Downtown Express

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SHEDDING LIGHT ON HUNGER, PG. 16

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®

VOLUME 24, NUMBER 26

THE NEWSPAPER OF LOWER MANHATTAN

Zuccotti cleared, closed, then re-occupied

BY ALINE REYNOLDS, CYNTHIA MAGNUS AND JOHN BAYLES This time there was no warning, no advance notice and no time to organize; the clearing of Occupy Wall Street demonstrators from Zuccotti Park, in the wee hours of the morning on Tuesday, took everyone by surprise.

At approximately 1 a.m. NYPD officers surrounded the park. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, at a press conference later Tuesday morning said the park’s owners, Brookfield Office Properties, had reached out to him and asked for help in enforcing park rules pertaining to health and safety.

“In our view… it would have been irresponsible to not request that the city take action,” said Brookfield in a statement. “Further, we have a legal obligation to the city and to this neighborhood to keep the park accessible to all who wish to enjoy it, which had become impossible.”

At the press conference, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, who led the evacuation said the protesters were given until 3:30 a.m. to collect their personal belongings and leave.

Though Brookfield solicited Bloomberg’s help in temporarily evacuating the park, the Mayor took full responsibility for the action.

“Make no mistake — the final decision to act was mine, and mine alone,” said Bloomberg. “I don’t feel bad, because [protestors] can come right back in.”

While First Amendment rights are “number one on our minds,” Bloomberg Continued on page 4

NOVEMBER 16 - 22, 2011

B.P.C.A. abruptly fires nineteen employees

Downtown Express photo by Milo Hess

BY TERESE LOEB KREUZER As far as most people who worked for the Battery Park City Authority knew, Wednesday, Nov. 9, was going to be another ordinary day at the office. But when they came in that morning, there was a sign that said, “Do not touch your computer.” A staff meeting was scheduled for 10:30 a.m.

“The president [Gayle Horwitz] came in and said there would be a mass termination,” according to one staff member.

“She instructed everyone to go back to their cubicles. She said that if you got an envelope, you had until 12 noon to leave the premises.”

“There were four, huge, scary security people there,” another employee said. “The entire staff was traumatized — even the people who didn’t get fired. Everybody was very shaken because nobody knew what this was about, but clearly something horrible was happening.”

A woman from human resources was delegated to walk around the office handing out envelopes with a letter of termination.

“She was like the Angel of Death,” said one staff member who was let go. “She walked by some people and stopped at others, handing them an envelope. It was all public. Everyone knew. People were screaming and crying.”

“When I received my envelope, I broke down. I was hysterical,” said another staff member. “I had never been fired. I live check to check. I’m the sole provider in

An NYPD officer stands watch at Zuccotti Park on Tuesday morning following the city’s eviction of Occupy Wall Street demonstrators.

Continued on page 18

downtown express

November 16 - 22, 2011

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downtown express

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November 16 - 22, 2011

D

C.B. 1 EE TING S

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OWNTOWN DIGEST

NEW FAÇADE CHOSEN FOR ONE W.T.C. BASE The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has approved a new, economical design for the base façade of One World Trade Center, according to a Nov. 15 announcement the city-state agency circulated to the media.

The new façade will be comprised of stainless steel covered with reflective glass fins, according to the announcement. The P.A.’s board approved a $37.2 million allocation toward the engineering, fabrication and installation of the exterior — a significantly lower cost than the initial façade.

The redesign “provides a practical way to cover the tower’s secure base, and give it an innovative, inviting look for the thousands of workers who will be employed there and the millions of tourists who will visit it,” according to P.A. Chairman David Samson.

Installation of the new façade will begin in 2013 and keep pace with the slated completion of the tower by the year’s end. Currently, workers are installing the 12,000-plus ultra-clear glass panels to the building’s steel frame.

P.A. PLEDGES TO DECREASE NOISY EVENING CONSTRUCTION Members of Community Board 1 rejoiced this week after they came to an agreement with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to halt evening jackhammering at the

World Trade Center site.

“It wasn’t just 24-hour-a-day drilling, it was drilling down to bedrock — which is the noisiest type of drilling imaginable,” said C.B. 1 Chair Julie Menin. “It was really disrupting the lives of the residents adjacent to the W.T.C. site.”

Menin, along with C.B. 1’s Vice Chair Catherine McVay Hughes and Quality of Life Committee Chair Pat Moore, got P.A. officials to agree to a 6:30 a.m. start time and 11 p.m. finish time for the jackhammering, which, marking the end of the excavation at the W.T.C., is supposed to continue through next March.

The officials also promised to look into recent noise complaints from an alarm system used for safety purposes on the construction site. “They’re going to look at what can be done to make it still safe and comply with occupational safety… but not have a beeping that’ll also wake up neighbors in the middle of the night,” said McVay Hughes.

“That would be a huge relief.”

FEDERAL FUNDING PRESERVED FOR HOUSING AUTHORITY On Mon., Nov. 15, U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer announced to have successfully eliminated a provision from the federal housing appropriations bill that would have deprived funding to the city’s affordable housing stock.

NY State Senator Daniel Squadron released a statement applauding Schumer for his efforts to protect public

A schedule of this week’s upcoming Community Board 1 committee meetings is below. Unless otherwise noted, all committee meetings are held at the board office, located at 49-51 Chambers St., room 709 at 6 p.m.

ON WED., NOV. 9: The State Liquor Authority process review task force will convene at 5 p.m.

After, at 6 p.m., the Tribeca Committee meeting will meet.

ON THURS., NOV. 17: The Quality of Life Committee meeting will meet.

ON MON., NOV. 21: The Waterfront Committee will meet.

ON TUES., NOV. 22: The board will host its monthly meeting at Dance New Amsterdam (280 Broadway, 2nd floor). housing citywide and Downtown.

“Last year, I was proud to carry the bill that, for the first time, allowed the New York City Housing Authority to access the $75 million a year that was protected today,” said Squadron. “This announcement ensures that 21 ‘federalized’ housing developments will remain funded, so that residents can remain in their homes.”

“New York City public housing residents can sleep more securely in their homes tonight [as a result].”

New York Times ★ ★

Vintage views of the Village

BY LINCOLN ANDERSON Local author Anita Dickhuth is kicking off a tour for her new book, “Greenwich Village,” part of the “Images of America” series by Arcadia Publishing.

Through more than 200 painstakingly assembled archival photos and accompanying informative captions, Dickhuth traces the area’s evolution from a Lenape Indian settlement into today’s world-renowned Greenwich Village. There’s also a two-page introduction in which Dickhuth describes the preservation battles of the 1960s and, specifically, activist Doris Diether’s role in them.

Photos were obtained from the Library of Congress, the New-York Historical Society and local merchants and residents, among other sources.

The book includes maps showing how the

West Village’s streets follow original Native American footpaths and Colonial-era roads.

There are capsule histories of noteworthy buildings, including more than a few that no longer exist. Diether helped the author in the chapter on Greenwich Village’s houses.

Even experts on Greenwich Village are sure to find something new and interesting here.

A Greenwich Village resident for more than four decades, Dickhuth is a visual researcher and photograph editor, as well as a member of the Greenwich Village Society of Historic Preservation.

She will be signing her book at Garber Hardware, 710 Greenwich St., on Sat., Nov. 26, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

“Greenwich Village,” by Anita Dickhuth, $21.99, 128 pages, softcover, Arcadia Publishing.

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downtown express

November 16 - 22, 2011

4

O.W.S. temporarily evicted from Zuccotti

Downtown Express photo by Cynthia Magnus

hearing – a judge who “signs a T.R.O. in the middle of the night� is not necessarily the same one to preside over the hearing the following day. “There are lots of conspiracy theories, which are always amusing, but there is no conspiracy here,� Bookstaver said.

While O.W.S. protesters have since been allowed back into the park — which under city law must remain accessible 365 days a year — people will be denied entry if they’re carrying tents, camping gear or other equipment conducive to sleeping in the park.

Brookfield’s regulations governing Zuccotti Park bars people from lying down altogether, as well as from camping and erecting tarps and tents and using sleeping bags.

Kelly stated earlier that the department would enforce rules prohibiting lying down on the ground or benches. A lawyer for Brookfield said at the afternoon hearing, however, that O.W.S. would be welcome to use the park furniture. The issue may turn, in the coming days, on the definition of what

City sanitation workers cleared debris and belongings from Zuccotti Park in the early morning hours on Tuesday.

Continued on page 14

Continued from page 1 continued, “It doesn’t give anyone the right to sleep in a park or otherwise take it over to the exclusion of others. We have an obligation to enforce the laws today, to make sure that everybody has access to the park so that everybody can protest. We also have a similar [and] just as important obligation to protect the health and safety of the people in the park.�

Following the initial displacement from Zuccotti, protesters dispersed to the surrounding blocks. Demonstrator Liesbeth Rapp said later that at one point protesters blocked a sanitation truck from driving to the park, assuming it was on its way to collect occupants’ items. She also said that the camp’s library of 3,000 books had been destroyed.

O.W.S. medical team members Luc Baillargeon and Angeline Richards watched from a bench across Church Street as the camp was dismantled around 2 a.m.

Baillargeon said they were able to salvage from the medic tent only what they could carry: two portable [first] aid kits.

Asked why he chose to vacate the park in the wee hours of the morning, Kelly replied, “We think it was appropriate to do it when the smallest number of people were in the park,� noting O.W.S.’s commuter crowds that typically gather in the park during daytime hours. “I think we were all surprised at the amount of people [at that hour],� said Kelly. “Operationally, it went extremely well, and the officers conducted themselves with great professionalism. There was an awful lot of taunting and people getting in police officers’ faces, and [the officers] showed an awful lot of restraint.�

TEMPORARILY CLOSING THE PARK The National Lawyers Guild, who has been representing O.W.S. arrestees in court since the occupation began, at 6:30 a.m.

Tuesday morning filed a temporary restraining order against the city, enjoining it from evicting protestors from the park “exclusive of lawful arrests for criminal offenses,�

according to N.L.G. defense attorney Martin Stolar.

The injunction was temporarily granted until, around 11:30 a.m. Tuesday morning, when State Supreme Court Judge Michael Stallman issued a decision denying the T.R.O. and approving of Brookfield’s implementation of the park rules.

City Attorney Sheryl Neufeld said following Stallman’s lifting of the T.R.O., issued earlier by Justice Lucy Billings, that the decision recognized the rights of both O.W.S. and general members of the public.

Counsel for Brookfield Properties Douglas Flaum said outside the courthouse that he was “gratified that [Stallman] recognized that the rules Brookfield has put in place are ones that are necessary to ensure a clean, safe and publicly accessible Zuccotti Park for all, and that any regulation we have would be fully consonant with the First Amendment restrictions.�

Spokesman for the Courts David Bookstaver explained the process that led to Justice Stallman presiding over the afternoon

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POLICE BLOTTER Students brawl Police arrested 10 students for brawling in the Richard R. Greene High School, 7 Beaver St. at 10:45 a.m. Mon. Nov. 14.

The fight between two factions of students began in the Bowling Green subway station, continued in the school lobby and in the school cafeteria. Nine of the students were charged with disorderly conduct and the 10th was held on an open warrant for another offense.

It’s about time A defendant who agreed in 1997 to an adjournment of a 1996 misdemeanor

charge but failed to appear in court, finally showed up last March, more than 14 years after his arrest. Ruben Wills pleaded guilty on Nov. 10 to the original criminal mischief misdemeanor charge for stealing and damaging property in a Lower Manhattan office on W. Broadway. But the statute of limitations on prosecuting bail jumping had run out so Wills was sentenced to conditional discharge, three days of community service and ordered to pay $2,500 restitution.

After the guilty plea, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said he would ask the legislature in Albany to amend the statute of limitations on bail jumping to allow prosecution of defendants who intentionally fail to appear in court.

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November 16 - 22, 2011

Parents call latest school rezoning a ‘failure’

BY ALINE REYNOLDS Tribeca resident Thomas Ryan said he would consider packing his bags and moving his family out of New York if the city’s latest school rezoning plan is approved. “We’re really concerned and very upset and very angry about it,� said Ryan, who with his wife invested their savings in a White Street apartment last year — in part to be able to send their three-year-old daughter, Alice, to P.S. 234, the neighborhood elementary school, a 10-minute walk south.

If the latest rezoning proposal goes through, however, Alice would instead be assigned a seat at the Alfred E. Smith School (P.S. 1) in Chinatown, entailing a more complex commute that would typically involve crossing Worth Street, the Bowery, and two bustling parks. “We spent so much time thinking longterm about how our kids would be educated,� said Ryan. “Now we’re part of a community, and we’re being told, ‘we’re going to break it up.’�

As of last week, the city Department of Education, at the urging of Downtown parents, has devised yet another proposal to rezone schools in Lower Manhattan.

