The Villager

May 5, 2016 • $1.00 Volume 86 • Number 18

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The Paper of Record for Greenwich Village, East Village, Lower East Side, Soho, Union Square, Chinatown and Noho, Since 1933

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Blinded by the lights: Soho residents blitzed by blazing store windows

BY COLIN MIXSON

S

oho locals say they’re living in perpetual daylight thanks to a proliferation of gaudy, illuminated marketing gizmos by Broadway retailers that beam an uninvited glow into neighboring windows at all hours of the night.

Making matters worse, legislation was enacted to curb the noxious advertising schemes

employed by local retailers in 2001, but the Department of Buildings — the agency responsible for enacting the provisions — has failed to set the standards necessary to enforce it, and residents feel like they’ve been left swaying in the wind.

“They’re covering their ass,” said Pete Davies, a 36-year resident of Broadway, and member LIGHTS continued on p. 6

Son of L.E.S. supertall; Second huge high-rise planned at Two Bridges

BY YANNIC R ACK

L

ower East Side residents are pushing back against another enormous residential tower set to rise right next to Extell’s gigantic One Manhattan Square development on the East River waterfront, which they fear will destroy their quality of life and possibly even displace senior citizens.

The developers of a new 77-story building slated for 247 Cherry St. in the Two Bridges neighborhood received a hostile welcome from Two Bridges Towers tenants when they presented their plans for the mixed-income project last Wed., Apr. 27.

“You’re destroying the neighborhood. The landscape

AP PHOTO/SETH WENIG

With an unfamiliar look of resignation on his face, the once-power ful former A ssembly Speaker Sheldon Silver leaving cour t on Tuesday after his sentencing.

Steel bars for Silver; Gets 12 years in jail

SUPERTALL continued on p. 8

BY MARY REINHOLZ AND LINCOLN ANDERSON Former state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, once one of New York’s most powerful politicians and a lifelong resident of the Lower East Side, was sentenced by a federal judge on Tuesday to 12 years in prison for his conviction last November on seven counts of corruption, including extortion, honest services fraud and money laundering.

He had been found guilty

A world o’ wiener dogs.....page 3

after a five-week jury trial of abusing his public office to provide preferential treatment to a cancer researcher at Columbia University and two real estate developers. In turn, they provided lucrative referrals to two Manhattan law firms that had retained Silver as a part-time attorney since around 2000. Silver was found guilty of raking in $5 million in kickbacks through the two schemes.

The judge, Valerie E. Caproni, who imposed the hefty sen-

tence, acknowledged some of Silver’s good deeds to his constituents in the 65th Assembly District, among them his advocacy for tenants and help for reeling residents after 9/11 and Superstorm Sandy.

But Caproni also characterized the 72-year-old Democrat as a corrupt and “scheming politician” who was simply trying to hang on to power. She ordered Silver to turn himself in SILVER continued on p. 4

Opinion: New park must honor St. Vincent’s.....p. 15 Special section: A Salute to Union Square........p. 17 www.TheVillager.com

WAY TO GO, GOOGLE! Google honored Jane Jacobs, the legendary Village urban planner and activist, on the 100th anniversary of her birth on Wed., May 4, with an illustration on its main search page. Jacobs, who led Villagers in defeating Robert Moses’ highway and development plans that would have bulldozed much of the historic neighborhood, died in April 2006 at age 89.

Sometimes the Google search thingies are a bit annoying, but this one we loved.

A HILL O’ HILLARY SUPPORTERS: Greenwich Village was definitely Hillary Country on April 19 during the Democratic primary. As the maps of the results show, Hillary Clinton completely swept the Village. Bernie Sanders — as we suspected he would — did much better in the East Village, winning a slew of districts in the heart of the hood, and also won some pockets in Soho and around Gramercy, plus had strong support in Stuyvesant Town. In their mayoral primary faceoff in 2009, Bill Thompson won in the East Village while Mike Bloomberg romped in the West Village, and we figured that kind of pattern would hold true in Hillary vs. Bernie — namely, the establishment candidate winning in the west and the upstart, more progressive one in the east. Anyway, the area around the P.S. 41 poll site was aswarm with Clinton backers on April 19. Danielle Sandow, who had actually voted at the L.G.B.T. Center on W. 13th St., was sitting on a bench outside the Kikkerland novelties and toy shop on Sixth Ave., her tattered Hillary Clinton sign from her failed 2008 campaign propped beside her. Sandow, 86, a Villager since 1958, founded the Middle 13th St. Block Association in 1973 and ran for Congress in ’74. “I support Hil-

ES & M I P CO

PHOTO BY DAN MILLER/DMD IMAGES

Hillar y Clinton at her New York primar y election victor y par t y.

lary because she’s been around the block a lot,” she said. “She’s talked to every dictator and despot in the world. And this whole thing about Bernie going after Wall Street — Wall Street fuels about 40 percent of what happens in New York.

How many people own stock? It’s a participatory thing. Young people in their 30s feel if they just scream a lot, they’re going to get what they want. There aren’t going to be free schools,” she declared, slamming a key Sanders plank. “That’s right!” a man passing by called out, liking her Hillary sign. Children’s book writer Carol Snyder and her husband of 54 years, Michael, both sporting Hillary buttons, also espying Sandow’s sign, stopped by to say hello. “She can get things done,” Carol said of Clinton. “He has great ideas.

I don’t disagree with his ideas, but she’s gotten things done all these years. She knows the presidents of all these different countries personally; she doesn’t have to learn them. It’s not that we just want a woman president. We want this woman president. She’s earned it.” Like Sandow, Carol said young people need to get some more issues. “We had the civil rights movement, the

women’s movement, the war — and this generation, all they’ve come up with is Wall Street,” she said. “It’s good that they’re active,” she conceded.

We were doing some exit / entry polling outside P.S. 41, when Elizabeth Butson, The Villager’s publisher in the 1990s, came by to do her civic duty. “I’m going for Hillary. It was not a tough decision,” she told us. “I love a lot of the points Bernie Sanders makes because he’s right, you know.

The country really needs to fix a lot of things. But Sanders’s view is a bit...utopian. I do not think he has the qualifications to be president. It’s a little ‘Alice in Wonderland.’ Hillary has been through baptism by fire. And I think she knows how to compromise. And to tell you the truth, life is one big compromise. Like the French say, ‘You have to put a little water in your wine.’ ” At the same time, she gave it to Sanders for having charisma, noting, “He really knows how to deliver a message.” So wise...it’s a shame Butson isn’t running for president! Bridget Griffin, 30, who works in risk management, voted for Clinton partly out of skepticism about Sanders. “I don’t think Bernie has a plan to break up the banks,” she said, adding, “I think there needs to be regulation. But banks are also an important part of the economy.

‘Let’s break up the banks’ — it’s just not realistic.

Legislation is tough to pass.” Heather Campbell, formerly of Community Board 2, said, “I voted for Hillary Clinton. I think she has the best chance of making the things I want to happen happen.

She has the experience. She has the plan. I think this election has been a lot of emotional rhetoric on both sides. She has not used rhetoric — she has shown her plans. There’s a lot I love about what Sanders says, but I don’t know how he’s going to make that happen.” We asked another woman walking by who she voted for. Hillary, she said. Why? “Follow through!” she tossed over her shoulder. We did find one woman who went for Sanders. “It was a hard decision. I stayed up all night, literally 24 hours,” said cartoonist Suki Weston. “You know what the determing factor was? That Chelsea Clinton married a hedge-fund manager. I know she’s doing stuff on water in Africa, but….” She said she had to rush home and do a cartoon about it all that she would post on Facebook. Assemblymember Deborah Glick was electioneering for Clinton near the corner. Asked why the Clinton turnout was so high, she said, “These are the adults in the district. I’m talking political sophistication — not age. Sanders will probably do well around the N.Y.U. area. These folks here are maybe a little more sophisticated about what it takes to get things done. But in the end, in November, we should all come together, because the other side is terrifying.” Also castSCOOPY continued on p. 12

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May 5, 2016

TheVillager.com

PHOTOS BY MILO HESS

You ain’t nothin’ but a hund dog; You ain’t never caught a squirrel...

They say every dog has its day. Well, dachshunds definitely had theirs on Sat., April 30, in sunny Washington Square Park at the annual Dachshund Day. As usual, it was a howling success. Long-haired, short-haired, it just didn’t matter — everyone was a wiener...er, winner...actually, both!

TheVillager.com

May 5, 2016

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Sheldon Silver is sentenced to 12 years Named best weekly newspaper in New York State in 2001, 2004 and 2005

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May 5, 2016

SILVER continued from p. 1

to authorities by noon July 1, stating her intent was to strike fear into the hearts of other politicians who might succumb to corruption by the prospect that “they could spend their golden years in an orange jumpsuit.”

No one else was indicted in the case. Dr. Robert Taub, who received $500,000 in state grants that Silver funneled to the doctor’s mesothelioma research center in return for referrals, served as a witness for the prosecution.

The media swarmed the fallen pol as he exited the court via Pearl St. “He’s trying to get out the back way!” somebody shouted from deep within the pack of frenzied news hounds. They had been waiting for Silver at the main entrance of the courthouse on 40 Centre St., some laughing as they lunged toward the gray-haired man with a stricken look who had just received what could be a life sentence.

A few of them climbed over parked vehicles to hurl questions at Silver such as, “How do you feel now?” and “What are you are going to say to your wife tonight?”

The last was a reference to recent claims by the government that Silver was also a philandering husband to his wife, Rosa, of nearly 50 years. Rosa attended the sentencing but did not leave with him. Silver has been accused of engaging in affairs with two women for whom he got jobs, a charge Silver’s defense team claims is false and salacious.

“They’re like piranha,” a passerby murmured with amazement, after catching a glimpse of Silver enveloped by the stampeding media mob. A couple of husky security guards helped Silver get into a waiting yellow cab. Before taking off, he responded to one of his interrogators who wanted to know what his plans were.

“I believe in the justice system, and we’ll see whatever remedies the system makes available,” he said, his voice faltering a bit.

But the words were clear.

Then he was gone, free on bail, after reportedly having arrived at the courthouse by an M20 bus.

Silver’s defense team stood nearby, answering questions, including one from The Villager to attorney Steven Molo. Would the defense team appeal Silver’s sentence?

“Yes,” he replied, adding that the defense had informed Caproni of the appeal before the sentencing.

How come there were no co-defendants on trial with Silver?

Molo smiled a trifle sardonically.

“You’ll have to ask the U.S. attorney about that,” he said, referring to Preet Bharara of the Southern District. Bharara has already sent at least a dozen politicians to jail or to different careers in his crusade to clean up what he calls New York’s “show me the money” culture.

Left-wing comic and activist Randy Credico also stood outside the courthouse after attending Silver’s sentencing. He described Caproni’s ruling as “very unfair” and denounced Bharara as a “sadistic narcissist,” looking for headlines.

“Why doesn’t he go after somebody like

PHOTO COURTESY ALICE CANCEL

Majorit y Leader Joseph Morelle swore in Alice Cancel in Albany on Monday as the new assemblymember for Lower Manhattan’s 65th A ssembly District.

Senator Chuck Schumer, who has made millions off of Wall Street?” he asked.

Credico said he has known Silver for years and credited him with helping his campaign to reform the old draconian Rockefeller drug laws.

“I gave him one of my buttons,” Credico said.

Bharara had initially asked the judge to sentence Silver to more than 14 years, considerably less time for six of the charges against him that carry a maximum penalty of 20 years each. Silver’s sentence is two years less than what former Brooklyn Assemblymember William Boyland, Jr. got last year in a corruption case.

Silver’s attorneys called on Caproni to temper justice with mercy, noting their client has battled with prostate cancer, now in remission, and spent nearly 40 years trying to assist people in crisis on the Lower East Side.

“He has helped people and tried to lift them up during dire times,” said attorney Joel Cohen, who asked for a sentence of community service with little or no incarceration.

Cohen noted some 100 letters sent to the judge requesting leniency for Silver. Several were from high-profile New Yorkers, like former Mayor David Dinkins and Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.6 millionmember American Federation of Teachers of the AFL-CIO, attesting to his character and commitment to progressive causes. But it was to no avail.

