Sailing Beneath the Red, White And Green

New Yorkers gathered for the 69th Annual Columbus Day Parade along Fifth Avenue in Manhattan on Monday. The West Point marching band was supposed to lead the parade, but did not because of the partial shutdown of the government. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and the mayoral candidates Bill de Blasio and Joseph J. Lhota were in attendance.

The Ad Campaign: Looking for a Boost, Lhota Turns the Focus to Charter Schools

First aired: October 14, 2013

Produced by: Chris Mottola

for: Joseph J. Lhota

Joseph J. Lhota is turning to education issues in hopes of giving his sagging bid for mayor a surge in the home stretch. On Monday, Mr. Lhota, the Republican nominee, released a 30-second advertisement, titled “Rally,” attacking Bill de Blasio, the Democratic nominee, for his criticism of charter schools. Mr. de Blasio has pledged to end the Bloomberg administration’s policy of awarding free rent to charter schools housed in public school buildings â€" a change that Mr. Lhota has said would “annihilate” charter schools, which are publicly financed but often managed by nonprofit groups. â€" JAVIER C. HERNANDEZ

Fact-Check

0:02

“Charter schools allow parents to choose the best education for their children.”

Mr. Lhota touches on one of the most contentious questions in education today: whether charter schools outperform traditional public schools. The answer is tricky and depends on the data set. According to the city’s Education Department, charter schools performed better than traditional schools on state math tests this year. But they trailed the city average in reading by a small margin, and critics said their performance was underwhelming given the support many receive from benefactors.

0:08

“But Bill de Blasio wants to roll back their success.”

Mr. Lhota argues that Mr. de Blasio is seeking to “roll back” the success of charter schools. Indeed, many charter school leaders have said Mr. de Blasio’s plan to charge rent to charter schools would significantly hamper their ability to run their schools, forcing them to pay for space in one of the country’s most expensive markets. But Mr. de Blasio has also said that charter schools with fewer resources would not have to pay as much rent under his plan.

Scorecard

Mr. Lhota has leveled many attacks against Mr. de Blasio this campaign season, accusing him of following Marxist ideology and blasting him for violating a United States ban on travel to Cuba. But here Mr. Lhota is on firmer footing, focusing on a substantive issue on which the candidates have real differences.

He accurately points out Mr. de Blasio’s opposition to charter schools, and highlights the concerns of some parents about his plan to charge rent. But whether Mr. Lhota can find votes in Mr. de Blasio’s strongholds â€" particularly poorer communities, where charter schools are popular but Republicans are not â€" remains to be seen.

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Unearthed: A Possible Stop Along the Revolution

Michael Appleton for The New York Times A historian believes that recent demolition at 50 Bowery has unearthed evidence that it was the site of the Bull’s Head Tavern, where George Washington made his temporary headquarters in 1783.

Maybe George Washington slept there, or maybe he only watered his horse and ordered stronger stuff for himself. Either way, David Freeland sounded excited as he crossed the threshold where a famous Colonial-era tavern, the Bull’s Head, once welcomed thirsty out-of-towners.

“There are treasures inside,” said Mr. Freeland, an author and a historian who researched the site for a book about a beer garden that later occupied the tavern’s place on the Bowery.

A lithograph of the Bull’s Head Tavern in 1783.

But all he saw was debris from the building’s most recent life, as a chain drugstore with a Chinese restaurant upstairs. He did not reach the treasures that thrilled local-history aficionados over the weekend â€" namely, some old-looking joists and foundation walls in the basement â€" because the steps were blocked by rubble. The site is to be cleared for a hotel.

The joists were discovered by a photographer and preservationist, Adam Woodward, who suspects that structural elements of the Colonial-era tavern were used in the construction of the much larger beer hall, the Atlantic Garden. It reigned as “one of the show places of New York” from 1858 on, The New York Times said when it finally shut down in 1911.

But what about the tavern where Washington established his temporary headquarters in November 1783 as the British withdrew?

“The whole issue of whether the Bull’s Head was buried inside the Atlantic Garden was one of the great mysteries of New York,” Mr. Woodward said.

Until, apparently, the other day, when he got a look inside. He saw iron work from the 19th century and I-beams from later on. And then he saw a stairway to the basement, and headed down.

“At one point there was a distinct change in the building material, from cinder block to a brick-and-stone foundation wall,” he said. “I followed that wall and found myself at the front of the building, under the sidewalk at the Bowery, and looked up and saw what looked to me like 18th-century hand-hewn and hand-planed joists and beams with extremely wide floorboards right above them.”

He said, “I was thinking, I am standing in the cellar of the Bull’s Head.”

The Bull’s Head opened around 1750 on the fringe of what was a still-young city concentrated below the Bowery. Washington and his troops marched down the Bowery and stopped there in 1783 before making “their official entrance into the city proper,” said Kerri Culhane, a historian who wrote the application that won the Bowery a place on the National Register of Historic Places.

