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VOLUME 5, NUMBER 15
JULY 25– AUGUST 7, 2019
Claws for celebration New York State bans cat declawing P. 14
ICE BREAKERS Local pols reassure immigrants, warn feds P. 6 PHOTO BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELL-DOMENECH
Congressmember Nydia Velazquez and other local politicians said they have immigrants’ back amid the ICE depor tation raids.
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July 25 - August 7, 2019
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Kallos/D.O.T. bike safety event draws 3 BY ALEJANDR A O’CONNELLDOMENECH
T
urnout at an Upper East Side bicycle safety event hosted by the city Department of Transportation was surprisingly low. Only three men decided to come to the July 15 event in the basement of St. Joseph’s Church on E. 87th St. at 2 p.m. The event, which lasted an hour, was advertised by D.O.T. as an interactive forum for business owners to learn how to comply with city law on deliveries by bicycle, in order to keep cyclists, drivers and pedestrians safe. All three attendees were delivery bicyclists working for nearby restaurants. Although the event was organized by D.O.T, funding for it was provided by the office of Councilmember Ben Kallos, who started organizing cycling safety events in 2014 after community members in his Upper East Side district repeatedly expressed concern about what they called reckless bicycling. Usually, bike safety events like this are held around twice a year. At past bicycle education forums, free helmets, jackets, bells and lights have been given out. But at the July 15 event, there was no helmet giveaway, which might have increased attendance. “It’s a very controversial issue and most people report near misses,” Kallos said about bicycle deliverymen in his district. “At the same time, I think we happen to have more takeout [deliveries] than any other place in the city — if not the world.” “If you ask what’s for dinner in the Upper East Side, the answer is ‘take-
PHOTO BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELL-DOMENECH
Councilmember Ben Kallos, second from left, with Department of Transportation representatives and bicycle deliveryman Lucas Lopez, third from right, at the recent Bike Safety Training for Business Forum.
out,'” he added. According to New York Police Department data, in the Upper East Side’s 19th and 17th precincts, police have made a total of 81 e-bike seizures and issued 1,749 summonses to bicycles — mainly for not giving the right of way to pedestrians or running a red light —since October 2018. This year, New York State lawmakers legalized e-bikes and e-scooters at the state level, but allowed for local jurisdictions to ban them. E-bikes and e-scooters still remain illegal in the city. Attendance at past bicycling education events has averaged 15 to 20 participants, according to a Kallos spokesperson, though the last event, held in
December 2017, boasted 60 attendees. D.O.T., the agency in charge of distributing fliers and educating nearby businesses about such events, has yet to respond to questions about its outreach methods to this paper. According to a Kallos spokesperson, D.O.T. sent canvassers to deliver fliers about the event to restaurants and other businesses utilizing delivery cyclists across the Upper East Side. A trio of interns from the councilmember’s office also delivered fliers between E. 93rd and E. 85th Sts. on First and Second Aves. a week prior to the event. During their time with members of Councilmember Kallos’s staff, attendees were given a bicycle bell, a yellow
vest, bicycle lights and a thin handbook on what businesses using bicycle delivery are required to do under the law. Businesses must display the Commercial Bicyclists Safety poster in an area that delivery cyclists can easily see it, in a language they understand, and have a roster of every delivery cyclist, including their name, home address, start date, and discharge date, if need be, plus unique three-digit ID number, along with the date and completion of the D.O.T. Commercial Bicyclist Safety Course that cyclists must take. Businesses must supply their delivery cyclists with a unique three-digit number, a helmet, a business ID card and reflective jacket that features the business’s name and cyclist’s ID number. According to Kallos, the number of cyclists colliding with pedestrians or with cars has dropped due to his efforts. Along with other education public events and supporting physical infrastructure changes, Kallos has a partnership with the E. 72nd Neighborhood Association to give letter grades to restaurants utilizing delivery bicycles. Association members will sit outside of restaurants and wait to inspect delivery workers for appropriate gear and signage. “If they are using an e-bike, they get an automatic ‘F,’ and if they are missing any of the materials they might get a ‘B’ or a ‘C,'” said Kallos, who added that the neighborhood watchdogs have increased compliance by about 20 percent. A list of the restaurants with their corresponding grades is printed out and made available in the councilmember’s office, at 244 E. 93rd St.
Takin’ it to the (car-free) street: Broadway gets mural BY GABE HERMAN
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alk about street art! A new mural that stretches along Broadway for a block in Midtown is part of the annual Urban Garden program by the Garment District Alliance, which cordons off a street to cars to create more pedestrian-oriented space. The closed-off block, Broadway between W. 37th and 38th Sts., features a 180-foot-long mural — on the street. Called “Nymph Pond,” it’s by artist Carla Torres and debuted on July 11. The artwork was inspired by a small pond in the Galapagos Islands where the artist used to visit, according to the Garment District Alliance, which is a business improvement district, or BID. Torres is originally from Quito, Ecuador, and moved to New York City in 2006 to pursue a career as an artist and illustrator. The block is also part of the BID’s year-round Art on the Plaza program,
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PHOTO BY GABE HERMAN
Strolling in an “urban garden” of sor ts on Broadway, without cars.
which has run since 2010, along with the Department of Transportation’s Seasonal Streets Program, which turns streets into public plazas.