Just before she gave him 12 years behind bars, Caproni told Silver sternly: “I hope the sentence I impose on you will make the next politician hesitate before he accepts a kickback or bribe.”

Bharara, who sat in on the sentencing in a back-row seat, his stern gaze sweeping the courtroom, later issued a statement, saying: “Today’s swift sentence is a just and fitting end to Sheldon Silver’s long career of corruption.”

Silver, however, may wind up doing no time at all should the U.S. Supreme Court overturn the conviction of former Governor Robert McDonnell of Virginia, who was convicted with his wife, Maureen, on corruption charges in 2014. The eight justices seem

sympathetic to McDonnell’s case, reported the Washington Post on April 28, noting they were concerned about federal corruption laws criminalizing behavior that’s considered “everyday or routine” for politicians who perform services for benefactors.

“For better or for worse, [this] puts at risk behavior that is common,” said Justice Stephen G. Breyer, who along with Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. suggested that the federal corruption laws are so vague that they might be unconstitutional.

Similarly, The Villager asked Bharara when he was the keynote speaker at the New York Press Association’s recent spring convention, if “the bar had been lowered” to convict Silver. No, Bharara said firmly, explaining that the case against Silver was solid and extensive.

A verdict in the Virginia case could come at the end of June, shortly before the date when Silver is scheduled to begin his sentence. If it’s favorable for the McDonnells, Silver’s attorneys could negotiate a deal to keep him out of prison, said Gerald Lefcourt, a prominent Manhattan criminal defense lawyer who has represented Yippie leader Abbie Hoffman and several convicted New York politicians.

“What is a quid pro quo? It’s so vague and the [laws] give so much power to the prosecution,” Lefcourt said in a telephone interview.

“How do you know the difference between what’s politics as usual and what’s criminal?

It’s a slippery slope.”

He noted that Dr. Taub said in Silver’s case that he did not consider their dealings to be a quid pro quo situation.

Even if Silver stays out of his prison, his reputation is in ruins, destroyed by a media that “tarred and feathered” him during his prosecution, said Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf. He compared the “bloodletting” against pols like Silver to the Tammany Hall era of Mayor Jimmy Walker and, more recently, to that of former Mayor Ed Koch, when a prosecutor named Rudolph Giuliani rose to prominence by sparking the city’s Parking Violations Bureau scandal in SILVER continued on p. 5 TheVillager.com

in jail in corruption case SILVER continued from p. 4

the 1980s. It led to the suicide of Queens Borough President Donald Manes.

“Prosecutors need something to do and there is corruption out there and headlines to be made. But these scandals don’t make New York look good,” Sheinkopf said, adding they also might be a deterrent to young people deciding on careers in politics under constant scrutiny. “Politics isn’t noble anymore,” he said.

Even so, there seems to be no shortage of people vying for Silver’s former Assembly seat. Alice Cancel was elected to fill out Silver’s term in an April 19 special election, beating three other candidates running on various other party lines.

About a half-dozen candidates now hope to challenge her in the September open Democratic primary.

Cancel was sworn into the Assembly on Monday by Majority Leader Joseph Morelle. She will also have another swearingin back in the district this Friday.

“This is a sad day for the [Silver] family and a sad day for our community,” Cancel told The Villager after Silver’s sentencing. “Our community needs time to heal.

I’m here to serve the community as I was elected to do.”

Her husband, Democratic State Committeeman John Quinn, shot down rumors that Cancel would not be running for re-election in September, and said she clearly has strong support in the community.

“Alice was sick for a while and her diabetes is now under control,” he said. “Her election against an extremely well-funded opponent [Yuh-Line Niou] was truly the voice of our community being heard. She didn’t even do a mailing. Yet the people knew her work.”

Two candidates who plan to run in the September primary quickly blasted out email statements after the sentencing. And, unlike Silver’s die-hard supporters and political allies, they weren’t blaming prosecutors for being overzealous.

“Today, the era of Sheldon Silver is over,” District Leader Paul Newell said.

“While this is a sad day for Lower Manhattan and a sad day for New York, it also presents an opportunity for change. Now the real work of ending Albany’s culture of corruption can begin. Our goal should be not to purge a few bad actors, but to end it — for good.

“Political graft like that which Silver was convicted of is not just a personal failure,” Newell said. “It impoverishes us all.

The costs of corruption are higher rents, higher taxes, underfunded schools and crumbling subways.

“In Lower Manhattan and across New York State, people are ready for a new kind of leadership. Our neighborhoods need real infrastructure investment, stronger tenant protections, more and better schools and an honest voice in Albany.”

Niou, who came in a close second in the special election for the 65th A.D. seat last month, while running on the Working TheVillager.com

Families Party line, similarly vigorously supported Tuesday’s outcome.

“Today’s sentencing of former Speaker Silver to 12 years in prison and over $6 million in restitution is an appropriate punishment that sends a clear message to Albany that the culture of corruption that continues to fester in our state government must end,” she said. “Mr. Silver’s crime and corruption permanently harmed our community, and we may never know the full extent of the damage that he caused to New York’s rent laws while on the take of developers and landlords.

“With this sentencing,” Niou said, “I hope Albany will find the integrity and political will to finally strip pensions from corrupt officials and clean up our broken ethics and campaign finance laws to give the taxpayers of our great state the honest government they deserve.”

Another candidate for the 65th A.D. seat in September, District Leader Jenifer Rajkumar, said she would work to replace a Tammany Hall-style “culture of corruption with a culture of service,” and would also act as a full-time legislator if she gets the job.

West Village District Leader Arthur Schwartz, who is running for Assembly against incumbent Deborah Glick in the West Village and Lower West Side’s 66th Assembly District, wrote a letter to the judge calling for her to give Silver the maximum on all seven counts he was convicted on.

He also urged her to strip Silver of his $79,000 annual pension.

“To do less,” Schwartz said, “would be to allow him to benefit, while in prison, from the position of trust which he took unconscionable advantage of.”

Glick, who worked closely with Silver over the years, did not respond to e-mail requests for comment. A spokesperson later said she was “unavailable.” But Glick, who is a full-time legislator — never having had an outside job beyond her Albany post — previously has defended her relationship with the fallen pol, saying, “I wouldn’t run from the fact that Shelly did a lot of good things over the years.”

She noted that he stopped the West Side stadium, supported expanding pre-K and always fought for education, among other things.

“People are not one-dimensional,” she said. “I think Shelly did lots of things, and I think the things that were raised during the trial were obviously deeply disturbing.”

Another staunch Silver ally over the years, Assemblymember Richard Gottfried, said, “The convictions of former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, former state Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and other public officials in recent years are disheartening. While most people in public service would never abuse their official position for personal gain, no one is above the law. I believe it’s clear that we should end outside income for legislators.”

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PHOTO BY TEQUILA MINSKY

Topshop, where a new illuminated Beyoncé ad is in continuous rotation, and other retailers with similar ads, are drawing Soho neighbors’ ire.

Soho residents rage against blazing store windows LIGHTS continued from p. 1

of the ad-hoc community-based organization Broadway Residents Coalition.

Over the past few years, Broadway between Canal and E. Ninth Sts. has seen a sort of marketing arms race, as big-name fashion merchants — includ-

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ing Michael Kors, Kenneth Cole, H&M and Topshop — race to erect bigger and brighter LED displays than their retail rivals, and the problem is only getting worse.

“The retailers just want attention for whatever they’re selling inside, and they get in competition with each other, so it’s spreading,” Davies said.

A new 20-foot-by-10-foot ad for Beyoncé’s new athletic gear is on a continuous video loop at Topshop, and some days is on for 24 hours straight.

“A lot of people come to Soho and see a shopping mall, but to us who live here, it’s our neighborhood,” Sean Sweeney, director of the Soho Alliance, told WPIX News. “The issue is that it’s a Jumbotron. It might be appropriate on Times Square, but not in a mixed-use neighborhood like Soho. Would the advertisers want this near their home, in their front yard? So why are they doing it to Soho residents?”

Adding to the illicit illumination, media juggernaut OUTFRONT Prime has taken to buying up billboards on Broadway and along nearby Broome St., and they’re not shy about letting locals know about it. The company has installed glowing nameplates on each of its newly acquired billboards, providing locals with a few thousand additional lumens worth of sleep-disturbing torment.

In an effort to give community members some peace and darkness, the City Council passed a resolution introduced by former Soho Councilmember Kathryn Freed that requires the Department of Buildings to set standards for illuminated signs and how much light can be cast into nearby windows. The rule specifically applies to residences or artists’ joint living-work quarters in M1-3

manufacturing or C1-8 commercial districts.

It’s 15 years later, though, and those standards still have yet to be set, with the agency citing technical limitations as its excuse for letting the matter slide.

“There are limitations to promulgating a rule to establish what would constitute a reasonable uniform standard that would encapsulate and define a set level of illumination that evidently interferes with the use of a residence or joint livingwork quarters for artists in M1-3 or C1-8 districts,” a Department of Buildings spokesperson said.

It’s unclear exactly what those technical difficulties are, but the problem may have as much to do with the legislation’s vague wording as it does with the agency’s physical limitations.

An agency official said the resolution’s wording makes it unclear whether it calls for a citywide standard on illuminated signs, or various standards tailored for specific areas. For instance, he questioned whether Times Square, a commercial area where super-bright lights are actually encouraged, should be held to the same standards as Soho or other residential neighborhoods.

“There’s nothing in place to standardize whether that should be a citywide standard, or should the level of illumination vary from area to area,” the D.O.B. official noted. “Should everything be allowed to operate like Times Square, or should everything be scaled back?”

Meanwhile, locals are caught between the unending glow of local commerce and the city’s indecision — and no excuse is going to help them sleep at night.

“I think it’s called ‘doubletalk,’ ” Davies said. “I don’t know what they’re saying.”

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May 5, 2016

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Two Bridges area becoming ‘Supertall Central’ SUPERTALL continued from p. 1

is going to change completely,” complained one resident. “How are you different from Extell? This is not Battery Park [City] — please don’t bring this here.”

The design and development team — JDS Development Group and ShoP Architects — are planning the project together with Settlement Housing Fund and Two Bridges Neighborhood Council, the two nonprofits that own Two Bridges Tower at 82 Rutgers Slip and the neighboring Two Bridges Senior Apartments next door at 80 Rutgers Slip.

The new 600-unit rental building, which will include roughly 150 permanently affordable units, will be built using $51 million worth of development rights, mostly purchased from the neighboring 80 Rutgers.

The lot for the building’s base currently houses a one-story addition to the senior apartments with a multipurpose community room that will eventually be replaced in the new development, according to the developers.

Next to the community room, another one-story building, which was home to a pharmacy and still has two retail storefronts, will be demolished later on in the project and replaced by a similar structure, possibly to house a replacement for the sorely missed Pathmark supermarket that closed on the block in 2012.

The slender glass-and-terra-cotta tower, which is set to house studios and one- and two-bedrooms, would also cantilever over the existing senior building — one of the main points of contention for local residents.

“How are you going to put this there and not displace senior residents?” asked Trever Holland, president of the Two Bridges Tenant Association.

Locals also say the planned development’s size is far too much to bear for their dense community of low-income residents. But the project’s masterminds insist that it will benefit the community — with a range of amenities, like public open space and a new and larger com-

COURTESY JDS DEVELOPMENT GROUP AND SHOP ARCHITECTS

A design rendering showing the planned 77-stor y 247 Cherr y St. tower, at right, and Extell’s 80-stor y One Manhattan South, currently under construction, at left.

munity center, as well as the affordable units slated for the tower.

“There will be 450 units of marketrate rentals — is that a change for this neighborhood that is primarily affordable? Yes, it absolutely is,” said Alexa Sewell, president of Settlement Housing Fund. “[But] is it a make or break for a neighborhood with thousands and thousands of units of housing? No.” “We’re creating considerable new affordable housing. It’s a net plus of over 150 units,” added Michael Stern, JDS founder and managing partner.

Unlike at the Extell development, which includes a separate building for below-market-rate tenants, the affordable units at 247 Cherry St. would be “fully integrated,” as in scattered throughout the building, the developers said.

Sewell added that the money from the air-rights sale would also go toward significant improvements at the Two Bridges Senior Apartments building,

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including flood barriers and a renovated lobby, as well as the new retail space.