Families like the Ryans, however, are left feeling dismayed and puzzled about where they’ll be sending their children to school next year and what the youths’ daily commutes will be like.

At C.E.C. D2’s Nov. 8 zoning committee meeting, Elizabeth Rose, the D.O.E.’s portfolio planning director, presented a new school zoning map for District Two elementary schools, following an initial proposal that also received wide criticism from parents. Rezoning of all the Downtown elementary schools is necessary for the 2012-13 school year in order to create a new zone for the Peck Slip school, which is slated to open in 2015, according to the D.O.E. The revised plan will undergo a C.E.C. vote on Wed., Dec. 14. Meanwhile, more than 200 northeast Tribeca parents have joined forces behind a written petition, in which they voice their disappointment with the D.O.E.’s final proposal and advocate for C.E.C. Community Education Council District Two to vote against the plan. “We are planning on sending the petition to the D.O.E. and C.E.C. D2 before the town hall [zoning] meeting on Nov. 28,� according to the parents’ group.

Diverging from the previous proposal, the D.O.E.’s latest plan avoids zoning elementary students south of Canal Street for P.S. 3 in Greenwich Village. Instead, the new plan, if implemented, would send youngsters who live east of West Broadway, from Canal Street to Chambers Street,

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across neighborhoods to P.S. 1 – since P.S. 234 is busting at the seams.

Children in the southern half of Tribeca, meanwhile, would be assigned to the Spruce Street School (P.S. 397).

The new proposal, Rose said, is “the best way� the Department could reapportion enrollment. She said the “big message� among parental feedback on the previous plan was the request to not be zoned for a West Village school, which would require crossing Canal Street. Rose added, “At the same time, we have to recognize that the P.S. 234 zone is still large; and so, how will we best address the excess demand at P.S. 234 and take advantage of all the capacity that we have available?�

P.S. 1 can accommodate at least one additional class section per grade, said Rose, adding, “There is nobody here crossing underneath the Brooklyn Bridge yet to [go to] school,� addressing parents’ previous anxiety about the potentially dangerous commute to P.S. 1.

Rose nonetheless assured parents that this route would be safe, in the event that some Downtown children would have to take it to school. “I crossed underneath the Brooklyn Bridge, there are several walkways underneath the Brooklyn Bridge,� said Rose. “It is not unsafe, but we certainly understand it is not the most attractive crossing.�

The D.O.E. is also proposing to expand the Spruce Street School zone to encompass more of the central portion of the Financial District — specifically, to include children who live above Liberty Street and as far east as Nassau Street, rather than Broadway (the easternmost boundary set in the previous proposal).

Meanwhile, Financial District children that reside east of Nassau Street, above Liberty Street — and east of Broadway, below Liberty Street — would be assigned to the Peck Slip school, which will incubate at Tweed Courthouse until it moves into its permanent home, One Peck Slip, in four years.

Despite Rose’s explanation of the new proposal, many people remained unsatisfied. “I’m disappointed — I thought we were pretty clear we didn’t want to slice [Tribeca] at all,� said Michael Markowitz, co-chair of C.E.C. District 2’s rezoning committee. “We want a fundamentally different proposal before us.�

Tribeca parents who are aware of the P.S. 234’s overcrowding problem would rather take a gamble with a lottery than be rezoned for a different school altogether. “That way, everybody would have a chance,â€? Markowitz said. “I’d prefer to keep my neighborhood in tact‌ and take the chance on a waitlist,â€?

DOWNTOWNEXPRESS .com

affirmed Reade Street Parent Rinat Aruh, whose residence falls in the P.S. 1 zone in the proposed plan, even though it is just a few blocks away from P.S. 234.

“I’m disappointed — I thought we were pretty clear we didn’t want to slice [Tribeca] at all,� — Michael Markowitz

Despite her apprehension about P.S. 1, Aruh said she would have no choice but to send her child to the Chinatown school, since the $25,000-to-$40,000 annual tuition for a private school is just not in the cards.

Apart from having to accompany her five-year-old son on a near-mile trek to and from school everyday, Aruh fears the zoning change would have an even broader divisive impact on the tight-knit community in Tribeca. “West Broadway is considered the heart of Tribeca — even from a retail perspec-

tive,� said Aruh. “[Local businesses] will say, ‘this is no longer a part of the neighborhood.’�

Southbridge Towers residents are equally disheartened by the latest zoning proposal, which would send their children to the Peck Slip school rather than the Spruce Street School (P.S. 397), their desired choice.

Spruce was primarily built to accommodate east side students, according to Andi Sosin, whose grandchild will be entering kindergarten in 2013. Sosin and other S.B.T. families find Peck Slip to be an unappealing option, since Tweed Courthouse, the school’s incubator, lacks basic amenities such as a full-sized gym and an auditorium. “I find it irrational,� said Sosin.

Responding to the D.O.E.’s proposal, Community Board 1’s Youth and Education Committee drafted a resolution asking that the P.S. 234 zone be unchanged and for S.B.T. children to be zoned for Spruce.

The rezoning plan is bound to fail and would “decimate� P.S. 1, according to C.B. 1 member Tricia Joyce, an outspoken member of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s overcrowding task force. “It’s a different proposal [than the last one],� said Joyce, “but it’s really the same.

Continued on page 13

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downtown express

November 16 - 22, 2011

‘Garbage can of the future’ hits Chinatown

BY ALINE REYNOLDS A high-tech method to collect garbage has been introduced to Chinatown, with the aim of reducing not only the amount of trash, but also the amount of rats that are attracted to it.

The Chinatown Partnership Local Development Corporation, initiator of the neighborhood’s forthcoming Business Improvement District, has partnered with Direct Environmental Corp., also known as D.E.C. Green, a Bronx-based distributor and manufacturer, to install a solar-powered, digitalized trash compactor on the southeast corner of Canal and Mott Streets.

Community leaders along with Councilmember Margaret Chin and others gathered at the Chinatown intersection last Wed., Nov. 9 to unveil the pilot compactor, dubbed, “BigBelly,” which holds five times the amount of garbage as a traditional trash receptacle and can reduce trash collection by 80 percent. The Chinatown BigBelly will join the two dozen or so others dispersed around Manhattan.

“The aim is to explore its potential usefulness for the Chinatown [Business Improvement District] area,” said Wellington Chen, executive director of the Chinatown Partnership. The B.I.D.’s sanitation committee, which will be formed in 2012, will determine which other intersections would benefit from the compactor.

Downtown Express photo by Aline Reynolds

Councilmember Margaret Chin (in red) attended last week’s ribbon cutting for Chinatown’s ‘garbage can of the future,’ the BigBelly, located at Canal and Mott Streets.

“Certain locations require traditional garbage cans for traffic and a variety of [other] reasons,” said Chen. “We’re going to be very

selective if we do implement it [by first] testing it out.”

The compactor, comprised of a com-

puter and a Smartphone, connects wirelessly to the BigBelly Solar headquarters in Massachusetts. The web-based system is set up so that the BigBelly automatically tracks its own garbage load in real-time.

“It will report to a web-based program and let you know when it’s full and needs to be changed,” said Franklin Cruz, chairman of D.E.C. Green, responsible for manufacturing New York State’s BigBellies.

By applying 1250 pounds of pressure, Cruz noted, the BigBelly crushes accumulating litter, thereby clearing the way for more trash.

“Towards the top of the internal bin is a laser, which sends an impulse to the computer notifying it of any obstructions,” explained Cruz.

While celebrating the BigBelly’s installation at the corner of Canal and Mott Streets last week, Councilmember Chin dubbed the compactor the “garbage can of the future.”

“I’m so glad that Chinatown is taking this major step in collecting garbage and keeping our community clean,” said the Councilmember, who remarked on the compact size of the BigBelly (comparing it to an earlier, larger version she had seen in Flushing, Queens).

“I can’t believe I’m so excited about a garbage can!” said Community Board 3’s

Continued on page 18

9/11 Memorial reaches visitor milestone

BY ALINE REYNOLDS The National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum reached a milestone this week, boasting half a million visitors from more than 100 countries worldwide since its grand opening just over two months ago.

While many Downtown residents feel proud to have an international landmark in their backyard, many of them fear of everincreasing vehicle and pedestrian traffic on the already jam-packed streets of Lower Manhattan.

James Connors, executive vice president of operations at the 9/11 Memorial, assured members of Community Board 1’s World Trade Center Redevelopment Committee that the organization is making efforts to minimize congestion resulting from the influx of tourists to the site.

More than 90 percent of 9/11 Memorial visitors are arriving as individuals or families as opposed to groups, whose visits by bus can lead to added congestion Downtown, according to Connors.

“Less than 2.5 percent are coming via charter [bus], translating to about four charter buses a day for Memorial-specific purposes,” Connors told the committee.

Those that do come via bus often arrive dur-

ing off-peak hours, he said.

At the same time, the Memorial staff is ramping up its reservations and queuing system with the goal of achieving maximum occupancy at the plaza, or 1500 visitors. The current system only permits up to 800 visitors on the site at a given time.

Staff has already improved the reservations policy so people can reserve same-day visits to the Memorial, in addition to visits for a week, a month or six months ahead of time. “It really made a big difference in making it easier for people to make [reservations] who don’t plan well in advance,” said Connors.

The Memorial has also made strides to encourage the use of public transportation to the site, according to Connors — by, for example, partnering with the Metropolitan Transit Authority to create wayfinding and other forms of advertising.

“I commend you for really promoting public transportation on your website,” said Committee Chair Catherine McVay Hughes.

“I was really thrilled to see you really were promoting mass transit.”

The Memorial’s community evenings, meanwhile, are continuing as planned on

Continued on page 19

downtown express

7

November 16 - 22, 2011

Triangle park talk turns to idea of reusing basement

BY ALBERT AMATEAU The focus of attention shifted beneath the surface last week at a hearing on the proposed new triangle park on the west side of the former St. Vincent’s Hospital campus.

The existing triangle, bounded by Seventh and Greenwich Aves. and W. 12th St., includes an inaccessible green space several feet above sidewalk level, with a 10,000-square-foot basement beneath it that formerly served the nowshuttered hospital.

Several neighborhood advocates at the Nov. 2 joint meeting of Community Board 2’s St. Vincent’s Omnibus and Parks Committees urged that the basement space be saved as part of the proposed park.

The board, however, has been calling for an accessible public park at sidewalk level on the triangle for 30 years and the plea seemed close to being answered.

Last week, Rudin Management presented its revised preliminary plans to build the park as part of its residential redevelopment of the hospital’s east campus and North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System’s creation of a community health center and emergency room in the O’Toole Building on the west side of Seventh Ave. Rick Parisi, of MPFP landscape archi-

A rendering of Rudin Management’s design for a park at the open-space triangle at Greenwich and Seventh Aves. and W. 12th St. The view is of an entrance that would be at the park’s southern corner.

tects, told the Nov. 2 meeting that the City Planning Department has indicated it would approve a plan to remove the basement, allowing an accessible park at sidewalk level. Parisi also said City Planning indicated that the existing lowrise, materials-handling building on the triangle that used to serve the hospital could also be demolished.

The removal of the basement and the materials-handling building would allow a 16,000-square-foot park with 7,400 square feet of plantings covering virtually the entire triangle. An earlier plan with the materials-handling building in place would result in a park half the size.

The plans presented on Nov. 2 did not include the basement as part of the

park. But people in attendance, including members of the Queen History Alliance who are advocating for an AIDS memorial in the triangle, said the 10,000-squarefoot underground space was a potential community resource that should not be destroyed.

Michael Seltzer, a Baruch College professor and a member of the alliance, said the triangle was the right place for a tribute to St. Vincent’s pioneering response to the AIDS health crisis.

“Our intent is to create a fitting tribute to the indomitable spirit of our neighbors,” Seltzer said later.

He said that Sister Patrice of St. Vincent’s, who ran the first bereavement groups for people who lost loved ones to AIDS, should be among those honored.

Reverend Mead Miner Bailey, a founder of the country’s first congregate residence for people living with AIDS/H.I.V. — Bailey House on Christopher St. — should also have a tribute in the triangle, he said.

Seltzer added that Reverend John Dyson Canon, priest at St. John’s in the Village Episcopal Church from 1975 to 1987, should also be honored in the triangle park, along with the late Congresswoman Bella Abzug for her fearless neighborhood advocacy.

Continued on page 20

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downtown express

November 16 - 22, 2011

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Women’s Healthcare Services Returns to Tribeca Following the closure of St. Vincent’s Hospital, many physicians came to New York Downtown Hospital so they could continue to serve their patients on the West Side.

