Chelsea Now

YOUR WEEKLY COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER SERVING CHELSEA, HUDSON YARDS & HELL’S KITCHEN

Photo by Tequila Minsky

SNOW REASON TO WALK THE HIGH LINE Chelsea’s elevated park was a short-lived winter wonderland on Monday afternoon, allowing Tequila Minsky to capture this image from her vantage point on the eight floor of the Whitney Museum of American Art. It was a sweet spot in more ways than one, with the photo taken just as the Whitney was about to close its outdoor plazas because of the snow, and before the rain would wash away Minksy’s scenic vista. See page 8 for more photos from this brief window of opportunity.

© CHELSEA NOW 2016 | NYC COMMUNITY MEDIA, LLC, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

VOLUME 08, ISSUE 07 | FEBRUARY 18 - 24, 2016

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February 18 - 24, 2016

BY YANNIC RACK A new tower coming to the northern end of Hudson Yards aims to send the High Line spiraling into the sky, according to its developer.

“The Spiral” — a 1,005-foot high commercial office building designed by famed architect Bjarke Ingels, is set to span the half-block bounded by 10th Ave. and Hudson Boulevard, between W. 34th and W. 35th Sts. Developer Tishman Speyer last week unveiled the project’s design, which features a ribbon of terraced gardens winding their way up the building’s 65-story glass façade.

“Located at the intersection of the High Line and the newly developed Hudson Boulevard Park on Manhattan’s new western frontier, The Spiral extends the green space of the former train tracks in a spiraling motion towards the sky — from High Line to the skyline,” proclaims the project’s website (thespiralny.com).

The vertical gardens will start at the tower’s main entrance at the corner of W. 34th St. and Hudson Blvd., close to a newly opened park that will soon be named (following a recent call for submissions, sponsored by the Hudson Yards/Hell’s Kitchen Alliance).

The green pathway wraps around the entire tower, which becomes gradually slimmer towards the top, and whose step-back form is meant to echo the architecture of some of the city’s classic skyscrapers, like Rockefeller Center.

“The Spiral combines the classic Ziggurat silhouette of the premodern skyscraper with the slender proportions and efficient layouts of the modern highrise,” Bjarke Ingels, the founding partner at design firm BIG- Bjarke Ingels Group, said in a statement.

BIG — Bjarke Ingels Group

The latest office tower coming to the West Side will sit one block north of the Hudson Yards neighborhood and right next to the new 34 St–Hudson Yards subway station.

“The string of terraces wrapping around the building expands the daily life of the tenants to the outside light and air,” he added.

According to the developer, the building’s layout is meant to encourage collaboration, with stairwells in open-air atriums directly connecting the different office floors.

Although an anchor tenant hasn’t been found yet, The Wall Street Journal reports that Tishman Speyer has already secured $1 billion in equity from investors, and is looking to pre-lease a third of the tower’s 2.85 million square feet.

The six-story base of the building will be occupied by 27,000 square feet of retail space, as well as a terrace, according to the developer.

The building site was scooped up

by Tishman for $238 million in 2014, and had been marketed back then as the future home of “Hudson Spire,” a 1,800-foot skyscraper that would have surpassed One World Trade Center as the tallest tower in the country. .com

.com

February 18 - 24, 2016

3

Courtesy CITYarts

Tsipi Ben-Haim, in front of the newly restored Harlem Peace Wall on W. 138th St., with astronaut Leland Melvin, who recently spoke to middle and high schoolers at a CITYarts sponsored event.

Wall of Confusion, as Mural Rep Speaks to Skeptics

BY SEAN EGAN Their mission is to empower youth and transform communities — but some locals, feeling out of the loop, are putting up a wall of resistance.

A nonprofit group responsible for more than 300 mural projects and “Peace Walls” around the city and abroad, CITYarts has plans for Clement Clarke Moore Park (W. 22nd St. & 10th Ave.)

and Gertrude B. Kelly Playground (W. 17th St. & Eighth Ave.). With these projects in the very early stages of development and preparation, CITYarts’ Executive and Creative Director Tsipi Ben-Haim attended the Community Board 4 (CB4) Waterfront, Parks, & Environment Committee (WPE) meeting on Thurs., Feb. 11, to deliver a presentation about the proposed murals.

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February 18 - 24, 2016

Before CITYarts’ presentation was an informational session during which the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation described their new “Parks Without Borders” initiative. This initiative, according to the Parks representative, would open parks up more to their surrounding areas, often by eliminating unsightly barriers, and creating more easily accessible entrances to the parks.

The WPE members were apprehensive, though they acknowledged the initiative’s applications could indeed be useful.

CB4 member J.D. Noland noted that many of Chelsea’s parks are quite small, making their barriers/fences useful — and suggested that the area’s lack of green space, and improvements to existing parks, would be more useful issues for the Department to address.

CITYarts received similar apprehension from the WPE after Ben-Haim’s presentation. In it, she provided examples of the work that CITYarts had done in the past, their programs, and explained why the locations were chosen.

“I believe when kids create, they do not destroy,” Ben-Haim said, in a phone interview with Chelsea Now prior to the meeting. CITYarts, in preparation for the construction of the murals, runs workshops with kids in order to source ideas that will later be incorporated into the mural design. In addition, Ben-Haim described outings where she brought Chelsea youths to local galleries, such as the Gogoshen to see a Lichtenstein mural, in order for them to gain access to worldclass art and seek inspiration. It’s all part of her goal to get kids to take pride in and ownership of their parks, and enjoy their communities at large.

On the locations, she explained that both were picked because the parks face

Photo by Sean Egan

At a Feb. 11 CB4 meeting, CITYarts representative Tsipi Ben-Haim (under clock) gave a presentation on murals her organization plans for two local parks.

large walls, which block light and can make them seem dark and drab. She also revealed that CITYarts had already obtained permission to work on part of the wall in Clement Clarke Moore Park from the owner of the building, and were seeking to get permission to work on the entire wall.

Noland expressed dismay for the entire enterprise, saying that he had a general dislike for murals in parks. In particular he expressed trepidation at the ones Ben-Haim described as “never really offensive,” and without any religious, political or sexual themes — “bad art,” Noland quipped.

To highlight an alternative (albeit in a manner that did not acknowledge the reality that these were separate, not competing, efforts), Noland advocated for the support of the restoration of Arnold Belkin’s “Against Domestic Colonialism” — a mural at MathewsPalmer Playground (btw. W. 45th & W. 46th Sts., and Ninth & 10th Aves.), which he asserted had a distinct, political

Continued on page 13 .com

LPC Pans Gansevoort Design Plan

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An architect’s rendering of how the landlord and developer envision the south side of Gansevoort St. between Greenwich & Washington Sts. The corner building is currently one story tall and the building to its east is two stories tall. Landmarks commissioners said they don’t like the penthouse (which is supposed to resemble a classic New York City water tank) atop the westernmost building, in the foreground.

BY LUCAS ROPEK Local residents packed the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) meeting on the afternoon of Tues., Feb. 9, to express disapproval for a development plan that would dramatically upzone a block of historic Gansevoort St. The development scheme is being led by William Gottlieb Real Estate and Aurora Capital Associates, and calls for demolishing several of the historic buildings along the block, as well as adding stories atop the remaining existing structures.

Unlike an LPC meeting on Nov. 10 at which scores of residents were given an opportunity to speak out against the project, the Feb. 9 meeting was strictly a dialogue between the LPC commissioners and the developers, and was an opportunity for representatives of BKSK Architecture to respond on the developers’ behalf to locals’ complaints about the proposal.

Although effectively muzzled, opponents nevertheless wore “Save Gansevoort” stickers as a form of silent protest. They were more than happy to express their discontent.

“I’m horrified,” said Jill Liebman, who lives on Horatio St., right around the corner from where the development would take place. A resident there for more than four decades, Liebman said there was “no purpose whatsoever” for the new buildings, and that they would cater strictly to an upper-class clientele.

