Hoping a Little More Hip Can Revive South Street Seaport

Rendering courtesy of the Howard Hughes Corp. A sleek shipping-container pop-up mall at South Street Seaport is expected to draw sleek visitors.

This summer at the almost defiantly unhip South Street Seaport, there shall be pop-up boutiques housed in shipping containers. There shall be outdoor film screenings with lounge-chair seating. There shall be Smorgasbar. And, the lords of artificial weather willing, there may be glitter rain.

The seaport has long been the province of tour buses, serpentine lines for the Statue of Liberty-bound Water Taxi and chain stores like Ann Taylor, along with a collection of historic ships and maritime buildings. But starting Memorial Day weekend, a season of hipper programming called See/Change will try to lure New Yorkers to the banks of the East River, in a bid to speed the seaport’s recovery from the ravages of Hurricane Sandy. More than six months after the storm, almost every ground floor shop is still shuttered, their windows painted to hide the gutting taking place inside.

The centerpiece of the effort - a partnership among the seaport’s developers the Howard Hughes Corporation, the city and several special-events organizers â€" will be a stage erected at Fulton and Water Streets where a carpet of grass will be rolled out in the cobblestone street and rows of wood-and-canvas beach chairs will be set up for weekly concerts and film screenings.

Just south of the impromptu theater, refurbished shipping containers will be assembled into an asymmetrical, two-story structure and apportioned into small retail spaces, the tenants of which have yet to be confirmed.

The top level of the containers will be the newest temporary home for SmorgasBar, an offshoot of the popular Brooklyn Flea munch fest SmorgasBurg. On tap at the beer garden-style space will be Brooklyn beers, drinks mixed with Brooklyn Soda Works beverages and spiked slushies from a machine provided by Kelvin Natural Slush Co., operators of a celebrated food truck.

Rendering courtesy Howard Hughes Corp. Movies will be screened to an audience seated in canvas chairs set up on a temporary lawn.

“The area suffered so much damage we were excited to be bringing life and commerce back to the area,” said Jonathan Butler, co-founder of Brooklyn Flea. “It’s also a chance to elevate the level of food available there. It’s high quality and a little more interesting with a local angle.”

SmorgasBar will snake east on Front Street to Beekman Street, where eight stalls of artisanal Brooklyn-based food vendors will tempt visitors with treats like maple bacon sticks from Landhaus and oysters from Brooklyn Oyster Party.

Further adventures await at Cannon’s Walk at 207A Front Street. The quiet courtyard space known mostly to residents and employees of nearby offices and shops as a place to eat lunch, walk the dog and avoid the tourist bustle is being turned over to an “event production/experiential marketing agency” from Washington, Brightest Young Things.

Svetlana Legetic, who runs Brightest Young Things, said she looked forward to converting the place into a “little surprise jewel box space where anything could happen,” including “weird little special dance parties” and perhaps a glitter-spewing balloon canopy.

“Whenever you stop by there, something would be going on and you might not even know what it was going to be,” Ms. Legetic said on Tuesday. “What if one day we wanted to just put up vintage hammocks?”

Pier 17, the hulking suburban-style indoor mall across the Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive from the seaport, will also stay open this summer even though it had been scheduled to close in June for major renovations - in part to help merchants who lost the whole Christmas season to storm damage, Hughes officials said.

Set-up for See/Change has begun â€" the area for the containers has been cleared and blockaded. But on Tuesday, it was mostly business as usual at the seaport, which bills itself as the 26th most visited tourist attraction in the world â€" tied with the Great Wall of China. Mobs of tourists obscured their faces with cameras, the clicks of lens shutters lined up almost in synch with the East River currents lapping up against the tall-masted ships.

“We just this minute got off of the bus,” said Barbara Charette, who had come from Florida with her husband for a guided tour of the city. The seaport was the first stop. “We’re going to ride one of the ships.”

Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times Tourists took in the sights at Pier 17 on Tuesday.

Celebrate Brooklyn Summer Concert Schedule Announced

The folksinger Patty Griffin will give the opening concert of the 35th annual “Celebrate Brooklyn!” festival in Prospect Park on June 5, kicking off an eclectic 29-performance series featuring acts like Big Boi, Calexico, Os Mutante, the Waterboys and the gospel star Bebe Winans.

Held at the Prospect Park Bandshell, all but five of the concerts are free. The proceeds from the ticketed events, which showcase some bigger acts, go to underwrite BRIC, the arts organization that has put on the festival since 1979.

Among the highlights of this year’s schedule are several notable international musicians. They include a night of North African pop music on June 21 with the guitarist Bombino and the duo Amadou & Mariam; Ladysmith Black Mambazo on June 28, and three acts on David Byrne’s Luaka Bop label â€" Os Mutantes; Javelin; and Janka Nabay and the Bubu Gang â€" on June 29.

Two movies will be projected on an outdoor screen as musicians play live versions of their scores. On July 13, the Philip Glass Ensemble and the violinist Kishi Bashi will play Mr. Glass’s original score for the 1931 version of “Dracula” starring Bela Lugosi. Then on August 8, Behn Zeitlin and the Wordless Music Orchestra will perform the score for “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” written by Ben Romer and Mr. Zeitlin, while the movie is shown.

Two nights will belong to large jazz ensembles: Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra will swing in the park on June 8, and the Eddie Palmieri Salsa Orchestra takes the stage on August 3.

The concerts requiring tickets include Jim James, appearing with the Roots, on June 18; Robert Plant & the Sensational Space Shifters on July 27; Barenaked Ladies and Ben Folds on July 30; Yo La Tengo on July 11; and Beck on August 4. Tickets range from $41 to $80 and the profits subsidize the free performances.

The rapper Big Boi will appear on June 20 on a bill with Phony Ppl and D-Nice. Calexico plays on June 15, The Waterboys on July 19 and Bebe Winans on July 25. They Might Be Giants will close out the series on August 10. A full schedule is available on the Celebrate Brooklyn! Web site.

Celebrate Brooklyn Summer Concert Schedule Announced

The folksinger Patty Griffin will give the opening concert of the 35th annual “Celebrate Brooklyn!” festival in Prospect Park on June 5, kicking off an eclectic 29-performance series featuring acts like Big Boi, Calexico, Os Mutante, the Waterboys and the gospel star Bebe Winans.

Held at the Prospect Park Bandshell, all but five of the concerts are free. The proceeds from the ticketed events, which showcase some bigger acts, go to underwrite BRIC, the arts organization that has put on the festival since 1979.