With the opening of a new Center on 40 Worth Street, we are pleased to welcome two exceptional physicians back to the community. They will be working in collaboration with physicians from Weill Cornell Medical Associates.

Dr. Zhanna Fridel and Dr. Vanessa Pena are board certified obstetricians and gynecologists utilizing leading diagnostic and treatment methodologies across a broad spectrum of women's health issues.

• • • • • • • • • •

Normal and High Risk Obstetrical Care Complete Well Woman Care Diagnosis and Treatment of Gynecologic Conditions Laparoscopic Surgery Osteoporosis Detection and Treatment Urogynecology (female urology) Cord Blood Banking Cervical Cancer Vaccination Menopausal Management Contraception

For an appointment with Dr. Fridel and Dr. Pena, call (212) 238-0180

New, temp B.P.C. bike path

BY ALINE REYNOLDS Come late 2013, Battery Park City will have a new but temporary bike path, as the city continues work on a permanent route that will eventually line the periphery of Battery Park and connect to the East River waterfront esplanade.

The news was delivered to Community Board 1’s Financial District Committee on Nov. 2, just a day before the City Council passed a law mandating community board notification about forthcoming bike lane installations at least 90 days before the start of construction.

The temporary bike path, which the city Department of Transportation will start building next spring, will take cyclists from Peter Minuit Plaza through parts of historic Battery Park, loop around an eastern portion of the park and eventually connect to the Route 9A bike path.

The bike route will take the place of an interim bike route along State Street, installed in 2004 and subsequently removed due to construction at the Bowling Green subway station, according to Josh Benson, the D.O.T.’s director of pedestrian and bicycle programs who presented the project at the C.B. 1 committee meeting.

Once the subway construction was completed, Benson explained, a section of the sidewalk originally dedicated to bike traffic was eliminated from the riverside bike route.

“The whole area now where the bike route is, will no longer be available because of the

construction of the permanent perimeter [bike] path [led by the City Department of Parks and Recreation],” said Benson. “What we’re looking to do now, as part of the construction project the D.P.R. will be handling next year, is actually to come in before the construction project.”

The D.O.T. has worked with the Parks Department to determine navigable park paths surrounding the construction zone, according to Benson, and plans to install biker-friendly pavement markings and signs along the route, in addition to signage protecting pedestrians.

The permanent bike path, part of Lower Manhattan’s larger greenway project espoused

by NY State Senator Daniel Squadron and others, will purportedly not enter the park, but just line the periphery, and will connect the Hudson River greenway to the East River waterfront esplanade.

“There was a lack of understanding of how cyclists were to get from the East River bikeway to the Hudson River greenway,” said Benson.

“Earlier this year, signs were reintroduced to navigate cyclists along that route.”

Committee chair Ro Sheffe applauded the plan and said, “I think anything that encourages human-powered vehicles, as opposed to fossil fueled burning vehicles, is a good thing,” said Sheffe.

The proposal, Sheffe continued, “strikes a good balance between providing a throughfare for responsible cyclists and the need to preserve the beauty of Battery Park.”

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downtown express

9

November 16 - 22, 2011

L.E.S. school on the ropes after receiving ‘F’ grade

BY ALINE REYNOLDS Lower East Side parents are desperately fighting to keep their local public school open now that it’s potentially on the chopping block after recently getting a failing performance grade from the Department of Education.

P.S. 137, a K-to-5 school at 293 East Broadway, received an “F” grade in its 2010’11 school year progress report — a significant drop from its “C” score in the 2009-’10 year and “A” score in 2008-’09.

As a result, the school has been classified as “needing further examination and review” by the Department of Education due to its poor performance. A departmentissued school evaluation will be released in December — after which, D.O.E. will announce which schools it will be closing, by phasing them out.

P.S. 137 is the only public school in Manhattan south of 14th St. currently categorized as “struggling,” according to D.O.E. data.

The department evaluates schools based on current and former enrollment trends, community needs, leadership and teacher performance, current and past test scores, and school environment, according to Frank Thomas, a D.O.E. spokesperson.

“We are engaging the community, parents and elected officials as part of our work to find out what is working and what

isn’t in these schools, and will take that all into account before making any decisions,” Thomas said.

Nevertheless, P.S. 137’s parents and administrators fear the department’s evaluation could be the beginning of the end for the formerly “A”-rated school.

“I’m upset. I’ve got a feeling it’s going to be closed,” said Maria Diaz, the school’s Parent-Teacher Association president. A resident of the LaGuardia Houses, a nearby public housing development, she has three grandchildren in the school.

Diaz has devised a contingency plan for her family — looking into other Lower East Side schools, such as P.S. 20 and The Earth School, as alternative options for her grandkids.

“Like I told my daughter — if it’s going to be an issue, we have to prepare ourselves for what’s going to happen to their future,” Diaz said.

A school staffer, who requested anonymity for fear of D.O.E. retaliation, faulted the department for not providing adequate support to the school during a difficult transition period.

“To go from an ‘A’ to an ‘F’…you’d really have to be sitting around twirling your thumbs all day for that to happen,” she said.

“That’s not the kind of school we are.”

P.S. 137 was particularly vulnerable to poor student performance in the last year,

according to the source — due in part to losing one-quarter of its 20-member staff, because of retirement and other attrition, midway through the 2009-’10 school year.

Many of the educators were replaced by substitutes rather than full-time teachers, according to sources.

Retaining the teachers was “crucial” to the school’s success, according to the staffer.

“When you have a substitute, they’re not mandated to follow the standards we have,” she explained. Instead, she said, the baseline standard becomes: “As long as the kids don’t kill themselves or each other, then we’re good.”

Other factors led to the school’s recent performance downfall, according to the source, such as a budget shrinkage by $350,000 in recent years and the loss of the school’s after-school enrichment program, “Virtual Y.” Asked about the school’s recent slump, Diaz said she lays most of the blame on the state English Language Arts and math exams, which third-through-eighth graders are required to take each school year. The exam’s gradual switch of focus from multiple choice to written-answer questions has proven difficult for the elementary students, she said.

Diaz’s own granddaughter, fifth grader Kathleen Perez, complained this year about

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math being especially grueling, and received a “3” score last year in her math and English exams — compared to a “4” score two years ago. (A “4” is considered excellent and a “3” somewhere near average.)

“I’m not blaming the principal. I’m not blaming the students,” said Diaz. “These are hard tests for them, and they’re getting harder. They should make it more simple for them to understand.”

Asked for comment about the exams’ level of difficultly, Matthew Mittenthal, a D.O.E. spokesperson, said the city department backs the state Department of Education’s effort to make the exams more challenging — and, specifically, more geared toward honing students’ critical thinking skills.

“It’s the only way we are going to prepare our kids for college-level work,” Mittenthal said.

P.S. 137 Principal Melissa Rodriguez couldn’t be reached for comment by press time.

In an Oct. 25 letter to Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott, Councilmember Margaret Chin expressed her support for P.S. 137, and attributed the school’s 2010-’11 failing performance grade to factors outside its control.

“Recently, I have met with Principal Rodriguez, members of the P.T.A. and parent

Continued on page 19

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Pulp bad girls Earlier this month, a new pulp fiction-inspired graffiti mural — only a section of which is shown above — went up on the Houston St. graffiti wall. The punch-packing piece was created by Faile, a Brooklyn-based artistic collaboration between Patrick McNeil and Patrick Miller.

downtown express

November 16 - 22, 2011

10

EDITORIAL PUBLISHER & EDITOR John W. Sutter

Next step for O.W.S.

ASSOCIATE EDITOR John Bayles

Following Tuesday’s events surrounding the Occupy Wall Street demonstration at Zuccotti Park, one thing is certain: the movement and the message is bigger than the square block it first occupied eight weeks ago.

It is now clear that the O.W.S. response in the coming days and weeks will be paramount in terms of making sure the original message, that corporate greed should not influence government, continues to resonate amongst the ’99 percent.’

As of press time, certain legal issues are still up for debate, such as whether or not a park, even a privatelyowned park, can promulgate new rules directly associated with, and in reaction to, protesters’ First Amendment rights. We are however proud that these issues will play out where they should: in our courts.

New York City has always occupied the spotlight that shines on and illuminates the diversity and freedoms that so many people across the world have come to associate with this country. But it is clear that O.W.S. will not be able to continue in the manner it has. There will be no tents, no sleeping bags and no tarps allowed in Liberty Square. But the voices, the ideas and the cause can and should continue to exist if for only one reason: Dialogue is critical and essential when it comes to democracy. The chant, “This is what democracy looks like” gives us goose bumps and gives us hope.

We hope the next chapter in the O.W.S. movement, one that does not include tents and health and safety hazards, one that can exist in the open and can accommodate everyone in the community, progresses beyond Zuccotti Park, beyond Lower Manhattan and truly becomes a movement.

ARTS EDITOR Scott Stiffler REPORTERS Aline Reynolds Albert Amateau Lincoln Anderson SR. V.P. OF SALES AND MARKETING Francesco Regini ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Allison Greaker Karen Kossman Ellyn Rothstein Julio Tumbaco RETAIL AD MANAGER Colin Gregory BUSINESS MANAGER / CONTROLLER Vera Musa ART / PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Troy Masters ART DIRECTOR Mark Hasselberger GRAPHIC DESIGNER Vince Joy

B.P.C.A. – good and bad

CONTRIBUTORS Terese Loeb Kreuzer • David Stanke • Jerry Tallmer PHOTOGRAPHERS Milo Hess • Jefferson Siegel • Terese Loeb Kreuzer

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Last Friday the Battery Park City Authority laid off 19 employees. Reports indicated the employees had no prior knowledge of the impending pink slips they found on their desks, no prior knowledge that the Authority was even considering a scaling down of the agency and no previous indication that their jobs were in jeopardy.

To our dismay, these reports proved factual.

Six months ago, we called for this city-state agency to implement a sunset plan. We did so in the wake of a report released by the State’s Attorney General that showed the agency had “overspent” in regard to a corporate event. However, we pointed out that the overspending paled in comparison to the overspending by private sector corporations on the same type of events.

Nonetheless we noted that the B.P.C.A. had fulfilled its role, citing the development of 99 percent of the land it was created to oversee. We said, six months ago, that the Authority should sunset and praised it as an example of urban planning that the rest of the country could aspire to.

But, a sun sets slowly and carefully. It doesn’t simply disappear without warning.

We cannot ignore the obvious link between the Authority’s Board Chair, William Thompson, his mayoral ambitions, and how this downsizing is meant to burnish his credentials come campaign season. That said, we ask Mr. Thompson to explain why this move was carried out in such a callous manner. We also ask B.P.C.A. President Gayle Horowitz to explain why, after less than a year on the job, this restructuring of operations had to occur without some basic decencies due to departing employees.

The B.P.C.A. needs to wind down after a successful run, but we are sad to see it done without respect for the people who helped build the foundation on which it will be remembered.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Because of the national fiscal crisis!

To the editor, We readers are surprised that the Downtown Express avoids writing about the national fiscal crisis that affects a large number of New Yorkers.

Today, if state or city-subsidized affordable housing complexes faced a drastic financial crunch, there would be governmental agencies to provide help for them. Once any of them went private, that help would be lost forever.

For example, ex-Mitchell-Lama complex, Seward Park Co-op, already faces a yearly $3 million deficit with no help from New York’s governmental agencies nor the ultra-cautious banks that are affected by the national fiscal crises.

Future buyers of newly privatized co-op apartments will surely not get needed loans from the banks (who are reacting to the national fiscal downturn). Recently, Moody’s, a credit-rating company, down-graded the credit ratings of three major New York banks. Even Moody’s is reacting to the widespread fiscal problems.

Remember that, once privatized, many companies would face big debts: a much higher yearly real estate tax, a $24 million-plus real property transfer tax, and probably a multi-million dollar submetering project to gauge each apartment’s electricity, gas and/or water use.

New York State’s attorney general has been questioning many co-op Boards of Directors interested in privatizing about their inability to provide names of enough viable steady sources of the income absolutely needed to survive fiscally, once privatized, and once state and city abatements and low-coast loans are no longer a regular possibility.

The result will be drastic increases in rents, maintenance costs and/or curbed services once these co-ops are privatized; all because of our nation’s fiscal crisis.

