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Sunken Clipper Bow Sought For %u2018Empire%u2019 Museum D V n A D V n %u2022 , . . .................. .................................................................. BY GARY FREDERICKAlthough plans remain vague, hopes continue to run high at the National Maritime Historical Society that six empty Empire Stores warehouses will soon become a waterfront museum, generating revenue and attracting more people to the Fulton Ferry area.Under its latest set of proposals, the Society said it is planning to put the bow of the last American clipper ship, The Snow Squall, into a warehouse museum, giving the project a much needed shot in the arm. Members said also that multi-use operation of the buildings, divided between residential, commercial and cultural interests, is also under consideration.The Society is undertaking an East River Study and ActionProject concentrating on the area between the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges, where the warehouses are located, as well as parts of lower Manhattan by the South Street Seaport.Beth Haskell, assistant curator at the Society, said that while plans are far from specific, lofts are beingconsidered for the residential section. The commercial section would have gift shops, restaurants and other stores in a mall type atmosphere, and the cultural area would be the museum.The idea seems to be in the minds of Society members rather than on paper, however. General Manager of the State Department of Parks and Recreation, Clair Beckhart, which bought the nineacre Empire Stores from ConC l\\ * t 077 on%u00ab4 * n Sr- - %u2014 iA i A > / / , U u u u i m g 10 Al lwriting yet and there are no finalized plans. The building could be used for a museum and has the space for other compatible programs, but nothing has been finalized.%u201dThe state supplemental budget, recently passed, contained a $100,000 allocation for the area and Beckhart said this money will be used to build an interim park. The Parks Department will %u201c green%u201d one acre of land outside the Empire Stores by the waterfront. She said plans include installation of a boardwalk by the river%u2019s edge. This boardwalk will have benches leading to a sitting area used mostly for %u201c passive recreation.%u201dBeckhart said that because of sewer work in the area, theummiiuiuii 01 one ui tile EmpireStores wil need to be strengthened, with the city paying that cost.Of more immediate importance to the Empire Stores, however, is a Society sponsored expedition to the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic during December. Led by marine archaeologist Peter Throckmorton, the team will attempt to raise the bow of The Snow Squall and bring it back for possible placement in the Empire Stores Museum. Cost of the expedition is not known since services are routinely donated.A similar venture brought back a 30-ton portion of the starboard hull of the St. Mary, a square rigged merchant vessel launched in 2890. The Snow Squall was launched in 1851 out of Maine and was towed torauuano aner running aground in 1864, developing a severe leak.Wrote Throckmorton in the July 1976 issue of Sea History, the Society publication: %u201cThe most visible surviving part of the ship is her bow, visible to the west of the pier. This survives intact from the keel to the tween-decks. The decks themselves have rotted away, and the frames and planking %u2018between wind and water%u2019 (that is, the parts of them that are continuously immersed and then exposed by the rising and falling tide) are nearly gone. The bow is so weak that it shakes every time a wave hits it and trembles ominiously when one climbs out on it. The part of the structure that is permanently abofre water is in remarkably good condition.%u201dBY PETER HALEYImagine if Goliath had not been slain but only beaten in his Biblical battje with David, and imagine David several weeks later, still savoring his victory and his new title of %u201c Giant Killer%u201d , having to load up his sling for a rematch with the Philistine bruiser. This is the situation attorney Murray Weinstein faces as a latter day David who pulled the upset of the political season by defeating Assembly Speaker Stanley Steingut for the Democratic nomination for the 41st Assembly District in September and now faces a November showdown with the same Steingut thanks to the longtime Assemblyman%u2019s endorsement by the Liberal party.Weinstein is now in the precarious position of underdog turned front-runner with Steingut, the state%u2019s second most powerful Democrat ringing doorbells and standing outside supermarkets in hot pursuit of the votes he%u2019ll need to regain his Assembly seat and the powerful Speakership.Driving down Avenue D%u2019s commercial district on the way back to his campaign headquarters early Friday afternoon Weinstein, who took over as insurgent candidate only after his 25-year-old daughter Helene was knocked off the ballot by a state Supreme Court decision, was confident that in November Steingut would suffer an even greater defeat.%u201c Now that voters have seen it can be done I will win a larger percentage of the vote than I did inSeptember,%u201d said Weinstein who claimed that Steingut couldn%u2019t win because %u201che still hasn%u2019t figured out why he lost.%u201dInside his Madison Club headquarters on Church Avenue Stanley Steingut is standing alongside his campaign workers%u2019 desks on the phone long distance with a Massena, N.Y. politico, telling him that Steingut has an %u201c uphill fight%u201d on his hands. Minutes later, Steingut explains that the reason he lost was not Weinstein nor the two heavy Stones Weinstein hurled at him during the primary-his alleged involvement with convicted nursing hotne owner Bernard Bergman and his support of the death penalty. Instead, Steingut felt that his defeat was caused by a misunderstanding between himself and the voters.%u201cThere was a perception of me as being remote when in fact I was not remote as can be demonstrated by my record,%u201d explained Steingut.%u201c My responsibility as Speaker overshadowed my activities in the community, and I was negligent in not forcefully communicating with my constituents concerning the multitude of community activities and programs 1 was responsible for.