Among the highlights of this year’s schedule are several notable international musicians. They include a night of North African pop music on June 21 with the guitarist Bombino and the duo Amadou & Mariam; Ladysmith Black Mambazo on June 28, and three acts on David Byrne’s Luaka Bop label â€" Os Mutantes; Javelin; and Janka Nabay and the Bubu Gang â€" on June 29.

Two movies will be projected on an outdoor screen as musicians play live versions of their scores. On July 13, the Philip Glass Ensemble and the violinist Kishi Bashi will play Mr. Glass’s original score for the 1931 version of “Dracula” starring Bela Lugosi. Then on August 8, Behn Zeitlin and the Wordless Music Orchestra will perform the score for “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” written by Ben Romer and Mr. Zeitlin, while the movie is shown.

Two nights will belong to large jazz ensembles: Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra will swing in the park on June 8, and the Eddie Palmieri Salsa Orchestra takes the stage on August 3.

The concerts requiring tickets include Jim James, appearing with the Roots, on June 18; Robert Plant & the Sensational Space Shifters on July 27; Barenaked Ladies and Ben Folds on July 30; Yo La Tengo on July 11; and Beck on August 4. Tickets range from $41 to $80 and the profits subsidize the free performances.

The rapper Big Boi will appear on June 20 on a bill with Phony Ppl and D-Nice. Calexico plays on June 15, The Waterboys on July 19 and Bebe Winans on July 25. They Might Be Giants will close out the series on August 10. A full schedule is available on the Celebrate Brooklyn! Web site.

Celebrate Brooklyn Summer Concert Schedule Announced

The folksinger Patty Griffin will give the opening concert of the 35th annual “Celebrate Brooklyn!” festival in Prospect Park on June 5, kicking off an eclectic 29-performance series featuring acts like Big Boi, Calexico, Os Mutante, the Waterboys and the gospel star Bebe Winans.

Held at the Prospect Park Bandshell, all but five of the concerts are free. The proceeds from the ticketed events, which showcase some bigger acts, go to underwrite BRIC, the arts organization that has put on the festival since 1979.

Among the highlights of this year’s schedule are several notable international musicians. They include a night of North African pop music on June 21 with the guitarist Bombino and the duo Amadou & Mariam; Ladysmith Black Mambazo on June 28, and three acts on David Byrne’s Luaka Bop label â€" Os Mutantes; Javelin; and Janka Nabay and the Bubu Gang â€" on June 29.

Two movies will be projected on an outdoor screen as musicians play live versions of their scores. On July 13, the Philip Glass Ensemble and the violinist Kishi Bashi will play Mr. Glass’s original score for the 1931 version of “Dracula” starring Bela Lugosi. Then on August 8, Behn Zeitlin and the Wordless Music Orchestra will perform the score for “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” written by Ben Romer and Mr. Zeitlin, while the movie is shown.

Two nights will belong to large jazz ensembles: Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra will swing in the park on June 8, and the Eddie Palmieri Salsa Orchestra takes the stage on August 3.

The concerts requiring tickets include Jim James, appearing with the Roots, on June 18; Robert Plant & the Sensational Space Shifters on July 27; Barenaked Ladies and Ben Folds on July 30; Yo La Tengo on July 11; and Beck on August 4. Tickets range from $41 to $80 and the profits subsidize the free performances.

The rapper Big Boi will appear on June 20 on a bill with Phony Ppl and D-Nice. Calexico plays on June 15, The Waterboys on July 19 and Bebe Winans on July 25. They Might Be Giants will close out the series on August 10. A full schedule is available on the Celebrate Brooklyn! Web site.

Albanese Criticizes 2 Elected Rivals Over Office Staff Hiring

Sal F. Albanese, a former city councilman and a Democratic candidate for mayor, on Tuesday accused two of his rivals, Christine C. Quinn, the Council speaker, and Bill de Blasio, the public advocate, of having hired political operatives at taxpayer expense as they readied their own campaigns.

“It’s an intolerable abuse of power to have employees who are supposed to be advancing the public interest actually working on political campaigns,” Mr. Albanese said.

Mr. Albanese said that in the last 18 months Mr. de Blasio hired nine staff members whose previous positions were primarily political. And he said that Ms. Quinn had added at least two prominent labor operatives to her office shortly before announcing her candidacy, but that he could not say more about her hiring because her office had not responded to a request made March 18 under the state’s Freedom of Information Law for a list of staff members, their dates of hire and their salaries.

A spokesman for Mr. de Blasio, Wiley Norvell, disputed Mr. Albanese’s assertion that the recently hired staff members were primarily political operatives, citing their past positions in government.

“The premise and the facts here are just plain wrong,” Mr. Norvell said. “Every person cited on this list bring years of government or public interest advocacy experience to the table. They each work hard every day to serve the people of New York City, and they deserve better than spurious attacks.”

Jamie McShane, a spokesman for Ms. Quinn, said her office responded on Tuesday morning to Mr. Albanese’s request for information. It was apparently just before or after Mr. Albanese’s news conference. Mr. McShane did not respond to a question about the delay in responding to Mr. Albanese’s request.

Mr. Albanese said he would propose a hiring freeze, to take effect 18 months before each primary election, for elected officials seeking citywide office. He said that under his proposal, elected officials would still be allowed to fill crucial vacancies.

Liberal Party Endorses Catsimatidis

John A. Catsimatidis, the billionaire businessman and Gristedes supermarket owner running for mayor of New York City, picked up the endorsement of an obscure but potentially influential political group on Tuesday, adding another wrinkle to the Republican primary.

The Liberal Party, a group that once helped play kingmaker for Rudolph W. Giuliani in his runs for mayor, but has fallen on tough times of late, said it would support Mr. Catsimatidis and list him on its ballot line in the November general election. assuming, that is, the party can acquire that ballot line, which would first require a petition drive.

If the line does come through â€" and Mr. Catsimatidis’s $3 billion fortune could go a long way toward helping the party achieve that goal â€" it would allow the supermarket magnate to continue being a thorn in the side of his more establishment Republican rival, Joseph J. Lhota, a former deputy mayor in the Giuliani administration, should Mr. Lhota win the Republican nomination.

Currently, Mr. Catsimatidis is challenging Mr. Lhota in the Republican primary, and he lags behind: one recent poll put him in third place, behind another long-shot candidate, George McDonald, the president of the Doe Fund, a homeless services group.