Additionally, the new tower’s ground floor would boast a brand-new community center open to the residents.

A rooftop garden and landscaped outdoor space are also planned.

But community advocates said that’s not enough — and demanded that similar upgrades should be made at Two Bridges Tower next door.

“We have to make sure we’re not just getting chairs and some landscaping,” Holland stressed.

In addition, residents said they are already scarred from the ongoing construction at the Extell project, an 80-story condo tower, and demanded that building management fi x cracks and other damage from that project’s foundation work before burdening residents with even more construction.

Since work started on the Extell project, cracks have appeared in some

walls at Two Bridges Tower, and tenants complain of sticking doors and windows and shifting locks, which they said is caused by the vibration of the pile driving.

Sewell assured that there was no structural damage to the building, and committed to a follow-up meeting with residents to discuss fi xing any dangerous damage.

The developers also promised they would work to minimize the new project’s impact, but admitted that the construction on the second tower — scheduled to start in about two years — would bring some level of disruption.

“We commit to always listen and to always be transparent,” Stern told the residents. “We’re going to develop a very rigorous noise mitigation plan.

[But] it’s definitely going to have some impact.”

“There is no way to predict what will happen on a construction site,” Sewell added.

She said a line of windows on the senior building would likely have to be covered during the construction, and cautioned that some residents might have to be temporarily relocated, as well.

The Two Bridges landlords promised, however, that there would be no changes in affordability at either of the two buildings. However, they didn’t immediately react to a request from Holland about instituting a rent freeze to make up for the inconvenience.

“Take care of us!” one woman in the audience shouted repeatedly.

After the meeting, Linda Matias, an 82 Rutgers resident, said she and her fellow tenants were committed to doing anything they could to at least scale down the proposed project, if they couldn’t stop it altogether.

“We want to fight this. We don’t want them to build another 77-story building,” she said optimistically. “We lost with Extell. We don’t have to lose with them.”

JDS is currently developing two other “supertalls,” an 80-story high-rise at 111 W. 57th St. and a 73-story one at 9 DeKalb Ave. in Downtown Brooklyn.

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9

POLICE BLOTTER

One of the alleged suspects in the burglar y pattern.

Burglary pattern Police are linking a pair of booze bandits who stole alcohol from the closed Suffolk Arms bar, at 269 E. Houston St., at 4:30 a.m. on April 3 to a series of other early-morning burglaries in the Fifth and Seventh Precincts.

On Tues., April 26, around 2:33 a.m., the suspects entered Dudley’s restaurant, at 85 Orchard St., and took $500 from the till, police said.

Later that day, around 10 p.m., they entered New Shing Wang restaurant, at 27 Eldridge St., and took $400 and an Apple iPhone and iPad. A half hour later, according to police, the perps entered Ting Sing Fish Ball restaurant, at 21 Eldridge St., and absconded with $300.

Fifteen minutes after that, the same suspects hit Eric McKenna Bakery, at 248 Broome St., according to police, removing about $1,600 from a file cabinet.

On Wed., April 27, at 12:30 a.m., they capped off their night of burglary by breaking into Kottu House, which had closed at midnight, and making off with $50.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Police Department’s Crime Stoppers Hotline, at 800-577-TIPS. Tips can also be submitted by logging onto the Crime Stoppers Web site, www.nypdcrimestoppers.com, or by texting them to 274637 (CRIMES) and then entering TIP577. All tips are confidential.

Night at the Oscars’ A father and son were arrested at an apartment at 240 Waverly St. on Thursday during a violent incident.

According to police, around 8 p.m. on April 28, the father brandished a kitchen knife and, with a stabbing motion, attempted to knife the son’s leg. When police arrived, the son was found to be in possession of a loaded firearm that was not licensed to him. No injuries were reported.

The two men, both named Oscar Castagna, ages 35 and 82, were arrested. The younger man was arrested for felony criminal possession of a weapon. His father was arrested for felony assault.

Pier 40 parking perp Police said a man damaged 18 vehicles in a parking garage at Pier 40 at West and W. Houston Sts last week. On Fri., April 29, at 2 a.m., a security employee was making his routine rounds, when he witnessed a man damaging multiple vehicles with a brick. The security guard also witnessed the man rip off a vehicle’s license plate and sit in the front seat of a car.

Juan Hernandez, 29, was arrested for felony criminal mischief.

From knife to narcotics A police officer spotted a man with a gravity knife on the sidewalk in front of 121 Christopher St. at 2:20 a.m. on Fri., April 29, police said. Upon a search, the man was found to be in possession of a stolen credit card, a quantity of alleged powder-form heroin stamped “New World,” hypodermic needles and a glass pipe all with alleged heroin residue, and one plastic vile containing alleged cocaine.

Police arrested Jacob Obrikis, 34, for felony criminal possession of a weapon.

Bar thief busted A woman stole items from different people at various bars in the same area. On Thurs., April 21, at 1 a.m., a woman said her iPhone was swiped from her purse at Greenwich Tree Bar, at 46 Greenwich Ave. She traced her phone to another location with phone-tracking software, and observed a woman in possession of

it. The victim told police that she recognized the woman from the previous location.

Upon a search of the suspect, police found other items that had been reported missing the previous day.

On Wed., April 20, at Gaslight, at 400 W. 14th St., at around 9 p.m., a handbag containing a credit card was stolen. On the same day around 11 p.m. at Bill’s Bar and Burger, at 22 Ninth Ave., a backpack containing an Apple laptop was stolen.

Shaniah Lord, 19, was arrested for felony grand larceny.

Phone filcher A woman brought home a man from a bar on Saturday night but it didn’t go as planned. The woman told police that inside her apartment at 101 Perry St. around 5 a.m., the man had started acting strangely, so she asked him to leave several times.

But he became irate and took her iPhone 6 Plus out of her hand and stated, “I will smash your iPhone in the street.”

He then left the apartment with the phone without her permission.

Police canvassed the area and found the suspect, who was positively identified by the woman.

Police arrested Trent Ingraham, 24, for felony grand larceny.

Cop out Police said that on Mon., May 2, around 1:30 a.m. an off-duty New York City police officer was arrested for getting into a physical altercation with a bouncer at 3 Sheets Saloon, at 134 W. Third St. Gerardo Bugalloberet, 26, who is assigned to the Bronx, had been drinking at the bar, then reportedly got into a verbal dispute with a bouncer that turned physical.

Bugalloberet was charged with misdemeanor assault and has been suspended from the force, according to a police spokesperson. The bouncer refused medical attention.

Emily Siegel and Lincoln Anderson

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May 5, 2016

TheVillager.com

Patrol aids comatose man

C

hristopher Street Patrol members recently aided a man they found unconscious in a sidewalk tree pit.

And to hear the patrol’s resident leader tell it, they saved his life.

It was a Friday night a couple of weeks ago, and the dogged anticrime patrol was being led by local volunteer Diana Horton, 70. With her were four Guardian Angels — street handles K.C., Blueblood, Mellow and Moustache — ranging from the late teens to late 30s. A Village resident always leads the group, since locals know the neighborhood best.

It was around midnight, and the patrol, clad in their distinctive red jackets, had just taken a break in a room they use at 155 Christopher St. They were taking a last swing down to the Christopher St. Pier — a stretch they hadn’t patrolled yet. “It was a slow night and it was cold,�

Horton said. “Normally, we go till 1 o’clock. We were deciding if we wanted to call it a night. “We were crossing Bleecker at Christopher,� she recalled. “A man — his whole body was in the tree pit — from his knees to the top of his head. He was tall, thin.

His head was at a very difficult angle, almost as if he’d been stuffed inside the wicket.�

The Angels checked his pulse. As one called 911, the man then started

to have a seizure. “Blueblood knew he was having a seizure,� Horton said. “He knew not to put him on his back but on his side.�

Springing into action, Mellow stood over the man protectively, while Moustache and K.C. kept gawkers at bay.

Emergency-trained firefighters from Squad 18 and Sixth Precinct police quickly responded. The police included Officer Vincent, who was training rookie Officers Nolasco and Dennis.

The cops, firefighters and Angels worked together seamlessly to help the unknown man, Horton said. “This individual had 15 people working on him, all working together so smoothly,� she said. The man never regained consciousness before a New York-Presbyterian ambulance whisked him away.

On the other hand, that the stricken man had lain there awhile with no one else having helped him was disheartening, she said.

A retired teacher, the Grove St. resident has been a Christopher Street Patrol member 22 years. It’s the group’s 25th year.

Asked why she got involved, she said, “I had two daughters. I wanted them to feel safe in their own neighborhood.�

As for whether the area is safer now, Horton said, “There’s no comparison.� Helping matters, some Christopher St. problem bars closed or moved. Yet, she said, a sad tradeoff is that many beloved local momand-pop shops have been closing, too.

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11

SCOOPY continued from p. 2

ing her vote at the Greenwich Village School was Elisabeth Robert, who used to photograph for us.

She declined to tell us who she supported — that is, other than Caleb, her beautiful new baby boy, whose photo she showed us on her phone. Congrats!

PHOTO BY TEQUILA MINSKY

V.I.P.’s at the D.I.D. event, with honoree Gale Brewer, middle, from left, District Leaders Jenifer Rajkumar, Dennis Gault, Paul Newell and Terri Cude.

PHOTO BY FRANK ROCCO

At the V.I.D. gala, from left, club President Nadine Hoffmann, with honorees Soffiyah Elijah, Ben Yee and Steve Herrick.

PHOTO BY FRANK ROCCO

At the V.I.D. confab, A ssemblymember Deborah Glick, left, and V.I.D. member Rose James.

CLUB SANDWICH: Last week was a big one for local political clubs, as they held their spring fundraisers and galas, as judicial candidates were making the rounds, seeking their support, and the clubs were generally “kicking off the 2016 political season.” For starters, last Thursday, the Village Independent Democrats held their annual “Spring Forward” awards gala at local fave Rocio and Jimmy Sanz’s Tio Pepe restaurant, at 168 W. Fourth St. The club honored Soffi yah Elijah, executive director of the Correctional Association of New York, “for her passionate advocacy of reform of New York State’s criminal justice system”; the Cooper Square Committee and its executive director, Steve Herrick, for their work for affordable housing; and Benjamin Yee, vice president of Young Democrats of America, “for his success in bringing millennials 12

May 5, 2016

into Democratic politics.” Making the scene were V.I.D. leading member Deborah Glick; Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer; Councilmember Rosie Mendez; Assemblymember Dick Gottfried; and former state Senator Tom Duane. “We had over 100 guests at the event,” Nadine Hoffmann, V.I.D. president, proudly reported. “We were especially pleased to have a great number of young people join us this year. We love the energy and passion of these future leaders, and are proud that they will carry forward our community’s tradition of progressive activism.” Founded in 1957, V.I.D., which was Ed Koch’s springboard into politics — that is, when he could at least still claim to be called a progressive — is one of the city’s oldest reform Democratic clubs.

D.I.D. DID IT UP: Meanwhile, on Sunday, Downtown Independent Democrats held their Spring Fundraiser at Sean Sweeney’s “Fabulous Soho Loft,” on Greene St. The honoree was none other than Brewer — a bit ironic since she recently pulled Sweeney off of Community Board 2! Plus, she still hasn’t even explained why.

Anyway, the other names atop the invite included “dueling” District Leaders — and eager Assembly hopefuls — Jenifer Rajkumar and Paul Newell, “buddy” co-District Leaders Terri Cude and Dennis Gault and D.I.D. President Jeanne Wilcke. But Sweeney actually was “standing in” for Wilcke, who is on an environmental expedition on Easter Island. (We hear a new theory is actually that an all-out political war, similar to the Village’s bitter feuds, may have totally wiped out human civilization there. Just kidding. ...)

The impressive turnout at D.I.D. also included U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer, Congressmember Jerrold Nadler, Senator Brad Hoylman, Glick and her September primary opponent, District Leader Arthur Schwartz. We did not attend, but everyone is talking about — and spinning — Schumer’s speech and how he praised Glick right in front of Schwartz, after which the crowd cheered and Schwartz skedaddled. Schumer previously notably had kind words for Schwartz at one of the district leader’s birthday parties. “I started to leave before he spoke, so I could go to my mom’s 94th birthday party at my house!”

