Downtown Express

VOLUME 28, NUMBER 13

R.I.P. John Zuccotti

champion of Downtown

DECEMBER 3 – DECEMBER 16, 2015

Shelly guilty

Silver convicted on all counts in corruption trial B Y D USICA SUE MAL ESEVIC

S

AP Photo / Mark Lennihan

John Zuccotti, 1937–2015.

John Zuccotti, a real estate investor who played a large role in Lower Manhattan’s development before and after 9/11, died on Nov. 19 at the age of 78.

Zuccotti was chairman of global operations at Brookfield Properties and passed away following a brief illness that was not specified, according to the company.

He spent much of his life in public service. Zuccotti was first appointed to the city’s Planning Commission in 1971 and was made its chairman by Mayor John Lindsay two years later.

Zuccotti then served as deputy mayor for the next two years under Mayor Abraham Beame. He told this paper three years ago that in the mid-1970s, “there was no promise of Battery Park City ever being built.”

He added, “I believe that Battery Park City is the greatest urban development project of the latter part of the 20th century.”

“There has been no better steward for the advancement and rebirth of Lower Manhattan,” said Dennis Mehiel, chairman of the Battery Park City Authority. “John’s passing leaves a large void here at Battery Park City and in our entire Downtown community. His presence, graciousness, dedication, and particularly his leadership, will be sorely missed."

Zuccotti later served as chairman of Gov. Hugh L. Carey’s World Trade Center task force.

From 1990 to 1997, he was the chief ZUCCOTTI Continued on page 14

heldon Silver, longtime assemblymember for Lower Manhattan, was found guilty on Nov. 30 of all seven counts in his federal corruption trial.

It took the jury less than three days of deliberations to find the former Assembly Speaker guilty of extortion, fraud, and money laundering.

“Today, Sheldon Silver got justice, and at long last, so did the people of New York,” said U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, who brought the charges against Silver in January, in a statement issued shortly after the verdict.

During the trial, two sides of the 71-year-old lawmaker were presented. The defense said Silver was a tenant advocate doing favors for friends who wanted his good will.

The prosecution said he was in the pocket of real estate developers and he used his office to make millions of dollars for himself.

The Lower East Side Democrat, once one of the three most powerful men in the state, has represented the 65th Assembly District for 39 years and was Assembly Speaker for two decades. He stepped down from his leadership position shortly after his indictment in January, and will have to give up his seat now that he has been convicted.

The case had hinged on determining an explicit quid pro quo: doing something to get something in return.

“Sheldon Silver is anything but honest,” said Andrew Goldstein, assistant U.S. attorney, during his closing remarks on Nov. 23. He said

File photo by Jefferson Siegel

Longtime Assemblyman Sheldon Silver leaves the federal courthouse Downtown where he was convicted Monday on seven counts of corruption.

Silver had been “cheating, lying, getting away with it” for years, abusing his position for more than a decade.

The prosecution had divided the case into two schemes: legal referrals

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In the asbestos scheme, Dr. Robert Taub of Columbia University referred mesothelioSHELLY Continued on page 14

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Happy Evacuation Day! Downtown celebrates our ‘forgotten holiday’

BY BILL EGBERT efore Thanksgiving, before Black Friday, before Small Business Saturday, the last week of November was marked by a holiday celebrating something even more American than the Pilgrims, consumerism or Main Street: Evacuation Day — the day we finally kicked the British back across the Pond.

On Nov. 25, 1783, the last British forces departed the newly United States from Lower Manhattan, which they had occupied for seven years since George Washington’s retreat from the city following the Battle of Brooklyn.

Washington made his triumphant return to Downtown that same day, and he sent orders ahead that the Stars and Stripes should be flying above Bowling Green upon his arrival.

But the British — after essentially squatting in Lower Manhattan for two years after the Yorktown surrender — just had to get in one final insult. Those cheeky Brits had the audacity to nail the Union Jack to the top of the flag pole — and then grease the pole — before they departed.

Several patriots tried and failed to reach the top of the pole and tear down the hated Union Jack, but one war veteran named John Van Arsdale had a better grasp of the pole, and the moment, than the others.

Van Arsdale had nearly died on one of the notorious British prison ships anchored in New York Harbor. For the duration of the Revolutionary War, with Lower Manhattan as its continental headquarters, Britain maintained a floating gulag where American patriots were treated not as prisoners of war but as rebels against the English Crown, entitled to nothing — not even food. The horrific British prison ships — memorialized in Fort Greene, Brooklyn — killed more Americans than all the battles of the Revolutionary War combined, accounting for two thirds of colonial casualties.

As one of the fortunate 20 percent who survived the prison ships, it shouldn’t be surprising that Van Arsdale was also lucky enough to reach the top of the pole and rip down the Union Jack — and replace it with the American flag before the British fleet managed to sail out of sight.

For decades, Americans celebrated Evacuation Day, which effectively marked the true end of the Revolutionary War, nearly as fervently as the Fourth of July, which commemorated its start. But interest

B

DowntownExpress.com

Photos by Bill Egbert

(Above) Col. Stephen Ryan leads the Veteran Corps of Artillery down the Canyon of Heroes from St. Paul’s Chapel to Bowling Green to celebrate Evacuation Day on Nov. 25. (Below) Councilmember Margaret Chin, right, and Lower Manhattan Historical Society Society president James Kaplan unveil the “Evacuation Day Plaza” sign co-naming the northern tip of Bowling Green.

faded during the 19th century — especially after Thanksgiving took over the last week of November after the Civil War. Formal

celebrations ended entirely in 1916 when the United States entered World War I as an ally of Great Britain.

But a group of Downtown history buffs is trying to revive the “forgotten holiday” in Lower Manhattan, and gathered at Bowling Green on Nov. 25 to celebrate America’s victory over tyranny.

“It was here where our democracy was born, when they raised the flag in 1783,” said James Kaplan, president of the Lower Manhattan Historical Society, who led the charge to revive Evacuation Day. This was the society’s second observance of the end of British occupation, and featured a procession from St. Paul’s Chapel to Bowling Green by the Veteran Corps of Artillery, the nation’s oldest continuously active military unit, formed in 1790 by Van Arsdale and other Revolutionary War veterans to guard against any possible return of the defeated redcoats.

Arriving to the tune of “Yankee Doodle” on fife and drum, the VCA performed a rather more polite reenactment of the flag incident of the original Evacuation Day. Commandant Col. Stephen Ryan symbolically handed a neatly folded Union Jack to British military representative Capt.

John Conlin of the 6th Gurkha Regiment, before hoisting a 13-star American flag over Bowling Green.

Arthur Piccolo, co-founder of the Lower Manhattan Historical Society and chairman of the Bowling Green Association, used the occasion to bestow the group’s Peppercorn Award to VCA public affairs officer Lt. Col. Allen Millman, who organized the unit’s participation this year, and served as emcee for the event.

Downtown Councilmember Margaret Chin then joined Kaplan in unveiling a street sign created for the proposed co-naming of the northern tip of Bowling Green as “Evacuation Day Plaza.” The Council is expected to approve the measure before the end of the year.

Chin said she hoped turnout for the celebration would be even better next year, pointing out that even in 1893 — 30 years after Thanksgiving stole its thunder — 10,000 New Yorkers gathered in Lower Manhattan to celebrate Evacuation Day. Kaplan pointed out that last year’s Evacuation Day ceremony drew only 15 people, but considerably more turned out this year — not counting the uniformed members of the Veteran Corps of Artillery.

He said he hopes the trend will continue.

“This holiday deserves to be observed,” he said.

December 3 – December 16, 2015

3

RUFF GOING Dog owners in Lower Manhattan might have to wait yet another year before they even stand a chance of letting their pets off the leash for a trial run around The Battery.

The park doesn’t currently allow dogs but Downtowners have tried to get the Parks Department to throw them a bone for at least half a decade.

Community Board 1 recently passed yet another resolution recommending an off-leash trial period in the park — and Manhattan parks commissioner Bill Castro even said he was willing to consider the proposal.

But even with support from Parks, there’s a catch: the lawn most suitable for off-leash use might not open for another year.

The seven-acre Battery Woodland is currently being reconstructed, and CB1 chairwoman Catherine McVay Hughes told Downtown Express it may stay closed until the end of 2016.

“The contractor is now installing irrigation and seeding the area, hopefully before cold weather arrives,” she said. “They will have a range fence in place for a year following this seeding to guarantee plant materials and lawn germination and strong roots.”

Warrie Price, the founder and president of the Battery Conservancy, which manages the park, has said as recently as late October that the lawn would reopen by next summer, although she declined to comment on the off-leash issue. Nobody at the conservancy could be reached to verify the new schedule by press time.

For now, it looks like Downtown’s dogs will have to sit and stay for a little longer — even if their owners aren’t ready to roll over on this issue.

surprise by the Battery Park City Authority’s decision to replace Parks Enforcement Patrol officers with private security guards with zero enforcement powers, the board debated at its last meeting the wording of a resolution asking the authority to hold off on inking the contract with AlliedBarton Security Services.

Some members just wanted the resolution to ask the authority to postpone the signing until it explained its reasoning for the change, while others pushed for stronger language demanding the authority scrap the contract entirely and restart the whole process from scratch.

“I think this resolution should be targeted telling the Battery Park City Authority to start a dialogue,” said Bob Townley.

“The Battery Park [City Authority] doesn’t want to talk to anyone,” countered Susan Cole. “That’s part of the problem here.”

Townley started to reply, “You get a lot more with sugar than you do…” before the crowd drowned him out.

“Not with this group,” retorted Cole.

Want More Downtown Express?

CATCHING FLIES There was dissent at Community Board 1 recently on how best to communicate with the body that calls the shots in Battery Park City.

With some residents upset at being caught by

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December 3 – December 16, 2015

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December 3 – December 16, 2015

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Meter made Sculptor finds new place to park his art B Y DUS ICA SU E M A L E SE V IC Conrad Stojak has a different canvas than other artists: old parking meters.

