Manhattan Express

COVER PHOTO BY YANNIC RACK

De Blasio Not Yet in the Saddle on Horse Carriages Sutton Place Residents Rally Against Supertower Surge 03 January 28 - February 10, 2016 | Vol. 02 No. 02

Honoring the History of Women's Suffrage Movement 08

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More Pediatric Cancer Beds for Ronald McDonald House 10 MANHATTANEXPRESSNEWS.NYC

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January 28 - February 10, 2016 | ManhattanExpressNews.nyc

Facing East River Supertower, Sutton Place Residents Volley Back with Rezoning Bid

BY JACKSON CHEN

A

Sutton Place neighborhood organization has filed a rezoning proposal in an attempt to block the development of a 90-story “supertower” and preserve the residential feel of their community.

According to the January 21 application filed with the Department of City Planning, the East River Fifties Alliance wants the area from East 52nd Street to East 59th Street and from First Avenue to the East River restricted to a 260-foot height limit, or approximately 25 stories.

The Alliance’s rezoning proposal was mostly a response to a real estate development group’s plan to construct a skyscraper at 3 Sutton Place near 57th Street. Bauhouse Group’s project, currently zoned in one of the city’s R10 districts, is expected to be constructed as-ofright and requires no discretionary review from city agencies.

Since learning of plans for the building in April 2015, the Alliance has been working to halt a project they feel doesn’t belong in their community.

“From 52nd to 59th Street and east of First Avenue, it’s a truly residential neighborhood,” said Alan Kersh, president of the Alliance. “It’s not like Midtown, where it’s a mix of commercial, office, and hotels; it’s truly residential [with] a range of demographics in our neighborhood.”

With a dramatically taller cityscape quickly taking hold in Manhattan, the residents of Sutton Place wanted to stand up to the developers and any supertowers they might have in mind for their neighborhood.

“When you build new developments in existing residential neighborhoods, you’re tearing down walkups,” Kersh said. “These kinds of projects displace residents that have been living here their whole life.”

On top of recruiting likeminded individuals, the organization enlisted the help of two urban planners

— Douglas Woodward and Sandy Hornick — and an environmental and land use law firm, Carter Ledyard and Milburn LLP. The Alliance’s efforts culminated in the rezoning proposal that would restrict developments in the neighborhood to a contextual height, but also provide stipulations for affordable housing and incentives for community-oriented spaces.

opers are interested in increasing their FAR to 13, the rezoning proposal would require them to add public amenities such as community spaces, schools, seniors centers, or medical offices.

With the organization’s proposal submitted to City Planning, it awaits a Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, where the application will be reviewed by Community Board 6,

the department, its reviews project applications based on existing zoning regulations at the time.

If the real estate developers have their application in before the city approves the rezoning proposal, the building could move forward as of right, with zoning requirements that have no height restrictions.

According to a spokesperson for the Bauhouse Group, demolition

ERFA, INC.

The East River Fifties Alliance’s rendering of what could happen in the Sutton Place district without rezoning.

According to City Councilmember Ben Kallos, who co-signed the rezoning application, the proposal also calls for Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (MIH) to be included in the new district. As part of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s housing plans for the city, MIH would make the creation of permanent affordable housing a mandatory condition for developers in certain areas. Those who are eligible for the affordable housing units would be determined by where their family income falls relative to the area median income (AMI).

For developers in Sutton Place, the proposed MIH inclusion in the rezoning proposal would give them a boost in floor-area ratio — a comparison of total floor space to the square-footage of the land a building sits on — from the current zoning limit of 10 up to 12. If devel-

ManhattanExpressNews.nyc | January 28 - February 10, 2016

ERFA, INC.

The group’s rendering of how the future could be different.

Borough President Gale Brewer, the City Planning Commission, the City Council, and Mayor de Blasio.

According to Kersh, he expects the review process to go smoothly, as the proposal’s creators already have the support of CB6, both Kallos and Councilmember Dan Garodnick, and Brewer. Joining the roster of politicians in favor of the rezoning, East Side State Senator Liz Krueger also expressed support for the plan alongside organizations like the Municipal Art Society, CIVITAS, and other neighborhood associations.

The Alliance president said the only hurdle left to face is gaining the City Planning Commission’s approval.

As for the Bauhouse Group, the race is on for the developer to submit its paperwork to the Buildings Department. According to

has already begun and the project has been moving forward. However, no building permits have been filed for the address, according to city records, so the developer does not yet have an unimpeded path. Still, it remains confident.

“Our project will be near completion by the time any rezoning would be heard,” said a Bauhouse Group spokesperson.

Ult imat e ly, if t he r e zo ning is passed, the Alliance and its co-sponsors hope to have an impact on other neighborhoods whose residents are tired of overdevelopment.

“Over -development happens because no one does anything, they say ‘as-of-right’ and they let it happen,” Kallos said. “The community here is doing something historic that no other community in recent memory has done.” n

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De Blasio Not Yet in the Saddle on Horse Carriages

YANNIC RACK

As the City Council responded with exasperation to the de Blasio administration’s proposal on curbing the horse carriage industry, drivers continue to operate on Midtown streets.

YANNIC RACK

Pedicab operators queued outside City Hall on Friday to testify against a bill that would ban them from most of Central Park.

BY YANNIC RACK

M

ayor Bill de Blasio’s controversial plan to get horse carriages off of Manhattan’s streets and relocate their stables to Central Park hit a roadblock last week, when a host of critics on the City Council reined in any hopes of quickly resolving one of the most divisive issues plaguing the administration.

At a hearing of the Council’s T ransportation Committee on January 22, members of the de Blasio administration had a hard

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time answering questions about the proposal, such as how much a new stable in the park would cost, where exactly it would be located, and why it was necessary in the first place.

“I think what you’re asking us to buy here is an empty bag with a hole in it,” Queens Councilmember Barry Grodenchik said at one point during the hearing, which drew large crowds of carriage drivers, animal rights activists, and pedicab operators into the Council’s packed chambers at City Hall.

Most of them came to testify on

the new legislation, which would reduce the number of horses licensed to operate the city’s tourist carriages from around 180 to 95 over the next three years, finally restricting an industry that the mayor had once vowed to ban altogether.

After a bill to outlaw horse-drawn carriages in the city failed to garner support last year, the mayor, together with City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and representatives of the carriage industry, announced two weeks ago that an “agreement in concept” had been reached to curb the trade.

But the details of the administration’s plan proved to be another matter altogether and raised outcries from carriage drivers, as well as park advocates and even pedicab owners — who would be barred from much of Central Park under the proposal.

At the hearing, the councilmembers tried to mediate among the many stakeholders, but tensions ran high. The crowds, which had already been separated while queuing outside, spontaneously broke into applause and heckling, so that officials in the chamber repeatedly had to warn the audience to keep quiet.

“We are here because we care. We care for the pedicabs, we care for animal rights, we care for the jobs of the men and women who work in the carriage industry,” Upper Manhattan’s Ydanis Rodriguez, the committee chair and a sponsor of the bill, said at the start of the hearing. “We want to come up with something that will work for everyone.”

Despite such noble goals, the discussion quickly descended into a frustrating routine, as the councilmembers struggled to get a clear picture of the bill they were supposed to consider.

“The administration did a piss poor job today of explaining their case and defending this legisla-

tion,” said Council Majority Leader Jimmy Van Bramer of Queens. “I have to say I came in with a very open mind. But I am more angry than ever because it is wrong to ask councilmembers to take a vote like this when no information is known, too many questions are unanswered, and all this is based on a premise that’s not backed.”

In addition to restricting the number of horses starting this December, the bill would also limit each of the city’s 68 licensed carriages to one nine-hour shift per day and ban rides anywhere except for the park.

“Limiting the operation of horsedrawn carriages to Central Park will eliminate the potential for dangerous interactions between horses and vehicles” on busy Midtown streets, Mindy Tarlow, director of the Mayor’s Office of Operations, told the councilmembers.

But when pressed for details, Tarlow and her team of city officials sent to present the proposal largely stayed vague.

They could not say how much time horse carriages currently spend on city streets, or how many carriage drivers would lose their jobs under the plan. When asked how many horses had been killed in traffic in recent years, the answer was none — although four have been injured.

The proposed location for the new stable lies on the 85th Street Transverse and is currently being used for park maintenance — but Tarlow couldn’t commit that the stable would ultimately be built there, and didn’t say how much its renovation would cost.

Pressed by the councilmembers, she did promise that it would not take up any space currently open to the public.

“The goal is to have no impact on recreational use,” she said. “We will not take up any precious park

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HORSES, continued on p.5

January 28 - February 10, 2016 | ManhattanExpressNews.nyc

WILLIAM ALATRISTE/ NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL

Representatives of the carriage industry — including Conor McHugh, manager of Clinton Park Stables on West 52nd Street, carriage owner Stephen Malone, and Demos Demopoulos, secretary-treasurer of the Teamsters Union — spoke out against the bill at the hearing.

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HORSES, from p.4

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ManhattanExpressNews.nyc | January 28 - February 10, 2016

HORSES, continued on p.16

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Nevertheless, the plan didn’t go down so well with park advocates.

Tupper Thomas, executive director of the nonprofit New Yorkers for Parks and a former longtime senior city parks official, questioned the impact the stable would have on park-goers and criticized the investment of public dollars in the project, which is expected to cost at least $25 million.

“Parks are not just vacant cityowned property, they belong to the public,” Thomas said. “The city needs to give this proposal a much more careful analysis, and New Yorkers need to be able to ask questions.”

The sentiment was echoed by pedicab operators, who turned out in droves to protest the proposal (in total, over 100 members of the public signed up to testify at the hearing). Even though pedicab drivers were not part of the discussions for the deal, the bill includes a ban on them operating in the park below 85th Street — which they say will put them out of business.

“It just came out of nowhere, out of left field,” Frankie Legarreta, who has been driving a pedicab in the park for six years, said before the hearing, as he queued outside. “We don’t even know why we’re a part of this bill. As far as common interest for the public goes, we are definitely a plus.”