Schwartz told us. “I had told lots of people that I was leaving. Just then, Chuck started speaking and I was standing next to him, so I had to wait.

PHOTO BY TEQUILA MINSKY

Senator Chuck Schumer revved up the D.I.D. crowd.

He went on for 15 minutes. At the end, he asked Jerry Nadler if he had an opponent and Jerry said, yes, and Chuck said, ‘I support Jerry.’ Then he said something about Deborah doing a wonderful job. He was through, so I had started scooting for the door. My mom had arrived at my house 15 minutes before with lots of family. Chuck said, ‘Did I chase you away? ’ I replied, ‘No its my mom’s 94th birthday,’ and ran for the door.”

For his part, Sweeney said of Schwartz, “I believe him. … His son was there. I don’t think he’d lie in front of his son.” Of course, some, including Sweeney, had their feathers ruffled when Glick supported John Scott and Jean Grillo against the club’s endorsed candidates, Cude and Gault, in last year’s district leader primary.

CORRECTION: Our article a few weeks ago on The Villager’s NYPA newspaper contest awards failed to mention that our third place-winning Obituaries entry in also included an obit by Albert Amateau on Community Board 3 member Morris Faitelewicz, in addition to three others, on Adam Purple, Judith Molina and Joyce DeChristino.

TheVillager.com

May 5, 2016

13

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR ‘Spiritual’ photography To The Editor: Re “Lost the gig, but Nyro’s voice still rings true” (Notebook, by Kate Walter, April 28): Thank you, Kate, for recognizing Laura and this beautiful project. I had the pleasure of photographing her for the “Mother’s Spiritual” album cover.

Irene Young

Split route is ridiculous To The Editor: Re “M.T.A. really missed the bus with split M5

EVAN FORSCH

route” (talking point, by Shirley Secunda and Terri Cude, April 14): This proposal for the new M5 bus route is preposterous! Who could have come up with such a ridiculous idea? Having lived in Soho for 40 years, I am now at the time in my life where I am no longer able to take subways (osteoarthritis of the knees) and cannot afford to take taxis.

The M5 bus is our link to Midtown, doctor appointments and cultural events. To think of having to transfer at 37th St. ... It will make scheduling a nightmare and will also impede my ability as a senior to take advantage of the wonderful events that ease the monotony of being housebound.

Marty Linz

Who thought this up?

To The Editor: Re “M.T.A. really missed the bus with split M5 route” (talking point, by Shirley Secunda and Terri Cude, April 14): I live on King St. and Sixth Ave., and have used the No. 5 bus as my primary lifeline for close to 50 years. As Community Board 2 has outlined, I too feel the M5 has to go back to its original route. I became severely limited at just the time the changes to the route were made. Since then, I often feel “you can’t get there from here” whenever I’m trying to return home from Uptown.

If you can’t just easily walk the half-mile from Broadway and Houston St., as I once could, you’re stranded, and have to wait forever for the Houston St. crosstown bus. To think of having to change buses at 37th St., going in both directions, is such an absurd idea that it practically leaves me speechless.

Who uses the buses after all? It’s the elderly, disabled and small children and their caretakers.

The M.T.A. should be thinking of ways to make the city more livable for people, not less. Who thought this up? C.B. 2 has really thought this through and has the perfect answer. Where are our councilmembers in this important quality-oflife fight?

Merle Kaufman E-mail letters, not longer than 250 words in length, to news@thevillager.com or fax to 212-229-2790 or mail to The Villager, Letters to the Editor, 1 Metrotech North, 10th floor, Brooklyn, NY, NY 11201. Please include phone number for confirmation purposes. The Villager reserves the right to edit letters for space, grammar, clarity and libel. Anonymous letters will not be published.

14

May 5, 2016

TheVillager.com

We still owe Sisters of Charity and St. Vincent’s

TALKING POINT

BY ARTHUR SCHWARTZ AND MARTIN TESSLER

W

alk into the northerly or southerly entrance to the triangular park on Seventh Ave. across from the new Rudin residential incarnation of St. Vincent’s Hospital and you will be greeted by a black in-ground marker resembling a New York City manhole cover. They bear an inscription commemorating the Sisters of Charity’s founding in 1817 and, in turn, their founding of St. Vincent’s Hospital in 1849, at the site, “to care for the poor and disadvantaged” at the outbreak of the cholera epidemic.

A first-time visitor would need to gaze down, bend over and strain to read the inscription to understand the historical link of the park to the Sisters of Charity and the hospital’s service to the Village and to the larger city community.

Other commemorative markers denote how St. Vincent’s was instrumental in caring for survivors of various calamities, such as the sinking of the Titanic, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire and the 9/11 World Trade Center attack, among other disasters.

The single most far-ranging health epidemic that signaled St. Vincent’s fearless

PHOTO BY TEQUILA MINSKY

A s this photo, taken t wo weeks ago, shows, construction is not too far along on the AIDS memorial at the former St. Vincent’s Triangle.

The new park on the triangle, meanwhile, was completed eight months ago.

vanguard outreach to the suffering masses was the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s and beyond, when the federal and state governments were barely addressing the issue with funding or clinical service. While the AIDS crisis was the most recent epidemic in our collective memory, it was only one of a series of St. Vincent’s responses to the health needs of our neighbors over its 161year existence, before bankruptcy ended the historic hospital’s humanitarian mission.

The park’s landscaping and design layout is highly commendable, as it is a welcoming oasis amid Community Board 2’s gross deficiency of per-capita open space, in which our district ranks at or near the bottom of Manhattan community boards.

What is severely lacking, however, is citywide recognition of the more than a century of service and dedication that St. Vincent’s and its founding Sisters of Charity had devoted to the health and

welfare of Villagers and New York City.

The hospital was there for all comers, with no questions asked about “What insurance do you have?” but rather, “What is ailing you?”

Never was there any self-interest issue that the sisters of Charity posed that superseded that of the public interest or the Sisters’ health mission to all in need. And this was most apparent during the AIDS crisis when St. Vincent’s and the sisters stood alone in the battle.

There is no question that the dedication of the park warrants recognition of the naming of the Sisters of Charity and St. Vincent’s Hospital as the debt we owe for more than a century and half of devotion to the needs of the “poor and disadvantaged” and all others who were treated at this institution that served all of us. This brings to mind the memorable inaugural address by President John F. Kennedy in January 1961: “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.”

We must recognize that these manhole resemblances fail to convey our debt to this legacy of brave and selfless service on behalf of the Village and all New York City. The park should thus be named St. Vincent’s Hospital / Sisters of Charity AIDS Memorial Park.

Schwartz is the Village’s male Democratic district leader and a candidate for Assembly in the 66th District; Tessler is co-chairperson, Community Action Alliance on N.Y.U. 2031

Special election was a slugfest and we all lost

TALKING POINT

BY DENNIS LEV Y

T

he special election in the 65th Assembly District, covering Lower Manhattan and the Lower East Side, was a political slugfest, featuring some of the most powerful politicians in New York State.

I was the poor Green Party candidate with a front-row seat who was unable to be heard through the noise as New York City politics played out on the Lower East Side. Indeed, solutions to real problems in the 65th A.D. were ignored in favor of the political fight.

Convicted Assemblymember Sheldon Silver had a big influence in the election’s outcome, as well as Joe Crowley, the Queens Democratic Party boss who was accused of meddling in the Lower Manhattan race. State Senator Daniel Squadron, among others, supported YuhTheVillager.com

Line Niou and City Councilmember Rosie Mendez was an Alice Cancel supporter.

Silver represented the community in the state Assembly for nearly 40 years and served as speaker of that body for 21 of those years. The truth is his conviction and removal from office has not erased his huge impact in the neighborhood. The community will not soon forget that the speaker directed millions of dollars in funding to nonprofit organizations that provide social services to the community, including after-school programs and meals for seniors.

Furthermore, Silver had helped elect several district leaders who worked with the Manhattan Democratic Party. They, in turn, guide the local political clubs. Shelly is a longtime member of the Truman Club, which was instrumental in the selection of Cancel, the Democrat candidate who ultimately won Silver’s former seat. The people of District 65 ultimately lost because all the political fighting drowned out the real policy differences.

Even with Silver’s coronation of Cancel, she basically only split the special election vote with Niou, who ran on the Working Families Party line. Soho activist Sean Sweeney of the Downtown Independent

Democrats political club said Niou was a “Queens machine candidate backed by the Working Families Party.”

The interference from outside of the district and the political involvement of elected officials made the special election a real political slugfest and everybody was mixing it up.

At the end of the day, the voters on the Lower East Side were the real losers. I participated in four candidate forums. My positions, such as closing down the Indian Point nuclear power plant, moving us away from fossil fuels to clean natural energy sources, like air, sun, etc. and ecologically green retrofitting apartment buildings for poor and working-class people, didn’t break through the political noise and money — but some people heard me.

The Green Party platform resonated with poor and working-class black, Latino, white and Asian people who live in Battery Park City, New York City Housing Authority developments and tenements in Chinatown. Unfortunately, money played too big a role in this race for me to overcome. Cancel raised $5,000 for her campaign while Niou raised an incredible $140,000. I campaigned with just $200.

At the end of the day, it was about the candidate with the most political backing and money. The Green Party has no political club on the Lower East Side. It should be noted, political clubs are the base where parties recruit volunteers and build “get out the vote” networks. I have already moved to resolve this deficiency by starting the Lower East Side Green Party Club. I promise the next election will be about the candidate who will best serve the community.

Unfortunately, the mainstream New York media is still crowing about Democrat Alice Cancel defeating three other candidates to win Silver’s old seat. It should not be surprising when the media has given a reality-show entertainer, Donald Trump, a chance to be president. Alternative party candidates, like the Green’s presidential candidate, Jill Stein, are not mentioned.

Such is politics in the U.S. and the 65th A.D. post-Sheldon Silver.

I could go on ranting about the special election and how my long résumé and the Green Party’s platform best qualified me to be the assemblyperson. But, I won’t waste your or my time. More important, I’m thinking about running again in the September primary because, as they say, a winner never quits, and a quitter never wins.

May 5, 2016

15

Union Sq. protest over presidential race...in Peru

GLOBAL (EAST) VILLAGE

BY BILL WEINBERG

I

’ve heard Quechua spoken in the highlands of Peru, but the first time I heard it in my hometown New York was April 5, when some 200 metro-area Peruvians gathered in Union Square. The rally was held in conjunction with a mass mobilization in Peru that day. You know that sinking feeling you’ve experienced witnessing the rise of an ugly oligarchdemagogue over the past year, and facing up to the grim prospect of the provocateur’s potential presidency? Peru has been going through the same thing.

The most prominent banner at Union Square read “NUEVA YORK LE DICE NO A KEIKO” — “New York says no to Keiko.” That’s Peru’s Donald. One sign called Keiko a suway — “thief” in the indigenous language Quechua.

But Keiko Fujimori isn’t the son of a real estate developer. She’s the daughter of an ex-dictator. March organizer Eduardo González-Cueva, an adjunct professor at

PHOTO BY MITCHELL TEPLITSKY

Saying “No to Keiko” in Union Square last month.

The New School specializing in human rights, said: “We demonstrate against Keiko Fujimori because her party vindicates the record of human rights violations committed during the dictatorship led by Alberto Fujimori in the 1990s, and their members have made clear that they will release him from prison.”

As we gathered in Union Square, some 100,000 marched in Lima and other Peruvian cities to recall the April 5, 1992 “autogolpe” (“self-coup,” or suspension of civil government) by then-president Alberto Fujimori — and to repudiate the presidential ambitions of his daughter.

The mobilization came just as candidate Fujimori was implicated in the “Panama Papers.” The leaks reveal that a top financier of the Fujimori campaign set up offshore accounts through the notorious Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.

González-Cueva clocked a second reason for the protests: “Because fujimorismo is deeply enmeshed in corruption. In fact, its appearance as a political organization is just a varnish for a federation of mafias and local caudillos” — or political bosses.

Alberto Fujimori is in prison for human rights abuses as well as illicit enrichment.

His 1993 imposition of authoritarian rule

was in response to the Shining Path insurgency. So the Fujimori political agenda (fujimorismo) is a mix of law-and-order populism and an aggressively pro-corporate economic program. Sound familiar?