He transforms the reviled relics into sculptures of tribute to the city where he was born and raised, with tiny dioramas depicting the city’s skyline and landmarks inhabiting the space where once the clock ticked down to a driver’s doom.

The first piece he completed after his initial experiments depicts a completed World Trade Center complex, featuring the four towers, the reflecting pools of the 9/11 Memorial, and construction workers toiling away.

That diorama helped him land his current studio digs — inside one of the buildings it depicts.

Larry Silverstein, the developer of the new World Trade Center complex, has invited artists to use vacant space at the site in exchange for some type of art donation. Stojak will donate his World Trade Center parking meter, which will be put on public display at some point, he said.

Having a studio is a first for Stojak,

who studied film and also takes photographs.

“I never even had a space before this,” he said. “I was in a friend’s yard working on stuff. I never had a studio in my life other than that and maybe part of my living room. This is like a big, big step up.”

Quite literally — Stojak’s studio is all the way up on the 67th floor of 4 World Trade Center, where he has been since this June.

“You can’t beat it,” said Stojak of the view, which showcases 1 World Trade Center and Battery Park City.

Raised in Woodhaven, Queens, Stojak has vivid memories of visiting Lower Manhattan as a child to have lunch with his father, who worked at 90 West St. near the Twin Towers. His father would take him to Windows on the World, where Stojak would press his forehead against the glass and stare down at the miniature world below.

There are echoes of that view in the diminutive scenes under glass that Stojak now creates.

Photo by Dusica Sue Malesevic

Artist Conrad Stojak puts art inside old parking meters in his swanky studio on the 67th floor of 4 World Trade Center looking out onto 1 World Trade Center.

He got the idea two years ago when he was jogging in Queens and saw a bunch of old parking meters still standing sentinel but with all their insides removed.

“That’s what they did originally,” Stojak explained. “[The city] took out all the working parts first and left these shells of the meters on the street.

I found one that was easy to get into and I bought a bunch of army men at this bodega and kind of just stuffed it with army men.”

Pleased with the effect, he decided to

see where he could go with the idea.

“I started finding more meters, using smaller figurines,” he said. “Then I started building sets and then installing the sets inside the meters themselves.”

Those early pieces are long gone now, he said, because the city is still in the process of removing the old meters, which have to be jackhammered to get them out of the ground.

As the empty meters disappeared from

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Brooklyn firm named new designer for WTC PAC

BY DU SI CA SU E M A LE S E V IC The Performing Arts Center at the World Trade Center complex has a new designer — and this time the design may actually get built.

The long-awaited cultural center, now expected to be completed in 2019, will be designed by Brooklyn architecture firm REX, according to a press release from the center’s board.

REX has designed striking buildings across America, Europe, and the Middle East. The firm submitted a well-received design for the Winter Garden at Brookfield Place in 2011 that featured a “floating platform” to provide a performance space for the second floor.

The WTC Performing Arts Center was part of Daniel Libeskind’s original master plan for Ground Zero after the 9/11 attacks, but the project has been plagued with funding challenges and delays.

After Libeskind’s 2003 plan came out, Frank Gehry and architecture firm Snohetta were tapped in 2004 to design the center. But Gehry’s concept of irregularly stacked boxes garnished with trees was shelved in September of 2014.

Design issues have not been the

only problem. The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation — formed after the 9/11 attacks to allocate federal money to rebuild Downtown — has halved the amount of money to be spent on the center from $400 million to $200 million. The PAC is now seeking funds from private donors.

At a L.M.D.C. meeting on Nov. 12, $10 million of the $99 million it is providing for the PAC was released.

The center’s board is thrilled at the prospect of progress.

“We can’t wait to begin. We’re ready.

It’s been promised for a long time and I believe it’s going to happen,” said Maggie Boepple, president of the PAC board.

Once envisioned as a 1,000-seat auditorium fit for such cultural institutions as the Joyce Theater, the revised plan presented to Community Board 1 early this year envisions three much smaller theaters with capacities of 550, 350 and 150 seats.

It is unclear now what role, if any, the Joyce will have.

“We hope to collaborate with them,” said a PAC spokeswoman.

The PAC will produce as well as premiere works of theater, dance, opera, music, and film, and the roughly

REX

Brooklyn architecture firm REX is known for its striking visual concepts, such as this design for the Seattle Central Library.

80,000-square-foot building will also be home to the Tribeca Film Festival, according to the plan.

There is as yet no artistic director, but the spokeswoman said a search would begin next year. David Lan, who runs the Young Vic in London, was consulting

artistic director for two years.

Community Board 1 has long advocated for the center, which will eventually sit where the temporary PATH station now stands. But the Port Authority’s Glenn Guzi told CB 1 in October that there is no date for the station’s closure.

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December 3 – December 16, 2015

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port before it was a city," said Captain Jonathan Boulware, executive director of the Seaport Museum.

"This special one-day exhibition will showcase artifacts from that collection and will set the stage for our upcoming exhibition on the 1885 ship Wavertree and the role of ships like her in the Golden Age of the Seaport. We're making real progress at the Seaport Museum and these projects are a part of that."

BIGGER BOATS…

Photo by Milo Hess

The tree lighting at the South Street Seaport brightened a rainy night on Dec. 1.

BY JAN E L B L A D O W It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas around the Seaport with all the beautiful decorations popping up.

Tuesday night’s 32nd-annual tree lighting ceremony on Fulton Street always tops my list of the best way to kick off a favorite season.

This year, NBC4’s Lauren Scala did the hosting honors. Lights twinkled on the 60-foot tree, dressed in white, nickel and champagne-colored geometric ornaments and topped with an asymmetric star for the theme “Constellation of the District.” Music and performances from acapella group The Mistletones to American Idol winner Nick Fradiani got all in the groove. But nothing compared to the special appearance by Santa Claus.

8

December 3 – December 16, 2015

TREASURE CHEST…

Earlier on Tuesday, the South Street Seaport Museum held a special one-day holiday installation to celebrate Giving Tuesday.

At the Visitor Center at 12 Fulton St. mid-nineteenth century to early twentieth century toys, ship models, graphic art, and other objects from its extensive collection were on view all afternoon.

Cast iron, tin, and carved wooden toys and banks, ship models of ferries, barges and tugboats of New York Harbor were artfully arrayed around the center.

Besides the fun toys, the antique post cards and clipper cards of the area were super eye candy.

"The Seaport Museum has a fascinating and unique collection of artifacts that tell the story of New York, which was a

And on that note, last month Seaport Museum announced that the 1911 barque Peking is heading home to Hamburg, Germany. The country’s government allocated funds to support a new waterfront museum with the Peking as its centerpiece. (Take a hint Washington and Albany! Support the Seaport Museum!) For Capt. Boulware, the parting is bittersweet.

“After nearly ten years of effort to find her a new home, we're thrilled that the mighty barque Peking will go to a responsible and appropriate home,” began his announcement. But it continued: “South Street Seaport Museum has long worked to maintain a fleet of well-maintained, relevant historic ships at her East River piers. The idea of recreating the "Street of Ships" is an important one, but what is clear is that two huge sailing ships are a crushing burden of maintenance.”

With the $13-million, city-funded restoration of 1885 ship Wavertree underway in Staten Island, something had to give. The Wavertree called NYC and Downtown its home port. She comes back to her berth in mid-2016 all sparkly and spanking clean.

“Peking will return to Hamburg, the city of her birth, and there be cared for in much the same way. This is good for the Seaport Museum and it's good for Peking," noted the captain.

The museum is currently developing an exhibition in preparation for Wavertree's return. We learned that it will cover the Golden Age of the Seaport, the role of ships like Wavertree in New York's rise to prominence, and interactive video on the current Wavertree project.

BULLDOGS ARE BACK…

Strut, swagger and slobber take over the season at Salty Paw on Saturday (Dec. 5, noon to 3 p.m.). At the Peck Slip Plaza, mutts, masters and mascots will gather for the annual pup holiday extravaganza. This year’s festivities benefit the Mid-Atlantic Bulldog Rescue and Bumper Bulldog Rescue.

Pet portrait photographer Conni Freestone snaps photos of pets with a

real-bearded Santa. She also exhibits her pastel pet portraiture. Can you say “Christmas gift idea?”

Get a free wellness check for your critter from the docs of Downtown Veterinary Hospitals. Travel the holiday-themed fun course with your pooch by celebrity dog trainer Travis Brorsen, winner of TV’s Greatest American Dog Trainer competition. Also on hand will be vendors and lots of freebies for your fur baby.

It’s the ugliest sweater day so both you and your pooch put on your sloppiest, silliest rag and join the fun. Prizes are for the best — or worst — ugliest sweaters in both four and two-legged categories. Even if you don’t have a dog or an ugly Christmas sweater, come out, it’s a howl!

SEAPORT SCENES…

See Ellen Bradshaw’s moody and mind-blowing oil paintings “Visions from the South Street Seaport,” on display at 21 Fulton St. through Dec. 31. The artist, influenced by the realism of the Ashcan painters of the Roaring 20s era and the color and atmosphere of the Impressionists, is drawn to New York City. “The reflective, moody, quirky streets of Lower Manhattan are my usual subjects — the neighborhoods, the personalities of her buildings, the majesty of her bridges, the streets transformed by snow or the colors of night, the lone figures of daily routine…” she writes on her web page. The images from eerie, barren South Street with snow under the FDR to the tips of the Brooklyn Bridge peeking through clouds are stunning. And inspire visions of a great Christmas gift.

S.O.S. JOINS PETITION…

Save Our Seaport asks supporters to go to the web and sign the “New Yorkers for a Human-scale City” petition supported by more than 20 organizations from the Bronx to Staten Island. “To prevent our beloved city from being recklessly overdeveloped....responsible citizens are banding together to fight the exploitation of our metropolis!” goes the plea.

