V i s i t u s o n l i n e a t w w w .T h e V i l l a g e r. c o m
THE
S S E R P X E
December 20, 2018 Volume 3 • Number 30
The Paper of Record for East and West Villages, Little Italy, Lower East Side, Soho, Noho, and Chinatown
Google it! Tech titan announces $1 billion Downtown expansion BY SYDNEY PEREIR A
T
he senior vice president of Google and its parent company, Alphabet, announced in a blog post Monday that the tech giant will expand its campus to offices at three locations in Hudson Square. Senior V.P. Ruth Porat said
the company will move employees into two buildings on Hudson St. — 315 and 345 Hudson St. — by 2020, and into 550 Washington St. in 2022, after the latter building is completed, according to Porat. google continued on p. 6
Mt. Sinai system will use Rivington House for behavioral health By Sydney Pereira
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t. Sinai Health System is planning to relocate its behavioral-health facility to Rivington House. The hospital signed a letter of intent with Rivington’s owner, Slate Property Group,
Mt. Sinai spokesperson Loren Riegelhaupt confirmed. Behavioral-health facilities, such as inpatient behavioral health, detoxification and rehab, at the Bernstein Pavilion near Stuyvesant Town will be relocated into a new, “oneSinai continued on p. 6
Photo by Puma Perl
Dan Sweeney bought the 11th Street Bar this fall because he thought it was the coolest bar — with the best music — in the East Village. See Page 23.
After Gov’s night in L just tweaks on track? By Julianne Cuba and Lincoln Anderson
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hristmas just might come early for local L train straphangers, who are now waiting with baited breath for Governor Cuomo to reveal findings from the late-night — and arguably last-minute — tour he took of the subway’s Su-
Charles White at MoMA ���������p. 24
perstorm Sandy-ravaged Brooklyn-Manhattan tunnel on Dec. 14. The pol — who promised to share in the next three weeks recommendations resulting from the cross-river underwater trek he took with engineering experts — toured the Canarsie Tunnel to see if there are better and faster ways to repair it than the
long-in-the-works, 15-month fix that state transit leaders are set to begin in April. “I need personally to feel confident in that decision, and frankly I don’t want to hear it second-hand, I want to hear it for myself,” Cuomo said on a platform of a Manhattan L train station during cuomo continued on p. 3
From ‘Russia’ without love: Stone to trial? ������� p. 9 Cornelia St. Cafe closing; Jobs bill champ ������ p. 13
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Gov tours L; More than tweaks on track? CUOMO continued from p. 1
his recent tour. Engineering experts from Cornell and Columbia universities joined the state’s commander in chief to inspect the tunnel, at no cost to taxpayers. They were essentially acting as checks and balances to Cuomo’s own transportation officials, who in October announced that they would close the Canarsie Tunnel on April 27, beginning the L train’s stint as a local subway line running between Canarsie and Williamsburg — without any Manhattan service — until June 2020. The looming so-called “L-pocalypse” would wreak havoc on the commutes of some 250,000 straphangers who ride the L train to Manhattan daily and will be forced to adopt one or more forms of alternative transportation being rolled out during the fi x — making it imperative to ensure the $477 million project is done swiftly and correctly, Cuomo said. “The Metropolitan Transportation Authority believes their methodology is the best way to do it and the fastest way to do it. New Yorkers tend to be a skeptical bunch,” he said. “This is going to be highly disruptive. And I wanted to make sure we get the best minds, again, on the globe, to review the project, because I want them to be able to validate we know this is disruptive, but there’s no alternative.” And although the experts could suggest scrapping the state’s current repair plan altogether, it is more likely they’ll suggest minor tweaks or simply sign off on what officials already proposed, according to Cuomo. The governor told radio station 1010Wins that commuters shouldn’t get their hopes up for anything less than “15 months of L” come April 2019. “I’m not holding out hope,” he said following the tunnel tour. “New Yorkers are willing to bear the expense and the burden of change, and they get that sometimes big projects are required. But they want to make sure that it’s really done right and it really has to be done.” But Judy Pesin, a member of the steering committee of the ad-hoc W. 14th St. Coalition, speaking before Cuomo’s tunnel tour, expressed skepticism anything major would be changed. “Where has he been the last two years?” she asked. “I think it’s a day late and a dollar short. I’m a little disappointed that he says he’s only going to do it due to the complaints of the people on the Brooklyn side,” she added. “What about people on the Manhattan side? “It seems to me that the train has left the station,” she said. “I can’t imagine that anything’s going to happen at this late date. It’s four months before they’re going to do the work. He’s been walking away for subway issues for years Schneps Media
GOVERNOR’S OFFICE
Train tour: Gov. Cuomo walked through the L train tunnel on Dec. 14 to see if there’s any way to speed up the looming repairs slated to take 15 months.
PHOTO BY LINCOLN ANDERSON
The new crosstown bike lanes for 12th and 13th Sts. have mostly been completed. The large striped buffer zone is for use by emergenc y vehicles to get around traffic, according to the cit y Depar tment of Transpor tation. That’s also the reason why the flexible plastic “delineator” poles are spaced about 50 feet apar t from each other — to allow emergenc y vehicles to access the buffer zone, D.O.T. said. Obviously, the buffer area is also being used for temporar y parking, as seen with the deliver y van on E. 13th St. east of Second Ave., in the photo above.
take pictures and monitor.” The coalition is part of a lawsuit filed by Village District Leader Arthur Schwartz against the L shutdown plan. Asked his thoughts on the governor’s 11th-hour tunnel tour, Schwartz said in an e-mail, “Cuomo has expressed concern about the length of the project and its dire impacts. The whole project could have been done more easily, with
now,” she added. Pesin, who lives on W. 13th St., said she and her fellow Village and Chelsea resident coalition members are now going to focus on documenting the impacts of the plan, the bike lane part of which is already in place on 12th and 13th Sts. “We’re in phase two now — ‘watch and report,’” she said. “We want to TVG
fewer problems, at a lower cost. “There were two options the M.T.A. rejected. The first was to do the tunnel work on nights and weekends, like every other tunnel repair they did and the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority did and the Port Authority did. With this option they could have used in-house workers, whose work cost is far lower. “The second option,” Schwartz said, “was to work on one tube at a time; there are two tubes. The service on the L would have been slower but Williamsburg wouldn’t be totally cut off. With both options the need for mitigation would have been far less. “I would also want the governor to consider the statistics they have used — without scientific studies — first, about just how many people will use the bus service going across the Williamsburg Bridge to get to Manhattan. I think most people will use the G train and go south to Downtown Brooklyn, or north to Long Island City. Also, I guarantee that it will be faster to walk two to three blocks than take the bus on 14th St. to get to another subway station.” Resident and block association leaders are looking to meet with the governor, Schwartz added. December 20, 2018
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Police Blotter SIXTH PRECINCT
Up in smoke An employee stole from the Village Vape & Cigar store at 171 W. Fourth St. on Mon., Nov. 26, at 10 p.m., police said. An employee at the shop told police that a man who was working there removed $3,585 in cash from an uncovered container on the counter behind the register and stuffed the bills in the front of his pants. He then left at the end of his work day. Video footage was retrieved, and on Dec. 10, Sai Gunukula, 27, was arrested for felony grand larceny. None of the stolen cash has been recovered.
Dad arrested There was a family assault at an apartment at 10 Bethune St. on Tues., Dec. 11, at 10:45 a.m., according to police.
A young man, 14, said that after coming home from school, his father pushed him, “causing him to go flying,” according to the report. The boy was found on the floor and said he couldn’t move because his back hurt, and that he could not move his legs. Henry Sidel, 50, was arrested for misdemeanor assault.
Got to the point There was a robbery at the Rite Aid store at 501 Sixth Ave., between W. 12th and 13th Sts., according to a police report. On Sat., Nov. 24, at 8:45 p.m., a man entered and took two bags of candy off the shelf, then left without paying. A male employee, 50, confronted the shoplifter, who then displayed a needle and said, “Get the f--- away from me.” The man fled northbound on Sixth Ave. There were no injuries and video footage was available. On Dec. 12, Alan Betances, 41, was arrested for felony robbery.
HQ founder dies in Soho BY GABE HERMAN
COURTESY N.Y.P.D.
Police are looking for this alleged cat abuser.
C
olin Kroll, co-founder of the popular app HQ Trivia, died of an apparent drug overdose at his Soho apartment Sunday morning, Dec. 16, police said. Kroll, 34, was found in his bedroom at 56 Spring St., between Cleveland Place and Mulberry St., after his girlfriend called authorities after not hearing from him, according to the Daily News. Cocaine and heroin were reportedly found nearby him. The popular app HQ Trivia was started in August 2017 and involves users competing in a live trivia game, with winners getting cash prizes. Many reactions poured in on Twitter, including from HQ Trivia co-founder Rus Yusupov. “I will forever remember him for his kind soul and big heart,” Yusupov tweeted. “He made the world and internet a better place.” Scott Rogowsky, comedian and host of HQ Trivia, also posting on Twitter, called Kroll “a true visionary,” adding, “I will forever be grateful for his friendship, his leadership and his belief in me.” Kroll also co-founded Vine — a popular video clip-sharing app — in 2013, and worked previously at Twitter, where he was accused of inappropriate conduct toward women. He told Axios this February he hadn’t sexually harassed anyone, and said he was fired for “poor management.” “I now realize there are things I said and did that made some feel unappreciated or uncomfortable,” he said. “I
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Sweet justice
Colin Kroll was the co-founder of HQ Trivia and also Vine.
apologize to those people.” Last Sunday night’s HQ Trivia game was canceled, and host Rugowsky went on the app to share thoughts about Kroll. “Colin was an animal lover,” he said. “He’d sometimes bring his dog Tater to the office. As such, we are donating what would have been tonight’s $25,000 cash prize to the Humane Society in Colin’s honor and memory.” Kroll’s death is the latest high-profile overdose incident Downtown. Actor Philip Seymour Hoffman OD’d on heroin in the West Village in 2014, and movie star and Soho resident Heath Ledger died of an accidental OD of prescription medications in 2008. “New York City got to him a little bit,” father Alan Kroll told The New York Times, adding his son was working too hard. “All that leads to getting too much drugs or...overdosing.” A bouquet of flowers had been left in the lobby of his Spring St. building Tuesday morning. TVG
Three women robbed the candy shop It’s Candy at 665 Broadway, earlier this year on Wed., Feb. 21, around 7 p.m., according to police. After the three women entered, an employee asked them to leave. One of them responded, “Who is going to stop me? I will mace you right now,” and then showed a mace bottle. The employee backed away, and two of the women then took two items valued at $15 each and they all fled north on Broadway. The sweettoothed trio were finally caught and arrested Dec. 12 for felony robbery. The police identified them as Khristin Davis, 20; Shaniaya Simmons, 20; and Naquanna Cooper, 22.