The neighborhood “was a butchers’ district in the 18th century and the 19th century,” Ms. Culhane said. “People drove livestock down from the hinterland and the slaughterhouse was behind the Bowery. That’s where the trading took place.”

It was also a home to the ancestors of future V.I.P.’s. “The Astors started out as butchers,” she said, but began snapping up land. They even owned the Bull’s Head site.

But the tavern closed. Mr. Freeland wrote that the building became a store that sold stoves until the Atlantic Garden opened as a beer garden.

It was a popular gathering place for German immigrants in its early days, and in the 1870s and 1880s, the Atlantic Garden was raided repeatedly for selling beer on Sundays, when the city’s excise laws appeared to forbid that. Mr. Freeland noted that the laws did not mention beer, only “intoxicating liquors or wines.” The Atlantic Garden’s owner got off after one raid because the judge sampled the beer the police had seized and complained it was so watered down that “a man might drink by the gallon without getting drunk.”

Later still, the Atlantic Garden became “a place where Tin Pan Alley songwriters would go to plug their songs,” Mr. Freeland said. One tune that apparently got its start there in the 1890s was “Daisy Bell,” the song that turned the phrase “bicycle built for two” into a catchphrase.

Mr. Woodward said he hoped the demolition for the hotel could be delayed long enough for “a proper archaeological exploration.” (Calls to the owner were not returned on Monday.)

“I can’t think of another lot in Manhattan that has a more important history,” Mr. Woodward said, “and the fact that it might be intact, a couple of feet under the building, is an incredible opportunity to get on archaeological record.”

New York Today: Monumental Mystery

Ruth Fremson/The New York Times The inscription on the monument in Columbus Circle pulls no punches.

Updated 10:00 a.m. | If you’ve ever passed by the monument in the middle of Columbus Circle, you may have noticed a strangely provocative inscription.

In honor of Columbus Day, here’s a little bit about it.

It reads:

To Christopher Columbus
The Italians resident in America,
Scoffed at before,
During the voyage, menaced,
After it, chained,
As generous as oppressed,
To the world he gave a world.

While the author of this screed is unknown, its tone may have something to do with the man behind the monument.

His name was Carlo Barsotti, publisher of the newspaper Il Progresso Italo-Americano, and he was a combative figure.

“We are not going to give you an eyesore, such as those that now too frequently disfigure your streets and parks,” Barsotti declared in 1890 as plans for the monument took shape.

As the opening ceremony neared, there was a protest by Italian-Americans “against the action of Carlo Barsotti in taking it on himself to represent the Italians of the city in regard to the celebration,” The Times reported.

Still, more than 10,000 people turned out for the monument’s unveiling on Columbus Day 1892.

Here’s what else you need to know for this semi-holiday Monday.

CLOSINGS

City and state offices closed. Public schools closed. Post offices mostly closed. Federal offices still closed. No trash pickup. Click for details.

WEATHER

Perfect for parading: mostly sunny with a high of 68.

COMMUTE

Subways: Click for latest status.

Rails: Click for latest Metro-North, L.I.R.R. or New Jersey Transit status.

New schedules go into effect today on New Jersey Transit. Click for latest status.

Roads: Click for traffic map or radio report on the 1s.

Alternate-side parking is suspended through Thursday â€" first for Columbus Day, then for the Muslim holiday Id al-Adha. (We misreported earlier that it’s back in effect tomorrow.) Meters must be fed all week.

COMING UP TODAY

- The Columbus Day parade up Fifth Avenue from 47th to 72nd Streets. A former Morgan Stanley executive, Joseph R. Perella, is grand marshal. 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. [Free]

- On the campaign trail, Bill de Blasio marches in the parade, then attends a rally in Brooklyn to keep Interfaith Medical Center open.

- Joseph J. Lhota marches as well, then meets with the Rabbinical Council of Queens.

- Furloughed federal employees and Representative Carolyn Maloney protest the government shutdown outside a Social Security office in Midtown at noon.

- Learn about the 125-year history of Bronx parks at lectures at the Bronx Zoo. 9 a.m. to noon. [Free, RSVP required]

- Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan blesses the renovated bronze doors of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. 9:15 a.m. [Free]

- The Staten Island Children’s Museum is free today. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

- Hear a talk about “Forgotten Black Kings of Underground Comix” at the NY Comics & Picture-story Symposium at Parsons. 2 West 13th Street. 7 p.m. [Free]

- The N.Y.C. Independent Film Festival begins with screenings of documentaries. [$13.50]

- For more events, see The New York Times Arts & Entertainment guide.

IN THE NEWS

- Shutdown notwithstanding, the Statue of Liberty reopened, thanks to state money. [New York Times]

- Baby Hope’s mother was “surprised” and “relieved” to learn that a relative has been charged in her 1991 killing, another of her daughters said â€" though the mother never reported the girl missing. [Daily News]

- The Plaza hotel is suing to get rid of the Citi Bike rack installed in front of it. [New York Post]

- Some black ministers say the Rev. Al Sharpton is more interested in fame than in helping people. [Daily News]

- Only a few people bought original, signed $60 Banksy pieces at a pop-up booth in Central Park on Saturday, perhaps because it looked like a million other art stalls. [Gothamist]

- Despite his height (6’5″), Mr. de Blasio is no threat on the basketball court. [Wall Street Journal]

- New York Republicans are trying to convince Donald Trump to run for governor. [New York Post]

- Scoreboard: Football Jets fall to Steelers, 19-6. Hockey Jets beat Devils, 3-0.