But the prospect of Mr. Catsimatidis’s persevering past the September primary (“I’m committed to running,” he said at a news conference on Tuesday) will certainly irk Mr. Lhota’s camp, which remains wary of the unlimited war chest that Mr. Catsimatidis, who has opted out of the city’s voluntary public financing program, could bring to bear in the race.

Moments after Mr. Catsimatidis announced his Liberal Party support, Mr. Lhota’s team said Representative Peter King, an influential Republican House member from Long Island, had endorsed Mr. Lhota for mayor.

Mr. Catsimatidis appeared to be enjoying himself at his announcement event, outside an entrance to the subway station at City Hall. “Today is a game changer,” he said of the Liberal Party’s endorsement, saying it would create a fusion ticket for “pro-business New Yorkers and the pro-people New Yorkers â€" that’s what I’m all about.”

“We’re going to have all the people voting for us!” Mr. Catsimatidis said.

He was asked about the large sums he has contributed to the city’s Republican Party committees, which some critics have labeled a de facto way of buying the party’s support.

“I’m going to contribute more!” Mr. Catsimatidis said. “I’m giving far less money than Bloomberg gave.” (Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg also generously donated to the Republican committees when he ran for mayor on the G.O.P. line.)

Tom F. Allon, another Republican hopeful, had previously received the Liberal Party endorsement, but he abandoned his mayoral bid in March. The Liberal Party did not have a ballot line in the 2009 New York City general election. In 2001, Alan Hevesi ran for mayor with the Liberal Party’s endorsement; he received less than 1 percent of the total votes cast. The party endorsed Mr. Bloomberg in 2005.

Martin I. Hassner, the executive director of the Liberal Party, delivered a stirring endorsement of Mr. Catsimatidis, leaning over his podium and speaking with an orator’s cadence.

“This is a force of nature,” Mr. Hassner said of Mr. Catsimatidis. “Nobody like him around.” He said the candidate had the “yearning necessary” to win the race, and called him “a very uncommon, common man.”

“By the way, he’s not perfect,” Mr. Hassner added. “But he’ll be a mayor of the people.”

Thompson Gets Key Endorsement From Bronx Borough President

In another sign of his deep ties to established leaders in minority communities, William C. Thompson Jr. collected a key endorsement in his bid for mayor Tuesday from Ruben Diaz Jr., the Bronx borough president.

Mr. Diaz’s endorsement was not much of a surprise, given that he had been a vocal supporter of Mr. Thompson, a former comptroller, in his unsuccessful bid in 2009 to unseat Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. But his endorsement had been coveted by all the major Democratic candidates, who know that Latinos could make up 20 to 25 percent of the Democratic electorate in September.

In a news conference at City Hall, Mr. Diaz repeatedly cited Mr. Thompson’s “character,” “résumé” and â€" in what was viewed as a subtle dig at Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker â€" “temperament.” And while he said that he had been wooed by other Democrats â€" Ms. Quinn; Bill de Blasio, the public advocate; and John C. Liu, the comptroller â€" he suggested that he didn’t agonize over his choice because of Mr. Thompson’s reputation as a “coalition builder” for the past two decades.

“I slept with ease last night,” Mr. Diaz said.

The endorsement comes as Mr. Thompson steadily rolls out endorsements and hires staff members, despite middling public polling numbers and lingering doubts about the energy level of his campaign.

On Monday, Mr. Thompson picked up the backing of two state assemblymen: Karim Camara of Brooklyn, who is the head of Albany’s black, Hispanic and Puerto Rican caucus, and Herman D. Farrell Jr., a former head of the Manhattan Democratic Party. He also announced the hiring of several staff members, including Hank Sheinkopf, a prominent Democratic consultant who worked for Mr. Bloomberg in 2009, and two people who worked previously for another likely mayoral contender, former Representative Anthony D. Weiner.

Last week, Mr. Thompson secured the support of two Bronx Latino leaders, Representative Jose E. Serrano and his son, State Senator Jose M. Serrano.

Senegalese Singer and Finnish Composer Share the Polar Prize

The Senegalese singer Youssou N’Dour and the Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho were on Tuesday named the winners of the 2013 Polar Music Prize. They each will be awarded one million Swedish kronor, or about $150,000, and will be invited to a ceremony in Stockholm on Aug. 27.

The award committee said Mr. N’Dour, 53, who is known for mixing traditional song forms from Senegal with eclectic styles from Latin America and the United States, had been given the prize not just for his contribution as an entertainer but also because he had “worked to reduce animosities between his own religion Islam and other religions.”

“His voice encompasses an entire continent’s history and future, blood and love, dreams and power,” the announcement said.

The committee called Ms. Saariaho, 60, a composer known for combining acoustic instrument with computer-generated electronic sounds, “a modern maestro who opens our ears and causes their anvils and stirrups to fall in love.”

The Polar Prize was founded in 1989 by Stig Anderson, publisher, lyricist and manager of the Swedish quartet ABBA. It is typically shared by a pop artist and a classical musician.

Candidate Hoping to Be First Hispanic Mayor May Be 100 Years Too Late

Paul Thompson Morgue John Purroy Mitchel being sworn in as the mayor of New York in 1913.

The demography of the New York City mayoral campaign may already have shifted under at least one candidate’s prospective feat, even before November, when Adolfo Carrión Jr. hopes to be elected the city’s first Hispanic mayor.

Seems he may have been beaten to the title by 100 years.

Researchers at Fordham University Preparatory School in the Bronx discovered that an alumnus, John Purroy Mitchel, the “boy mayor” who was 34 when he took office, had Hispanic roots.

“With the mayoral race beginning to take shape, there has been a lot of talk in the media about the possibility of New York City having its first Latino mayor,” said Louis DiGiorno, the archivist at Fordham Prep. “This has puzzled us here at the Prep, because as far as we are concerned, New York had its first Latin mayor almost 100 years ago: John Purroy Mitchel, Fordham Prep Class of 1894 and mayor of New York from 1914-1917.”

While Mitchel was born in the Bronx, he was descended from Spanish nobility. A great-grandfather emigrated from Spain at the end of the 18th century.

“Mitchel’s maternal great-grandfather was José Joaquin de Purroy, a lawyer from Spain who would settle for a time in Venezuela, where his son, Juan Bautista Purroy, was born,” Mr. DiGiorno said. “Juan Bautista, the father of Mitchel’s mother, Mary Purroy Mitchel, would serve for many years as the Venezuelan consul to the United States. The mayor’s mother grew up in a bilingual home.”