The closed-off block includes stretches of green turf, cafe chairs and tables, birch trees, planters and a bike lane that runs alongside the mural. There will
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also be free lemonade and live music on Wednesday afternoons. The Urban Garden will run through Aug. 31. This is one of several attempts in the city to transform streets temporarily into public spaces. The first three Saturdays in August will see the return of D.O.T.’s Summer Streets program; on Aug. 3, 10 and 17, between 7 a.m. and 1 p.m., seven miles of streets will be car-free from the Brooklyn Bridge to Central Park, including Park Ave. and connecting streets. Free activities on the closed-off Summer Streets will include fitness programs, play areas for kids and food stands. Last year the program drew almost 300,000 people, according to D.O.T. It’s modeled after similar events that occur worldwide, including in Paris, Bogota and London. Earlier this year, the city also held its annual Car-Free Day on April 27, during which 30 blocks of Broadway were closed to traffic between Times Square and Union Square.
July 25 - August 7, 2019
3
Police Blotter entered the women’s athletic-wear store located at 216 Columbus Ave., at W. 70th St., and started placing items from the display table into a bag. According to police, the thief then left the store with $2,768 worth of items and fled southbound on an e-bike parked outside.
19TH PRECINCT
Punched for misstep A woman was punched in the face after accidentally stepping on someone’s shoes, police said. On July 13, at 12:50 p.m., a 23year-old woman exited a Starbucks att 1261 Lexington Ave., at E. 85th St. On her way to the Lexington Ave. train station at 86th St., she stopped at a crosswalk, where she accidentally stepped on a man’s sneakers. According to police, the man then punched the young woman on the left side of her face and ran to the train station.
Shady thief Police said a man took off with $1,652 worth of designer sunglasses in a shoplifting haul on the Upper West Side. On June 30, at about 12:40 p.m., the thief entered the Sunglass Hut at 2218 Broadway, at W. 79th St., and began taking sunglasses off the shelves and placing them into a bag. He then exited the place, jumped into a cab and fled northbound on Broadway, according to police. He stole a $270 pair of Prada sunglasses, two pair of Tiffany sunglasses, one worth $360 and the other worth $240, a $300 pair of Prada sunglasses, and three pair of Ralph Lauren sunglasses worth $150, $130 and $90.
Packages perp The same man was arrested twice for stealing packages from Upper East Side buildings, police said. On July 12, at 9:37 p.m., a man was seen inside a building on E. 94th St. placing packages that did not belong to him into his backpack. According to cops, the guy was not a resident of the building and was arrested once he exited the building with the packages. A week later, on July 17, the same individual was seen again taking packages from a building, this time on E. 88th St. at 12:58 a.m. According to police, the man was arrested again when he exited the building.
Phone scam An 85-year-old woman was swindled out of $1,600, according to cops. On July 12, at 10 a.m., an elderly woman received a phone call from someone stating she was a public defender and told her that her grandson
had been arrested. According to police, the caller then told the woman that in order to bail out her grandson, she needed $1,600 in cash as soon as possible. The concerned grandma then went to the bank to withdraw the funds, which she then gave to the mystery caller in an envelope. Later that day, the woman that had made the call picked up the money from the grandmother in the lobby of her Park Ave. building.
Credit cards stolen at movie theater A woman told police she had her credit cards stolen while at the movies with her son. On July 6, at noon, a woman went to the AMC Movie Theater at 1998 Broadway, at 68th St., to watch “Toy Story 4� with her son. The 42-year-old mother sat down in movie theater No. 6 and placed her handbag on the seat next to her. According to police, she said there were no other moviegoers sitting in her row
20TH PRECINCT
E-bike getaway A man took off on e-bike after robbing an Athleta clothing store. On July 2, around 5:20 p.m., a man
nor was anyone sitting in front of her. But there were people sitting in the row behind her. When the movie ended, the woman noticed that her purse and wallet were both open. According to officers at the 20th Precinct, the woman’s Citi Mastercard and American Express card had all been taken.
Locker break-in Someone broke into a locker at the Equinox gym at 344 Amsterdam Ave., at W. 76th St., police said. On July 9, around 5:30 p.m., a 30year-old man locked his belongings in locker No. 887 at the tony Upper West Side gym. According to police, the man returned to the locker at 6:18 p.m. to find that it had been opened. His American Express credit card and $100 were taken from the locker. The victim told police that he canceled the card but noticed that it did have an unauthorized transaction for $77.97 at a Vitamin Shoppe.