“All it is, is greed,” she said. “No one can live here anymore. Only rich people can live in our neighborhood.” .com

That criticism was a recurring theme among the protesters who spoke out to our sister publication, The Villager, before the meeting.

“Everybody wants to make money, but there’s a limit,” said longtime local Vin Zappacosta, who felt that the proposed project was more about making money than preserving the area’s heritage.

“You have to keep in mind the community and the people in it,” he said. “Otherwise it’s not a neighborhood anymore — it’s just a business.”

At the meeting, LPC Chairperson Meenakshi Srinivasan outlined the proposed developments before turning things over to Harry Kendall, a partner at BKSK, and the project director for the Gansevoort St. development.

Kendall said he appreciated the “passion” that locals had expressed at the Nov. 10 meeting, yet also said he believed the plans would be satisfactory to the community. He then gave a PowerPoint presentation meant to illustrate Gansevoort St.’s longstanding heritage of varying architectural styles —basically arguing that drastically changing the block’s appearance was consistent with its history of renovation and transformation.

If the commissioners’ reactions to the presentation were not nearly as negative as the opponents’, they weren’t exactly supportive, either. In particular, the design of the planned new construction was consistently panned by the commissioners.

Continued on page 10

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5

Keeping Manhattan’s Construction Boom Safe for New Yorkers

Photo by Milo Hess

The scene on Worth St., on Feb. 5, after the fatal crane collapse.

BY JACKSON CHEN As Manhattan picks up the pieces from a deadly crane collapse in Tribeca, the incident has sent shockwaves of concern throughout the borough.

On Feb. 5, a massive crawler crane toppled onto Worth St. (btw. Hudson & Church Sts.), scraping along four buildings before crushing David Wichs, a 38-year-old Upper West Sider. In addition to Wichs’ death, three other people suffered injuries from the debris that fell off the buildings hit by the crane.

Two days after the incident, Mayor Bill de Blasio issued citywide regulations regarding crane safety that called for more enforcement aimed at the machines’ operators and harsher penalties for the disobedient.

According to de Blasio’s four-point plan, crawler cranes — like the one that toppled in Tribeca –– that move short distances with their caterpillar tracks will have to stop work and go into “safety mode” whenever steady winds exceed 20 miles per hour, or when gusts exceed 30 miles per hour.

Making sure contractors abide by this new restriction until further notice, the city’s Department of Buildings (DOB) plans to increase fines to at least $10,000 — up from a minimum of $4,800 — for any operator who fails to comply by safeguarding their crane equipment.

The mayor’s regulations also called for

6

February 18 - 24, 2016

several city agencies to increase enforcement of the various sidewalk and street closure regulations related to crane activity. The DOB will conduct inspections and issue violations accordingly if flaggers fail to prevent people from crossing into work zones.

The new crane rules also detailed a requirement that operators give proper notice to surrounding residents and businesses whenever they move a crane, whereas they previously only needed to notify nearby people when the crane was first installed. The city also wants to prevent any future incidents by creating a task force charged with evaluating the Worth St. incident and proposing the best practices for the city going forward.

While the city continues its investigation into the crane collapse, tremors from the incident quickly reached the Upper West Side –– as residents and officials mourned Wichs’ death and also called for better safety regulations.

“Our Upper West Side community has been left reeling after learning that one of our own lost his life as a result of the crane collapse in Lower Manhattan,” City Councilmember Helen Rosenthal said in a Feb. 6 written release. “Though no words could ever hope to make David Wichs’ family whole again, all of our hearts are with them as they grapple with their tragic loss.”

Wichs — who was born in Prague,

came to the US at 14, and later graduated from Harvard, where he earned a reputation as a math whiz — was remembered at a Feb. 7 funeral at Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun on E. 85th St. before burial in Saddle Brook, New Jersey.

Rosenthal’s statement continued: “Given the increase in construction here on the Upper West Side and across the city, it is critical that the New York City Department of Buildings does everything in its power to ensure the safety of all New Yorkers. In light of the apparent increase in construction-related deaths and injuries in recent months, the city must do more to secure construction sites and protect building workers and passersby alike. I call upon the city to make the results of the multiagency task force available to the public and to take swift action to reform any procedures that could have contributed to this tragedy.”

Rosenthal’s West Side colleague Mark Levine told our sister publication, Manhattan Express, “While accidents like the most recent crane collapse are extremely rare, it’s understandable why this tragedy underscores many concerns people have about construction safety in New York City.”

Levine, who is the main sponsor of Intro 420, a pending measure that would place limits on construction near schools, said he plans to continue pushing that bill, but also commended the new regula-

tions de Blasio announced.

“As New York City embarks on a building boom, I believe the mayor’s new proposals offer a much needed step in the right direction,” Levine said. “With new construction projects occurring throughout the five boroughs, safety for workers on site and for residents in surrounding neighborhoods should never become expendable.”

Across Central Park on the Upper East Side, the rapid pace of new construction is never from far residents’ attention.

Echoing Levine, Councilmember Ben Kallos said the city is currently experiencing a construction boom, similar, he said, to the pre-recession one he witnessed while working as chief of staff to former East Side State Assemblymember Jonathan Bing.

In 2008, two crane collapses on the Upper East Side happened less than three months apart. According to DOB accident records, an incident on Mar. 15 of that year left seven people dead and 22 injured after a tower crane collapsed at 303 E. 51st St. Shortly afterwards, on May 30, another crane collapsed at 335 E. 91st St., leaving two dead and one injured.

“The last time we were in a construction boom, we saw a similar level of accidents,” Kallos said. “In both cases, we’ve seen lives lost. I wish we could learn from some of our mistakes.”

While the councilmember praised the mayor for focusing on the issue now, Kallos said he’s been working on stricter regulations for construction sites since April 2014 when he proposed Intro 299, also known as the Construction Safety Act. Under the bill, workers seeking hoisting machine operator licenses would be required to have qualifying experience in New York City, and complete specific examinations administered by the city’s DOB, instead of other accredited organizations.

Kallos said while the industry is moving toward having a national standard of construction safety, New York’s landscape is unique and should have operators with distinct experience within the city.

“The key piece is to make sure the folks have training, make sure they’re certified, and make sure their training is local to New York City,” he said.

In calling for more safety regulations, Kallos said he wants something similar to de Blasio’s Vision Zero for preventing construction accidents.

Continued on page 15 .com

Affordable Housing for Rent EŌS

75 NEWLY CONSTRUCTED UNITS at 855 AVENUE OF THE AMERICAS, NEW YORK, NY

Photo by Alicia Green

During a July 2015 tour, Missy Adams points out the flowers at her tree pit on W. 19th St. & Ninth Ave. Chelsea Garden Club members hope their expertise will be welcomed, when a new bike lane comes to Sixth Ave.

Garden Club Offers New Bike Lane a Green Thumb Gain

BY YANNIC RACK A group of green-thumbed volunteers wants to help the city spruce up Sixth Ave., where dozens of planted refuge islands will soon take root along a new bike lane.

The Chelsea Garden Club, whose two dozen members already take care of the planted pedestrian islands along Seventh, Eighth and Ninth Aves., from W. 17th to W. 30th Sts., reached out to local elected officials last week to offer their expertise in keeping the new tree pits flourishing.

“It worries me that these pits are going up, because it’s our neighborhood and it’s just tough to look at them when they become completely derelict,” said club member Missy Adams, who lives on Ninth Ave. and has taken care of a tree bed there for the past six years.

She recently wrote to local officials, including State Senator Brad Hoylman, asking them to include the Garden Club in the planning process for the 30-or-so pits soon coming to the stretch of Sixth Ave., between W. 8th and W. 33rd Sts. “These things are going up all over town, but they’re not going to look so great just being out there, with a patch of dirt and a half-dead tree,” Adams said.