Larry Vide Gerry Lipschutz Barry L. Cohen

O.W.S. pros outweigh cons To the editor, On a recent Thursday night I went down to an off-site sustainability meeting for Occupy Wall Street. Our community garden needs compost and they have it. It’s a win-win. As I walked to the bus I passed young adults in my neighborhood partying in a bar and at a well-heeled gallery opening. When I got to the meeting area there was an atrium full of young adults — and people of other ages — gathered in clusters strategizing about media, sustainability, sanitation, facilitation, education, etc. on behalf of O.W.S. Did you know that after their generators were taken they hooked up bikes to batteries to power their electricity? Did you know they are looking into solar power and building a model wind generator? They are creating power-generation models that we might all need to know how to build someday. They are figuring out recycling. (City parks are not

required to recycle.) They are composting, they have a gray water reclamation model.

They are building possibilities for sustainability that as community gardeners we’ve been working toward for more than 30 years now.

On the Lower East Side, we still have a vibrant neighborhood: diverse, interesting and rich in culture and uniqueness. I wouldn’t trade it for anywhere else.

But in my neighborhood another teenager was murdered a few weeks ago, despite the courageous attempts by his parents to organize against youth violence. One of the few remaining low-income senior homes was sold for luxury condos. Those longtime residents were scattered away from friends and families.

More unemployed workers and fewer housing options for this community’s elderly resulted. I wish we had thought to “Occupy Bialystoker.”

As a parent, I know it’s hard to live next to noise and crowds. We’ve been subjected to an unending barrage of luxury construction on the Lower East Side and a high-end bar scene that has generated noise, murders and not a few wasted evenings spent trying to rein this scene in.

We have seen a burgeoning of mindless wealth accumulation and the required mind-numbing activity that accompanies it. We have seen the despair in our low- and middle-income youth over the realization that they will never be a part of the American Dream while witnessing the relentless economic decline of their parents.

Over-the-top wealth inequity is not news here.

If I had a choice between living with the (loud) sounds and inconveniences of youth organizing for a better world, trying to take charge of their futures, as well as the future of all of us, or living with the status quo — I know what my choice would be.

They are welcome next door to me. Bring it all. Drums too. Because I think it may be past time to end our silent consent to the travesties going on around us.

K Webster

Thanks for hearing us To the editor, Re. “Soho BID needs work” (editorial, Nov. 9): We are very grateful to you for running the editorial in opposition to the Soho Business Improvement District. As a resident of Soho, since the ’70s, I’ve seen many changes. The B.I.D. is the worst thing that could happen to the neighborhood and its residents.

Thank you for providing a way for our voices to be heard.

Ronnie Wolf

United against Soho BID To the editor, Re. “Soho B.I.D. needs work” (editorial, Nov. 9): It was heartening to see that you have taken a firm stand against the Soho B.I.D. We in the community are united in our opposition.

Joyce Kozloff

downtown express

November 16 - 22, 2011

11

TALKING POINT Make triangle an inclusive, community park for all

BY RICHARD BARONE Residents of the West Village are faced with the rare — and perhaps final — opportunity of acquiring for public use a green space, in the form of the triangle site across from the former St. Vincent’s Hospital. The triangle is being designated as a community park, and its unique location at Greenwich and Seventh Aves. makes it a “gateway to the Village.”

By definition, a community park must be all things to all people. But, in the attempt to please all, there is a danger of losing all. For instance, when the discussion moves to the addition of a playground or monument you are no longer talking about a true community park — which should be an “open” space: visually, mentally and emotionally.

I attended Community Board 2’s St. Vincent’s Omnibus Committee meeting several weeks ago, listened to the thoughtful and at times passionate discussion, and commend the committee’s letter to City Planning. The letter is a well-written, thorough document that firmly establishes the community’s concerns for the park and the reuse, as housing, of the old St. Vincent’s facility site itself.

But I disagree with the second point in the letter’s fourth section, regarding the inclusion of a playground. This plan would require a higher, protective fence than the one described in the letter, blocking off and changing the nature of the open space. Without such a fence, the park would be unsafe for children playing because of the constant, irregular traffic patterns around the narrow triangle: One stray ball retrieved over a low fence could spell tragedy. And there is already a successful, safe, designated playground just two blocks west on Bleecker St. Instead, a slightly elevated grassy area for general use could be integrated into the design as a free space that everyone could enjoy, truly serving the neighborhood’s needs.

As suggested in the committee’s letter, placing an AIDS remembrance outside the park, along the Seventh Ave. perimeter — and, furthermore, making it a universal tribute to the diverse victims, groundbreaking caregivers of St. Vincent’s and historic activists — would keep the inside park space inclusive and uplifting for all.

The first responders, as well as those lost to the epidemic,

would be honored with a park within that celebrates the joy of living with understated, natural dignity. Surely, there is no better tribute.

Lastly, we should not rush this process, which is what seems to be the case based on the quickly ticking-away 90-day deadline discussed at a recent C.B. 2 meeting. As with all great parks large and small, a design competition should be held to create a landscaping plan that utilizes the space fully and beautifully, takes the above points into account, and results in a true community park. Future generations will thank us for the foresight we display now.

Barone is a recording artist, performer, producer and author who has collaborated with artists from Lou Reed and Moby to Liza Minnelli, Tiny Tim and most recently, Pete Seeger. The lead singer of the Bongos, his memoir, “Frontman: Surviving the Rock Star Myth,” was published

by Hal Leonard Books. Since 1984, Barone has lived in Greenwich Village, where he recently completed work on his fifth solo album, “Glow.”

Blissed out and barefoot on the block back in Sixties FLASHBACK

In what looks like it could have been a scene from “Hair,” hippies hung out on St. Mark’s Place between Second and Third Aves. in 1968. The view is looking east.

12

November 16 - 22, 2011

downtown express

downtown express

Second school rezoning plan still unsatisfactory Continued from page 5 We’re taking a small amount of blocks that represent a couple of handfuls of children, and we’re sending them a long distance to another neighborhood, when we have 1200 more children coming up in Lower Manhattan.”

P.S. 1 has welcomed in Tribeca youngsters that weren’t accepted into P.S. 234, Joyce continued, “But we’re talking 7 to 10 children — not 300.”

“Over that, we will be dismantling our C.T.T. [Collaborative Team Teaching] expansion, we will have to put art and science on carts, and we will have to give up all of those things that make the school special.”

At the Nov. 8 meeting, Hovitz also complained to Rose about not being given advanced notice to review the proposal

13

November 16 - 22, 2011

before commenting on it. C.E.C. District 2’s president, Shino Tanikawa, accused the D.O.E. for failing to circulate the new zoning map prior to the meeting, as the C.E.C. had requested.

“I saw the proposals [for the first time] at 5:30 in the evening, before I came,” Tanikawa told Rose.

“I honestly think it is unfair to have everybody in this room, including parents and community members… to, on the fly, respond,” chimed in C.B. 1 Chair Julie Menin.

Jennifer Cho, whose four- and two-yearold children would be assigned to P.S. 1. under the proposed zoning, said she would be completely unprepared for the zoning changes.

“I feel like it’s something that came completely out of left field... It has completely thrown a wrench into everything,” said Cho.

WTCProgress world trade center news and updates

WTC Transportation Hub’s Iconic Oculus Begins to Take Shape Street-level rendering of the WTC Transportation Hub Oculus.

A

though not yet visible to T THE HEART of The passersby on the streets Port Authority’s redeof Lower Manhattan. All velopment of the World of that will soon change Trade Center is renowned as the structure that will architect Santiago Calabecome the street level trava’s World Trade Cenentrance to the Transporter Transportation Hub. tation Hub—called the The WTC Transportation “Oculus”—begins to take Hub is a multibillionshape as slabs and foundollar transit project that dations are installed on will restore and enhance the levels of service that Santiago Calatrava sketch of the east side of the World Trade Center site. existed at the site before the inspiration for the WTC September 11, 2001. In Transportation Hub design.

Over the coming months, addition to a new station entrance to the Port Authority the Grand Hall of the Oculus—approxiTrans Hudson (PATH) rail line through mately one and a half times the size a PATH Hall approximately the size of of Grand Central Terminal and located three football fields, this massive proj- approximately 60 feet below the surect also includes climate-controlled, face—will begin to rise to street level. underground connections between Starting next summer, enormous piecmultiple New York City Transit Subway es of the above grade, glass- and steellines and the World Financial Center in ribbed Oculus will be installed. The Battery Park City. The new transporta- commencement of construction on tion hub will also house a range of re- this iconic Oculus structure, designed to represent the wings of a bird taking tail services throughout. flight, is both exciting and representaMuch of this underground infrastruc- tive of the Port Authority’s goals to reture for the WTC Transportation Hub member, rebuild, and renew the World project is already well under way, al- Trade Center. 쏆 2WTC

Oculus

3WTC Foundations and slabs for the WTC Transportation Hub Oculus begin to take shape on the east side of the site. www.WTCProgress.com www.facebook.com/wtcprogress paid advertisement The city D.O.E.’s proposed rezoning for Lower Manhattan public schools.

14

November 16 - 22, 2011

downtown express

In wake of Zuccotti eviction, pols want answers Continued from page 4 is deemed “appropriate.”

If park users violate the rules, Kelly said they would be asked to leave the premises immediately, adding, “And if they don’t leave, they’ll be arrested.”

At around 6 p.m. Tuesday evening, Stolar reported a total of 218 arrests, many of which involved disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and obstructing governmental administration.

Approximately three-quarters of the daylong arrests occurred inside Zuccotti Park during the evacuation, according to Kelly; while 27 others were made at the intersection of Broadway and Cortlandt Street. The rest occurred elsewhere in the park’s vicinity.

“I don’t think any of these arrests are serious today,” said civil rights lawyer and Tribeca resident Daniel Alterman, the Guild’s former president who will be representing some of the arrestees in court. “I haven’t heard of any felonies being charged.”

Like Stolar, Alterman found flaws in Bloomberg’s strategy with respect to the evacuation.

“I think the mayor should have left it alone and let it take its course, and the community would have policed itself,” said Alterman. “First Amendment trumps the inconveniences [of the local community] when the health, safety and quality of life issues are not great.”

Nevertheless, Bloomberg remained firm in his message to the park’s occupiers: “Protestors have had two months to occupy the park with tents and sleeping bags.

“Now,” he said, “they will have to occupy the space with the power of their arguments.”

POLS RESPOND Unlike the planned eviction a month ago, elected officials on Tuesday did not have an opportunity to negotiate with Brookfield or the city prior to the clearing of the park.

Most of them learned of the eviction just moments after it occurred.

In a joint statement, Congressman Jerrold Nadler and NY State Sen. Daniel Squadron said, “We agree that Zuccotti Park must be open and accessible to everyone – O.W.S., the public, law enforcement and first responders – and that it is critical to protect the health and safety of protesters and the community.

We have also been urging the city to have a zero tolerance policy on noise and sanitation violations, and to make the results of its enforcement public. But we must balance the core First Amendment rights of protesters and the other legitimate issues that have been raised.”

“The city’s actions to shut down O.W.S. last night raise a number of serious civil liberties questions that must be answered,” the statement continued. “Moving forward, how will the City respect the protesters’ rights to speech and assembly? Why was press access limited, and why were some

Downtown Express photo by Milo Hess

The NYPD stood watch at Zuccotti Park for most of Tuesday before demonstrators were allowed to re-enter.

reporters’ credentials confiscated? How will reported incidents of excessive force used by the police be addressed? On the issue of Brookfield’s rules, we are very concerned that they were promulgated after the protesters arrived; the specific legal questions on this topic are being addressed where it is appropriate – in the courts.”

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer alluded to numerous reports of members of the press being kept away from the park during the eviction and even arrested.

“Last night, the administration acted to end the occupation of Zuccotti Park by forcible eviction, and I am greatly troubled by reports of unnecessary force against protestors and members of the media, including the use of ‘chokeholds’ and pepper spray,” said Stringer. “I am also troubled by reports of media being forcibly kept away at a distance from these events. American foreign correspondents routinely put themselves in harm’s way to do their jobs, in some of the most brutal dictatorships in the world. And their NYC colleagues deserve the freedom to make the same choice. Zuccotti Park is not Tiananmen Square. I call for a full explanation of police behavior in this evacuation.”

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn echoed the B.P’s statement concerning the treatment of the media.

“Today’s actions include reports of excessive force by the NYPD, and reports of infringement of the rights of the press,” said Quinn. “If these reports are true, these actions are unacceptable.”

Asked why members of the media were denied access to the park’s immediate surroundings during the evacuation, Bloomberg replied, “The Police Department routinely keeps members of the press off to the side when they’re in the middle of a police action, to prevent a situation from getting worse and to protect the members of the press.”

Just in time, the first Occupy Wall St. wedding Prior to Tuesday’s eviction, Zuccotti Park’s first “occu-wedding” took place on Nov. 13 when Occupy Wall Street activists Emery Abdel-Latif, 24, and Micha Balon, 19, exchanged vows before New York University Islamic Center Imam Khalid Latif, with whom the couple became acquainted when they visited the Imam for pre-marriage religious and procedural advice earlier this month.