24TH PRECINCT
Tools taken Police are still looking for a man wanted for burglary in the Manhattan Valley area. On May 22, at about 11:15 p.m., a man entered 56 Duke Ellington Parkway (W. 106th St. near Columbus Ave.) through the basement and stole $4,600 worth of contractors’ tools. He then fled the building in a unknown direction.
Alejandra O’ConnellDomenech
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July 25, 2019
5
Pols back immigrants vs. ICE raids BY ALEJANDR A O’CONNELLDOMENECH
L
ocal politicians and immigration advocates last Friday called on New Yorkers to prepare themselves for ICE raids. “This administration has really set its sights on immigrant communities and I want to make sure that New Yorkers stay vigilant,” said Congressmember Yvette Clarke, during a press conference at Foley Square. Congressmembers Nydia Velazquez and Adriano Espaillat, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and Attorney General Leticia James were also present. On Wed., July 17, Mayor Bill de Blasio said that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents had been spotted in the city at least eight times since Sat., July 13, AM New York reported. “We are sending a strong message to immigrants across New York,” said Congressmember Nydia Velazquez,
PHOTO BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELL-DOMENECH
Congressmember Nydia Velazquez spoke at Foley Square, calling on New Yorkers to educate themselves on their rights if confronted by ICE agents.
whose district includes parts of the East Village, Lower East Side, Brooklyn and Queens. “You are our neighbor and here in New York City, we take care of our neighbors.” Attorney General Letitia James said she is working with attorneys general across the U.S. to strengthen an underground network of advocates, immigrant groups, politicians and attorneys to help individuals who feel threatened by ICE to know their rights. “My office has been carefully monitoring the situation,” she said, “and we are assessing our legal actions.” The Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs and the American Civil Liberties Union Web sites provide fact sheets and tips on how individuals threatened by ICE can protect themselves. For example, if ICE agents come to a person’s home, they must have a warrant signed by a federal judge to enter. “This is not new, they raid every day,” Espaillat said. “It’s what we are fighting.”
School-fundraiser portal vanishes; Cash, too BY MICAELA MACAGNONE
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YCharities is an online contributions portal that many nonprofit organizations and New York City parent-teacher associations use to manage donations. Web sites of organizations that use NYCharities often include a “donate” button that links directly to the NYCharities Web site. NYCharities then maximizes organizations’ abilities to get donations, by allowing the donor to create a recurring donation, asking if the donor works for a company with a matching-gifts program, and offering tiered ticket pricing if organizations have ticketed events. All nonprofits are required to file a Form 990, which is a federal tax return exempting charities and nonprofits from income tax. In August 2018, NYCharities’ nonprofit status was revoked by the Internal Revenue Service for “not filing a Form 990-series return or notice for three consecutive years.” NYCharities did not publicly report this revocation. NYCharities has gone into ghost mode. Phone calls to its office and knocks on its door are not answered, as are most e-mails. Google Reviews throughout the last month have featured warnings like, “FELLOW DONORS & CHARITIES PLEASE SUBMIT A COMPLAINT TO THE NYS ATTORNEY GENERAL. — This nonprofit has disappeared with countless donations it received on behalf of other non profits. The total amount could amount to federal charges…” and “The nycharities website is down. They have taken donations on our company’s behalf and now I am concerned I may not get that money…” and “Sent a com-
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July 25 - August 7, 2019
but received no response. The P.S. 110 P.T.A. is owed $10,000 by NYCharities. The P.T.A. is responsible for all the Brooklyn school’s artenrichment programs; this past year the P.T.A. paid for art residencies, a program in the cafeteria called Wellness in the Schools, and an orchestra program with Carnegie Hall. After not receiving a response from NYCharities for a few days, Young called the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and went to the 94th Precinct, in Greenpoint. Police at the precinct told her that because the money wasn’t technically stolen from Young herself, donors themselves would have to come in to the precinct if they wanted to press charges or make a complaint. Leonie Haimson, the executive director of Class Size Matters, a nonprofit organization that advocates for smaller classes in the city’s public schools, is owed about $7,000 from NYCharities. Haimson is one of the few who has been able to get in contact with NYCharities by e-mail in the last two months. She emailed them on July 16 at 9:30 p.m., asking for the whereabouts of May and June donations. NYCharities responded at 10:30 p.m., saying: “We switched banks in June, and so sent most every charity amount by check. Is it possible that it wasn’t accounted for because of the way it came in?” Again, no name was used in the e-mail — and Haimson received no check. She reached out to the New York State Attorney General’s Office about the matter but received no information. Wendy Moore, the executive director of Little Essentials, tells a story similar to