The New York Herald quoted Mitchel, at a 1913 meeting with dignitaries from the Caribbean and Central and South America, as acknowledging his roots and cultural ties to Latin America:

“I have personally a very deep interest in South America that springs of family ties and personal experience, as well as from that friendship which we all feel here for our neighbors to the south. My grandfather, John B. Purroy, was born in Venezuela and, though an American citizen, represented that government here for a number of years as its consul, and I look back as among the most pleasurable and interesting experiences of my life to my visits to South and Central America.”

Beginning with the 1969 campaign, Herman Badillo, another former Bronx borough president, was billed as the first Puerto Rican candidate for mayor. Mr. Carrión, a former Bronx borough president also of Puerto Rican descent, is running in November as the Independence Party candidate and has been seeking to enter the Republican primary, too. He was unfazed about Mitchel’s ancestry.

“We’re big fans of Mitchel,” a campaign spokesman said. “He was an anti-Tammany Hall reformer who had an independent streak and became mayor as a fusion candidate bringing together New York’s various religious groups and Republicans.”

The spokesman, Thomas J. Basile, questioned the depth of Mitchel’s Latino heritage, adding that it was “unlikely he or anyone else at the time viewed him as such or whether he ever had any direct, personal experience with Latino culture or communities.”

“Clearly, one’s ‘racial’ roots and one’s cultural heritage are very different,” the spokesman said. “Mayor Mitchel had Hispanic ancestry by virtue of a connection to Spain, but was certainly not Latino. Mitchel didn’t identify himself culturally during his public life with the broader Latino population globally or in the city. It’s not just about who someone’s great-grandfather was but much more about how you connect not only racially but also with the culture, people and lives of those who share that common heritage. It’s not just about where you’re from but how you live and perceive yourself in relation to others of that heritage.”

“Latino or not,” Mr. Basile added, “Mitchel deserves credit for bringing people together to reform our politics and fight corruption. Both those things need to be done today a century later.”

A Beastie Boy\'s Playground, Named in His Memory

Robert Stolarik for The New York Times A crowd of family and fans gathered in Brooklyn Heights on Friday morning for the dedication ceremony of Adam Yauch Park.

“The name's MCA â€" made in Downtown Brooklyn,” Adam Yauch sings on “Oh Word?,” the eighth track on the Beastie Boys' 2004 album “To the 5 Boroughs.''

Before he was a world-famous rapper, film director and activist for Tibetan independence, Mr. Yauch hung out and learned to ride a bike at Palmetto Playground in Brooklyn Heights, down the block from his childhood home, where the Beastie Boys used to rehearse on the top floor.

Now, that playground, at Columbia Place and State Street, has been renamed “Adam Yauch Park” in commemoration of Mr. Yauch's many accomplishments, as well as his lifelong devotion to New York in general and to Brooklyn in particular.

“I can think of no greater honor for someone whose reach was so global to be memorialized on the playground where he grew up,” City Councilman Stephen Levin, who represents the neighborhood, said during a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Friday.

Hello #Brooklyn. We're proud to announce that Adam Yauch Park is now open. #MCA @beastieboys http://t.co/Z3b1eWouIr

- NYC Parks & Rec. (@NYCParks) 3 May 13

Mr. Yauch (pronounced YOWK) died a year ago of cancer at age 47, and his death was mourned by fans the world over. As a member of the Beastie Boys, who are enshrined in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Mr. Yauch was among the most influential of hip-hop musicians.

“People told us, ‘We didn't know your son was so famous,'” Frances Yauch, Mr. Yauch's mother, said at the ceremony. “We didn't know it either. We were so proud of the way Adam used his celebrity.”

The ceremony was filled with Mr. Yauch's family, friends and fans, who cheered loudly when a sign reading “Adam Yauch Park” was unveiled. Among the speakers were John Silva, the longtime Beastie Boys manager, and Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz, Mr. Yauch's bandmate of nearly 30 years.

Mr. Horovitz gave a short, heartfelt speech marked by nervousness and humor, describing Mr. Yauch as a “New York kid” with “just enough crazy” to go with his creativity and kindness. In contrast to the suits worn by city officials, Mr. Horovitz's choice of dress stayed true to Beastie Boys style: jeans, a T-shirt and plastic sunglasses with pink temples.

A speech by Marty Markowitz, the Brooklyn borough president, was especially animated. He began by saluting the people and borough of Brooklyn, as he usually does, and congratulating the Nets basketball team on its victory on Thursday night, at which point Mr. Horovitz, a Knicks fan, shook his head in apparent disapproval. But Mr. Markowitz perhaps redeemed himself with a remix of the Beastie Boys' “An Open Letter to NYC.” He rapped gems like, “On the L, we're doing swell / On the G, the place to be,” as the crowd laughed.

“Rap started in the Bronx,” Mr. Markowitz said. “But it took Brooklyn to refine it and bring it to the world.”

Coney Island, 1:51 P.M.

Todd Heisler/The New York Times

The Week in Pictures for May 3

See the slide show

Here is a slide show of photographs from the past week in New York City and the region. Subjects include a five-alarm fire in the Bronx, a motorcycle club in Queens and the cherry blossoms blooming in Brooklyn.

This weekend on “The New York Times Close Up,” an inside look at the most compelling articles in the Sunday newspaper, Sam Roberts will speak with The Times's Wendell Jamieson, Michael Grynbaum, Patrick Healy and Clyde Haberman. Also, David Rohde, an author.

A sampling from the City Room blog is featured daily in the main print news section of The Times. You may also browse highlights from the blog and reader comments, read current New York headlines, like New York Metro | The New York Times on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

The Board of Education Lives On, if Only to Be Sued

On Jan. 9, 2003, Jamie Perez was slashed by two fellow students at Evander Childs High School in the Bronx. He recovered, and his mother, Nancy Torres, sued the City of New York for negligence, claiming lax security.

New York Board of Education seal

Her lawyer, Richard J. Katz, might ordinarily have filed suit against the Board of Education, except that a year before the assault, the State Legislature had voted to vest the mayor with the power to appoint the schools chancellor. As part of the new governance, a Panel for Educational Policy was created, a majority of whose members the mayor appointed.

City lawyers insisted nonetheless that Ms. Torres had sued the wrong party - that the education board was still liable. But a Bronx judge ruled that “in light of the wholesale transfer of power and responsibility from the Board of Education to the mayor, the city may not now shield itself from liability.” An appellate court, however, reversed the decision, in effect voiding Ms. Torres's claim.