Asked about that part of the bill, Tarlow told the councilmembers that it was “appropriate.” She said the administration believed the deal was balanced and would not reduce business for any of the stakehold-

ers involved.

At one point during the hearing, a large group of animal rights advocates got up and left to rally for the bill outside, on the steps of City Hall. Animal rights groups like the ASPCA, PETA, and the Humane Society support the legislation, as does New Yorkers for Clean, Livable and Safe Streets, or NYCLASS, the group that lobbied for a ban of the carriage industry during de Blasio’s 2013 campaign for mayor.

The group came out in favor of the compromise only a day after expressing lukewarm approval and saying that the bill did “not go far enough” in protecting the animals.

“Our commitment to this cause has always been and will always be driven by our goal of protecting the well-being of carriage horses,” Allie Feldman, the organization’s executive director, said at the hearing.

As for the carriage drivers themselves, many of them testified against the bill, arguing that scaling back the number of horses — which would be reduced to 110 by this June and to 95 by the time the stable is built — as well as limiting their shifts to one per day, would spell their demise.

“We are not against the idea of the stables in Central Park, but we are against the timeline,” said Conor McHugh, a carriage owner and manager of Clinton Park Stables on West 52nd Street.

“This bill, in its current form, is effectively a carriage ban. It will bankrupt the industry, and we will be gone before we ever get the chance to move into the park,” said carriage driver Josh Sausville, who

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School Parents Step Up Fight Against New Nursing Home, Saying State Ignored Its Own Rules

JACKSON CHEN

P.S. 163’s main entrance, seen from the currently unused lot proposed as the site of JHL’s 20-story nursing home.

BY JACKSON CHEN

S

even parents on the Upper West Side filed a lawsuit on January 15 arguing that a nursing home development must completely redo its environmental review because the New York State Department of Health failed to fol-

low proper procedures.

The lawsuit comes on the heels of a December 9 decision by State Supreme Court Judge Joan B. Lobis. According to the judge’s decision, DOH and Jewish Home Lifecare (JHL) didn’t take the “requisite hard look” at the impact of noise and hazardous materials in

their environmental review of the construction of a 20-story nursing home on West 97th Street.

With the choice of appealing the judge’s decision or completing an amended environmental impact statement, JHL decided to appeal Lobis’ decision on December 30, according to court documents.

Two weeks into JHL’s notice of appeal, parents of P.S. 163 students fired back with a request for a cross-appeal and another motion that seeks a complete redo of the environmental impact review.

The parents’ motion to reargue claims that the DOH violated State Environmental Quality Review Act procedures. Lobis had ruled that while the DOH followed proper procedures, an amended environmental impact statement was required.

According to the lawsuit, the state DOH failed to respond, comment, or analyze a proposal for central air conditioning at P.S. 163 as a key mitigation measure during its environmental review of the nursing home development.

“DOH could have addressed and was required to analyze the issue,” the suit stated, “but intentionally ignored P.S. 163’s public comments relating to central air conditioning.”

T o combat the noise created from construction, the par ents argued that noise-attenuating windows should be installed

Manhattan Veteran Treatment Court to Lend Hand to Ex-GIs Running Afoul of the Law

BY JACKSON CHEN

M

anhattan will be getting its own Veteran Treatment Court within the State Supreme Court in Lower Manhattan beginning February 19, Manhattan Express has learned.

Joining existing branches in Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx, Manhattan’s Veteran Treatment Court (VTC) will be an incarceration-diversion court program tailored for veterans who end up with felony convictions related to psychological fallout from their military service.

Judge A. Kirke Bartley, a veteran who currently serves in the criminal branch of the Manhattan Supreme Court, will head the VTC at 100

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Centre Street Downtown, according to the Unified Court System’s resource coordinator, Brandon Partnow.

Veterans who are convicted of felonies would have to consent to entering the VTC and also gain approval from Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, according to Partnow.

The centerpiece of the veteran court, he said, is a mentorship system that pairs veterans with someone who acts as a support resource and checks in with them frequently.

“What makes the Veteran Treatment Court different from regular treatment courts is the mentoring initiative,” Partnow said. “The initiative is basically to find other veterans who know what people go through when people come back

and would have to remain shut throughout the construction process. The city’s construction code requires 15 cubic feet per minute of fresh air for classrooms and, as a remedy, Robert Lee, an acoustical engineering expert hired by the plaintiffs, submitted public comments that central air conditioning was the only way to provide the legally required and necessary fresh air for the school children with the windows being closed for at least three academic school years because of the construction.

According to the parents’ suit, the central air conditioning proposal was only addressed after the final environmental impact statement was issued and the public review process was closed.

“The problem is they failed to mention it at all in the final environmental impact statement,” said Rene Kathawala, the Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe attorney representing the suing parents. “You can read all 500 pages of the [final environmental impact statement], they never even mentioned central air conditioning or analyzed it.”

The suit stated JHL’s counsel “slipped into the record the emails” between them and the New York City School Construction Authority relating to the costs of central air conditioning after the public record was closed. As reflected in the DOH’s

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JHL, continued on p.16

from being in service.”

According to Partnow, the veterans can be partnered up with a mentor as soon as their first day in court and would subsequently meet with them at least once a week. Along with offering a reliable human connection, mentors are expected to keep their vets out of trouble and on top of their assigned medical and/ or psychological treatment program.

“It’s someone there that’s been through it all also,” Partnow said of the mentors. “We found that other veterans are able to connect with veterans in a way that nonveterans really can’t.”

The Manhattan VTC branch is currently looking for mentoring volunteers in advance of its February debut. While the VTC prefers to have veterans serve as mentors, it’s not an ironclad requirement.

According to the volunteer application, “veterans are better served by having a support system that includes veterans who understand

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VETERANS, continued on p.16

January 28 - February 10, 2016 | ManhattanExpressNews.nyc

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Teddy Roosevelt Park Advocates Have New President, New Mission

BY JACKSON CHEN

A

The West Side Tradition

BREAKFAST Adrian Smith, the new president of the Defenders of Teddy Roosevelt Park.

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ROOSEVELT, continued on p.11

ManhattanExpressNews.nyc | January 28 - February 10, 2016

DINNER

cials there failed to mention a big part of the project. Smith and the Defenders’ efforts are now focused on the changes to a below-grade service driveway that would cut into the root space of trees within the park.

According to Dan Slippen, the museum’s vice president of government relations, the driveway is a critical loading and service area.

Once the new building is completed, he said, the museum will have to redirect the underground portion of the drive. The museum, Slippen explained, is studying to determine the best way to tackle the service driveway while minimizing traffic and park impact.

According to Smith, the museum recently hired a consultant that specifically studies loading docks. The driveway, he said, was explained to him as a ser vice access originally designed for horse-drawn carriages. Its current configuration, Smith added, forces trucks to enter a steep, cobblestone road that makes a 90-degree turn before reaching the point where drop-offs can be made.

The Defenders’ main concern with any redesign below grade is the potential for impact on the root systems of park trees.

“We’re trying to get them to reconfigure [the driveway] to avoid

LUNCH

s a park advocacy group passes the torch to a new president, its goals of influencing the American Museum of Natural History’s Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation expansion have also evolved.

On January 13, the Defenders of Teddy Roosevelt Park’s board of directors voted unanimously to make Adrian Smith president of the group that has adamantly opposed the museum’s expansion on Columbus Avenue. Smith, 55, succeeds Sig Gissler, the retired administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes at Columbia University.

The group, for the past six months, has raised alarms about the impact of incursions the museum’s expansion will make onto the Theodore Roosevelt Park that surrounds it.

Gissler, who will continue to focus on communications for the Teddy Roosevelt group, said Smith’s experience as a landscape architect made him a perfect fit for the role. Smith’s résumé includes work with Central Park, Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens, and the American Society of Landscape Architects.

Smith, who has his own landscape architecture and design firm, explained he planned to lead the group into what it considers “phase two” of its efforts regarding the museum’s expansion.

“This project is not all about science, education, and innovation,” Smith said. “It’s about fixing a lot of the ills built into this museum that they’ve been dealing with over the years.”

The museum’s conceptual plans, released on November 4, showed a design in which 20 percent of the expansion would be built on land currently within the park, with the remaining 80 percent being constructed within the museum’s existing footprint.

While the museum, in presenting the conceptual plans, emphasized how the design would alleviate congestion and flow issues for its visitors, Smith said offi-

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Rare Women’s Suffrage Artifacts at Hunter’s Roosevelt House

KELSY CHAUVIN

The 1912 “Mother Goose as a Suffragette” includes a stinging little poem about how voting rights were reserved for “My husband [who] was dumb.”

BY KELSY CHAUVIN

E

xactly 100 years ago, only 12 US states allowed women to vote, even though all men, regardless of race, could vote beginning in 1870. In New York — the very state where the first women’s rights convention took place in Seneca Falls in 1848 — suffrage had to wait until 1917. Even the cowboy state of Montana had adopted suffrage by 1914 — and elected the very first woman to the House of Representatives, Jeannette Rankin, in 1916.

These are just a few of the cold, hard facts we should remember when viewing the new Hunter College exhibit, “Women Take the Lead: From Elizabeth Cady Stanton to Eleanor Roosevelt, Suffrage to Human Rights.” Opened on January 14, it’s the first special exhibition organized by the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter, on East 65th Street, since the space reopened six years ago. And what a perfect fit it is for this historic gathering place, once home to civil rights champions Franklin and Eleanor, a gift from FDR’s mother, Sara Delano Roosevelt, circa 1905, the year of their marriage.

The exhibit brings together a collection of rare original artifacts used in the early 20th century to promote voting rights for women. Among them are about 75 posters, broadsides, pamphlets, photographs, and manuscripts that reveal political messages unique to the era preceding the 19th Amendment. That monumental reform was approved in 1920, at long last adding to the Constitution: “The

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right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied… on account of sex.”

While the exact usage of many of the two dozen posters displayed here is unknown — they were possibly pasted to walls or used in marches — award-winning historian Harold Holzer, the recently named Jonathan F. Fanton Director of the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute, calls them “the tweets of their day, directed at men to stop hogging power.”