plaint form to the NYS AG office. We did as we are very concerned about no communication from NYCharities, and what is happening to recurring monthly donation… .” The last time the organization posted on Facebook and Twitter was last November. Three organizations that worked with NYCharities, the P.T.A. for P.S. 110 (in Greenpoint, Brooklyn), Class Size Matters and Little Essentials, have not received any donations from NYCharities since May. In 2015, the P.S. 110 P.T.A. obtained 501(c)(3) nonprofit status. Parents involved in other nonprofits at the time had recommended NYCharities. Erica Young, the school’s P.T.A. president, said past interactions with NYCharities were normal: NYCharities would send the P.T.A. a check once a month, with the money donated through the Web site. The only thing that stuck out to Young was that names were never used in e-mails from NYCharities: No name signed off on e-mail exchanges. Last week, however, Young was redesigning the P.T.A.’s Web site and realized that the “Donate” button wasn’t working. Initially, she thought it was just a glitch. The following day, she got a phone call from a parent whose nonprofit also works with NYCharities, who told Young to check and see if she had received a June deposit from NYCharities, because her organization had not. Young realized they had not received a check; the last one they received from NYCharities was May 8, though the NYCharities Web site showed that it had “processed” all 138 donations it received from May and June. Young called and e-mailed NYCharities MEX
that of Young and Haimson. Little Essentials is an organization that offers “at-risk families living in poverty urgently needed children’s supplies and parenting education.” The group has used NYCharities without incident since 2012. But Moore realized something was wrong when they didn’t receive donations from May. Since then she has submitted complaints to the state attorney general and the New York State Charities Bureau. Moore, Young and Haimson all said they are concerned about asking people to cancel their recurring donations, and then asking them to recommit to contributing again on a different platform. The list of the board of directors and board of advisers on NYCharities’ Web site includes more than 50 influential names, along with their companies and positions. Among them are Silda Wall, founder of the Children For Children Foundation and ex-wife of former Governor Eliot Spitzer; John Haworth, director of the George Gustav Heye Center at the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian; Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari; and Charles Radcliffe, senior V.P. at Morgan Stanley. The attorney general’s and Manhattan district attorney’s offices have both been informed of NYCharities’ unresponsiveness and the money it owes to P.T.A.’s and other school groups. However, the A.G.’s office did not respond to e-mails or phone calls requesting comment from this paper; no one picked up repeated calls to the press line. The D.A.’s office declined to comment, and a spokesperson there would neither confirm nor deny if there is an active investigation into NYCharities. Schneps Media
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July 25, 2019
7
Obituary
Paul Krassner, 87, Yippies co-founder, editor BY MARY REINHOLZ
I
conoclastic author and humorist Paul Krassner, who coined the name “Yippie� for the Youth International Party and catapulted to 1960s counterculture fame, died Sunday at his Desert Hot Springs home in Southern California. He was 87. Krassner was also the founder/editor of The Realist, a now-defunct satirical publication he produced in the East Village while writing for Mad magazine. He was also a former standup comic at The Village Gate. His death followed a monthlong undiagnosed illness, said his daughter Holly Krassner Dawson. He had been ailing for about a year with an apparent neurological disorder, according to friends. Krassner, who has been touted as a forerunner to cutting-edge funnymen like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert — blending fact with fiction — was born in Brooklyn to Jewish parents but considered himself an atheist. He started in show business as a 6-year-old child violin prodigy at Carnegie Hall. Five years ago, he told this writer how he fell asleep on the stage in the august music
house in “the middle of Vivaldi’s ‘Concert in A Minor’� and started scratching an itch on his left foot with his right foot. The audience roared. “And I was awakened by the sound of an audience laughing,� he said. “It was a life-changing moment. I perceived reality through the prism of absurdity. I had a technique for playing the violin, but I had a passion for making people laugh.� “Irreverence is our only sacred cow� was Krassner’s motto for The Realist, whose A-list contributors ranged from Norman Mailer to Mort Sahl. One of his most popular offerings at the magazine, which he launched with cheap paper in 1958, was a wall poster showing Disneyland cartoon characters at a 1967 “Disneyland Memorial Orgy.� His most infamous was a seemingly LSD-inspired fantasy of President Lyndon Baines Johnson committing necrophilia in the bullet hole of John F. Kennedy’s corpse while aboard Air Force One. Called “The Parts Left out of the Manchester book,� the gruesome article was based on a biography of J.F.K. by William Manchester, which had been
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Last April, Jim Drougas, owner of Unoppressive Nonimperialist Bargain Books, on Carmine St., live-streamed Paul Krassner into the shop for a book talk.
