050212 CN.indd by Schneps Media

The Surreal Thing, p. 26

VOLUME 4, NUMBER 44

THE WEST SIDE’S COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER

MAY 2 - 15, 2012

Floored by LPC approval of Chelsea Hotel rooftop addition BY BONNIE ROSENSTOCK In an April 24 move met with outrage from tenants and electeds, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) gave a 9-0 thumbs up to the Chelsea Hotel rooftop addition proposed by the building’s owners (the Chetrit Group). Tenants of the iconic hotel on West 23rd Street, as well as elected officials and community leaders considered

Photo by Russell Dungan

On April 27, these volunteers got their hands dirty — in the name of a cleaner, greener park. See page 2.

BRC, at home in Chelsea BY WINNIE McCROY Nine months have passed since the Bowery Residents’ Committtee (BRC) opened its doors at 127 West 25th Street, between Sixth and Seventh Avenues. In that time, Executive Director Muzzy Rosenblatt and his staff have worked to realize the promises they made to their clients and a skeptical community. Chelsea Now recently toured the ambitious vertical campus — our third visit to a BRC facility, and the first since the 25th Street location has been fully operational. Our goal: assess the BRC’s mission to get homeless people off the street, in rehab and job training, and into permanent housing. “People have success because they don’t come kicking and screaming. They choose to be here because they’ve hit rock bottom,” Rosenblatt said. “The bottom is fearful, but it gives them motivation to climb up. We can make that moment an opportunity for change.”

Since opening, the BRC has served 2,200 clients — 1,100 of whom have graduated (900 through rehab and 200 to jobs and housing). One success story is the kitchen trainee program. Clients are paid for the 20 weekly hours they work in the three-month program. When they get their food handler’s certification, the BRC helps with their job search. “I have been with the program for two weeks, and I would love to get any job in the culinary field when I’m done,” said Corey Allen, a trainee who checked that chicken was 160 degrees, then placed it into a warming dish. Allen helps cook fresh food daily for the facility’s clients, like the 1,100 chicken thighs prepared for dinner: two per client. Rosenblatt said while clients enjoy the quality of the food, some complain about the quantity. “We practice portion control, but people who have nothing tend to hoard,” he said. “We focus on building good habits.” Cooks don’t add

salt, and only provide clients with it upon request. Encountering an empty McDonald’s salt packet in a stairwell, he said, “Where there’s a will, there’s a way, but we try to keep people within healthy sodium levels.”

A SENSE OF CALM IN THE MIDST OF RECOVERY When Chelsea Now toured the BRC on April 19, the facility was at full capacity — housing 96 clients in their Reception Center, 200 in the Jack Ryan Residence and 32 in the Chemical Dependency Crisis Center. Yet walking through the Crisis Center, one would never guess. “There is a real sense of calm. It doesn’t feel like there are more than 300 people here,” said Rosenblatt. “We’ve worked to create a relaxed atmosphere, so people can let their guard down and have a chance to heal. A couple of days sober and they’re ready to start.”

the decision to be made with undue haste, in total disregard for their unanimous opposition and without proper notice of the meeting. Corey Johnson, chair of Community Board 4 (CB4), said, “I am really disheartened and dismayed by LPC’s decision to first, approve this, and second, not to listen to the community board and all the

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Symposium inspires Block Association rethink BY SCOTT STIFFLER Hyperlocal by nature rather than necessity, block associations normally go about their business — neighborly camaraderie, beautification projects, quality of life advocacy — without the benefit of strength in numbers. Until now. Taking a page from the Occupy Wall Street playbook — and with an eye

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toward influencing matters of citywide scope — the Coalition of Block and Community Leaders (CBCL) held its first annual Blocks for Blocks Symposium (BBS) on April 21, at the Rutgers Church Community Space (236 West 73rd Street, at Broadway). Although the subject matter addressed at the

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EDITORIAL, LETTERS PAGE 8

MY SOUL FLIES PAGE 14

May 2 -15, 2012

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Mulch ado about something So much for slacking off on Fridays. By the time the sun went down on April 27, Chelsea Waterside Park took more than a few good steps toward summertime beautification. Under the supervision of a Hudson River Park horticulturist, members of Chelsea Waterside Park and other neighborhood groups renovated

the beloved two and a half acre park (bordered by the West Side Highway, 11th Ave., West 22nd St. and West 24th St.). Old and overgrown material was removed, mulch was spread, new growth was planted, litter was cleaned up and fingernails were blackened — and a good time was had by all.

May 2 -15, 2012

Fully operational: BRC, at nine months Continued from page 1 The BRC focuses on rehabilitating clients through a number of outlets. One is their successful art therapy program, which offers five weekly classes in art, photography and writing. Rosenblatt showed off art by a recent client with a history of substance abuse and mental illness. “She used the art program to help further her goals and express anger over what happened with herself and her kids. She eventually got into permanent housing and visitation with her children,” said Kelly Quirk, Assistant Director of the Reception Center. Quirk meets with clients every day to help them with money management (doling out cash from their disability checks), finding housing and working with their case manager. Noting the nearly-empty dorms, Rosenblatt said clients are encouraged to do something every day toward their goal, be it art therapy, housing interviews, or meeting with physicians, case managers or job placement programs. “We don’t say our way or the highway because many of our clients are from the highway,” said Rosenblatt. “We’re not going to throw you out because you have no motivation. We just have to work harder to find something to motivate you. It’s a challenge for us to help clients find that path, not a punishment because they can’t find it themselves.” Success is measured not by how many people get a job, but how many people stay employed. Results speak for themselves; Rosenblatt said that 63 percent of those BRC clients employed last year were still employed six months later.

MENTAL HEALTH AND REHAB PROGRAMS MAKE THEIR MARK The Jack Ryan Residency Center treats men with mental health issues and chemical dependency. Program Director Janet Forte said she has placed 70 clients in housing since August. “This is great, especially when you consider this population has special needs ranging from mental illness, homelessness, medical issues, substance abuse, and often, a history of criminal behavior,” said Forte. “We focus on supportive housing or having them reunify with their family or friends.” The goal, said Forte, is to get people into stable, healthy living environments. BRC provides a year of aftercare services to reduce recidivism — home visits, case management, help keeping benefits and rehab if they relapse. They also offer a monthly aftercare advocacy program on third Wednesdays. Up in the Fred Cooper Substance Abuse Service Center, Program Director Murray Edwards furthers recovery by helping clients achieve abstinence from drugs and alcohol. “In the past seven months, we have had about 200 clients a month,” said Edwards.

“An average day finds 60 people coming through, but most don’t want to change. Recovery means big changes, and for people in their mid-40s who have been using and living the life for a long time, it’s a coping mechanism. When you remove the drugs, you have to find another way to cope.” Edwards said that whether the clients walk in on their own, or are sent by a parole officer or judge, the program tries to get everyone invested in their own recovery.

‘The BRC has a pretty open-door policy, and we are referring people to their CAC meetings on first Tuesdays. To tell you the truth, the whole block knows about 13th Precinct Community Affairs, and they’re not flooding the meetings.’—Detective Ray Dorrian of the 13th Precinct DESPITE CB4 & POLICE PRECINCT ASSURANCES, CONCERNS LINGER Last year, many in Chelsea were less than thrilled to learn that the BRC was their new neighbor. Now, said Rosenblatt, “I’m not saying everyone is happy we’re here, but people stop me in the street to say hello, and we haven’t heard anything negative from the co-ops.” Early in the process, Rosenblatt established a Community Advisory Committee open to those concerned about the impact the BRC would have in the neighborhood. Meetings, held on the first Tuesday of the month, draw about a dozen people. “I am highly impressed with the efficiency of the operation as well as the competency and performance of the staff,” said Muriel Beach, a CAC attendee and volunteer since last Christmas. Community Board 4 District Manager Robert Benfatto noted that apart from some quality of life issues, no incidents have been reported. “There are complaints of people hanging on stoops, littering and urinating in a freight elevator, but there’s no way to know if they are BRC clients,” said Benfatto, who said Rosenblatt will attend CB4’s May 17 Housing Committee meeting. “I think Muzzy has been responsive, but it’s difficult to resolve things, because if people are hanging out, there’s nothing you can legally do about it.” Pointing to the Obama Administration report, “Constructive Alternatives to the Criminalization of Homelessness,” Rosenblatt warned about “acts of living”

Photo byWinnie McCroy

Their doors are open: Janet Forte, Program Director of the Jack Ryan Residency Center (on the right, third from front), and her clinical staff.

laws that prohibit sleeping, eating, sitting or panhandling in public places — acts which their very nature criminalize homelessness. “It is important to put these activities in context and not target a group of people because they are homeless and poor,” said Rosenblatt. “You cannot have a double standard that says this person can sit on the curb and smoke, but our clients can’t. It undermines what we’re trying to do. You must

have the integrity to be consistent, and to differentiate between behavior you don’t like and that which is illegal.” Apart from these quality of life issues, Benfatto said he’d heard no complaints from the 10th Precinct, and that it had been three months since he heard any complaints from the 13th Precinct.

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May 2 -15, 2012

Small businesses weigh options under healthcare law BY ALBERT AMATEAU The Greenwich Village-Chelsea Chamber of Commerce (GVCCC) last week took a long look at the momentous changes in healthcare insurance that are looming as the 2010 federal Affordable Care Act begins to take effect. At an April 19 small business healthcare forum, held at Google’s New York office, on Ninth Avenue at 15th Street, GVCCC brought together small business advocates, insurance and health system executives and consultants to anticipate the ins and outs of the legislation that has become known as “Obamacare.” The changes in healthcare management coming online in the next two years are enormous, said Howard Gold, of North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, moderator of the panel. “The massive and dramatic changes are an attempt to control the unsustainable costs and the enormous disparity in access to health coverage,” Gold said. Healthcare costs are rising about eight percent per year, according to Kabuchi Banfield, an executive with Aetna Small Group, which covers insurance options for small businesses. The legislation is currently before the U.S. Supreme Court, with a focus on the constitutionality of the individual mandate provision, which requires all individuals, with some exceptions, to buy health insur-

ance for themselves and their families. Apart from whatever the court decides on the individual mandate issue, the greater part of the 2,200-page legislation is not likely to be overturned, according to Michael J. DeFelice, a financial planning consultant on the panel.

Most of ‘Obamacare’ is unlikely to be overturned, said Michael J. DeFelice, a financial planning consultant. “But would we be able to afford it if not everybody buys into the pool?” Gold asked doubtfully. Panelists outlined the health insurance options under the new law to help small business owners cover their employees. Federal and state tax credits, subsidies for low-income families and health-benefit exchanges are among the options that panelists discussed. Exchanges, which analyze the complex insurance options and perform all the

administrative tasks for a small business, will become widely available in the next two years. “We simplify choice without taking away choice,” said Mark Kessler, an executive with HealthPass New York, an independent nonprofit exchange. Exchanges try to find the best options among a variety of plans for each business, determine who among the employees are eligible for what level of benefits and do all the administrative work, Kessler said. Ben Geyerhahn, special projects director of Small Business Majority, said that under the federal Affordable Care Act, public exchanges would probably be established state by state and operate along with private exchanges. Small businesses will be able to receive significant tax credits, and low-income employees would be eligible for subsidies through the various exchanges, Geyerhahn said. The major change in the coming years will be a shift from payment for specific procedures to payment for wellness and prevention on a prepaid annual basis, Gold said. “If you pay doctors for procedures, they’ll do procedures,” said Gold. “If you pay for health outcomes, you might catch conditions like diabetes early and prevent more serious complications later.” The new legislation is intended to control redundant procedures and help prevent

patients getting care they don’t need or the wrong kind of care. Panelists also questioned whether people who fall through the cracks in the new health insurance system would continue to use emergency rooms as a primary-care resource. Gold noted that emergency room care for uninsured patients contributed to the “meltdown” of St. Vincent’s Hospital, which closed in 2010 in Greenwich Village. “Forty hospitals closed in New York City in the past 10 years and 10 more will probably close,” he added. North Shore-LIJ Health System, where Gold is a senior vice president, includes Lenox Hill Hospital on the Upper East Side. The health system is also developing the Comprehensive Care Center and standalone emergency department being developed in the O’Toole Pavilion of the former St. Vincent’s Hospital. “The Chamber is focused on helping the small business community remain on top of the changes to healthcare options as the Affordable Care Act takes effect,” said Tom Gray, executive director of GVCCC. “Because the legislation is so complex, it is far too easy for small business owners to miss out on opportunities that the reforms create to help their businesses,” Gray said. “We’re happy to bridge the gap by drawing on partners from every corner of the industry to help our community.”