“They are pithy, declarative, and humorous,” said Holzer at the show’s opening. “They’re enjoyable ways to share the message.”

He pointed out posters that work as part of a series, with messages about practical issues like laundry and childrearing that spoke directly to the male voting block’s domestic concerns. Many of them also clearly try to make a rational, intelligent argument for suffrage, like these choice examples:

inist History, and the exhibition is supported by a grant from Roosevelt House board of advisors member and Hunter Foundation trustee Elbrun Kimmelman and her husband Peter. The privately held Dobkin Family Collection was built over 25 years by New York philanthropist Barbara Dobkin (now overseen by her daughter Rachel) and chronicles women’s political and domestic experiences and achievements.

With posters dating to the 1912 presidential election year, some of these materials have never been shown together publicly. Along with them are a cross-section of artifacts related to women’s civil rights, including an early printed copy

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SUFFRAGE, continued on p.9

“ You trust women with your children, can you not trust them with the vote?”

WOMEN TAKE THE LEAD: FROM ELIZABETH CADY STANTON TO ELEANOR ROOSEVELT, SUFFRAGE TO HUMAN RIGHTS

“ The welfare of the State as well as the home demands votes for women.”

Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College 47-49 E. 65th St.

“ Who would mind the baby when the woman goes to vote? The one who minds it while she goes to pay her taxes.”

Through Apr. 2 Mon.-Sat., 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

Admission is free Free guided tours available to visitors

Most of the extremely rare pieces that comprise “Women Take the Lead” come from a special loan by the Dobkin Family Collection of Fem-

on Saturdays by reservation roosevelthouse.hunter.cuny.edu or 212-650-3174.

January 28 - February 10, 2016 | ManhattanExpressNews.nyc

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SUFFRAGE, from p.8

of Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s “Declaration of Sentiments� from the 1848 Women’s Rights Convention; an original manuscript on family planning by birth control activist Margaret Sanger; and the hand-edited 1938 Nobel Prize acceptance speech of novelist Pearl S. Buck — the first American woman to win that honor.

Appropriate for the venue, Eleanor Roosevelt’s work also is well represented. There are letters she wrote to her family and prominent figures tracing her evolution as a human rights leader from her time as first lady of New York and then the United States, and during the decades that followed. She is shown in various photos, including one with New York’s fierce Representative Bella Abzug, who famously said during her successful 1970 campaign: “This woman’s place is in the house — the House of Representatives.� “Women Take the Lead� comes at an especially discordant moment politically, with presidential primaries looming and divisive candidates polling higher than what many New Yorkers may have anticipated even in a worst-case scenario.

“In a year in which two women are seeking the presidency of the United States and women around the world are raising questions related to opportunity and empowerment, this is the perfect time and place to take renewed inspiration from the Suf frage Movement, still barely a century old,� said Holzer.

Many of the exhibition’s pieces offer straightforward slogans that balance both earnestness and humor — a sign that many suffragettes saw the irony of running a home they weren’t legally able to govern. Or perhaps they were just using humor as a strategy to reach uneducated men who, paradoxically, held all the power to approve equal voting rights. One of the most amusing of these artifacts was the 1912 booklet, “Mother Goose as a Suffragette,� where this rhyme sums up the situation of the day: “I had a little husband No bigger than my thumb; Though I was a college graduate My husband, he was dumb.

I earned the money we lived on And ran the house beside, But when it came to voting I must humbly step aside.� n

Pre-K Applications Now Being Accepted

New York City’s Pre-K for All program is now taking applications from families with children born in 2012, including youngsters with disabilities and those whose home language is not English.

The application period for the 2016-2017 school year began on January 25 and lasts until March 4. Families who apply during that period will receive an offer letter in early May — a month ahead of when those letters went out last year.

P re - K i s o f fe re d a t N ew Yo r k C i ty Department of Education district schools, Pre-K Centers, charter schools, and New York City Early Education Centers (NYCEECs). Pre-K Centers are district-based programs operated by the Department of Education that serve only pre-K students.

NYCEECs (also known as community-based

organizations, or CBOs) are private organizations that partner with the Department of Education to provide pre-K programs.

Applications, available in 10 languages, can be submitted online at nyc.gov/prek.

Application can also be made by phone at 718-935-2067 or at a Family Welcome Center. Interpretation services in over 200 languages are available for phone and in-person applications.

Available programs can be reviewed in the Pre-K Directory at http://schools.nyc. gov/ChoicesEnrollment/PreK, and the most up-to-date information on Pre-K for All can be found at maps.nyc.gov/upk.

Family Welcome Centers around the city can be found at schools.nyc.gov/choicesenrollment/newstudents/welcomecenters.

In Manhattan, Welcome Centers are located at 333 Seventh Avenue at 29th Street, 12th floor, room 1211 (for districts 1, 2, and 4) and 338 West 125th Street at St. Nicholas Avenue, seventh floor, room 713 (for districts 3, 5, and 6).

For any additional questions, contact the Pre-K for All Outreach Team at 212-6378000 or pre-k@schools.nyc.gov.

ManhattanExpressNews.nyc | January 28 - February 10, 2016

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CB8 Thumbs Up for Ronald McDonald Expanding For 11 More Pediatric Cancer Patients

BY JACKSON CHEN

A

$23.6 million expansion project on a facility that provides temporary housing for pediatric cancer patients and their families on the Upper East Side received a unanimous favorable vote from Community Board 8 on January 13.

The nearly 7,000 square-foot extension of the 11-story Ronald McDonald House New York on East 73rd Street, between First and York Avenues, would allow the non-profit to open its doors to 11 more families and also convert six of its current rooms into “Immunosuppression Rooms.”

The six rooms would be offered to kids who have just undergone bone marrow transplants, a procedure that leaves them with a compromised immune system and so at higher risk of catching infections.

According to Natalie Greaves, the organization’s director of communications, the rooms would be much larger than their normal housing units to give kids more space and help them combat the cabin fever they may encounter from being stuck in a room while their immune systems recover.

“It’s such a critical time where they can’t really interact with a lot of folks,” Greaves said. “In this case, they’ll be in their suites here in the facility where they’ll have the opportunity to heal and recover.”

Alongside the six new Immunosuppression Rooms, the expan-

JACKSON CHEN

The Ronald McDonald House New York on East 73rd Street seems headed for an expansion that will accommodate 11 new pediatric cancer patients and also provide more intensive care for youth facing immunosuppression challenges.

sion also includes 11 more units for kids who are undergoing cancer treatment at any one of the facility’s 16 partnering hospitals throughout the city. According to Greaves, the increase of rooms was proposed to help Ronald McDonald House better meet its constantly high demand for housing.

“We’re usually at capacity just about every night,” Greaves said.

“Especially during the summer months, it can become really congested when you have 300 people in the house.”

Working off the current 84-room setup, Greaves said the bump up to 95 units would really make a difference for families who are looking for temporary housing and are worried about waiting lists.

According to the plans submitted to the Board of Standards and

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Appeals, three new family units will be created on the third floor, while the ninth and 10th floors will each get four new units. As for the Immunosuppression Rooms — which aren’t offered anywhere else in the city — two will be created on the fourth floor and four on the seventh floor.

The plans indicated the currently set-back entranceway would be relocated closer to the curb, while the seventh, ninth, 10th, and 11th floors would also be extended out from their current set-back to allow for more floor space.

In reorganizing the facility’s space, the facility is reducing the two two-story libraries on the first floor to one story each and the current four-story lobby would be reduced to two stories. Additionally, the garden terrace on the ninth floor would

be relocated to the 11th floor.

Reviewing the plans, Community Board 8 members said the variances being sought at Standards and Appeals to make the changes possible were well worth the service Ronald McDonald House provides to the community.

“The difference to the exterior of the build will be [minimal] compared to the extraordinary ser vice and accommodations that this house provides to children diagnosed with cancer,” said Jim Clynes, chair of CB8, adding it was the easiest and most gratifying vote he’s ever taken in his decade on the board.

While the application is in front of the BSA, Greaves said the facility is unsure of when it will be appear before the board. She added that the original construction start date was planned for sometime in Fall 2015 and that the organization doesn’t have new dates yet, but is eager for the opportunity to start construction.

When Ronald McDonald House does undergo construction, Greaves said they expect to reduce the facility’s capacity to 40 percent during the estimated 17 months of construction to balance letting the construction crews work with not disrupting families who are in residence. With less room, the director added that Ronald McDonald House’s partnering hospitals would be providing housing instead to pick up the slack. n

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ROOSEVELT, from p.7

roots of those trees,” Smith said.

“There’s a beautiful English Elm out there… it has certain cultural values, as well as horticultural values.”

Smith is hoping that the museum will work with his group in trying to save the tree by rerouting the driveway around its roots.

The Defenders are also looking to exert influence on other park design issues and, according to Gissler, hope to create a landscaping committee that includes its members, elected officials, and local block associations. The Friends of Teddy Roosevelt Park jointly maintains the park with the city Department of Parks and Recreation.

Asked about such a committee, Slippen said the museum was “definitely interested in community feedback, have sought it already, and will continue to in a number of ways.”

Separate from the Defenders’ efforts, a group of residents are continuing their push to quash

the museum’s expansion altogether. Led by Cary Goodman, executive director of the Bronx’s 161st Street Business Improvement District, the residents staged a protest last month at the opening of a movie starring Tina Fey — who is a museum board member— and, on January 18, at the district offices of City Councilmember Helen Rosenthal.

Goodman, who has pushed for a Bronx satellite location for the museum instead of an expansion on Columbus Avenue, said he wanted another town hall meeting with a debate between opponents of the project and Ellen Futter, the museum’s president.

Despite the similarities in their concerns about the museum’s expansion, Goodman said the Defenders were giving up in their mission to stop the project altogether and that he didn’t consider them allies anymore.

As for the Defenders, their main charge has become trying to steer the museum’s efforts in creating a “world-class park” to go alongside the new science center.

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HEALTH

A Foot Doctor Who Learned at a Renaissance Man’s Knee

BY PAUL SCHINDLER

S

uccessful professionals, when asked what inspired their interest and passion for their field of endeavor, will often recall a favorite professor or an older practitioner whose work they admire.