AND FINALLY…

The temperature is heading toward 70. The trees are still mostly green.

But winter has arrived at Rockefeller Center: the ice rink opens for the year at 10 a.m.

The first opening day, in 1936, looked like this.

Today, the skating starts with a Canadian Olympic silver medalist, Elvis Stojko, and the Rockettes.

Then it’s your turn.

Joseph Burgess contributed reporting.

New York Today is a morning roundup that stays live from 6 a.m. till about noon.

What would you like to see here to start your day? Post a comment, e-mail us at nytoday@nytimes.com or reach us via Twitter using #NYToday.

Find us on weekdays at nytoday.com.

A High School Is Actually Not Manhattan’s Saddest Spot, a Researcher Says

A research group that named Hunter College High School the saddest tweeting spot in Manhattan now says it was mistaken in its finding. The group’s acknowledgment of the error came to light after many questions were raised about an initial post on the study.

In August, the group, New England Complex Systems Institute, released a study assessing the moods of New Yorkers based on their Twitter posts. The lead researcher on the study, Prof. Yaneer Bar-Yam, told media outlets that Hunter High School, an elite public school on the Upper East Side, had the highest percentage of “negative sentiment” posts of any place in Manhattan.

This was determined, he said, by a computer program that sorted geo-tagged posts into negative or positive sentiment designations, based upon their language and emoticons.

Hunter High School was the source of an unusually high percentage of negative Twitter messages, even higher than hospital locations and spots with particularly frustrating rush-hour traffic, said Professor Bar-Yam, who offered possible reasons that included the high school’s lack of windows, high workload and the fact that the posts were collected just as the students had returned from spring break and were facing final exams.

Still, the news baffled students, faculty and alumni of the high school, and an article in The New York Times last month that focused on the reaction at the school prompted an outpouring of comments and e-mails from readers questioning the validity of the study.

Some pointed out that Hunter College High School was not mentioned in the study. Others wondered if researchers simply confused the school with the Hunters Point subway station in Queens, which itself was named as a “negative-tweeting” spot in the study.

The Times article focused on how the claim had become a talking point among students and how the news created a buzz as school reopened last month - even being cited by the administration at a welcoming assembly for students. Many students interviewed for the article pointed out that very few of their peers used Twitter and that most students were happy to be at Hunter.

Following the many comments and e-mails assailing the study, The Times contacted Professor Bar-Yam for clarification and more information. He stood by the naming of the high school and wrote, in a note. that was posted in the comments section of the online article, that he had not confused Hunter and Hunters Point

But on Friday, after being pressed again for more information, Professor Bar-Yam said he did a more detailed analysis of the data and realized that he had incorrectly interpreted a data map that seemed to indicate that the high school was the source of a flurry of negative posts during the period of recording the data in spring 2012.

Closer analysis revealed that the posts had actually come from a single Twitter account “from a region just south of the school,” said Professor Bar-Yam, who declined to identify the account or the exact location from where the posts emanated.

The confusion occurred because the Twitter posts were recorded by location and plotted on a street map to identify locations of high and low sentiment by color code, he said, adding that the prolific tweeter near the school created “a single data area of low sentiment that overlapped with the location of the Hunter College High School.”

Professor Bar-Yam said he saw that Hunter College High School’s students were returning from vacation during the period of the data collection, and said that “this provided a rationale” why Hunter could be the source of the posts.

“While this explanation seemed reasonable to me,” he wrote, he checked the data after many “expressed incredulity that this would be the sentiment of their school.”

Although the high school was not mentioned in the published report by name, Professor Bar-Yam named it as Manhattan’s saddest-tweeting spot in response to a question from a reporter from Science magazine for an article published on the magazine’s Web site.

Professor Bar-Yam wrote an explanatory note that he requested be posted with the original article, along with “my apologies to the Hunter community.”

“I apologize for my incorrect inference about the sentiment at Hunter College High School, for which I am solely responsible, and for the subsequent reporting that cast a shadow over the positive reputation of the school,” he wrote.

He lauded “the Hunter community” for “their belief in their school.”

“Many thanks to the Hunter graduates and students who insisted that this couldn’t be the case and are helping us to improve our analysis,” he said.

Told about the error, Lisa Siegmann, the high school’s assistant principal for grades 10 through 12, called it “a perfect lesson for the students: if the data is at odds with what you know, it’s worth looking at again.”

“We teach them about the necessity of gracefully acknowledging when an academic mistake is made, and we talk (incessantly) about how easily online mis-communications can spread,” she wrote. “They’ll probably remember this example better than any of our lectures.”