come from federal funds, including a $2 (M) billion grant to the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and unspent FEMA aid.

[areafiftyone]

converting Castle Clinton National Monument into a performance arts theater

Doesn't UPChuck have anything else to do but tear down our historic places? WHAT IS HIS PROBLEM - WE DON'T NEED A PERFORMANCE ARTS THEATER!

[dennisw]

I KNEW THIS WOULD COME FROM FEDERAL FUNDS. Wash DC has turned the states into supplicants. Begging for some of their tax money to be returned.

[InvisibleChurch]

The proposed $110 million park

bet it turns out to be a $2billion dollar boondoggle

[tdadams]

the park would be a downtown version of Central Park that would attract new businesses and residents to the area, which has struggled since September 11th.

Newsflash, it's not Sept. 11 that's keeping people away, it's the $2000 monthly rent for a small apartment. Get rid of the rent control laws and free up thousands of apartments to the free market.

[InvisibleChurch]

i'm guessing that rent control allows poor people to live there...how do poor people afford 2,ooo dollars per month?

[JZoback]

My guess if someone dug deep enough and long enough: (They might have to dig to China!!!)

They would find that Senator UpChuck is going to make some money some how some way over this land deal

[Founding Father]

Rent control effectively takes thousands of apartments out of the market thereby sharply reducing supply and raising rent on the available apartments. The rent controlled apartments do not generate enough revenue for the owners to maintain thus they fall into a state of disrepair. The poor live in the rent controlled apartments. The rest of us pay $2000 for a one bedroom apartment (although presently in much of the city it's a renter's market).

Rent control has the same effect on apartment rents as other government programs have on the cost of medical services and college tuition. You cannot alter the fundamentals of supply and demand.

[InvisibleChurch]

thanks for the lowdown

to paraphrase pj o-rourke -- giving power to a politician is like giving a teenager a bottle of whiskey and the keys to a 'vette

[Founding Father]

To learn more read "Economics In One Lesson," by Henry Hazlitt. This is a short easy to read book, which also happens to be the greatest book on economics ever written, and guess what---no one in Washington has read it. P.J. was right.

[InvisibleChurch]

thanks..i gots it in my amazon wish list now...

[CasearianDaoist]

You wait, they will put the City Ballet there. That should really jazz up the business scene downtown. The BAM district in Brooklyn was promoted as a BID project for downtown Brooklyn. That one turned into a multimillion dollar failure. One needs to realize that the expenses of these arts centers are not a one shot affairs. They require yearly, multi-million dollar budgets.

Also, they better budget for another 200 hundred cops. Every Crackhead in Jersey City will be relocating as soon as they get the downtown PATH up and running.

[tdadams]

The poor can't afford $2000 a month, that's why they live in rent controlled apartments where their rent is still the same $500 a month they were paying in 1975. But if you try to move to NY now, good luck finding a place in lower Manhatten for less than $2000.

[syriacus]

As usual, Chuck doesn't have any new ideas of his own.

National Park Service's Castle Clinton web page

More than a dozen forts were built to defend New York Harbor at the time of the War of 1812. The Southwest Battery was constructed on the rocks off the tip of Manhattan Island between 1808 and 1811. Although fully armed and staffed, the fort never had occasion to fire upon an enemy. In 1817, the fort was renamed Castle Clinton in honor of DeWitt Clinton, Mayor of New York City. The army vacated the fort in 1821 and the structure was deeded to New York City in 1823. In the summer of 1824, a new restaurant and entertainment center opened at the site, now called Castle Garden. A roof was added in the 1840s and Castle Garden served as an opera house and theater until 1854.

On August 3, 1855, Castle Garden, now leased to New York State, opened as an immigrant landing depot.