Dr. Rock G. Positano, the director of the Non-Surgical Foot and Ankle Service at the Upper East Side’s Hospital for Special Surgery, looks a bit further back in time when answering the question — to the 15th and 16th centuries.

“My interest in the foot and the ankle came from my study of da Vinci’s anatomical drawings,” he said. “He was amazed that this small device had to carry a human body all their life.”

Explaining that the original Renaissance Man thought about the human body in much the same way he investigated the impact of pulleys and levers in the rudimentary machines he sketched out, Positano said, “I figured da Vinci couldn’t be all wrong.”

The most important insight Positano

Leonardo da Vinci’s anatomical drawings of the foot.

gained by starting from da Vinci’s perspective is that “feet are the pedestal of the body.” The two most important factors in the average person’s quality of life, the foot specialist believes, are the ability to see and the ability to walk.

And here’s where the “non-surgical” part of Positano’s work comes from: “With foot and ankle surgery, you could do textbook perfect surgery, but there is no guarantee it will work the same way. You don’t want to take a part of the body that is working and change it.”

As with any surgery or non-surgical intervention, Positano explained, “joint preservation is key,” but if surgery creates or exacerbates problems in the foot or the ankle, the impact of those problems can easily migrate “up the chain” to the knees, hips, and lower back. Positano and his colleagues at the Hospital for Special Surgery, he said, are always mindful of the relationship among pathologies in all these parts of the body.

The vast majority of foot and ankle problems, he said, can be successfully and more safely addressed without surgical intervention. That’s a perspective that wins broad agreement among foot care specialists today, but that wasn’t always the case, Positano argued.

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POSITANO, continued on p.13

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POSITANO, from p.12

“I’d like to think I was a trailblazer,” he said. “Back in the ‘70s, there was a lot of emphasis on what were termed minimally invasive procedures for problems like bunions.

Unfortunately, the long term outcome was often not good.”

After earning his bachelor’s degree at NYU, Positano, a Bay Ridge native, received his medical training in the 1980s at NYU’s School of Medicine and the New York College of Podiatric Medicine, before going on for a master’s degree in public health at Yale. It was in New Haven that he focused on “ways to improve foot function without surgical intervention.”

In 1991, he joined the Hospital for Special Surgery, where he found a welcoming climate for advancing his thinking on foot and ankle care.

He credits Dr. Thomas P. Sculco, the hospital’s longtime director and a hip replacement specialist, for his receptiveness.

“He understood the importance of proper foot function,” Positano said.

He also singled out the contributions of Dr. Brian Halpern, the first board-certified non-surgical sports medicine physician at the hospital.

Not surprisingly, sports medicine is an important part of the work of the Hospital for Special Surgery, and Positano has served as a consultant to the Mets and the Giants, as well as a sports medicine columnist at the Daily News and expert with the Associated Press. One New York athlete with famously bad knees went to Positano, where he was outfitted with shoe inserts that corrected the problem within a month.

In fact, it is his association with a marquee sports name that likely accounts for how Positano is best

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known among the general public. Yankee slugger Joe DiMaggio was decades retired when he visited Positano in 1990 complaining of painful bone spurs, which were successfully treated with arch supports. The foot doctor soon found himself part of DiMaggio’s “Bat Pack” of guys the ex-Yankee dined with when he was in New York.

When DiMaggio died at age 84 in 1999, it was Positano who organized the public memorial service held at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and he now he heads up the Joe DiMaggio Sports Medicine Foot and Ankle Center that he founded.

As a New York Times story about the DiMaggio memorial service makes clear, Joltin’ Joe was far from the only high profile Positano client — the list also includes the likes of Rudy Giuliani, Henry Kissinger, and Mort Zuckerman. But the foot specialist emphasized that his practice and research interests connect him with all types of people experiencing problems with their feet.

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POSITANO, continued on p.15

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JACKSON CHEN

Even as elected officials including City Comptroller Scott Stringer (at podium) and Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal (to Stringer’s left in the photo) denounced e-cigarette marketing that targets youth, vaping advocates managed to get their perspective into the picture.

HEALTH

Manhattan Pols, Anti-Smoking Groups Decry E-Cigarette Marketing Toward Youth

BY JACKSON CHEN

T

he city’s comptroller and public advocate teamed up on January 17 to make a stand against electronic cigarette companies whose advertising targets children, as they called for federal investigation and regulation of the industry.

Joined by anti-smoking groups and other local politicians, Comptroller Scott Stringer and Public Advocate Letitia James accused e-cigarette, or vaping, companies of using similar marketing techniques for reaching youth as the big tobacco companies did in decades past.

“You’d think that tobacco companies would have learned their lesson from $250 billion dollars in fines,” Stringer said, referring to the 1998 settlement between major tobacco companies and various state attorneys general to end cigarette marketing to kids. “But they’re back at it again, using the same old marketing tricks to seduce our teens into getting hooked on e-cigarettes.”

Despite 2013 city legislation restricting the sale of e-cigarette

14

products to people 21 and over, Stringer said companies have used Santa Claus, cartoon characters, and concert and sports sponsorships to deviously market toward the younger demographic.

For Upper West Side State Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal, the e-cigarette issue is nothing new, as she’s sponsored several bills that attempt to regulate the industry.

On top of those efforts, Rosenthal is joining the latest push to restrict companies who market vaping toward kids.

“Each and every day, the children of New York State are exposed to ads promoting electronic cigarettes by an industry that exists outside the scope of almost all government regulation,” Rosenthal said. “Without swift action… we risk addicting a new generation of young people on a dangerous habit.”

In the politicians’ call to action, Stringer and James rallied for e-cigarette companies to follow the same rules as cigarette giants, who cannot advertise toward children, and for the Federal Trade Commission to investigate current marketing

practices.

Additionally, the two want the Food and Drug Administration to regulate e-cigarettes under the label of tobacco products, which stipulates requirements regarding addiction warnings, certain marketing restrictions, and a national age minimum for purchase of these products.

“We need regulations to prevent e-cigarette companies from using these tactics to compromise the health of our children,” James said.

“No company that promotes a product that is dangerous to our health should be allowed to use seductive ads to attract our kids.”

To further make their point, Stringer noted data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that showed e-cigarette use jumped from 1.5 percent in 2011 to 13.4 percent in 2014 among high school-aged youth.

Meanwhile, cigarette use amongst the same group of teens dropped from 15.8 percent in 2011 to 9.2 percent in 2014.

In response, e-cigarette advocates on hand for the Stringer-James press event argued for an end to what they see as smoke and mirrors tactics by politicians in portraying vaping companies as evil.

Jeff Stier, a senior fellow at the National Center for Public Policy Research, a Washington-based conservative communications and research group, didn’t dispute the idea that e-cigarettes shouldn’t be marketed toward children.

“I’ll agree with them on one point: youth should be not using this product and companies shouldn’t be marketing to them,” he said.

But, Stier, who is neither a smoker nor an e-cig user, argued that demonizing e-cigarettes and slapping harsh regulations on them would compromise the effort to offer smokers trying to quit a safer alternative.

Stier, claiming the politicians’ comments were misleading, said that when companies sell a cherry-flavored e-cigarette, they’re aiming toward adults who look for sweet flavors to keep them off their old habits.

“They find that when they have these sweet flavor e-cigarettes,” Stier said of e-cig users, “it gives them the nicotine their body craves without the harmful byproducts of combustible cigarettes.”

Gregory Conley, president of the American Vaping Association, said a watermelon-flavored vapor product helped him quit smoking five and a half years ago. He added that many adults who quit smoking are looking for a nicotine alternative that doesn’t have the odor and taste of tobacco.

“For those who continue to use nicotine who feel they can’t stay off of it, it keeps them using this product rather than inhaling burning smoke into their lungs,” Conley said.

To counter the CDC statistics that Stringer pointed out, Conley said the CDC also has numbers that show that 22 percent of former smokers who had the habit for less than a year currently use e-cigarettes and that among ex-long term smokers, 3.7 percent have now turned to e-cigarettes.

While Conley contended that the vaping industry is simply helping adults quit smoking, Patrick Kwan, the director of NYC SmokeFree at Public Health Solutions, a non-profit advocacy group, recommended FDA-approved cessation devices instead.

“One key aspect is that for [nicotine] patches and gum, you’re being weaned off,” Kwan said. “When you are using e-cigarettes as a nicotine replacement, you’re not necessarily weaning yourself off.”

Kwan said that people actually take in more nicotine through vapor devices and said the worry regarding youth vaping is a matter of them not understanding the harmful effects of the drug coupled with the availability of a convenient method of consumption.

“Nicotine is dangerous for kids at any age, whatever device they’re coming from,” Kwan said. n

JACKSON CHEN

Faith Williams, senior and student body president of the Upper West Side’s Wadleigh Secondary School for the Performing & Visual Arts, shared her experiences in dealing with the prevalence of e-cigs.

January 28 - February 10, 2016 | ManhattanExpressNews.nyc

c

POSITANO, from p.13

In collaboration with Harvard Medical School researchers working with the Framingham Foot Study, he has investigated the correlations between problems with bunions, hammer toes, and Achilles tendons and knee and hip pathologies. A peer-reviewed article authored by Positano concluded that nearly 90 percent of youth who suffer from flat arches go on to develop knee and back problems. Dr. Thomas J.A. Lehman, a pediatric rheumatologist colleague of Positano’s at the hospital, often finds that his patients can benefit from examination by a foot care specialist.

With his interest in public health, Positano voiced satisfaction that as much as 70 percent of his practice today is in preventive medicine — not only among athletes, but also business professionals who play sports to alleviate stress.

“They’ll play squash, golf, and of course tennis,” he said. “But professional people today are not so quick to push the button on surgery.

They tend to take an active interest in participating in strategies to avoid problems. And nobody wants to be out of work for any length of time.”

It’s the same type of person who will think about preventive care for their children who might be involved in sports.

“Parents are often told there’s nothing that can be done about flat arches,” Positano said.

“But then those parents will go around them and come see us.”