FIFTH PRECINCT
Un-fur-tunate Police are searching for a man who allegedly left a cat inside of a sealed bucket in the vicinity of Hester and Centre Sts. On Thurs., Dec. 13, the man, described as Asian and last seen wearing a sweater and jeans, allegedly left the feline in the closed bucket around 7:30 p.m. and fled north on
Centre St., according to police. Upon further investigation, police found the cat malnourished and that the bucket’s lid had a hole.
FIRST PRECINCT
Shoe store swipe Police are searching for two men for robbing the Bruno Magli shoe store at 120 Wooster St. The store’s 24-year-old employee reported that two men stole nearly $2,000 worth of merchandise — two bags and a pair of shoes — last Thurs., Dec. 13, around 4 p.m.
Grab-and-go Two women allegedly robbed the Christian Dior boutique at 105 Greene St. of a $2,850 handbag on Thurs., Dec. 13, around 3 p.m. Police said a 24year-old store employee reported that one perp distracted the sales associate while another removed the handbag and concealed the item inside another bag. No arrests have been made.
Gabe Herman and Sydney Pereira
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Google announces $1 billion Hudson Sq. expansion GOOGLE continued from p. 1
The latest $1 billion campus expansion comes after Google purchased the Chelsea Market building for $2.4 billion earlirer this year, and announced that it will lease additional space at Hudson Park Trust’s Pier 57, also earlier this year. “With these most recent investments in Google Chelsea and Google Hudson Square, we will have the capacity to more than double the number of Googlers in New York over the next 10 years,” Porat wrote. “Our investment in New York is a huge part of our commitment to grow and invest in U.S. facilities, offices and jobs.” She added that Google, which currently has around 7,000 employees in New York City, is growing faster outside the San Francisco Bay Area than within it, including new offices in Detroit; Boulder, Colorado; Los Angeles; Tennessee, and Alabama. “As we continue to grow across the country, we look forward to calling New York City home for many years to come,” Porat wrote. At 315 Hudson St., real estate organization Jack Resnick & Sons is in the final stages of a $65 million development. Google’s offices at that building are expected to boast a rooftop garden, indoor and outdoor event spaces for clients and community events, a cafe and open workspaces, according to a
IMAGE COURTESY NEOSCAPE
The building at 315 Hudson St., bet ween Vandam and Spring Sts., is set to become one of three new Google office locations in the Hudson Square neighborhood, which will collectively be known as Google Hudson Square.
Resnick press release. “We are thrilled to welcome Google to 315 Hudson St.,” Jonathan Resnick, the president of Jack Resnick & Sons, said in a statement. “We recognized
about a decade ago that Hudson Square was destined to become a hub for New York’s growing creative, technology and office users.” Meanwhile, Oxford Properties
Group is redeveloping 550 Washington St., between W. Houston and Charlton Sts., the southern half of the original High Line freight-rail terminus, to create a 1.3-million-square-foot, 12-story commercial building. The design, by COOKFOX Architects, would retain three stories of the existing structure as a base, then add additional floors on top. Some Downtowners have previously expressed concerns that Downtown Manhattan will become more akin to Midtown, particularly with Google’s expansion and Disney’s pending redevelopment of the full square block bounded by Varick, Vandam, Spring and Hudson Sts. Ellen Baer, president of the Hudson Square Connection Business Improvement District, welcomed Google’s announcement. “Google’s expansion sends a powerful message that Hudson Square has become one of the city’s most dynamic creative districts,” Baer said in a statement. “With new public-private partnerships, neighborhood improvements and vibrant open space, there’s never been a better time to be part of the growth taking place here in Hudson Square. We look forward to working with stakeholders across the spectrum to continue this momentum and keep making Hudson Square the city’s best place to live, work and visit.”
Mt. Sinai to use Rivington House as new health facility SINAI continued from p. 1
stop” center at 45 Rivington St., under the plan. “When behavioral-health services are more critical than ever, we are pleased to announce plans to expand and enhance our behavioral-health offerings to the Downtown community at a new Comprehensive Behavioral Health Center located at 45 Rivington St.,” Riegelhaupt said. “The new Center will be a state-of-the-art, community-oriented destination for behavioral healthcare and a ‘one-stop’ location of services for mental health, addictions, physical health and social service needs for the Downtown community.” Rivington House, a former nursing home and care facility for people with H.I.V. / AIDS, was nearly turned into luxury condos after a scandal that rocked the Lower East Side and has dogged the mayor ever since. The group Neighbors to Save Rivington House has been pushing the city ever since to reopen the building as a 24/7 care facility for the elderly and disabled. The group was blindsided by the Mt. Sinai news. “Once again a deal is being attempted without notice to or involvement of the community most impacted by the
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removal of 219 nursing home beds in Rivington House,” the group wrote in a statement on Mon., Dec. 17. “Unacceptable. While it is heartening to hear that our relentless three-and-a-half years of advocacy appears to have succeeded in staving off a luxury condo development, Mt. Sinai Hospital is a newcomer to the neighborhood, and this community’s advocacy and its needs are requisite to any final outcomes here,” the statement said. Slate did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Councilmember Margaret Chin said greater transparency is needed and that she will push for increased community involvement on the issue. “While we understand there is a significant need for behavioral-health services, we can’t lose focus on the fact that 219 nursing home beds were lost,” a Chin spokesperson said. “The fundamental issue here is improving transparency in this process, and ensuring that the Lower East Side community’s unique healthcare needs are addressed. As more details on these plans are released, Councilmember Chin will continue to push for opportunities for the community — especially the advocates at the forefront of the fight to save Riv-
PHOTO BY TEQUILA MINSKY
At a rally to save Rivington House earlier this year, neighborhood residents decried the then-plan to conver t it into luxur y condos.
ington House — to play an active role in future conversations.” Facilities at the Bernstein Pavilion, between E. 15th and 16th Sts. on the eastern edge of Stuyvesant Square park, will remain open and operational until the Rivington site is ready, to avoid any time without existing services, according to Riegelhaupt. Additional services, including intenTVG
sive-crisis and respite beds, primary care and a partial hospital program will be added at the Rivington site, on the Lower East Side at Rivington and Forsyth Sts. The number of beds has not been set, though the hospital noted that less than 65 percent of Bernstein’s existing beds are used, on average. The Bernstein facility is 60 years old and too antiquated for its services, according to the hospital. Riegelhaupt said it is too soon to know Mt. Sinai’s plans for the Bernstein property, but if it is sold, 100 percent of the money would be reinvested back into the new Mt. Sinai Downtown Network. K Webster of Neighbors to Save Rivington House emphasized her longtime fight was to restore the Rivington building as a full-time nursing home. “For people who really have to have 24/7, long-term care in the age of Alzheimer’s...our mission was to return this to people who need nursing home beds,” she said. Community members met with local politicians on Wednesday. Slate is expected to schedule a meeting with all stakeholders soon, according to Webster. “This was rather sudden,” she said. “Why the secrecy?” Schneps Media
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Blaz: School win shows mayor’s control power BY SYDNEY PEREIR A
M
ayor Bill de Blasio kicked off “City Hall in Your Borough” in Manhattan on Monday, celebrating community activists’ fight to save a Tribeca elementary school from two relocations within four years. The mayor emphasized his control over the city’s public schools was the key in the Lower Manhattan community’s victory. “In the end, this is the power of mayoral control of education,” said de Blasio. “This is an example of the power of being able to control our schools the right way and make this kind of impact.” P.S. 150 parents organized soon after learning that Vornado Realty was evicting the elementary school from its site at Independence Plaza next year. The Department of Education’s plan for the Tribeca school was to relocate it to the already overcrowded Peck Slip School in the South St. Seaport area until the construction on Trinity Place of a new schoolhouse, expected to be completed by 2022. Parents slammed the scheme, fearful it would impact P.S. 150’s unique standing as an award-winning “Blue Ribbon School.” The mayor successfully intervened earlier this month, persuading the landlord to allow the school to stay at the Tribeca site until the Trinity School is built. De Blasio credited parent advocates, Downtown politicians, D.O.E. Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza and even the landlord for listening to parents. “I know for everyone at P.S. 150, there is a real, deep sense of family and
PHOTO BY SYDNEY PEREIRA
Mayor de Blasio celebrated the P.S. 150 victor y in Tribeca — and got high-fives from grateful students — as Councilmember Margaret Chin (turned away from the camera) and Congressmember Jerrold Nadler, in front, also par took in the excitement.
belonging,” de Blasio said. “And that was threatened.” Of the P.S. 150 parents’ activism, de Blasio said, “You could hear them all the way from here to City Hall.” Anshal Purohit, the P.S. 150 ParentTeacher Association co-president, was elated by the development, and surprised
at how quickly the change came about. “All our jaws dropped when we got the news,” Purohit said. Having sufficient time to incorporate P.S. 150 into its new permanent home at Trinity Place, in at least four years from now, was critical, she said. Plus, she said, the kids “really got to see what it’s like to
speak up and be respectful, but forceful, with their voices.” P.S. 150 parent Buxton Midyette said the mayor’s “pivotal phone calls” to Vornado Realty were critical. “This was such a special moment to celebrate for the school and for the whole community,” Midyette said.