“It’s the same fight being fought all over New York City,” David Sheldon, a spokesperson for S.O.S. told me. “We’re dealing with private interested overdeveloping public access areas of the city. Joining a coalition seemed to make sense to us. It’s something we all face living in NYC.” The “New Coalition” petition calls on the Mayor to “prioritize and develop zoning changes,” and political clubs to “to field candidates for all offices who are willing to challenge the power and influence that the real estate lobby has accrued within our government.” To see the full petition, go to http://www.humanscale.nyc/.

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December 3 – December11/20/15 16, 2015 9 1:53 PM

World tree center

Liberty Park set to open next summer

BY YAN N I C RA CK The seeds are planted for Liberty Park.

Workers started putting in the first of 50 trees for the World Trade Center’s new green space last week, setting the stage for a summer opening next year.

“It will truly be a wonderful park,” said Steven Plate, the Port Authority’s director of WTC construction, during a tour of the space on Nov. 23. “And the view is spectacular as well.”

The park, designed by landscape architect Stephen E. Brown, overlooks the 9/11 Memorial and has full-length views of the 1 World Trade Center and Brookfield Place.

“When you look around, it really shows that the World Trade Center is open for business,” Plate said.

The $50-million plaza atop the Vehicle Security Center at the corner of Liberty and Greenwich Sts. still looks like a construction site, but it will soon sport seasonal planting beds and benches, as well as a wall of greenery along

the Liberty St. side of the structure.

“It will be a wonderful display of color,” Plate said.

Last Monday, workers were using a crane to lift honey locusts up to the plaza and lower them into pits scattered around the one-acre space. Other trees that will put down roots include serviceberry, stellar pink dogwood, and yellow-blooming witch hazel.

Elsewhere, workers raked soil in planting beds, installed benches and put the finishing touches on the park’s state-of-the-art irrigation system.

Plate said the park should be ready by next summer, and the Port Authority hopes to open it to the public even before the 2017 completion of the St. Nicholas National Shrine, the Greek Orthodox church being rebuilt at the park’s eastern end.

“We’re looking at ways to open it while construction is underway,” Plate said.

The Battery Park City Authority is hoping that work on the Liberty Street

Photo by Yannic Rack

Workers lower a tree into place in Liberty Park, with Brookfield Place in the background.

Bridge, which connects the park to Battery Park City over West St., will be done by then as well.

In the meantime, over the next few weeks and into the spring, workers will continue to plant the 50 trees

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and more than 1,000 shrubs that will adorn the plaza.

Plate highlighted the challenges of building the park on top of the active Vehicle Security Center — which he said processes around 150 trucks every day — comparing it to constructing “a very large rooftop garden.”

Back in 2007, long before construction on the park began, architect A. Eugene Kohn, a founding partner of Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, told Downtown Express that he thought the park would get little foot traffic since it was on top of the noisy WTC truck entrance.

“It’s more of a visual park,” said the architect, who was then working on designs for the park as well as JPMorgan Chase’s now-scrapped headquarters at nearby 5 WTC — though he later walked back his comments.

But Plate, who has been in charge of the entire WTC site since 2006, predicts that the completed Liberty Park will become a scenic destination for Lower Manhattan.

“We think this is gonna be a place to go,” he said. “People can look over the site and just enjoy what we built here for decades and centuries to come.”

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December 3 – December 16, 2015

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METER Continued from page 6

Photo by Dusica Sue Malesevic

Stojak’s diorama of the completed World Trade Center complex shows 1 WTC on the far left, with the not-yet-built 2 WTC next to it, and on the right, the unfinished 3 WTC rising behind 4 WTC, which is now open and hosts his studio.

the streets, Stojak began contacting city agencies to see if they would donate meters, or even if he could buy some.

“I came out of the blue,” he said.

“They had no idea who I was, what was I talking about it. ‘Look, I just want some meters.’”

Eventually he got a donation of 30 defunct parking meters, which he is slowly filling with scaled-down scenes of the city. Stojak has completed eight meters so far, including a purple ode to the oft-delayed 7 train featuring a crowd of people waiting for it, and a miniature, motorized Rockefeller Center ice rink with tiny skaters spinning around.

“Anything that has a New York flavor,” he said.

Even if it leaves a bad taste in your mouth — one of his dioramas depicts the old, seedy, pre-Disneyfied Times Square, complete with a flasher, a homeless guy, and a woman beating a ruffian with an umbrella. “’Cause that’s what I remember Times Square to be,” he said. “It was this very, very dark place.”

It takes Stojak about three weeks to complete a piece. The first challenge is lugging the 75-pound meters to his studio.

Then Stojak says he has to “Swiss cheese” DowntownExpress.com

it — drilling through the thick steel to get the locking mechanism off so he can remove the top of the meter. His difficulties come with his medium, he admits.

“That thing was built to not be broken into, so it takes some time to kind of drill it open,” he said. “I go through drill bits like potato chips. These things are so impossible to open.”

With the hard part over with, Stojak scuffs up the surface so the spray paint can adhere to it, then picks out the colors and figures he wants to use, designs the scene, and works on the parts that make the miniatures move.

“Little by little it just starts to come together,” he said.

Stojak hopes eventually to create many more meters — anywhere from 200 to even 2,000 if he gets some help — and then “replant” them on sidewalks throughout the five boroughs.

Parking meters make for an ideal venue for public art, according to Stojak, because they’re a familiar icon at home anywhere in the city.

“Everyone recognizes it, everybody knows it, and you could put it anywhere in the city, in any neighborhood,” he said.

“That’s what I like about the idea: it can truly be democratic.”

December 3 – December 16, 2015

11

Have a Merry Downtown Christmas!

BY YAN N I C RA CK It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas in Lower Manhattan, so to get you in the spirit this December we’ve collected all the merriest holiday events and celebrations in one place. There’s something for everyone, from a new holiday market at the Seaport and a craft fair in Tribeca, to a Christmas party just for dogs and the ice rink in Battery Park City. And, of course, Santa!

Happy Holidays!

SEAPORT HOLIDAY MARKET Whether you’re looking to buy your gifts early this year or plan to do last-minute shopping, the new outdoor Holiday Market on Fulton Street offers plenty of ideas for the right gifts for the ones you love — whether they’re adults, kids, or even pets. As you browse a range of boutique-style vendors on the cobblestones, you’ll find everything from DIY lights and pajamas, to festive foods and eco-friendly watches, as well as cozy winter wear and much more. For a full list of vendors visit the South Street Seaport website.

Mon.-Sun. until Thurs., Dec. 31 (closed on Christmas Day); 11 a.m.-8 p.m.; Seaport District, on Fulton St. between Water & Front Sts.; www. southstreetseaport.com; free

LUMINARIES AT BROOKFIELD PLACE

The Winter Garden hosts a multicolored lantern installation from now until Jan.10, with choreographed and interactive light shows.

All throughout the holiday season, the Winter Garden at Brookfield Place will be lit up by 650 color-changing, hanging lanterns. Choreographed light shows are scheduled every two hours beginning from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily, such titles as “Snowfall,” “Christmas Tree,” “Ribbons,” “Firecracker,” and “Northern Lights.” Visitors can also send a wish to the lanterns above by touching a “wishing station,” transforming the installation into a mesmerizing display of lights. Arts

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December 3 – December 16, 2015

Brookfield will donate $1 for every wish — up to $25,000 — to support high school music education programs.

Until Jan. 10; 10 a.m.-8 p.m.; Brookfield Place; www.brookfieldplaceny.com; free

unwrapped Christmas gift to support local children’s organizations.

Sat., Dec. 5; 2–3 p.m.; Washington Market Park; www.washingtonmarketpark.org; free

GINGERBREAD DECORATING WORKSHOPS & PARTY

THE RINK AT BROOKFIELD PLACE Grab your skates and hit the ice rink on the Hudson River waterfront, where residents and tourists alike can take in the wonderful cityscape views while practicing their skills. This year Olympians Melissa Gregory and Denis Petkhov will offer upscale ice skating programs for men, women and children, and there are several other programs throughout the winter, including Learn to Skate, Mommy/Daddy & Me, Kick Ice Hockey Fitness, and Corporate Skating events. The free Figure Skating Fest has been postponed to December 5 due to the warm weather.

Through the winter; Mon.-Fri., 1–8:30 p.m., Sat. & Sun., 10 a.m.–10 p.m.; Brookfield Place, 230 Vesey St.; www.brookfieldplaceny.com for prices and specific times.

THE NUTCRACKER This year, the classic Christmas tale is getting the double-treatment, with performances by both the New York Theatre Ballet, which is putting on two shows at Brookfield Place, and Manhattan Youth’s 6th-annual production starring children from all of the organization’s afterschool dance classes. The former is a one-hour, Art Nouveau-style version of the beloved ballet, performed to Tchaikovsky’s cherished score and conceived by long-time NYTB choreographer Keith Michael.

The Manhattan Youth kids from PS 89, PS 150, PS 225, PS 234, PS 276, PS 343, and PS 397 will stage a more modern take, with a festive foray into dance styles including ballet, hip hop, step, contemporary, and creative.

New York Theatre Ballet: Fri., Dec. 4 at 7 p.m. & Sat., Dec. 5 at 1 p.m. & 7 p.m.; Brookfield Place; free Manhattan Youth: Fri., Dec. 12; 12 p.m. & 4 p.m.; PS/IS 89, 201 Warren St.; www.manhattanyouth.org; $10

SANTA’S WINTER WONDERLAND Create your own photo memories with the man in red, when Santa Claus sets up shop once again at Brookfield Place. There are different packages available for families, friends, couples, co-workers, and even dog owners to cap-

Photos courtesy of Brookfield Place

Santa Claus will be holding court at Brookfield Place’s Winter Wonderland from Dec. 4 through Christmas Eve.

ture the magic of the holidays. Snap your own photos in the “Elfie Selfie” set or get the whole family involved with special hours for canine companions during “Santa Paws.” And don’t forget to give the ice rink a spin afterwards.