rejected by his widow Jacqueline Kennedy. Some prominent writers thought Krassner’s put-on was true. “He went beyond irreverent to psychedelic and putting people on another life path,� said Los Angeles journalist Rex Weiner, a former contributor to the underground East Village Other and a founder of the short-lived New York Ace in the early 1970s. In noting how Krassner used to say, “The truth is silly putty,� Weiner noted that Krassner’s mind-bending satire “may have led to a disregard for objective truth� in the Trump era. “But at the time,� Weiner noted, “the government was deceiving the public on everything — Vietnam and civil rights.� Krassner, he said, wanted to alter people’s perceptions. Krassner wrote about 20 books, including second editions, and edited the autobiography of mentor Lenny Bruce’s “How to Talk Dirty and Influence People.� Besides co-founding the Youth International Party in 1967, he was a member of Ken Kesey’s band of Merry Pranksters. He always seemed intent on “giving the finger to The Man,� said fellow Yippie Aron “The Pie Man� Kay, 69, who first met Krassner at an A.J. Liebling media conference at Manhattan’s Commodore Hotel in 1974. “He was promoting The Realist and I was promoting Yipster Times,� recalled Kay. He recalled Krassner publicly French-kissing the so-called “Realist Nun� Margo St. James, a politicized sex worker in a nun’s habit who founded a prostitutes-rights group in San Francisco called Coyote (Call Off Your Tired
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Old Ethics). He acknowledged that such antics by Krassner inspired him to take a counterculture job throwing pies at political enemies. Kay lauded Krassner for his early advocacy of women’s reproductive rights. “He ran an underground abortion network providing abortion referrals to women who couldn’t afford to go to Europe,� he recalled. This was long before the 1973 passage of Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court decision granting women the legal right to terminate unwanted pregnancies. Krassner went on to join fellow Youth International Party co-founders like Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin at the wildly chaotic 1967 Democratic National, Convention, dodging clubwielding Chicago cops. He was later dubbed an unindicted co-conspirator for the riotous scene, and testified at trial reportedly stoned on LSD, according to Los Angeles author Pat Thomas, who published a coffee-table biography of Yippie leader Jerry Rubin last year. Thomas, who kept in touch with Krassner since their first meeting in 2009, said that the older man was “profeminist but I know some feminists were pissed when he was [briefly] an editor at Hustler magazine.� Thomas noted that decades earlier, Krassner gave money to panhandling actress and writer Valerie Solanas to help her publish her savagely satirical “The Scum Manifesto,� not long before she shot and nearly killed Andy Warhol in 1968. “He gave her $50 so she could produce ‘The Scum Manifesto,’� Thomas said. “He said it wasn’t right for The Realist, but he felt she should print it on her own.� Krassner, he noted, once told him he went to the Spahn Ranch in Simi Valley and “dropped acid� with Charles Manson follower Squeaky Fromme, “so he would know what it felt like to be part of the Manson Family. Paul was fearless,� added Thomas in a phone interview. “I didn’t grill him about it. It was just a tiny anecdote he threw out one day.� These days, Thomas puts Krassner in the company of Jewish counterculture figures like the late beat poet Allen Ginsberg. “He was there before The Onion, before Spy,� he said. “He really invented print political satire. I think he mastered the art, like Lenny Bruce and George Carlin. He made an impact.� Besides his daughter Holly, Krassner is survived by his second wife, Nancy Cain, and a granddaughter Talia. Arrangements for a memorial are pending. His latest book is “Zapped by the God of Absurdity, The Best of Paul Krassner� (Fantagraphics Books, September 2019). Schneps Media
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July 25 - August 7, 2019
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In blackout, Johnson shines, Blaz fizzles BY LINCOLN ANDERSON
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he big event on Saturday evening July 13 was supposed to be Day Two of the summer version of “Manhattanhenge.” The sunset would perfectly align with the borough’s east-west cross streets, creating a golden canyon effect, and everyone and her cousin would snap photos of it and post them on social media. Instead a massive blackout hit the West Side, starting just after 6:45 p.m., and affecting roughly 72,000 Con Edison customers, according to the utility. Power was eventually restored to all affected areas, five hours later, shortly before midnight. The outage was initially confi ned to the blocks
west of Fifth Ave. between 42nd and 72nd Sts. The New York Post reported that, by 9 p.m., the affected area had spread down to W. 12th St. in the Village, and police were telling motorists to avoid the blocks between W. 12th and W. 72nd Sts. west of Fifth Ave. The New York Times said the affected area didn’t go south of W. 30th St. By Monday, Con Edison’s investigation had concluded that the “initiating event” of Saturday’s blackout was an electrical cable fi re at W. 64th St., which, in turn, affected a substation on W. 49th St. “Our inspection of equipment and preliminary review of system data over the past 40 hours indicates that the relay-protection system at our W.