“Let’s plan ahead so it has a really good chance of thriving.”

The city’s Parks Department normally hires a contractor to plant the trees, but Adams said they only water them for two years, after which the pits are largely left to the elements .com

— as well as passing traffic and local litterbugs.

“There’s just no provision to take care of them beyond the two-year contract they have with whoever supplies the planting,” she said.

The Department of Transportation (DOT) announced late last year that Sixth Ave. would get the 1.2-mile protected bike lane as part of the city’s Vision Zero initiative, but initially didn’t plan to include raised pedestrian refuges.

The concrete islands were added after the Community Board 4 (CB4) Transportation Committee withheld its support for the proposal because it lacked sufficiently safe design at intersections.

The DOT expects to start the project this summer, and a spokesperson said the city was happy to discuss planting bed maintenance with any interested local parties.

Hoylman, in a Feb. 16 email response to Adams, also pledged to support the Garden Club.

“You share some valuable perspectives and I’m certain that the community along Sixth Avenue would benefit from your in-depth knowledge of managing greenery along protected bike lanes,” he wrote, adding, “I’ll certainly take you up on your offer of assistance as we move forward with future similar developments.”

Acknowledging that the Sixth Ave. bike lane project is “already underway,” and under DOT design/

Amenities: 24-hour attended lobby, coin operated laundry room, recreational facilities†, bike room† (†additional fees apply). Transit: Train: N/Q/R, B/D/F/M. Bus: M4, M5, M7 No application fee • No broker’s fee • Smoke-free building This building is being constructed through the Inclusionary Housing Program and 421-a Tax Incentive Program of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development and Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program of New York State Homes and Community Renewal.

Who Should Apply?

1.

Individuals or households who meet the income and household size requirements listed in the table below may apply. Qualified applicants will be required to meet additional selection criteria.

Applicants who live in New York City receive a general preference for apartments.

View the Available Units…

2. See Unit Requirements

→

Monthly Rent*

Units Available

Studio

$566

3

Studio

$717

13

→

1 bedroom

$608

7

→

1 bedroom

$770

42

→

Unit Size

2 bedroom

2 bedroom Total Units

$736

$930

2

8

A percentage of units is set aside for: • Mobility-disabled applicants (5%) • Vision- or hearing-disabled applicants (2%) Preference for a percentage of units goes to: • Residents of Manhattan CB 5 (50%) • Municipal employees (5%)

→

→

→

Household Size**

Annual Household Earnings***

1 person



$20,743 - $24,200

1 person



$25,920 - $30,250

1 person



$22,218 - $24,200

2 people



$22,218 - $27,640

1 person



$27,772 - $30,250

2 people



$27,772 - $34,550

2 people



$26,640 - $27,640

3 people



$26,640 - $31,080

4 people



$26,640 - $34,520

2 people



$33,292 - $34,550

3 people



4 people



$33,292 - $38,850 $33,292 - $43,150

75

* Rent includes gas for cooking. ** Household size includes everyone who will live with you, including parents and children. Subject to occupancy criteria. *** Household earnings includes salary, hourly wages, tips, Social Security, child support, and other income. Income guidelines subject to change.

How Do You Apply?

Apply online or through mail. To apply online, please go to nyc.gov/housingconnect. To request an application by mail, send a selfaddressed envelope to: EOS c/o Breaking Ground, PO Box 3620937 New York, NY 10129. Only send one application per development.

Do not submit duplicate applications. Do not apply online and also send in a paper application. Applicants who submit more than one application may be disqualified.

When is the Deadline?

Applications must be postmarked or submitted online no later than April 11, 2016. Late applications will not be considered.

What Happens After You Submit an Application?

After the deadline, applications are selected for review through a lottery process. If yours is selected and you appear to qualify, you will be invited to an interview to continue the process of determining your eligibility. Interviews are usually scheduled from 2 to 10 months after the application deadline. You will be asked to bring documents that verify your household size, identity of members of your household, and your household income.

Español

Presente una solicitud en línea en nyc.gov/housingconnect. Para recibir una traducción de español de este anuncio y la solicitud impresa, envíe un sobre con la dirección a: EOS c/o Breaking Ground, PO Box 3620937 New York, NY 10129. En el reverso del sobre, escriba en inglés la palabra “SPANISH.” Las solicitudes se deben enviar en línea o con sello postal antes de 11 de abril 2016.

简体中文

访问 nyc.gov/housingconnect 在线申请。如要获取本广告及书面申请表的简体中文版，请将您的回邮信封寄送至：EOS c/o Breaking Ground, PO Box 3620937 New York, NY 10129. 信封背面请用英语注明“CHINESE”。必须在以下日期之前在线提交申请或邮寄书面申 请2016年4月11日.

Русский

Чтобы подать заявление через интернет, зайдите на сайт: nyc.gov/housingconnect. Для получения данного объявления и заявления на русском языке отправьте конверт с обратным адресом по адресу EOS c/o Breaking Ground, PO Box 3620937 New York, NY 10129. На задней стороне конверта напишите слово “RUSSIAN” на английском языке. Заявки должны быть поданы онлайн или отправлены по почте (согласно дате на почтовом штемпеле) не позднее 11 апреля 2016.

한국어

nyc.gov/housingconnect 에서 온라인으로 신청하십시오. 이 광고문과 신청서에 대한 한국어 번역본을 받아보시려면 반송용 봉투를EOS c/o Breaking Ground, PO Box 3620937 New York, NY 10129으로 보내주십시오. 봉투 뒷면에 “KOREAN” 이라고 영어로 적어주십시오.

2016년4월11일 까지 온라인 신청서를 제출하거나 소인이 찍힌 신청서를 보내야 합니다.

Kreyòl Ayisyien

Aplike sou entènèt sou sitwèb nyc.gov/housingconnect. Pou resevwa yon tradiksyon anons sa a nan lang Kreyòl Ayisyen ak aplikasyon an sou papye, voye anvlòp ki gen adrès pou retounen li nan: EOS c/o Breaking Ground, PO Box 3620937 New York, NY 10129. Nan dèyè anvlòp la, ekri mo “HATIAN CREOLE” an Anglè. Ou dwe remèt aplikasyon yo sou entènèt oswa ou dwe tenbre yo anvan dat april 11, 2016.

‫ﺍﻟﻌﺭﺑﻳﺔ‬

‫ ﺃﺭﺳﻝ ﻣﻅﺭﻭﻑ‬،‫ ﻟﻠﺣﺻﻭﻝ ﻋﻠﻰ ﺗﺭﺟﻣﺔ ﺑﺎﻟﻠﻐﺔ ﺍﻟﻌﺭﺑﻳﺔ ﻟﻬﺫﺍ ﺍﻹﻋﻼﻥ ﻭﻟﻧﻣﻭﺫﺝ ﺍﻟﻁﻠﺏ ﺍﻟﻭﺭﻗﻲ‬.nyc.gov/housingconnect ‫ﺗﻘﺩﻡ ﺑﻁﻠﺏ ﻋﻥ ﻁﺭﻳﻕ ﺍﻹﻧﺗﺭﻧﺕ ﻋﻠﻰ ﺍﻟﻣﻭﻗﻊ ﺍﻹﻟﻛﺗﺭﻭﻧﻲ‬ ‫ ﺍﻛﺗﺏ ﺑﺎﻟﻠﻐﺔ ﺍﻹﻧﺟﻠﻳﺯﻳﺔ ﻛﻠﻣﺔ‬،‫ ﻋﻠﻰ ﺍﻟﺟﻬﺔ ﺍﻟﺧﻠﻔﻳﺔ ﻟﻠﻣﻅﺭﻭﻑ‬.EOS c/o Breaking Ground, PO Box 3620937 New York, NY 10129 :‫ﻳﺣﻣﻝ ﺍﺳﻣﻙ ﻭﻋﻧﻭﺍﻧﻙ ﺇﻟﻰ‬ .2016 ‫ ﺃﺑﺭﻳﻝ‬11‫ ﻳﺟﺏ ﺇﺭﺳﺎﻝ ﻧﻣﺎﺫﺝ ﺍﻟﻁﻠﺑﺎﺕ ﻋﻥ ﻁﺭﻳﻕ ﺍﻹﻧﺗﺭﻧﺕ ﺃﻭ ﺧﺗﻣﻬﺎ ﺑﺧﺗﻡ ﺍﻟﺑﺭﻳﺩ ﻗﺑﻝ‬."ARABIC" Governor Andrew Cuomo • Mayor Bill de Blasio • HPD Commissioner Vicki Been • HCR Commissioner/CEO James S. Rubin

Continued on page 12 February 18 - 24, 2016

7

POLICE BLOTTER PETIT LARCENY: Wallet nicked from knapsack A recent trip to a Gertrude B. Kelly Playground (opposite 313 W. 17th St., btw. Eighth & Ninth Aves.) was no walk in the park for one unfortunate youth.