“The case got dismissed,” Mr. Katz said. “It was a travesty.”

A separate case now pending before the state's highest court, the Court of Appeals, raises the same issue of liability in a case involving a suit against the city's school system.

Many lawyers and their clients have discovered that if you have a legal complaint against New York's public school system, you cannot fight City Hall.

You have to specifically sue the city's Education Department or, better yet, the Board of Education.

You may have thought that the board was abolished years ago. That after the Legislature established a mayoral Education Department and after the board's totemic Downtown Brooklyn headquarters at 110 Livingston Street was converted to condos, the embodiment of the school system's immutable bureaucracy was finally defunct. That if you had been slashed, or had slipped when you arrived for a parent-teacher conference, your recourse now would be to sue the city rather than the obsolete board.

You would have been wrong.

“No defendant is duty bound to tell you you're suing the wrong party,” says Arnold E. DiJoseph III, a lawyer who on Ms. Torres's behalf unsuccessfully asked the Court of Appeals to review the Appellate Division's absolution of the City of New York in the Perez case.

Almost no one wants to make it easier to sue in this litigious society.

But lawyers for the city sometimes seem to have gone out of their way not to volunteer that the school board, which most New Yorkers believe went the way of the blackboard, still exists legally as the governing corporate incarnation of the Education Department and its Panel on Educational Policy.

“The Board of Education is the name in the state education law,” said Marge Feinberg, a spokeswoman for the department (but not for the board).

On more than one occasion, negligence lawyers were surprised to be advised by the Education Department that their notice of claim was “returned because the Department of Education is not the legally proper entity upon which to serve such document.”

Worse, still, is when they filed suit against the city only to learn later - too late, because the 90-day period in which to file again had expired - that the city was deemed not liable legally for the school system's mistakes. (Adding to the confusion, officials say legal papers may be served on the city's Law Department at 100 Church Street.)

Lawyers for the city liken the board's legal standing to that of the Health and Hospitals Corporation and the Housing Authority, which also must be named specifically in lawsuits.

Of the three, though, the city's official directory lists only the Education Department as a mayoral agency.

As far as the public is concerned, responsibility for the school system has been vested for a decade in a mayoral department.

Since Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg persuaded the Legislature to scrap the old school board, he has appointed the chancellor and a majority of the 13 members of the Panel for Educational Policy. and he has volunteered to be held accountable for its successes and failures.

In 2002, when the mayor was granted control, a Bloomberg spokesman explained, “We didn't pursue the name change legally, but we're pursuing it in every other sense, from stationery to business cards to when it's talked about publicly.”

Googling “Board of Education” and “City of New York” whisks you to the official Education Department's Web site, which says the Panel for Educational Policy “took the place of the Board of Education.”
Still, state education law specifies that “the board of education of each city school district of a city with 125,000 inhabitants or more according to the latest federal census is hereby continued as a body corporate.”

Ninfa Segarra, the last president of the old board, said on Thursday that she was surprised that it still existed, adding that the board's unanticipated survival “may be a way of hiding ongoing litigation.”

Although the Perez case was dismissed in 2007 by the Appellate Division, which ruled that the city and the board remained “separate legal entities,” Mr. Katz, the original lawyer for the young man's family, is still being sued for malpractice because he filed the litigation against the city instead of the board.

“I didn't do anything wrong,” Mr. Katz said, “but I don't blame him.”

Mr. DiJoseph, who handled the appeal, was asked why lawyers still sometimes sue the city by mistake.
“Bad news travels slowly,” he replied.

“For every other purpose they're a city agency except for this one,” Mr. DiJoseph said of the department, “and the only reason for them not to be a city agency is not to pay the money.”

This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: May 6, 2013

Previous versions of this post misstated the name of an advisory board formed in connection with mayoral control of the schools. It is the Panel for Educational Policy, not the Panel on Education Policy.

A version of this article appeared in print on 05/06/2013, on page A19 of the NewYork edition with the headline: The Board of Education Lives On, if Only to Be Sued .

Want Your Name on a Building? Prepare to Be Generous

Michael Kirby Smith for The New York Times New York's most affluent citizens have been able to have their name slapped on buildings all over the city for the right donation. Sanford Weill, the former chairman of Citigroup, and his wife, Joan, have given hundreds of millions of dollars to Cornell's medical college.

Don't look back, Donald Trump; when it comes to having one's name emblazoned all over New York City, Ronald Perelman might be gaining on you.

In appreciation for a pledge of $100 million, Columbia University said last week that it would name a planned building after Mr. Perelman, a billionaire financier. The building, the Ronald O. Perelman Center for Business Innovation, will be one of a growing roster of facilities in New York City bearing the Perelman name.

The list already includes the Ronald O. Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall, the Ronald O. Perelman Rotunda at the Guggenheim Museum, and the Ronald O. Perelman and Claudia Cohen Center for Reproductive Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. Ms. Cohen, who died in 2007, was Mr. Perelman's ex-wife.

Mr. Perelman also has his name on less-concrete things like fellowships and even the dermatology department at NYU Langone Medical Center.

Michael Kirby Smith for The New York Times The business school at New York University carries the name of a major donor, Leonard N. Stern, a graduate of the school.

His generosity has gained him entry into the pantheon of financiers and business owners whose names are chiseled in granite around the city. Among its members are Sanford Weill, the former chairman of Citigroup; Kenneth Langone, an investor and founder of Home Depot; Henry Kravis, the private-equity maven; and the Tisch family.

At Columbia Business School, Mr. Perelman's gift matches one from Mr. Kravis, whose name will adorn another new building there.

Indeed, $100 million seems to be the minimum tariff for naming rights these days. That is how much Stephen A. Schwarzman, a financier, promised to the New York Public Library, which named its central building on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan after him.

Michael Kirby Smith for The New York Times The medical center at New York University bears the name of Kenneth Langone, an investor and founder of Home Depot, who gave the center $200 million.

Mr. Langone gave twice as much - $200 million - to N.Y.U. five years ago to have its entire medical center bear his name. That same year, Mr. Weill and his wife, Joan, gave $250 million to the Cornell Medical Center, which they had already given two gifts of $100 million.

To hoi polloi, all this celebrated largess may look like a tussle for recognition among titanic egos. But Mr. Langone said there was no competition among his peers to have their names attached to the greatest number of facilities.