May 2 -15, 2012

Contemplating the function, and future, of Block Associations Continued from page 1 sessions spoke to more practical tasks at hand (“Urban Greening & Beautification,” “Fundraising”), organizers had their eyes on the collective future, and function, of NYC block associations. “It’s time for them to seize their power,” said BBS organizer DeAnna Rieber of the event’s 80 participants. “It’s time to occupy your block.” Rieber, president of her own block association (West 75th Street), estimated that in the room, “There was probably about a thousand years of community service experience.” The CBCL’s goal, she asserted, was “not to dictate the missions

of these organizations. What we’re here for is to help them do what they do better, and more efficiently. That’s why we’re uniting, so we can be a stronger voice.” Physical safety and a lack of city services, Rieber happily observed, no longer drive the typical association’s mission. These days, potluck socials are more prevalent than neighborhood watch patrols. “What has changed New York City,” Rieber notes, “is the people on their own blocks who’ve gotten together to take action. It all started when New York was not the way it is now, when there were serious issues of crime and safety…a simple thing like lighting up your street. Who’s responsible for that? In many ways, they [the block associations] paid for it. Now,

the city’s responsible for it. That change came from grassroots activism. That’s the only way to get things done. We are the ones who drove legislation.” But with many of the gravest quality of life concerns largely addressed (although, she is quick to point out, by no means solved), Rieber says it’s time to refine and refocus. “It’s about time we strengthened our own voice and seize the opportunity.” Asked to describe a precise scenario in which a coalition of associations might wield that collective power, Rieber cites a local success story that she says could serve as a template for citywide changes in line with hyperlocal successes. “I have an example,” she offers.

“Last year, Duane Reade put up a huge JumboTron in the front of their store on 72nd Street and Broadway. People live there. It’s not Times Square. So we all got together and had a meeting. We spoke with Duane Reade, and they weren’t budging.” In the face of an impending protest outside of the store, “the owners called the elected leaders the night before, and they agreed they would take it down. That’s what I’m talking about. It’s no longer blaring over the neighborhood.” The same strategy, she asserts, could have been adapted by other block associations had there been a BBS loop. “Corporate responsibility,” Rieber says, “is something we all have to be vigilant about. We have a certain degree of clout in our area, but if I have an issue that’s bigger and send it out to the whole e-list [of symposium attendees], how much more powerful can we be?”

CHELSEA-CENTRIC TAKEAWAYS

‘Corporate responsibility,’ Rieber says, ‘is something we all have to be vigilant about. We have a certain degree of clout in our area, but if I have an issue that’s bigger and send it out to the whole e-list [of symposium attendees], how much more powerful can we be?’

Photo by Stu Lahn

Left to right, the CBCL NYC Symposium leadership committee: Melissa Elstein (W. 80s Neighborhood Assoc.), Dan & DeAnna Rieber (W. 75th St. Block Assoc.), Carl Bevelhymer (W. 55th St. Block Assoc.), Chana Widawski (W. 45th St. Block Assoc., 10th Ave.-River), Susan Lahn (W. 58th St. Block Assoc.) and Christine Gorman (W. 55th St. Block Assoc.).

At the symposium, “the majority of people were from the Upper West Side,” recalled Carol Ott — president of the 300 West 20th Street Block Association and a

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BY LILLY Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;DONNELL For 25 years, Jim Power a.k.a. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Mosaic Manâ&#x20AC;? has been working on a â&#x20AC;&#x153;Mosaic Trailâ&#x20AC;? through the East Village. Now that trail has led him into the digital age, with Mosaic Man merch for sale at etsy.com and, more recently, at cafepress.com. Powerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mosaic light poles are emblematic of the artists colony that the East Village once was, and provide markers for historic locations and events. And his mosaic storefront signs lend businesses like Crif Dogs and The Bean an air of authenticity. Until recently, funding for the Mosaic Trail came from those store signs, at about $1,500 a pop, and occasional donations of money and materials. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I was never starving,â&#x20AC;? he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;But every day I was struggling just to get by and feed my dog.â&#x20AC;? Power got nonprofit status through Bowery Arts and Science# so that donations would be tax deductible, hoping that would encourage more. But last year, he said, he got less than $500 in donations, which is not even enough to pay for one light pole on the trail when materials and labor hours are included. The Mosaic Man Etsy store opened on Feb. 26, selling belt buckles featuring Powerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s signature mosaic work at $100 to 200 each. In the first 48 hours, the store brought in $1,500, according to Matt Rosen, who has been managing Powerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s online presence. After the initial boom, spending slowed, with just slightly more than $2,500 sold in the last six weeks, but, Rosen feels the sales potential is there. Then, on March 28, they launched the Mosaic Man collection on CafĂŠ Press, bringing in $336 so far. Power and Rosen are hopeful the CafĂŠ Press items â&#x20AC;&#x201D; T-shirts, mugs, even thongs â&#x20AC;&#x201D; will take off, because unlike the belt buckles, which take hours to make and ship, once images are uploaded to CafĂŠ Press, the site takes care of the rest, leaving Power free to continue his work on the Mosaic Trail and Rosen free to live his life.

Photo by Lilly Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Donnell

From left, outside The Bean on Second Ave., Matt Rosen, Jim Power and Jesse Jane. Power did the new coffee shopâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mosaic sign and tile decorations.

Rosen has worked before to help propel the older generation of East Village fixtures into the digital age. He runs the Twitter account for Rayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Candy Store, a beloved institution. The online presence has helped Rayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s business immensely. Rosen saw an opportunity to do the same for Power. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t do it without him,â&#x20AC;? said Power. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m illiterate in many ways.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;People knew Jim,â&#x20AC;? Rosen said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;But there was no way to find him other than to run into him on the street.â&#x20AC;? Now that Power is on Twitter, Rosen said, it will be easier to mobilize his audience and supporters. And, now that heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s on Etsy and CafĂŠ Press, theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be able to get something tangible in return for their contributions. The CafĂŠ Press collection has only two images available now, but more are planned. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I wanna see this s--- on everything,â&#x20AC;? Power said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Every iPad, every tire, every fridge, every diaper. If itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s printable, I want it on it.â&#x20AC;?

Supreme Court passes on suit to overturn rent-stabilization law On Monday, April 23, The Supreme Court declined to hear a constitutional challenge to New York Cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rent-stabilization law â&#x20AC;&#x201D; which affects nearly one million apartments. About half of the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rental units have some form of rent protection. The appeal was filed by James and Jeanne Harmon, who own and live in an Upper West Side brownstone. Some of their tenants have rent protections, which the Harmons accuse is a â&#x20AC;&#x153;taking of property.â&#x20AC;? The suit was previously rejected at two lower federal courts.

In a statement, Council Speaker Christine Quinn said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m pleased that the Supreme Court has refused to hear the case challenging the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rent-stabilization program. The courtâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s decision is consistent with longstanding precedent that affirms the city and stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s authority to enact these laws, which are an integral part of the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s effort to provide affordable housing to New Yorkers. Now, the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rent-regulation system can proceed unfettered, as we continue to ensure affordable housing is available to New Yorkers.â&#x20AC;?

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Lincoln Anderson

May 2 -15, 2012

LPC process, decision dismays electeds, locals Continued from page 1 elected officials’ recommendations, which was to hold off on voting for this until more information was obtained. There is no reason that it had to be voted on right away.” At the initial public hearing on April 10 — in which the public was invited to comment — U.S. Representative Jerrold Nadler, City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn, Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer, State Senator Thomas K. Duane and Assemblymember Richard N. Gottfried submitted a two-page written statement to LPC — read aloud by Jeffrey LeFrancois, Gottfried’s deputy chief of staff — stating they were “strongly opposed to the applicant’s proposed 3,800 square foot rooftop addition for commercial use on the north side of the building which abuts existing, occupied roof-level apartments.” At that hearing, according to Elisabeth de Bourbon, spokesperson for the commission, LPC Chair Robert B. Tierney asked Gene Kaufman, chief architect for the hotel renovation, to come back with a scaled-down version of the rooftop addition, incorporating the commissioners’ revisions. At the April 24 meeting — open to the public, but not for comment — the modification was unanimously approved. Chelsea Now contacted Kaufman’s press representative several times to ascertain details of the revised structure, but did not receive a response.

Most signatories to the testimony letter quickly weighed in on the LPC verdict, in a series of April 27 emails sent to Cheslea Now. Quinn stated, “It is disappointing that the Landmarks Commission approved an application that will dilute the historical character of the Hotel Chelsea. We are asking the Department of Buildings to determine whether or not the proposed rooftop addition exceeds the building’s zoned floor area. We welcome scrutiny of this project as the historical importance of the Hotel Chelsea to the Speaker’s district and the city cannot be under-estimated.” Nadler responded, “I am disappointed by the Landmark Preservation Commission’s quick decision to approve the rooftop structure for the Hotel Chelsea. While I understand that Chetrit made some modifications in response to LPC’s request, I believe that the rooftop addition is inappropriate, hurts the historic character of the Hotel Chelsea, and should not have been approved.” “It is unacceptable that when the Landmarks Preservation Commission hears an amended application, only the applicant can speak,” stated Gottfried. “Considering these are items usually of great importance to the community and the City, they ought to allow at least limited (written) rebuttal…That residents of the Hotel Chelsea, the Community Board, and local elected officials did not have a chance to speak at the final hearing on the modified plan is wrong as due process, the expansion is wrong on the merits, and the Commission violated its duty to

include the affected community.” He added, “The Commission should rescind its approval and allow for community input.” Duane telephoned Chelsea Now on April 30, saying, “I think it was not good faith for them to ask for the rooftop addition while there was an ongoing dispute with the tenants, and I believe they should have done broader outreach to the community because we care very deeply about preservation issues. Any change should be a matter of intense examination. The whole state of affairs with that hotel has been distressing and of great concern to those of us who care deeply about Chelsea the neighborhood.” Sam Himmelstein, one of the lawyers who represents the Chelsea Hotel Tenants Association, asserted that association members, who “constantly monitor the LPC website,” were unaware of the meeting. He sent a protest email on April 25 to Tierney, via the LPC website, asking him to “please explain the circumstances as to how the hotel’s application was placed on the calendar on April 24, and then approved, without any prior notice. This smacks of back door dealing and influence.” “We advertised that the meeting was going to take place on our website,” said de Bourbon. “We are required by law to give two weeks’ notice for public hearings. We are not under the same obligation for our public meetings, at which no public testimony is given. The schedule for our public meetings, which are held every Tuesday, is posted on our website the Friday afternoon before the Tuesday meeting.”

Most signatories to the testimony letter quickly weighed in on the LPC verdict. Quinn emailed, ‘It is disappointing that the Landmarks Commission approved an application that will dilute the historical character of the Hotel Chelsea.’ Save Chelsea and CB4 member Pamela Wolff stated that to her understanding, CB4 was told it was not going to be on the agenda. After the vote, she located the web posting — with some effort. “There are 31 agenda items shown on six pages,” she explained. “On the seventh page, if you bothered to continue to scroll, you would find one lonely item mysteriously titled item 1, not 32: The Chelsea Hotel. How would you interpret that?” The rooftop addition is going to be “an absolute nightmare” for the residents of the Chelsea Hotel, asserted Johnson. He acknowledged that