65th St. substation did not operate as designed,” Con Ed said in a statement. “That system detects electrical faults and directs circuit breakers to isolate and de-energize those faults. The relay-protection system is designed with redundancies to provide high levels of reliability. In this case, primary and backup relay systems did not isolate a faulted 13,000-volt distribution cable at W. 64th St. and West End Ave. “The failure of the protective relay systems ultimately resulted in isolation of the fault at the W. 49th St. transmission substation, and the subsequent loss of several electrical networks, starting at 6:47 p.m.” Helping New Yorkers remain calm through it all was Council Speaker Corey Johnson, who regularly tweeted out informative updates, earning major kudos in the process. Meanwhile, Mayor Bill de Blasio was pilloried for being out of town, in Iowa, on his apparently quixotic presidential campaign, and for issuing just one, fairly generic tweet in response to the crisis. Johnson, of course, also represents District 3, which covers the West Side from the Village to Columbus Circle, which bore the brunt of the blackout. Nicole Gelinas, a Hell’s Kitchen resident and Post columnist who lives near the problem substation, tweeted: “Corey Johnson is in touch with everyone, answering constituents’ concerned tweets, and doing minute-to-minute updates on the radio and Twitter where de Blasio is, like, where? Looking for a plane out of place whose population is smaller than people impacted by blackout.” The mayor did not get back in town until 12:30 p.m. the next day, nearly 13 hours after electrical service had been restored, according to reports. Other media figures likewise spun the blackout as a major moment for Johnson but another blot on de Blasio’s record, adding to his reputation as an “absentee mayor.” Jessica Winter, executive editor of newyorker. com, tweeted: “Corey Johnson is the mayor now.” Indeed, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi might dismiss Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her “Twitter world” as being just a lot of hype. But during the blackout, many really appreciated and relied on Johnson’s tweets. Ben Max, executive editor of Gotham Gazette, praised Johnson’s Twitter skills, tweeting: “Given AOC [is] in another stratosphere, no one in New York politics comes even close to Corey Johnson in understanding how important twitter can be.”
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Cyclists ready to roll against cancer BY AIDAN GR AHAM
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ore than 180 cyclists will don spandex and hit the saddle for a daunting seven-day cycling journey from Staten Island to Niagara Falls on Sun., July 28, in a race to fight an even more grueling challenge — cancer. The 540-mile annual Empire State Ride was conceived in 2014 by Terry Bourgeois to raise funds for cancer research — and has grown exponentially since his inaugural ride, he said. “Every year, this ride brings its participants an experience that will stay with them the rest of their lives,” Bourgeois said. “We keep saying it’s a ride cyclists must try once in their lives, but the impact — on you and on cancer — increases exponentially the more you do it.” This year, organizers hope to raise more than $1 million from riders and sponsors — which will go to supporting cutting-edge cancer research at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo, according to the organization. Riders push themselves to the physical limits during the exhausting crossstate cycling trek, but find inspiration to keep pedaling from those who have conquered cancer, according to one
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EMPIRE STATE RIDE
First-time Empire State Ride par ticipate Sari Schorr is gearing up for the star t of a seven-day journey across New York State, beginning July 28.
rider who will make his second voyage this year. “The idea of what they’ve gone through — this ride is nothing com-
pared to hours of chemotherapy,” said Brooklynite Phil Zodda. “I’m not a cancer survivor, but when you’re riding side by side with someone who has
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gone through that, you can’t feel bad for yourself — those mountains flatten out.” After their exhaustive days filled with nonstop riding, cyclists will make six overnight stops along the meticulously planned route at campgrounds in the Hudson Valley, Albany, Utica, Syracuse and Rochester until they reach the waterfall wonder of the world on Aug. 3. “It’s really more of an adventure as opposed to a race,” Zodda said. “It’s long and difficult, but I found it to be extremely rewarding.” Each night features a cancer-survivor speaker who inspires their fellow riders with their stories and speaks of the importance of raising funds to combat the disease — which claims the lives of around 600,000 Americans each year, according to government statistics. “Cancer can hit closer to home than we like,” said second-year rider Scott Cohen from Fresh Meadows, Queens. “I’ve battled several health issues for many years, including a bout of skin cancer… . I’ve lost several family members, and have friends that have and are fighting cancer.”