On Thurs., Feb. 11, at about 4:15 p.m., the teenager, who was with friends and her 33-year-old sister, exited the park to get coffee at a nearby Starbucks (leaving her backpack behind, as did others in the group). Upon returning, the girl found that her bag (and hers alone) had been opened, with her wallet, $10 cash, numerous forms of ID and a MetroCard taken.

Photos by Tequila Minsky

The High Line is for lovers — of snow. As seen on a stretch between Gansevoort and W. 14th Sts., these hearty souls strolled the elevated park on the afternoon of Feb. 15 (clear path courtesy of the maintenance crew).

CRIMINAL POSSESION OF STOLEN PROPERTY: Left holding the purse An unlucky pair of chic crooks tried to unload a “hot” fashion accessory on a man on Thurs., Feb. 12 — but soon found out his color was blue. At around 5:49 p.m., a police officer was approached by a man and his associate, outside of 75 Ninth Ave (btw. W. 15th & W. 16th Sts.). When the man attempted to sell him a stylish yellow purse, the officer noticed that the bag was stolen from Brooklyn Industries, a clothing chain with an Eighth Ave. & 18th St. location. The two 33-year-old fashion-forward fraudsters were arrested in connection to the crime, and one was discovered to have a crack pipe with crack residue in his pants pocket.

CRIMINAL POSSESSION OF A CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE: Dove hawker becomes jailbird

Frank Stella’s “Black Star” (2014, carbon fiber, 224 3/8 x 224 3/8 x 224 3/8 inches) is a study in white, as seen by Tequila Minsky from the eighth floor of the Whitney Museum of American Art.

8

February 18 - 24, 2016

In a case strangely similar to the above item, on Fri., Feb. 12, a police officer observed a 46-year-old Bronx man attempting to peddle four bottles of Dove body wash on a Ninth Ave. sidewalk (btw. W. 24th & W. 25th Sts.).

“You want to buy lotion? Whatever you want to give me,” the eager enticer elucidated at about 7:18 p.m. The officer, deciding not to take the man up on this steal of a deal, instead requested to see his Department of Consumer Affairs License — a license that the budding entrepreneur did not have. He did, however, have a crack pipe with crack residue in his pants pocket, and was promptly arrested.

GRAND LARCENY: Workplace thief strikes when she eats Most people know that brown-bagging for work can save you some cash — but on Fri., Feb. 12, splurging on takeout cost one woman more than just a day’s worth of lunch money. At about 1:30 p.m., the 26-year-old left her office building at 545 W. 25th St. (btw. 10th & 11th Aves.) for a bite to eat, leaving her Apple MacBook on her desk. Upon returning from lunch, she discovered her $1,300 laptop was missing. Luckily for her, video evidence is available at the location.

HARASSMENT: V-Day road rage In lieu of arrows, Cupid graced one unfortunate driver with fists this Valentine’s Day. The 30-year-old motorist was driving southbound on 11th Ave. at about 3 a.m. on Sun. Feb. 14, when a taxi cut him off. The man responded by honking at the hack — then the cabbie escalated the situation by stopping and getting out of his vehicle, at the southwest corner of W. 24th St. and 11th Ave. According to the victim, the cabbie then punched him in the eye through the window, and took off. Fortunately, the knuckle-sandwich recipient did not complain about any pain or have visible marks, bruises, or swelling — and, even with his hit eye, was able to get down the license plate number of his assailant.

—SEAN EGAN

THE 10th PRECINCT Located at 230 W. 20th St. (btw. Seventh & Eighth Aves.).

Commander: Deputy Inspector Michele Irizarry. Main number: 212-741-8211. Community Affairs: 212-741-8226. Crime Prevention: 212-741-8226.

Domestic Violence: 212-7418216. Youth Officer: 212-7418211. Auxiliary Coordinator: 212-924-3377. Detective Squad: 212-741-8245. The Community Council meets on the last Wed. of the month, 7 p.m., at the 10th Precinct or other locations to be announced. The next meeting is Feb 24.

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9

Locals Down on Massive Gansevoort St. Upzoning

Photo by Lucas Ropek

Although they couldn’t offer spoken testimony, local residents Douglass Christensen, left, and Vin Zappacosta were among the many who turned out at the LPC meeting to show their strong opposition to the Gansevoort St. upzoning proposal.

Continued from page 5 In particular, a penthouse that the developers plan to construct atop the westernmost building became the object of significant heckling, with one commissioner suggesting that it should “disappear, quickly” — a sentiment that brought quiet chortles, and was echoed by others.

“You should get rid of the penthouse,” Srinivasan offered bluntly, at the meeting’s end.

While still respecting the developers’ intent to bring a new vibrancy and character to the block, the commissioners also used words like “fussy,” “out of place,” “gratuitous” and “inconsistent” to characterize the design plans.

In particular, Commissioner Michael Goldblum was critical of what he called the project’s “urbane” look.

“The architecture in this district is basic and simple and industrial in quality,” he said of the landmarked Gansevoort Historic District. On the other hand, he referred to the “sophisticated and finessed detailing” of BKSK’s plan, indicating he felt it was inconsistent with the overall feel of its surroundings.

“This style just doesn’t feel at home here,” he said.

After each commissioner had said his or her piece, Srinivasan ended the

10

February 18 - 24, 2016

meeting by suggesting that the size and height of several of the proposed buildings be “scaled back,” that their style be “simplified,” and that the “fussy” canopies for several of the structures be rethought.

The meeting concluded with the suggestion by the LPC that developers come back with a revised plan, at which point further action could be taken.

Even with this lukewarm assessment by Landmarks, some still felt that the commission’s criticism of the design did not go far enough.

Donna Raftery, who has lived in the district more than 25 years, said afterward that she felt the commissioners’ reactions were “disappointing,” and that she had hoped for a far stronger defense of the existing buildings’ style and height.

“We are very disappointed,” said Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, one of the leading opponents of the project.

“While the changes the LPC asked for are an improvement, the proposal was fundamentally flawed and should have been sent back to the drawing board,” Berman said.

“The demolition and scale of development and additions that the commission indicated they are willing to approve are totally inappropriate for this iconic street, in the heart of this historic district.” .com

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11

Volunteers Plant Idea to Use Their Tree Pit Expertise model achieves less than half of that on average.

“That’s what we’ve been fighting for,” she said. “It’s going to give you double the safety.”

Regarding the plantings, she said the community board had specifically told city officials to include local gardening groups.

“They’re fantastic, they’re very dedicated, knowledgeable and experienced regarding what plants work on those medians,” she said.

“They do a beautiful job. When you go down Chelsea, some of those gardens are gorgeous. It’s the best possible combination.”