On the bet, however, that many more parents won’t think to do that, he added, “We have an active campaign to educate pediatricians about the importance of feet, ankles, knees, hips, and lower backs.”

If feet form the pedestal that influences the health of knees, hips, and the lower back, Positano also points to bigger life and death issues that are involved. Conditions that lead to immobility also contribute to obesity, which in turn can have a severely negative impact on cardiovascular health. Among many positions he holds — including as director of the New York-Presbyterian/ Weill Cornell Medical College’s Foot Center and teaching posts at Weill Cornell, the SUNY Downstate Medical Center, and Brown University — Positano said that one of his “proudest appointments” is in the Cardiothoracic Surgery Department at Weill Cornell.

“I help them to keep patients ambulatory at Cornell,” he explained, a factor that makes a vital contribution to their quality of life — and, often, even survival.

It is sports medicine, above all, that Positano, in talking about his career, seemed to credit for cluing him in to the benefits and satisfaction of that sort of interdisciplinary collaboration.

“One of the beauties of sports medicine practice,” he explained, “is that my colleagues are always looking to integrate other specialties.”

That’s a point of view da Vinci would probably have appreciated. n ManhattanExpressNews.nyc | January 28 - February 10, 2016

15

came to testify in the same gray overcoat and black top hat that he wears on his tours through the park.

“This is just trying to put us out of business,” he added.

Many of the councilmembers agreed.

“These are men and women’s livelihoods that we are asking to disrupt,” said Queens Councilmember Costa Constantinides.

“Why are we asking them to take a huge leap of faith if we’re not able to guarantee anything yet?”

He added, “This could potentially be a death by a thousand paper cuts.”

Demos Demopoulos, secretary-treasurer of the Teamsters Union, which represents the carriage drivers, said that they were still trying to negotiate a favorable deal with the administration, to preserve as many jobs as possible.

The earliest date for a vote on the bill is at the next full meeting of the Council, on February 3. With the amount of unanswered questions raised at the hearing, however, the issue might still stick around for a little longer. n

the DOH committed a procedural violation of the State Environmental Quality Review Act — an offense that would require the entire environmental review process to be redone.

According to JHL’s pre-argument papers filed with its appeal, Lobis made a mistake in considering evidence from the parents that wasn’t included in the administrative record.

“Jewish Home remains deeply committed to moving forward

with this innovative and pioneering model of elder care,” a JHL spokesperson said this week. “Our intention is to commence construction as soon as the litigation is concluded.”

The state Department of Health did not respond to a request for comment.

“This case was always about noise and hazardous materials,” Kathawala said. “[The DOH’s] procedural violation will be undisputed and we believe it will resonate with the Appellate Division.” n

c

WILLIAM ALATRISTE/ NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL

After one of the Council’s sergeants-at-arms warned that he would kick out any audience member who cheered — or heckled — those in attendance resorted to wiggling their hands to show support for those testifying.

c

JHL, from p.6

final approval, or Findings Statement, the department said central air conditioning was not a feasible measure because it was too costly and time-consuming to install.

As an alternative option, JHL agreed to provide air conditioning units for some classrooms, according to court documents. However, the parents felt the central air conditioning throughout the entire school was the only reasonable

c

solution to provide the children with fresh air.

Despite Judge Lobis siding with critics of the nursing home development in requiring a harder look at its environmental impacts, the parents’ new legal action takes the issue further, asserting that the judge overlooked what the parents consider a serious violation by the DOH. With the DOH allegedly ignoring the request to look into central air conditioning, the parents felt that

VETERANS, from p.6

combat experience and the different aspects of military service.”

In addition to providing a mentor to the vets, the Manhattan VTC would offer a variety of services to help those in trouble get back on their feet instead of sentencing them to jail time.

Once a vet has been accepted into the specialized court program, they would meet with Partnow and representatives from the federal Department of Veterans Affairs to see what benefits and alcohol and drug treatment services the vets may be in need of and also qualify for.

“Each case is different,” Partnow said. “For the most part, this is an alternative to incarceration for veterans.”

The Manhattan VTC would also work with community service providers, government agencies, and local vet organizations to expand the amount of services they can offer.

According to Samuel Innocent, vice president of policy for the NYC Veterans Alliance, the VTC in Manhattan would fill a gap in the borough in terms of veteran services. Innocent said that establishing such a court in Manhattan is overdue, given the options already available in other boroughs.

Currently, the only incarceration-diversion program available to veterans in this borough is the Manhattan Treatment Court, which follows

16

HORSES, from p.5

a similar model for low-level felonies that mostly involve drugs.

“They have procedures in place for dealing with veterans that may come through the system,” Innocent said of Manhattan’s current practices. “But it’s nothing compared to the Veteran Treatment Courts located in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens.”

JACKSON CHEN Since Brooklyn Manhattan’s new Veteran Treatment Court will be housed at 100 Centre Street Downtown. opened its VTC in 2009, Manhattan officials have been workstress disorder — with a way to keep them out ing to establish an equivalent service here.

“When veterans find themselves facing of the criminal justice system.

“They have the benefit of the doubt that criminal charges, we should offer them a second chance and the resources they need to there’s no serious ill will,” Innocent said of what turn things around," said Borough President an arrested veteran will find at the VTC. “They Gale Brewer, who called for the Manhattan don’t have to go into a pipeline of a prison sysVTC almost a year ago. “Especially when those tem when it could’ve easily been mitigated by charges may be the result of difficulty readjust- substance abuse counseling.” ing to civilian life after deployment abroad.”

Interested volunteers can contact Brandon Innocent said the new court program should keep veterans who are dealing with a rough Partnow, resource coordinator with the Unified transition out of the military — whether it’s Court System, at 646-386-4634 or bpartnow@ substance abuse issues or post-traumatic nycourts.gov. n January 28 - February 10, 2016 | ManhattanExpressNews.nyc

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EXPRESS OURSELVES

A Republican Approach to Shoveling Snow? Really?

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BY PAUL SCHINDLER

W

ith less than 10 days to go before the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses, America was deep into the political silly season when a massive nor’easter put much of the Mid-Atlantic and points north deep into the snow drifts.

And no matter what you think of democratic socialism, it’s likely you’ll agree that the Republican side has plunged us further into the silliness than have the Democrats — though it’s typically difficult to move much down the list from Donald Trump’s shenanigans to consider, say, Ted Cruz’s shameless cozying up to Christian right fundies or Carly Fiorina’s bald-faced mistruths about Planned Parenthood.

But, let’s take a break from the Trump watch (even if it’s hard to stop rerunning clips of last week’s Sarah Palin train wreck) and focus on our neighboring Republican governor — Chris Christie of New Jersey.

After originally saying he would stay in New Hampshire while the Garden State’s coastline was once again battered, on Friday he thought better of that and hightailed it back to Trenton, perhaps hopeful of generating some free media showing him battling Mother Nature without Barack Obama by his side.

Before rejoining the campaign trail on Sunday, Christie gloated that his state managed to avoid major impediments to snow removal without “having to use the heavy hand of government to put mandatory travel bans in place.”

You know, the kind of mandatory travel bans that New York Democrats — both Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio — used to ameliorate the impact of a storm that dumped about three times more snow than predicted.

What Cuomo and de Blasio did, however — first in curtail-

ing bus service, then in banning non-emergency car travel, and finally in shutting down elevated transit and commuter rail service — was a thoughtful response laid out in deliberate fashion with reasonable notice in the face of a rapidly escalating storm situation. The city’s handling of the snow was not perfect — witness the many Queens streets unplowed for two or three days — but even with the second largest snowfall in history, the aftermath was surprisingly benign.

Christie may be pleased that his state also performed well — though don’t ask the Republican mayor of North Wildwood to back him up on that — but his silly rhetoric about the “heavy hand of government” is just not helpful in talking about large scale public challenges that could easily spiral into crisis.

Let’s remember that the roads and highways — and the coastal barrier protections — we’re talking about also reflect the product of government’s “heavy hand.” And if the government

doesn’t get to it but quick in using its heavy hand — or heavy plows — in cleaning up the mess brought on by a storm, we’ll all hear no end of it.

Christie’s language is of a piece with a corrosive attitude encouraged by his GOP presidential rivals that government can do no good. To name just one pressing challenge, the nation faces a massive infrastructure crisis that demands we acknowledge what government can do well — and, in fact, what only government can do. It takes nothing away from the promise of American free enterprise to acknowledge that part of why we all gather together in a society is to produce the types of common goods and benefits that we can only create together in cooperation.

I, for one, am glad that New York’s governor and mayor — working, apparently, in uncommon harmony — used the powers of their offices to make this past Saturday and Sunday and the work week that followed a little easier to manage. n

THE LION SLEPT LAST NIGHT

AMOS POSNER

The New York Public Library, Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street, January 24, 2016.

January 28 - February 10, 2016 | ManhattanExpressNews.nyc

EXPRESS YOURSELVES

How Many Laps is that Cheesy Bacon Breadstick Worth to You?

BY LENORE SKENAZY

I

t is a cruel joke that the Super Bowl comes just a little over a month after we have resolved to forsake all wings, chips, dip, pizza, soda, beer, cheese sticks, Cheez-Its, Cheetos, and anything else that is bright orange and vaguely food-like.

Ha. That’s why every year at about this time, the press turns its hungry eyes to Charles Platkin, a.k.a. the Diet Detective, a.k.a. Hunter College distinguished lecturer, to give us some of his trademark “equivalencies.”

For instance: To work off the calories of a one-foot Italian sub sandwich would require you to walk the entire length of the Brooklyn Bridge — 14 times. That’s a Dr. Platkin equivalency. So are these: Four swigs of Bud Light equals eight minutes of playing pro football.

One handful of pita chips with artichoke dip equals running 141 football fields.

Working off one measly Cheeto — one! — equals chanting and waving around a foam hand for two minutes.

And God forbid you scarf down four Domino’s stuffed cheesy bacon jalapeño breadsticks — that requires 193 touchdown dances.