July 25, 2019
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Editorial
Hey, Bill! Can the campaign For many New Yorkers, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s delayed response to the Manhattan blackout on July 13 — as he continued his quixotic campaign for president a thousand miles away in Iowa — was the last straw. Since the days when Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia rode on a police motorcycle sidecar to get to major incidents around town during the Great Depression, New Yorkers have come to expect their mayors to be on the spot for any major crisis that may strike. But when the lights went out in Manhattan on Saturday night July 13 — trapping people in elevators, suspending subway service in Queens and beyond, and bringing the heart of the city to a standstill — de Blasio was nowhere to be found. While on yet another taxpayer-funded junket in his long-shot quest to become president, he phoned in the response, then waited hours before deciding he should get out of Iowa and come back to the city he was elected to serve. But by the time he returned, the crisis was long over. Surrogate leaders stepped up during de Blasio’s absence, including City Council Speaker Corey Johnson and Governor Andrew Cuomo. The blackout may have happened in Manhattan, but the rage over de Blasio’s no-show can be felt in every corner of the city. New Yorkers know that such a crisis could easily happen to them — and where would they be without the mayor’s leadership? Some have said it’s time for de Blasio to step aside, but we don’t think that’s required. Rather, it’s time for de Blasio to live up to the oath that he took to serve the people of New York City. And, yes, it’s time for him to drop out of the presidential race. Being mayor of New York City, it has been said, is the second-toughest job in America — second only to the presidency itself. De Blasio may be term-limited in 2021, but there are no limits to the very real challenges this city faces. Residents are dealing with myriad problems, including a higher cost of living, public transportation breakdowns, overcrowded schools, income inequality and more. Undocumented residents around the city also feared the worst over recent reports that ICE would be conducting a major deportation sweep. While the raid never materialized in the predicted large scale, the mayor decided to skip town anyway and campaign in Iowa — sending a message that he cares more about his fantastical White House hopes than he does for some of the city’s most vulnerable residents. Indeed, de Blasio’s blasé handling of the blackout weekend’s crises — not to mention past public policy blunders on everything from public education to public housing — indicate that he’s not ready for the White House at all. The Democratic field, crowded as it is, has far more competent and more qualified candidates for the presidency than our current mayor. No one on the campaign trail will miss de Blasio except for the mayor himself. Clearly, he can’t both be New York City’s mayor and run for president. Something’s got to give. Bill, get real — throw in the towel and stop being an absentee mayor — unless that is the legacy you truly want to leave.
A photo from the Aug. 11, 1960, issue of The Villager showed local Cub Scout Stephen Cossu, of 118 MacDougal St., presenting Yankees Manager Casey Stengel with a neckerchief and slide at Yankee Stadium. To the right of them, Thomas Aimone, of 8 Morton St., made the presentation speech on behalf of Troop 371, St. Joseph’s Church. The Scouts honored the legendary manager in connection with 50 years of Scouting, and Stengel’s 50th year in baseball and 70th birthday. Scout John C. Clifford, of 287 W. Fourth St., held the Pack flag in the background. Stengel played ball from 1912 to ’25, but became famous in later years as a manager. From 1949 to ’60, he won 10 pennants and seven titles as the Yankees skipper. He was fired after the 1960 season, when the team lost in the World Series to the Pittsburgh Pirates. The “Old Perfesser” went on to manage the inept inaugural Mets teams from 1962 to ’65.
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Letters to the Editor
Affordability could fly at old airfield BY LYNN ELLSWORTH
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here are many weaknesses to Mayor de Blasio’s trickledown approach to affordable housing. One is that it abandons direct provision of housing at the low end of the market and ignores the need to make housing permanently affordable. Just as bad, every city initiative related to housing has become a partnership with a big-shot developer, with all the cost and profit biases, the distorted set of winners and losers, and all the negative social costs that such a partnership with Big Real Estate entails. If de Blasio really cared about housing supply, he would be much more aggressive about building 100 percent permanently affordable units on public land using the land trust model. By foot-dragging on the public land trust approach, de Blasio and his team are leaving amazing housing opportunities on the table without a fight. I see three examples of public land that de Blasio has not fought for, where an excellent case can be made that the properties should be given over to a public land trust for permanently affordable housing — namely, two sites at the World Trade Center complex and the entirety of Floyd Bennett Field. World Trade Center Site 5 is the site of the former Deutsche Bank. Strangely, the Port Authority and Lower Manhattan Development Corporation have recently decided they want to sell that site off to the highest private-sector bidder for roughly $300 million. The governor is apparently gung-ho for the idea, if his release of a request for proposals, or R.F.P., for the site is an indicator of his thinking. It all means the World Trade Center site will see yet another glass tower with a mix of luxury office and luxury retail, instead of what we need there, which is either low-income housing or a park that isn’t for tourists. The mayor ought to be fighting for these sites, battling the questionable theory of “highest and best use” for disposition of public land. The other public land on the W.T.C. complex that is bizarrely not devoted to housing is the site that is supposedly slated for a boondoggle of a performing arts center — a glassy box designed by Frank Gehry, for which the funding has not yet been found. That funding is utterly dependent on private philanthropy — much like “Diller Island,” off of W. 14th St., a billionaire’s private project. What a silly diversion of private philanthropic money which ought to be better allocated to the renovation of the public Delacorte Theater in Central Park, an actual theater in desperate need of funding! Meanwhile, Floyd Bennett Field has about 1,000 acres under federal control. Given that Trump is a real estate developer and dislikes the E.P.A., isn’t it worth trying to get the airfield back under municipal control for housing? The place is not “nature” but an abandoned airfield with a lot of asphalt. Think what 1,000 acres could do if it was in a public land trust devoted to affordable housing on a human (say, R6 residential zoning) scale! The point of these examples is to illustrate the dangers of relying on “public private partnerships” to build affordable housing: The approach blinds us to the 100-percent public opportunities staring us in the face. We clearly need a new policy that builds up our land assets for affordable housing rather than sells public land off to developers. It is timely to raise the issue since the next election cycle is coming. So who among the mayoral contenders will embrace a different approach to housing that is not de Blasio 2.0? Ellsworth is co-founder, Human-scale NYC, and chairperson, Tribeca Trust
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PHOTO BY WILLIAM ALATRISTE/NYC COUNCIL
City Council Speaker Corey Johnson was on Long Island on the evening of Sat., July 13, when a blackout hit his West Side Council District 3. But he rushed right back to the cit y and kept New Yorkers updated with a flurr y of informative t weets. Mayor de Blasio, meanwhile, did not return from Iowa until 12:30 p.m. the nex t afternoon, prompting some to say it was yet another sign that Johnson is the “de facto mayor.”