The Chelsea gardeners themselves are wary of the idea of branching out to take care of the new pits themselves, largely because they’re too far away and volunteers are hard to come by.

“I don’t necessarily want to be responsible for them,” Adams said.

“We’re kind of set with what we have here, we can’t take on Sixth Avenue as well.”

No matter who ends up taking care of the tree pits, she said the garden club certainly knows how to care for them, and should therefore be involved in the design process.

“A lot of people don’t know what they’re getting into, because there are some unique challenges, in that there’s some theft and some vandalism, and a lot of garbage. And it’s difficult to get water to them,” Adams said.

Apart from that, she said the job is pretty straightforward.

“You just put a plant in the ground and pour some water on it.”

Tree pits can be found on Seventh, Eighth and Ninth Aves., from W. 17th to W. 30th Sts. Visit chelseagardenclub.blogspot for info on how to adopt a tree pit.

Continued from page 7 construction leadership, Hoylman pledged to “apprise NYC DOT of your insight, as well as, of course, the relevant local community boards and other elected officials.” A regular presence on area bike lanes, Hoylman noted that he “was just thinking about the Chelsea Garden Club’s contributions the other day as I took a Citi Bike down Ninth Avenue. Your group has made a tremendous difference in the quality of life for Chelsea residents by creating lovely gardens in unexpected places.”

A spokesperson for the Parks Department said no contractor has been hired yet to plant the trees, and added that the community board and local gardeners would likely be involved with planting flowers and other greenery, and would be counted on to take care of the beds in the future.

The Chelsea Garden Club has maintained around 40 tree beds in the neighborhood since 2010, when thenState Senator Tom Duane organized a meeting between the volunteers and city agencies.

Back then, officials reached a loose agreement with the club and also educated its members on restrictions regarding the planting — tall fences, vegetables, and plants over a certain height are not allowed, for example.

Phyllis Waisman, another member of the club, said the islands would look pretty bleak without the care of volunteers. Her tree pit, which sits right outside her apartment at Ninth Ave. and W. 23rd St., blooms with daffodils, purple allium, stonecrops, daisies, and peonies.

“In the summer, it’s so beautiful,”

Photo by Zach Williams

Islands on the Avenue: Sixth Ave. (seen here at W. 21st St.) will get pedestrian refuges, when a bike lane is installed btw. W. 8th & W. 33rd Sts.

she said, adding that she gardens once a week in the warmer months — cleaning up, watering plants with a hose and removing dead flower heads.

The pedestrian islands also have a more practical function than just serving as colorful flower displays, of course.

“It’s much safer to cross for seniors,” Waisman said.

Adams added that the pits can help absorb rainwater and reduce flooding, and said they also provide refuge for native birds and insects.

A DOT spokesperson said this week that the department now has support for the project from all affected community boards.

“This will bring benefits to pedestrians, cyclists and motorists by better organizing traffic, shortening crossing distances, and providing a more comfortable and safer biking experience to cyclists,” the spokesperson told Chelsea Now. Christine Berthet, who serves

as co-chair of CB4’s Transportation Committee and co-founded the pedestrian safety group CHEKPEDS (Clinton Hell’s Kitchen Coalition for Pedestrian Safety), was one of the forces advocating for the islands to be installed along the street.

She is also calling on the DOT to install split phase signals at all intersections along the bike path — which are only planned for two of them, at W. 14th and W. 23rd Sts., she said.

“Essentially 66 percent of the injuries on this stretch happen outside of those two main intersections, so we ask that all left turns are protected,” she said.

“It is frustrating because we are in the world of Vision Zero, and since DOT is redoing the corridor, why not take the opportunity to do it right? It’s really puzzling to us.”

Berthet noted that implementation of split phase signals along Eighth and Ninth Aves. reduced accidents there by 50%, whereas the DOT’s

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CITYarts Seeks Support for Chelsea Mural Projects Continued from page 4 point-of-view and artistic merit.

Ben-Haim did her best to address the concerns voiced by those present. In an attempt to satiate Noland’s objections, she highlighted the fact that while children would be responsible for ideas for the design and help in the execution, a professional artist would supervise the entire project. In addition, she mentioned that Bisazza, a mosaic company with a flagship store in Chelsea, has worked with the group in the past, and offered to help with the project as well.

In response to member Bob Trentlyon’s supposition that the project would be akin to painting “la-di-dah” on a wall, without community input, Ben-Haim maintained that she very much wants, and welcomes, community input. She also noted that while she liked to make the process seem fun and “la-di-dah,” it actually amounts to a months of preparation before any art is actually made.

“I’m not just coming and schmearing your wall,” said Ben-Haim, later asserting to the crowd, “I would like you to be part of the volunteers that will help.”

She also addressed concerns about the upkeep of the mural, citing instances of CITYarts restoring their works after a number of years, as well as graffiti removal, which CITYarts performs, made easy by a sealant they use on the art.

Many were also confused about how the project began to go forward without appearing before CB4 and block associations, and inquired about who gave CITYarts permission. It was explained that the walls in question were not publically owned, and CITYarts only needed the permission of the building owners to alter them. She also noted that that she had support from the Parks Department to do the work.

In addition, Ben-Haim claimed that she went to a block association meeting to present the project, and was well-received. She did not, however, attend a block association meeting, as members of the West 400 Block Association — including President Mary Swartz — were present to point out. After some confusion, it became clear that Ben-Haim had attended a CB4 full board meeting, and erroneously believed it to be a block association meeting.

In the end, as the presentation was not being put up to a vote, the WPE made clear that they’d defer to the opinions of the block associations associated with the sites. They noted that while they didn’t object to the idea — and agreed about .com

Courtesy CITYarts

Tsipi Ben-Haim (on ladder) and volunteers during the restoration of “The Nature of This Flower is to Bloom,” a CITYarts mural at W. 92nd St. & Broadway.

Courtesy CITYarts

Courtesy CITYarts

A mural in Clement Clarke Moore Park would be painted on the wall of a privately owned building, whose owner supports the project.

Residents were taken aback by the uninformed assertion made by this CITYarts flyer, which says the busy Clement Clarke Moore Park “feels abandoned.”

the unsightliness of the wall at Gertrude B. Kelly Playground — CITYarts needed to engage with the community and the people who would actually use the parks.

“It’s an interesting idea to put the mural up,” said Swartz in a phone interview with Chelsea Now on Mon., Feb. 15. She first learned of the project at the WPE meeting, and challenged BenHaim’s assertion that Clement Clarke Moore Park (which falls in the group’s area of coverage) “feels abandoned” — a phrase used in a CITYarts flyer that promoted their Chelsea initiatives.

Following the meeting, the West 400 Block Association sent out an email, summarizing the project and the WPE meeting, and called for the community to weigh in on the mural. According to Swartz, the group was getting some “slow feedback” to the outreach — both in favor and against, as well as general questions.

Swartz stated that she would meet with Ben-Haim about the project and how/if to move forward “once we pull together the general feeling of the Block Association and the community,” with

Courtesy CITYarts

A view of the large, black wall at Gertrude B. Kelly Playground, which Ben-Haim says makes the park dark and “difficult for kids to be inspired.”

particular attention to area parents and children who use the park.

To give feedback or ask questions about the project at Clement Clarke Moore Park, email w400ba@gmail.com.

For info on CITYarts, visit cityarts.org.

To contribute suggestions to the Parks Without Borders initiative, visit nycgovparks.org/planning-and-building/planning/parks-without-borders.

February 18 - 24, 2016

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After Tribeca Crane Topples, City Steps Up Enforcement Continued from page 6

Photo by Milo Hess

TOWER CRANE PLACEMENT 435 W. 31ST ST. 530 W. 33RD ST. (TWO) 509 W. 38TH ST. 20 W. 40 ST. 577 NINTH AVE. (BTW. W. 41ST & W. 42ND STS.)