So how did Platkin, a lawyer, publisher, technologist, real estate guy, and bestselling author, become obsessed with translating calories into everyday (and sports-watching related) activities? It all started when he was young — and tubby.

“I remember my doctor saying, ‘You’re not

going to have a good social life, because you’re fat,’” says Platkin. “And I was like, ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about.’ But the truth was, I was ostracized as a child.”

He was still overweight in early adulthood when he decided to write a book on how to truly change your life. This was after he’d gotten the law degree, but still was floundering — and single.

“I was confused. I was thinking about changing behavior. I was overweight and had terrible relationships.”

So, for three years, he researched how real behavioral change happens.

He was finally ready to hand in his manuscript when he realized, “I hadn’t changed one behavior of my own!” So he decided to actually follow his own advice and, at last, he started losing weight. He also realized that the fact he ended up “with difficult and strange kinds of women” had an underlying cause: Him. “I’d always thought it was random.”

Changing required that word we hear so often lately: mindfulness. He had to pay attention to what he ate, and when. (And who he dated, and why.) He also had to stop feeling too embarrassed to ask for things like a plain grilled chicken breast when he went out to eat. In other words, he had to stop being ashamed to admit he knew he was fat and wanted to lose weight.

He folded his stories into the book and it became the bestseller “Breaking the Pattern.”

The great thing about mindfulness, Platkin says, is that you don’t have to be mindful forever.

“If you had to Google Map every day to figure out what floor your office is on,” that would be

painful. (And you would need some other kind of help.) But after a short while, of course, you know the drill.

It’s the same with figuring out what your food patterns are. And once you notice that every night, right before bed, you eat a bowl of Ben & Jerry’s, well then, all you have to do is start figuring out a “food swap” — an alternative. For Platkin, he started making swaps just like the ones you can make on Super Bowl Sunday: Toasted pita points instead of chips.

Pizza without the mozzarella — add your own Parmesan. Slow-churned Breyers instead of Ben & Jerry’s.

The idea is to concentrate not on what you can’t have, but on what you can. And since we gobble down many foods without realizing just how fattening they are, he popularized the “equivalencies.” FYI: One bowl of chili equals more than an hour of cheerleading.

These days Platkin is married and has a daughter. One day a couple years ago he was walking her to school and saw her holding her tummy in. He asked why. Well, of course she was practicing looking skinny.

“I just want you to know that you don’t ever have to worry about dieting or any of these things,” he told his daughter. Life is not about forsaking. It’s about embracing who you are and what you love.

So long as it’s not Domino’s stuffed cheesy bacon jalapeño breadsticks.

Lenore Skenazy is a public speaker, author, and founder of the book and blog “FreeRange Kids.” n

A HIGHWAY MIRACLE A woman who went into labor during the Janaury 26 morning rush hour in the middle of the FDR Drive was able to give birth to a baby boy with assistance from several police officers.

According to police, Detective Michael Sharpe was travelling northbound on the FDR Drive when he responded to a dispatch call shortly before 8 a.m. The call was for a woman in labor on the FDR Drive around East 20th Street, but Sharpe eventually found the woman and her husband on the right shoulder of the FDR Drive near East 47th Street.

Sharpe joined the baby’s father — who was on the phone with a 911 dispatcher who gave delivery instruc-

tions — in helping the woman give birth to the infant, according to police. Shortly after the birth, two more detectives trained as emergency medical technicians arrived and cleared the baby’s airway and cut the umbilical cord, police said.

With more police officers responding, the group was able to flag down an ambulette, which transported them to the New York-Presbyterian/ Weill Cornell Medical Center, police said. The mother and newborn boy are in stable condition.

Police did not release the parents’ name, but the NYPD, on Twitter, named the baby boy as Nicola Wong.

— Jackson Chen

ManhattanExpressNews.nyc | January 28 - February 10, 2016

NYPD DCPI

Young Nicola Wong with his EMT-trained NYPD helpers and on his own.

19

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Police Blotter ROBBERY: LOBBY LOOTER (24TH PRECINCT) On January 19 at around 6:30 p.m., a male suspect followed two victims, a man and a woman, into an apartment building on West 93rd Street, according to police. In the lobby of the building, the suspect threatened the two 31-year-olds with a gun and demanded cash and their phones, police said. According to police, the suspect made off with a Google Nexus phone, an iPhone, and $80.

A surveillance photo released by police of the suspect they described as male, Hispanic, and last seen wearing a puffy gray jacket can be seen at manhattanexpressnews.nyc.

ROBBERY: WRONG PLACE, WRONG TIME (MIDTOWN SOUTH PRECINCT) Police are looking for two individuals connected to a Times Square robbery on January 16 at around 1:30 a.m. According to police, the two suspects approached the victim inside the on the 7 line station at 42nd Street and asked for the time. More interested in the contents of the victim’s pockets, one of the suspects attacked and knocked the victim to the ground and stole his cell phone.

Surveillance photos and video of the two suspects — the first described as a 5’8”, 18-year-old black male, around 145 pounds, wearing glasses and a black and white jacket, red pants, and a book bag; and the second described similarly, but with glasses, a black vest jacket, dark-colored pants and a book bag — can be seen at manhattanexpressnews.nyc.

ROBBERY: UNFRUITFUL ATTEMPT (20TH PRECINCT) According to police, a suspect is wanted for an attempted robbery on January 25 at 12:30 p.m. at the Apple Bank on 2100 Broadway, between West 73rd and West 74th Streets. Police said the suspect passed a note that demanded money to the bank teller. After the teller walked away from him, the suspect fled northbound on Broadway without any money.

A surveillance photo police released of the suspect, whom they described as a 45-to-55-yearold black male, 5’6”, and clean-shaven, can be seen at manhattanexpressnews.nyc. The suspect

was last seen wearing a black wool cap, sunglasses, and a black jacket.

GRAND LARCENY: SKIMMING SCHEMES (23RD PRECINCT) The police are on the lookout for two male suspects who have been linked to attaching skimming devices to ATMs on the Upper East Side. According to police, the two attached a skimming device to an ATM within the CVS pharmacy at 420 Fifth Avenue, between West 37th and West 38th Streets, and another at the Bank of America at 21 East 96th Street.

Police said the suspects used the information gathered from the devices to duplicate debit cards and then withdraw money at various banks in Queens.

According to police, the two suspects are wanted for several incidents of grand larceny, including on October 16 — $1,000 in one case, $1,180 in the following. Also, on October 22, there was another grand larceny reported for $1,640. The following month on November 21, $1,515 was taken through bogus debit cards. On December 1 and 2, the two suspects are alleged to have stolen $986 and $1,483, respectively, employing the same methods.

Surveillance photos of the two male suspects, whom police did not otherwise describe, can be seen at manhattanexpressnews.nyc. One of the suspects can be seen wearing a red cap and checkered shirt, while the other is donning a black hat and sunglasses.

ROBBERY: LEAVING EMPTY-HANDED (23RD PRECINCT) On January 19 at around 9:30 a.m., a male suspect entered Chase Bank at 2065 Second Avenue and the corner of East 106th Street, according to police. The man approached the teller and passed a note that demanded money, police said. However, the male didn’t receive any money and fled south on Second Avenue, according to police.

A surveillance photo police released of the suspect, whom they described as a black male in his late 30s, ranging from 5’6” to 5’8” in height, with a medium build, can be seen at manhattanexpressnews.nyc. He was last seen wearing a dark-colored winter hat, a dark-colored hooded winter jacket, sunglasses, dark pants, and gloves.

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ManhattanExpressNews.nyc | January 28 - February 10, 2016

21

Military Soap, Not Standard Issue

FILM SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER

Andy Gillet and Iliana Zabeth in Benjamin Crotty’s “Fort Buchanan.”

BY STEVE ERICKSON

B

enjamin Crotty is an American director working in France, although he plans to make his next film back home. He took most of the dialogue for his debut feature, “Fort Buchanan,” from American TV, although he’s been reticent to spell out his exact sources. However, he has cited the cable show “Army Wives” as an inspiration; perhaps as a consequence, the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s program notes describe “Fort Buchanan” as a “queer soap opera.”

“Fort Buchanan” is set on a US Army base in France. The spouses live in cabins on the base, and none of them seems to work. Roger (Andy Gillet) lives with his 18-yearold daughter, Roxy, although he doesn’t look old enough to have fathered — or even adopted — a young adult. He pines for his husband, Frank (David Baiot), serving in Djibouti, a tiny country in the Horn of Africa. The wives all seem to be bisexual and pass the time flirting with each other and Roxy, something Roger doesn’t seem to mind. They all go to Djibouti in

22

the film’s second third, but Frank seems distant and Roger doesn’t know how to reignite the couple’s sex life.

Most attempts to infuse pop culture with a gay perspective wind up dreadfully dull and compromised: think of the music of Sam Smith or the films “Philadelphia” and “Freeheld.” They bring to mind Leonard Cohen’s line “they sentenced me to 50 years of boredom for trying to change the system from within.”

However, Crotty is doing something different. He’s not exactly critiquing pop culture, but he’s trying to suggest what it might be like if soap operas dealt with homo- and bisexuality as the norm. “Fort Buchanan” takes place in a world where almost everyone has the potential to sleep with a member of the same sex, even if they’re married to someone of the opposite sex. It’s the cinematic equivalent of Charles Stross’ science fiction novel “Rule 34,” in which all the lead characters are lesbian, gay, or bisexual and no one calls attention to this or finds it odd.

The military has long been

FORT BUCHANAN Directed by Benjamin Crotty Self-distributed In French with English subtitles Film Society of Lincoln Center Howard Gilman Theater 144 W. 65th St. Feb. 5-11 $14; $9 for students & seniors filmlinc.org

fetishized by gay male culture, and I suppose “Fort Buchanan” takes part in this tradition to some extent.

But while Frank is conventionally macho, Andy Gillet brings a certain feyness to the part of Roger. He may be best known for his role in Eric Rohmer’s “The Romance of Astrea and Celadon,” in which he played an androgynous character who was mistaken for a woman. Even when Roger grows a beard late in the film, he’s not exactly butch.

“Fort Buchanan” spends far more time on the people left behind by the military than soldiers themselves.