Balon, who said she would keep her name, said she joined O.W.S. on the first day. Of her immediate plans for the couple’s new married life, Balon said, “We’ll continue doing what we’ve been doing, only now Emery is more pressed to find work!”

Abdel-Latif is a coordinator at the park’s busy kitchen station and Balon, who is an undergraduate at Hunter College, said she is active in several O.W.S. political action working groups.

Three of the couples’ best friends served as witnesses at Zuccotti Park for the first of the two-part traditional Muslim wedding ceremony, attended by additional OWS friends and onlookers. Balon said the wedding would eventually be followed by a larger more formal private reception hosted by both the bride’s and the groom’s parents, who were unable to attend the wedding in Zuccotti Park.

Abdel-Latif, who left a part-time job in West Chester, PA, where he lived with his family to come to Zuccotti during the occupation’s first week, and said, “I’m very happy that they day went off well.” Abdel-Latif

Downtown Express photo by Cynthia Magnus

plans temporarily to continue sleeping at the park, though he said that now his “first priority is finding a job.”

Daniel Levine, a friend of the groom and a fellow O.W.S. activist said that he hoped the camp’s kitchen would not lose AbdelLatif, and quipped, “Hopefully they don’t rush into the occu-baby!”

Levine said of the newlyweds, “To bring the message back to the movement — I wish that they grow old together in a country that has strict campaign finance reform and accountability in the banking and finance sector.”

— Cynthia Magnus

downtown express

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November 16 - 22, 2011

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8/3/11 10:58 AM

November 16 - 22, 2011

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have just one night, starting at 6:30 p.m., to execute their plan. They have to be finished by dawn. Only five people at a time are allowed to work on each structure, with a sixth who can help out by unboxing the cans. Their efforts are judged by a professional panel that awards prizes in categories such as Best Use of Labels, Best Meal and Structural Ingenuity. A few days before Thanksgiving, the sculptures are dismantled and the food donated to City Harvest, which uses it to stock community food programs over the holidays.

Canstruction was founded in 1992 by the Society for Design Administration (SDA) with Canstruction events now to be found in more than 100 cities world-

BY TERESE LOEB KREUZER CANSTRUCTION AT THE WORLD FINANCIAL CENTER: Every year, on the night of the Canstruction build, teams from some of the city’s top architectural and engineering firms plus some students under their direction apply their skills to erecting improbable sculptures out of canned food. This year, among other phantasmagoria, a giant seahorse reared its head, balancing on its curled tail. The ship Titanic toppled precipitously into the ocean and a bowling ball hit some pins, sending them sprawling.

The teams may have spent months planning their competition entries, but they

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downtown express

Downtown Express photo by Terese Loeb Kreuzer

A team from Leslie E. Robertson, structural engineers, working on a structure called “Shedding Light on Hunger” during the annual Canstruction event at the World Financial Center.

wide. In New York City, for the last four years, the event has taken place at the World Financial Center. The A.I.A. New York Chapter is one of the sponsors of the New York competition along with arts>World Financial Center.

Participating firms donate staff time and also pick up the tab for the food. This year, 26 firms entered the New York City competition. American Express erected the largest of this year’s sculptures, with 16,000 cans that created an edifice called “Box Out Hunger.” Build night was Wednesday, Nov. 9, but the entries were not actually judged until Monday, Nov. 14 in order to make sure that none of them fell down.

Honorable Mention went to “Shedding Light on Hunger” from Leslie E. Robertson Associates, an engineering firm that is working on 1 World Trade Center and 4 World Trade Center and to “NepTUNA, the HippoCANpus Against Hunger” from Gilsanz Murray Steficek LLP. Gruzen Samton, (which has been responsible for the architecture of a number of Lower Manhattan buildings, including Stuyvesant High School),working with IBI Group won the Best Use of Labels Award for “QR-CAN: Link to Fight Hunger.” This clever structure would allow someone with a QR scanner app on their camera phone to link to the website canstruction. org, according to Abraham Rodriguez, one of those on the team that built it.

Dattner Architects got the Best Meal Award for “Root Against Hunger” while Skanska took the Structural Ingenuity Award for “Suspending Hunger” — a replica of the Brooklyn Bridge. “Loaded Dice” from Gensler / WSP Flack + Kurtz was deemed the Jurors’ Favorite.

The sculptures can be viewed through Nov. 21. To supplement the more than 100,000 cans of food that have been used in the sculptures, visitors are asked to bring additional canned food and leave it at the administrative table for the event, which is at the top of the northern escalator in the Winter Garden at 2 World Financial Center.

According to the New York Coalition Against Hunger, the need for food is increasing in New York City. As of September 2010, 1.7 million New Yorkers received food stamp benefits, up from 200,000 people in June 2009, the Coalition Against Hunger has reported.

In 2009, one in eight households in New York State could not afford an adequate supply of food.

EQUESTRIAN SCULPTURE: Battery Park City, known for its public art works, now has a new addition. A 16-foot-tall bronze equestrian sculpture, “De Oppresso Liber,” by Douwe Blumberg, was part of the New York City Veterans Day Parade on Nov. 11, 2011. After processing down Fifth Avenue on a float, the 5,000-pound statue was installed in a lobby on the east side of 1 World Financial Center. It honors U.S. Army Special Forces personnel who fought their way on horseback across the rugged mountains of Afghanistan in the weeks following 9/11. The name of the statue comes from the U.S. Army Special Forces motto and means “to free from oppression.” U.S. Vice President Joe Biden unveiled the statue.

It will remain in the World Financial Center until a permanent home can be found for it.

Zuccotti Park has been suggested as has the

Continued on page 20

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November 16 - 22, 2011

“Every part of a child’s life is important. If you are successful in lower school, feeling confident about yourself as an effective member of a larger group, the sky’s the limit.”

LIBBY HIXSON HEAD OF LOWER SCHOOL, AVENUES Former Middle School Head, The Dalton School

WHAT MAKES A GREAT LOWER SCHOOL? A commitment from Avenues: The World School. At Avenues, our starting point for Lower School is emotional safety, because only when students feel safe do they welcome new ideas and new people into their lives.

This is the time when our children begin to shift from living in the protective bubble of their parents to a growing awareness of the world outside.

Introducing Lower School students to the world.

“The World Course is the soul of our school,” explains Libby Hixson, head of Lower School at Avenues. “At the very start, we will pick up the threads that spiral up through-out the years at Avenues. We will connect social studies, science, art, math, music and literature to a child’s growing awareness of the world.”

Gaining proficiency and cultural sensitivity. “As a world school, Avenues places an emphasis on gaining proficiency in a second language and on an appreciation for other cultures,” says Hixson.

“Immersion in a second language begins in the earliest grades.

This isn’t merely language instruction; it’s learning subject matter like science, math or art, in Chinese or Spanish.

This type of curriculum gives students the best foundation for succeeding in higher grades and beyond.”

Building on human values. Our Lower School students will first look inward to learn about themselves, then look outward to better understand the world around them. We’re here to build a community where children can look at each other with respect and affection.

WWW.AVENUES.ORG

TO LEARN MORE, OR TO SIGN UP FOR OUR PARENT INFORMATION EVENTS, VISIT AVENUES.ORG OR CALL 212.935.5000.

18

November 16 - 22, 2011

downtown express

Solving waste and rodent problems in Chinatown Continued from page 6 District Manager, Susan Stetzer. “This is a perfect example of why you need the [Chinatown] B.I.D. — who else is going to [sponsor] this?”

While the machines are valued at a pricey $4,000-a-piece, they can result in hefty overall savings for metropolitan areas, according to Cruz. Now equipped with approximately 1,000 BigBellies, the city of Philadelphia, for example, has pared down its trash collection from 17 times a week to twice a week, leading to cost reductions in citywide sanitation services of close to $1 million, according to Cruz.

Apart from economic waste, premature trash collection and landfill dumping has an adverse impact on the environment, Cruz argued.

“This will delay the need for garbage

pick-ups, save on [car] fuel and wear-andtear on the roads, and dramatically reduce carbon emissions,” said Cruz. “The point of collection is where you can make a difference.”

The relatively new form of trash collection does not have to result in layoffs of sanitation workers, Cruz assured. In the case of Philadelphia, sanitation personnel were transferred to the city’s recycling program, which was enhanced following the BigBelly installations.

The BigBelly has proven to be virtually indestructible. It weighs more than 300 pounds and is composed of recycled bumpers and polycarbonate — making it resistant to extreme temperatures and other inclement weather. One BigBelly was even discovered unharmed after being submerged in water in Port Jefferson, Long Island following Hurricane Irene, according to Cruz.

“I’ve been a distributor and assembler of the product since 2007, and I can count on the fingers of one hand how many service calls I’ve gotten,” said Cruz.

Nonetheless, Cruz recommends that the compactors be fastened to the ground, for safety reasons. “It’s possible that you could have people who just for fun want to see if they could knock it over into the street,” he said.

Chinatown community members welcomed the high-tech garbage can into their neighborhood with open arms.

“A lot of people think we’re a futile society and [do it] the old way with a broomstick,” said Chen. “This is a more innovative way to say there are greener, possible hybrid solutions to what we’re trying to tackle here.”

“And more importantly, Ratatouille cannot get inside!” said Chen, referring to Remy, the fictionalized rat in the 2007 computer-animated film, “Ratatouille.”

Studies have indeed shown that the BigBelly is impervious to rodents and helps to curb rodent infestations, according to Cruz. Following a pilot program in which three BigBellies supplanted traditional wastebaskets in Thomas Paine Park from April to October this year, urban rodentologist Robert Corrigan, a city Health Department employee, reported a migration of the rats away from the park.

An endless supply of litter that accumulates in public trash bins allows the rats to “flourish,” according to Cruz. “[Corrigan’s] theory is that, the reason why the rat population is so difficult to control, particularly in New York, is because it’s very difficult for sanitation to keep up with emptying trash baskets; so that, if we could eliminate the food source and continue to bait, there might be some progress made in the fight against the rats in New York City,” said Cruz.

B.P.C.A. 19 speak out on firings Continued from page 1 my house. I take care of my mother. She just had surgery. She has to have more surgery in January.”

Nineteen people were fired that day — amounting to about one third of the Battery Park City Authority’s staff. Those who were let go had worked for the Authority anywhere from four to 28 years. Most had been with the Authority for more than 10 years. Two were within a few months of being vested in the pension plan.

There was no severance pay. In addition, the people who were fired were told that their health benefits would expire on Nov. 30.

One of those fired, who lives by herself and has no one to care for her, has had a kidney transplant and requires daily medications to stay alive. Another had had a triple bypass heart operation. Several of those terminated had ill family members who were covered by their health plans.

Among those fired were four single parents who are the sole support of their families.

Anne Fenton, a spokesman for the Battery Park City Authority, issued a statement to explain what had happened that said, “In an effort to meet its ongoing mission of ensuring a community of quality commercial, residential and park space, the Battery Park City Authority has restructured its operations including the consolidation of certain departments and functions. This restructuring will better position the Authority to meet its operational challenges moving forward.”

When asked directly, Fenton would not proffer an explanation as to why the terminated employees received no severance pay or any advance notice so that they could seek other employment. She said that her statement was the B.P.C.A.’s only comment.

“I understand that they had to restructure,” said one woman who was let go after more than a decade of working in Battery Park City. “We all knew that was potentially

coming, but just the way it was done and how [it was done] are unprofessional in my opinion and it hurts. It was like they just wiped their hands of us and threw us in the trash.

Thanksgiving is coming up and Christmas.

They had no regard. It was like, so what?”

She said that with the holidays around the corner and with a 9 percent unemployment rate, she feared that it would be months at best before she could find another job.

“I’m just heartbroken at the way we were treated,” said another woman. “Some of these people spent their entire careers at the Authority and they’re not young people. After a lifetime of service, you’re thrown out in an hour and a half?”

“I feel worse than an animal,” one man said, who had been with the Authority for almost 20 years and had won many awards for his work. “What did I do wrong? What did we do wrong? We made the Authority what it is. The Authority gave a lot of money to the City through our efforts.”

Some entire departments were eliminated.

There is no longer a planning department at the Battery Park City Authority. Should structural changes be requested in Battery Park City buildings such as those recently proposed by Brookfield Properties at 2 World Financial Center, there will be no one on staff to vet them. The most senior member of the construction department was fired. Senior members of the legal department who had negotiated contracts with Goldman Sachs and others were let go. Only one member of the Human Resources department remains.