Jared Kushner-owned building loaded with lead BY SYDNEY PEREIR A
A
Kushner Companies’ East Village walk-up building had lead levels 10 times the federal standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency, according to a Health Department report in late November. The report, released by local tenantsrights organization the Cooper Square Committee, shows the stairwells at 118 E. Fourth St. had lead levels up to 10 times higher than federal standards, as a result of construction in the building. “I was in my apartment on a day when they began demolition,” David Dupuis, a tenant there for 35 years, said in a statement. “A dust cloud invaded my entire apartment from the demolition happening in the apartment below me.” Dupuis said he left the building, but when he returned, the hallways and even his apartment were covered with dust and his throat burned for days.
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December 20, 2018
poisoning starts with the community, and we must continue to arm residents with the tools to fight back.” After lead-laden dust was found on Nov. 21, the Health Department issued an “order to abate” — the only action it took against the Kushner Companies’ Westminster City Living. Failure to comply with the abatement order can result in fines up to $2,000 per violation, according to a D.O.H. instructions sheet for landlords. “The safety of New Yorkers is paramount for the Health Department, and we encourage all New Yorkers to report unsafe work via 311,” Health Department spokesperson Michael Lanza said. “After an initial inspection found elevated levels of lead in dust, the Health Department issued a Commissioner’s Order to Abate (COTA). Follow-up inspections have found that safety regulations are being followed.” The Department of Buildings responded to a later complaint on Dec.
That dust, Health Department officials discovered days later, was filled with lead. In a statement, Karen Zabarsky of the Kushner Companies said, “As soon as we were alerted to the condition, we instructed the contractor responsible to immediately clean the public areas and to implement stricter measures to prevent construction dust or debris from escaping the work area. Kushner always uses a lead-certified contractor who fully complies with the law.” Tenant advocates’ say the high lead levels appear to indicate that safe work practices required under a 2004 law weren’t followed. Downtown politicians slammed the E. Fourth St. lead findings — in the same building where tenants were without gas for months in 2016. Councilmember Margaret Chin, who is spearheading two bills targeted to end this type of lead exposure, said in a statement, “The effort to end lead TVG
7, according to D.O.B. spokesperson Andrew Rudansky. D.O.B. responded within two hours and found no unsafe or illegal conditions, Rudansky said. However, Cooper Square organizer Brandon Kielbasa, said, “It doesn’t seem to me like their inspection was done with an eye for what needs to be in place for safe work practices. “Whatever agency is responding needs to be aware of the full breadth of the safety concerns, and in this case, [in] the pre-1960 building, dust is one of those,” Kielbasa said. “It doesn’t need to be heaping piles of dust like snow on the ground.” The organizer is pleased that Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia was recently appointed as the city’s “Lead Czar,” but enforcement of existing laws to prevent lead exposure needs to be implemented, he stressed. “To be quite frank,” Kielbasa said, “the community is getting more and more upset.” Schneps Media
Credico ‘prepping’ to be ‘Russiagate’ witness BY LINCOLN ANDERSON Randy Credico may or may not be Roger Stone’s alleged “backchannel” to Julian Assange and WikiLeaks. Stone says he was, but Credico denies it. In addition, Credico may or may not have recently gone down to Washington, D.C., to talk to federal prosecutors as they close in on a possible indictment of Stone in the wide-ranging probe into so-called “Russiagate.” On Thanksgiving, The Villager texted Stone, asking him what was new in the now-year-and-a-half-old investigation. He texted back, in part, regarding Credico, “I understand he has been called back before the grand jury.” Credico is a Manhattan-based standup comic-turned-radio journalist who had Assange on his WBAI radio show prior to the 2016 presidential election. He also visited Assange in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London several times, the first visit a year after the election. Credico already testified before a federal grand jury once, on Aug. 31, as part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into alleged Russian influence in the election. Credico has said, when questioned before the grand jury, he mainly spoke about Stone. For his part, Stone was previously questioned by the House Special Committee on Intelligence, which conducted its own Russiagate probe. Asked if he was, as Stone claimed, going down to D.C. to be grilled in front of the grand jury again, Credico wrote back, in part, on Nov. 28, via Facebook message, “I’m finished with the grand jury… and the FEDS… .” Yet, it seems possible Credico might, in fact, have made another trip down to Washington —and that, at the least, he definitely was considering it. On Dec. 2, in a phone call with The Villager, Credico said he didn’t know whether he would be going to Washington that Wednesday, Dec. 5, or not, and to call him “after Wednesday” and check up on what transpired. He added he was being circumspect about his planned whereabouts because he feared for his safety, worrying that the “alt-right” was out to get to him. “Nothing happened this week,” Credico subsequently reported in a Facebook message on Sat., Dec. 8. However, speaking to The Villager the following week, Credico confirmed that he and his attorney, Martin Stolar, actually had been mulling another meeting between Credico and Mueller’s prosecutors. “It was a standby situation,” Credico explained. “Marty said, ‘We’re going down.’ [But] we didn’t need to go down — they got Cohen and Manafort,” he said, indicating that the feds didn’t feel they “needed” Credico, as a result. Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former fi xer, was sentenced Dec. 12 to Schneps Media
PHOTO COURTESY RANDY CREDICO
Roger Stone, left, and Randy Credico in 2017 when Credico was acting as a talent coordinator for a documentar y on Stone by David Lugo. According to Credico, he and Stone had had a falling out and didn’t speak to each other from 2010 to 2016. A s for the Richard Nixon posters, Stone star ted his career back with “Trick y Dick” and spor ts a muchpublicized tattoo of him on his back.
three years for lying to Congress and campaign-fi nance violations by paying off two women who had flings with Trump before he was president. Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairperson, has been convicted of tax fraud, among other charges, and has also entered a guilty plea on charges of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and witness tampering. In addition, he was recently accused of violating his plea agreement.
guy yet.” Asked who “the guy” is, Stolar blurted out, “Stone!” No one has informed the attorney that Stone is the so-called “target” yet, but that’s the obvious assumption. “It’s not a big deal,” Stolar said of witness preparation. “I do it all the f—in’ time. I mean, [if I] put a witness on the witness stand, I need to know what the witness is going to say. It’s standard stuff. It’s your witness — you control what questions you’re going to ask your witness.” Asked whether Credico did, in fact, meet with federal prosecutors on Dec., 5, Stolar responded, “I’m not confirming when and where this happened — or if it happened. “I’m not saying it happened, either — but it’s something that’s going to happen,” he assured. “It happened — or it’s going to happen. It’s a real thing, and it’s standard stuff.” As for Stone, Stolar said he could take a plea or the case could be dismissed or possibly go to trial. As for Stone claiming Credico was slated to go before the grand jury again, Stolar said the infamous Republican “dirty trickster” and former Trump campaign adviser is way off base. “Stone doesn’t know s—,” he said. “He doesn’t know what we’re doing.” The attorney blasted Stone’s accusation that it was Credico who fed Stone advance information about WikiLeaks’ damaging “dumps.” In August 2016, Stone hinted that WikiLeaks would be publishing incendiary e-mails from John Podesta — Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager — gloatingly tweeting, “It will soon [be]
‘I’m not confirming if it happened.’ Martin Stolar “I’m going to stay out of the news right now,” Credico said. “I’m not going to get in any more pissing matches with Roger Stone. I need a break.” He recommended speaking to his attorney Stolar for more details about what may or may not have recently happened in D.C. New York magazine is set to publish a big profile on him, he added. Stolar said what Credico potentially is doing — although he stressed he has not necessarily done it yet — is to meet with prosecutors for “witness preparation” for a possible trial. “Randy is a potential witness at the trial,” Stolar explained. “If there’s a trial: They haven’t decided to indict the TVG
Podesta’s turn in the barrel.” Similarly, in October 2016, Stone showed possible foreknowledge of another e-mail “dump” that would harm the candidate, when he tweeted, “Wednesday Hillary Clinton is done #WikiLeaks.” “The bottom line is: Was Randy Credico the back channel to all these WikiLeaks dumps?” Stolar asked. “You think Randy is that sick that he would hurt Hillary to help Trump?” he said, answering his own question. Credico has said he supported Green Party candidate Jill Stein for president. “Can you conceive of Randy Credico being a Trump supporter?” Stolar asked, incredulously. “He’s a civilrights activist and a reformer. Was he the backchannel? No. … Stone can say whatever he wants.” When Stone texted The Villager on Thanksgiving, he included about two-dozen texts that Credico allegedly sent him right before the October ’16 WikiLeaks dump. Among these were: “big news Wednesday,” “now pretend u don’t know me,” “Hillary’s campaign will die this week,” “i think its on for tomorrow,” “Why can’t you get Trump to come out and say that he would give Julian Assange Asylum,” “Off the Record Hillary and her people are doing a fullcourt press [to try to] keep Assange from making the next dump,” “That’s all I can tell you on this line,” “Please leave my name out of it,” “There will be an announcement but not on the [embassy] balcony.” In addition, in the text exchanges provided by Stone, Credico tells him that a friend of Stone’s did not have a meeting with Assange, and also that Assange had scheduled a press conference for 3 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time. “How would you know, rummy?” Stone texts back, taking a dig at Credico’s history of substance abuse. Credico allegedly responds, “Because I’m friends with his lawyer and leave it at that! and leave it alone.” Credico is friends with Margaret Ratner, widow of civil-rights attorney William Kunstler. Credico lived in Kunstler’s Gay St. home over the years and also headed the William Moses Kunstler Fund for Racial Justice. Ratner is reportedly an attorney for WikiLeaks. Stone added that he has released 80 pages of text messages that confirm Credico was “the source” of his information on the WikiLeaks dumps. Similarly, Credico has given all of his texts and e-mails to Mueller and also, apparently, to the writer of the New York magazine article. This past June, Credico shared some e-mails with The Villager that he said were examples of Stone trying to intimidate him. Stone countered they were doctored by Credico and also taken out of context. “I stand by everything I’ve said publicly and behind closed doors,” Credico said. December 20, 2018
9
We Raised Our Voices and They Listened!
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Sign up to be an AARP advocacy volunteer at aarp.org/nyvolunteer.