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May 2 -15, 2012

EDITORIAL In 9/11 cancer debate, time is of the essence Last week, a group of health specialists and 9/11 survivor representatives known as the Scientific/Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) made a historic recommendation to the federal government to add more than 30 types of cancers to the James L. Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act. It is historic because, since the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund (VCF) was first established shortly after the attacks, people have been fighting to have cancer added under the law. They continued fighting even when the VCF closed in 2003, and their determination increased when the fund was re-established in 2010. But the noble mission to treat cancer-stricken 9/11 survivors is far from complete. First, Dr. John Howard, Director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and the chief administrator of the World Trade Center (WTC) Health Program under the bill, must make his own determination about which cancers should be included. Howard has roughly 60 days, until early June, to make a ruling based on the scientific evidence provided by the STAC. Next, assuming that Dr. Howard decides to add one or more cancers to the bill, there is a federal rule-making process whereby Howard solicits public comments during a 30-day period. If he wishes, Dr. Howard can alter his initial decision according to the feedback. Yet a troubling fact remains: When the latter process starts and finishes, and when the 9/11 cancer patients would begin to receive care at the World Trade Center Centers of Excellence, is an unknown. It took six months for the clinics to begin accepting WTC patients following the bill’s passage through Congress in late 2010. It is imperative that Dr. Howard speed up the process to add the cancers he deems worthy of inclusion, so that our 9/11 heroes can get chemotherapy and other medical treatment they need as soon as possible. New York’s Congressional delegation has requested a special meeting with U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to discuss the process and hopefully figure out a way to accelerate it. We urge her to schedule that meeting sooner rather than later. By adding cancer to the bill’s health portion, Howard will also enable the cancer-stricken survivors to apply for financial compensation through the bill’s legal portion, the Victim Compensation Fund. Any new illnesses Howard includes will automatically be considered for reimbursement by VCF Special Master Sheila Birnbaum. On the city side, we applaud Public Advocate Bill de Blasio for convincing the Bloomberg administration to release critical health data of 321 city police officers purported to have developed cancer from their time at Ground Zero. Thanks to de Blasio’s efforts, the city and the Mount Sinai Medical Center have hammered out many of the privacy issues pertaining to the officers’ identities. As a result, late last month, data including the officers’ age, cancer type and year of diagnosis was handed over to Mt. Sinai for its continued research on the correlation between the disease and Ground Zero exposures. But Mt. Sinai could benefit from even more data. Now, the city and the medical center must solicit the police officers’ ongoing participation in long-ranging studies, so that Mt. Sinai researchers have as full a picture as possible to perform their work. Cancer has already taken the lives of too many 9/11 victims, who got sick from inhaling the toxic soup of chemicals at Ground Zero in the days and weeks after the September 11 attacks. It is now time to provide care to those who are still alive and who may not be able to afford treatment. One scientific fact we know about cancer is that, typically, time is of the essence. The sooner the disease is diagnosed, the better the odds often are of treating it and beating it. So the sooner we get through this red tape, the better the chance we have of saving lives.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Thanks for the Rent Reg heads up To The Editor: Only Chelsea Now warned us about the Supreme Court potential look at NYC Rent Regulations and then accurately reported the status. Your follow-up alerted us to the potential decision on April 23. Just heard they refused the case. I’m a devoted public media consumer and heard nothing about this except from you. Thank you. Nancy Vandenberg

The case for rent regulation To The Editor: Re “City unprepared for end of rent laws by U.S. Supremes” (news article, April 4): To those critics who contend that “millionaires” are living in apartments protected by rent regulations, here is my response: Rent protections enable housing for elders, the working poor — and increasingly what is left of the “middle class” — young adults, artists, newer service workers and longtime community activists, often in communities targeted by race, class, ethnicity or religion. Rent protections stabilize communities, keep politicians honest — due to rent-regulated residents’ long memories — generate and support small businesses and ensure a community that is an interesting quilt of perspectives and strengths. Manhattan, like the other boroughs, is filled with community members who want to live in the neighborhoods we helped create. And we need more housing, not less, that is affordable to workers who are just starting out in careers as police, firefighters, nurses, sanitation workers and teachers. We want these vital workers close by their places of work. Some landlords may now feel entitled to massive profits, but they never questioned their tenants’ rents when no one else would rent in their buildings. The U.S. economy is roiling from the results of the wealthy’s legalized theft of the public’s money and the destruction of the economy for all but the very, very rich. People are being foreclosed upon as we speak. Do you really think removing more affordable housing stock is going to help with this housing epidemic — or help in any economic recovery? K Webster

So now we’re compromising? To The Editor: Re “NYU scales back superblocks plan” (news article, April 18): I think that it’s fair to say that there’s a great deal of dissatisfaction with the Stringer compromise among large numbers in the community. As you are well aware, Community Board 2 just last month unanimously passed a resolution rejecting the entire 2031 plan, and even accepting the NYU 17 percent estimate of the cuts in the superblocks, the worst features of the plan still remain. Insofar as we on Washington Place are concerned, the compromise on NYU’s proposed zoning change to create a commercial overlay on the misnamed “loft blocks” can only be characterized as pathetic. The borough president’s sole concession to overwhelming negative sentiment in the affected area was to recommend that NYU not include in the rezoned streets any eating and drinking establishments “where 80% [sic!] of their projected revenue is derived from alcoholic beverages.” I cite the example of the proposed commercial overlay because it is a portion of the plan that tends to be overlooked in the understandable focus on the threatened destructive transformation of the superblocks. Seeing the photo accompanying the news article on the

Stringer compromise, many of us were surprised and puzzled by the appearance of members of Community Board 2 and the co-chairpersons of Community Action Alliance on NYU 2031 (CAAN) next to the borough president and the president of NYU as the BP announced his recommendations. It seemed inexplicable and was deeply troubling that Board 2 members, who had one month earlier voted to reject the entire 2031 proposal, seemed to be supporting a compromise that was completely inadequate and fatally flawed. As to the CAAN co-chairpersons, they represented an organization that, to my knowledge, had never endorsed the principle of compromise. We understandably interpreted the appearance of these representatives as some form of endorsement of the compromise. However, when questioned about their appearance in the photo, some community leaders explained that they had been called the previous evening by the BP’s office, briefed about the contents of the compromise and invited to attend a press conference the next day, ostensibly to receive copies of Stringer’s report. They state that they had no knowledge that they would be standing with the BP and the NYU president at the conference. They also said that their presence should not be taken as support for the Stringer compromise. The incident raised questions in the minds of some CAAN members regarding our position as an organization on compromise in general and, specifically, on the Stringer compromise. A letter was circulated among CAAN members asking support for a request to CAAN’s co-chairpersons to call a meeting as soon as possible to explore these issues and decide our position. We are awaiting the response of the cochairpersons to this request. Howard Negrin Negrin is president, Washington Place Block Association, and a member, Community Action Alliance on NYU 2031 (CAAN)

Haven’t endorsed NYU plan To The Editor: Re “NYU scales back superblocks” (news article, April 18): Just to be clear, the Community Action Alliance on NYU 2031 co-chairpersons were not at the conference to endorse any final solution or compromise, nor have we done so. We were there to receive the borough president’s full recommendations, to acknowledge the BP’s role over the past five years — starting with the Community Task Force on NYU Development — and to see the details of NYU’s concessions thus far. In addition, we wanted to clearly signal to Councilmember Margaret Chin that we are a united community and that she’ll need to take brave and significant steps to protect Greenwich Village from the overbearing NYU 2031 core expansion plan. As the borough president said at the conference, “This is a first step, and we still have much work to do.” Terri Cude Cude is co-chairperson, Community Action Alliance on NYU 2031 (CAAN)

Steamed over wasteful A/C To The Editor: On April 16, the first very warm day of an early summer, as I walked up Fifth Avenue to buy my lunch, every other store I passed, on both sides of the street, had their doors wide open and their air conditioning blasting onto the sidewalks. Several years ago, when Clyde Haberman of The New York Times made a case against stores that keep their front doors wide open with air conditioning blasting out onto the

Continued on page 9

May 2 -15, 2012

TALKING POINT

BUILDING A BETTER TRANSIT FUTURE BY MANHATTAN BOROUGH PRESIDENT SCOTT M. STRINGER The future looked rosy 100 years ago, when New York undertook a revolutionary plan to build a vast network of subways and elevated trains. But it looks considerably different today, as we struggle to meet urgent transit needs. Anyone who’s crammed their way onto a crowded 6 train in El Barrio and the Upper East Side, trudged from Alphabet City to a packed L train at 1st Avenue, or watched walkers speed past them as they sit stuck in traffic on a crosstown bus, understands that while Manhattan is blessed with tremendous public transit, there is still room for needed improvement and expansion. One million more people will be living in our city by 2025 and to put it bluntly: We are not ready. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority — the central nervous system of our regional transportation network — is a fiscal house of cards. This crucially important agency is being held together with a combination of unprecedented borrowing and fare hikes as far as the eye can see. That’s no way to run a railroad, much less the nation’s largest

transit system. What’s needed is a new, more stable stream of revenue for the MTA, one that stabilizes its operating budget but also allows us to expand the system to reflect where people live and work today, not 100 years ago. Here’s my plan: an infrastructure bank for mass transit that I call the “New York City Transit Trust.” Mayors across the country are recognizing that cities cannot rely solely on state and federal funding for infrastructure. In Chicago, Rahm Emanuel has launched the Chicago Infrastructure Trust to leverage private capital for needed projects. The New York City Transit Trust will also leverage private dollars, by tying New York City’s infrastructure bank to a dedicated revenue stream — our existing Mortgage Recording Tax — which now helps fund the MTA’s operating costs. The Transit Trust could provide capital for a range of projects, many of which can improve the lives of thousands of Manhattan residents. Today, the Lexington Avenue line on the East Side of Manhattan alone carries more passengers per day than

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Continued from page 8 sidewalks, I was delighted. In 2008, New York City passed a law to fine these businesses for this wasteful practice. It was only in 2010 that fines began to be imposed on stores that make a practice of this, but those fines, miniscule and rarely given, of $200 (for a second offense, $400) have not deterred merchants from repeatedly ignoring the law. The legislation states that any business larger than 4,000 square feet or part of a chain with five or more stores in the city must keep doors closed when using an air-conditioning system. To describe this law as weak and ineffective is an understatement. Since this law was passed, I have filed numerous complaints about stores on Lower Fifth Avenue, where I work, that are blasting their air conditioning onto the sidewalks, but to no avail. You can go to www.nyc.gov and search “Store door open while air conditioner running” to make a formal complaint. But the city and its law enforcement officers are, I suppose, too busy stopping and frisking young black American boys, giving tickets to bicyclists or to people who smoke in the parks, to bother issuing tickets to these offenders.

This practice is so offensive, given the waste of precious energy resources and the undue pressure it puts on our energy suppliers, like Con Edison, who struggle each summer to keep the electricity on for everyone living in the five boroughs. Not to mention the shortage of oil and gas that has led this country into wars in the Middle East, wars that not only take the lives of our soldiers but those of so many innocent people who most likely never experienced the luxuries of air conditioning; wars that deplete the finances of this nation to the point where public-assistance programs, education, infrastructure and job creation are suffering immensely. And now there are the proposals to hydrofracture our delicate lands for natural gas to supplement our shortages. How arrogant and selfish these stores are to pump this cold air in your face as you walk by them, beckoning potential buyers to “Come in, enjoy the cool air, spend money.” Last summer, when walking down Fifth Avenue with a friend who was visiting from France, she remarked at how “wasteful” Americans are. When I asked what she meant, she said that our misuse of energy, like air conditioning and heating, was disgraceful. I was sorry to have to agree with her. So I would like to propose the following: Every time you pass a store with its doors open and the air conditioning running — close the door. I do this now as a matter of routine and it helps. Several times a store security guard has tried to stop me and I inform him or her of the law. They usually Member of the New York Press Association

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any other subway system in the United States. The Second Avenue Subway (SAS) will alleviate this overcrowding when it opens in 2016. However, today, we’ve funded only one of four phases of the SAS train. The Transit Trust could help us fund phase 2, linking SAS to the Metro-North at 125th Street and providing additional service in East Harlem. In addition, our crosstown buses, which are consistently the slowest in the entire city, could be upgraded with new technology, which has already improved service on 34th Street. Bus Rapid Transit could also be expanded to the West Side, after its successful debut on First and Second Avenues. And the Trust could underwrite a renewal of light rail — once a pillar of public transit in Manhattan — that could speed commutes and improve connectivity throughout the borough. In addition to projects benefiting Manhattan, the Trust could benefit riders all over the city by paying for new subway cars and buses and improving safety and reliability by replacing track and upgrading outdated signals. Of course, if we are going to redirect the Mortgage Recording Tax to the MTA’s

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capital needs, we have to replace it on the operations side with a new, reliable funding stream. I believe we should start by getting back what we lost when the city’s commuter tax was repealed in 1999. The commuter tax, which affects people who work in NYC but live outside the five boroughs, produced billions of dollars in revenue for New York City between 1966 and 1999. If we reinstated it at the same rate as when it was killed 14 years ago, we would raise $725 million a year to support the region’s transportation network. It’s the right thing to do. Every day, close to a million commuters pour into New York City, using our roads, bridges and rails to get here and relying on our police, fire and sanitation services when they arrive. All we need is leadership — leadership that recognizes that real investment in transit projects always pays huge dividends down the road, and that there are new, more creative ways to fund those projects. That’s how you create a true, five-borough transportation network and prepare New York for the next century of growth.

back off. A couple of them have agreed with me about how wasteful it is. But, more often than not, the next time I pass this store, the doors are open again. I don’t let this deter me. I just keep closing their door(s). If all concerned citizens take up this practice, it could have a tremendous effect. I propose that you do. And for heaven’s sake, don’t shop at these stores! Dee Vitale Henle E-mail letters, not longer than 300 words in length, to scott@chelseanow.com or fax to 212-229-2790 or mail to Chelsea Now, Letters to the Editor, 515 Canal Street, Unit 1C New York City, NY 10013. Please include phone number for confirmation purposes. Chelsea Now reserves the right to edit letters for space, grammar, clarity and libel. Chelsea Now does not publish anonymous letters.