Most of them are women, which

helps subvert clichés about the army. This isn’t a Tom of Finland drawing come to life. It’s not even similar to Claire Denis’ homoerotic take on military life, “Beau Travail.”

“Fort Buchanan” plays the Film Society of Lincoln Center as part of a series called “ Friends with Benefits: An Anthology of Four New American Filmmakers.” It includes shorts by Alexander Carver, Daniel Schmidt, Crotty and Gabriel Abrantes, as well as Schmidt and Carver’s 2013 feature “The Unity of All Things.” One can see the roots of “Fort Buchanan” in Abrantes and Crotty’s very first short, “Visionary Iraq,” in which the white male directors play all the roles (including an Angolan girl). There’s a love there for politically incorrect play with gender and race that got smoothed out by the time Crotty made “Fort Buchanan” and was able to cast actual women and people of color. Still, Abrantes and Crotty’s drag show offers up the same fascination with the military, along with a more overt skepticism about its supposed benevolence.

Abrantes and Crotty’s follow-up short, “Liberdade,” shows an engagement with real Angolans and adopts a more sober, melancholy tone than either “Visionary Iraq” or “Fort Buchanan.”

An element of childlike playfulness, drawn from ‘60s American avant-garde directors like Jack Smith and the Kuchar brothers, remains in “Fort Buchanan,” particularly in its first 20 minutes.

But “Fort Buchanan” is more mature: it begins with love and ends with disillusionment and death. As Crotty’s work evolves, I hope it retains the same playful quality and gentle iconoclasm.

Benjamin Crotty appears at the Feb. 6, 7 p.m. and Feb. 7, 6 p.m. screenings of “Fort Buchanan,” and, with Gabriel Abrantes, at the Feb. 6, 4:30 p.m. screening of “Visionary Iraq.” n

January 28 - February 10, 2016 | ManhattanExpressNews.nyc

MUSEUM SPOTLIGHT

Jazz Dances on Film

BY PAUL SCHINDLER

T

MEET ME AFTER THE SHOW Jan. 28, 4 p.m.; Jan. 29, 7 p.m.

Richard Sale’s 1951 remake of “Twentieth Century,” with music

by Jule Styne and Leo Robin, starred Macdonald Carey as a swaggering Broadway producer and Betty Grable as the Miami chorus girl he discovers and makes a star. The cast also includes Gwen Verdon, Eddie Albert, and Rory Calhoun. Glenn Loney, author of “Unsung Genius: The Passion of Dancer-Choreographer Jack Cole” appears at the Jan. 28 screening, and choreographer Mia Michaels introduces the Jan. 29 screening.

20TH CENTURY-FOX/ PHOTOFEST

Marilyn Monroe sings “Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend” in Howard Hawks’ 1953 “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.”

TARS AND SPARS Jan. 30, 7 p.m.

Alfred E. Green’s 1946 World War II comedy that somehow merges dance and the horrors of global conflict, with a tip of the hat to America’s ally the Soviet Union, in the dancing of Marc Platt. The film also stars Alfred Drake, Janet Blair, Jeff Donnell, and the film debut of funnyman Sid Caesar. Eddy Friedfeld, co-author with Caesar of “Caesar’s Hours, My Life in Comedy,” introduces the film.

KISMET Feb. 1, 4 p.m.

Vincente Minnelli’s 1955 film was based on the Tony-winning best musical of the year before, and Cole choreographed both. “Kismet” stars Howard Keel, Ann Blyth, Dolores Gray, and Vic Damone, with an appearance in the chorus by Barrie Chase, who went on to four television appearances over the next dozen years as Fred Astaire’s dancing partner. Kehr and Levine point to “Not Since Nineveh” and “Rahadlakam” as dance highlights of the film. John (L ypsinka) Epperson leads a post-screening discussion.

GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES

Feb. 1, 7 p.m.

This 1953 classic, directed by Howard Hawks, starred Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe in a gal buddy film where Cole and Verdon worked hard to make two non-dancers shine, in the process creating one of the best known scenes in film musicals when Monroe sings “Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend.”

c

ManhattanExpressNews.nyc | January 28 - February 10, 2016

JAZZ continued on p.27

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he Museum of Modern Art, in a retrospective created by the museum’s film curator Dave Kehr and dance critic Deborah Levine, is pr e s en t in g “ All Th a t J a c k (Cole),” a look at the career of one of Hollywood’s most influential choreographers.

In a film career that ran from 1945 until 1960, Cole (1911-1974) choreographed musicals at Columbia Pictures, Twentieth Century-Fox, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and worked with stars from Rita Hayworth and Betty Grable to Mitzi Gaynor, Marilyn Monroe (six times), and Gwen Verdon, for whom he played the role of mentor in her early career. The retrospective title’s nod to the hit 1979 musical “All That Jazz” — in which Verdon starred and her husband, Bob Fosse, directed — reflects the curators’ perspective on the key role Cole played in influencing leading theatrical and film choreographers who followed, including not only Fosse, but also Jerome Robbins, Gower Champion, and Alvin Ailey.

“Cole’s most widely known credential was his innovation in and codification of American jazz dance,” writes Levine. “Starting in the 1930s, with heavy borrowings from African- American popular dance, he crafted jazz for his nightclub act and then transferred it first to the screen, and later to the Broadway stage.”

Screenings in the retrospective include:

23

Manhattan Treasures two wallpapers designed in the 1940s for two luxury American hotels. The original patterns, in a style popular in the midcentury US, were named “Brazilliance,” designed by Dorothy Draper for the Greenbrier Hotel in West Virginia, and “Martinique Banana Leaf,” designed by Don Loper for the Beverly Hills Hotel. The popularity of this style coincided with the peak period of US interventions in Latin America and the Caribbean, and Minaya uses the two designs and their names to explore constructed concepts of fantasy, exoticism, pleasure, and consumerism associated with the tropics that still prevail today. El Museo del Barrio, 1230 Fifth Ave. at 104th St. Through Jan. 20, 2017: Tue.-Sat., 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Admission is $9; $5 for students & seniors. Information at elmuseo.org.

DRINKING IN AMERICA

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HEART OF GOLD Buster Poindexter, the alter ego of New York Dolls frontman David Johansen, made a big splash in the ‘80s and ‘90s with tracks such as “Heart of Gold” and “Hot Hot Hot.” Through Feb. 6, Tue.-Sat., 8:45 p.m., Poindexter appears at Café Carlyle, 35 E. 76th St. Tickets are $55-$140, with a $25 food & drink minimum at the bar; $75 for table seating at goo.gl/ FDLIgE. 92Y.ORG

THE MAN WHO BROUGHT JESSE OWENS TO HITLER’S BERLIN

A BONA FIDE JAZZ MASTER

JAZZ.ORG

2015 NEA Jazz Master Charles Lloyd — the innovative saxophonist who started out as Chico Hamilton’s music director and Cannonball Adderley’s bandmate and later led an historic group of Keith Jarrett, Cecil McBee, and Jack DeJohnette in recording one of the first jazz albums to sell over a million copies and becoming the first jazz band to play at the legendary Fillmore — appears in concert with the Marvels, featuring Bill Frisell, Reuben Rogers, Eric Harland, and Greg Leisz. Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Appel Room, 10 Columbus Circle. Jan. 29-30, 7 & 9:30 p.m., with pre-concert discussions at 6 & 8:30. Tickets are $65.50-$85.50 at jazz.org.

24

“Race” is a biographical drama about the African-American athlete Jesse Owens (Stephan James), who won a record-breaking four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. In addition to James, the cast includes Jason Sudeikis, William Hurt, Carice van Houten as Hitler’s favorite filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl (who would memorialize the Games in her documentary “Olympiad”), and Jeremy Irons as the controversial American Olympics official Avery Brundage, who fought calls for a boycott of the Berlin Games and brought the US team to Germany at a time when the Third Reich was declaring Aryan racial superiority around the world. Irons, an Academy Award winner for his portrayal of Claus von Bulow in “Reversal of Fortune,” appears tonight after a screening of the film. 92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Ave. at 92nd St. Jan. 31, 7:30 p.m.

Tickets are $37 at 92y.org.

THE AMERICAN CONSTRUCTION OF THE BANANA REPUBLIC Joiri Minaya’s “Redecode: a tropical theme is a great way to create a fresh, peaceful, relaxing atmosphere” is based on

From the drunkenness of the pilgrims to Prohibition hijinks, drinking has always been a cherished American custom — a way to grieve as well as a way to take the edge off. At many pivotal points in US history — whether the illegal Mayflower landing at Cape Cod or the McCarthy witch hunts of the 1950s — alcohol has acted as a catalyst. Bestselling author Susan Cheever, who teaches nonfiction writing at the New School University and at Vermont’s Bennington College, discusses our nation’s history of drinking and its effects on the American character and signs copies of her book, “Drinking in America: Our Secret History.” 92nd St. Y, 1395 Lexington Ave. at 92nd St. Feb. 1, noon. Tickets are $25 at 92y.org.

Fey/ Amy Poehler movie “Sisters,” and has co-written another new TBS series, premiering in April, “The Detour,” with her husband, Jason Jones, who stars in it. Tonight, Bee appears in conversation with Ana Gasteyer, a “Saturday Night Live” alum currently starring in Netflix’s “Lady Dynamite” and TBS’ “The Group.” 92nd St. Y, 1395 Lexington Ave. at 92nd St. Feb. 4, 8:15 p.m. Tickets are $39 at 92y.org.