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10
December 20, 2018
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Schneps Media
G.V.-Chelsea Chamber honors precinctsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Finest BY TEQUIL A MINSK Y
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ast week, the Greenwich VillageChelsea Chamber of Commerce hosted its 15th annual Safe City Safe Streets luncheon to honor outstanding officers in local precincts. Anthony Arias, the G.V.C.C.C. board president, and Maria Diaz, executive director, said, in a joint message, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Each officer and precinct has become a bigger piece of our community, and each year our community becomes a stronger piece of the local fabric that makes New York, New York.â&#x20AC;? The Fifth, Sixth, Ninth, 10th, 11, 13th and Midtown South precincts are all located in the Chamberâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s catchment area. Officers and local merchants came together with friends and family of the honorees last Wednesday at Manhattan Penthouse, at One Fifth Ave., at W. 14th St., to celebrate these precinctsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Finest. Chief of Department Terence A. Monahan, the forceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s highest-ranking uniformed member, was the keynote speaker. A 36-year N.Y.P.D. veteran, Monahan spoke of how in 2014 the department changed its philosophy and created neighborhood policing. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The same police officers are in the same blocks every day,â&#x20AC;? he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Last year, we had a record low â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 300 homi-
PHOTO BY TEQUILA MINSKY
Officers of the Year, from left, Sergeant Nicholas Macchio, Brendan McVeigh, Matthew Iodice, Lamarr L . Barnes and Vladmir Espinal.
cides â&#x20AC;&#x201D; in modern record-keeping. The Sixth Precinctâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s award recipient, Officer Colin Sullivan, was not present last Wednesday because he was on his honeymoon. Sullivan has served in the Greenwich Village precinctâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Cabaret/ Conditions Unit, Crime Analysis Unit and Domestic Violence Unit and for the past three years has been its assistant field intelligence officer. Among other Officer of the Year
winners, Officer Vladimir Espinal, transferred to the Fifth Precinct in 2013 and is assigned to the Chinatown/Little Italy precinctâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Anti-Crime Team. He is the recipient of multiple Excellent Police Duty Medals. Officer Brendan McVeigh has been with the East Villageâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Ninth Precinct since graduating from the Police Academy three years ago. Noticing his enthusiasm, his supervisors assigned him
to a regular neighborhood sector where he works closely with the precinctâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s team of Neighborhood Community Officers, or N.C.O.s. He is self-directed in identifying problems and forming solutions. A 2016 Police Academy grad, 10th Precinct honoree Officer Matthew Iodice heroically rendered aid to a young man whose arm was severed in a vehicle accident. The Chelsea officer applied a tourniquet and his quick actions saved the victimâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s life. More recently, Iodice apprehended a dangerous robber and recidivist burglar, closing out an ongoing burglary pattern in the neighboring 13th Precinct. With 14 years on the force, Sergeant Nicholas Macchio was the honoree from the 13th Precinct (Union Square, Madison Square, Stuyvesant Town and Gramercy), where he was assigned upon his promotion to sergeant in 2011. Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been the Union Square Park sergeant, the School Safety sergeant and is currently the N.C.O. sergeant. Midtown Southâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s honoree, sevenyear N.Y.P.D. veteran Officer Lamarr L. Barnes, was described as a beacon of light to his colleagues and the community. As a precinct N.C.O., he has made it a priority to visit with community members, hear their concerns and address them. He boasts an impressive arrest record.
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Church of the Holy Apostles 296 Ninth Avenue at 28th Street in the City of New York
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Come Worship With Us Christmas Eve Monday, December 24, 2018 9:30 pm Choral prelude and carols 10:00 pm Procession and Festival Eucharist music of Brahms, Britten and Haydn
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Christmas Day Tuesday, December 25, 2018 10:00 am Holy Eucharist with carols and soloists
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The Rev. Dr. Anna S. Pearson, Rector Dr. Timothy Pyper, Interim Director of Music For a complete schedule of services please visit www.holyapostlesnyc.org or call 212-807-6799
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December 20, 2018
11
E DI T O R I A L
It’s high time
T
en states in this country have legalized the recreational use of marijuana — and if Governor Andrew Cuomo has anything to say about it, New York will become the 11th to do so next year. Currently, marijuana use is permitted in the Empire State for medicinal purposes. In recent years, the state and city have sought to decriminalize possession of minute amounts of weed as part of overall efforts to reform the criminal justice system. The national trend on pot has been toward legalization, and New York shouldn’t stand in the way any longer. The resources expended by law enforcement toward keeping pot off the streets could be used to fight more serious crimes. Marijuana-related businesses will create new jobs and pump money into the economy at a time when it’s beginning to slow down. The revenue generated from taxes charged on marijuana sales offers a new source of revenue to fund public improvements. While marijuana use should be legalized, the state must regulate the use and sale of pot with regulations similar to those applied to alcohol and tobacco consumption — no sale or distribution to anyone under 21, no marijuana use while operating vehicles or heavy machinery, etc. Let’s legalize it, but let’s do it the right way.
Scapegoated
J
oseph Esposito spent nearly 50 years in service to New York City, and deserves a far better exit than the one he’s been forced to endure. The outgoing Office of Emergency Management commissioner spent 40 years with the New York Police Department, rising from a trainee in 1968 to the highest uniformed position the force has, chief of department. He served honorably in that role for 13 years, from 2000 to his mandatory retirement in 2013. Mayor Bill de Blasio made the smart move in calling on Esposito to serve the city once more as Emergency Management commissioner. In that job, Esposito continued looking out for New Yorkers and making sure the city could handle any crisis, large or small, with relative ease. But then de Blasio decided to place at Esposito’s feet the blame for the city’s inept response to this past November’s snowstorm. He had a deputy fire him, but due to confusion, Esposito never got the message. He showed up to work days later, only to later agree on his departure after a conversation with the mayor. This shameful episode should not tarnish the public’s appreciation for Esposito’s dedication to the people of the city. He served the city responsibly from start to finish, and no politician’s buck-passing can change that fact. The mayor may not have appreciated Esposito’s talents, but the majority of us do. And in the end, that’s all that counts.
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December 20, 2018
Letters to the Editor Better storm-surge defense To The Editor: Re “Flood of concerns over E. Side resiliency redo” (Dec. 13): Far better to build regional storm-surge sea gates far out to sea and across the upper East River and simultaneously protect the entire 540-mile New York/ New Jersey Harbor coastline — 1,000 miles, if you include the lower Hudson Valley. This would protect all three major airports, all the tunnels, communication facilities, sewage-treatment plants, transportation systems and hospitals. It would also include protection for the outer boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens. Then, focus on building modest 5-foot-to-6-foothigh seawalls where necessary to restrain the slow but relentless rise in sea levels. It’s all designed to last for 100 years. Malcolm J. Bowman Bowman is a professor, Stony Brook University, School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences
Awash in betrayal To The Editor: Re “Flood of concerns over E. Side resiliency redo” (Dec. 13): The city has broken the trust of the community — which has worked for four years to give input to create a resilient East River Park — by announcing a new design approach that was brokered behind closed doors. This is totally unacceptable. The city should put this project on hold and engage with the community and work on a design framework we can agree to — otherwise more time and taxpayers’ money is being wasted! Christine Datz-Romero Datz-Romero is executive director, Lower East Side Ecology Center
Tech invasion, no thanks! To The Editor: Re “Google it? Google it? Tech giant eyes Downtown expansion” (news article, Dec. 13): It would be great if both Amazon and Google left New York City. This has become a city where only the wealthy can live, and these type of high-tech
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firms have made the situation much worse for most New Yorkers. New York is now filed with empty stores and high-tech jobs — a very antisocial city. Politicians that support these firms are weak, and no one knows why Amazon is going to be subsidized with taxpayer dollars if it is doing so well. If this was put up for a vote, the majority would want Google and Amazon to get out of New York City. Ralph Petrillo
Chris Quinn and the facts To The Editor: Re “Quinn ‘seriously considered’ public advocate, but not running” (new article, Nov. 29): Nice fluff piece on Christine Quinn but let’s not forget the facts. The article quotes her statement, saying, “I look forward to driving reforms that can help thousands of families struggling every day.” I and many in this neighborhood that she betrayed, will not forget that she facilitated the gifting of our hospital and our nursing home to real estate while supposedly serving the community. She also reversed years of hard work setting term limits. Take note, Brad Hoylman, that anyone with a brain will not trust a politician connected to her. Lynn Pacifico
Tracking Cuomo’s L moves To The Editor: Governor Andrew Cuomo’s overnight tour of the Canarsie L line tunnel was just another in a series of publicity stunts. As usual, he brings no additional funding to pay for the obvious, just his shrill voice. The M.T.A. has an army of experienced engineers and engineering-consultant firms. Why does Cuomo second-guess his own M.T.A. senior management team by bringing in his own transportation experts? Who paid for this additional layer of bureaucracy? Larry Penner E-mail letters, maximum 250 words, to news@ thevillager.com or fax to 212-229-2790 or mail to The Villager, Letters to Editor, 1 MetroTech North, 10th floor, Brooklyn, NY 11201. Please include phone number for confirmation. The Villager reserves the right to edit letters for space, grammar, clarity and libel. Anonymous letters won’t be published.
ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES GAYLE GREENBURG JIM STEELE JULIO TUMBACO ELIZABETH POLLY PUBLISHER’S LIABILITY FOR ERROR The Publisher shall not be liable for slight changes or typographical errors that do not lessen the value of an advertisement. The publisher’s liability for others errors or omissions in connection with an advertisement is strictly limited to publication of the advertisement in any subsequent issue. Published by Schneps Media One Metrotech North, 10th floor Brooklyn, NY 11201 Phone: (718) 260-2500 Fax: (212) 229-2790 On-line: www.thevillager.com E-mail: news@thevillager.com © 2018 Schneps Media
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Talking Points
At last, small business bill has a champion BY SHARON WOOLUMS
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or our lawmakers, when is enough enough? The slow destruction of the Village continues year after year while they “talk” about the importance of small businesses and concoct yet another survey to assess the damage. How many iconic businesses must close because merchants have no rights when their leases expire before our local politicians fi nally take action to save them? Soon another beloved Village business, the 40-year-old Cornelia St. Cafe will close in January. But now, five years after The Villager’s Small Business Series began, there is some good news! Councilmmember Ydanis Rodriguez, the prime sponsor of the Small Business Jobs Survival Act, or S.B.J.S.A., is standing up for mom-and-pops against the real estate lobby, i.e. the Real Estate Board of New York. At a press conference in Queens for mostly ethnic media, Rodriguez made it clear he will fight to pass legislation to stop the store closings and save jobs. “For years, even before being elected, I have advocated for the rights of immigrant families who are not respected by government for their contributions to our local economy,” Rodriguez said. “They are treated as second-class citizens and their problems have been ignored. Immigrants own the majority of small businesses and thus create the majority of immigrant jobs in New York City. They face a crisis to survive, which means their workers also face a crisis
Councilmember Ydanis Rodriguez, left, and “Small Business Godfather” Sung Soo Kim shake on it: No changes to the S.B.J.S. A . that would hur t mom-and-pop shops.
to survive. I call my bill the Immigrant Jobs Survival Act because the immigrant employees are forgotten victims in the out-of-control real estate speculation that is destroying the American Dream for all small business families.” At the October hearing on the S.B.J.S.A., many tes-
tified that the bill must be changed before voted on. Asked if there is any part of the bill nonnegotiable to changes, Rodriguez, “I said I am open to changes if they offer a better solution to stop the closings. But this bill was written to give rights to commercial tenants when their leases expired — rights needed to keep long-established good businesses who are willing and able to pay a fair rent in business, and rights needed to negotiate fair lease terms. “It’s a tenants’ rights bill and, as such, any changes that would take away the rights of the tenants would be nonnegotiable because the changes would harm the intent of the law,” Rodriguez declared. Now that the S.B.J.S.A. has 29 sponsors, it could pass the City Council. Rodriguez has not yet had discussions with Council Speaker Corey Johnson’s Office concerning changes to the bill. As the bill’s prime sponsor, Rodriguez must approve any changes. Sung Soo Kim, recognized as the “Godfather of Immigrant Small Businesses,” endorsed Rodriguez in the upcoming special election for public advocate. Kim drafted the original version of S.B.J.S.A. “I call upon all the city’s immigrant communities to fully support Councilman Rodriguez for public advocate,” Kim said. “He is a strong voice for immigrant rights and will fight to see they receive justice and fair treatment at City Hall. He knows from personal experience our government has not done enough to protect them, and that the role of small businesses is vital to every immigrant community.”
The Cornelia Street Cafe: This one really hurts BY MICHELE HERMAN
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got one of the landlords of the Cornelia Street Cafe on the phone this morning, but as soon as I said my name and “The Villager,” a gruff voice said “no comment” and hung up. So that leaves me to tell the sad story of the cafe’s imminent closing through the eyes of owner Robin Hirsch. If you’ve been to a poetry reading or concert in the skinny basement room, you may remember the oftrepeated credo of this charming British-German-Jewish expat with former lives in theater and academia, and one of the cafe’s three founders: We support the arts by making frequent trips to the bar. Calvin Trillin once immortalized Hirsch this way: It took a Brit to reinvent the Village. Cornelia Street, a cozy, rambling restaurant and performance space with cheery red and white décor, exposed brick, a moderately priced menu and a vast assortment of wines, has announced its closing on Jan. 2 after more than 40 years of business, many expansions and awards for food, wine and culture. There is still a slim chance of saving it, but the details aren’t being made public and Hirsch is not hopeful. And what has brought about the demise of this latest beloved, still bustling local business? The usual, according to Hirsch: “It’s about the rent.” When the cafe opened in 1977, about half its current size, the rent was an affordable $450. Over the years, the building changed hands a few times. The landlords were local people who asked for moderate rent increases. Notably, the lawyer son of the longtime plumber-turned-landlord came up with the equivalent
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of a 30-year lease for Cornelia Street. “It was very fair,” Hirsch recalled, “tied to the consumer price index. It carried us through handily.” The cafe had two opportunities to buy the building. The first time, Hirsch and his then-partners, a pair of artists, couldn’t come up with the down payment. The next time, Hirsch recalled, “We gathered the money, but by the time we were ready, the owner sold it to someone else, who flipped it and made a huge profit.” Over the years, the cafe took over the two adjoining spaces. But when Eugene McCarthy came to read his poems early on, there wasn’t enough room. So they famously cleaned out 50 years’ worth of accumulated junk in the basement and turned it into arguably the city’s narrowest performance space, referred to as “the Downstairs.” “I arrived in the U.S. in 1967,” Hirsch explained, “and McCarthy was a heroic figure for me. That was an incredible night. Every word sailed out and came back home.” The current landlords, Beach Lane Management, own a lot of property in the city but are headquartered in Westchester. Rent negotiations have been quite different from those with the local plumber: Cornelia asked for a 10-year extension with a 15% rent increase; the landlord offered a 5-year extension and a 50% increase. The next time the lease was up, the cafe caught a break because of residual effects of the 2008 recession. But Hirsch ended up putting most of his family’s life savings into keeping the place going. “My incredibly supportive wife finally said, we
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can’t do this anymore,” he said. “Do you know the joke about how to make a million dollars in the restaurant business?” he asked. “Start with 10 million.” The ins and outs of the ensuing negotiations are too complex to detail. Suffice it to say there was a court case, which Cornelia Street won, but the relentless march of rent increases took its toll. Hirsch regrets not having found a way to stabilize the place earlier. Though he’s exhausted dealing with the costs, he still has plenty of juice for the shows. “Last night we had Russian poetry,” he told me, “and before that, Swedish jazz singers, and the Lazour Brothers.” When I asked about the Brothers, he told me excitedly that they will be the next Simon and Garfunkel. Recently, Hirsch got official 501c3 nonprofit status for the Downstairs, which has quite a following. “David Amram [the musician] wrote to say, ‘I will follow you and we will do Cornelia Street in exile,’” he reported. One question much on Villagers’s minds watching the recent loss of so many well-loved local anchors (Tortilla Flats, Amy’s Bread, Gourmet Garage, the Integral Yoga health food store): Does the blame lie mostly with normal market fluctuations, with a changing economy battered by technology, with onerous regulations, or is it just about greedy landlords? I googled the cafe’s landlords. The guy who hung up on me before I had a chance to say why I was calling? He’s on a New York Press list of “50 Most Loathsome New Yorkers.” His partner? A disbarred lawyer who has done time in Rikers. December 20, 2018
13
From the Bench
WIN EXPR
Eyes on the prize
ESS
Is giving away passes to the biggest Broadway fan convention of the year.
PHOTO BY TEQUILA MINSKY
Among the many current judges, and those who hope to be ones in the future, who attended the recent Village Independent Democrats annual holiday par ty at Frieda Bradlow’s Charlton St. home was Kim Parker, who aspires to be on the Civil Cour t. Parker is the executive director of the Metropolitan Black Bar A ssociation. According to an Amsterdam News profile, she’s a Harlem native of African-American and Korean descent, a Hampton University graduate and runs her own law firm, specializing in civil litigation, family and real estate law.
January 11–13, 2019 at the New York Hilton Midtown in NYC
You are invited to spend Advent & Christmas with Historic St. Peter’s Chelsea “The Christmas Church”
ADVENT & CHRISTMAS SERVICES Tuesday, December 18, 2018
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7:00pm Reflections on the Magnificat evening of prayer, reflection, meditation
Sunday, December 23, 2018, Advent 4 10:00am Advent Lessons & Carols
Monday, December 24, 2018, Christmas Eve 7:30pm Christmas Carols 8:00pm Christmas Eucharist
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www.cnglocal.com/broadwaycon2019 14
December 20, 2018
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HEALTH PHOTOS BY TEQUILA MINSKY
Comptroller Scott Stringer, center, and Maria Diaz, of the Greenwich Village-Chelsea Chamber of Commerce, far right, joined Dental House’s owners and staff at the official ribbon-cutting on Dec. 17.
Dental House offers ‘patient centered’ care GABE HERMAN
T
eeth have a new friend in Dental House Greenwich Village, a practice that opened this week. City Comptroller Scott Stringer — who is known for having a good smile — helped kick things off at the ribboncutting on Mon., Dec. 17, outside the location, at 41 Seventh Ave., at W. 13th St. Dental House Greenwich Village is co-owned by Dr. Irina Sinensky and Dr. Sonya Krasilnikov, colleagues and friends who met at SUNY Stonybrook as dental students, according to the practice’s Web site. The two share a view of dentistry that focuses on conservative treatment and preventive care that is “patient-centered” and “guided by continuing education.” Sinensky specializes in cosmetic dentistry. Services offered
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Drs. Irina Sinensk y, left and Sonya Krasilnikov in one of Dental House’s state-of-the-ar t dental treatment rooms.
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by the two dentists and co-owners include cleanings, Invisalign, whitening, surgery, Botox, implants, veneers and children’s dentistry, among others. They are currently offering a grand-opening special — $199 for a comprehensive consultation, X-rays and a cleaning. The practice touts state-of-theart equipment, such as “digital Xray technology, A-dec ergonomic dental chairs and advanced sterilization equipment.” They also are environmentally friendly, conducting paperless business and using equipment that saves 360 gallons of water daily, according to the Web site. Attendees at the ribbon-cutting, in addition to Stringer, included Maria Diaz, director at the Greenwich Village-Chelsea Chamber of Commerce. More information is available at www.dentalhousenyc. com, where bookings can also be made, and the office can be reached at 212-888-3384.