And González-Cueva gives a third reason: “Because fujimorismo ran in this election with the protection granted by partial electoral authorities.” Two other candidates were stricken from the race after revelations of giving out money at campaign rallies. The exact same charge failed to get Keiko removed.

Six days after the march, the first round in Peru’s race was held. Front-runner Fujimori will now face a mainstream former cabinet minister, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, in a June runoff — while leftist challenger Veronika Mendoza was bumped out of the race. Sounds pretty similar to what just happened in the New York primary, no?

González-Cueva says the group that came together for the Union Square rally “was an ad hoc, spontaneous coalition of Peruvians” who joined a call he issued through Facebook. He says it represented “several different options, from the Left to the Right.” Participants came mostly from Queens but also Paterson, N.J., Long Island and several parts of the city.

The rally closed with a march around the square, led by a big Peruvian flag in front, and then the singing of the Peruvian national anthem. We can imagine that neither Keiko nor Donald would have been pleased.

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TheVillager.com

A Salute to Union Square A special Villager supplement

Pages 17 to 20

East Side transforms: Tammany, tech hub, trees

A

flurry of development is bringing a new look to Union Square’s east side. With several major projects underway, real estate development, renovations and upgrades are breathing new life into neighborhood institutions while the district continues to rise in popularity.

Reading International is anchoring the east side of the neighborhood with the redevelopment of the historic Tammany Hall, transforming the property to offer more than 75,000 square feet, with a focus on retail and office space. Marketed

by Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, the newly rebranded 44 Union Square will bring more than 30,000 square feet of retail space at the gateway to Midtown South’s Park Ave. South corridor.

The redeveloped site will feature a glass dome designed by BKSK Architects, adding two floors to the building, as well as facade restoration, new signage on the front of the building and new entrances and windows. Design plans also call for restoring parts of the building to their original appearance at the time the structure was completed in 1929, including two windows on its E. 17th St. side that will be changed back into doors.

“Tammany Hall is one of Union Square’s most iconic structures, and this redevelopment will highlight some of its most beautiful details,” said Jennifer Falk, executive director of the Union Square Partnership. “With the high demand for office space in the district, we expect to see a lot of interest in the property.”

The historic monument to machine politics was finally landmarked by the city in November 2013, after longtime lobbying by the Union Square Community Coalition, among others. The dome addition, however, didn’t sit well with some.

“We pressured the Landmarks Preservation Commission for 29 years to landmark Tammany Hall — and now we got into this,” local preservationist Jack Taylor lamented of the dome after L.P.C. O.K.’d it in March 2015.

In a city where office space is increasingly difficult to find, Union Square will soon offer a new space for technology start-ups and creative companies to call home. Last November, the New York City Economic Development Corporation announced its plans to transform the P.C. Richard site at 124 E. 14th St., calling for proposals to redevelop the cityowned site into a new tech hub. E.D.C.’s request for proposals encouraged prospective developers to build office space TheVillager.com

This winter, Mayor de Blasio, flanked by Jenn Falk, the Union Square Par tnership’s executive, to his left, and Borough President Gale Brewer, to his right, unveiled one of the cit y’s first super fast NYCLink Wi-Fi kiosks, on Third Ave. in the Union Square area. redesign of the facility. Construction is already underway on the facility.

With a high concentration of technology companies and innovators based in the district, Union Square was a natural choice for the city’s first beta location for LinkNYC, an initiative to transform the city’s payphone infrastructure into WiFi kiosks. This winter, four new Wi-Fi kiosks were installed along Third Ave. between 15th and 19th Sts. Each Link provides a variety of services, including a touch-screen panel to access city services and directions, make free domestic calls Renovations at the former Tammany Hall building, at 4 4 Union Square and charge mobile devices with USB East, include adding t wo floors and a dome. The building will include ports. The Wi-Fi network uses a special fiber-optic network that delivers speeds 30,000 square feet of retail space. up to 100 times faster than your average for technology and creative businesses, for businesses, which are hard-pressed to public Wi-Fi. With the square’s many changes and including start-ups that outgrow incuba- find adequate space in this city.” tors and co-working spaces.

Changes are also coming to Mount Si- new developments on the way, the Union “Union Square’s central location, ac- nai Beth Israel. The Phillips Ambulatory Square Partnership BID is playing its cessibility, and wealth of tech and creative Care Center, at 10 Union Square East, own role in the east side’s makeover by companies — big and small — makes it is undergoing construction, updating its continuing its ongoing beautification efan ideal choice for the new development,” facade, and expanding and remodeling forts.

To keep up with demand placed on said Kriss Casanova, director of eco- the lobby. The new lobby will feature a nomic development for the Union Square contemporary glass stairway to the sec- the district’s busy streetscape, the PartPartnership. “This is another terrific ex- ond floor. These renovations mark the EAST SIDE continued on p. 18 ample of E.D.C. finding creative solutions first step in an overall renovation and May 5, 2016

17

A Salute to Union Square

A cornucopia of established and new restaurants It’s been a busy year for Union Square’s restaurant scene, and the district continues to draw new concepts and eateries from the city’s best restaurateurs. With hallmark anniversaries for several neighborhood institutions and a variety of newcomers to the district, Union Square is sure to remain at the center of New York City’s culinary news in the coming months.

“The evolution of Union Square’s dining culture reflects the growth of the district itself,” said Jennifer Falk, executive director of the Union Square Partnership. “It began with some of our longtime neighborhood partners — Union Square Cafe, Blue Water Grill and the Greenmarket — that put down roots in Union Square and cultivated its reputation as a dining destination.”

The Union Square Partnership business improvement district and the Greenmarket are both celebrating their 40th anniversaries this year, and the synergy between the two institutions has had an undeniable impact on the district.

Union Square was a very different place in 1976: New York City was experiencing a period of decline, and many public spaces — including Union Square Park — were no longer considered safe.

Rooted in the commitment to reclaim the square as a welcoming space for all, the Partnership and the Greenmarket spearheaded efforts to improve, beautify and champion the neighborhood.

The Greenmarket’s high quality of fresh produce from local farmers has brought not only foodies and home cooks to shop in the square, but also a roster of the city’s top chefs. One of our district’s most renowned restaurateurs, in fact, is one of the Greenmarket’s biggest patrons. When Danny Meyer sought a new space for his Union Square Cafe, he prioritized location near the Greenmarket in his search. The restaurant will be taking over 235 Park Ave. South at E. 19th St., and is slated to open later this year. The new space is just two blocks

PHOTO BY LIZ LIGON

Union Square Cafe will debut its new space at 235 Park Ave. South later this year.

The Pavilion Market Cafe returned to Union Square for its third season on April 15.

away from the Greenmarket — allowing Union Square Cafe to continue to source fresh, local produce every week.

East Side transforms EAST SIDE continued from p. 17

nership’s Clean Team works seven days a week to maintain and beautify Union Square. Made possible by neighborhood partners — including Con Edison, The New School, New York University, Mount Sinai Beth Israel and Union Square Hospitality Group and many others — the Partnership’s work includes the beautification of Union Square Park, providing landscaping, sanitation services and ensuring that the park remains a clean, safe and fun environment.

In addition to its extensive landscaping work in the park, the Partnership is over-

18

May 5, 2016

hauling the median malls along Union Square East and Park Ave. South. With help from its partners at ORDA Management and the city’s Parks Department, the Partnership’s work will bring 80 new trees and a brand-new landscaping design to the district’s east side.

“The Union Square Partnership is proud to invest in the maintenance and beautification of Union Square Park, to keep up with our district’s growing popularity,” said Falk. “As our dynamic district continues to grow and attract new businesses, residents and visitors, we look forward to these developments becoming part of the fabric of our vibrant community.”

“It was essential to us that we stay in the neighborhood and maintain our relationship with the Greenmarket,” said Sam Lipp, managing partner of Union Square Cafe. “We’re looking forward to starting the next chapter of Union Square Cafe in the company of our team, our partners and the community that has supported us from the very beginning.”

Around the corner — in the historic 31 Union Square West building — Blue Water Grill has renewed its 19-year lease. The top-ranked restaurant, an icon of the Union Square landscape and culinary scene, is also preparing for a remodel this year.

Union Square recently welcomed the return of The Pavilion Market Cafe for its third season. Located at the north end of Union Square Park, the restaurant serves brunch, lunch and dinner through Oct. 15. Chef Mario Urgiles has revamped the menu, adding new seasonal dishes, such as green papaya salad and artichoke-spinach ravioli,

served with a full bar of cocktails, wine and craft beers. Although community groups and local politicians had fought against the city to block the pavilion from being used for the seasonal eatery — claiming it was an illegal use of public park space — the city prevailed.

Several more highly anticipated restaurants will soon call Union Square home.

Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s newest eatery, ABCV, is slated to open at 38 E. 19th St. The menu, executed by chef de cuisine Neal Harden, will feature exclusively vegetarian fare. The popular udon noodle eatery Tsurutontan is taking over Union Square Cafe’s former space at 21 E. 16th St. With 12 restaurants in Japan, the Union Square restaurant will be Tsurutontan’s first location in the United States.

Acclaimed Italian eatery Pulia is also slated to take over a 4,800-square-foot space at 113-115 E. 18th St. this year.

A new market and restaurant concept, Union Fare, will take over a space on E. 17th St. Union Fare will offer a market with prepared foods, in addition to a full restaurant. The popular Washington, D.C., fast-casual Mediterranean eatery Cava Grill will open its first New York City location at 145 Fourth Ave., and Peet’s Coffee is arriving at 853 Broadway. Parisian master baker Eric Kayser has also signed a 3,000-square-foot space at 841 Broadway for his namesake boulangerie, Maison Kayser.

“There is a lot going on in Union Square this year, highlighting the diversity of our neighborhood’s dining culture,” said Falk. “We’re looking forward to seeing it continue to evolve and attract newcomers to enjoy a taste of all that Union Square has to offer.”

TheVillager.com

A Salute to Union Square

Tech, creative companies click with booming hub

N

ew York’s tech scene keeps heating up — and nowhere is it more evident than in Union Square.

In the last few years tech giants like Buzzfeed, Ebay, Dropbox, Spotify and many others have invested in establishing a presence here. According to the Compass Global Startup Ecosystem Ranking 2015, New York City currently holds the number two spot globally for the best cities for start-ups, just behind Silicon Valley. Another 2015 study, from Accenture, Nesta and Future Cities Catapult, named New York the top city in the world for technology, information and entrepreneurship.

for 194,000 square feet in 2014, moved into its new offices this past February.

Meanwhile, Casper, the Internet-based mattress maker, signed a 32,000-squarefoot lease across the street at 230 Park Ave. South.

Established tenants have also expanded their footprint in Union Square. Real estate tech company Compass increased its presence at 90 Fifth Ave., where it now occupies 87,806 square feet. WeWork leased two co-working locations at 88 University Place and 33 Irving Place, not far from its headquarters at 115 W. 18th St. Mobile advertising firm Verve Wireless Inc. took 21,500 square feet at

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Throughout this growth period, Union Square has remained a highly coveted location for technology, advertising, media and information a.k.a. TAMI companies.

“Union Square has continued to grow as the epicenter of New York City’s tech and creative scene,” said Jennifer Falk, executive director of the Union Square Partnership. “As the city’s reputation as a hub for tech and creative companies continues to rise, Union Square’s profile is rising along with it.”

It is clear that innovation has become a priority for New York City. The de Blasio administration’s advocacy for programs such as the Tech Talent Pipeline and the Economic Development Corporation’s investment in tech hubs demonstrate that — when it comes to supporting innovation industries — New York City means business.

For proof that Union Square is still the destination for the TAMI industries, look no further than this year’s newcomers. Facebook, which already occupies 270,000 square feet at 770 Broadway, announced that it had leased 200,000 square feet at 225 Park Ave. South. The same property now houses Buzzfeed as well; the media giant, which inked a historic deal TheVillager.com

79 Fifth Ave., and Pandora expanded its offices at 125 Park Ave. South to 104,000 square feet.

With Union Square’s abundance of shops, restaurants and fitness studios, it is not surprising that it has become such a popular area to work. The impressive roster of digital start-ups and media companies that now call the neighborhood home has fostered a culture of like-minded professionals who work in the area. Coupled with the district’s easy accessibility to transportation, TAMI tenants are naturally drawn to Union Square.

