February 10th - February 16th, 2006

LMDC Approves Fulton Street Construction

Friday, February 10: The LMDC approved a $38 million project to redevelop the Fulton Street neighborhood into what LMDC President Stefan Pryor called "a vibrant, mixed-use, river-to-river corridor," the New York Times reported. The redeveloped area, which will be called the Fulton Corridor, will extend from Church Street to Water Street and include intersecting and adjacent streets as well as the site of the Fulton Street Transit Center, the paper continued.

Planned improvements include work on intersecting streets, sidewalks, and curbs as well as new signs, plantings, benches, and lighting fixtures. The project will also involve renovation of Titanic Park at Fulton and Water Streets, construction of a new playground at Burling Slip, and expansion of DeLury Plaza into a park, the paper added.

Families Upset Over 9/11 Film Footage

Saturday, February 11: The photographer hired by FEMA on behalf of the City of New York and paid more than $300,000 to document the skyline from a police helicopter daily after 9/11 copyrighted his photographs and refused to sign over "title and ownership" to the city, the Daily News reported. In addition to more than 30,000 photographs, the photographer, Gregg Brown, also copyrighted 34 minutes of the many hours of video he captured, the paper added.

Many family members of 9/11 victims are upset with Brown's video documentary, "Words," which combines footage of victim recovery with unrelated images of scantily clad and nude women and men, the Daily News continued. 

A spokesperson for the New York City Department of Design and Construction, which hired Brown, expressed outrage at how the images were used. "Personal gain or commercial use [of the materials] is disgraceful. This is not what the aftermath of 9/11 was about," Matthew Monahan told the News. "There was unique access afforded for someone for a service we had every reason to believe was to be material for the City of New York," he continued.

Proposals Wanted for Governors Island

Wednesday, February 15: A Request for Proposals (RFP) has been issued to redevelop the 150-acre portion of Governors Island owned by the Governors Island Preservation and Education Corporation (GIPEC), Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Governor George Pataki announced. A proposal by architect Santiago Calatrava includes building a gondola that would connect Governors Island, Lower Manhattan, and Brooklyn.  For more on this story, click here.