December 20, 2018
15
Mayor meets stakeholders (no press) on jail BY SYDNEY PEREIR A
A
fter outrage from Chinatown residents over the plans to locate a “community jail” in Lower Manhattan, Mayor Bill de Blasio met with neighborhood stakeholders and Downtown politicians on Tues., Dec. 18. The new Lower Manhattan jail is a part of de Blasio’s larger project to close Rikers Island by 2027 and open four smaller jails to reduce the jail population to 5,000 from 8,200 to work toward ending mass incarceration and creating a more humane jail system. “People in the city unquestionably want the era of mass incarceration to end,” de Blasio said Tuesday. “We cannot make the reforms we need if we keep a broken place at the center of the system.” “Rikers Island was not built for rehabilitation,” he said. “It will not work for the future.” But Downtowners have been blindsided by the plans, most recently during a back-and-forth on the jail’s location. The latest plan is to demolish the Manhattan Detention Complex at 125 White St. and build a 500-foot-tall jail for 1,500 beds, according to city officials. The city is currently looking for ways to reduce the building’s height. De Blasio met with stakeholders, including representatives of Community
30/2-4/1 CARNEGIE
PHOTO BY SYDNEY PEREIRA
A handful of demonstrators, including Chinatown activist and “close Rikers” opponent Karlin Chan, right, staged a counterprotest outside the American Legion Post 1291 when the mayor met with local stakeholders this week.
Green Cooperative and a member of Neighbors United Below Canal. “I was disappointed that he pretty much shut down many of the requests that we had made,” she added. Kong told the mayor of how residents have already been living with “armed guards, with bomb-sniffing dogs, with cameras and with checkpoints at every other corner,” especially after 9/11. She requested the city find a fifth site for a jail to reduce Manhattan’s proposed jail’s population — which is what the
Boards 1 and 3, as well as members of Chatham Green Cooperative and Neighbors United Below Canal, among other nonprofit leaders in Chinatown. Shortly after the mayor’s remarks, the press were shooed out. Stakeholders in the room said they felt encouraged the mayor came to Chinatown, despite the “closed doors” appearance of the meeting. “I think we made such a ruckus that he felt pressure to come to Chinatown,” said Nancy Kong, president of Chatham
HALL
PRESENTS
commission that created the plan to close Rikers had originally suggested. She asked for analysis of other alternatives and to restart the review process with an additional scoping meeting. “This isn’t just an area where you just have court systems,” Kong said, referring to the city’s argument that a Lower Manhattan jail would reduce detainees’ travel time due to its proximity to courthouses. A handful of protesters stood outside, including C.B. 3 member Karlin Chan, who said the “closed door meeting” only exacerbates lack of transparency and community distrust. “This is not acceptable to the community,” said Chan, who opposes closing Rikers Island in its entirety. Community Board 1 Chairperson Anthony Notaro would like Tuesday’s meeting to become a regular thing. The public review process known as the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure will begin sometime before spring. Councilmember Margaret Chin supports closing Rikers, but has previously kept the focus on leveraging community benefits through the ULURP process. Notaro said community benefits C.B. 1 would support would largely depend on the desires of Chinatown, which is mostly in Board 3’s district and would actually be more impacted than C.B. 1.
UNIQUE MULTIMEDIA SHOW
JUMP continued from p. 16
CARMINA BURANA
BY CARL ORFF Bolshoi Symphonic Orchestra of the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Yurlov Capella Choir, Soloists of Bolshoi Theater, Conductor Jan Latham-Koenig (UK), Director Igor Ushakov (Bolshoi Theatre Russia)
December 29 TH s 8 PM
Bolshoi Theater soloists Anna Aglatova, Stanislav Mostovoy, and Vasiliy Laduk sing with Yurlov Capella Choir and Bolshoi Symphonic Orchestra of Moscow Conservatory. Inspired by Medieval poetry, Carl Orff wrote his cantata Carmina Burana. To emphasize the power of this work and its philosophical and emotional meaning, the music will be accompanied by visual effects, including laser projections of art masterpieces housed in Russian museums from the Middle Ages.
57TH STREET & 7TH AVE, NEW YORK, NY 212-375-3649 W W W.CARNEGIEHALL.ORG 16
December 20, 2018
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Russian stars perform new staging of ‘Carmina Burana’ A consolidated troupe of 300 artists of famous creative teams of Russia will present “Carmina Burana,” a cantata by Carl Orff, under the vaults of the famous Stern Hall of Manhattan’s Carnegie Hall on Dec. 29. The evening promises to be a grand spectacle, attended by 300 Russian artists of the country’s most famous and oldest arts and cultural groups: soloists of the Bolshoi Theatre — Anna Aglatova (soprano), Stanislav Mostovoi (tenor), and Vasily Laduk (baritone) — sing with Yurlov Capella Choir and Bolshoi Symphonic Orchestra of Moscow Conservatory. The staging includes enchanting lighting effects, as well as paintings from great artists of the Middle Ages and the =ifd c\]k JfgiXef f] k_\ 9fcj_f` K_\Xki\ 8eeX 8^cXkfmX Xe[ <e^c`j_ Zfe[lZkfi AXe CXk_Xd$Bf\e`^% early Renaissance. “Carmina Burana” is an ancient manuscript of the collection of medieval poetry, the original manuscript of which was found in 1803 in the Benedictine monastery Bayern (Beuern, lat. Buranum), now Benediktbeuern, Bavaria. The German composer Carl Orff first encountered these texts in John Eddington Simon’s publication “Wine, Women and Songs of 1884,” which contained English translations of 46 poems from a collection found in the monastery. Michael Hoffman, a law stu- =ifd c\]k K_\ Z_`c[i\eËj Z_f`i Xe[ YXi`kfe\ MXj`c`p CX[lb% dent and enthusiast of Greek and Latin, helped Orff choose 24 poems about the impermanence of luck and wealth, the transience of life, the joy of the return of spring, and the pleasure of drunkenness, gluttony, gambling, and carnality. The manuscript, hidden in the monastery in the 13th century, was found many centuries later. During the European Middle Ages, it was a “forbidden” text written, first, by “renegades vagrants” — people who had the most ironic, and even satirical =ifd c\]k :fe[lZkfi >\eeX[`p ;d\kipXb# k\efi JkXe`jcXm Dfjkfmfp# Xe[ k_\ 9fcj_f` Jpdg_fe`Z FiZ_\jkiX% views on the life, society, and its mores. There is no religion food, carnal love, warm com- about the power and beauty Ushakov, who invited Eng- kovsky Conservatory Yurin these songs — even close pany and cheerful songs, here of human life sounded more lish conductor Jan Latham- lov Capella Choir Soloists of relevant than ever. But even Koenig for the director’s Bolshoi Theater present “Carto no words — but almost on and now! Orff wrote the libretto the composer himself could console. Music producer is mina Burana” at Carnegie every page, it communicates about the removal of taboos with the texts of the poems not assume that his creation Vladimir Davydenko. Gen- Hall [881 Seventh Ave. between and all sorts of prohibitions. in the old German and Latin would become a bestseller nadiy Dmetryak, people’s art- W. 56th and W. 57th streets in Yes, life is fleeting, fortune is languages. The first perfor- of the 20th century. Now, the ist of Russia, is the chief con- Manhattan, (212) 247–7800, blind and ruthless, there is no mance of “Carmina Burana” most famous orchestras and ductor and artistic director of https://www.carnegiehall. doubt. But, stop praying, fear- took place on June 8, 1937, choral chapels have in their the Yurlov Russian State Aca- org/Cart/Seat-Selection-Performance/Syos?eventid=37213 demic Choir. ing, and waiting for the end conducted by Bertil Wetzels- repertoire Orff’s work. Bolshoi Symphonic Orches- ] Dec. 29, 8 pm. Tickets from “Carmina Burana” is of the world — let’s rejoice: berger. In Europe, on the eve spring, sun, drink, delicious World War II, the cantata staged by director Igor tra of the Moscow State Tchai- $22.50 to $210 Schneps Media
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PHOTO BY JIMMY O’KELLY
The Sunday Irish Seisún at 11th Street Bar.
Musicians know: 11th St. Bar is place to play BY PUMA PERL
T
he 11th Street Bar is the pub equivalent of a musician’s musician. Not everyone knows about it and it’s easy to miss since it’s located on a side street, between Avenues A and B. It’s that neighborhood place where music lovers of all stripes congregate with bartenders heading home from shifts, where locals and travelers meet to enjoy live performances in the back room or hang out at the bar. These days, as we watch rents rise and favorite venues disappear, it’s gratifying to learn that longtime bartender Dan Sweeney bought 11th Street Bar, joining the ranks of tavern owners with rockand-roll hearts. Sweeney, the principal owner, made sure to acknowledge his partners, Diarmuid and Meghan Joye. “I could not have done it without them,” he said. “They’re neighborhood people. Their kids go to school here. They’re invested in the community.” Sweeney has worked in bars since age 15. His uncle owned six taverns in Nassau County. In 1999, he left Long Island to enter the fi nancial world and continued to bartend on the side. On 9/11, he was working in 7 Word Trade Center, and ultimately lost five friends, including his best friend’s brother. He and his friend decided to change their lives and focus on music, eventually forming Acquiesce, a band that successfully toured and played locally until 2007, when it became nearly impossible to make money. By that time, Sweeney had moved up from bartender to manager at the St. Mark’s Ale House, but had no idea that he would one day buy the place he calls his “favorite bar.” Asked why 11th Street Bar earned that title, he responded, “They stay open until 4 a.m. and it’s a
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PHOTO BY BRIGITA JANSEN
Emily Duff playing at the 11th Street Bar.
