Landmarked in 2006, the P.S. 64 school building on E. Ninth St. was once used as an art, and community activist’s center. The city sold it to developer Gregg Singer in 1998. The deed says it must “provides educational, health, recreational, religious or other essential services for the community it serves.” Thus the push to make it a dorm for 500+ students. The building has been boarded up since December 2001, closing its use to the community. Now its floors are reportedly covered in pigeon guano. The rally and march are to ask that a community center be restored.
They marched from there to the Cooper Union, which has just abandoned it’s charter to provide free education for New York students. Students are now occupying the dean’s office.
I interview: Ben Shepard of Time’s Up, Bill Di Paola of MORUS and Father Pat Moloney, founder of Bonitas House, directly across the street from the building.
I was surprised that they chose to lift it with visibility restricted. Update: Looks like they thought the same thing. It is now returned to where it was, I think the jargon is staging area.
I’ve been keeping my eye on the top of WTC1 from my East Village window. The top of the spire is supposed to be hoisted up soon. I haven’t noticed this happening yet, but I haven’t been that vigilant. I did notice about an hour ago that the crane on the left was leaning out and had its cable all the way down. I thought the hoisting might happen soon, but now as you can see, the crane is upright and the cable is retracted. The wind right now are from the south at 5 MPH. Do they need dead calm to do the job?
It’s the 100th Anniversary of the Woolworth Building. I love the carved faces decorating the outside of the building.
A view from an East Village roof. WTC 4 is in the background.