“The confluence of creative and innovation industries in Union Square — both veteran tenants and newcomers — is definitely a factor in the district’s increasingly competitive market,” said William Abramson, director of brokerage at Buchbinder & Warren Realty Group. “As these companies continue to grow and make their homes in Union Square, we’re excited to see them become a part of our vibrant community.”

It’s clear that the world’s innovation capital is New York City. And with new tenants on the way, it’s clear that New York City’s innovation capital is Union Square.

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19

A Salute to Union Square

Public programs are bigger and better than ever

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s the Union Square Partnership business improvement district prepares to celebrate its 40th anniversary, its public programs are bigger and better than ever before.

While the district has a long history as a natural public forum, never has it been more popular than it is today. Union Square is one of New York City’s most highly trafficked neighborhoods, with nearly 383,000 daily visitors on a busy Greenmarket Friday and more than 1 million shoppers visiting UrbanSpace’s holiday market each December. The area’s rapidly expanding retail landscape, paired with its popularity as a home for tech, advertising, media and information companies, has further driven the increase in daily travelers.

“Union Square has always been a truly mixed-use neighborhood: People come here to work, play, eat, shop, work out, or just enjoy spending time in the park,” said Jennifer Falk, executive director of the Union Square Partnership. “With the volume of people coming to the area for all different purposes, we want to ensure that our public programming is geared toward variety, so we can offer something for everyone and enhance their experience in the district.”

To highlight the abundance of athleisure retailers, studios and gyms in the district, the Partnership presented its second annual Union Square Sweat Fest this winter.

Following last year’s successful program, the weeklong health and fitness festival was expanded for 2016, adding more classes and giveaways for participants to enjoy.

On Feb. 20, Sweat Fest opened with three classes led by well-known celebrity trainers. During the program, more than 1,000 participants enjoyed complimentary classes and giveaways provided by more than 50 local businesses, including Bandier, The Fhitting Room, Paragon Sports, Swerve and more. Some of the neighborhood’s newest arrivals, including Lululemon, Athleta and ivviva, participated in the event series, as well.

The fun continues this summer with the return of Summer in the Square, the Union Square Partnership’s summer-long event series. On Thursdays from June 16 to August 11, Union Square Park will be the site for a variety of free fitness classes, music, special performances, movie screenings and kids’ activities.

Fitness classes will take place on the plaza in the early morning and in the evening, while children’s performances and activities will be programmed throughout the day. Summer in the Square attendees can enjoy music and dance performances in the afternoon and evening during their lunch break or on their way home from work. After debuting movie screenings in Union Square Park last summer, the Partnership is presenting two feature films at Summer in the Square this year.

Moviegoers will gather on the north plaza at dusk for beloved musical “Grease”

20

May 5, 2016

PHOTOS COURTESY UNION SQUARE PARTNERSHIP

More than 1,200 attendees gathered to eat, drink and celebrate the 20th anniversar y of Har vest in the Square this past fall. and cult classic “The Goonies.”

“More than 10,000 people participated in Summer in the Square activities last year, and we knew we had to keep growing the series,” said Scott Hobbs, executive director of the Union Square Partnership. “Working with our community partners to make this free programming possible is a great opportunity to showcase the strength and diversity of our local business community.”

When the weather cools off, foodies will look forward to the 21st Annual Harvest in the Square, scheduled for Thurs., Sept. 22. Last year’s festival featured more than 50 local restaurants and more than 15 wineries and breweries, drawing 1,200 attendees to celebrate the neighborhood’s vibrant restaurant culture. Harvest serves as a vital fundraiser for the Union Square Partnership’s extensive community programming and its work to beautify and maintain Union Square Park.

For families spending time in the city, Union Square is the go-to location for kid-friendly activities. The Fall for All festival will come back to the square this autumn, offering interactive games, refreshments and family fun. At the start of the holiday season, Picture Perfect in Union Square will offer professional portraits and holiday entertainment, kicking off the opening of the UrbanSpace holiday market in Union Square.

“Our public programs truly showcase the strength and camaraderie of our business community,” said Falk. “They have grown and diversified in tandem with our district, and we’re looking forward to Sweat y Bett y hosting Elements Fitness Barre during the Second An- making them bigger and better than ever nual Union Square Sweat Fest this past Februar y. this year.”

TheVillager.com

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21

PHOTOS COURTESY OF BAMRA

From left, Sixth Precinct Auxiliar y Police Officers George McFall and Valerie Paulino; Sixth Precinct Communit y Council President Maureen Remacle; Sixth Precinct Communit y Affairs Officer Mar tin Baranski; event coordinator Terri Cude; BAMR A Resident Chairperson Raymond Cline; Washington Square Village Tenants A ssociation Co-Executive Director Judith Walsh; and BAMR A Recording Secretar y Nora Beyrent at the Second Annual Communit y Document Shred, sponsored by BAMR A , along with 505 LaGuardia Place and W.S.V.T. A .

Bring out your shred! Register your laptops!

On April 16, right after traditional Tax Day, the Bleecker Area Merchants’ and Residents’ Association, with help from 505 LaGuardia Place and the Washington Square Village Tenants Association, held its second annual Community Document Shred event. In addition, members of the Sixth Precinct were on hand to provide registration to protect personal items, such as laptops, tablets and cell phones.

BAMRA arranged to have a mobile shredding truck come to Bleecker St. near the Morton Williams supermarket, and more than 100 people watched on the truck’s monitor as their unwanted papers were turned into confetti to thwart identity thieves.

In addition, many signed up to have the serial numbers of their personal electronics added to the New York Police Department database, so the items could be returned if stolen and recovered.

Local resident Judith Walsh was also there, collecting signatures on a petition to new New York University President Andrew Hamilton, seeking to have him “Just Press Pause” on the N.Y.U. 2031

22

May 5, 2016

expansion plan. The petition urged him to take more time to study all aspects of the plan and receive input from local residents opposing the destruction of their neighborhood, rather than just hearing from N.Y.U. affiliates who support the expansion.

Terri Cude, who coordinated the event, said: “This year’s Community Shred was even better than last year’s! We had more people come by with bags, suitcases and even carts full of documents to get them appropriately destroyed. The event ran on time and very smoothly, and it became a terrific get-together for local residents on a lovely spring day.”

“The most often-asked question we got was ‘Will you do this again soon?’ ” said BAMRA Resident Chairperson Ray Cline. “We’re hoping to do this again next year, as tax time seems to be a great opportunity to get rid of old papers.

Now we’re working on our May 14 event in Mercer Playground from noon to 2 p.m., when BAMRA members, working with Bike New York’s trainers, will teach kids how to ride their two-wheelers without training wheels.”

A truck-mounted monitor allowed people to see their unwanted documents getting shredded into tiny pieces.

TheVillager.com

Carol from the clouds, where fear can’t reach Lipnik is a sublime vocalist and a profound presence

BY TRAV S.D.

O

PHOTO BY ALBIE MITCHELL

Swaddled, festooned and seemingly spacey, Carol Lipnik is a disciplined artist in full command of her considerable abilities — and her enraptured audience.

TheVillager.com

ne of the most exciting performance spaces in New York right now has got to be the back room at Pangea. Of late they have been playing host to a series of artists-in-residence who are character-based female singers — women who are not just amazing vocalists, but who bring larger-thanlife personalities to the table as well.

Recent months have seen successful Pangea runs from Weimar-era embodiment Mad Jenny (Jenny Lee Mitchell), Tammy Faye Starlite’s turn as Marianne Faithful, and MAC-award winning cabaret empress Molly Pope. And now I must add to my list of favorites Carol Lipnik, whose residency at Pangea runs through June 26.

Every time you meet something you’ve never encountered before, it expands your world just a little bit. What I particularly love, or find intriguing, about Lipnik is how she represents an unusual combination of elements one might expect to be contradictory: cabaret performance, but with a spiritual orientation. Cabaret culture in general tends to be very “New York,” which means that it can be edgy, hard, competitive, and cruel in its humor.

None of those words apply to Lipnik, whose Earth Mother energy savors more of Woodstock than 52nd Street. While

she is quite a bit different stylistically, the only person I can think of who possessed a similar mixture of elements was the late Laura Nyro.

Swaddled in turquoise wrappings and festooned with ankhs, Lipnik comes off as a spacey specimen, but the solid and confident chops undergirding her performance bespeaks serious discipline, considerable training and much hard work. Her current set consists primarily of songs rich in imagery inspired by the elements of nature: sand, shells, trees, stars, flowers, and woodland creatures.

The metaphorical themes of the songs often serve as touchstones for playful sonic experiments. Thus “The Werewolf Song” calls for hair-raising cries and howls. A song called “The Oyster and the Sand” features the simulated “whoosh” of ocean waves. In “Mermaid Blues,” she emits a vocal effect not unlike a glass harmonica. It is as though she were Prospero, using bardic magic to direct the forces of nature. Usually I roll my eyes at such crunchy shenanigans, but in Lipnik’s hands, it’s too sublime and profound to be a drag.

Maybe it’s because she’s savvy enough to have a sense of humor about herself and her act. Her patter is sparse, but what there is of it is kind of wry and deadpan in the manner of Steven Wright, tinged with just an overlay of self-parody. “This LIPNIK continued on p. 24 May 5, 2016

23

PHOTO BY ALBIE MITCHELL

Carol Lipnik and Matt Kanelos, seen here in performance at Joe’s Pub.

LIPNIK continued from p. 23

PHOTO BY BOBBY MILLER

Carol Lipnik is an Earth Mother with expansive vocal and emotional range.

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is an anthem for crows,” she announces, kicking off a song that does indeed prove to be just that. “Feral creatures is my subject,” she says in the lead-up to a beautiful tune entitled “Wild Geese.” “My piano used to be a tree,” she reminds us.

And she describes the song “Freak House Blues” as “something that a Victorian Pierrot puppet might say while trying to catch the moon.”

But what truly sells it is the authority of her gift. You get the sense that both her message and her voice are coming from a very deep, honest and pure place, both anchored and flash. The breadth of her musical vocabulary allows her to throw a Hank Williams style yodeling whoop into one song; in another, she reaches down for the lowest note she can hit on the word “down.” On “My Piano” her voice climbs up into the stratosphere on heavenly steps. The moment by itself is enough to make the song memorable — then, just to show that it wasn’t a fluke (to borrow a whale word) she up and does it again! Coming from Lipnik, these feats strike one not so much as acts of bravery than as the natural behavior of someone who lives someplace above the clouds where fear can’t reach.

Despite the undeniably esoteric aspects of her performance, much of her

act is old-fashioned show biz. Her encore is straight up vaudeville: For her big finish she sings a version of the standard “Moon River,” performing a solo on the kazobo, an instrument in the kazoo family. And, much like the old school vaudeville divas of yore, there is an entire team supporting her, a small bullpen of songwriters who craft all the original material in the act including herself, Tom Ward, Michael Hurley, Laura Gilpin, and her accompanist Matt Kanelos, who also creates sound effects and sings harmonies.

On the night I attended, I observed a small and vocal cult of die-hard Lipnik fans, who appeared to know both her songs and patter by heart. When the show was over, the audience ULULATED its approval, and one gentleman in the back of the house collapsed, apparently from an overdose of positive energy. And then she gave herself over to one last, no less spiritual ritual: the encore.

Sunday evenings, through June 26, at 7pm (doors open 6pm for dinner & cocktails). At Pangea (178 Second Ave., btw.

11th & 12th Sts.). Tickets: $15 in advance via 212-995-0900 or pangeanyc. com, or $20 at the door. $15 food/beverage minimum. Michael Musto is the guest on May 8; Sven Ratzke, on May 22. For artist info, visit mermaidalley. com and mattkanelos.com.

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SuZen sees visions of light and spirit Immersive retrospective inspired by Buddhist teachings

BY TEQUILA MINSKY

F

or over 50 years, SuZen’s working and waking lives have been shaped by a devotion to fine art photography, design, travel, peace activism, and the creation of public art.