Dec. 4–24; 10 a.m.–6 p.m. Dec. 4–23, and 10 a.m.–4 Dec. 24; see www. brookfieldplaceny.com for specific times; prices from $22–$48

STRUT, SWAGGER & SLOBBER HOLIDAY EXTRAVAGANZA Every dog has its day – and this year it’s Dec. 5, when you can put on your ugliest holiday sweater and join your fellow Downtown dog owners for a canine Christmas at the Peck Slip Park. In addition to prizes for best pup and sweater, there will be portraits with Santa, pastel pet paintings, free wellness checks by Downtown Veterinary Medical Hospital, and a Holiday-themed fun course with celebrity dog trainer Travis Brorsen.

Proceeds from sales at the event will benefit Midatlantic Bulldog Rescue and Bumper Bulldog Rescue.

Sat., Dec. 5; noon–3 p.m.; Peck Slip Park; www.facebook.com/ Strutswaggerandslobber; free

WASHINGTON MARKET PARK CHRISTMAS PARTY Santa himself will stop by Washington Market Park on Saturday, taking requests from children on his throne at the gazebo. There will be pedicab rides for the little ones, arts and crafts from the Church Street School, and festive carols performed by the Trinity Youth Chorus.

Homemade cookies and hot apple cider will be on offer to keep everyone warm and jolly, and you can even donate an

Looking for a great way to introduce your kids to the tradition of building a gingerbread house, but already tired at the prospect of cleaning up the mess at home? Just sign up for the Church Street School’s annual Gingerbread House Decorating Workshop. Kids and grownups alike will have a chance to dig into some festive food, with live music, staff on hand to refill candy, and a fun atmosphere. And for a grown-up version, stop by the Adult Gingerbread Party for champagne, live music — and lots of gingerbread, of course.

Decorating Workshop: Dec. 5, 6, 12, 13, 19 & 20; Saturdays at 2:15 p.m. & 4 p.m., Sundays at 11 a.m., 1 p.m. & 3 p.m.; 74 Warren St.; www.churchstreetschool. org; $100 or $95 per house before Dec. 4 Adult Gingerbread Party: Sun., Dec. 13; 1–4 p.m.; Saleya, 65 W. Broadway; www.churchstreetschool.org; $125 single, $150 for couples

TRIBECA HOLIDAY CRAFT FAIR Buy local, handmade gifts and help save the world — that’s the motto of this fair, in its first year, where 30 percent of sales will be donated to good cause.

Forget the holiday rush at the department stores and come support your local crafters and artists instead by browsing through hundreds of handmade goodies from more than 20 vendors.

Fri., Dec. 11, 4–9 p.m.; Downtown Community Center, 120 Warren St.; www.manhattanyouth.org; free

CHRISTMAS EVE AT TRINITY WALL STREET For a more traditional dose of the Christmas spirit, Trinity Wall Street is holding its annual candlelight Christmas Eve Eucharist at St. Paul’s Chapel, with congregational carol singing and music by the Choir of Trinity Wall Street just before midnight. If you can’t wait until then, there’s also community carol singing with brass and percussion earlier in the day, where you can sing along with such classics as O Come, all ye Faithful and Silent Night.

Thurs., Dec. 24; 1 p.m.–2 p.m. & 11:45 p.m.; St. Paul’s Chapel; www. trinitywallstreet.org; free DowntownExpress.com

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ma patients to law firm Weitz & Luxenberg, which then doled out referral fees to Silver to the tune of $3 million. Silver then gave his support to two state Dept. of Health grants totaling $500,000 for Taub’s research, according to prosecutors.

The defense countered the state health officials was simply doing a good thing by supporting Taub’s research, and that Taub stated in court there was no explicit quid pro quo.

“It took two to tango and there was no dance of corruption with Dr. Taub,” said Steven Molo, one of Silver’s defense attorneys, who presented the closing summation.

Molo also used what the prosecution termed the “friendship defense” —Taub and Silver were friends and that’s why he helped the doctor out.

“That defense is absurd,” Goldstein said.

Goldstein said the two men barely knew each other, and when Taub threw a 400-person wedding for his daughter, Silver was not on the guest list.

In the real estate scheme, prosecutors said Silver requested major developers Glenwood Management and the Witkoff Group move their business to the small firm of Goldberg & Iryami for property tax work.

Glenwood hired the firm in 1997 while the Witkoff Group did so in 2005, according to prosecutors.

The law firm then cut checks to Silver for referrals for the developers’ new business, totaling $700,000.

The developers wanted a tax break, called 421-a, to be renewed in Albany, and each time that happened, additional work went to Goldberg & Iryami, said Goldstein. The tax abatement was extended in 2003, 2007 and 2011. In 2003, there were two properties with Goldberg. That jumped to six in 2007, 16 in 2008 to 22 properties in 2012, according to the prosecution.

“Glenwood is rewarding Sheldon Silver every time they get what they want,” Goldstein said. “This was a scam orchestrated by the Speaker of the Assembly.”

Molo said that because New York state has a citizen legislature that is only in session for six months a year, its members are allowed to work. He acknowledged that this could lead to “some form of conflict,” but he insisted no crime had been committed.

“Did Mr. Silver sell his office?

No,” said Molo, who repeatedly said the prosecution had “a theory looking for a case.”

Goldstein called Silver’s “politics as usual” defense “outrageous.”

On Monday, the jury agreed.

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executive officer of Olympia & York, which developed the World Financial Center, now Brookfield Place. But he never left public service behind, and served on the boards of both the Performing Arts Center at the World Trade Center and the National September 11th Memorial Museum.

World Trade Center developer Larry Silverstein said, “John was a great friend and cherished colleague in the real estate industry, as well as one of the great civic leaders of New York City history. Everyone who cares about Lower Manhattan owes him a great deal for what he did to help the neighborhood recover in the aftermath of 9/11.”

President of the Alliance for Downtown New York Jessica Lappin recalled Zuccotti as “a unique visionary and one-of-a-kind civic champion.”

Mayor de Blasio called him an “honest broker” to whom he often turned

for advice in balancing public and private interests.

In 2006, the privately owned Downtown plaza Liberty Plaza Park was renamed Zuccotti Park in his honor.

But Community Board 1 chairwoman Catherine McVay Hughes said that the entire neighborhood of Downtown can be seen as a monument to Zuccotti’s achievements.

“As the Chairman of Brookfield and at critical Downtown institutions like the board of the Performing Arts Center at the World Trade Center, everywhere you look, you will see something that he has touched and helped build,” she said. “His name will always be associated with the rebirth of Lower Manhattan.”

The son of an Italian immigrant, Zuccotti went to Princeton University and then Yale Law School, and was also an officer in the U.S. Army.

He survived by his wife Susan, three children and eight grandchildren.

DowntownExpress.com

Polishing the family Silver Downtowners recall convicted politician as Lower Manhattan’s hometown hero B Y J O SH RO G E R S Sheldon Silver’s conviction this week on federal corruption charges may have ended his 20-term Assembly career, but it won’t erase his Downtown legacy, or the place it has earned him in the hearts of his constituents.

Throughout Silver’s trial, Community Board 1 member Tom Goodkind kept a picture of Silver throwing out the first pitch of a Downtown Little League game as the screen saver on his phone, even though co-workers suggested he remove it.

“It’s hard for Downtown to think of him as anything but our local hero,” Goodkind, a C.P.A. and Battery Park City resident, said on Nov. 30, shortly after Silver’s conviction on all counts. “It’s almost like someone hit me in the gut.”

Silver, described by the gossip site Gawker recently as the “despised New York Assemblyman,” remained popular in Lower Manhattan even after his arrest in January.

As Speaker of the Assembly for two decades, Silver used his power to get

things like new schools built in Lower Manhattan, and to protect the homes of people living across from the World Trade Center in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.

“He saved my block after Sept. 11th when the [Port Authority] wanted to do a land grab,” a supporter posted on Facebook after the verdict.

File photo by Terese Loeb Kreuzer It was actually the Lower Manhattan Before his downfall, Sheldon Silver was widely feted by his adoring Downtown Development Corp. which suggested razconstituents grateful for how the former Assembly Speaker wielded his ing the block after 9/11, but backed off considerable power on their behalf. In 2013, the Gateway Plaza Tenants Association after pressure from Silver and others. presented him with a lifetime achievement award in a ceremony attended by, At the end of 2001, it was Silver who from left, 65th Assembly District leader Jenifer Rajkumar, Community Board 1 pressed Gov. George Pataki to name chairwoman Catherine McVay Hughes, Congressman Jerrold Nadler, G.P.T.A. then-CB1 chairwoman Madelyn Wils president Glenn Plaskin, Councilmember Margaret Chin and Consumer Affairs to the L.M.D.C. board, thus insuring Commissioner Julie Menin. a community leader was behind closed doors when decisions on the $2.8 billion between the city and developer Bruce Goodkind, a Gateway resident, said fund were made.

Ratner to build the Spruce Street he’s not sure what he would reply to someSilver also convinced the L.M.D.C. to School to help reduce the area’s one who says Silver was corrupt and got expand its residential grant program to chronic classroom overcrowding. his just desserts, but he’s confident “the include Chinatown and the Lower East He used the vote he controlled on the person doesn’t live in our area.”

Side, which were hurt by post-9/11 secu- Public Authorities Control Board to press Downtowners were standing with their rity measures — particularly the closure for the extension in 2006 of rent protec- long-serving assemblyman against critiof Park Row. tions at Gateway Plaza, the largest housing In 2005, he brokered a dealT:8.75”complex in Battery Park City.

FAMILY SILVER Continued on page 16

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FAMILY SILVER Continued from page 15

cism even before his arrest on corruption charges earlier this year.