“This is a catastrophe for many, many people,” said one member of the management team who was terminated. “I also think it’s a catastrophe for the Battery Park City community. You can’t walk down those streets and not see how beautiful it is, and you love the place and you want the best for it. I don’t think in the long run this is the best for it.”

“Most of the institutional knowledge has been pushed out the door,” said another terminated manager.

Downtown Express photo by Terese Loeb Kreuzer

Gayle Horwitz, president of the Battery Park City Authority, at a meeting of the Authority’s Audit Committee on Monday, Nov. 14, five days after the B.P.C.A. fired 19 employees.

“I would like to think the board was not aware of the manner in which this was carried out,” said James Cavanaugh, who was president of the B.P.C.A. from 2005 to 2010.

“The B.P.C.A. has had an extremely good year and an extremely good 40 years. The employees who were terminated contributed to that. And I think that when one gives many years, and in some cases an entire career, to an organization, they deserve more than a kick in the pants on their way out the door. If a decision was made to downsize, given the fact that the Authority made $10 million this year more than they anticipated, they could have taken a little bit of that and softened the blow, particularly going into the holiday season.”

Cavanaugh continued, “These are single parents with kids, people with enormous medical needs. These are people who are going to have trouble finding jobs because

many of them are middle-aged or older – this is going to be very, very tough for all of them.

One or two of them were within months of qualifying for retirement. Now, of course, they won’t be able to retire.”

The 19 terminated employees are trying to help each other weather this crisis. Not wanting to be identified by name because all of them are seeking jobs, they have selected Hector Calderon, who formerly operated the Community Center and the ball fields, to speak for them. They call themselves the “Battery Park City 19.”

“The B.P.C.A. 19 request that the members of the Battery Park City Authority Board provide them with severance and medical benefits commensurate with their long term and valuable contributions to the Authority and the Battery Park City community,” Calderon said in a statement.

Calderon referenced the fact that the 19 employees had been “summarily dismissed without severance or proper instruction about how to continue their health benefits, which they were told would terminate on 11/30/11.

The B.P.C.A. 19 believe that the board will rectify this injustice once circumstances surrounding their termination are brought to light.”

On Thursday, Nov. 17, at 6:45 p.m., Gayle Horwitz, president of the B.P.C.A., has scheduled a town hall meeting at P.S. 276, located at 55 Battery Place, so residents of Battery Park City can air comments and complaints.

The B.P.C.A. 19 hope that the topic of the layoffs and how they were carried out will come up at that meeting.

In the meantime, the best answer that anyone has been able to give about the timing of the layoffs references B.P.C.A. Chairman William C. Thompson, Jr.’s mayoral ambitions.

“He wants to burnish his credentials,” one person said, “ and show that he can cut costs and be a tough manager. That’s what’s going on here.”

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19

November 16 - 22, 2011

9/11 Memorial L.E.S. school receives ‘F’ addressing transportation

total, compared to an average of 13 percent in other similarly ranked city public schools.

Continued from page 9

Continued from page 6 Sun., Dec. 4 and Sun., Jan. 8. The last evening, on Nov. 6, received a relatively low turnout compared to the previous evening in October, Connors noted.

No elected official is scheduled to host the next community evening, he pointed out. “It’s your evening, so we’d love to work with you to make it what you think it should be,� he said.

Committee members such as Bob Schneck inquired about the large security presence at the site. “Is there ever going to be a time like before 9/11, when you could stroll down and wander under the [plaza] trees at night?� “You’re mostly referring to Police Department presence on the site,� replied Connors. “Eventually, limitations on the site will go away when most of the surrounding construction of streets and sidewalks is finished. But that is, I think, a three-year period.�

While the ceremony commemorating the 11th anniversary of 9/11 has not yet been fleshed out, the Memorial is in the process of organizing a “recovery worker day� for sometime next year, according to Connors.

Connors also notified the committee that the names of 9/11 first responders and others who, according the NYC Chief Medical Examiner’s Office, die from exposure to Ground Zero toxins, will be added to the parapets that line the sides of the Memorial’s reflecting pools.

In part due to the booming turnout at

the Memorial, local residents are finding it increasingly difficult to navigate the area surrounding the W.T.C. site.

Cedar Street resident Mary Perillo, for one, complained about the pedestrian bottleneck at the intersection of Greenwich and Albany Streets. Barricades in the area also slow down pedestrians heading from

‘Eventually, limitations on the site will go away when most of the surrounding construction of streets and sidewalks is finished.’ — James Connors

east to west or vice-versa, she said.

Perillo and others also complained about the Memorial’s small signage on Liberty and Trinity Streets, and about the crowds of tourists that stand idle in front of the 9/11 Memorial Preview Site. “We’re going to work together with the N.Y.P.D. in terms of whatever enforcement needs there are, to see how we can make the situation a little bit better than it is right now,� said Connors. “We want to continue to be as good a neighbor as we can be.�

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coordinators, as well as visited the school,�

Chin wrote. “I do not believe the ‘F’ grade is an accurate representation of student achievement at P.S. 137. “Under no circumstances should P.S. 137 be considered for phase-out.�

In 2006, the school was transferred from Cherry St. to its current building at East Broadway, which it shares with P.S. 134.

Since then, the school has had difficulties “establishing an identity at its current location,� according to Chin. The two schools are forced to share classrooms, a library and even administrative office space. P.S. 137 doesn’t have its own entrance to the building, the councilmember noted. “The exterior of the building is inscribed with only the name of P.S. 134, despite requests by Principal Rodriguez for equal signage,� Chin noted.

In fact, according to the anonymous staffer, P.S. 134 hasn’t been welcoming to P.S. 137, and is treating the new school as a “guest� rather than a “neighbor.� “They would be happy to roll out the red carpet for us to get out,� she said.

In addition to having a sizeable minority and public housing demographic, P.S. 137 boasts an unusually high number of English Language Learners — 18 percent

“Under no circumstances should P.S. 137 be considered for phase-out.�

Margaret Chin

According to Chin and other school advocates, these students, whose native language isn’t English, are “under-weighted� in comparison to special-needs, freelunch and minority students — which, they contend, has a direct bearing on the school’s progress report. And, the staffer pointed out that, according to statewide policy, E.L.L. students are required to take the same exams as native-English-speaking children after only one year of being in a city public school. “Whatever language skills we build Monday through Friday get broken down on nights and weekends,� she said, since the students’ families speak to them in their native languages.

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downtown express

November 16 - 22, 2011

20

Triangle park talk Christopher Tepper, a founder of the Queer History Alliance, urged Rudin, which has agreed to pay for building and maintaining the triangle park, to “keep an open mind” about including the basement in the park design.

Community board member Steve Ashkenazi was also concerned about pre-

serving the basement under the triangle.

“To destroy that underground space makes no sense,” Ashkenazi said, citing the shortage of meeting places in the district. Robert Woodworth, operations manager of the L.G.B.T. Community Center on W. 13th St., said that 10,000 square feet of usable space should be preserved for the public as a teaching center.

Gil Horowitz, of the Washington SquareLower Fifth Ave. Block Association, and

B.P.C. Beat Continued from page 16 World Trade Center site. The statue, which cost $500,000, belongs to the United War Veterans Council and was paid for with private funds.

KNICKERBOCKER CHAMBER ORCHESTRA’S FOURTH SEASON: Downtown’s own chamber orchestra, the Knickerbocker, kicked off its fourth season with a fundraising soirée at Battery Park City’s Poets House on Monday, Nov. 14. N.Y. State Senator Daniel Squadron opened the concert by commending the Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra and Poets House for bringing arts to the Downtown community.

The evening, called “Musical Poetry,” presented members of the orchestra performing musical settings of cherished 19th and 20th century poems preceded by a buffet. Baritone Richard Weidrich rendered songs with lyrics by e.e. cummings, Emily Dickinson and John Masefield. The Knickerbocker’s founder, Gary Fagin, conducted.

The Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra’s next outing will be on Jan. 14 at the Winter Garden of the World Financial Center with a free performance called “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Music” in honor of the 125th anniversary of the unveiling of the Statue of Liberty.

To comment on Battery Park City Beat or to suggest article ideas, email TereseLoeb@ mac.com

Trinity Wall Street THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1pm Concerts at One West Point Band’s Quintette 7 Trinity Church FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 6pm Family Friday Pizza and Movie Night This month: Disney-Pixar’s Up. Charlotte’s Place MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1pm & TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 7pm Henry Purcell’s Odes Chamber ensemble TENET offers a free preview on Monday and ticketed performance on Tuesday trinitywallstreet.org/tickets St. Paul’s Chapel (Monday) & Trinity Church (Tuesday)

All Are Welcome All events are free, unless noted.

212.602.0800

Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, called on Rudin and MPFP to determine the cost and feasibility of a triangle park with a basement.

But Kenneth Winslow, a Bank St. resident, presented a petition signed by scores of neighbors reaffirming the desire for a triangle park at sidewalk level, which would not be likely if the basement is preserved.

Jo Hamilton, C.B. 2 chairperson, said she was concerned that the park be visible from the outside. Visibility was one of the main reasons the board has been calling for the park to be at sidewalk level.

Albert Bennett, a public member of the board’s Parks Committee, was concerned that the roots of shade trees planned for the triangle park would not have room to grow if the basement remains.

Tobi Bergman, chairperson of the C.B. 2 Parks Committee, reminded the audience that the Queer History Alliance was scheduled to present an alternative plan for preserving the underground space at Board 2’s Parks Committee meeting on Wed., Nov. 16. Nevertheless, the proposal for a sidewalk-level park was the only one being considered last week.

The triangle park is to be part of the uniform land use review procedure, or ULURP, for Rudin’s residential redevelop-

Let’s do something together

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1-4pm Acting Shakespeare’s Verse A verse acting class on “All’s Well That Ends Well” with reading on November 20 at 1:30pm (St. Paul’s Chapel).

Suggested donation of $5.

74 Trinity Pl, 2nd Fl, Parlor SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 10am Practicing the Presence of God: Through the Book of Common Prayer Explore how to feel God’s love in the thick of a complex world. This week: Rites for the Dead, The Rev. Patrick Malloy, Ph.D., General Seminary.

74 Trinity Pl, 2nd Fl, Parish Hall TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1pm Concerts at One (due to Thanksgiving holiday) Stephane Wrembel, guitar Trinity Church

ment of the former St. Vincent’s property on Seventh Ave.’s east side. The entire project, including the park and how it would be maintained and administered, must win the approval of the City Council at the end of the nine-month review procedure.

Although Board 2 has called for the triangle to become a city Parks Department property, Melanie Meyers, Rudin’s land-use lawyer, said the developer would be responsible for the construction and maintenance of the park in perpetuity.

In the future, the residential condo owners in the new Rudin project would fund the park’s maintenance, according to Meyers. Meyers said each condo owner would be required to agree to pay for the park’s maintenance and the city would have the power to enforce the maintenance agreement. The city Parks Department standard of maintenance would be the standard for the triangle park, Meyers said.

She suggested that a Triangle Park Alliance — representing local elected officials, the community board, neighborhood park advocates and representatives of the condo owners — could be designated as responsible for the park. The entity would be included as part of the review for the residential project, she added.

trinitywallstreet.org

worship SUNDAY, 8am and 10am St. Paul’s Chapel Communion in the round 8pm Compline, music, and prayers SUNDAY, 9am and 11:15am Trinity Church Preaching, music, and Eucharist Sunday school and child care available MONDAY – FRIDAY, 12:05pm Trinity Church Holy Eucharist MONDAY – FRIDAY, 5:15pm All Saints’ Chapel, in Trinity Church Evening Prayer, Evensong (Thurs.)

Watch online webcast

TRINITY CHURCH Broadway at Wall Street 74 Trinity Place is located in the office building behind Trinity Church.

Joanne Bouknight

Continued from page 7

Chamber ensemble TENET performs Henry Purcell’s Odes on Monday and Tuesday (see listing).

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 6pm World/Global + Poetry + Reading/Slam ST. PAUL’S CHAPEL Listen to and read poetry.

Broadway and Fulton Street Charlotte’s Place CHARLOTTE’S PLACE 109 Greenwich St, btwn Rector & Carlisle The Rev. Dr. James H. Cooper, Rector The Rev. Canon Anne Mallonee, Vicar

an Episcopal parish in the city of New York

downtown express

21

November 16 - 22, 2011

YOUTH ACTIVITIES

COMPILED BY NIKKI TUCKER

HOW DID DINOSAURS GET SO HUGE? Walk inside the giant body of a 60-foot-long, 11-foot-tall Mamenchisaurus at this exhibit about some of the biggest creatures to ever roam the planet. Long-necked and long-tailed sauropods could grow to be 150 feet — but what made them so huge? “The Largest Dinosaurs� explores this question with up-close views of how the extinct giants moved, ate and breathed — and offers insight into why these functions are linked to the creatures’ size. At the end of the exhibit, learn how dinosaur fossils are discovered in an interactive replication of a dig site. Through Jan. 2, 2012. At the American Museum of Natural History (79th St. and Central Park West). Museum hours: 10am-5:45pm, daily. For museum and dino-exhibit admission: $25 for adults, $19 for seniors and students, $14.50 for children ages 2-12. Call 212-769-5100 or visit amnh.org.