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May 2 -15, 2012

POLICE BLOTTER ROBBERY: ‘Wise’ guy deep- GRAND LARCENY: Penalty pocketed paid for eye on puck, off bag At around 10:40pm on Mon., April 23, a 63-year-old male was delivering Wise brand snacks to Chelsea Terrace Supermarket (231 Ninth Ave.). Upon returning to his truck, he was approached from behind by an unknown male who placed him in a bear hug and stated, “Don’t move. I have a gun. I’ll shoot you.” The perpetrator then reached his hand into the victim’s left pants pocket, removed $500 in cash and fled (running northbound on Ninth Ave., then west on 25th St.). No weapons were displayed during the robbery, and no cameras were present at the location. Police canvassed the scene, with negative results.

When he left his bag unattended in the bleachers, this careless athlete skated on thin ice — and paid the price. A 26-year-old man reported to police that after playing hockey at Pier 61, he exited the rink and returned to the bleachers (at approximately 9:30pm on Sun., April 22) to retrieve his bag. The victim noticed that it had been opened and discovered property missing from his jacket: A Tissot watch ($450), a Blackberry Curve ($500), a Tiffany money clip ($500), and $160 in cash were among the items stolen. The victim canceled his missing credit cards.

told the victim they did not recall seeing it. The item went missing some time between 4pm and 4:30pm on Thurs., April 19.

MISDEMEANOR: Punched for foregoing Port Authority At 3:30am on Wed., April 25, a male resident of New Jersey was walking on Eighth Ave. and W. 23rd St. He was approached by three males. One of them asked the victim if he was going to Port Authority — to which he replied, “No, I am going home.” The three men then proceeded to punch the victim in the back and head — then fled.

PETTY LARCENY: Ugly LOST PROPERTY: Caffeine PETTY LARCENY: The goon incident at Beauty Expo buzz didn’t assist awareness from Ipanema A 23-year-old female resident of Chicago, in town to work the Beauty Expo at the Jacob K. Javits Center (655 W. 34th St.) told police that at approximately 3pm on Tues., April 24, she was at booth #227 assisting customers — when an unknown perpetrator removed her unattended Apple iPhone 4S (valued at $500), along with its black case.

A 47-year-old male patron of Starbucks got all the way back home (in the West 40s) before he realized he’d forgotten to take his MacBook Air laptop, with CD & DVD drive (valued at $1,924) with him. When he returned to the java joint’s 593 Ninth Ave. location, there was no sign of the item — and employees, when quizzed,

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An employee of Ipanema, the bar at 252 W. 14th St., chased a suspect who had stolen a woman’s bag and the coat of a male patron around 1:20am on Sat., April 21. The suspect, a 33-year-old male, was apprehended just outside the place and charged with larceny.

TRANSIT TROUBLEMAKERS Police responding to a report of a drunk and disorderly man at the PATH station at Sixth Ave. and 14th St. arrested a 39-year-old, at 7:10pm on Thurs., April 19, and charged him with criminal mischief for breaking a turnstile and tossing it onto the tracks. Police arrested a 40-year-old man in the subway station at 14th St. and Sixth Ave., at approximately 8:15pm on Tues., April 17, and charged him with assault and menacing for pushing a man toward the tracks.

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CORRECTION: A Blotter item in the April 18 issue of Chelsea Now (“The night the music died”) incorrectly identified the venue at which an $850 iPad was stolen, as 571 Projects art gallery. It was 551 W. 21st St., at 11th Ave. We regret the error.

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THE 10th PRECINCT Located at 230 W. 20th St. (btw. 7th & 8th Aves.). Deputy Inspector: Elisa Cokkinos. Main number: 212-7418211. Community Affairs: 212-7418226. Crime Prevention: 212-741-8226. Domestic Violence: 212-741-8216. Youth Officer: 212-741-8211. Auxiliary Coordinator: 212-741-8210. Detective Squad: 212-741-8245. The Community Council Meeting takes place at 7pm on the last Wed. of the month. The next meeting is April 25.

THE 13th PRECINCT Located at 230 E. 21st St. (btw. 2nd & 3rd Aves.). Deputy Inspector: Ted Bernsted. Call 212-477-7411. Community Affairs: 212-477-7427. Crime Prevention: 212-477-7427. Domestic Violence: 212-477-3863. Youth Officer: 212-477-7411. Auxiliary Coordinator: 212-477-4380. Detective Squad: 212-477-7444. The Community Council Meeting takes place at 6:30pm on the third Tues. of the month. The next meeting is May 15.

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May 2 -15, 2012

Police spying practices examined by NY Civil Liberties Union BY DONATHAN SALKALN Recent reports of the NYPD’s Intelligence Division engaged in various surveillance practices directed toward Muslim communities have kept the legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union quite busy. Arthur Eisenberg’s lecture at the Chelsea Reform Democratic Club’s April 19 community forum was sandwiched between depositions from members of Muslim organizations, applications to the court in requesting review of NYPD surveillance practices, working with other civil rights organizations in hashing out lawsuits concerning those practices, as well as preparing for an upcoming “sit down” to look at recent NYPD surveillance documents. This, all concurrent with three court cases attacking the NYPD’s controversial practice of “stop-and-frisk.” “The head of the Intelligence Division at the NYPD is a former life-long CIA agent, who brought CIA people with him, and, in my view, is running the operation as though it were the CIA,” says Eisenberg. This revelation might send a chill of fear through some, or a waft of comfort to others, but to Eisenberg, a 35-year NYCLU lifer, it demands a monumental legal challenge, as it should. New Yorkers rely on extremely diligent lawyers like Eisenberg to question all civil rights infractions. Central to Eisenberg’s concern is a series of articles by the Associated Press, based on inside sources and documents that revealed that the NYPD Intelligence Division conducted surveillance practices in 2006 and 2007. Those practices included infiltrating Muslim student associations on at least 12 campuses, attending mosques and other public places frequented by Muslims and

‘The head of the Intelligence Division at the NYPD is a former life-long CIA agent, who brought CIA people with him, and, in my view, is running the operation as though it were the CIA,’ says Arthur Eisenberg.

mapping locations of mosques and Muslimowned businesses in NYC, New Jersey and Suffolk/Nassau counties. The NYPD surveillance is limited by 1985 court ruling, which challenged the NYPD’s misuse of files gathered on activists associated with the Civil Rights and the Anti-War Movements of the early 1960s and 70s. As Eisenberg put it, “According to the Handschu Consent Decree, the NYPD can

Photo by Donathan Salkaln

Arthur Eisenberg, at April 19’s meeting of the Chelsea Reform Democratic Club.

go to any public place under the same terms and conditions as any member of the public. However, they are prohibited from coming back from those public places with files and creating dossiers about individuals based upon their visits to public places unless there is some reason to believe unlawful activity has taken place or is about to take place.” Eisenberg adds, “We think, from the stories that have appeared in the Associated Press, that the NYPD is in violation of that provision.” Eisenberg reports that the NYCLU is in ongoing discussion with the NYPD and that he has been invited to NYC’s Law Department to review recent NYPD surveillance documents. Beyond his legal challenge of possible infractions, Eisenberg is busy developing several lawsuits questioning the constitutionality of singling out innocent members of the Muslim community for monitoring. One such theory is based on the “chill effect” — that members of the Muslim community would feel uneasy to know that law enforcement might be at various functions and that they might choose not to attend. Following this theory, Eisenberg reported that the NYCLU has had meetings with local Muslim student organizations to measure the impact of the spying revelations. “One of the student groups said they have a sign in their meeting room that says ‘Don’t Talk Politics,’ and so there’s a chilling effect,” he concludes. As for the many ongoing investigations that might lead to the prevention of individuals from completing plots of mass destruction, Eisenberg admits that the stakes are high when dealing with the fear of terrorism. “The NYPD claims to have deterred 12 terrorist episodes by virtue of their surveillance practices and we are looking at that. We’re trying to get more details.”

Eisenberg reports that there are three lawsuits challenging the NYPD’s stop-andfrisk practices before Judge Shira Scheindlin of the Southern District of New York. One lawsuit, for which he anticipates a decision soon, is a straight challenge to the practice of stopping mostly black and Latino males on the streets and patting them down, presumably for weapons. This practice is based on a Supreme Court decision, which allows a police officer who is fearful for his own safety when he conducts a common law stop, to pat down the person he stopped. Beyond targeting

mostly minorities, Eisenberg says the practice also, “does not permit the police to go into the kid’s pockets unless the pat suggests there is a weapon in that pocket.” Donathan Salkaln is Vice President of the Chelsea Reform Democratic Club (the home club of City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, State Senator Tom Duane and Assemblymember Richard N. Gottfried). The CRDC meets monthly to exchange political ideas in protecting the rights and improving the lives of those residing in Chelsea. Visit crdcnyc.org or email them at info@crdcnyc.org.

May 2 -15, 2012

Block Associations get groupthink reboot Continued from page 5 member of the Council of Chelsea Block Associations (CCBA). “What was striking,” Ott says of the two sessions she attended (“Strengthen Your Organizational Core” and “Technology & Outreach”), “was that most of the block leaders had the same experience. Being any kind of volunteer in an organization, it’s an

enormous amount of work. It takes over your life. It’s hard to get people to help, and that resonated with everybody.” Finding enough willing participants to facilitate change (or, for that matter, even initiate action) becomes an even greater challenge when taking into account the unique landscape of Chelsea. “It’s a little bit like being in a different country,” Ott observes, when drawing comparisons to more vertically populated parts of the city.

Photo by Carol Ott

Symposium participants sharpen their skills and discuss common goals.

“We’re a brownstone block,” she says of her West 20th Street location. “We only have one big apartment building, whereas on the Upper West Side, there are a lot of apartment buildings [on any given block]. Our association, we don’t hold block parties. We don’t do what everybody else seems to be doing. But with the Council of Chelsea Block Associations, we’ve formed an alliance and are certainly much more powerful.” As for her own takeaway from the symposium, Ott says she emerged from the BBS experience “thinking that maybe the nature of block associations needs to change, that maybe it’s not about hosting block parties. Maybe it’s about harnessing a neighborhood to pursue some kind of energy conservation project or emergency preparedness project. That might be more captivating or interesting to people than trying to do what worked thirty years ago…because it sounded like, from a lot of people, it was very frustrating to plan a block party and have only a handful show up.” For more information on the Coalition of Block and Community Leaders, visit facebook.com/pages/Coalition-ofBlock-and-Community-Leaders-NYC or email them at cbclnyc@gmail.com. To contact the 300 West 20th Street Block Association, 300westblockassoc@prodigy.net.

‘Maybe it’s about harnessing a neighborhood to pursue some kind of energy conservation project or emergency preparedness project. That might be more captivating or interesting to people than trying to do what worked thirty years ago.’— Carol Ott, president of the 300 West 20th Street Block Association.

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May 2 -15, 2012

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*Annual Percentage Yields (APYs) quoted are accurate as of 4/25/2012 and are subject to change at any time without notice. A minimum deposit of $500 is required to open a USAVE CD and must be maintained to earn the advertised APYs. $100,000 is the maximum deposit for the promotional CD. Penalties may be imposed for early withdrawal. Fees may reduce earnings. After maturity, if you choose to roll over your CD, you will earn the base rate of interest in effect at that time. All accounts are subject to our normal approval process and must be funded with new monies. Offer good only for personal customers. †To be eligible for the iPod bonus, you must open a Free Personal Checking account by 6/29/2012, and direct deposit and online banking must be established within 60 days after the account is opened. You will be required to come into the branch to pick up your iPod bonus. Your iPod will be available for pickup 45 days after we have confirmed that direct deposit has been established. There is no minimum balance needed to open this account, but an initial deposit is required. There is no requirement to maintain a minimum balance in order to earn the bonus. The value of the bonus may be reported to the IRS; consult your tax advisor. If your checking account is not in good standing, you may not receive the benefit of the bonus. The checking account must remain open and your direct deposit must remain active for a minimum of 6 months or the value of the iPod (plus applicable tax and shipping charges) may be billed to you or debited from the account at closing. All accounts are subject to our normal account opening process. Bonus is only applicable to new personal checking accounts opened with new monies. Limit one bonus offer/premium per account type per customer within a one-year period. This offer is not available in combination with any other offer. We reserve the right to make bonus substitutions of comparable value and assume no liability for any defects in, or direct or consequential damages relating to or arising from, the bonus item. The warranty is the sole responsibility of the manufacturer. Offer Code: 0112. Terms and conditions subject to change. Offer may be withdrawn without notice. Accounts are subject to account-related fees, including non-sufficient funds or overdraft fees. © 2012 Amalgamated Bank. All rights reserved.