Silver was honored by Gateway tenants two years ago at a time when he was coming under heavy fire for improperly protecting former Assemblymember Vito Lopez, who was forced to resign amid sexual harassment accusations. His critics saw a connection with Silver’s decision to allow an accused rapist, Michael Boxley, to remain on his staff for years until a second sexual assault accusation surfaced.

But Downtown leaders, women and men, continued to appreciate what he delivered for his district.

“Since Speaker Silver has represented us, he has created four K–8 schools in Community Board 1 and we’re hoping we’ll get another one soon,” Catherine McVay Hughes, chairwoman of CB1, said at the 2013 Gateway Plaza event feting Silver.

Before 9/11, there were often grumblings from Downtown activists upset with Silver, but those dwindled as his Albany clout produced real benefits for a community that was struggling to rebuild.

When he faced his first primary

E PR

S

T EN

S:

challenge in 22 years, amid the 2008 Lopez/Boxley scandal, Silver won 68 percent of the vote.

And even Silver’s main primary opponent, Paul Newell, now a Democratic district leader and a likely candidate to succeed him, was careful not to criticize Silver directly in a prepared statement issued immediately after the verdict.

He called it “a sad day for Lower Manhattan,” but added, “no court will end Albany’s culture of corruption and cronyism.”

The jury this week found that Silver collected nearly $4 million in legal fees in exchange for steering state money toward a particular doctor’s cancer research and helping two real estate firms with legislation.

But prosecutors did not charge Silver with any crimes connected to his local work, which included highly praised task forces focused on issues such as school overcrowding and the safety of the troubled demolitions of the 9/11-damaged buildings Deutsche Bank and Fiterman Hall.

The ongoing school task force has been the driving force behind the creation of much-needed new schools Downtown, which is the fastest growing part of the city.

Silver was forced to give up the powerful speaker’s post after his arrest at the beginning of the year, but city Dept. of Education officials continued to attend task-force meetings. Whether they will now that his conviction effectively removes him from the Assembly altogether remains to be seen.

Goodkind said it would take a generation for another Downtowner to match Silver’s level of influence, and it

may never happen again.

The former speaker’s downfall shocked Downtowners and took many by surprise — not least Silver, himself.

After the current Gateway Plaza rent deal was negotiated, he said he had no doubt he’d be still speaker in 2020 at age 76, when the agreement would need be extended again.

“There’s no question about that,” he said at the time.

File photo by J.B. Nicholas

Silver was surrounded by a less-adoring crowd as he left Downtown’s Federal Court Building after his arraignment on federal corruption charges in January.

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17

EDITORIAL

The must-NOT-have toys this Christmas PUBLISHER

Jennifer Goodstein EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Bill Egbert

EDITOR-AT-LARGE

Josh Rogers REPORTER

Dusica Sue Malesevic ARTS EDITOR

Scott Stiffler EXECUTIVE VP OF ADVERTISING

Amanda Tarley

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES

Jack Agliata Allison Greaker Jim Steele Julio Tumbaco ART DIRECTOR

Michael Shirey GRAPHIC DESIGNERS

Rhiannon Hsu Chris Ortiz

B Y L E NO R E S K EN AZY With the holiday season upon us and tots with their eyes all gosh-darn aglow, it is time to buy toys. This year, some are moving faster than others.

And then there are the ones not moving at all: Arm-Os: Just like Legos, except shaped like arms. Kind of hard to snap together — and disturbing once you do.

Grown-Up Mutant Ninja Turtles: Still living in a sewer, but now plagued by back problems, wheezing, and “shell bunions.”

(Don’t ask!)

Coolidge Logs: Modernized Lincoln Logs. But not that modernized.

Spider Farm: Just like an ant farm, but with eight legs.

Bryan Cranston Chemistry Set: “Hey kids. Clean up that meth you made!”

Tickle Me and I’ll See You In Court, Elmo: A chastened Elmo neither tickles nor accepts tickling. He always has another adult Muppet present and wears a body camera.

Mr. Pot-Head and his wife, Mrs. PotHead: Put eyes all over them! Add an upside-down mustache, and how about a hat for a nose? Sooooo funny! Oh my God, like, seriously, that is the funniest thing ever, ever, ever.

Easy Break Oven: Half the price of the

Hasbro models.

Barbie’s Over-Mortgaged Dream House: Of course Barbie’s got a job! She’s got three: Astronaut, pop singer, veterinarian. And she’s still underwater. (Ken is AWOL with some Bratz doll.)

Cabbage Patch Cabbage: Better than the old Cabbage Patch Kids, because you can boil these or serve stuffed with ground meat and rice.

Skinky: Wrap these long metal coils around a friend’s wrists. Voila! Homemade handcuffs. Have fun!

Trumby: Bombastic, ginger-haired rubber figurine that will not let any toys from Syria into the playpen.

Ouija Bored: Slightly testy tool for communicating with the dead, often spelling out, “He’s fine. Quit asking.” Or, “She’s busy … for eternity.”

Power-Hungry Rangers: These Rangers roam the Interstate issuing exorbitant traffic tickets for cracked brake lights and failing to signal a lane change.

Payola Crayons: Crayons that will draw anything for you, for a price.

Chutes and Bladders: Get to the bathroom at the top of the board as fast as you can! Hurry!

Bernie Babies: Bernie Babies don’t smile much, but they are earnest, they are angry, and they come with a plush copy of Das Kapital. Bernies are not available for sale — “Unlike our government!” as the Bernie motto goes.

Stomp Drones: One, two, three — stomp! Congratulations, you’ve launched your own personal attack drone. Watch it sail beyond your neighborhood, over the ocean and into the Middle East where who-knows-what mischief it may cause? Time to get out your Nerf Grenade Launcher!

Rubik’s Cubicle: Twist this super-sized toy into a cramped and lonely workspace devoid of hope and cheer. Add a family photo! (But it won’t do any good.)

Barrel of Monks: Now quite as much fun as its predecessor, and a very quiet toy.

Mobbed-Up Chatty Cathy: Cathy isn’t so chatty anymore. In fact, she didn’t see nothin’ and she’s not sayin’ nothin’.

See ’n’ Swear: Pull the string and see someone steal dad’s parking space! What does daddy say now?

Lenore Skenazy is a keynote speaker and author and founder of the book and blog Free-Range Kids.

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Milo Hess Jefferson Siegel PUBLISHER EMERITUS

John W. Sutter

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December 3 – December 16, 2015

Now imagine if the Koenig Sphere was sat in the middle of this park. How would that work? In order to placate 9/11 family members who want the Sphere returned to the memorial plaza, you know, where it came from, the previous Port Authority regime said, hey, how about we stick it in this new park we're building overlooking the memorial? Um, how about we return it to where it came from?

Outrageous! That would ruin the memorial! Including an actual, genuine artifact of the event you are supposed to be commemorating at the memorial where it happened!

Whoever heard of such a thing? That would tell people what to think! Like, about 9/11. Rather than say, take naps or text. Now, maybe I'm wrong about this but something tells me that downtowners really don't want another park and more open space dedicated to 9/11. Attracting lots and lots of tourists. And that did not happen because of us: 9/11 family members. However, the 9/11 memorial foundation will not allow the return of the Sphere to where it stood for 30 yrs and where we all remember it and where it survived the attacks. So the memorial can "commemorate" our memories of the WTC and attacks. So it sits in an obscure corner of Battery Park, forgotten. So the memorial can include nothing of 9/11; so visitors can nap and text.

Without any reminders of you know what.

Michael Burke

UNITED IN THE FACE OF CHANGE (NOV. 20) Ann was a very forceful participant at our September 16 Small Business Round Table held at Independence Plaza and sponsored by Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer (who attended) and Community Board 1. As a member of CB 1's Tribeca Committee (who helped set this up) and who was present with Marc Ameruso, Ann is exactly the force needed to take the issues the Round Table raised and organize other local businesses who speak more forcefully when working together. I'm hoping CB 1 will consider a Small Business sub committee. For now, however, the Tribeca Alliance is a great start. Brava! Ann. Jean B. Grillo

DOWNTOWN BEING TAKEN FOR THE RIDE (NOV. 20) DOT ignoring the wishes of the community board? I am shocked, absolutely shocked.

NOT Janette Sadik Kant Just another slap in the face to local residents. Since the South Street Seaport opened, quality of life in this area is virtually non-existent. So why not allow more noise and traffic?

Rose F Ugh. This is insane for so MANY reasons (South End Avenue Is residential, not Times Square). Clearly those deciding don't have a clue or (likely) were well compensated for their decision.

Diane Cimine DowntownExpress.com

Downtown on the up Lower Manhattan’s economy shifting into high gear

40,000 31 2.3 23

new private-sector jobs

coming to downtown

new RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS with 5,227 units

by 2019

million sq. ft. of new retail

new hotels

with 3,941 rooms

Source: "Surging Ahead: Lower Manhattan's Economic Impact and What It Means for New York" by the Downtown Alliance Icons made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com

AP Photo / Mark Lennihan

BY BILL EGBERT The Downtown economy has already fully recovered from the 9/11 attacks and the financial crisis, but the best is yet to come for Lower Manhattan, according to a new report.

Private-sector employment reached a post-9/11 peak at the end of last year, in a more diversified Downtown economy that relies less on the financial sector and serves a fast-growing residential population, setting up an expansion expected to exceed growth in the rest of the city over the next five years, according to “Surging Ahead,” a report put out by the Alliance for Downtown New York.

“We have built back bigger, better and stronger,” said Alliance president Jessica Lappin.

Built back better…

In 2001, Downtown’s economy was dominated by the so-called “FIRE” sector of finance, insurance and real estate, which provided 55 percent of all private-sector jobs in the area. The flight of such firms after the 9/11 attacks, followed by the crash of the sector following the financial crisis eliminated more than 50,000 Downtown jobs. But over the same period, growth in other industries in Lower Manhattan made up for most of those job losses, creating a more resilient and diversified employment base.