JIM HENSON’S FANTASTIC WORLD Meet Miss Piggy, Kermit the Frog and Bert and Ernie at an exhibit dedicated to creative genius Jim Henson — creator of The Muppet Show, Fraggle Rock and Sesame Street. Puppets, drawings, storyboards, props and many other Henson artifacts are on display. Even more fantastic is the program of events. At the Museum of the Moving Image (36-01 35th Ave., Astoria).

Until Jan. 16, 2012. Museum hours: Tues.-Thurs., 10:30am5pm. Fri., 10:30am-8pm. Sat./Sun., 10:30am-7pm. Admission: $10 adults, $7.50 college students and seniors, $5 children under 18 (free for members and children under three). Free admission for all on Fri., 4-8pm. For info and a full schedule of events, visit movingimage.us or call 718-777-6888.

BATTERY PARK CITY PARK CONSERVANCY’S STORIES & SONGS This multi-week program of participatory music and stories is for young children accompanied by an adult. By introducing musical performance and creative storytelling to children, “Stories & Songs� develops active listening, socializing and cultural literacy in a joyous, warm environment.

Space is limited and advanced registration is required. To preregister, call 212-267-9700 ext. 366 or visit BPCPC’s office at 75 Battery Place. Payment can be made by check to BPCPC, or

by Visa or Master Card. Battery Park City Parks Conservancy offers 20 percent discounts to siblings enrolled in “Stories & Songs.� Mondays, through Dec. 12 or Wednesdays, through Dec. 7. Located at 6 River Terrace (South end of River Terrace by the Irish Hunger Memorial).

BMCC TRIBECA PERFORMANING ARTS CENTER Highlights of the 2011-2012 family season includes family favorites such as “Clifford, The Big Red Dog� (celebrating its 50th

Anniversary), “The Magic Schoolbus� (celebrating its 25th Anniversary) and will continue its partnership with Theatreworks USA with four productions (including “The Yellow Brick Road� on Sun., Nov. 20, at 3pm). Single tickets are $25 (10Club members enjoy $14 tickets). A 10Club Membership enables you to purchase 10 admissions for $140 (parents save more than 40 percent off the cost of each ticket). To purchase a 10Club membership, call 212-220-1460 or visit Ticketing Services (Tues.-Sat., 12-6pm; located in the lobby of the Borough of Manhattan Community College, 199 Chambers St.).

Visit tribecapac.org for single tickets.

SATURDAY AFTERNOONS AT THE SCHOLASTIC STORE Every Saturday at 3pm, Scholastic’s in-store activities are designed to get kids reading, thinking, talking, creating and moving. At 557 Broadway (btw. Prince and Spring Sts.). Store hours are Mon.-Sat., 10am-7pm and Sun., 11am6pm. For info, call 212-343-6166 or visit scholastic.com/sohostore.

POETS HOUSE The Poets House Children’s Room gives children and their parents a gateway to enter the world of rhyme — through readings, group activities and interactive performances. For children ages 1-3, the Children’s Room offers “Tiny Poets Time� readings on Thursdays at 10am; for those ages 4-10, “Weekly Poetry Readings� on Saturdays at 11am. Filled with poetry books, old-fashioned typewriters and a card catalogue packed with poetic objects to trigger inspiration, the Children’s Room is open Thurs.-Sat., 11am-5pm. On Sat., Dec. 3, 11am, join Homer-in-residence Mike Romanos for a retelling of this epic tale, complete with all the angry gods, flailing monsters and cunning heroes of the original.

Free admissions. (at 10 River Terrace and Murray St.). Call 212-431-7920 or visit poetshouse.org.

CHILDREN’S MUSEUM OF THE ARTS Explore painting, collage and sculpture through self-guided arts projects at this museum dedicated to inspiring the artist within. Open art stations are ongoing throughout the afternoon — giving children the opportunity to experiment with materials such as paint, clay, fabric, paper and found objects. Drop in with wee-ones (ages 10 months to 3½ years) for the museum’s “Wee-Artsâ€? program every Mon. and Fri., 9:15-10:30am; Wed., 4-5:15pm; Wed.-Thurs., 10-11am, through Dec.23. Start the morning with Playdough, paints, glue and drawing — in an intimate and stimulating environment where experimentation, exploration and creative thinking are encouraged. Each session ($22 per family of three) ends with music and story time. Museum

hours: Mon. and Wed., 12-5pm; Thurs. and Fri., 12-6pm; Sat.Sun., 10am-6pm. Admission: $10; Pay as you wish on Thurs., 4-6pm. At 103 Charlston St. (btw. Hudson and Greenwich Sts.). Call 212-274-0986 or visit cmany.org. For group tours, call 212-274-0986, ext. 31.

niques, observation experiments and fingerprinting to solve a mystery. This event is great for families with children ages 5-14. Sat., Nov. 19, 11am-2pm. Admission is free. Ongoing, the Junior Officers Discovery Zone is an exhibit designed for ages 3-10. It’s divided into four areas (Police Academy, Park and Precinct, Emergency Services Unit and a Multi-Purpose Area), each with interactive and imaginary play experiences for children to understand the role of police officers in our community — by, among other things, driving and taking care of a police car. For older children, there’s a crime scene observation activity that will challenge them to remember relevant parts of city street scenes, a physical challenge similar to those at the Police Academy and a model Emergency Services Unit vehicle where children can climb in, use the steering wheel and lights, hear radio calls with police codes and see some of the actual equipment carried by The Emergency Services Unit. At 100 Old Slip (btw. Front and South Sts.).

For info, call 212-480-3100 or visit nycpm.org. Hours: Mon. through Sat., 10am-5pm and Sun., 12-5pm. Admission: $8 ($5 for students, seniors and children; free for children under 2).

NEW YORK CITY FIRE MUSEUM Kids will learn about fire prevention and safety through group tours, led by former NYC firefighters. The program — which lasts approximately 75 minutes — includes classroom training and a simulated event in a mock apartment, where a firefighter shows how fires can start in different rooms in the home. Finally, students are guided on a tour of the museum’s first floor. Tours (for groups of 20 or more) are offered Tuesdays through Fridays at 10:30am, 11:30am and 12:30pm. Tickets are $3 for children and $5 per adult — but for every 10 kids, admission is free for one adult. The museum offers a $700 Junior Firefighter Birthday Party package, for children 3-6 years old. The birthday child and 15 of their guests will be treated to story time, show and tell, a coloring activity, a scavenger hunt and the opportunity to speak to a real firefighter (the museum provides a fire-themed birthday cake, juice boxes and other favors and decorations). The NYC Fire Museum is located at 278 Spring St. (btw. Varick and Hudson). For info and reservations, call 212-691-1303.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE YOUR EVENT LISTED IN THE DOWNTOWN EXPRESS? Send information to scott@ chelseanow.com. Please provide the date, time, location, price and a description of the event. Information may also be mailed to 515 Canal Street, Unit 1C, New York City, NY 10013.

Requests must be received at least three weeks before the event. Questions? Call 646-452-2497.

THE NEW YORK CITY POLICE MUSEUM At “Junior Detective Day,� kids will use Crime Scene Investigation tech-

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November 16 - 22, 2011

22

Poised to offer free potpourri: Michael Earl (in back row, with glasses).

Photo courtesy of Alix Smith and Morgan Lehman Gal

Alix Smith, “States of Union 11” (2009, c-print).

Just Do Art! COMPILED BY SCOTT STIFFLER

PUPPET SCHOOL PREVIEW You may not know Michael Earl’s name or face. But you’ve probably seen the Emmy Award-winner’s work. That’s him, as Big Bird, in the last scene of 1979’s “The Muppet Movie.” Earl also lent a hand, literally, to Jim Henson’s portrayal of Ernie — and for years, he walked down Sesame Street as Mr. Snuffleupagus. Inspired by the renewed interest in Muppet-style puppetry sure to snowball after Disney’s November 23 release of “The Muppets,” Earl’s Los Angeles-based Puppet School is expanding its occasional presence in NYC — by offering 6-week courses in televi-

sion puppetry and professional puppet making (beginning on January 5, 2012). Get a taste of things to come at “Puppetry Potpourri” — an evening of demonstrations by Earl and his NYC Puppet School faculty. Randy Carfagno will talk about his professional puppet making class, and Scott Biski will preview his 6-week Beginning TV Puppetry Workshop. They’ll be joined by Roberto Ferreira (filmmaker and Puppet School co-founder) as well as “Avenue Q” veteran Christian Anderson.

Free. Mon., Nov. 21, 6:30pm. At Simple Studios (134 W. 29th St., btw. 6th & 7th Aves.; 2nd floor). For info, email michael@ puppetschool.com.

ART: “BEING AMERICAN” The School of Visual Arts (SVA) gives America’s patchwork quilt of hot-button concerns the Chelsea gallery treatment — with over 85 works on display offering everything from same-gender family scenes (Alix Smith’s photo series “States of Union”) to truth-telling caricatures of Obama and the cast of “The Jersey Shore” (courtesy of illustrator Steve Brodner). SVA Gallery Director Francis Di Tommaso — the curator of “Being American” — notes that the 20 participating artists, “have twenty stories to tell about the experience of being American today. Though many would not normally exhibit in the same venue — the work of some is almost never seen outside of

Photo by Chris Cassidy

Director Michael Bentt (third from left) and actors/boxers Richie Neves, Tommy Rainone and Mike Brooks during a rehearsal at Gleason’s Gym.

the printed page — they all have immediately accessible and also exquisitely nuanced commentaries to make on American culture.”

Nov. 22–Dec. 21. Reception: Thurs., Dec. 1, 6-8pm. At the Visual Arts Gallery (601 W. 26 St., 15th floor; btw. 11th & 12th Aves.).

Gallery hours: Mon.-Sat., 10am-6pm; closed on Sundays and public holidays. Closed at 1pm on Nov. 23, then closed Nov. 24-27.

The gallery is accessible by wheelchair. For info, call 212-592-2145 or visit sva.edu.

KID SHAMROCK Only on YouTube — or ringside in Vegas or possible at a charity event — will you find a more impressively credentialed roster of boxing legends in the same room. What makes this event different is the fact that the athletes in question happen to be on the stage and working behind the scenes. “Kid Shamrock” is playwright/sportswriter Bobby Cassidy Jr.’s telling of middleweight contender “Irish” Bobby Cassidy’s epic battles of defeat and triumph — in the ring, and with the bottle.

London-born, Queens-raised former WBO world heavyweight champion Michael Bentt (who turned in a dynamic performance as Sonny Liston in the film “Ali”) makes his directorial debut. Veteran actors Vinny Vella (“Casino”) and Patrick Joseph Connolly (“The Sopranos”) are joined by a cast of accomplished boxers — including Olympic gold medallist Mark Breland, Ireland’s John Duddy, Wayne Kelly, Seamus McDonagh and Bobby Cassidy himself. Actors and boxers both train long and hard so they can tap into that moment of charismatic excellence when the bell rings or the curtain rises — so the collective intensity on display here should be well worth the time of theater geeks and sports fans alike.

Fri., Nov. 25 through Sun., Dec. 4.

At the TADA Theater (15 W. 28th St., btw. Broadway & Fifth Ave.; handicapped

Continued on page 25

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23

November 16 - 22, 2011

You Go, Girl!

Strong women at center of two Off-Broadway productions THEATER ASUNCION Rattlestick Theater at the Cherry Lane 38 Commerce St., btwn. Barrow & Bedford Sts. Through Nov. 27, Wed.-Sat. at 8pm, Sat at 2pm; Sun. at 3pm $75; ovationtix.com Or 212-352-3101

CHILDREN TACT at the Beckett Theatre 410 W. 42nd St. Through Nov. 20, Tue.-Thu. at 7:30pm, Fri.Sat. at 8pm, Sat., Sun. at 2pm $56.25; telecharge.com Or 212-239-6200

BY CHRISTOPHER BYRNE The momentary relief one gets laughing at one-liners in Jesse Eisenberg’s new play “Asuncion” are insufficient to compensate for its fatal weaknesses.

Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, which moved into the Cherry Lane for this production, is clearly trying to capitalize on the celebrity Eisenberg earned from his Oscar-nominated and affectless portrayal of Mark Zuckerberg in “The Social Network.”