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May 2 -15, 2012

Community Activities To submit event info, email scott@chelseanow.com. BY SCOTT STIFFLER

Photo courtesy of the artist

Ethiopia, 2009: A painted Karo man, at the Omo River. See “My Soul Flies.”

MY SOUL FLIES HOME TO AFRICA “I didn’t know what to expect,” says noted NYT photographer Chester Higgins Jr. of his initial 1971 excursion, “but I knew that I was not traveling to Africa to see the animals.” The continent’s small town life so fascinated Higgins that he’d return more than 30 times (and counting) to document the people, sites and ceremonies of Ethiopia, Mali, Senegal and Ghana. Candid and revealing, this exhibit’s small sample of work from Higgins’ time in Africa provides intimate glimpses into the soul of his subjects — whether the lens is focused on the eyes or the shoes. Free. May 6-June 13, 9am-7pm daily. Opening reception, Sat. May 5, 12-2pm (with African music, Ethiopian appetizers, rum and champagne). Artist’s talk, Wed. May 9, 6:30pm. At the Art @ Tekserve Galllery, at Tekserve (119 W. 23rd St., btw. 5th & 6th Aves.). For info, call 212-929-3645 or visit tekserve.com. Also visit chesterhiggins.com.

MAY 18 DEADLINE FOR SUMMER YOUTH EMPLOYMENT PROGRAM The New York City Department of Youth and Community Development is currently accepting applications for its 2012 Summer Youth Employment Program. SYEP provides NYC youth between the ages of 14 and 24 with entry-level employment in a variety of jobs at government agencies, hospitals, summer camps, nonprofits, small businesses, law firms, museums, sports enterprises and retail organizations. SYEP also provides opportunities for career instruction, financial literacy training, academic improvement and social growth. For info and application materials, visit http://bit.ly/18MvCR. The deadline for submitting your application is Fri. May 18.

Continued on page 15

May 2 -15, 2012

Photo by Andra Gabrielle

Your neighbor’s stuff, for sale.

COMMUNITY STOOP SALE Continued from page 14

COMMUNITY FORUM: DEBATING BIKE-RELATED ISSUES The Chelsea Reform Democratic Club (the home club of City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, State Senator Tom Duane and Assemblymember Richard N. Gottfried) is hosting a community forum. “Debate of Various Bike-Related Issues” features several speakers — and refreshments. The public is invited to attend and join the discussion. On Thurs. May 17, at 7pm, at the Elliott Center (441 W. 26th St., btw. 9th & 10th Aves.). The CRDC meets monthly to exchange political ideas in protecting the rights and improving the lives of those residing in Chelsea. For info, visit crdcnyc. org or email them at info@crdcnyc.org.

Last year’s installment of this sprawling annual event happened on a pitch perfect spring day — and Chelsea Now emerged from its lavish $2 shopping spree with the beginnings of a tan and two ancient cassette tapes bearing the timeless music of Adam Ant and Simon & Garfunkel. Similar treasures and bargains, are sure to abound this year — when West 300 and 400 block residents set up shop on tables and stoops, then get down to the business of parting with their primo books, toys, clothes and other small items. Nowhere to be found among the cash-only sales and the cheerful camaraderie: commercial vendors, food and large furniture items. Sat. May 5, 11am-4pm, on 22nd St., from 7th to 10th Ave. (also on the W. 400 blocks of 21st & 23rd Sts.). Rain date: Sun. May 6, 11am-4pm. Sponsored by the 300 West 23rd, 22nd, 21st, 20th Streets Block Association. For info, email 300westblockassoc@prodigy.net.

Photo by Richard B. Levine

Penn South Ceramics has the perfect gift for mom, dad…or you.

PENN SOUTH CERAMICS STUDIO SPRING SALE You’re not a kid anymore — or maybe you are. Either way, tell the folks how much you really care this year by giving a handmade Mother’s or Father’s Day gift crafted by one of the students or teachers from the Penn South Ceramics Studio. With prices to fit everyone’s budget, mom and dad will never again have

to feign delight when they unwrap your own poorly designed, hideously decorated cup, bowl, sculpture or jewelry. This year, leave it to the pros — and before you go, sign up for one of their classes or workshops (so by next year, it’ll be your work on display and for sale). Sat. May 12, 11am-5pm. At Penn South (276 9th Ave., corner of 26th St.). For info, email pennsouthceramics@ gmail.com.

May 2 -15, 2012

Photos by Winnie McCroy

Corey Allen, in his second week as a trainee in the BRC’s Kitchen Trainee program.

Stats refute BRC concerns Continued from page 3 This anecdotal evidence was supported by the NYPD’s crime statistics. According to 13th Precinct CompStat figures, crimes are significantly down this year — with decreases in rape, robbery, burglary and grand larceny. Statistics in the nearby 10th Precinct also dropped slightly. But Diana Didia, co-op president at 107 West 25th Street, said she had raised concerns with Rosenblatt and the 13th Precinct about BRC clients smoking pot, adding that the security guard from the Singer Building had also voiced those concerns. “Maybe [the BRC] feels it’s a lesser evil, but for those of us living on the block, it’s disconcerting,” said Didia. “Sometimes we are trying to get in our doorway, and we can’t because they’re smoking. We bought million-dollar apartments here, and we’re trying to raise our children; they need to know we’re not howling

referring people to their CAC meetings on first Tuesdays. To tell you the truth, the whole block knows about 13th Precinct Community Affairs, and they’re not flooding the meetings.”

MEASURING SUCCESS Rosenblatt said the Department of Homeless Services has a rubric for evaluating facilities — noting that nine months into their presence in Chelsea, it was still too soon for the new shelter to be graded. He did, however, cite the fact that their Bowery facility received high marks. Despite rumors, Rosenblatt said he had no plans to purchase the adjoining building, asserting, “We have the planned Greenpoint assessment shelter, and are considering 20 scattershot units of permanent housing throughout the city. But we have no site or funding in mind yet.” Whether conducting outreach on the street or serving their clients on West 25th Street, the BRC’s steadfast commitment to quality and dignity of life is a unifying constant. “Everyone

Art created by a client, who went through the BRC program (including art therapy) and gained visitation rights to her kids.

at the moon here. Chelsea is very open to helping homeless people dealing with addiction, but this shelter is just too big.” Detective Ray Dorrian of the 13 Precinct said, “We have some low-level quality of life complaints about loitering and marijuana use, but I wouldn’t say it’s chronic. We probably have more complaints about littering. The BRC has a pretty open-door policy, and we are

has a rich life buried under their homelessness, addiction and mental illness,” Rosenblatt says. “We peel that away and let the person see who they really are. That’s why it pains me when people only see someone as homeless. That’s the work we do, to bring that person back to life. Like the woman who did the art; she’s not homeless or mentally ill, she’s a mom. That’s who she is.”

May 2 -15, 2012

Community Contacts To be listed, email info to scott@chelseanow.com. COMMUNITY BOARD 4 (CB4) CB4 serves Manhattan’s West Side neighborhoods of Chelsea and Clinton/Hell’s Kitchen. Its boundaries are 14th St. on the south, 59/60th St. on the north, the Hudson River on the west, 6th Ave. on the east (south of 26th St.) and 8th Ave. on the east (north of 26th St.). Call 212736-4536. Visit manhattancb4.org or email them at info@manhattanCB4. org. The board meeting, open to the public, happens on the first Wednesday of the month, at 6:30pm. The next one takes place on June 6, 6:30pm, at Fulton Auditorium (119 Ninth Ave., btw. 17th & 18th Sts.). Visit nyc.gov/mcb4. COMMUNITY BOARD 5 (CB5) CB5 represents the central business district of New York City. It includes midtown Manhattan, the Fashion, Flower, Flatiron and Diamond districts, as well as Bryant Park and Union Square Park. The district is at the center of New York’s tourism industry. The Theatre District, Times Square, Carnegie Hall, the Empire State Building and two of the region’s transportation hubs (Grand Central Station and Penn Station) fall within CB5. Call 212-465-0907. Visit cb5.org or email them at office@cb5. org. CB5’s board meeting, open to the public, happens on the second Thursday of the month, at 6pm. The next one takes place on May 10, 6pm, at Xavier High School (30 W. 16th St., btw. 5th and 6th Aves., 2nd fl.). THE 300 WEST 23RD, 22ND & 21ST STREETS BLOCK ASSOCIATION Contact them at 300westblockassoc@prodigy.net. THE WEST 400 BLOCK ASSOCIATION Contact them at w400ba@gmail. com. LOWER CHELSEA ALLIANCE (LoCAL) This group is committed to protecting the residential blocks of Chelsea from overscale development. Contact them at LowerChelseaAlliance@ gmail.com. THE GREENWICH VILLAGE-CHELSEA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE Call 212-337-5912 or visit villagechelsea.com.

THE MEATPACKING DISTRICT INITIATIVE Visit meatpacking-district.com or call 212-633-0185. THE BOWERY RESIDENTS’ COMMITTEE: HOMELESS HELPLINE If you know of anyone who is in need of their services, call the Homeless Helpline at 212-533-5151, and the BRC will send someone to make contact. This number is staffed by outreach team leaders 24 hours a day. Callers may remain anonymous. For more info, visit brc.org. THE LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL & TRANSGENDER COMMUNITY CENTER At 208 W. 13th St. (btw. 7th and 8th Aves.). Visit gaycenter.org or call 212-620-7310. THE ALI FORNEY CENTER Their mission is to help homeless LGBT youth be safe and become independent as they move from adolescence to adulthood. Main headquarters: 224 W. 35th St., Suite 1102. Call 212-222-3427. The Ali Forney Day Center is located at 527 W. 22nd St., 1st floor. Call 212206-0574 or visit aliforneycenter. org. GAY MEN’S HEALTH CRISIS (GMHC) At 446 W. 33rd St. btw. 9th and 10th Aves. Visit gmhc.org. Call 212-3671000. HUDSON GUILD Founded in 1895, Hudson Guild is a multi-service, multi-generational community serving approximately 14,000 people annually with daycare, hot meals for senior citizens, low-cost professional counseling, community arts programs and recreational programming for teens. Visit them at hudsonguild.org. Email them at info@hudsonguild.org. For the John Lovejoy Elliott Center (441 W. 26th St.), call 212-760-9800. For the Children’s Center (459 W. 26th St.), call 212-760-9830. For the Education Center (447 W. 25th St.), call 212760-9843. For the Fulton Center for Adult Services (119 9th Ave.), call 212-924-6710. THE CARTER BURDEN CENTER FOR THE AGING This organization promotes the wellbeing of individuals 60 and older through direct social services and volunteer programs oriented to individual, family and community needs. Call 212-879-7400 or visit burdencenter.org.

PENN SOUTH The Penn South Program for Seniors provides recreation, education and social services — and welcomes volunteers. For info, call 212-243-3670 or visit pennsouth.com. FULTON YOUTH OF THE FUTURE Email them at fultonyouth@gmail. com or contact Miguel Acevedo, 646-671-0310. WEST SIDE NEIGHBORHOOD ALLIANCE Visit westsidenyc.org or call 212956-2573. Email them at wsna@ hcc-nyc.org. CHELSEA COALITION ON HOUSING Tenant assistance every Thursday night at 7pm, at Hudson Guild (119 Ninth Ave.). Email them at chelseacoalition.cch@gmail.com. FRIENDS OF HUDSON RIVER PARK Visit fohrp.org or call 212-757-0981. HUDSON RIVER PARK TRUST Visit hudsonriverpark.org or call 212627-2020. SAVE CHELSEA Contact them at savechelseanyc@ gmail.com.

MANHATTAN BOROUGH PRESIDENT SCOTT STRINGER Call 212-669-8300 or visit mbpo.org. CITY COUNCIL SPEAKER CHRISTINE QUINN Call 212-564-7757 or visit council. nyc.gov/d3/html/members/home. shtml. STATE SENATOR TOM DUANE Call 212-633-8052 or visit tomduane. com. ASSEMBLYMEMBER RICHARD GOTTFRIED Call 212-807-7900 or email GottfriedR@assembly.state.ny.us. CHELSEA REFORM DEMOCRATIC CLUB The CRDC (the home club of City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, State Senator Tom Duane and Assemblymember Richard Gottfried) meets monthly to exchange political ideas in protecting the rights and improving the lives of those residing in Chelsea. Visit crdcnyc.org or email them at info@crdcnyc.org.