great meeting place for musicians, bartenders and waitresses heading home from work. Since I lived on 12th St., I’d always stop off. There are two large TVs, but they don’t blare — it’s not a sports bar. They always play cool music and there’s a sense of community. And,” he added, gesturing toward the beamed ceilings and wood panels, “It’s gorgeous! The wood construction dates back 100 years!” After leaving St. Mark’s Ale House in 2010, Sweeney, on the suggestion of bartender/legend Kenny O’Conner, took on five shifts at 11th Street. O’Conner has been a staple since 1997, when the bar opened. About a year later, he began booking music, and the music continues. One of the longest-ongoing series in the city is the Sunday Night TVG
Irish Seisún, run by Tony De Marco and Eamon O’Leary. On Mondays, Richard Clements and Murray Wall lead a jazz quintet with a rotating group of musicians. Tuesdays through Thursdays, you’ll find rock, country or blues bands. Whether the performers are widely known or local, a devotion to authenticity prevails, one reason so many musicians love to play and hang out here. Members of the Mark McKay Band feel that love. They play a two-hour set here the second Thursday each month. They used to play regularly at the dearly missed Lakeside Lounge until it closed, after a 16-year run, in 2012. Like Lakeside, 11th Street Bar avoids booking five bands nightly, allowing one or two to shine with full sets. “I love the way my band has evolved at 11th Street Bar,” McKay said. “We make and play our own music with a serious commitment to originality. The back room sit-down gig is the perfect vessel for our creativity.” “Every time my phone dings that I have a text, I become giddy and hopeful that it’s Kenny O’Conner asking me to play,” said singer/songwriter Emily Duff. “11th Street Bar still feels like my New York and that doesn’t often happen these days.” As a musician, Sweeney is attuned to the bands’ needs. His band, East River Bandits, often plays at special events. There’s now an updated, user-friendly Web site, new signage and a new logo. But this place is still that rare jewel in our changing neighborhood, offering a no-cover, “no frills” New Year’s Eve, and staying open until 4 a.m., even if there’s only one person at the bar. And you never know who just might pop in for a nightcap or a song. 11th Street Bar, 510 E. 11th St. (between Avenues A and B), 212-982-3929. For events, booking and party reservations, see https://11thstbar.com/ . December 20, 2018
23
Art of social justice: Charles White at MoMA insula, about three blocks south of W. 14th St. In the course of White’s artistic career, which spanned a half-century, he also portrayed struggling workers, unionists and civil-rights trailblazers, such as Abraham Lincoln. While focused on inequality and the resulting suffering he knew first-hand, White produced work criticizing policies implemented by the same government that employed him through the W.P.A. He cultivated friendships with other art luminaries who were outspoken on racial injustice, who are also featured in the exhibit, such as poet Langston Hughes, singers Paul Robeson and Harry Belafonte, the latter whose album covers and record jackets he designed, and are displayed in this exhibition.
BY SANTE SCARDILLO
M
anhattan currently has an unusual “Christmas crop” of museum exhibitions showcasing work loaded with social concerns and artistic orientations not frequently examined by major museum institutions. All continue into the New Year, and fittingly, they can all be seen for free. I recently visited one of these, “Charles White: A Retrospective,” at the Museum of Modern Art (free on Fridays after 4 p.m.). Previously, this major exhibit was at the Art Institute of Chicago, where it opened on April 12, White’s 100th birthday. He died in 1979. MoMA co-organized the show, which will travel to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in February, where it will be on view until next June. This is a homecoming, as LACMA (in response to societal pressures) had also organized “Two Centuries of Black Art” in 1976 — to date the broadest scope (and most remarkable) survey of work produced by black American artists — in which White, then living and teaching in Los Angeles, featured prominently. White is a giant of 20th-century painting, but until the centenary of his birth, he’s been almost completely hidden in plain sight. The 1982 retrospective at the Studio Museum in Harlem did not have a comparable resonance outside the art world. The powerful works in this anthological show at MoMA display White’s masterful hand and ease in merging the teachings of Renaissance drawings with modern representation as championed by the Mexican muralists and Picasso’s works of the 1930s. White forges these influences and many others (his colleagues from the federal Works Progress Administration come to mind), into a quintessentially personal style. Yet his work is deeply interpretative of the pain and suffering of the black American experience — which wasn’t an abstract notion to him and in the communities in which he lived — almost palpable in the faces and visual tales of his subjects. “Soldier” (1944) is a silent politi-
PHOTO COURTESY OF SWANN AUCTION GALLERIES
“General Moses (Harriet Tubman),” by Charles White, mixed media on paper, 47 inches by 68 inches, 1965. The Charles White Archives.
“Charles White: A Retrospective,” at the Museum of Modern, 11 W. 53rd St., until Jan. 13.
cal statement. It portrays an American citizen who, at that point in time, had to drink from separate water fountains and sit in the back of the bus — yet was good enough to die on the front lines to defend the state that enforced the discrimination he suffered. That same year, White was drafted into the Army and got tuberculosis while serving. His mission was shoring up the Mississippi River during a flood and he suffered from breathing difficulties for the rest of his life. This ailment interfered with his practice, which was gravitating toward Chicago and New York. He eventually moved to Los Angeles in search of a better climate for his condition. There, he taught at the Otis Art Institute, the first public art school in California (now called Otis College of Art and Design) for almost two decades. Two of his students are now recognized as major contemporary artists, David Hammons and Kerry James Marshal. Locally, Hammons is the artist behind “Day’s End,” a project sponsored by the Whitney Museum of American Art, which will see a “ghost pier” of Pier 52 recreated south of Gansevoort Pen-
212 - 254 - 1109 | www.theaterforthenewcity.net | 155 First Ave. NY, NY 10003
“Soldier,” by Charles White, tempera on masonite, 194 4. The Huntington Librar y Ar t Collections and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, California. Gift of Sandra and Bram Dijkstra.
The Bohemians by Claude Solnik
Dream within a Dream Beltsville/Rockville Part 1: Rise of the Goatman Written & Directed by
Directed by Hamza Zaman
Bina Sharif
Thur - Sat 8PM, Sun 3PM
Thur - Sat 8PM, Sun 3PM
December 06 - 22
December 13 - 30
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December 20, 2018
Write a letter to the editor news@thevillager.com
Written & Directed by Matt Okin Thur -Sat 8PM, Sun 3PM December 27 - Jan 13 TVG
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Manhattan Happenings SHOWS
PRECINCT COUNCIL
Judy Frank’s solo-show “Notes to Wherever” through Sat., Dec. 22, at the Cherry Lane Theatre, 38 Commerce St. Actor and playwright Judy Frank has been a member of the Actors Fund since 1969. Frank’s show is a funny, heartfelt story about letting go, particularly about getting through the holidays when you’ve lost your life partner. Proceeds go toward The Actors Fund. Tickets, $40. For more information, visit www.cherrylanetheatre.org/ onstage/notes-to-wherever/.
First Precinct Community Council meeting at 16 Ericcson Pl.: Will not meet in December. Fifth Precinct Community Council meeting at 19 Elizabeth St., Wed., Dec. 26, 7 p.m. 25th Precinct Community Council meeting at 120 E 119th St., Thurs., Dec. 20, 6:30 p.m. 30th Precinct Community Council meeting at 451 W. 151st. St., Thurs., Dec. 20, 7 p.m. 32nd Precinct Community Council meeting at the community center at 34 W. 134th St., Thurs., Dec. 20, 7 p.m. Midtown South Precinct Community Council meeting in the lobby of the New Yorker Hotel at 481 Eighth Ave., Thurs., Dec. 20, 7 p.m.
Bears Ears & Detour through Sat., Dec. 22, at New York Live Arts, 219 W. 19th St. Zvi Gotheiner, artistic director of ZviDance, presents contemporary dance theater in a show to raise awareness about Bears Ears, a national monument in Utah which had its acreage drastically reduced last year, and a second show reflecting on the “longer, less direct way to get where you’re going.” Tickets, $25; students and seniors, $20. For more information, visit www.newyorklivearts. org/event/bears-ears-detour/.
HOLIDAY East Village Stand Holiday Market, through Mon., Dec. 24: At the corner of E. Seventh St. and Avenue C. The market features various vendors selling glassware, picture frames, smoked sea salt, chocolates and cookies, jewelry and ornaments and more. Food and refreshments provided. For more information, contact eastvillagemarket@juno.com. Holiday Market at the Oculus, through Mon., Dec. 31: Westfield World Trade Center features the Holiday Market at the Oculus, turning Lower Manhattan into a “winter wonderland.” The market will feature specialty shops, live performances through Dec. 9, and happy-hour specials and eateries. For more information on the full holiday program, visit www.westfield.com/wtc/holiday. Union Square Holiday Market, through Mon., Dec. 24, at the South Plaza in Union Square Park. Hours Monday to Friday 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Sunday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. For more information, visit www.urbanspacenyc.com/unionsquare-holiday-market.
MOVIES Movies at 53rd: “Love, Actually”: The New York Public Library’s 53rd St. Library at 18 W. 53rd St. will screen the 2003 Christmas-themed rom-com on Fri., Dec. 21, at 2 p.m. in the community Schneps Media
COMMUNITY BOARD PHOTO BY XIMENA BRUNETTE
A t wo-step t wofer, “Bears Ears & Detour” is a dance per formance with an environmental message.
room. Rated R. 130 minutes. For more information, visit www.nypl.org/events/ programs/2018/12/21/clone-clone-movies-53rd-movie-name-year. FREE
Space Theater on Thurs., Dec. 20. Enter at 81st St. Doors, 6:30 p.m., presentation, 7 p.m. Tickets, $15; seniors and students, $13.50; museum members, $12. For more information, visit www.amnh. org/calendar/astronomy-live-winter-solstice-and-the-year-ahead.
BOOKS Storyworthy: Matthew Dicks with Erin Barker at the New York Public Library’s Mid-Manhattan brand at 42nd St. at 476 Fifth Ave. in the program room, elementary school teacher and award-winning Moth storyteller Matthew Dicks and director of science storytelling organization The Story Collider Erin Barker will discuss telling stories — how we communicate them to family and friends, and how we narrate our own personal feelings. Registration does not guarantee admission. Doors open at 6 p.m. Fore more information, visit www.nypl. org/events /programs /2018/12/26/ storyworthy-matthew-dicks-with-erinbarker?nref=370068. FREE
Community Board 2 monthly full board meeting at Greenwich Village Elementary School, P.S. 41, 116 W. 11th St., Thurs., Dec. 20, 6:30 p.m. Community Board 3 monthly full board meeting at P.S. 20, 116 Essex St. between E. Houston and Stanton Sts., Thurs., Dec. 20, 6:30 p.m. Community Board 9 monthly full board meeting at Castle Gardens, 625 W. 140th St., Thurs., Dec. 20, 6:30 p.m.