“I’ve been a seeker all my life. I’ve been always connected to Buddhist images, loving light,” says the artist who legally changed her name to SuZen in 1981. A decade before that, she moved into Westbeth, a pioneer, one year after the former Bell Laboratory Complex at 55 Bethune St. opened its doors as an affordable housing complex where artists could both reside and create.

“Then, it was a very seedy part of town,” SuZen recalls of the Greenwich Village waterfront location, which has served as the home base from which she curated, organized and created work that has appeared in, among other public places, the lobby of One World Trade Center and the TWA terminal at JFK. Inspired by the Buddha’s teachings, SuZen’s 50-year retrospective, “Visions of Light & Spirit,” marks her third solo show at Westbeth. In addition to the entire gallery space being filled with the progression of her work from 1966 to the present, this exhibition premieres “Transmigration,” a one-room work in which the viewer, surrounded by sounds of nature, walks through diaphanous layers of fabric, immersed among images of underwater life cast from a continuous loop from two projectors in sync.

A single stingray swims up, alone, into a bird form.

“I’ve collected video footage throughout the years,” the artist notes of the sources of her imagery for the multi-media installation, whose es-

PHOTO BY SHELLEY SECCOMBE

SuZen, at the May 1 opening of her retrospective exhibition (on view at Westbeth Gallery through May 21).

sence is “all about the projection of light. Because you’re walking through the fabric, you’re seeing multiple images and it’s very holographic; very three dimensional,” she says, further noting how “Transmigration” is a logical progression in her art and perspective.

“Ver early, I was taken by multiple realities that exist,” recalls SuZen, whose early-era works explored these concepts on an intuitive level before her attraction to Buddhism began to overtly influence the direction of her work as a fine art photographer.

SUZEN continued on p. 26

Request for Proposals for the Operation and Maintenance of a Ferry Service at Gangway Six at The Battery, Manhattan The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation (“Parks”) is issuing, as of the date of this notice, a significant Request for Proposals (RFP) for the operation and maintenance of a ferry service at Gangway Six at The Battery, Manhattan. rd All proposals submitted in response to this RFP must be submitted no later than Friday, June 3 , 2016 at 5:00pm.

There will be a recommended proposer meeting and site tour on Wednesday, May 18th, 2016 at 10:00am. We will be meeting at the proposed concession site (Block # 3 & Lot # 1), which is located at Gangway Six at The Battery, Manhattan. If you are considering responding to this RFP, please make every effort to attend this recommended meeting and site tour. nd Hard copies of the RFP can be obtained, at no cost, commencing on Monday, May 2 , 2016 through Friday, June 3rd, 2016, between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., excluding weekends and holidays, at the Revenue Division of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, which is located at 830 Fifth Avenue, Room 407, New York, NY 10065.

The RFP is also available for download, commencing on Monday, May 2 , 2016 through Friday, June 3 , 2016, on Parksʼ website. To download the RFP, visit: http://www.nyc.gov/parks/businessopportunities and click on the “Concessions Opportunities at Parks” link. Once you have logged in, click on the “download” link that appears adjacent to the RFPʼs description. nd

rd

For more information or to request to receive a copy of the RFP by mail, prospective proposers may contact Revenue Division Project Manager, Joe Conforti, at (212) 360-1341 or at joe.conforti@parks.nyc.gov.

TELECOMMUNICATION DEVICE FOR THE DEAF (TDD) 212-504-4115

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SUZEN continued from p. 25

Jerry Uselmann, the master of photographic layered realities, the forerunner of photomontage, is a photographer she was acquainted with as a student who greatly influenced her. Sandwiching negatives together and printing multiple images onto one photograph is a technique she used in her early work. “I was very taken by his Jungian, dreamlike images.”

Reflections, and reflections through glass, are a repeated theme in SuZen’s work. For example, in the black and white “Reflections of Venice,” SuZen loved the reflections of the original photo. “I printed four of them and mounted them together to create reflections of reflections with a dramatic perspective of the buildings,” she explains.

Throughout the years, traveling to over 40 countries offered the artist an immense cache of images to draw upon for her current retrospective. The exhibition starts with photos from her first post-student trip to Europe in 1966 and includes a 1968 4x5 view camera shot of building a sand castle at the ocean — “California Dreaming.” These represent very different photographic experiences than today’s digital world.

In the West gallery room, the intrepid artist shows a vibrant, trippy series of images from the interior of caves in Yangshou, China.

“I love the darkroom,” SuZen says, explaining that early in her photographic life she favored printing in large scale. “I would combine images, butting them together,” essentially, making one-of-a-kind images.

She reminisces about the 5-foot by 6-foot piece that Standard Oil bought.

Selecting work from six of her series amidst the vast volume of her work, SuZen had to make tough choices as to what she would show.

In the cozy far end of Westbeth Gallery’s main space, SuZen is showing images from her “Blindseries” — as in Venetian blinds with light filtering through. In the adjoining gallery, she has three lifesize self-portraits printed on canvas with shadows cast from the blinds.

“Flowing Light,” a part of this series, became a stories-high mural in 1984 on a building on W. 42nd St., across from the Port Authority. “It’s amazing. If you visit my mural today, it looks just as good as it did in 1984,” she says.

Additionally, in a glass case, SuZen is showing the diminutive small screens of “Blindfolds” — 4.5 inches tall. In her “LIGHTvision” series, images from the “Sacred Journey” and “Transmigration” installations are shown throughout the gallery — some, color prints. Others, printed on aluminum, reveal a subtle luminosity.

In one particularly tranquil room, images hang from her “Selectively Toned” series and her “FOGseries,” bathed in the most peaceful pastels. In the West Gallery room, her amusing “Lost Glove” series is an installation in which the titular objects are scattered on the floor.

Curator of her own exhibition at Westbeth Gallery, the artist shares the different threads of her work from her traditional black and white days to expansive explorations of the medium. Throughout it all, be it conceptual, sculptural, ethereal or whimsical, her lifelong passion for the medium is constant.

“Visions of Light & Spirit: SuZen’s 50th Anniversary Retrospective Exhibition” is on view through May 21 at Westbeth Gallery (55 Bethune St., btw.

Washington & West Sts.). Free. Hours: Wed.–Sun., 1–6pm. Artist Talk: Sun., May 8 & 15 at 3pm. Artist info at suzennyc.com and bit.ly/SuZenGPlus.

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© SUZEN

The multi-media installation “Transmigration” immerses the viewer in sounds and images from the natural world.

© SUZEN

© SUZEN

SuZen’s “Flowing Light” mural, created in 1984, can still be seen on a W. 42nd St. building across from the Port Authority.

To achieve the “Reflections of Venice” look, SuZen printed four of the original photo, then mounted them together.

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Just Do Art

PHOTO BY MICHAEL PRIEST

L to R: Laura Kamin, Anita Keal, Kate McGonigle and Alice Jankell in “Letters to Sala,” May 15 at the Museum of Jewish Heritage.

BY SCOTT STIFFLER

LETTERS TO SALA Having survived seven Nazi forcedlabor camps from 1941 to 1945, all while keeping a diary and preserving hundreds of letters and photos, Polish teenager Sala Garncarz settled in New York City with those materials, then proved equally adept at hiding the trove, and her experiences, from those she was closest to. Once discovered, daughter Ann Kirschner told the story of a mother’s instinct to protect, in the memoir “Sala’s Gift: My Mother’s Holocaust Story.” Playwright Arlene Hutton’s adaptation, “Letters to Sala,” had an OffBroadway run in 2015. Now, much of that cast reunites for two performances only — an 80-minute concert presentation that communicates the essence of how the atrocities of the Holocaust can affect, and even divide, successive generations.

Sun., May 15, at 12pm & 3:30pm, at the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust (36 Battery Place). Tickets are $20, $15 for Museum members and students (valid ID required), and $10 for children (for ages 10+). To purchase individual or group tickets, call 646-437-4202 or visit mjhnyc.org/calendar. Also visit letterstosalany.com.

PEN PARENTIS SEASON CLOSER: “HEAVY HITTERS” School’s almost out for the summer — so before the kids become a daytime TheVillager.com

presence (and a potentially distracting one at that), Pen Parentis is wrapping up their Literary Salon season with an evening of mandatory schmoozing and optional boozing sure to inspire parents to remain prolific writers during those months when the juice box set rules the home front. Emerging author (and, of course, parent) Marika Alzadon will read from her work, alongside notable authors Anjali Mitter Duva and Rick Moody. Then, the trio will engage the audience in a discussion about how they use fiction to explore big ideas (hence the “Heavy Hitters” theme). The Salon returns on September 13, with featured authors Simon Van Booy, Daphne Uviller and Thelma Adams, joined by the 2016-2017 Pen Parentis Fellowship winner.

Tues., May 10, 7pm at Andaz Wall St. (75 Wall St.). Free and open to the public; 21+ only. RSVP strongly suggested, via penparentis.org/calendar.

REVEREND BILLY AND THE STOP SHOPPING CHOIR Be ye hardline atheist, open-minded agnostic, or one of unshakable faith — it’s hard not to join the chorus of believers, when the sermons preached by the left-leaning, right righteous Reverend Billy and the songs belted out by The Stop Shopping Choir posit the notion that Mother Earth is speaking to us directly when flood waters rise, species disappear, and man turns on his own in the name of turning a profit. Two new works by this troupe of performance art activists, known for bringing down the

COURTESY CITY LIGHTS BOOKS

Reverend Billy’s new book provides a backstage glimpse at his movement’s evolution, while the companion CD delivers activism you can dance to.

house in concert and ending up in the Big House after social justice skirmishes, provide unique windows into their creative process and political evolution.

In his new book — “The Earth Wants YOU” — Reverend Billy reconstructs how he and his followers went from confronting mindless consumerism in the aisles of the (now-shuttered) Times Square Disney Store to shouting “Hands Up! Don’t Shop!” in a Walmart near Ferguson, MO. Along the way, there are Choirpowered theatrics in the lobby of a Midtown bank, in the shadow of the SPECTRA pipeline, and alongside Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter protesters.

Budding activists and armchair anthropologists will find much to chew on in this slim but potent tome — which is especially effective when exploring the backstage mechanics of wearing a papier–mâché Golden Toad head, sticking it to Monsanto, and mounting an ecothemed Passion Play on the banks of the Hudson. Although Reverend Billy cer-

tainly draws back the curtain, he doesn’t lift the veil all the way, thus creating in print the same disorienting, confrontational, call-to-action gut punch you get in stage and street theater form. No less nuanced, but much more consistently danceable, is the book’s companion CD, which features 11 new and stage-tested “punk gospel” songs from The Stop Shopping Choir — including “Fabulous Bad Weather,” “We are the 99%” and “Shopocalypse.”

Backed by The Fiery Eagles of Justice, Reverend Billy delivers a free-form sermon (with select performances from The Stop Shopping Choir) at Joe’s Pub (45 Lafayette St., at Astor Pl.) on Tues., May 10, at 9:30pm. For tickets ($12, plus $12 food or two-drink minimum), visit joespub.publictheater.org or call 212-967-7555. Reverend Billy will do a solo reading on Tues., May 17, 7pm, at Community Bookstore (143 Seventh Ave., Park Slope, Brooklyn). Free admission. Visit revbilly.com and communitybookstore.net.

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ACCOUNTING PROCEEDING FILE NO. 2013-4826/D CITATION THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK TO: Unknown Distributees, Attorney General of the State of New York, Anna Patriki, a/k/a Iouanna Patriki, Vassiliky Haramis, Catherine Rallis, Hariklia Delivasilis, Vicky Karakatsani, a/k/a Victoria Karakatsani, a/k/a Viktoria-Evangelia Karakatsani, Eleni Votsi, Panayiotis Psiroukis, a/k/a Panagiotis Psiroukis, Elizabeth Papoutsis, Hariklia Moularas, Peter Mourlaras, a/k/a Panayiotis Moularas, Arthur Halkas, Peter Halkas, a/k/a Panagiotis Halkas, Marianthy McCarthy, Verizon, Professional Claims Bureau, Inc., Rui Credit Services/Client-ConEdison, Heights 173, LLC. And to the heirs at law, next of kin and distributees of Helen Psiroukis, if living and if any of them be dead, to their heirs at law, next of kin, distributees, legatees, executors, administrators, assignees and successors in interest whose names and places of residence are unknown and cannot, after diligent inquiry, be ascertained by the petitioner herein; being the persons interested as creditors, legatees, devisees, beneficiaries, distributees, or otherwise in the estate of Helen Psiroukis, deceased, who at the time of her death was a resident of 609 West 173rd Street, New York, New York 10032.