“My wife and I agree our names are around enough,” Mr. Langone said in a telephone interview. He added, however, that the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, of which he is a trustee, may soon name something for him.

Along with the medical center, the night school at N.Y.U.'s Stern School of Business is named for Mr. Langone, who earned his master's degree in business administration there. Mr. Langone said he could not recall how many millions he had given to the business school.

He noted that his initial gift of $100 million to the medical center had been anonymous. But he said that after he agreed to give an additional $100 million, officials of the university had persuaded him that “if you let us publicize this, it'll have babies.”

That proved true, he said, rattling off the names of several other wealthy families, including the Tisches, that in turn gave large sums to the medical center. He said the center had raised more than $1 billion since his latest gift was announced.

“Like the one-percenters or not,'' Mr. Langone said, “for whatever reasons, they've shared their good fortune.''

Mayoral Candidate Says Clintons Have Used His Private Jet

The Gulfstream IV, an airborne lap of plush-leather luxury, hopscotched around the country over the past few days, breezing into Chicago; Orlando, Fla.; and Little Rock, Ark.

Its owner, John A. Catsimatidis, the billionaire grocery store owner and Republican candidate for mayor, was not aboard.

So who was?

Several clues to this aeronautical mystery have emerged. Each stop of the blue-and-white jet, outfitted with eight flat-panel TVs, corresponded to a location where former President Bill Clinton; his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton; or both appeared from Thursday to Saturday, flight records show.

Aides to both Clintons are staying mum, but Mr. Catsimatidis and his team have taken no such vow of silence.

“They were using it,” Rob Ryan, a Catsimatidis adviser, said of the Clintons, before he quickly retreated into looser, less definitive language. “It's a pretty good educated guess.”

He passed the telephone over to Mr. Catsimatidis, a Clinton donor and longtime plane buff, who created and sold a sizable aviation business and now owns a smaller fleet of planes.

Asked about Mr. Clinton and the Gulfstream IV on Monday night, the supermarket magnate could barely suppress his pride at shuttling around the one-time leader of the free world:

“He uses it a lot.”

So much so, he said, that “I can confirm he is on it today.”

But what about between Thursday and Saturday?

Mr. Catsimatidis grew uncharacteristically reticent.

“We are not allowed to give out the itinerary for security purposes,” he explained.

(Mr. Ryan later allowed that “if he was using it today, there are good odds he was using it over the weekend.”)

During that three-day span, a Gulfstream jet with a tail number traced to Mr. Catsimatidis's company traveled to the Orlando area, where Mr. Clinton delivered a college commencement speech; to Little Rock, where Mr. Clinton and Mrs. Clinton observed the dedication of an airport in their names; to Chicago, where the couple attended an award dinner held in Mr. Clinton's honor; and finally to Westchester, N.Y., where the Clintons have a home.

Spokesmen for both Clintons declined to comment on their travel or how it was paid for.

Mr. Catsimatidis said he regularly donated time on his plane, which can command around $6,000 an hour, to Mr. Clinton's foundation. A longtime campaign contributor, he joined the illustrious, and later infamous, list of donors who spent the night in the Lincoln Bedroom during the Clinton administration.

An endorsement from either Clinton in this year's mayoral race is considered the political holy grail, elusive and unexpected, but courted and coveted.

The conventional wisdom that they are unlikely to weigh in on the race has not stopped candidates and would-be candidates from invoking their names.

As he contemplates a mayoral run, former Representative Anthony D. Weiner recently said in a television interview that Mr. Clinton had been “a great source of support” for him.

Mr. Catsimatidis rarely misses a chance to pay tribute to the erstwhile president, describing himself, counterintuitively, as a “Clinton Democrat.”

On Monday, as Mr. Clinton apparently floated above the ground on his plane, Mr. Catsimatidis wanted to make it clear that there was more to the relationship than air travel.

“I have been friends with the Clintons,” he said, “for 20 years.”

Helen Mirren Is Not Amused as Drummers Disrupt Performance

Marching drummers in London's West End were surprised to learn that their parade had disrupted a nearby performance of “The Audience” at the Gielgud Theater on Saturday night, but the real shock came when the actress Helen Mirren appeared on the street, dressed in full costume as Queen Elizabeth II, and berated them for doing so.

Ms. Mirren, who stars as the Queen in “The Audience,” which chronicles Her Majesty's meetings with Britain's prime ministers over a 60-year period, lived out the fantasy of every bystander who has ever been unintentionally stuck near a parade, using some strong language to halt the festivities during the play's intermission.

The drummers were marching as part of a promotion for As One in the Park, a gay music festival that will be held in London this month.

“I'm afraid there were a few ‘thespian' words used,” Ms. Mirren told The Daily Telegraph. “They got a very stern royal ticking off, but I have to say they were very sweet, and they stopped immediately.”

Mark McKenzie, a parade organizer, told The Telegraph, “Not much shocks you on the gay scene, but seeing Helen Mirren dressed as the queen cussing and swearing and making you stop your parade - that's a new one.”

Frank Bascombe Back in Short Form, for Now

When Richard Ford read from a story featuring his beloved character Frank Bascombe at 92nd Street Y last week, one had to ask if this meant Bascombe would soon return in a fourth novel. Mr. Ford had told interviewers he was done writing about Bascombe when he concluded his trilogy of novels, “The Sportswriter” (1986), the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Independence Day” (1995) and “The Lay of the Land” (2006).

I recently asked Mr. Ford via e-mail whether the excerpt portends a new novel. He said the piece he read was from “Falling Forward,” a short story that is, for now, not part of a longer project.

The new story takes place in the days before last Christmas, and it prominently features the effects of Hurricane Sandy on New Jersey. “Kristina.” his wife, “and I did go down to Toms River and across the bridge to Lavallette and Ortley Beach in late fall - when the cleaning up was well under way but also a bit overmatched by calamity and thus quite moving,” Mr. Ford said. “I'd also been, previous to that, plucked at a bit, wanting to write something in Bascombe's voice, and had already considered writing a story - about what I hadn't decided. So in a sense, the two experiences fused, and ‘Falling Forward' has been the result.”

Mr. Ford didn't rule out the idea of a possible novel, saying he would “at least try to write another Frank Bascombe story this late spring and see how that goes.”

