The city's Department of Transportation has agreed to delay implementing a plan to locate 18 commuter buses on West Street between Canal and Harrison Streets in TriBeCa and to explore alternatives with community groups sharply opposed to the plan.

Janette Sadik-Khan, the Commissioner of the department, announced the change in plans last week, stating that "we will work with the community and elected leaders in the coming weeks to find new alternatives that meet the project's needs while having the least impact on the surrounding neighborhood."

The plan would have permitted the buses to park on West Street 11 hours a day seven days a week. The buses now park on South Street and according to an article by Julie Shapiro in the May 1-7, 2009 edition of The Downtown Express Deputy Mayor Ed Skyler's office told Julie Menin, the chair of Community Board 1, that the city would work with the community find another location for the buses.

The buses have to move from their present parking location on South Street because of the construction of the East River Waterfront esplanade.

Community activists had complained that putting the buses on West Street would further aggravate traffic in the Holland Tunnel area and the article said that the Department of Transportation "still wants to keep all the buses in Community Board 1 below Canal Street" but that residents want them dispersed in other areas as well.

The president of the Independence Plaza North tenants association, Diane Lapson, was quoted in the article was "thrilled" about the city's change in plans, adding that "the plan echoed the city's decision to store World Trade Center debris on barges right below I.P.N.'s windows, which was also a public safety hazard."

In the same issue, City Councilman Alan J. Gerson wrote that the bus plan would have placed the buses near the major air intake vents for the Borough of Manhattan Community College.

"Tour buses, commuter buses, long distance discount buses and casino buses," Mr. Gerson wrote, "are already saturating our Lower Manhattan neighborhoods....Already, we have more long distance bus passengers loading and disembarking in Chinatown than at the Port Authority bus terminal....What happens when the 9/11 memorial opens in 2011? We need a short and long-term plan for dealing with bus saturation in Lower Manhattan."

In a separate article in the same edition, Ms. Shapiro noted the Lower Manhattan "is losing affordable units faster than they could ever be built, and despite the current softening of the market, many housing advocates say that prices Downtown are still much higher than the middle class can afford."

"Perennially one of the city's wealthiest neighborhoods, Lower Manhattan has welcomed middle-class residents in large complexes like Gateway Plaza, Independence Plaza North and Southbridge Towers....The most recent affordable housing victory Downtown came earlier this month, when Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver announced an agreement for an 11-yrear extension of rent protections at Gateway Plaza, a 3,500-tenant complex in Battery Park City," the article said, noting, however, that "all new tenants who enter at market rates would have no guarantee they could renew their lease at a stabilized rate under the deal, which has not yet been finalized."

The article said that "Independence Plaza owner Laurence Gluck removed the complex's 1,339 units from the Mitchell-Lame affordable housing program in 2004, and from then on, all new tenants came in at market rate."

At the 1,651-unit Mitchell-Lama co-op Southbridge Towers near the South Street Seaport, the article said that its board of directors hopes to privatize the building, allowing residents to sell their apartments at market rate, essentially removing those units from protections.