A petition having been duly filed by the Public Administrator of the County of New York, who maintains an office at 31 Chambers Street, Room 311, New York, New York 10007.

YOU ARE HEREBY CITED TO SHOW CAUSE before the New York County Surrogate’s Court at 31 Chambers Street, New York, New York on June 24, 2016 at 9:30 A.M. in Room 503, why the following relief stated in the account of proceedings, a copy of the summary statement thereof being attached hereto, of the Public Administrator of the County of New York as administrator of the goods, chattels and credits of said deceased, should not be granted: (i) that her account be judicially settled; (ii) that a hearing be held to determine the identity of the distributees at which time proof pursuant to SCPA Section 2225 may be presented, or in the alternative, that the balance of the funds be deposited with the Commissioner of Finance of the City of New York for the benefit of the decedent’s unknown distributees; (iii) that the claim of Marianthy McCarthy for expenses paid in connection with the administration of decedent’s estate be allowed in the amount of $132.00 and rejected in the amount of $775.54; (iv) that the claims of Verizon in the amount of $226.75, Professional Claims Bureau, Inc. in the amount of $65.00, Rui Credit Services/Client-ConEdison in the amount of $396.00 and Heights 173, LLC in the amount of $2,376.30 be rejected for failure to file a claim in accordance with the provision of SCPA Section 1803(1); (v) that the Surrogate approve the reasonable amount of compensation as reported in Schedule C and C-1 of the account of proceedings to the attorney for the petitioner for legal services rendered to the petitioner herein; (vi) that the persons above mentioned and all necessary and proper persons be cited to show cause why such relief should not be granted; (vii) that an order be granted pursuant to SCPA Section 307 where required or directed; and (viii) for such other and further relief as the Court may deem just and proper.

Dated, Attested and Sealed. April 26, 2016 (Seal) Hon. Nora S. Anderson, Surrogate. Diana Sanabria, Chief Clerk.

Schram Graber & Opell P.C. Counsel to the Public Administrator, New York County 11 Park Place, Suite 615 New York, New York 10007 (212) 896-3310

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Note: This citation is served upon you as required by law. You are not required to appear. If you fail to appear it will be assumed that you do not object to the relief requested. You have the right to have an attorney-at-law appear for you and you or your attorney may request a copy of the full account from the petitioner or petitioner’s attorney.

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ACCOUNTING PROCEEDING FILE NO. 2010-2030/A CITATION THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK TO: Unknown Distributees, Attorney General of the State of New York, Irma Garcia-Sanchez, Pedro Garcia, New York City Human Resources Administration.

And to the heirs at law, next of kin and distributees of Emilia Garcia, a/k/a Emilia Garcia Sanchez, if living and if any of them be dead, to their heirs at law, next of kin, distributees, legatees, executors, administrators, assignees and successors in interest whose names and places of residence are unknown and cannot, after diligent inquiry, be ascertained by the petitioner herein; being the persons interested as creditors, legatees, devisees, beneficiaries, distributees, or otherwise in the estate of Emilia Garcia, a/k/a Emilia Garcia Sanchez, deceased, who at the time of her death was a resident of 2140 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10037.

A petition having been duly filed by the Public Administrator of the County of New York, who maintains an office at 31 Chambers Street, Room 311, New York, New York 10007.

YOU ARE HEREBY CITED TO SHOW CAUSE before the New York County Surrogate’s Court at 31 Chambers Street, New York, New York, on June 10, 2016 at 9:30 A.M. in Room 509, why the following relief stated in the account of proceedings, a copy of the summary statement thereof being attached hereto, of the Public Administrator of the County of New York as administrator of the goods, chattels and credits of said deceased, should not be granted: (i) that her account be judicially be settled; (ii) that a hearing be held to determine the identity of the distributees at which time proof pursuant to SCPA Section 2225 may be presented, or in the alternative, that the balance of the funds be deposited with the Commissioner of Finance of the City of New York for the benefit of the decedent’s unknown distributees; (iii) that Pedro Garcia show cause why his claim, if any, for payment of decedent’s funeral expenses should not be disallowed; (iv) that the claim of the New York City Human Resources Administration in the amount of $50,088.37 for public assistance rendered to decedent in the form of Medicaid be allowed and paid; (v) that the Surrogate approve the reasonable amount of compensation as reported in Schedules C and C-1 of the account of proceedings to the attorney for the petitioner for legal services rendered to the petitioner herein; (vi) that the persons above and mentioned and all necessary and proper persons be cited to show cause why such relief should not be granted; (vii) that an order be granted pursuant to SCPA Section 307 where required or directed; and (viii) for such other and further relief as the Court may deem just and proper.

Dated, Attested and Sealed. April 21, 2016 (Seal) Hon. Nora S. Anderson, Surrogate. Diana Sanabria, Chief Clerk.

Schram Graber & Opell P.C. Counsel to the Public Administrator, New York County 11 Park Place, Suite 615 New York, New York 10007 (212) 896-3310

TO ADVERTISE IN OUR CLASSIFIEDS CALL 718-260-2555

Note: This citation is served upon you as required by law. You are not required to appear. If you fail to appear it will be assumed that you do not object to the relief requested. You have the right to have an attorney-at-law appear for you and you or your attorney may request a copy of the full account from the petitioner or petitioner’s attorney.

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Dynamic International Airways and Guyana Celebrate 50 Years of Independence and Growth “The airline has given dozens of Guyanese people jobs, and Dynamic’s fares are low enough to allow the Diaspora to come home. “

BY PETER MOSES NEW YORK - Guyana may be a small country north of Brazil in South America, but with the help of Dynamic International Airways and its expanding New York hub at JFK, the country’s footprint on the world stage is destined to grow.

Many Americans have heard of Guyana but don’t know much about where it is, what tourists can do there or how easy it is to fly from New York to this English-speaking Garden of Eden. In May of 2016, Dynamic International Airways and the nation of Guyana are taking steps to change that.

The airline and Guyana are teaming up to celebrate

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50 years of independence by this former British territory and a new logo has been affixed to one of Dynamic’s fleet of six Boeing 767 jets. It incorporates the jaguar (national animal of Guyana), the country’s flag and coat of arms and, temporarily, a banner that announces the Jubilee Celebration taking place in New York from June 4-12.

“The country is looking up and raising its connection to the world,” said New York State Senator Roxanne Persaud (DCanarsie), who was born in Guyana and moved to the United States with her family in 1983. “This partnership with Dynamic will encourage tourists to come and experience

Guyanese life which includes eco-tourism, waterfalls, beaches, great food and first-class accommodations.”

But for the 140,000 Guyanese diaspora who live in the New York City area, Dynamic provides an affordable option to travel back and forth from home with regular service out of JFK. Guyana is home to nearly 750,000 residents, but more than 300,000 citizens live overseas.

The largest single group of Guyanese who live outside the country reside in the five boroughs of New York, and Dynamic is the leading air carrier between the two nations.

“The partnership between Guyana and Dy-

namic matters to us,” said H.E. George Talbot, United Nations ambassador to the United States.

“The airline has given dozens of Guyanese people jobs, and Dynamic’s fares are consistent and low enough to allow the Diaspora to come home.

We are so grateful to Dynamic for this opportunity.”

For tourists, the charming people and beautiful landscape are Guyana’s chief natural resources.

However, the country produces and exports sugar, diamonds, bauxite and shrimp. Guyana’s service industry is growing to meet the needs of tourism and industry.

Captain Gerry Gou-

viea, Dynamic’s agent in Guyana, said the airline runs on a 95 percent ontime departure rate and flights average 90 percent capacity. New flights are being added to the JFKGuyana schedule as well as two new aircraft joining the fleet in the coming months.

“We started Dynamic with the intent to serve in an underdeveloped niche market,” said Karen Kraus, interim chief operating officer for Dynamic. “With this growth we are experiencing, we want people to know there is a reliable, inexpensive alternative for getting to Guyana and our non-stop flights make it easy on travelers seeking a high level of service.”

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G.V.Y.C. debuts spring hoops with Knicks’ assist

SPORTS JOEY ZANNINO

T

his Mon., May 9, the Greenwich Village Youth Council will kick off its first annual Spring Basketball League, a free six-week tournament in partnership with the New York Knicks. The league will host games on weekday evenings at the William Passannante Ball Field courts, at W. Houston St. and Sixth Ave. Completely free for 200 middle school boys and girls from the community, G.V.Y.C.’s newest offering is a lead-in to the massively successful W. Fourth St. Summer Basketball Tournament, which has been run since 1977 at “The Cage” at the W. Fourth St. courts. In 2015, more than 400 boys and girls ages 13 to 17 registered for the free summer tournament.

More than 75 percent of the young people that participated in the league came from public housing throughout the five boroughs. With the addition of the spring league, G.V.Y.C. hopes to connect even more young people and their families to the services that it has offered to the community for almost 50 years.

The Greenwich Village Youth Council has been empowering young people throughout New York City since 1969.

G.V.Y.C. offers academic support, counseling, court intervention, recreational activities, drug prevention and other programs and services to our city’s youth. In 2015, we debuted a summertime Cops & Kids evening program in partnership with the New York Police Department that keeps the teens’ recreation center open until 11 p.m. seven nights each week during the summer, and starts again this July 5.

Many individuals and local businesses support G.V.Y.C.’s Spring Basketball League in partnership with the Knickerbockers. The city’s Parks Department has worked closely with our organization over the past months to give the W. Fourth St. court much-needed improvements. Backboards were donated to the organization and G.V.Y.C has installed them in the park

PHOTOS BY JAMES KWITNY

G.V.Y.C. has been running a free summer basketball tournament for boys and girls ages 13 to 17 for decades. The first tournament was in 1977.

to share with the community.

“The league would never be possible without the support of so many of our friends and backers throughout New York City and beyond, but especially in Greenwich Village,” said John Pettinato, G.V.Y.C. executive director. “The response from local businesses has been very heartwarming. As with all of our programming, this league will focus on providing some of the city’s most at-risk young people with a safe and structured activity, in addition to access to our staff and services.”

G.V.Y.C. is based out of the Jeanne Otter Youth Center (J.O.Y. Center), at 213-15 Eldridge St., which G.V.Y.C. has operated as a safe haven for young people since 1989.

Youth-serving organizations of similar size and scope are receiving less and less funding from the city and state each year and have been closing their doors at an alarming rate. G.V.Y.C. is determined to fight

through this difficult economic period and continue forward in its mission to deliver streetwise and compassionate services to the city’s most at-risk youth. To fi nd out more informa-

tion about Greenwich Village Youth Council and its programs or to get involved, visit http://www.gvyc.net.

Zannino is a director, G.V.Y.C.

THE NEW SOUND OF

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 4:30 for an hour of talk on topics Brooklynites hold dear.

Each show will feature in-studio guests and call-out segments, and can be listened to live or played anytime at your convenience.

SPONSORED BY

WITH

JOSEPH LICHTER, D.D.S.

VINCE DIMICELI

G.V.Y.C. was founded in 1969 by its executive director, John Pettinato, above, who continues to coach and counsel young people on and off the cour t almost 50 years later.

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GERSH KUNTZMAN

LISTEN EVERY MONDAY AT 4:30 PM ON BrooklynPaper.com/radio May 5, 2016

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PRESENTED BY

EVERY THURSDAY, FROM JUNE 16TH – AUGUST 11TH SPEND YOUR SUMMER THURSDAYS IN UNION SQUARE PARK WITH NINE WEEKS OF FREE EVENTS.

summerinthesquare.com THANK YOU TO OUR 2016 SUMMER IN THE SQUARE SPONSORS FOR THEIR GENEROUS SUPPORT

Proudly serving the neighborhood for over 40 years, the Union Square Partnership is the leading advocate for the Union Square-14th Street community, working collaboratively with area residents, businesses and cultural and academic institutions to ensure the district’s continued growth and success. Our mission is to enhance the neighborhood’s quality-of-life by creating a safer, cleaner and more enjoyable environment.

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