701 SEVENTH AVE. (47TH ST.) 53 W. 53RD ST. 111 W. 57TH ST. Source: NYC Department of Buildings

While there have been no recent crane accidents on the Upper East Side, there were three serious crane-related accidents throughout the borough in the two years leading up to the Feb. 5 Tribeca tragedy.

According to the DOB’s accident database, a construction worker was injured when a spider crane on the roof of 353 Spring St. tipped over on Feb. 7, 2014.

More than a year later, on May 31, 2015, city records show, seven people were injured when a crane dropped an air conditioning unit after trying to hoist it to the roof of 261 Madison Ave. (btw.

E. 38th & E. 39th Sts.). A Daily News story on that incident pegged the number of injuries at 10, three more than the DOB reported.

Less than a week later, on June 2, a construction worker was injured during the installation of a tower crane at 41 E. 22nd St., according to accident reports.

However, it’s only with the most recent incident that the city is now taking steps to reform construction safety. The de Blasio administration is continuing its investigation into the most recent crane collapse, including a forensic examination of the equipment, and the mayor ordered that the DOB inspect all crawler cranes throughout the city before putting them back to work.

“No building is worth a person’s life,” de Blasio said. “We are going to ensure the record boom in construction and growth does not come at the expense of safety.”

On Feb. 12, the mayor announced the city would step up their enforcement even more by hiring 100 DOB inspectors and requiring construction superintendents for all major construction projects under 10 stories. Contractors could face fines from the DOB ranging from $5,000 to $25,000, and be issued Stop-Work Orders, according to the mayor’s office.

Photo by Michael Shirey

Several cranes are located at 701 Seventh Ave., at W. 47th St.

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Passport Branding is Scarlet Letter Grandstanding

BY LENORE SKENAZY One day after President Obama signed legislation that will brand the passports of sex offenders, a federal court challenge was filed against it.

The International Megan’s Law is supposedly a way to alert foreign countries to sex offenders who may be traveling there for sex tourism or trafficking purposes. Of course, who isn’t against sex trafficking? We all are! But branding people’s passports isn’t going to do any good. The U.S. Department of State itself found that the law’s rationale is “very misleading.” And after conducting a study, the General Accounting Office “found no evidence that the offenders used their passports to commit sex offenses abroad.”

Got that? No. Evidence.

But heck — what’s a complete lack of evidence compared to political grandstanding? The bill was sponsored by Rep. Chris Smith (R–NJ) and passed both houses with only a single, brave lawmaker, Rep. Bobby Scott (D–VA), speaking out against it. He said that he endorsed the bill’s provisions to notify foreign countries about sex offenders’ travel plans, but was repulsed by the idea of the “unique passport identifier” — government-speak for passport branding.

“It is simply bad policy to single out one category of offenses for this type of treatment,” Scott told the House.

“We do not subject those who murder, who defraud the government or our fellow citizens of millions and billions, or who commit acts of terrorism to these restrictions.”

Terrorists? Pffft. It is only sex offenders who must declare their past deeds this way. And that is what the

court challenge is hinged upon.

“We don’t want those ‘identifiers’ on anybody’s passport,” says lawyer Janice Bellucci, president of the group California Reform Sex Offender Laws, who is filing the federal challenge on behalf of four sex offenders.

“Our strongest argument is that it violates the First Amendment, because that ‘unique identifier’ is compelled speech.”

In other words, “The government is making you say something you don’t want to say.”

Bellucci has been down this legal road before. Twice she argued against California towns forcing sex offenders to put “No Trick-or-Treating” signs on their doors, and twice she won.

A third time she sued the California Department of Corrections for the same thing. The department had told registrants they had to put that sign on their doors on Halloween. And if they didn’t have a home and lived in a tent, well by golly, they had to put a “No Trick-or-Treating” sign on their tent flap. And if they were living in a sleeping bag at the side of the road, they had to put a “No trick-or-treating” sign on their sleeping bag, too.

Presumably this would help fend off the hordes of children seeking bite-size Snickers from the homeless.

Bellucci won that case, too.

Like candy-doling, Halloweenactivated predators in sleeping bags, the problem of registrants traveling abroad for sex tourism is also not a common one. Chris Smith has written that, “currently tens of thousands of offenders could be traveling abroad as child sex tourists.”

But they aren’t.

The U.S. Justice Department itself says that about 10 Americans a year are convicted of “sex crimes against minors in other countries.” Meantime, there are more than 800,000 people on the Sex Offender Registry — about a quarter of them minors. This means that the vast majority of registrants — at least 790,990 one of them — are not sex tourists. And yet we won’t give them the basic right of traveling this great earth.

The United States has never branded anyone’s passport until now. Somehow we have survived 200+ years of giving all citizens the right to serve their time and then go on with their lives. Former drug dealers can travel south of the border. The Ocean’s 11, 12 and 13 crews can hop on a plane to Monaco.

But sex offenders, including teens who sexted and former flashers now in their 80s, will be branded with the scarlet “S” and kept in internal exile. It is for the sake of the children, of course.

It always is.

Lenore Skenazy authored the book, and founded the blog, Free-Range Kids (freerangekids.com). She is also a contributor at reason.com.

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February 18 - 24, 2016

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ARTS&ENTERTAINMENT Discover a New State of Tennessee Late Williams works embrace ‘bigger than life, juicy characters’

BY TRAV S.D. It’s been over 30 years now since the great American playwright Tennessee Williams passed away. Little did anyone (least of all him) suspect in 1982 that the early 21st century would be a time of reevaluation and elevation of his late works. Most efforts from his last two decades were uncelebrated, to put it mildly. Most were unproduced in his time. Those that did see the light of day were panned by critics, unfairly compared to his early masterpieces like “The Glass Menagerie” and “A Streetcar Named Desire.” But that has been steadily changing. In recent years, New York has seen critically acclaimed productions of such late Williams works as “In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel,” “Green Eyes,” “Clothes for a Summer Hotel” and “In Masks Outrageous and Austere.”

One key player in this Williams Renaissance has been Romanian-born stage director Cosmin Chivu. Among his credits are a revival of the 1981 play “Something Cloudy, Something Clear” in the 2011 Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival, and his 2013 hit production of Williams’ 1966 oddity “The Mutilated,” starring Mink Stole and Penny Arcade.

Two years ago, Chivu sat on a Tennessee Williams panel sponsored by the Playhouse Creatures Theatre Company. This lead to his directing a Sept. 2015 staged reading of John Guare’s “More Stars Than There Are in Heaven” for the company, which resulted in Playhouse Creatures hiring him to direct “Tennessee Williams 1982.”

The production — which features the late-career one-acts “A Recluse and His Guest” and “The Remarkable RoomingHouse of Mme. Le Monde” — is running at Walkerspace through Mar. 13.

“A Recluse” is a Scandinavianflavored parable about an outcast woman who briefly finds love and safety in the arms of a half-witted, skittish hermit. “The Remarkable Rooming-House” is a punk-era black comedy, with detectable overtones of Samuel Beckett, Joe Orton, John Waters, and Derek Jarman.

Miraculously, Chivu and his set designer .com

Photos by Antonis Achilleos

L to R: Patrick Darwin Williams, Kate Skinner, Declan Eells and Jade Ziane in “The Remarkable Rooming-House of Mme. Le Monde.”

Justin West have built a space for both plays to live in that is at once warm, cluttered, elemental, and timeless.

“These two plays work together on stage surprisingly well,” says Chivu.

“Though set in very different worlds they have extraordinary things in common. ‘A Recluse and His Guest’ is unique and unprecedented, unlike anything else Tennessee Williams has written. It may surprise the audience. It’s written like a fable or a folk tale, set in an unspecified Northern Europe — we’re imagining it somewhere north of Norway. ‘The Remarkable RoomingHouse of Mme. Le Monde’ is a rough political commentary, seen through the eyes of characters in an attic in London in the 1980s.”