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May 2 -15, 2012

IN THEIR OWN WORDS

Lessons from the front in the ‘Year of the ULURP’ BY BRAD HOYLMAN “ULURP,” which stands for uniform land use review procedure, is one of those bureaucratic acronyms known to junkies of local government. Over the last year or so, however, it’s received much wider cachet in Greenwich Village as our community has reviewed two major development proposals. This year, 2012, has been called “The Year of the ULURP” for good reason. We’ve been in full-on land use review mode since the St. Vincent’s Hospital redevelopment project came to conclusion in March and the public began its review of the NYU campus expansion project late last year. There’s much more work to be done on the New York University proposal, which Community Board 2 (CB2) rejected unanimously. (The City Planning hearing on the university’s proposal was April 25.) Our third major ULURP, the Hudson Square rezoning, waits in the wings for consideration later this spring or early summer. But it’s worth taking stock on the St. Vincent’s deal and NYU and the lessons learned from the months of public review we’ve undertaken. Here are my top three: Trust the locals: Pressure exists on community boards to take a high-minded approach on development issues and ignore the testimony of local neighbors in deference to a greater good, like “jobs” or “economic development.” We

should be suspect of this approach. First, the greater-good arguments are often speculative. Job projections for a project, which developers can point to as justification to ignore the objections of neighbors, are notoriously shaky. They are based on contingencies like market forces and often are short-term predictions, particularly for construction jobs. Second, when it comes to the potential impact of a development, who knows bet-

Our influence comes from our ability to sway elected and city officials who have veto power over land use actions. ter than the people who live next door? We take this point seriously on CB2. Because the community board itself did not have representation from the neighbors who would have been most directly impacted by the proposed new St. Vincent’s Hospital, we appointed five

Brad Hoylman.

public members to the St. Vincent’s Omnibus Committee to make sure their viewpoints were heard. On NYU, we’re lucky to have members of the community board from the Central Village area who’ve helped lead the board on this issue. I believe the input of these members has been crucial to the community board’s position on both St. Vincent’s and NYU. Thank God for church basements: A good community meeting is about 50 percent planning and logistics. Sometimes we’ve learned this the hard way. At one of our early meetings on St. Vincent’s, 150 people showed up for a room that could fit only 75. We only had one working microphone, too. The standing-roomonly crowd added to the tension of this difficult issue — at one point the meeting threatened to break down into chaos and the police were called. A similar situation threatened the first NYU public meeting earlier this year. More than 300 people showed up for a meeting at the AIA Center for Architecture, which can only hold about half that many people. AIA refused to admit the overflow crowd, who were rightly incensed and began chanting and banging on the windows. Thanks to the quick work of the CB2 staff, we were able to decide right on the spot to move the entire meeting to a nearby

church basement, and this important first meeting went on without a hitch. Since then, church basements have been the default venue for our big public meetings. Share the wealth of work: In theory, big land use review projects like the St. Vincent’s redevelopment, NYU and Hudson Square rezoning could be handled in one public hearing, in one month before our Land Use Committee. But these big, complicated applications demand much more scrutiny and discussion from the public than just one meeting. For the St. Vincent’s and NYU proposals, our community board took a page from Community Board 4’s work on the Hudson Yards rezoning and broke down the responsibilities among all of the board’s committees with expertise on a project’s impacts, including zoning, environment and public health, social services and education, traffic and transportation, and parks and open space. We’ve also taken maximum advantage of the 60 days the community board is afforded during the ULURP process and held two months of public hearings, instead of the typical one month. The result is more than 10 times the amount of work the community board might be expected to undertake, but it’s worth it. I think we’ve ended up with a more comprehensive, deliberative process and stronger resolutions that more accurately reflect the community’s wishes. Community boards are advisory bodies. Nothing a board passes is the final say on a given issue, so our influence comes from our ability to sway elected and city officials who have veto power over land use actions. It’s therefore paramount that we adhere to a legitimate public process that is transparent, fair and gives the public the maximum opportunity to participate. Using these three lessons, we’ve strengthened our public review process during the “Year of the ULURP” as well as the community’s voice on these huge projects that will have a profound impact on neighborhoods. Hoylman is chair of Community Board 2, which covers the area between 14th and Canal Streets, from Bowery/Fourth Avenue to the Hudson River.

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May 2 -15, 2012

IN THEIR OWN WORDS

Getting around town and our big challenge, Jamestown BY COREY JOHNSON Chelsea and Hell’s Kitchen are changing. As the residential populations in our communities continue to grow, a host of city and state agencies, alongside the private sector, are addressing the logistical concerns of getting New Yorkers around town. There will be so many new options that everyone will be able to choose from: the new Bike-Share program, faster Select Bus Service, the extension of the No. 7 subway line and the newly reconfigured Penn Station as the Moynihan project enters its preliminary construction phase. As early as this July, New York City BikeShare will install thousands of public-use bicycles at 600 automated docking stations throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn. BikeShare bikes can be picked up and returned at any station, making it a quick and simple transit choice. Local residents, commuters and tourists will be able to become BikeShare members for a day, week, month or year. An annual membership with the program will cost less than a monthly MetroCard, and members will have unlimited access to bikes for trips under 45 minutes. Bikes are equipped with state-of-the-art locking devices and safety features, such as always-on lights, bells and GPS tracking systems. Mobile apps will give real-time information to users about station locations and availability. Six hundred thousand people use Penn Station each day and the number is rising. This has created perpetual congestion. During the recent appointment of Patrick Foye to lead the Port Authority, Governor Cuomo also announced that Foye would take over control of the Moynihan Station project. The Moynihan plan will improve subway and commuter train access by converting the Farley Post Office into the Penn Station transportation hub. In December 2011, the engineering, design and planning firm AECOM was selected to take on the construction work for Phase 1 of Moynihan Station. According to the Regional Planning Association, Phase 1 should cost $267 million and take at least five or six years to complete. Phase 1 should alleviate the dangerous amount of pedestrian sidewalk traffic around Penn Station by creating new exits, wider pedestrian concourses and sorely needed Americans with Disabilities Act-required elevators. These safety improvements will also help reduce overall commuting time and increase safety. In addition to extending Penn Station service, the new Select Bus Service (SBS) on 34th Street, often referred to as “rubbertired light rail,” uses a variety of techniques and technologies that will improve the quality and performance of transit much more quickly at a much lower cost. The new SBS vehicles will have distinctive branding and will be low-floor, articulated buses, with an extra third door to allow people to get on and off faster. Bus service has always been vitally important to senior citizens and people with limited mobility. The new bus lanes will allow buses to travel faster because of fewer traffic lights, off-board fare collection with all-door

boarding, and real-time arrival information, available by cell phone or over the Internet. As an example of even further change, Jamestown, the owner of the Chelsea Market, has seen its Chelsea Market Expansion Proposal certified by the Department of City Planning. The proposal is to include the Chelsea Market block in the Special West Chelsea District, which allows an increase in the potential permitted floor area ratio (FAR) from 5.0 to 7.5. The proposal also requires a contribution to the High Line Improvement Fund and the providing of High Line amenities. However, it would retain the M1-5 zoning on the Chelsea Market block. If this plan is allowed, then Jamestown will be able to erect 240,000 square feet of office space in a new structure along 10th Avenue and 90,000 square feet of hotel space in a new structure above Ninth Avenue/West 16th Street. In 2005 Community Board 4 (CB4) was co-applicant to the Special West Chelsea rezoning. We understand this rezoning and its purpose to provide opportunities for new residential and commercial development and to facilitate the reuse of the High Line as a unique public open space. However, this proposal creates a series of serious issues we must deal with. First, there is the issue of the Ninth Avenue hotel that is included in the project. This part of the Board 4 neighborhood is saturated with hotels, traffic and noise. For example, the total number of hotel rooms near Chelsea Market is 1,104. Second, the proposed 10th Avenue building’s height and bulk would cast shadows on the High Line and restrict views, and are inconsistent with nearby building heights in Board 4. Third, the 10th Avenue building’s facade — a modern design intended to “float” over the Chelsea Market building — is incompatible with the existing Chelsea Market and surrounding buildings, such as the Nabisco complex and the Merchants Refrigerating Company Warehouse. Fourth, the existing Chelsea Market building has no protection for its historical importance. Fifth, this project would create a precedent for the area south and west of Chelsea Market, leaving it subject to inappropriate development (height, bulk, hotel use) in the future, along with the neighboring sites (85 and 99 10th Avenue). Sixth, were this proposal approved, it would add pressure for greater gentrification and, thus, rising housing costs. Seventh, there would be even greater demand on existing parks and the need for more open space. Finally, were this plan approved, there is the risk of the possible loss of food resources vital to the neighborhood and to Manhattan on Chelsea Market’s ground floor. As we continue to review this proposal, we will need to try and find ways to

Corey Johnson.

mitigate these concerns. We have a public hearing scheduled for Wednesday, May 2, at 6pm at Roosevelt Hospital, 1000 10th Avenue. We will look at the possibility of prohibiting hotel use on the Chelsea Market block; reducing the height and bulk of the 10th Avenue building; making the project’s facade contextual with nearby buildings; designating existing Chelsea Market

buildings as New York City landmarks; and expanding the Special West Chelsea District, which provides height, bulk and use controls. We will look at the zoning text and see how we can get a contribution to an affordable housing fund. We will also look at the possibility of the developer providing publicly accessible space on the roof of the 10th Avenue building or contributing to a Chelsea parks fund. And we will work to add a food-related use requirement for ground-floor space. Clearly, we have our work cut out for us, and we will do our best and work our hardest to see this work done well and to benefit the community. Heraclitus said it best: “Change is the only constant.” CB4 continues to serve as an advocate for residents and businesses before city agencies and private entities. We hope that you will send us your feedback on how we incorporate the public into the ongoing process. Feel free to send me your concerns at cojo63@aol.com. I look forward to hearing from you. Johnson is chair of Community Board 4, which covers Manhattan between 14th and 59th Streets, west of Eighth Avenue north of 26th Street, and west of Sixth Avenue south of 26th Street.

May 2 -15, 2012

DOB, community question Chelsea Hotel FAR calculations Continued from page 7 the commission has final determination on any changes to historic buildings, but signaled that the community board is planning to send a letter to the DOB and LPC, asking that the submitted plans be audited, â&#x20AC;&#x153;because I am not entirely sure that they are able to actually build on top of the hotel, and we want some clarity on that. They may be built to their full Floor Area Ratio (FAR) capacity for the site,â&#x20AC;? Johnson said. Chelsea Now contacted DOB and learned that the day after the LPC vote, the buildings agency disapproved Kaufmanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s application of the original plans for the rooftop addition, dated October 12, 2011. According to DOB spokesperson Ryan Fitzgibbon, â&#x20AC;&#x153;On landmarked buildings in order to do work, the owner needs to get approval from the LPC to make sure they comply with the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s landmark rules, but after that, they also need approval from us,â&#x20AC;? she said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;LPC does not mean they have approval to go ahead and do that work. We are looking that they comply with the building code and zoning resolution. They have the opportunity to address the objections, and that would require altering their plans with us.â&#x20AC;? One of the objections DOB has raised is related to how they calculated FAR. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We are asking for clarification,â&#x20AC;? noted Fitzgibbon, â&#x20AC;&#x153;but it doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t necessarily mean a violation of FAR.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Many of the speakers at the April 10 hearing asked the commissioners to allow time for

other agencies, like the DOB and Department of Housing Preservation & Development to do their research,â&#x20AC;? recalled Wolff. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We all clearly understood that Landmarks could not consider the testimony from tenants in their deliberation about whether or not to approve the rooftop addition, but we asked them to please not be in a hurry and let other agencies make their opinions. It was perfectly possible that those opinions might make the LPCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s opinion moot,â&#x20AC;? she said. According to Article II, Chapter 3, section 23-145 of the Residence District Regulations, for an R9/9A district (in which the hotel is located), the maximum FAR is 7.52. The PW1: Plan/Work Application submitted by Kaufman on August 8, 2011 proposes a total FAR of 9.84 for the two-story addition, which doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t comply with the zoning allowance, and the DOB disapproved. Article II, Chapter 3, section 23-633 of the Regulations shows that the maximum height for the building in that district is 145. The abovenamed application shows the â&#x20AC;&#x153;existing building heightâ&#x20AC;? as 150 feet high (grandfathered), and indicates that â&#x20AC;&#x153;the proposed building heightâ&#x20AC;? will also be 150 feet; that is, not adding height. DOB also disapproved. Kaufman declared at CB4â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Landmarks Committee meeting, held on March 21, that the addition was approximately 20 feet high. At community board and committee meetings, the Chetrit Group, their lobbyist and architect have danced around repeated queries as to the additionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s use. But Zoning Resolution

Determination Form, dated August 30, 2011 was approved by the DOB for an eating and drinking establishment, the rationale given that â&#x20AC;&#x153;the premises are located in a C2-7A zoning district that permits commercial use, including Use Group 5 transient hotels and accessory uses.â&#x20AC;? Thus, â&#x20AC;&#x153;transient hotel use is permitted to be located anywhere in the building, including the roof as per ZR 32-421.â&#x20AC;? Of note is that the co-applicant with Kaufman is Ronny Livian, former Deputy Commissioner of Technical Affairs for the agency until January 2004, who now has a consulting firm on Vesey Street. Zoe Pappas, president of the tenants association, challenges this assertion, saying itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s improper to characterize the Chelsea as a transient hotel when you have permanent residents living there. Janet Ray Kalson, attorney for the association during numerous court proceedings against the Chetrits, pointed out that two earlier DOB filings indicated the building did not contain dwelling units that would remain occupied during construction and did not contain occupied housing accommodations. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We and elected officials wrote to the DOB about this, so they changed that on April 2, 2012 to acknowledge the tenants there,â&#x20AC;? she said. Kalson expects that FAR will be the next saga. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Their filing of commercial FAR is either 6.35 or 5.25, depending on which of their documents you look at. But they are only allowed 2 in this zoning district, and the building already exceeds that,â&#x20AC;? she asserted.

