The Broadsheet - Lower Manhattan’s Local Newspaper

Robert Simko, Broadsheet co-founder and 40-year resident of Battery Park City, died at age 68 on November 10, after a years-long battle with a cancer that has been linked to exposure to environmental toxins during the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and their aftermath.

An accomplished photographer and publisher, an avid musician, mechanic and watchmaker, Robert was a fixture of the Battery Park City community and a beloved husband, father, brother and uncle.

Born in 1954 in Bayonne, New Jersey, to John, a bus driver, and Florence, a nurse, Robert was the middle child of five siblings. Taught by nuns and known as "Bobby," Robert took up the accordion at a young age, participating in state-wide competitions where he finished fourth twice in a row. 

In high school, Robert developed two interests that would last the rest of his life—photography and working on cars. By the time he left Rutgers University after two years, he'd built a darkroom in his Bayonne basement—and rebuilt a Volkswagen engine there, too.

From Rutgers he went on to the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), where he studied photography under Aaron Siskind, among others. While there, he also took his first piano lessons, igniting a lifelong love for the instrument. Up until the end of his life, Robert would often sit down to play a mixture of Bach études, Thelonius Monk, Chopin concertos, and the entire Beatles playlist.

After college, Robert moved to New York City, settling first in Tribeca, and then in Battery Park City at the brand new Gateway Plaza, 30-pound accordion in tow. He worked as an assistant to Arnold Newman and Burt Glinn, cataloging and printing portraits of world leaders and celebrities. 

In the 1980s, Robert was recruited by Clay Felker to work as a photographer at Adweek magazine, where he soon met a reporter named Alison. 

“We began covering events and parties together in the fall of 1985,” Alison recalled. “We fell in love pretty fast. He was living here in Gateway. I hadn’t heard of Battery Park City before coming here. Back then, the only buildings here were Gateway Plaza. What is now Brookfield Place was under construction. And the rest was empty fields with fences around the edges, connected by a waterfront esplanade.”

“That February, we threw the first of our annual Say Yes to Love parties, where we would cram more than 100 guests into our studio. It was right after that first party that we decided to get married.”

They were married in 1987, Lucy was born in 1989, and Theo followed in 1997. Remembering his father, Theo said, “he was never restless, but he loved to work with his hands. He was happiest taking something apart and... (read more here)

Downtown activists and leaders who have for years pushed to limit helicopter flights from the Wall Street Heliport may soon have a new reason to reach for their ear plugs. A partnership recently announced between United Airlines and startup Archer Aviation is slated to bring regular air taxi service connecting Lower Manhattan to Newark Airport to the facility starting in 2025. Read more...

Lower Manhattan’s highly regarded Blue School is closing. In a story first reported by Bloomberg, the acclaimed elementary school will cease operations at the conclusion of 2023’s spring semester. Read more...

The Battery Park City Authority hosted a public scoping meeting about its North/West Battery Park City Resiliency Project on November 16 at Stuyvesant High School. It was the fifth in a series of public sessions about the North/West Battery Park City Resiliency Project, which seeks to create a flood-risk management system beginning in the neighborhood’s southern section and proceeding along the Hudson River waterfront to the north side of Stuyvesant High School, before stretching into Tribeca, where it will terminate at a highpoint on Greenwich Street. Read more...

The Battery Park City Authority (BCPA) is suing the operators of the now-shuttered bar and restaurant at Pier A for more than $8 million. The legal action seeks a combination of unpaid rent, interest, and rent that would otherwise have been collected—if the restaurant had not ceased operations, and if it had not been given earlier concessions on its rent by the Authority. Read more...

Today, hear Edmar Castañeda Quartet. Free.

Manhattan Borough President's Office, 1 Centre Street (south side)

Committee reports and public discussion. Open to all.

Evacuation Day marked the final British evacuation from New York City in 1783, after seven years of occupation. The evening culminated in a festive dinner given by Governor George Clinton, honoring George Washington and his officers at Samuel Fraunces' tavern. Evacuation Day remained a New York City holiday into the 1910s, with celebrations rivaling those of the Fourth of July. Celebrate as George Washington did that night. $130.

Greenwich Street & Chambers Street

Wednesdays and Saturdays, 8am-3pm (compost program: Saturdays, 8am-1pm)

Broadway & Whitehall St

Tuesdays and Thursdays, 8am-5pm (compost program: 8am-11am)

91 South Street, between Fulton & John Streets

Indoor market: Monday through Saturday,11:30am-5pm

CSA pick-up: Thursday, 4pm-6pm; Friday, 11:30-5pm

Outdoor market: Saturdays, 11:30am-5pm

We lost Jon Hendricks five years ago today. Many of his Lower Manhattan friends never knew that their dapper neighbor had won multiple Grammy awards and was called the Poet Laureate of Jazz. Jon became well known in the early 1960s as a member of the jazz trio Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, and kept singing to the end of his life. Click on the photograph to hear him do some scat singing, for which he was famous. Photograph by Atael Weissman.

1718 – Off the coast of North Carolina, British pirate Edward Teach (Blackbeard) is killed in battle.

1869 – In Dumbarton, Scotland, the clipper Cutty Sark is launched and is one of the last clippers ever built, and the only one still surviving today.

1873 – The French steamer SS Ville du Havre sinks in 12 minutes after colliding with the Scottish iron clipper Loch Earn in the Atlantic, with a loss of 226 lives.

1935 – The China Clipper inaugurates the first commercial transpacific air service, connecting Alameda, California with Manila.

1963 – President John F. Kennedy is assassinated and Texas Governor John Connally is seriously wounded by Lee Harvey Oswald.

1975 – Juan Carlos is declared King of Spain following the death of Francisco Franco.

2005 – Angela Merkel becomes the first female Chancellor of Germany.

2014 - Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old boy, is shot dead by police in Cleveland, after brandishing what turns out to be a fake gun in a playground

2018 - Leaning Tower of Pisa's tilt is reduced by 4 cm.

1635 – Francis Willughby, English ornithologist and ichthyologist (d. 1672)

1744 – Abigail Adams, second First Lady of the United States (d. 1818)

1890 – Charles de Gaulle, 18th President of France (d. 1970)

1912 – Doris Duke, art collector and philanthropist (d. 1993)

1913 – Benjamin Britten, pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1976)

1921 – Rodney Dangerfield, comedian, actor, rapper, and screenwriter (d. 2004)

1967 – Boris Becker, tennis player 

1984 - Scarlett Johansson, actress 

1896 – George Washington Gale Ferris Jr., inventor of Ferris Wheel (b. 1859)

1902 – Walter Reed, American physician and entomologist (b. 1851)

1916 – Jack London, American novelist and journalist (b. 1876)

1963 – Aldous Huxley, English novelist and philosopher (b. 1894)

1963 – John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States (b. 1917)

1963 – C. S. Lewis, writer, critic (b. 1898)

1980 – Mae West, American actress, singer, and screenwriter (b. 1893)

2017 - Jon Hendricks, lyricist and singer, dies at 96