%u201dAmong the projects and programs that he has been involved with, Steingut says, are the $1.25 million commercial revitalization of Avenue D, a substantial state grant for pre-kindergarten education to the local District 22 schools under the SPARK program, and a statefunded, anti-blockbusting proF R Q N T R U N N E R : D e m o c ra tic n om ine e M u rra y W einstein (center) in Fla tla nd s, seeking support in S te in g u t%u2019 s backyard. (M ichael Cuiccio Photo)gram.All these achievements fade into the background though when Steingut, his wife Madi, his sons Robert (Brooklyn City Councilman-atLarge) and Ted, and two campaign workers travel to the Hyde Park Senior Center at 779 East 49th Street later in the morning. Instead, he is soon in the center%u2019s synagogue with Rabbi Joseph Frankel and over a hundred senior citizens engaged in a question and answer period and confronting Weinstein%u2019s %u201c smears and distortions of my record%u201d .Although Steingut spent $80,000 on his primary campaign (according to his campaign staff) and had political heavyweights like U.S. Senator Patrick Moynihan, Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, City Council President Carol Bellamy and others campaigning with him this was largely offset by Manhattan Borough President Andrew Stein%u2019s campaigning for Weinstein, reminding voters of Steingut%u2019s involvement with Bergman and the nursing home scandal. Here in the synagogue the Speaker tells the seniors that he knew Bergman, as did %u201cformer Governor Nelson Rockefeller, State Attorney General Louis Lefkowitz, and Golda Meir,%u201d as a %u201c leader of philanthropic organizations.%u201d Steingut insists that neither he nor his family had any interest in a nursing home, that he only earned $250 in an insurance sale to Bergman, and that Stein%u2019s charge that he tried to block then Assemblyman Stein%u2019s committee investigation on nursing homes is a %u201cblatant iie%u201d .Then Steingut deals with the death penalty, saying it isn%u2019t a deterrent to crime and that he is a sponsor of a current bill for mandatory life sentences for convicted murderers. Steingut tries to blunt the charge that the Steinguts are a dynasty above and beyond the District%u2019s residents by rejoining that he hasn%u2019t forgot East Flatbush, and with hints that Weinstein will be leaving the area %u201cto flounder%u201d while housing and other services deteriorate.Weinstein maintains that voters in the 41st District%u2019s Flatlands, Canarsie, Crown Heights and East Flatbush neighborhoods are as fed up with Steingut%u2019s 25 year reign as Assemblyman in the district and neglect of the district as they are with his anti-death penalty stance and his alleged role in the nursing home scandai. W'hiie waiting for Weinstein%u2019s arrival at the Glenwood Senior Citizen Center, a part of the 3000-unit Glenwood public housing project in Flatlands, one of the seniors who works there explained his support of Weinstein.s i u m p i n g : Prim a ry loser Sta n le y Steingut g oing d o o r-to -d o o r (with w ife M a d i), hoping to avoid d e fe a t in N o ve m b e r. (M ichae l Cuiccio Photo)\time to give somebody else a chance,%u201d said the worker.Steingut staffers call Weinstein an \election would strip the district of an Assembly speaker and replace him with a political novice. Actually, however, it has been Steingut%u2019s maneuverings that have had the look of a political novice. His decision to veto Sandy Silverman (the Councilman%u2019s wife) as a candidate for the Madison Club slate for district leader in favor of Pearl Anish led to a local uprising led by Silverman. The result: Silverman%u2019s Newly-formed New Way club beat Steingut%u2019s organization three out of three in the Democratic primary with Silverman beating Anish for female district leader. Steingut was a two-time loser, to Carl Garritani for district leader and Weinstein for assembly.The speaker is now determined that the general election race will be a political comeback and not a last hurrah but Weinstein is no longer just a community activist and former school board member who entered the race 11 days before the primary. He is now the Democratic nominee who beat Steingut here in Glenwood as well as in private middle-income developments like Mansfield Gardens and even Flatbush Terrace, where Steingut himself lives.Weinstein enters the Glenwood Center and gets a warm reception as he shakes the hands of the pinochle players, people working with crafts, and the center%u2019s workers. He urges them to %u201cVote Democratic in November.%u201d People respond to mm as the tront-runner and ask him where he will locate his district office. They complain about not getting new refrigerators, due to cutbacks in funds. Weinsteins listens, shakes a few more hands, and leaves for theHyde Park Senior Center where Steingut campaigned two days earlier.Things are decidedly different at Hyde Park and instead of taking Weinstein into the synagogue, Rabbi Frankel barely acknowledges the Democratic nominee. In fact he leaves when Weinstein begins to speak in the seniors lunch room and meeting hall. Weinstein is brief, reminding the seniors that it was Councilman Ted Silverman (now Weinstein%u2019s campaign manager) who secured city support for the center, and that Stein who is supporting Weinstein against Steingut.Later at his Ralph Avenue campaign headquarters Weinstein scoffed at Steingut%u2019s accomplishments for the district and the Speaker%u2019s claim that he did not interfere with Stein%u2019s nursing home investigation.%u201cThe Avenue D revitalization is happening but how did it get that way in the first place? Steingut has allowed the district to decline,%u201d said Weinstein. As for the nursing home allegations, Weinstein points out that in testimony to a Congressional committee Steingut %u201ccouldn%u2019t remember%u201d if he had spoken to Stein about easing up on the nursing home investigation. Stein says he recalls such a conversation.Some of the arguments Steingut uses to convince voters he deserves another chance include pro-consumer positions on the mortgage bill and a demand for oil rebates for custom ers instead of fines for overcharging oil companies. Steingut also points to projects brought in through state funds, such as a $100,000 urban horticulture grant and $300,000 for parks and recreation equipment funding in the district. Twelve days from now, the voters will either listen to him or demand a %u201cnew broom%u201d as they did in September.Weinstein vs. Steingut:Time For A New Broom?O ctobe r 2 6 ,1 9 7 8 , T H E P H O E N IX , Page 7