DowntownExpress.com

“With that diversity comes a whole new energy,” said Lappin, citing the influx of young “creative workers” of the media and technology companies flocking Downtown. “They’re breathing new life into the neighborhood.”

As of the end of last year, Lower Manhattan depends on the FIRE sector for only 35 percent of private-sector employment, with a much higher proportion of jobs coming from growth industries such as health care, professional services and the hospitality sector. In fact, one of the fastest-growing segments of the Downtown economy is that new darling of economic development circles, the so-called “TAMI” sector made up of technology, advertising, media, and information-services firms.

The start-up-heavy TAMI sector leased 3 million square feet of office space Downtown between 2009 and 2014 — more than enough to fill the entire Empire State Building — and increased its employment in the area by 37 percent to account for nearly 10 percent of all jobs Downtown, according to “TAMI Takes Lower Manhattan,” a 2014 report by the Downtown Alliance.

And that trend will continue. More than half of the sector’s 2014 total footprint came from leases signed for more than 1.6 million square feet in that year

alone, and TAMI firms are on track to ink leases for nearly that much new space in 2015, according to the Alliance.

Manhattan overall has seen a surge in this coveted tech-media sector since 2007, but the Downtown Alliance report showed that Lower Manhattan has become its center of gravity in the city. Of the nearly 9 million square feet of office space TAMI firms leased in Manhattan between 2007 and 2010, only 14 percent was in the Downtown area. But of the nearly 15 million square feet of space leased from 2011 to 2014, 32 percent was located south of Chambers street alone.

The growing list of major media companies moving Downtown includes Time Inc., Condé Nast, Harper Collins, SNY, and the New York Observer, with Vox Media, News Corp. and 21st Century Fox now in talks to lease space.

“The center of gravity has definitely shifted Downtown for media,” Lappin said.

But the diversification of the Downtown economy away from the financial sector isn’t simply a matter of swapping one dominant sector for another. The latest Alliance report cites growth in other areas which point to a more balanced economic base, and promise continued expansion.

Downtown added 14,772 new residential units between 2001 and 2014, and is

expected to add another 5,277 units — mostly luxury condos — by 2019. The hospitality industry has added 3,439 new rooms in 16 new Downtown hotels since 2001, and is projected to add another 3,941 rooms in 23 new, mostly high-end boutique hotels by the end of the decade. …Stronger, faster Downtown’s newly diversified economy and booming residential population is turning Lower Manhattan into a 24/7 neighborhood set for accelerated growth that will outpace the rest of the city going forward, the report found.

New improvements in the area’s transportation infrastructure — both recently completed projects such as Fulton Center, and those still anticipated, including the World Trade Center hub taking shape beneath the Oculus — are expected to power the continued expansion of the Downtown economy, drawing shoppers from across the city and around the region to new shopping destinations soon coming online.

Retail components of the transit projects, plus shops in new the World Trade Center complex and elsewhere — including a new Target store set to open next year in Tribeca —will add more than 2.3 million square feet of retail space in Downtown by the end of 2019. This 53-percent increase in retail space is expected to add more than 4,000 new jobs.

In fact, employment in Lower Manhattan is expected to increase by 2.4 percent a year through the rest of the decade, nearly double the 1.3-percent rate estimated for the city overall, according to Appleseed, an economic consulting firm that contributed to the Alliance report.

Downtown is projected to add another 40,000 private-sector jobs by 2019 — the area’s biggest upsurge in employment in the past three decades. And while many of the 27,000 jobs gained by Lower Manhattan since the depths of the Great Recession came from companies relocating from other parts of Manhattan to take advantage of office space vacated by a downsizing financial sector, the changing Downtown economy means that the majority of this future employment increase will be net new jobs for the city, according to Appleseed.

“By 2014, the Lower Manhattan economy had really rebounded,” said Lappin, “but looking forward over the next five years, we’re going to surge even further ahead.”

December 3 – December 16, 2015

19

APPLE ADDICTED

BOTTLE BASH

A thief wasted no time after stealing a man’s wallet from a gym locker on Fri., Nov. 27. using the victim’s credit cards to ring up more than $10,000 worth of Apple products in two hours, police say.

It all started when a New Jersey man locked up his stuff at the Equinox gym at Brookfield Place in Battery Park City at 12:45 p.m., according to the report. When he came back to his locker, he noticed the door ajar but there was no damage.

He continued to work out until he got an email at 2:50 p.m. saying that his four credit cards had been used at the Apple stores at 14th St. and Fifth Ave. The thief had used the cards to make four purchases of around $2,556 each, police say. The suspect also got the man’s $180 wallet and $80 in cash.

A man claimed self-defense last Sunday after he was arrested for allegedly smashing a bottle over someone’s head in a bar fight.

The victim was hanging out at M1-5, a bar at 52 Walker St. in Tribeca, on Nov. 29 at 2:35 a.m., police say. He told police he was trying to stop a fight between three men when one of them hit him over the head with a bottle, causing several cuts to his face and head.

“He came at me,” the alleged bottle-basher told cops when he was arrested, according to the police report.

FOOD FIGHT A dispute over food turned ugly at a Financial District restaurant on Thurs., Nov. 19 at 2:16 p.m., leaving one man bleeding and the other in cuffs.

The victim, a male employee of 225 Bistro at 225 Broadway, told police that after the heated discussion, the other man went into the kitchen and got a sharpening tool and a knife. He allegedly hit the victim on the head with the sharpening tool and cut his leg with the knife. Both attacks caused lacerations.

Police arrested the man and recovered both weapons.

E PR

S

T EN

S:

TEEN TERRORS A gang of teens and tweens assaulted and attempted to mug a woman in the Financial District on Sat., Nov. 28 at around 7 p.m., police say.

The woman was walking near the corner of John and Water Sts. when seven boys and girls — ranging in age from 12 to 18 — allegedly punched her in the head and threw her to the ground in an attempt to snatch her cellphone and purse, according to the report.

They fled, but after canvassing the area, the police caught and arrested all of them.

Two of those arrested were implicated in a separate attack in Hudson Square at the corner of Varick

and Vandam Sts. in the wee hours earler the same day. A man told police a woman grabbed his iPhone 6 out of his hand a little after midnight and then took off. He gave chase and eventually caught up to her, but according to the police report, after she passed the phone to her male confederate, she told the victim, “If you follow, I will come back with a gun.”

NIGHTTIME RANSACK Daytime shoplifting plagues high-end Soho stores, but recently a thief took the night route.

The suspect smashed the front window of the Puma store at 521 Broadway on Mon., Nov. 23 at 3:10 a.m., police say. The thief rifled through the cabinets and the register, grabbed three jackets worth $435, and then fled.

— Dusica Sue Malesevic

DO YOU NEED A JOB? ARE YOU LOOKING FOR A NEW HOME? DO YOU NEED A RELIABLE SERVICEMAN? Check out our Classified Section for the latest in Jobs, Real Estate, Services and more!

BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT

Central Avenue Dental

Central Avenue Dental’s Downtown Manhattan office across from City Hall Park provides a full range of treatments – from general dentistry such as cleanings, fillings, root canals, and crowns, to advanced cosmetic treatments including dental implants, state-of-the-art whitening, porcelain laminates, and Invisalign® devices which discretely straighten teeth without the need for braces.

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December 3 – December 16, 2015

Dr. Igor IlyaBayev and Dr. Alevtina Edgar endeavor to make their brand of dentistry a high-end, spa-like experience that is more relaxing and anxiety-free than other providers. Nonetheless, Central Avenue Dental is offering exceptional promotional rates to new Downtown patients – for both general dentistry and cosmetic treatments – as Dr. IlyaBayev and Dr. Edgar expand their practice to Lower Manhattan from their original office in Valley Stream. To better serve busy Downtowners, Central Avenue Dental can see patients as late as 8 p.m. on Mondays and Thursdays, and even on Sundays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

MANHATTAN ADDRESS: 225 Broadway #705 NY, NY DOCTORS: Dr. Alevtina Edgar & Dr. Igor Ilyabayev PHONE: (212) 571–0033 WEBSITE: www.centralavedentalny.com BEST KNOWN FOR: Evening and weekend appointments, invisalign, and whitening, cleanings, fillings, root canals, crowns, implants, porcelain laminates

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21

Noisy neighbor

BY YAN N I C RA CK Construction noise is pile-driving them crazy.

Residents of an upscale Tribeca rental building say they’re under assault by the constant cacophony from the building site of another luxury residence across the street.

“It’s like being on the tarmac of an airport. It’s absurd,” said Joe Caccamo, who lives in a penthouse apartment at Truffles Tribeca, a luxury building on Desbrosses St. near the Hudson River.

Caccamo and many of his fellow residents say the racket from the project at 440 Washington St. across the road reaches deafening levels during the day — a particular problem for those who, like Caccamo, work from home.

“At seven in the morning, it’s — ‘BAM!’ I gotta get out of my room because it’s so loud,” he said, adding that the noise has become unbearable in the past month.

Another resident, who moved into Truffles five months ago and wished to stay anonymous, said the noise would have been a dealbreaker for him.

“If I had known [this would happen],

I never would have moved here,” he said. “It’s insane. You can’t earplug your way through it. It’s like a fullblown earthquake.”

But a spokeswoman for Related Companies, which is managing construction on the project, denied that anything was out of order.

“All of the work on the site is in compliance with Department of Buildings standards and permits,” she said in an email.

The main nuisance is a giant pile driver, which is currently pounding steel sheets into the ground to retain the soil until the new foundation walls are poured, according to Related.

Although the work site has no recent violations from the Department of Buildings, 20 complaints have been registered with the city’s 311 hotline over the last two weeks — all of them relating to loud construction equipment within a one-block radius of the building site.