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Eats
Pan-Latin fare at Chelseaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Counter & Bodega BY GABE HERMAN
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ounter & Bodega, a Latin restaurant and bar, is a recent addition to the Chelsea food scene. Located at 266 W. 23rd St., just off Eighth Ave., its grand opening was Oct. 9. It features diverse foods from many Latin countries, with each countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fl ag labeled on the menu next to the dish. There are empanadas from Puerto Rico, churrascaria skewers from Brazil, arepita sliders from Colombia, and chimi sliders from the Dominican Republic, to name a few. Every weekâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s dinner special is chosen from a different country, with this past weekâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s being enchiladas from Mexico. Counter & Bodega was founded by Sophie Serrano and Richard Astudillo, both Brooklyn natives who have a combined 28 years in the restaurant industry. They felt it was a natural progression open their own place, according to Serrano. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re getting great feedback, rave reviews about the food,â&#x20AC;? Serrano told Schneps Media.
She said itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been a rollercoaster so far, which is to be expected from any new small business. â&#x20AC;&#x153;People in the community have been really excited about having an authentic Latin restaurant in their neighborhood,â&#x20AC;? she said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;There doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t seem to be one, so weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been fi lling that void for them.â&#x20AC;? Serrano said C & B is a family-run business, including servers, administrative staff and the chef, whom she has worked with for many years. â&#x20AC;&#x153;People like that thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a familiar face every time they come in,â&#x20AC;? said Serrano, who is also the placeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s C.E.O. The busiest times are Thursday through Sunday, according to Serrano, including bottomless brunch on Sunday that includes drinks and goes from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. For dinner and lunch, she said it gets busiest on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Counter & Bodega has Taco Tuesdays that feature tacos for $3 and $4, and events like Ladies Night every Wednesday and an upcoming New Yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Eve party. Its Web site is counterandbodega.com and they can be reached at 646-870-0785.
Let the eating begin! The ribbon-cutting at Counter & Bodega in Chelsea two months ago.
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Michele’s Girls Club visit was ‘unforgettable’
M
ichelle Obama was in town earlier this month to promote her new book, “Becoming,” and while here, stopped by the Lower Eastside Girls Club on Avenue D. “It was an honor to be visited by the former first lady,” said Lyn Pentecost, the club’s executive director, and Valerie Polanco, the club’s senior development partner, in a joint statement. “She shared wonderful stories of raising her teenage girls. We can relate! “After her initial remarks, the press was asked to leave the room so that the girls could feel free to ask her everything they wanted, and they did. It was a lively conversation over a healthy lunch that was prepared in our Culinary Education Center. “That evening, 100 girls and moms were offered complimentary tickets to her book talk at the Barclays Center,” they said. “This was truly an unforgettable moment for all of us at the Girls Club — both staff and girls.”
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COURTESY LOWER EASTSIDE GIRLS CLUB
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December 20, 2018
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December 20, 2018
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COURTESY FOOD BANK OF NEW YORK CITY
The repor t “Reflections of Hunger From the Front Lines,” by the Food Bank, shows that food pantries themselves also are in need of food.
Food costs, SNAP cuts fueling food insecurity BY SYDNEY PEREIR A
I
n Manhattan, food costs are rising, according to a recent report from the Food Bank for New York City. Since 2013, the cost of a meal in Manhattan increased by 46 percent. “This is not something that just impacts those who are living in poverty,” said Margarette Purvis, president of the Food Bank. “It impacts all people living in the city.” Food’s rising cost has exacerbated what is known as food insecurity — when a household lacks access to affordable and nutritious food. The Food Bank’s “State of Hunger” report revealed that 40 percent of food pantries and soup kitchens said their visitors have increased by more than half since 2013, when the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, colloquially known as food stamps, was slashed by $8.7 billion. Around 70 percent of food pantries and soup kitchens serve New Yorkers from more than one borough, according to the report, which surveyed 735 soup kitchens and food pantries citywide this October. Manhattanites had 37 million missing meals, ranking fourth among the boroughs, according to the Food Bank’s analysis of food insecurity data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Although Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx had more meals missing over all, Manhattan’s Central Harlem had the city’s seventh-highest “meal gap” — meaning how many meals a household is missing because of a lack of access to food. In Central Harlem, 28 percent of resi-
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dents were food insecure this year. The neighborhood’s meal gap was nearly 6 million meals, according to the report. “Food insecurity is so bad across our city that it can be so easy to imagine that because things are so bad in the Bronx that then things are not bad in Manhattan — when nothing could be further from the truth,” Purvis said. “Food insecurity is basically just about not having the food you need.” In East Harlem, Hamilton Heights, Manhattanville, West Harlem, Chinatown and the Lower East Side, around one in five people were food insecure. In the rest of Manhattan, around one in 10 were food insecure. Queens’ Jamaica, Hollis and St. Albans; Brooklyn’s Canarsie and Flatlands; Bronx’s Belmont, Crotona Park East and East Tremont; and Staten Island’s Port Richmond, Stapleton and Mariner’s Harbor were among the community districts in each of the other four boroughs with the highest meal gaps. The Food Bank’s survey also found 44 percent of food pantries and soup kitchens operate on less than $25,000 a year and that more than half rely on unpaid staff, mostly women and seniors, Purvis said. Purvis stressed that better policy is critical to ensuring everyone has enough nutritious food to eat. “We can’t food bank our way out of this food insecurity,” she said. “You can’t good spirit your way through bad policy. “A pantry should really be the place you go when everything else has failed,” she added. December 20, 2018
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December 20, 2018
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Real Estate
Living in Lazarus’s home, sharing her values BY MARTHA WILKIE
A
uthor Andrew Solomon lives in the Village with his family in the former home of Emma Lazarus, author of the poem inscribed onto the base of the Statue of Liberty. “Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” — Excerpt from “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus, 1883. When he purchased the 1856 Italianate brick-and-brownstone house in 1992, it was a site of “unimaginable squalor” complete with a dead cat and “inexplicable formica,” as he wrote in Architectural Digest in 2017. Today the place has been gloriously restored and is filled with stunning antiques, art and, of course, thousands of books. Elegant formal rooms perfect for gracious entertaining live alongside comfortable family spaces suitable for romping kids and dogs. What’s it like to live in the former home of a famous person? “First, I find that I identify with Emma Lazarus in more ways than one,” Solomon said. “She was a well-connected woman who liked glamorous parties and famous intellectuals, but who was also deeply committed to those who were oppressed and burdened. She was Jewish but moved easily in non-Jewish circles. A recent biography posits that she was gay. So the points of overlap are considerable. “But I also feel that we have some responsibility to her legacy,” Solomon noted. “At a moment when the federal government is using the separation of children and parents as a strategy, there is a call to remember that we are, in her words, a nation of exiles, and that our welcoming those who had to flee oppression elsewhere is what made America great in the first place. One of my favorite things Emma Lazarus wrote is an essay in which she declared, ‘Until we are all free, we are none of us free.’ I enjoy very considerable freedom but am heartbroken for those who do not. Her words are resonant indeed for our times. When we curtail the freedoms of others, we damage ourselves.” In fact, in addition to currently being home to a fellow writer, Lazarus’s home has figured in at least one previous literary work. “Zadie Smith’s last novel makes reference to our house and the plaque Schneps Media
Emma Lazarus (1849 to 1887) lived in Greenwich Village on W. 10th St.
COURTESY ANDREW SOLOMON
When President Trump threatened to slash legal immmigration by half, someone left these yellow roses on the doorstep of Andrew Solomon’s W. 10th St. brownstone, where Emma Lazarus once lived. The building’s exterior spor ts a historical marker identif ying it as the famed poet’s former home.
enterprise. I didn’t know much about Emma Lazarus when I moved in, but I’ve become an ardent fan.” Solomon’s home — shared with his husband, John Habich Solomon, and their young son — is also currently
outside; someone who is being booted out of her apartment looks balefully at the irony of being thrown out of Emma Lazarus’s house,” Solomon said. “It’s fiction, of course, but I liked learning that the plaque had touched her artistic TVG
home to three other friends and family. This includes a young refugee from Libya, who, had he not escaped to the U.S., could have been slaughtered simply for being gay. “An anonymous stranger left a dozen yellow roses on our front steps on Aug. 2, 2017, after Trump announced that he was going to cut legal immigration to the United States by half,” John Habich Solomon said. “Our neighbor suggested that we drape black bunting across the front balcony as long as our nation’s immigration policies remain so ungenerous.” Andrew Solomon’s deeply compassionate books include “Far From the Tree,” about children who are very different from their parents. A documentary of the same name is available for streaming online, and he recently began a podcast on Audible called “New Family Values.” Are there currently any row houses or brownstones available in the Village in dire need of renovation and therefore less crazily expensive? None at the moment, but they do exist in other neighborhoods. At 345 E. Fourth St., you could convert a former church with a spectacularly ornate interior to a single-family house. Imagine that nave for a living room! Complete with old-school freestanding stove in an apartment probably originally used for the clergy. ( ht t p s : //w w w.c omp a ss. com /listing/345-east- 4thst r e et- m a n h at t a n - ny-10 0 0 9 / 767676 5 5 410 8 4 8 017 / ? o r i g i n _ t y p e = L i s t i n g % 2 0 Card&origin=Agent%20Profile%20 Page) In Hamilton Heights, south of Washington Heights, a handsome 1910 single-family house with a stone facade is being sold as a shell, and needs a complete renovation. ( h t t p : / / w w w. r a n d n y. c o m / list i ng /389 - C onvent-Ave nue/19053260) A single-family house in Harlem, on W. 136th St., needs work, but has incredible woodwork and lovely ornate fireplaces. ( ht t ps : //st r e ete a sy.c om / building/254-west-136-street-manhattan/unknown) Here’s an interesting challenge: a well-priced absolutely gorgeous 1890 five-story brownstone in a historic district in Harlem with original fireplaces and other intricate detail. The catch? It’s a former S.R.O. with a tenant in place. So if you want to renovate around someone living in the building, this could be your next home. ( ht t ps : //st r e ete a sy.c om / sale/1312341). December 20, 2018
31
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