“What draws me to writing Frank Bascombe is what's always drawn me: he's funny (and it's thrilling to write things that are funny), but also he offers me the chance to write into the breach between what Henry James calls ‘bliss and bale'; in my own way, to connect ‘the things that help and the things that hurt' and to find some kind of reconciling vocabulary for both,” Mr. Ford said. “I always think that, when I'm writing Frank Bascombe, I have the chance to write about the most important things I know, and that's always been irresistible - as it probably is for most writers.”

Lauryn Hill Sentenced to 3 Months in Tax Case

Mel Evans/Associated Press Ms. Hill outside court on Monday.

Lauryn Hill, the Grammy-winning singer and songwriter, was sentenced to three months in prison on Monday afternoon for failing to pay income taxes on about $1.8 million in earnings.

The sentence in federal court in Newark, N.J., was a major setback for Ms. Hill, 37, a critically acclaimed but reclusive artist whose solo debut album in 1998, “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill,” established her as a major figure in R&B and hip-hop, earning five Grammy Awards. She recently announced she had plans to record a new album.

Ms. Hill pleaded guilty last year to charges that she had failed to file tax returns from 2005 to 2007, despite owning four companies and taking in more than $1.8 million in gross revenues, according to the complaint against her. In court, she told the judge she had intended to pay her taxes eventually but was unable to do so when she dropped out of the music business to focus on her children.

“I needed to be able to earn so I could pay my taxes, without compromising the health and welfare of my children, and I was being denied that,” Ms. Hill said in court, according to The Associated Press. Ms. Hill faced a maximum sentence of one year on each of the three counts. Her attorney had sought probation.

She is to report to prison on July 8, The A.P. reported. The judge also sentenced her to an additional three months of home confinement after her release.

On Sunday, Ms. Hill's attorney said she had paid about $970,000 to satisfy her unpaid state and federal tax bills, as well as penalties. That payment came on the eve of the singer's sentencing, nearly two weeks after United States Magistrate Judge Madeline Cox Arleo had scolded her in court for being slow to square her accounts with the government.

“Ms. Hill has not only now fully paid, prior to sentencing, her taxes, which are part of her criminal restitution, but she has additionally fully paid her federal and state personal taxes for the entire period under examination,” her attorney, Nathan Hochman, said in an e-mail sent to Reuters.

Ms. Hill recently announced on her Tumblr blog that she had signed a new record deal and was writing new material. Last week, she released one of her new songs - “Neurotic Society (Compulsory Mix).”

Ms. Hill started out with the Fugees and became a critical darling after her 1998 solo album, which won the Grammy award for album of the year. Then she largely disappeared from view, putting out only two albums in the last 15 years - “MTV Unplugged No. 2.0″ in 2002 and “Khulami Phase” in 2010.

Shortly after her arrest last year, Ms. Hill said in a blog post she had dropped out of the music business to shield herself and her children from society, and she portrayed her decision to stop paying taxes as part of that effort. “I did whatever needed to be done in order to insulate my family from the climate of hostility, false entitlement, manipulation, racial prejudice, sexism and ageism that I was surrounded by,” she wrote.

Early Images of American Indians Found in a Vatican Fresco

Musei Vaticani Detail of a fresco of the “Resurrection of Christ” by Pinturicchio.

ROME â€" Vatican officials say they have found what could be the first European images of American Indians in a fresco painted within two years of Christopher Columbus's first voyage to the so-called New World.

The lightly sketched group of men - nude save for what appear to be feathered headdresses and posed as if dancing - emerged during the restoration of a fresco of the “Resurrection of Christ” by the Renaissance artist Pinturicchio, painted in one of several rooms he decorated for Pope Alexander VI between 1492 and 1494.

Writing last week in L' Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, Antonio Paolucci, director of the Vatican Museums, suggested that the figures are consistent with the descriptions that Columbus gave in his letters of the indigenous people he saw upon his arrival in the Americas.

The figures' appearance in the fresco is in keeping with a practice common during the Renaissance of introducing contemporary elements into historical or sacred scenes, said Franco Ivan Nucciarelli, a Pinturicchio scholar who teaches at the University of Perugia. And in particular, Alexander VI had a great interest “in emphasizing his ties with the New World,” which gave him much power, Mr. Nucciarelli said.

Nor would the inclusion of these figures be out of place in frescoes painted for Alexander VI, the former Spanish cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, Mr. Paolucci noted. “The Borgia pope, elected just a few months before Columbus made landfall, “was interested in the New World, as were the great chancelleries of Europe,” he wrote. “It is hard to believe that the papal court, especially under a Spanish pontiff, would have remained in the dark about what Columbus saw when he arrived at the ends of the earth.”

The figures emerged from under layers of soot and overpainting during a 2006 restoration of the space called Room of the Mysteries, which includes “Resurrection of Christ,” but Vatican experts took a cautious approach to their findings. “We didn't publicize them because we wanted to carry out further verifications,” said Maria Pustka, who is responsible for restoring the rooms once inhabited by Alexander VI. “Now that further research been carried out, we felt it was opportune to make the finding known.”

Pinturicchio lightly sketched the figures in black and white paint directly onto the dried fresco, an unusual “and interesting” technique, she said, and they were painted over in successive restorations. When wet, the figures disappear altogether, she said.

A version of this article appeared in print on 05/07/2013, on page C3 of the NewYork edition with the headline: Early Images of American Indians Found in a Vatican Fresco.

In Performance: Alan Cumming of ‘Macbeth\'

Alan Cumming is on Broadway playing the title role - and every other major one - in “Macbeth,” a reimagined version of Shakespeare's tragedy set in a mental institution. In this scene Mr. Cumming plays the ruthless Lady Macbeth asking the spirits to “unsex me here.” Directed by John Tiffany and Andrew Goldberg, “Macbeth” continues through June 30 at the Ethel Barrymore Theater.

Recent videos in this series include Deborah Cox singing “Someone Like You,” from the Broadway revival of the musical “Jekyll & Hyde” at the Marquis Theater, and Michael Urie in a scene from “Buyer & Cellar,” Jonathan Tollins's play at the Rattlestick Theater about a struggling actor who works in Barbra Streisand's basement in Malibu, Calif.

Coming soon: a series of videos featuring Tony Award nominees.

Mayoral Candidate Says He Has Lent His Private Jet to the Clintons

The Gulfstream IV, an airborne lap of plush-leather luxury, hopscotched around the country over the past few days, breezing into Chicago; Orlando, Fla.; and Little Rock, Ark.

Its owner, John A. Catsimatidis, the billionaire grocery store owner and Republican candidate for mayor, was not aboard.

So who was?