On a recent weekday morning, the pile driver pounded for intervals of about 20 seconds repeated several times over a 30-minute period. At street level in

Photo by Yannic Rack

Truffles Tribeca resident Joe Caccamo says the noise from the pile driver at the construction site across the street is insufferable.

front of Truffles Tribeca, a standard sound meter registered the racket at an average of 95 decibels, with a peak level of 105 decibels, which falls within the guidelines for impact pile drivers used by the Department of Environmental Protection, the agency that regulates construction noise in the city.

The Related spokeswoman said the sheeting work will go on through the end of the year.

But not everyone in the neighborhood is so bothered by the noise.

“I haven’t really heard it,” said Mary

T:8.75”

Claire Inglish, who lives on the fifth floor of Truffles Tribeca. “It’s not great, but it doesn’t bother me,” she said, although she added that she usually isn’t home during weekdays.

Page Dickinson, who works at the FIKA coffee shop around the corner, said the noise was actually good for business.

“If anything, we’re gaining customers, because they gotta wake up early now anyway,” she said. “People come in and say, ‘well I might as well get a coffee ‘cause I’m not sleeping today.’”

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December 3 – December 16, 2015

DowntownExpress.com

Zone out Manhattan’s leaders blast Blaz’s upzone plans

BY D U SI CA SU E M A LE S E V IC The mayor’s sweeping plans to relax zoning rules faced another gust of blowback on Monday with a smackdown by the Manhattan Borough Board.

The board — made up of the borough’s community board heads, Council delegation and the borough president — passed two resolutions of “conditional disapproval” of the zoning proposals at a special meeting on Nov. 30.

T he resolutions essentially rejected the mayor’s two proposals, recommending that the Council vote them down unless significant changes are made.

The first proposal, called “Zoning for Quality and Affordability,” aims to promote below-market-rate housing for seniors and mixed-income housing in exchange for reducing parking requirements nearby public transit, and easing buildings rules to allow elements such as courtyards and bay windows.

It would also allow buildings to be five feet taller to encourage ground-floor retail, which requires high ceilings. Downtowners who fought for height restrictions in neighborhoods such as Tribeca are particularly concerned about allowing additional height.

The second proposal, “Mandatory Inclusionary Housing” would apply to future large residential developments that need zoning variances, requiring 25 to 30 percent of the units to be held permanently below market rate.

But it would not apply to Manhattan below 96th St. on the east side and 110th St. on the west.

Since neither proposal would have much effect Downtown, Community Board 1 initially had few complaints, but pushback by members at CB1’s Nov. 19 meeting led chairwoman Catherine McVay Hughes to oppose the measures at Monday’s borough board meeting.

The borough board’s resolutions

were based on the many concerns Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and other officials had spelled out in a Nov. 17 letter.

They asked for changes to increase oversight, guard against abuses, and preserve particular restrictions involving narrow streets and midblock building heights.

The resolution on the Mandatory Inclusionary Housing proposal also demanded the removal of a loophole allowing developers to sidestep participation if the Board of Standard and Appeals deems it a “hardship.”

During discussions of the resolutions, Hughes asked to include schools in one of the parts involving infrastructure concerns, but she was rebuffed.

The borough board approved the resolutions 12–0 with four abstentions.

All the community board heads present voted for the resolutions while almost all councilmembers present abstained — except for Rosie Mendez of the East Village, who voted with the community board heads.

Borough President Brewer will issue her office’s formal recommendation on the zoning proposals

by Dec. 11, and the City Planning Commission will conduct a public hearing on the proposals on Dec. 16.

As in Manhattan, nearly all community boards across the city have opposed the proposals, and every borough board that has voted on them so far has likewise passed resolutions recommending rejection without a litany of changes. But most councilmembers have remained mysteriously mum, refusing to take any position publically, and either abstaining in borough board votes, or skipping them altogether.

Like it or not, councilmembers will eventually have to make their views known when the zoning amendments will go before the Council for a vote early next year.

Join us 9am-3pm, 9am-12noon, 2pm-5pm or 8am-6pm

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Singer, song-writer & song-writer Storyteller Lou Gallo $150.00 for the 9 week Singer, & series Storyteller Lou Gallo Singer, song-writer & Storyteller Lou Gallo For more information to register child Class will lead a 10 week Music & Rhythm will lead a 9 week Music &orRhythm Classyour will lead aplease 9 week & Rhythm Class Mondays 4:15-5:00 pm callMusic 212-945-0088 Mondays 4:00 - 4:30 4:15-5:00 January 25thMondays through March 30th pm or email info@bpcnersery.com September 28th - December 14th January 25th through- March 30th Open for children ages 12 months 5 years

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Check out our Classified Section for the latest in Jobs, Real Estate, Services and more!

DowntownExpress.com

December 3 – December 16, 2015

23

TRANSIT SAM Thurs., Dec. 3 – Wed., Dec. 9 ALTERNATE SIDE PARKING RULES SUSPENDED TUES. Battle at the Meadowlands means more traffic on Manhattan streets. The Giants and Jets face off 1 p.m. Sunday at MetLife Stadium. About 75,000 fans turned out last year, so a crush of drivers will take to the Lincoln Tunnel, sending more down to the Holland.

Holiday season is in full force!

Here’s what you need to know as we head into the merriment: Shopping areas throughout the city will be jammed now through New Year, especially the rows along Broadway from Union Square down to Canal St. This Friday is a gridlock alert day!

The remaining official NYC Gridlock Alert Days for 2015 are December 11th, 16th, 17th, 18th, and 23rd.

These are days when the city (and Transit Sam!) advises people to use mass transit as a way to reduce the heavier than usual traffic congestion.

One tube of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel will close 9:30 p.m. Friday to 5:30 a.m. Monday. Two-way traffic

will run in the other tube. Expect delays in the tunnel and on West St., as well as at the inbound Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges.

On the Brooklyn Bridge, all Manhattan-bound lanes will close 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. Wednesday and Thursday nights. With the Battery Tunnel closure, this will make for slow inbound travel overnight as most drivers detour to the Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges, and onto Canal and Delancey Sts. In the Holland Tunnel, one NewYork bound lane will close 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. Thursday night. That means slow going into Lower Manhattan, and on Canal St. too.

From the mailbag: Dear Transit Sam, With the snow season almost here I’ve been thinking ahead about street cleaning rules that occur during bad weather. When the streets are covered with snow, the street cleaning machines don’t usually drive by. Are street cleaning rules still in effect

let’s do something together at TRINITY WALL STREET

All Are Welcome

All events are free, unless noted.

TRINITY CHURCH Broadway at Wall Street ST. PAUL’S CHAPEL Broadway and Fulton Street

That’s not wine even when they’re not actually being cleaned?

Paula, East Village

Dear Paula, No, street cleaning rules are usually suspended when there’s a significant (and sometimes not so significant) snowstorm. But at times I'm baffled by the city’s pronouncements so it’s best to check at http://www. nyc.gov/html/dot/html/home/home. shtml. But, after a few days street cleaning rules may be put back into effect even though the curb lane is filled with snow; that’s so trucks can plow the snow often to the center of the street to melt.

Many people think 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. No Parking rules are part of the street cleaning family; they are not. Street cleaning rules are typically in hour and half segments although by meters they may be as short as a half-hour. But, while the street cleaning rule by a meter is suspended the meter may very well be in effect.

music & the arts

education

Concerts at One

Adult Discovery Classes: Advent

DECEMBER 3, 10 & 17, 1PM

DECEMBER 6 & 13, 10AM

Trinity Church

Dec. 3: Chris Pattishall Quartet, Jazz & Holiday Dec. 10: PROJECT Trio, Bach to Rock to Hip Hop Dec. 17: Canadian Brass, Holiday Concert

community Fr. Richard Rohr presents “The Francis Factor” DECEMBER 7, 7PM

Trinity Church Come hear internationally recognized teacher and author Richard Rohr speak on St. Francis and Pope Francis. He will also preach at the 11:15am Eucharist at Trinity Church on December 6.

Trinity Church Come to adult education classes exploring scripture, faith, and daily life.

Dec. 6: Melanie Hartzog, Children’s Defense Fund Dec. 13: Milagros Cruz, International Rescue Committee New York

Pre-TI Dialogue #2: Education Equity DECEMBER 5, 10AM-2:30PM

Trinity Church All are invited to a forum on our educational system and practical ways to help schools succeed. Freeman Hrabowski, President of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, delivers the keynote.

Please RSVP at TI2016.org/dialogues

Photo by Milo Hess

Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb of the “Today Show” took a break from day drinking on Nov. 23 to serve an early Thanksgiving meal to needy families at the New York City Rescue Mission at 90 Lafayette St.

worship

SUNDAY, 8am & 9:15am St. Paul’s Chapel · Holy Eucharist 8pm · Compline by Candlelight SUNDAY, 9am & 11:15am Trinity Church · Preaching, music, and Eucharist · Child care available MONDAY—FRIDAY, 8:15am Trinity Church, All Saints’ Chapel Morning Prayer MONDAY—FRIDAY, 12:05pm Trinity Church · Holy Eucharist MONDAY—FRIDAY, 5:15pm Trinity Church, All Saints’ Chapel Evening Prayer Watch live or on-demand webcast at trinitywallstreet.org/videos

TRINITY EPISCOPAL CHURCH PARISH CENTER 2 Rector Street

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an Episcopal parish in the city of New York

24

December 3 – December 16, 2015

DowntownExpress.com

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December 3 – December 16, 2015

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Preaching ‘punk gospel’ at Joe’s Pub and beyond

Rev. Billy and Choir give ‘em that earth time religion

Photo by Erik McGregor

When Rev. Billy, the 30-member Stop Shopping Choir and a three-piece band set up shop, Joe’s Pub overflows with earthy activism.

B Y SCO T T ST I F F L E R The charismatic scourge of consumerism has an idea he wants you to buy.

“Earth justice and human justice are, and need, to be the same thing,” asserts the man on the other end of the phone, who announces himself in the guise of a Bible salesman offering Old Testament brimstone and New Covenant wisdom that you can’t afford to ignore.