Unfortunately, his would-be comedy is characterized by contorted plotting and weak structure that ultimately undermine a supposedly earnest attempt at social criticism.

For any comedy to work, there needs to be a modicum of plausibility, even when situations are over-the-top.

Edgar is a would-be journalist, post-grad slacker living with Vinny, a former college teaching assistant of his that he idolizes, in a dumpy apartment in upstate Binghamton.

Edgar’s older, financially successful brother, Stuart, arrives and announces he’s married to a Filipino woman named Asuncion whom for reasons he can’t divulge must stay with Edgar and Vinny.

In an irrational mental leap, Edgar immediately decides his brother bought Asuncion and is keeping her as a sex slave. Hoping to make his name as a journalist, he sets about to expose this nightmare, while Vinny and Asuncion discover they like to party together. Fearful of further “oppressing” Asuncion, however, Edgar cannot bring himself to ask her any direct questions and so flounders in his mission. When the truth of Asuncion’s situation emerges, he becomes even more disengaged from those around him.

To give Eisenberg the benefit of the doubt, he may be trying to make a comment about how modern media culture blows stories out of proportion based on emotion rather than facts. The idea is hardly original but could prove engaging if presented in a

Photo by Sandra Coudert

Jesse Eisenberg and Camille Mana in Eisenberg’s “Asuncion.”

novel way. But Eisenberg’s play is unfocused, even sketchy, so Edgar comes across not as tragically mistaken, but rather simply nuts.

Why can’t Asuncion stay at a hotel? Why does Vinny put up with Edgar as a roommate who sleeps on a beanbag chair? The answers could provide the details that make comedy

work. Do we really need an LSD trip to get characters to tell the truth? That’s really the last refuge of a stuck playwright.

Worse, Eisenberg doesn’t even end the play — it just stops. It’s never a good sign that the audience knows to clap only when the actors appear for the curtain call.

Photo by Stephen Kunken

Darrie Lawrence and Margaret Nichols in A. R. Gurney’s “Children.”

The rare pleasures of this production are the performances by Justin Bartha as Vinny and Camille Mana as Asuncion. They both have charisma and energy that overcome the weak script. Remy Auberjonois as Stuart is fine in a one-dimensional part.

Eisenberg as Edgar gives a manic version of his “Social Network” performance.

He shows courage in writing himself a thoroughly unappealing character and offers some glimmers of comic timing but can’t overcome his flat line readings and inability to connect with other actors.

Director Kip Fagan’s ability to keep all this moving at a good clip provides some relief, but not nearly enough.

Aside from John Cheever, no writer knew the mid-20th century WASP like A.R. Gurney. The 1970 play “Children” brings the two together in Gurney’s adaptation of Cheever’s story about a family facing crisis.

Like most of Cheever, the story has a deceptive gentleness, and the tensions and passions that stir beneath the surface enliven the storytelling.

After the death of a family’s patriarch, his wife considers remarrying, but if she does the ancestral home will go to her three children. One of them wants to sell out, but that would be a hardship for all of them. From this simple plot, Gurney spins a tale about morality, choices, and the costs and traps they entail. A home on Martha’s Vineyard or Nantucket — we’re not sure which — provides the metaphor, but the drama is far more universal.

TACT, the Actors Company Theatre, is giving the play its first major revival since 1974, and under the direction of Scott Alan Evans it’s a fluid, finely nuanced, and wonderfully observed snapshot of a family at risk. Set designer Brett J. Banakis has created an evocative summer cottage deck where the action takes place.

Gurney crafts the play so that only four of the characters ever appear — siblings Randy and Barbara, Mother and Randy’s wife Jane. Through them we see the history of the family, its current tensions, and most importantly the challenges created by the arrival of black sheep brother Pokey and his family. The unaccustomed upheaval brought on by their actions — everything from serving children Coke with meals to wearing non-preppy clothes and threatening to force the sale of the house, all unseen — has a nearly seismic impact on everyone.

The cast is uniformly excellent. Richard Thieriot and Margaret Nichols as Randy and Barbara are completely believable as siblings, down to the subtle ways they push each other’s buttons. Lynn Wright is charming as Jane, prodded by Pokey’s wife to rethink her life. Darrie Lawrence as Mother is superb, giving a rich and detailed performance.

This is a warm production of a play without a lot of bells and whistles, but don’t let that fool you. It’s intensely human and the stakes are high, and that’s what makes it so appealing as theater.

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November 16 - 22, 2011

24

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November 16 - 22, 2011

Just Do Art! Continued from page 22 accessible). For tickets ($40), visit bronwpapertickets.com or call 800-838-3006.

For more info on the play, email kidshamrockplay@gmail.com. For Twitter: @ KidShamrockplay. For Facebook: Facebook. com/KidShamrock.

MANHATTAN CHILDRENâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S THEATRE: A CHIRSTMAS CAROL George C Scott, Bill Murray, Susan Lucci and dozens of others have put their spin on the evergreen tale of a miser who finds redemption thanks to a visit from three very persuasive ghosts â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but none of them sang and danced and did it all live on stage in a production fit

for ages 5 and up. For that, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll have to travel to the new location of Manhattan Childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Theatre (in the gallery space at The Access Theatre). Once there, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be treated to the first main stage production of their 2011-2012 season. This adaptation of the Charles Dickens holiday classic (adapted and directed by MCT Artistic Director Bruce Merrill) features original music by Eric V. Hachikian.

Through Dec. 24. Sat./Sun., at 12pm and 2pm; also on Fri., Dec. 23, at 12pm and 2pm. At Manhattan Childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Theatre (380 Broadway, 4th floor; two blocks south of Canal St., at Broadway & White). Tickets are sold online for $18 (adults) and $16 (children). At the door, $20. For reservations and info, call 212-352-3101 or visit mctny. org.

Photo by Mark Osberger

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downtown express

Klingbiel creates ‘language for an era that lacks clarity’ Northridge, Native Americans also resonate investigation of the subject matter. But more importantly, it translates as the inspired attempt to create a map for contemporary reality.

Through Dec. 17, at Kansas Gallery (59 Franklin St., btw. Lafayette & Broadway). Call 646-559-1423 or visit kansasgallery.com.

ART

BY STEPHANIE BUHMANN

KARL KLINGBIEL: THE GATES OF EDEN Klingbiel’s abstract paintings and large-scale woodblocks are characterized by vivid gestural strokes that are densely layered. Much of his aesthetic is rooted in the New York School (Willem de Kooning being a strong reference here) — but other sources of inspiration include Mayan cartographic pattern-making, Dutch tapestries, 18th century British engravings, comic books and computer models of the universe.

Despite these diverse and often historic citations, Klingbiel’s overall contemplation is determinedly contemporary. He employs abstraction as a means to process the overwhelming amount of information we face on a daily basis. His compositions strive for complexity. His forms are energetically interwoven — assembling, at times, into solid clusters before breaking apart to let light penetrate.

They are rhythmic and confidently fluent and devoid of any notion of stagnancy. While things appear to be morphing constantly, Klingbiel still succeeds in establishing a sense of structure.

His visuals translate as elaborate networks, serving as metaphors for various information outlets. One gathers that Klingbiel is significantly inspired by how the layering of news channels and digital media co-exist and are often co-dependent. Despite this implication, his paintings are intuitive and spontaneous. Klingbiel runs on instinct rather than calculation. He is not concerned with analyzing contemporary existence, but rather to create a language for an era that lacks clarity.

His ambition is to develop and follow a steady stream of consciousness — a stark contrast to a world that increas-

KINDRED SPIRITS: NATIVE AMERICAN INFLUENCES ON 20TH CENTURY ART

Courtesy of Masters & Pelavin

From Karl Klingbiel: The Gates of Eden (2011; Oil and wax on panel; 48 × 48 in. Signed by artist on reverse).

ingly faces fragmentation, quick shifts and a general lack of depth. To achieve this goal, Klingbiel ponders what the common denominator of a shared language could look like. He states: “I am after the idea of relationships, or the ghosts of relationships as different histories that veil and unveil themselves at points of demarcation, points of transition that are themselves in transit.”

At first glance, these energetic compositions produce much noise. Upon closer inspection, they become increasingly calming — and, at times, even meditative.

Through Dec. 17, at Masters & Pelavin (13 Jay St., btw.

Hudson & Greenwich Sts.). Call 212-925-9424 or visit masterspelavin.com.

MATTHEW NORTHRIDGE: PICTURES BY WIRE AND WIRELESS

Courtesy of Kansas Gallery, NY

Matthew Northridge’s “12 Ladders or How I Planned My Escape” (2009; Wood and found image; 30 x 22 x 9 in / 76.2 x 55.9 x 22.9 cm).

The diverse works featured in Northridge’s first solo exhibition with this gallery navigate between play and order. They range from elaborate constructs and larger installations to rather intimate works on paper. His archive of magazines, maps, advertisements and everyday packaging (as well as the inherent practices of collecting and cataloging), mark key sources of inspiration.

When incorporating these materials into his work, Northridge edits and rearranges them to the extent that they become disassociated from their original context. Whereas they once provided glimpses of contemporary culture, they now become part of a new landscape. In fact, Northridge’s works frequently evoke architectural structures, models and maps. Characterized by precision but without lacking humor, Northridge is less interested in improvisational freedom than clarity of thought.

His process involves self-established rules that are to be followed, which occasionally can be altered. His works appear to be both completed thoughts and beginnings of larger ideas. They are at once realization and inspiration.

In the back gallery, an installation of an ongoing series of collage works stands out. Named after a popular 1950s reference book published by Time Life, “The World We Live In” was begun in 2006 and currently involves over 165 pieces (each measuring 8 x 10 inches). The project is sparked by Northridge’s ambition to create a comprehensive account of today’s world — a concept that involves the natural and manmade. Employing found imagery, collage, photography, text and drawing, it translates as a thorough

Much has been written about the impact of African sculptures and Japanese printmaking on Western 19th century and 20th century art. Meanwhile, American art of the period is usually examined in relation to concurrent European movements. In particular, the influence of Cubism and Surrealism on Abstract Expressionism is a well-covered subject. But as much as scholars have focused on far away influences, they have overlooked the inspirational potential this continent’s cultural heritage has to offer.

“Kindred Spirits” is a rare and overdue attempt to examine how Native American cultures of the Southwest and the surrounding desert landscape have resonated with Western (and especially American) artists for decades.

The exhibition features works of indigenous peoples from the Southwest region of the United States — including funerary vessels, paintings, pottery, weavings and baskets from 14 tribes (among them, the Apache, Hopi, Mimbres, Navajo and Zuni).

Arranged in elegant display cases or installed on the wall, these precious objects are shown alongside modern and contemporary works by artists such as Josef Albers, Max Ernst, Helmut Federle, Agnes Martin, Bruce Nauman and Charles Simonds.

Particular treasures include a Sioux parfleche box from circa 1900, two works on paper by Jackson Pollock and a stunning canvas by Georgia O’Keeffe. The latter’s “Blue, Black, and White Abstraction # 12” (1959) — which translates as an abstraction of a large black bird sweeping skyward — finds a beautiful counterpart in a Navajo drawing made in the early 20th century.

Meanwhile, a collection of iconic landscape and portrait photographs by Ansel Adams, Edward Curtis, Sumner Matteson, Paul Strand and Adam Clark Vroman establish an appropriate sense of grandeur. It is when viewing the six-volume set of Henry Rowe Schoolcraft’s legendary “Historical and Statistical Information, Respecting the History, Conditions and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States” (published between 1847 and 1857) that one gets to ponder how Western civilization has viewed and analyzed Native American cultures in the past.

In art, scientific analysis and the reliance on statistics are void. Instead, while browsing the examples of Western works assembled here, we witness how personal and diverse the emotional and aesthetic impact of Native American art can be (and has been). A different voice is offered through works by the contemporary artist Nicolas Galanin (a Tlingit Aleut who comes from a long line of Northwest Coast artists). When entering the gallery, one has to step over his “Indians” — a sidewalk carving of the Cleveland Indians baseball team logo. Aiming to balance his origins with his contemporary practice, Galanin has noted: “In the business of this ‘Indian Art World,’ I have become impatient with the institutional prescription and its monolithic attempt to define culture as it unfolds.”

Culture is unfolding constantly, but “Kindred Spirits” is an avid reminder that inspiration is without boundaries and therefore timeless.

Through Jan. 14, at Peter Blum SoHo (99 Wooster St., btw. Prince & Spring Sts.). Call 212-343-0441 or visit peterblumgallery.com.

downtown express

November 16 - 22, 2011

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November 16 - 22, 2011

downtown express