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;There are 31 agenda items shown on six pages,â&#x20AC;&#x2122; she explained. â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;On the seventh page, if you bothered to continue to scroll, you would find one lonely item mysteriously titled item 1, not 32: The Chelsea Hotel. How would you interpret that?â&#x20AC;&#x2122;â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Pamela Wolff Besides that, Pappas said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Unique buildings shouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be modified just for greed, money and alcohol. It will create a disturbance and destroy the quality of life of the neighborhood.â&#x20AC;? Meanwhile, a sidewalk shed, approximately 215 feet long, has been erected across the entire length of the hotel â&#x20AC;&#x201D; obscuring the commercial establishments at ground level. Chelsea Now ran into Chetrit executive Michael Butler standing outside the building and asked him what the DOB work orders posted on a distant window said. He smiled broadly and didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t answer.

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Damage done by the game ‘Headstrong’ calculates the human cost of NFL heroics THEATER HEADSTRONG Written by Patrick Link Directed by William Carden Through May 13 At the Ensemble Studio Theatre 549 West 52nd St., btw. 10th & 11th Aves. Wed.-Mon. at 7pm; matinees, Sat. at 2pm & Sun. at 5pm For tickets ($30, $20 for students/seniors), visit ovationtix.com or call 866-811-4111 For more info: ensemblestudiotheatre.org BY JERRY TALLMER The black guy, a hard-bitten Super Bowl champion of years ago, says: “You don’t climb Mount Everest because it’s safe. You don’t drive NASCAR to be safe. Even, what’s it called, the fucking luge in the Olympics. You think that’s safe? It’s all danger. That’s what makes it sport. As opposed to a game by Parker Brothers or Fisher Price.” The white guy says: “I understand what sport is.” The black guy says: “So danger is a must. Action is a must, or we won’t have heroes no more.” Yes, they are a black guy and a white guy — a Dartmouth white guy, no less — but they aren’t arguing color. They’re arguing Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, otherwise known as CTE or brain damage, the kind you get when you’re smashed in the head or throat or face several thousand times in an extended National Football League career. The black guy is old lion Duncan Troy, in his 60s, former all-star, all-pro Philadelphia Eagles linebacker for fourteen seasons and father-in-law of Ronnie Green, a flashy young NFL running back, whose headaches, confusion and dementia have climaxed in early retirement, followed by suicide in a lonesome Cincinnati hotel room. The white guy, in his 30s, is Nick Merritt, who has come down to Philadelphia from Cambridge, Mass., to try to get permission for his mentor, tart, Nigerian-born neuropathologist and researcher Dr. Moses Odame, to clinically examine the messedup brain of the late Ronnie Green. The remaining person in this play — for we are talking here about a new play niftily titled “Headstrong” — is Duncan Troy’s no-nonsense daughter, Sylvia Troy Green,

Nedra McClyde and Ron Canada aren’t playing games.

whose permission for the brain probing must be granted even though she and the late Ronnie Green were no longer living as husband and wife. She says, “No. Take it from there.…” About 30 seconds into 27-year-old Patrick Link’s “Headstrong,” you’re slapped wide awake by the following exchange about a quarterback named Marino: NICK MERRITT: The numbers don’t lie. DUNCAN TROY: You want a number? Zero. That’s how many [Super Bowl victory] rings that guy has… NICK: Have you met him? DUNCAN: Met him? I’ve sacked him. I’m still laughing over that one. And the rest of the play is just as crisp and clean as that. Which doesn’t mean decisive. Because “Headstrong” is purely and simply a play indecision. — the play’s, the playwright’s, and this critic’s own personal ambivalence about the “game” of professional football. Hate it, love it, can’t stop watching it. All accentuated nowadays — pro and con — by the great “Bountygate” scandal that has so far festered only in the locker room of the New Orleans Saints 2009 Super Bowl winners, who have allegedly had large sums of illegal hard cash dangled

Photo by Gerry Goodstein

before them for driving opposition star players out of the game and into the hospital (or morgue?) with smashes to the heads, faces, eyes, limbs and other body parts. The stink grew so apparent — with former Saints defense coordinator Gregg Williams caught on audiotape urging just such violence on his troops — that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has been forced to step in and impose suspensions: one year for Saints head coach Sean Payton, eight games for general manager Mickey Loomis, six games for assistant head coach Joe Vitt, indefinite suspension for ex-Saint and prime offender Williams. Patrick Link hasn’t written a play about that except indirectly — what medically happens to the victims of the assaults urged by people like Williams (who can be heard on that audiotape encouraging attacks on the throat of San Francisco quarterback Alex Smith). “To me,” says playwright and football fan Link, “what’s scary is I don’t think it’s only the Saints who are guilty.” The divide between Duncan Troy and Nick Merritt in “Headstrong” is the divide within Patrick Link himself. He and his father and brother all grew up on football. “I can’t imagine Thanksgiving without the

TV on for the game,” he says. No, he doesn’t have a team at the moment — he and his wife Olivia live in Hell’s Kitchen — “but I want to like the Jets.” When I told him I’d once interviewed Joe Namath, the week of Super Bowl III, his jaw dropped in awe. Though young Mr. Link’s father was born in Broken Bow, Nebraska, “population too small to bother to count,” and Patrick himself was born in Jacksonville, Florida on October 30, 1984, the community where our playwright grew up was Amherst, Massachusetts, with pop working for MassMutual. It was at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, that Link started writing plays, one of which, “Does the Body Good” — you know, like milk — made it into the New York Fringe Festival of 2007. The past four years he’s come under the sheltering wings of OffBroadway’s Ensemble Studio Theatre. The genesis of “Headstrong” lies as much as anywhere in the real-life tragedy of Michael Lewis (“Iron Mike”) Webster (1952-2002), the great Hall of Fame lineman of the Pittsburgh Steelers who played with intimidating bare arms no matter the frozen weather and who died of a heart attack at age 50, says Link, while “sort of wandering around in confusion and dementia, living in his truck” — and in railway stations — “and having attempted suicide two or three times.” Like Ronnie Green in “Headstrong.” Green is gone before the play ever opens, but we see and feel him through the eyes of Duncan Troy (actor Ron Canada), Sylvia Green (Nedra McClyde), Nick Merritt (Alexander Gemignani) and Moses Odame (Tim Cain). A number of other onetime NFL players have died the same way as Mike Webster, and now of course, we have Peyton Manning battling a variety of symptoms. So: back to square one. Knowing what we do about the murderousness of professional football, are we for it or against it? (The last college football game that this writer ever attended, years ago, Columbia vs. Dartmouth at Baker Field, seemed like nothing so much as two bunches of fat boys pushing one another around in the rain and mud.) “I dunno,” says Link. “Maybe there’s more to life than just staying alive. Do your best” — in football as in anything — “maybe there’s value in that.” And the New Orleans Saints syndrome. What’s to be done about that? “I dunno,” says Link. “I dunno.” Nor do I. Fifteen yard penalty. First down.

May 2 -15, 2012

Sure beats a dance around the Maypole Downtown theater, during the ‘lusty month,’ dumbfounds and dazzles BY TRAV S.D. No, no, I’m not dancing around the May Pole, I just got my arm tangled in this tether ball…so don’t mind me. While I stay here and try to extricate myself, please, you kids, run along and see some Downtown theatre. Here, I’ll even hand you my list of handpicked favorites! Fans of Theater for the New City (TNC) will be glad to hear about “155 First Avenue (The Epic Adventures of the Theater for the New Synzgy).” TNC is celebrating its 25th year at its present First Avenue location, and in commemoration they are presenting this thinly fictionalized fable the story of its address past, present and future. When I say past, I mean way past. The characters include Peter Stuyvesant (whose farm this block used to be on), Walt Whitman, Yiddish actress Molly Picon and a pushcart peddler from the building’s first incarnation as a retail market. The show was written by Toby Armour (author of the award-winning “Fanon’s People”) and directed by George Ferencz, whose many notable productions include a recent revival of “Tooth of Crime” with Ray Wise at La MaMa, and the world premiere of Jean-Claude van Itallie’s “Fear Itself” at TNC. Ferencz also directed the first production presented at TNC at its current space. What goes around comes around! “155 First Avenue” runs May 3-20. For information and tickets, go to theaterforthenewcity.net. Also opening on May 3 is “Desperately Seeking the Exit,” Peter Michael Marino’s solo show that recounts various misadventures in London, including the rise and fall of his West End musical version of “Desperately Seeking Susan,” featuring the music of Blondie. Gee, that musical doesn’t sound so bad. I’d almost rather see it than his solo show, but apparently it cost $4 million to produce. Something tells me the current show made it to the stage for less. It’s directed by the great John Clancy, co-founder of the New York International Fringe Festival, and is slated to be presented in Edinburgh this summer. “Desperately Seeking the Exit” is playing at Triple Crown Underground May 3-18. More info at seekingtheexit.com. From May 5-24, the sprightly singer Carole J. Bufford, backed by the incomparable vintage jazz band Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks, will be belting out the old school in a show she calls “Speak Easy.” On the set list, a roster of classics associated with the likes of Sophie Tucker, Al Jolson, Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong, Helen Kane, etc, etc. This engagement is happening at Chelsea’s tasteful Metropolitan Room (metropolitanroom.com). In contradistinction to taste, I remember “Saved by the Bell” (when I remember it at all) as one of the least funny un-television shows I ever wasted five minutes watching. Naturally, that’s just the sort of fodder that screams out for a parodistical (new word) musical treatment by Bob and Tobly McSmith, the team that previously gave us “JonBenet Ramsey: Murder Mystery Theatre.”

Photo by Mark Brutsche

In a scene from “White Like Me: A Honky Dory Puppet Show,” Paul Zaloom and his ventriloquist figure Butch Manly wrangle over race and ethnic identity in an epic battle of the wits…and half-wits.