Each work is set in a location that, Chivu notes, is “unusual for Williams,” with a tone that is “far from realism.

Both plays have the recurring theme of life in imposed exile and fear of accepting love. And at the bottom of both is a famil

L to R: Ford Austin, Kate Skinner in “A Recluse and His Guest.”

iar theme from Williams’ work: how a woman survives. Each of the two plays complements the other. They are like windows into Tennessee Williams’ soul.”

With European training in the experimental theatre and a master’s

from the Actors Studio, Chivu sees the late work of Tennessee Williams as “a perfect combination requiring both approaches. It’s written with experi-

Continued on page 20 February 18 - 24, 2016

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The Brooklyn Nets, in proud partnership with Hospital for Special Surgery, announce the grand opening of the HSS Training Center. Designed to maximize performance, prevention and recovery, the state-of-the-art facility is the new practice home of the Brooklyn Nets.

THE BROOKLYN NETS WOULD LIKE TO THANK OUR HSS TRAINING CENTER PARTNERS

TM

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February 18 - 24, 2016

PROTECTING THE HSS TRAINING CENTER SINCE 2016 .com

In The Land of Pages, Gamers Stage This Jefferson Market Library hosts live-action roleplay

Image by Gonzalo Ordonez

Game designer Warren Tusk’s “The Dance and the Dawn” is a gothic fairy tale for 15 players who waltz and duel while searching for true love.

BY CHARLES BATTERSBY A generation ago, “Dungeons & Dragons” redefined the word “game” to many people. In D&D, players created roles for themselves, and Dungeon Masters told stories that starred those characters. However, this sort of “roleplaying game” doesn’t have to be about killing monsters, or played sitting around a table.

Some people take their games away from the table and do live-action roleplaying, or LARP. Paracelsus Games creates and publishes a form of LARP called “Theatrical Experiences,” which have elements in common with games and improvisational theater. They recently presented one such LARP, called “The Dance and the Dawn,” in conjunction with the New York Public Library (NYPL).

The term LARP is often associated with people running around in parks, with foam swords (this is what players call “boffer” LARP). “The Dance and the Dawn” does have some swordplay, but the focus is on character interaction between its 15 players. These players take on the roles of noble Ladies and Lords at a midnight ball, where everyone is seeking out their true love. Each player is assigned a role in advance by the person hosting the game. In this case, the event is hosted by representatives from the NYPL and Paracelsus Games, but anyone can buy a copy of the game and .com

host their own performance.

Warren Tusk, the Creative Director at Paracelsus Games, is the author of “The Dance and the Dawn” — which he describes as being “different from boffer LARPs, in that it focuses on heavy roleplay with no physical-sport combat element, and different from ‘Nordic’ LARPs, in that it works largely with elaborate pre-created plot and characters.”

Every character in “Dance” has a true love at the ball, but they don’t know who that is until the end of the game. Players only know the details about their own character, and have to mingle to learn about the others. All of the dialogue and interaction is improvised. Character have unique personality traits, and abilities like magical spells and/or sword fighting skills. These can be used to vie with one another for the favor of a particular dance partner, or to learn clues about the backstory of the game’s setting and characters.

“Dance” uses a format similar to speed dating, where ladies can choose a Lord to dance with, and converse while waltzing. The dancing is real, and each performance of “The Dance and the Dawn” involves a brief lesson on how to waltz. The event lasts four hours, with players dancing, then taking breaks to mingle and converse. Tusk says this format “shepherds the players through each moment of their experience, rather than leaving them to putter around unguided and find their own interactions.”

Tusk designed the game so that characters have ideal “pairings” in which every Lady has a specific Lord who is ideally suited to her. Ending up in the right pair might seem like a way to win the game, but Tusk doesn’t see it that way. According to him, “The player’s goal should be to experience the most compelling story, and that can certainly happen whether or not the character finds true love. I’ve had PCs [player characters] undergo devastating romantic tragedies and walk out feeling like it was a really cool thing to witness from the inside. For that matter, I’ve had players deliberately forgo true love because they were so attached to the ‘wrong’ PC romances that they developed over the course of the game. It would be incredibly foolish to say that those people ‘lost.’ ” “Dance” has been produced in a

Photo by Liz Susman Karp

The Prince (Eduardo Perez) and Lords (Kristen Hendricks, Stefan Huber, Brian Farr and Steve Chang) watch an unusual twist of events as Lady Jade (Nicole Orabona) challenges Lord Paleos Kalbrock (Jeff Wirth) to a duel.

variety of locations, including college classrooms, Off-Off Broadway theaters, and a games cafe in Beijing, with the most recent NYC production having taken place on Jan. 30 at the Hudson

Park Library. This unusual venue, Tusk says, “provides useful gaming spaces, and helps us reach out to potential

Continued on page 20

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

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LISTEN EVERY MONDAY AT 4PM ON BrooklynPaper.com/radio February 18 - 24, 2016

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Photos by Antonis Achilleos

Ford Austin (seen here in “A Recluse and His Guest”) overcame a prognosis of total paralysis, to give a moving performance as Ott — the titular “Recluse.”

Kate Skinner demonstrates tremendous range as a sweet, needy visitor in “A Recluse and His Guest” and as the sexy title character in “The Remarkable Rooming-House of Mme. Le Monde” (seen here).

Exile and Survival are Key in Two by Tennessee Continued from page 17 mental precision, but very well-structured. It’s full of ideas and free imagery, which excites me as a director. All these challenges. You read it on the page and you say to yourself, ‘How am I going to do this?’ He has a character hanging from a hook for 45 minutes and then falling down. How do you do that without compromising the voice of the playwright? As a director, I think hard about how to honor what

the playwright wants first and try to stay focused on that. At the same time, I’m not afraid to make changes that bring his visions to fruition, to create a three-dimensional experience, to give it flesh and bones.”

Chivu also embraced an opportunity to explore “these bigger than life, juicy characters” found in the pair of oneacts that comprise “Tennessee Williams 1982.” That element was always to be found in his plays, says Chivu, “but he stopped apologizing for it in his later work and just went for it.”

Two of the actors to watch out for in the present production are Ford Austin and Kate Skinner. Austin recently fought his way back from a near fatal accident and a prognosis of total paralysis in 2013, to give an amazing, moving performance as Ott, the titular “Recluse.” Skinner demonstrates tremendous range as both Ott’s sweet, needy “Guest,” as well as the sexy, serial-killing Mme. Le Monde, underlining the evening’s thematic throughline.

It’s a thought-provoking and moving evening of theatre, and this observer

intends to continue watching Chivu’s work with great interest.

“Tennessee Williams 1982” plays through Mar. 13. Preview performances Thurs.–Sat., Feb. 18–20 at 7:30 p.m.

Opening Sun., Feb. 21 at 7 p.m. Regular performances Wed.–Sun., Feb. 24–28, Mar. 2–6 & Mar. 9–13 at 7:30 p.m.

Sat., Feb. 27, Mar. 5 & Mar. 12 at 3 p.m. At Walkerspace (46 Walker St., btw. Broadway & Church St.). For tickets ($40 general, $50 premium), visit playhousecreatures.org or call 800-838-3006.

Live-Action Gamers Bring ‘Ice and Ash’ to Life, in Library Continued from page 19 players that we wouldn’t have a way to reach on our own.”

Miranda Murray, the Library Manager at Hudson Park, notes that staging a LARP was a new experience for her. “I’m always looking for new and exciting programs and new things to attract people to our library,” she says.

“We’re in the West Village, and we certainly have lots of cultural institutions in the neighborhood that are exciting for our patrons, and I was looking for something to compete with that, and have something new.”