AN ART HISTORY MYSTERY “A New Look at a Van Eyck Masterpiece” is a special focus exhibition that presents the findings of a recent study of the “Crucifixion” and “Last Judgment” paintings completed circa 1440-1441 by Jan van Eyck and his workshop. Van Eyck, an Early Netherlandish painter who worked in the Hague, Lilles, and Bruges, is considered one of the masters of the 15th century Northern Renaissance, though only a couple of dozen works have been definitely attributed to him. These two paintings are generally thought of as a diptych, but new infrared reflectography has allowed art historians to compare these two works to a recently discovered drawing of the Crucifixion attributed to Jan van Eyck now held in the Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam to examine whether they were intended as that or they were originally part of a triptych or the doors of a tabernacle. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Ave. at E. 82nd St. Through Apr. 24: Sun.-Thu., 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m.; Fri.-Sat., 10 a.m.9 p.m. Admission is $25; $17 for seniors; $12 for students; free under 12. Curator Maryan Ainsworth leads a conversation about the exhibition on Feb. 18, 11-11:30 a.m. “Rethinking Jan van Eyck: Discoveries from New Technical Investigations of His Paintings” is presented Apr. 17, 3-4:30 p.m. More information at metmuseum.org.

RECKLESS STILL Bryan Adams, the Canadian recording artist who has sold more than 60 million records and recently released his 13th studio album, “Get Up” — whose lead single, “Brand New Day,” has a music video

c

MANHATTAN TREASURES continued on p.27

SAMANTHA BEE & ANA GASTEYER Samantha Bee, a favorite of many in her role as correspondent on Jon Stewart’s “The Daily S h ow,” i s b r i n g ing her satire to TBS with her own s h o w, “ Fu l l Fr o n tal” — which debuts Feb. 8 — appears in the upcoming Tina

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January 28 - February 10, 2016 | ManhattanExpressNews.nyc

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HOME HEALTH AIDE TRAINING New to our Jamaica Campus Home Health Aide Training

a division of

Day and Evening Courses• Experienced Instructors 54-06 Myrtle Avenue, 2nd Fl. 168-25 Jamaica Avenue JOB Assistance Provided • Se Habla Espanol

Jamaica, NY 11432 Ridgewood, NY 11385 168-25 Jamaica Ave., 54-06 Myrtle Ave., 2nd Fl.718-609-1674 718-307-7141 Jamaica, NY 11432 Ridgewood, NY 11385 718-609-1674 718-307-7141 EXCLUSIVE! Accessible by Accessible by FJE M andBECOME Q58, Q55, B52,A TRAINLTO B26, B54

and Q24, Q56

SECURITY GUARD INSTRUCTOR 40 Hour Instructor Development Course

SECURITY GUARD TRAINING Instructors: Tom Flynn & Bob Loveridge

We have NYS DCJS mandated Security Guard Training Courses: • 8 Hour Pre-Assignment Training Course Become a NY State Certifi ed Job Security Guard Today!

• 16 Hour On the Training Course • 8 Hour Annual In-Service

8 Specialty HR. Pre-assignment Courses: • Fire Guard Prep Class OSHA 10 Job • OSHA 30 •CPR / AED 16 HR. •on the Training Fireguard Prep CARE TRAINING CENTER IDC - (InstructorEFFICIENT Development Course)

Su Futuro Empieza AHORA! Jamaica Ave., paraestar certificado se ofrece diario.

54-06 Myrtle Ave., 2nd Fl.Cada168-25 curso tiene que necesitas Jamaica, NY 11432 Ridgewood, NY 11385 Asistente de salud domiciliaria a division of 718-609-1674 718-307-7141 (Cursos de Dia y de Noche) Accessible by L M and Q58, Q55, B52, B26, B54

Accessible Instructores con by experiencia J Ebuscar trabajo Assistimos Fen and Q24, Q56

ManhattanExpressNews.nyc | January 28 - February 10, 2016

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January 28 - February 10, 2016 | ManhattanExpressNews.nyc

Kids Count

AARONNIGELSMITH.COM

THIS SUNDAY IS FUNDAY

EVERYBODY ON THEIR FEET With “Just Kidding,” Aaron Nigel Smith, well-known from the Emmy Award-winning PBS show “Between the Lions,” brings a fresh sound to children’s music with high-energy shows that have kids jumping, playing, singing, and dancing to songs with roots in reggae, world music, and rock and roll. Leonard Nimoy Thalia at Symphony Space. Jan. 30, 11:00 a.m. Tickets are $15 at symphonyspace.org, and the show runs 60 minutes.

A VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR CRAWLS THE GREAT WHITE WAY “The Very Hungry Caterpillar,” by author and illustrator Eric Carle, has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide since it was published in 1969. Now, Jonathan Rockefeller brings Carle’s magic to the stage with “The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show,” featuring a menagerie of 75 lovable puppets who faithfully present four of Carle’s stories — “The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse,” “Mister Seahorse,” “The Very Lonely Firefly,” and, of course, “The Very Hungry Caterpillar.”

47th St Theatre, 304 W. 47th St. Jan. 30-Mar. 27: Sat., 11 a.m. & 2 p.m.; Sun., noon & 3 p.m. Tickets are $29.50-$65.50 at hungrycaterpillarshow.com.

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CMOM.ORG

The Children’s Museum of Manhattan (CMOM) holds its second annual Sunday Funday benefit to support its cultural programming enjoyed by 350,000 people a year, including more than 50,000 low-income kids who benefit from free access to the museum’s offerings. Family entertainment includes children’s musician Laurie Berkner, indoor sports and games for youth from toddlers to 12-year-olds, workshops, costume characters, a dress-up photo booth, magicians, face painters, and food and drink. Chelsea Piers, Pier 60, 11th Ave., btwn. 19th & 20th Sts. Jan. 31, 10:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Tickets are $75 at cmom.org.

UNCOVERING THE TREASURES OF TUTANKHAMUN “The Discovery of King Tut” makes use of more than 1,000 reproductions of the treasures discovered in Tutankhamun’s Tomb — one of the 20th century’s greatest archeological finds — to capture the excitement experienced by Howard Carter, Lord Carnarvon, and only a handful of others in 1922 and 1923 near the ancient city of Thebes (now Luxor). Premier Exhibitions at Fifth Avenue, 417 Fifth Ave. at 38th St. Through May: Mon.-Thu., 10 a.m.-7 p.m.; Fri., 11 a.m.-9

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MANHATTAN TREASURES, from p.24

featuring actress Helena Bonham Carter and Theo Hutchcraft of the synth-pop duo Hurts — appears at the Beacon Theatre, 2124 Broadway at W. 74th St. Feb. 11, 8 p.m. Tickets are $51- $127 at beacontheatre.com.

WHAT’S UP, WHAT’S DOWN Mind-bending, funny, surreal, and touching, “Leo” challenges the senses and tests perceptions of reality through the interplay of live performance and high tech video projection. In this LC Kids presentation, kids, ages six and up, will enjoy the challenge of figuring out which way is up and which way is down. Clark Studio Theater, seventh fl. of the Rose Building, Lincoln Center, 165 W 65th St. Feb. 6, 1 p.m. Tickets are $25 at family.lincolncenter.org/events/leo.

ERNIE SHARES THE LOVE OF DANCE Sesame Street Live presents “Let’s Dance!,” an up-close, interactive experience where the audience is invited to dance as their favorite “Sesame Street” friends join them on the floor.

Elmo uses his imagination to “Do the Robot,” Cookie Monster teaches all “feets” to dance, and Ernie shares the fun of dance with the “Sesame Street” favorite “Shake Your Head One Time.”

The Theater at Madison Square Garden, Feb. 11-21. Tickets are $15-$146 at sesamestreetlive.com/shows/lets-dance.

JAZZ, from p.23

GILDA Feb. 3, 7 p.m.

Charles Vidor’s 1946 film, with music by Doris Fisher and Allan Roberts and uncredited choreography by Jack Cole, stars Rita Hayworth, Glenn Ford, and George Macready and has Hayworth singing “Put the Blame on Mame” and later moving to the rumba beat of “Amado Mio.”

THE ART OF STYLE “Jacqueline de Ribes: The Art of Style” focuses on the international style icon, born in 1929, who became one of the 20th century’s most talked about fashion personas. The exhibition includes about 60 ensembles from her archive, from haute couture to ready-to-wear and from 1962 to present. De Ribes inspired many designers and established her own successful design business that she oversaw in the 1980s and ‘90s. Metropolitan Museum of Art, Cos-

p.m.; Sat., 10 a.m.-9 p.m.; Sun., 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Admission is $27; $22 for seniors & students; $17 for ages 5-16; free under 5, at tutnyc.com.

METMUSEUM.ORG

tume Institute, 1000 Fifth Ave. at E. 82nd St. Through Feb.21: Sun.-Thu., 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m.; Fri.-Sat., 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Admission is $25; $17 for seniors; $12 for students; free under 12.

ManhattanExpressNews.nyc | January 28 - February 10, 2016

LET’S MAKE LOVE Feb. 4, 4 p.m.

George Cukor’s 1960 musical comedy was the sixth and final collaboration between

Cole and Marilyn Monroe, in a romantic tale also starring Yves Montand (introduced to her as she sings “My Heart Belongs to Daddy”) and Tony Randall. Choreographer Wayne Cilento introduces the film.

DESIGNING WOMAN Feb. 4, 7 p.m.

Vi n c e n t e M i n n e l l i ’ s 1 9 5 7 romantic comedy stars Lauren Bacall as a successful designer, who is married to sportswriter Gregory Peck. Dolores Gray provides the dancing, and Jack Cole appears as her choreographer.

Choreographer Wayne Cilento introduces the film. n

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Coverage Countdown to January 31, 2016!

Y u must apply for enrollment through Yo www.nystateofhealth.ny.gov by January 31 to have health insurance in 2016.

• Do you need health insurance?

• Are you shopping for coverage but haven't made a decision yet?

• Have you already chosen a plan, but want to reconsider?

• Do you know about the new Essential Plan, with monthly premiums that are either FREE or $20 based on your income?

Fidelis Care can answer all your health insurance questions and help you apply for enrollment through www.nystateofhealth.ny.gov.

We are here to help!

Call 1-888-FIDELIS for more information or to make an appointment with a Health Benefit Representative. You can also visit fideliscare.org/offices to find a community office close to you. Get a free estimate by visiting the Affordable Care Advisor at fideliscare.org/enroll - all in 60 seconds or less!

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.

1-888-FIDELIS | fideliscare.org (1-888-343-3547) • TTY: Y 1-800-421-1220 Y:

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January 28 - February 10, 2016 | ManhattanExpressNews.nyc