Empowered by righteous anger, prankster activism and a young daughter set to inherit this profit-before-people world, Reverend Billy brings his ministry — without invitation and sometimes resulting in jail time — to chain stores, bank lobbies, and corporate offices. You’ll also find him on picket lines, in protest marches, and at sites of environmental despoliation. His message varies (workers are suffering, species are disappearing, toxins are polluting, consumers are overspending), but his method

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December 3 – December 16, 2015

is the same: aggressive satire and strength in numbers.

Sundays through Dec. 20, Reverend Billy brings his deadly serious, laugh-out-loud brand of street theatre to the great indoors. That the show’s run takes place during the height of gift-giving season is no mere coincidence.

Although its mission continues to evolve, The Church of Stop Shopping is still firmly rooted in the notion that most folly visited upon this planet stems from mankind’s unchecked appetite for disposable pleasures. With a 30-member choir and a guitar/drum/ keyboard combo filling the Joe’s Pub stage up to its brim, Reverend Billy’s 70-minute Sunday service (seen by this publication in previews) effectively distills the essence of his many causes.

“Our hot experiment,” says Reverend Billy, “puts out the idea that the issues we embrace integrate and become a simple human value in our fabulous worship.

I have this incredible wave of punk gospel blowing through me. To be on stage with activists who sing, and singers who risk arrest, is a revelation.”

That risk is real, every time the Church takes their crusade against avarice and injustice into the public sphere. Stop Shopping Choir members — who recently retired their trademark robes in favor of extinction-themed honeybee chic — have been arrested “many times over the past fifteen years,” according to Church spokesperson Marnie Glickman, and have been subject to bodily harm more times than they care to count.

A member of the Choir met the business end of a Doorbuster stampede back in 2008 during a group pilgrimage to the Valley Stream, NJ Walmart, where they attempted to reason with the mob. Bargain-hunters didn’t get the joke, which is tough to do when you’re laser-focused on a mission. Happily, the Church doesn’t DowntownExpress.com

have a problem finding humor amidst chaos (which is downright infectious if you’re the right audience).

In 2014, over two dozen Church members found themselves in Ferguson, MO Walmart and Target stores — without incident, this time, but joined by “young African-Americans,” recalls Reverend Billy, who were “shouting ‘Hands Up, Don’t Shop.’ So we affirmed our decadeslong fetish not only against consumerism, but what we call ‘Consumerracism.’ ” From the minimum wage, to the revolving door between business and government, to the toxic glyphosates “banned in most European countries but still being sprayed here in our great liberal town,” to police forces meeting protesters while dressed in military-grade gear, Reverend Billy says we “keep finding consumerism is always there, in a big way.”

In the Reverend’s slogan-packed proselytizing, as well as in songs like “We Are The 99%,” all of these topics were given stage time at Joe’s Pub, along with a chance to declare victory on at least one front. The Nov. 8 preview came on the heels of Obama’s Keystone decision. Proof, Billy noted, that “Earth Culture stopped the pipeline.”

Photo by Erik McGregor

Reverend Billy and The Church of Stop Shopping take a message as big as Times Square and squeeze it onto the intimate Joe’s Pub stage, Sundays through Dec. 20.

That made for a nice segue to the upbeat “Gratitude Song,” a golden oldie Church hymn that canonizes activist saints, willing martyrs, and innocent victims — but the majority of selections land on the side of active struggle rather than cautious optimism. “Get home safe”

and “run for your life” are alternately hushed and urgent refrains in two early selections, causing Reverend Billy to note, “Even when the dogs don’t bark, they can bite your ass.”

“Make that anger righteous, not reckless,” a Choir member shouts. Good

advice when Reverend Billy asks us to ponder both sides of the protest line: “Two institutions with pavement between us,” he says. “We’ve got to fill that pavement with bacteria and birds and nature.”

With the Choir clapping, music thumping, and Reverend Billy giving every syllable in “Earth-a-lu-jah!” its own sense of end times urgency, you don’t know whether to tap your toes or change the world. This is one church service that puts you back on the street convinced life is at its best when we strive to do both, preferably at the same time.

“Reverend Billy & The Stop Shopping Choir: The Earth Wants YOU!” plays through Dec. 20, Sundays at 2 p.m. (doors open at 1:30 p.m.), at Joe’s Pub (425 Lafayette St. btw. Astor Pl. & E. Fourth St.). For tickets ($15, plus $12 food or twodrink minimum), visit joespub.publictheater.org or call 212-967-7555.

Directed by Savitri D. with music direction by Nehemiah Luckett.

Principle soloists: Laura Newman and Dragonfly (all songs composed by these four). Get info on Church activities, and their new “Resist Extinction” album, at revbilly.com.

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BROOKLYN The Community News Group is proud to introduce BROOKLYN PAPER RADIO. Join Brooklyn Paper Editor-in-Chief Vince DiMiceli and the New York Daily News’ Gersh Kuntzman every Monday at 4 pm for an hour of talk on topics Brooklynites hold dear.

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Buhmann on Art

Richard Pousette-Dart: 1930s B Y STEPHA N I E B U H M A NN A founding member of the New York School, Richard Pousette-Dart (19161992) is best known for his elaborate paintings. However, his career spanned several decades — and within that time, he explored various styles and media, including painting, poetry, and sculpture.

This particular gem of an exhibition is solely devoted to Pousette-Dart’s early work, when he primarily created directly carved sculptures and related works on paper. It showcases about 80 works from the 1930s, including drawings, notebooks and brasses. Eastern philosophy and religion, as well as African, Oceanic and Native American art were among his most important early influences — and they can be easily traced here.

The works on display embrace archaic forms that are often set against sol-

Photo by Jose Andres Ramirez, courtesy The Drawing Center

“Richard Pousette-Dart: 1930s” is on view through Dec. 20 at The Drawing Center.

Courtesy estate of the artist

“The Walking Man” (1930s / Gouache, ink, and graphite on paper / 15 7/8 x 11 7/8 in.).

idly colored backgrounds, generating a sense of iconographic importance.

Many of these works contemplate the human figure, albeit in a manner that reflects Pousette-Dart’s interest in working three-dimensionally at this time.

Surrounding space, orientation, volume and the linearity of planes are key aspects of this thorough investigation. Other studies allude to dance, animal forms,

masks, as well as heads, or ponder various abstract and geometric elements.

Through Dec. 20 at The Drawing Center (35 Wooster St., btw. Grand & Broome Sts.). Hours: 12–6 p.m. on Wed., Fri., Sat. & Sun. and 12–8 p.m. on Thurs. (free admission, 6–8 p.m.).

General admission, $5 ($3 for students/ seniors, free for children under 12). Call 212-219-2166 or visit drawingcenter.org.

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December 3 – December 16, 2015

DowntownExpress.com

Songs of the season Music to make you merry and bright

Image courtesy ARChive of Contemporary Music

The ARChive of Contemporary Music has something for at least 50,000 people on your “Nice” list.

B Y SCO T T S T IF F L E R WASHINGTON SQUARE TREE LIGHTING AND CAROLING From Charlie Hebdo to Black Lives Matter to last month’s Paris attacks, Washington Square Park has been a gathering place for expressions of grief, solidarity, and resolve. As this violent year draws to a close, “Peace on Earth, Good Will to Men” is a sentiment that will ring out in grand, communal style — when The Washington Square Association hosts two carol singing sessions backed by the Rob Susman Brass Quartet. On Dec. 9, Santa Claus (candy canes in hand) will lead the illumination countdown, after which the switch will be flipped on a 45-foot tree under the Arch, and yuletide songs will be sung. The caroling takes place again on Christmas Eve. At the Washington Square Park Arch (Fifth Ave., one block south of Eighth St). At 6 p.m. on Wed., Dec. 9 and at 5 p.m. on Thurs., Dec. 24. Call 212-252-3621 or visit washingtonsquarenyc.org. The tree will be lit for the season, daily, between 4 p.m. and 1 a.m.

THE ARChive OF CONTEMPORARY MUSIC HOLIDAY RECORD & CD SALE No matter how good you’ve been or how politely you ask, Santa can’t leave a downloaded song under the tree — and why would he want to, when the busy elves at ARCHive of Contemporary Music have lined their shelves and bins with over 50,000 tactile items of interest? Proceeds from this annual sale help support the nonprofit music archive, library and research center, which collects, preserves and provides information on popular music from 1950 to the present. Among the sounds and sights up for grabs at this sale: collectible LPs priced below book/online value, 20,000 CDs (starting at $3), ’60s psychedelic posters, audio equipment, music magazines, videos, DVDs, and an Astroturf Yard Sale section full of vintage kitchen wares and clothing.

Dec. 5–20, daily, 11 a.m.–6 p.m. At the ARCHive of Contemporary Music ground floor office, 54 White St. (3 blocks south of Canal St., btw. Broadway & Church Sts).

Call 212-226-6967 or visit arcmusic.org.

Photo by Ken Howard

The Rob Susman Brass Quartet provides music, The Washington Square Association supplies songbooks, and you lend your voice: Dec. 9 and 24.

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December 3 – December 16, 2015

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December 3 – December 16, 2015

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December 3 – December 16, 2015

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Introducing a new, LOW-COST health plan for eligible individuals!

The Essential Plan

Offered by Fidelis Care and available through NY State of Health: The Official Health Plan Marketplace

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• Free preventive care like checkups and screenings

Enroll ALL YEAR LONG starting November 1, 2015!

Comprehensive Coverage: Doctor visits (including specialists), lab tests and X-rays, hospital care, prescription drugs, and more.

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To learn more about applying for health insurance including Child Health Plus and Medicaid through NY State of Health, the Official Health Plan Marketplace, visit www.nystateofhealth.ny.gov or call 1-855-355-5777.

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December 3 – December 16, 2015

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