Several clues to this aeronautical mystery have emerged. Each stop of the blue-and-white jet, outfitted with eight flat-panel TVs, corresponded to a location where former President Bill Clinton; his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton; or both appeared from Thursday to Saturday, flight records show.

Aides to both Clintons are staying mum, but Mr. Catsimatidis and his team have taken no such vow of silence.

“They were using it,” Rob Ryan, a Catsimatidis adviser, said of the Clintons, before he quickly retreated into looser, less definitive language. “It’s a pretty good educated guess.”

He passed the telephone over to Mr. Catsimatidis, a Clinton donor and longtime plane buff, who created and sold a sizable aviation business and now owns a smaller fleet of planes.

Asked about Mr. Clinton and the Gulfstream IV on Monday night, the supermarket magnate could barely suppress his pride at shuttling around the one-time leader of the free world:

“He uses it a lot.”

So much so, he said, that “I can confirm he is on it today.”

But what about between Thursday and Saturday?

Mr. Catsimatidis grew uncharacteristically reticent.

“We are not allowed to give out the itinerary for security purposes,” he explained.

(Mr. Ryan later allowed that “if he was using it today, there are good odds he was using it over the weekend.”)

During that three-day span, a Gulfstream jet with a tail number traced to Mr. Catsimatidis’s company traveled to the Orlando area, where Mr. Clinton delivered a college commencement speech; to Little Rock, where Mr. Clinton and Mrs. Clinton observed the dedication of an airport in their names; to Chicago, where the couple attended an award dinner held in Mr. Clinton’s honor; and finally to Westchester, N.Y., where the Clintons have a home.

Spokesmen for both Clintons declined to comment on their travel or how it was paid for.

Mr. Catsimatidis said he regularly donated time on his plane, which can command around $6,000 an hour, to Mr. Clinton’s foundation. A longtime campaign contributor, he joined the illustrious, and later infamous, list of donors who spent the night in the Lincoln Bedroom during the Clinton administration.

An endorsement from either Clinton in this year’s mayoral race is considered the political holy grail, elusive and unexpected, but courted and coveted.

The conventional wisdom that they are unlikely to weigh in on the race has not stopped candidates and would-be candidates from invoking their names.

As he contemplates a mayoral run, former Representative Anthony D. Weiner recently said in a television interview that Mr. Clinton had been “a great source of support” for him.

Mr. Catsimatidis rarely misses a chance to pay tribute to the erstwhile president, describing himself, counterintuitively, as a “Clinton Democrat.”

On Monday, as Mr. Clinton apparently floated above the ground on his plane, Mr. Catsimatidis wanted to make it clear that there was more to the relationship than air travel.

“I have been friends with the Clintons,” he said, “for 20 years.”

Training a Subway Musician

Dear Diary:

In my two years of commuting on the F train from Essex Street to my office, there has been one constant â€" the man with the guitar and pan flute.

Despite boarding the train at 10 a.m., well after the rush, I would notice that his case never had more than a few singles and some change in it. It was also quite obvious that his repertory barely stretched past the Eagles’ “Hotel California,” along with a few other Eagles classics.

Whether for his sake or that of my fellow straphangers, I bought him a book of simple rock guitar riffs.

Two months passed and nothing came of it. Then in March, as I walked down the steps, I not only heard the Beatles (pan flute edition), but also noticed that his guitar case was far more full than usual.

He winked at me. I smiled.

Read all recent entries and our updated submissions guidelines. Reach us via e-mail diary@nytimes.com or follow @NYTMetro on Twitter using the hashtag #MetDiary.

Verizon to Move 1,100 Workers From Lower Manhattan to Brooklyn

David W. Dunlap/The New York Times Verizon’s headquarters at 140 West Street in 2008, before the new 1 World Trade Center began to rise.

Verizon announced on Tuesday that it would move 1,100 employees out of its headquarters and switching center at 140 West Street in Lower Manhattan and offer half of the 31-story tower for sale or lease.

The employees, most in customer service, will join 300 colleagues next year at 395 Flatbush Avenue Extension in Downtown Brooklyn. Over all, there are about 10,000 Verizon employees in New York City. That will not change, the company said.

For the time being, the company’s headquarters will remain at 140 West Street, a designated New York City landmark that Verizon has meticulously restored twice in the last 12 years: after the terrorist attack of Sept. 11, 2001, and again after Hurricane Sandy last year.

As for the slightly longer term, Richard J. Young, a company spokesman, said, “Our headquarters will remain in New York City.”

A Verizon corporate ancestor, the New York Telephone Company, built 140 West Street as its headquarters and used it as such until 1972. Verizon returned to the building in 2005. It will not market the 28th and 29th floors, where executive offices and the board room are found.

But by leasing or selling 18 other floors â€" 470,000 square feet of the 943,000-square-foot total â€" Verizon evidently hopes to cash in on the prime location, across Vesey Street from the emerging World Trade Center. It’s possible to imagine apartments or hotel rooms at 140 West Street, especially in the slender tower that rises above the 18th floor.

There are several other examples of older telephone buildings being divided as hybrids in which Verizon keeps some floors for its telecommunication equipment and sells other floors to either commercial operators (375 Pearl Street) or residential developers (212 West 18th Street).

David W. Dunlap/The New York Times A candlestick telephone, the latest thing in 1927, is at the center of a ceiling mural in the lobby.

The lobby at 140 West Street is one of the architectural marvels of Lower Manhattan, but security concerns have kept it off limits to the public since 9/11. Because Verizon is considering leasing part of the ground floor for restaurant or store space, there is a chance that visitors will once again have a chance to take in the exuberant jazz age décor.

In Performance: Alan Cumming of ‘Macbeth’

Alan Cumming is on Broadway playing the title role â€" and every other major one â€" in “Macbeth,” a reimagined version of Shakespeare’s tragedy set in a mental institution. In this scene Mr. Cumming plays the ruthless Lady Macbeth asking the spirits to “unsex me here.” Directed by John Tiffany and Andrew Goldberg, “Macbeth” continues through June 30 at the Ethel Barrymore Theater.

Recent videos in this series include Deborah Cox singing “Someone Like You,” from the Broadway revival of the musical “Jekyll & Hyde” at the Marquis Theater, and Michael Urie in a scene from “Buyer & Cellar,” Jonathan Tollins’s play at the Rattlestick Theater about a struggling actor who works in Barbra Streisand’s basement in Malibu, Calif.

Coming soon: a series of videos featuring Tony Award nominees.