Just about any LARP will involve NPCs or “non-player characters.” They portray characters, just like players do, but the NPC’s are part of the staff host-

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ing the show. In “Dance,” the NPCs are the Queen of Ice, and the Duke of Ash. Players compete to earn the favor of the Queen and Duke, and can even unravel a mystery about their backstory, which might affect how the game plays out.

At the Hudson Park Library show, we spoke with the people who played the NPCs, David Kotsonis (the Duke of Ash) and Aili Klein (the Queen of Ice).

Both of them first experienced the show as players in past productions, but volunteered to play NPC roles. “I watched the Duke and the Queen have their very dramatic moment, I was like ‘Wow! I want to do that!’ ” said Klein of her earlier experience as a player.

Kotsonis explained that players are allowed to read the game documents about other characters after the game, and he was “struck by the Duke and

Photo by Liz Susman Karp

The Queen (Aili Klein) rebuffs the advances of Lord Paleos Kalbrock (Jeff Wirth) during a recent run of “The Dance and the Dawn,” whose sequel will come to Jefferson Market Library on Mar 4.

Queen’s backstory, and the Duke’s side of it,” so he asked to play the role himself in the recent production.

Interested players who missed the Jan. 30 production can participate in the sequel to “The Dance and the Dawn,”

called “Dreams of Ice and Ash.” The action unfolds at Jefferson Market Library (corner of Sixth Ave. & W. 10th St.) on Fri., Mar. 4, from 6–10 p.m. The event is free, but interested players must register before Fri., Feb. 26. To do so, visit paracelsus-games.com. .com

Photo by Christine Jean Chambers

Courtesy TNC

Guilt, pride and punchlines: Rain Pryor performs her autobiographical show “Fried Chicken and Latkes” at the Museum of Jewish Heritage.

The late Betsy Von Furstenberg, as she introduced Edward Albee the year he was honored at TNC’s Love N’ Courage benefit.

Just Do Art

BY SCOTT STIFFLER

FRIED CHICKEN AND LATKES “I grew up Black and Jewish,” recalls Rain Pryor, “which means I’m proud, but I feel guilty about it.” That’s more than enough material to build a comedic persona around, if not an entire career — but for Rain, daughter of Richard, tales of her struggle with racial and religious identity in the ’60s and ’70s are springboards from which to leap toward contemporary truths, not crutches that keep her tethered to the past. Pacing the stage and occasionally mimicking her father’s cadences with genetically impeccable precision, Rain’s searching eyes, skeptical tone, and well-parceled expressions of exasperation are unmistakable products of her paternal legacy — but the daughter distinguishes herself with observational material that dad simply wasn’t built to ponder, let alone fathom with such nuance and depth.

Riffing on the West African dashiki garment, Rain likens it to a caftan, then shifts gears for those in the audience who might not grasp either reference (“If you don’t know what a caftan is, it’s a housecoat with flowers.”). Expect plenty of likeminded cross-cultural outreach at Pryor’s autobiographical solo show, “Fried Chicken and Latkes,” in which she recalls her Beverly Hills upbringing, retraces her father’s path, and finds her own .com

identity — as a woman, an artist, and a mother. Not enough for you? There’s also material from her days as a sitcom actor, a stand-up comic, and a cabaret singer. To paraphrase kindred spirit Gilda Radner: You don’t have to be Black and Jewish to like it, but it wouldn’t hurt.

Wed., Feb. 24, 7 p.m. at the Museum of Jewish Heritage — A Living Memorial to the Holocaust (Edmond J. Safra Plaza, 36 Battery Place). For tickets ($35, $25 for Museum members, $15 for students with valid ID), call 646437-4202 or visit mjhnyc.org. Artist info at rainpryor.com.

THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY’S 13TH ANNUAL LOVE N’ COURAGE FUNDRAISER An East Village treasure you can always bank on, Theater for the New City (TNC) has spent three decades discovering new talent, keeping ticket prices affordable, and fighting the good fight by giving the green light to countless projects that advance the causes of social justice, sexual liberation, and limitless silliness. But putting their money where their mouth is costs a lot of green. That’s where this annual fundraiser comes in, which helps shore up TNC’s bottom line while paying tribute to key figures in the arts community who support the development of new works for the stage.

This year’s Love N’ Courage event,

which will raise funds for TNC’s emerging writers programs, salutes the actress and philanthropist Betsy Von Furstenberg (1931-2015), along with sculptor and painter Donn Russell.

Among those offering tributes will be David Amram, Phoebe Legere, KT Sullivan, the Yip Harburg Foundation Rainbow Troupe, TNC’s Street Theater Company, dancer Cha-Lee Chan and Eric Yves Garcia. Downtown performers Phoebe Legere and Matt Morillo will emcee. Cecilia Johnson and J. Seward Johnson, Jr. will also be acknowledged (their Johnson Theater is one of four TNC stages on which countless writers, directors, actors, designers and producers have presented new work). So turn off the idiot box, venture into the night, and find yourself transported to a time when — says TNC Executive Director Crystal Field — “theater was what television is today. It was the place to go, where art was created.”

Mon., Feb. 22. Cocktails at 6 p.m., dinner at 6:45 p.m., performance and presentation at 8 p.m. At the National Arts Club (15 Gramercy Park South, btw. Irving Pl. & Park Ave. South). For tickets ($175 each, $150 each for tables of 10 to 12), call 212-254-1109 or visit theaterforthenewcity.net.

THE LAST CLASS: A JAZZERCIZE PLAY If you haven’t quite gotten around to making good on those New Year’s resolutions to exercise more and support the arts, the sweaty multitaskers at newly formed DODO: A Theater Collective are here to help. At each performance of “The Last Class: A Jazzercize Play,” two ticketholders will be able to join

Photo by Peter Rad

Gonna make you sweat: Megan Hill puts a select group through their paces, during “The Last Class: A Jazzercise Play.”

playwright Megan Hill on stage, as she assumes the persona of Kelsea Wiggan — a deeply insecure instructor who refuses to surrender herself to Zumba, even as that trendy exercise regimen threatens her reign at the Chikatawnee Valley Community Center. With meltdowns that number higher than her heart rate, even ever-patient co-instructor MJ (Amy Staats) can’t keep things from deteriorating, as Wiggan leaps about the stage in a brave but misguided attempt to marry ’80s-style aerobics with the music of Adele, Macklemore, and Imagine Dragons.

Wed.–Fri. at 8 p.m., through Mar. 5, at TheaterLab (357 W. 36th St., third floor, btw. Eighth & Ninth Aves.).

For tickets ($18) visit dodotheater.com.

To “take the class,” send an email to askadodo@gmail.com.

February 18 - 24, 2016

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Buhmann on Art Richard Aldrich at Gladstone Gallery

Courtesy Gladstone Gallery

Installation view, “Richard Aldrich: Time Stopped, Time Started.”

BY STEPHANIE BUHMANN Born in 1975, New York-based Richard Aldrich creates paintings and sculpture that range in scale, material, and technique. He works with printed dibond and ceramic appliqué, for example, as well as with the traditional oil on canvas.

Believing in the free mixture of forms and materials without being restricted by a particular style or context, Aldrich focuses on layering information and inspiration sourced from everyday life. Here, motifs reoccur and

evolve, allowing objects from the artist’s life to become symbolic protagonists in a deeply personal narrative. As is reflected in its title, “Richard Aldrich: Time Stopped, Time Started” will explore notions of time and memory, both philosophically and as a visual tool. In fact, Aldrich has stated: “Time can be used as a medium, just like oil paint.”

Through Mar. 5 at Gladstone Gallery (515 W. 24th St. btw. 10th & 11th Aves.). Hours: Tues.–Sat. 10a.m.–6p.m.

Call 212-206-9300 or visit gladstonegallery.com.

Courtesy Gladstone Gallery

“Time,” said Richard Aldrich, “can be used as a medium, just like oil paint.” .com

February 18 - 24, 2016

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February 18 - 24, 2016

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