Called “Bayside! The UnMusical!,” the current show is a revival of an original 2005 production — and from what I can glean online, they treat the subject matter with an appropriate amount of contempt and disrespect. For example, the character of Screech is played by a female stand-up comedian named Rachel Witz who seems to be crossing her eyes in every publicity shot. Just the sort of thing that makes theatre so superior to television! “Bayside! The UnMusical!” is playing at the Kraine Theater, May 9-19. Learn more at baysidetheunmusical.com. If that doesn’t sound like a big enough atrocity for you, you might consider “Jack’s Back!” — the latest musical comedy about “Jack the Ripper,” being presented by T. Schreiber Studio at the Gloria Maddox Theater. In this revisionist take (come to think of it, they’re all revisionist since no one really knows what happened), the Ripper is foiled by a cockney sausage stuffer named Herbert Wingate. Songs by Tom Herman are promised to be a mix of “Broadway, operetta and vaudeville,” which will be mighty nice if it’s true! Previews start May 9, with a scheduled May 12-June 24 run. Tickets and info at tschreiber.org. May 18-22, you’d have to be an ass to miss the first annual ASSdance Film Festival, the ambitious new underground arts event produced by ASS Studios, the demented brainchild of the legendary Rev. Jen and her boyfriend/collaborator Courtney Fathom Sell. It’s all to celebrate the May 22 release of their first DVD, which includes such ASS classics as “Killer Unicorn” (which Miller calls “a gay revenge fantasy starring people far too old to play teenagers”) and “Elf Workout!” (author/artist/performer is also, in case you didn’t know, a very well known Elf). Aside from their own movies, there’ll also be films and performances by Janeane Garofalo, Christian Finnegan and

Faceboy. Events to take place at various locations, including Bowery Poetry Club and Pushcart Coffee. Visit bowerypoetry.com, revjen.com and assstudios.tumblr.com. May 24 through June 10, at La MaMa, the

fabulousness continues in “Jukebox Jackie: Snatches of Jackie Curtis,” starring Justin Vivian Bond, Bridget Everett, Cole Escola and Steel Burkhardt — in a show conceived and directed by Scott Wittman. Curtis was the gender-ambiguous Warhol Factory-ite immortalized by Lou Reed in “Walk on the Wild Side” as the one who “thought she was James Dean for a day.” Many credit her/him as one of the progenitors of Glam, so they’ve picked a fitting cast to make this tribute. We’re also promised special guests at certain performances, including Penny Arcade, Jayne County, Cherry Vanilla and Agosto Machado. For more info, lamama.org. And last but hardly least, seminal puppeteering performance artist Paul Zaloom is back with a new solo show at Dixon Place, May 25-June 2. Called “White Like Me: A Honky Dory Puppet Show,” the piece, we’re informed, “employs the drawing room medium of toy theater to tell the story of the archetypical ‘white man’ and his universe. White-Man leaves his planet Caucazoid, travels through space, ‘civilizes’ the earth (populated with aliens), becomes a philanthropist and savior, and finally, freaks out about his approaching minority status.” I just love happy endings! More information at dixonplace.org. See you next month!

“Highly entertaining … especially creepy … great fun.” The New York Times

Mondays April 30, May 7, 14, & 21 at 7:30pm Thursdays May 31, June 7 & 14 at 7:30pm Stage Left Studio www.solomacbeth.com or www.stageleftstudio.net

214 W. 30th St. 6th Floor

May 2 -15, 2012

Just Do Art! BY SCOTT STIFFLER CHELSEA HOTEL TENANTS COMMITTEE BENEFIT For years, the iconic Chelsea Hotel’s exterior has seemed as if it might collapse under the weight of all those plaques com-

memorating the likes of Arthur C. Clarke, Dylan Thomas and Virgil Thomson. Too bad that’s not the function of the sidewalk shed that went up recently (see news story, page 1). As the hotel gets a controversial makeover, longtime tenants are locking horns with the new management. They’re not looking for your sympathy — just your support. Renowned rock biographer Clinton Heylin is pitching in, by presenting two programs of film performances

Photo by Brian Bothwell

Too bad the shed’s not there just to support the crushing weight of these plaques.

Photo courtesy of Yangtze Repertory Theatre of America

Denver Chin, as the heroine, in Yangtze Rep’s “The Chalk Circle.”

(part of a series of events intended to call attention to, and celebrate, the Chelsea Hotel’s artistic legacy). On May 7, “Rare Dylan Performances on Film” features rare clips from Heylin’s private archives. On May 8, “From Velvets to Voidoids” presents an anthology of music performances chronicled in Heylin’s 1993 book. Mon. May 7 & Tues. May 8, 7:30pm,

at Anthology Film Archives (30 Second Ave., at Second St.). Admission: $10, at the door (no advance sales; proceeds go to the Tenants Committee).

THE CHALK CIRCLE Yangtze Repertory Theater of America’s multilingual adaptation of Li QianFu’s thirteenth-century Zaju verse story recounts a celebrated court case presided over by the wise and fair-minded Judge Bao of the Song Dynasty — who ferrets out the deception of a jealous wife who accuses her husband’s concubine of murder. Hong Kong’s Denver Chiu, a leader in the revived art of men playing female roles in Cantonese Opera, stars as the heroine in this production characteristic of Yuan Dynasty plays (think tragic narrative, soaring arias, slapstick, mime and acrobatics). Chen ShaoMai, a Cantonese Opera actress since 1957 specializing in the Warrior Heroine part, transcribed ancient lyrics into colloquial Cantonese for the production. In English, Mandarin and Cantonese with Chinese and English supertitles. May 3-20, Wed.-Sat. at 8pm, Sun. at 3pm. At Theater for the New City’s Cino Theater (155 First Ave., at E. 10th St.). Tickets: $25; students/seniors and groups of 10 and above: $20 (Wed., “Pay What You Can.”). To order, call 212-868-4444. Visit yangtze-rep-theatre.org.

Image courtesy of the author and publisher

Rock biographer Clinton Heylin delves into his archives, to benefit Chelsea Hotel tenants.

Continued on page 25

May 2 -15, 2012

Photo courtesy of SVA and the artist

Photo by Carol Cote

Bidding a fond farewell to Birdie, L to R: Gabriel Mervin-Leroy as Maude, Lexi Rodriguez as Rose Alvarez and Jacob Kornwolf as Albert Petersen.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Just for the Birdsâ&#x20AC;? screens as part of the Dusty Film & Animation Festival.

BYE BYE BIRDIE

23RD ANNUAL DUSTY FILM & ANIMATION FESTIVAL

In a world full of TV shows and films in which young people are played by those who havenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t seen their teens in years, Polaris Productions keeps it real â&#x20AC;&#x201D; by producing musical theater performed entirely by child and young adult actors. That rare commitment to authenticity is sure to breathe some fresh air into an oldie but goodie. Set in the

Continued from page 24

late 1950s, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Bye Bye Birdieâ&#x20AC;? (the 1960 Tony Award-winner for Best Musical) concerns an Elvis-like rock and roll dreamboat about to be inducted into the army. LeCee Galmiche Johnson directs the cast, comprised entirely of 4- to 20-year-olds. Thurs. May 10, 7pm; Fri./Sat. May 11/12, 1pm & 7pm; Sun. May 13, 1pm. At the Hudson Guild Theatre (441 W. 26th St., btw. 9th & 10th Aves.). For tickets ($10, Thurs./Sun., $12, Fri./Sat.), visit polarisproductions.org or purchase at the door.

As final exams go, this oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s guaranteed to be much more entertaining than sitting through a thesis project PowerPoint presentation. Considered one of the top student film festivals in the country, the 23rd Annual Dusty Film and Animation Festival screens the work of more than 100 filmmakers and animators graduating from the School of Visual Arts. The four-day event unspools in the SVAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 23rd

Street theater â&#x20AC;&#x201D; which just served as one of the anchor venues for the Tribeca Film Festival. The SVAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s festival kicks off with three days of film and animation screenings, and then concludes with an awards ceremony. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s all free, and open to the public. Screenings take place Sun. May 6 through Tues. May 8 (awards ceremony, May 9). At the SVA Theater (333 W. 23rd St., btw. 8th & 9th Aves.). For the full schedule, visit sva.edu/dusty.

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May 2 -15, 2012

Music to your ears Rios rocks Rockwood, Beatboxers bust at La MaMa BY SCOTT STIFFLER

MUSIC: GABRIEL RIOS Mark it in pen on your calendar: You’ve got two upcoming chances to see, and hear, singer/songwriter Gabriel Rios. The San Juan native and recent NYC transplant — whose Puerto Rican rhythms were churned through computers and samplers during a stint in Belgium — continues his residency at Rockwood Music Hall with a stripped-down collection of songs featuring piano, percussion and guitar made to serve surreal tales of “growing older and of the end of the world as we know it.” The kid’s got talent, folks. See him now before the line is too long. At 9pm on Fri. May 4. At 8pm on Fri. May 11. On Stage #1, at Rockwood Music Hall (196 Allen St., btw. Houston & Stanton Sts.). No cover, one-drink minimum (per set). For more info, visit rockwoodmusichall.com and gabrielrios.be.

AMERICAN HUMAN BEATBOX FESTIVAL Eat your heart out, jazz. Curated by worldrenowned beatbox artist Kid Lucky (search him on YouTube and be sufficiently amazed), this second annual installment of La MaMa Theatre’s American Human Beatbox Festival pays tribute to the American-born vocal style and technique of beatboxing (an enduring offshoot from the

Photo by Delfine Bafort

The surreal thing: Gabriel Rios touches down at Rockwood Music Hall.

1970s-era NYC hip-hop scene that long ago established itself as a global creative and social movement). Featured events include May 4’s 10pm “Unified Beats” — in which Dres Tha Beatnik, Yakko440, Kid Lucky, Lethal FX, YanCarlos Sanchez, Akim Funk Buddah, Amit and MC Beats improvise beatbox masterpieces.

Photo by Whitney Browne

Left to right: Human beatboxes Kid Lucky, Rabbi D, J King and Grey Matter.

Thurs. May 3 through Sun. May 6, at La MaMa (74A E. 4th St., btw. Bowery & 2nd Ave.). All events, except the Hip Hop Subway Series, are $10. The festival’s “Hip Hop Subway Series” is a traveling performance starting at Bryant Park

and ending up at La MaMa. To reserve a spot, send an email to beatboxerentmedia@gmail.com. To order tickets to the festival, and for more info, visit lamama. org or call 212-475-7710.

May 2 -15, 2012

All’s ‘FAIR’ Peel back the curtain, for a partial glimpse of Glass ART MIKEL GLASS: FAIR Through May 12 At (Art) Amalgamated 317 Tenth Ave., ground floor (btw. 28th & 29th Sts.) Gallery hours: Tues.-Sat., 10am-6pm For info, call 212-334-0403 or visit artamalgamated.com Also visit mikelglass.com

BY SCOTT STIFFLER Promoted as a marked departure from his previous work, this installation by heretofore conceptual realist painter and sculptor Mikel Glass — his debut show with (Art) Amalgamated — is not just an intriguing window into what lurks beneath the artist’s crowded and contemplative skull. That would be enough, for one show at least. Good to see, then, that “Mikel Glass: FAIR” is also a clever tweak of what goes on at art fairs.

Inspiring comparisons to Norman Rockwell, Tim Burton and Marshall McLuhan — but ultimately claiming aesthetic and intellectual territory of its own — “FAIR” divides the narrow train car space of (Art) Amalgamated into two halves (or, perhaps, cerebral hemispheres). If you’re the type who likes to read the final chapter before you’ve even glanced at the book jacket, make the back room your initial destination. That’s where you’ll find an “active, manned broadcast studio disguised as an artist’s studio.” At first glance, it seems as if you’re being invited to pull back the curtain for a quick and easy glimpse of the wizard’s true nature. His name, Glass, may imply transparency — but the back room’s two notable self-portraits (one hanging on the wall, one seemingly discarded on the floor) only muddy one’s efforts to figure out what makes this guy tick. Although it provides no answers, the desk — crowded with all manner of doll heads, trophies, glowing wires and TV set tubes that evoke neurons poised to fire — conveys the artist’s thought process with a worn but elegant sense of nostalgia. In the front room (separated from the back one by a glass and steel wall, but fused to it by ceiling tubes), six large-screen monitors simultaneously broadcast a constant

Image courtesy of the artist

feed of videos — a mix of dreamy, distant images as well as streamed content from the art fair scene of local galleries (among them, Sidney Janis Gallery, Knoedler Gallery and Stable Gallery). A jumble of wires, timeworn connecting devices and rusted industrial components fuse the six monitors — instantly transform-

ing the contemporary commentary into a relic of the past. “You don’t know if it’s art or not,” says one bemused fellow of the art fair sites he’s just taken in. Hard to say if that’s the point being made by Glass or his video monitor proxy…but I must say, I liked their earnest sense of wonder.

“ KATHLEEN TURNER SHINES!” – HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

“ONE OF THE

MEET

KATH LE E N T UR NE R

YEAR’S FUNNIEST PLEASURES. DON’T MISS IT!”

Q &AS ON FRI 5/4

: 7PM AT AMC EM 8PM AT CHELSEA PIRE 25 CINEMAS

–REX REED, NY OBSERVER

Image courtesy of the artist

STARTS FRIDAY MAY 4 ALSO AVAILABLE ON-DEMAND

AMC

EMPIRE 25

CLEARVIEW CHELSEA CINEMAS

42ND ST. & 8TH AVE. • (888) AMC-4FUN 260 W. 23RD ST. • (888) CLVW-TIX 11:45AM, 2:10PM, 4:35, 7:00, 9:45PM & 12:10AM CALL THEATER FOR SHOWTIMES

May 2 -15, 2012

Barnes & Noble Salutes Union Square Partnership.