Fear cars, not bikes
lowed all his Twitter posts for blackout info. Very reassuring. Thank you, Corey.
To The Editor: Re “Sharing the city streets” (editorial, July 18): Thanks for shooting down the “New York City is not Europe” jive, and it is certainly incumbent upon bicyclists to be mindful and considerate of pedestrians. But there is such a double standard around this question. So far this year, 81 pedestrians in New York have been killed in traffic “accidents.” Exactly one of those deaths was caused by a bicyclist — and it was the first since 2017. When the anti-bike brigade that haunts The Villager’s comments start to express a little concern over the neardaily carnage caused by motorists, maybe I will take them a little more seriously.
Bonnie Stein
Bill Weinberg
He’s fresh, exciting To The Editor: Re “In blackout, Johnson shines, Blaz fizzles” (news article, July 18): Corey Johnson is a magnificent, fresh and smart voice in New York City politics. I fol-
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woman sculptor, in Central Park. Harry Pincus
Monumental statue debate To The Editor: Re “Harlem historian: Suffragettes statue is ‘racist’” (news article, thevillager.com, July 11): If Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony were champions of “white women’s suffrage” and Sojourner Truth and Ida B. Wells were champions of “universal suffrage,” wouldn’t it be improper to combine all of the figures in one monument? There should be two separate monuments. It’s wrong to “label” a monument honoring two very worthy historical figures who lived more than 100 years ago as “racist.” Was their work predominantly racist, in the context of their time — or feminist? Should Meredith Bergmann now destroy her beautiful monument? All I can say is that 2020 will mark the centenary of my mother’s birth, and I will be pleased to see a new monument, or two new monuments, executed by an acclaimed
What Fred said To The Editor: Re “Harlem historian: Suffragettes statue is ‘racist’” (news article, thevillager.com, July 11): Frederick Douglass said: “When there were few houses in which the black man could have put his head, this wooly head of mine found refuge in the house of Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and if I had been blacker than sixteen midnights, without a single star, it would have been the same. There is no name greater than hers in the matter of woman’s rights and equal rights.” Coline Jenkins
E-mail letters, maximum 250 words, to news@thevillager.com or fax to 212-2292790 or mail to The Villager, Letters to the 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 will not be published. July 25, 2019
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Lessons Learned While On The Beat By Eric L. Adams
Protecting Homeowners When I bought my first house, where I still reside today, I felt a mix of pride of fear. Homeownership is a tremendous privilege and responsibility – I had scrimped and saved to get to this point, but I knew that many challenges, financial and otherwise, still lay ahead. Making a house into a home is a process that often takes several years. Some people undertake ambitious floor-to-ceiling renovations, while others are comfortable with adding a few personal touches but leaving everything else intact. But it is a labor of love – we make a home because we are investing in our future. We envision settling down, raising a family, and growing old in a place we call home. Even with the effort we put into building a home, homeowners – particularly in Brooklyn - are under increasing stress today. Some have fallen behind on their mortgage payments, others have lost their homes altogether. Foreclosures in Kings County last year reached their highest level since the housing bubble burst. And on top of that, a new epidemic of deed fraud has hit vulnerable homeowners in gentrifying neighborhoods, accelerating displacement and leaving many homeless. The kicker? The City may unintentionally be playing a role. The Third Party Transfer program (TPT) allows the City to foreclose on “distressed” properties and hand them over to developers to fix up and rent out at affordable prices. The program began in 1996, and is administered through the Department of Housing Preservation and Development. In theory, it sounds like a good idea. Using all the tools at our disposal to restore properties that have fallen into disrepair and increase affordable housing stock are noble goals. But the reality is much more complicated. Despite the City’s best intentions, TPT seems to be doing more harm than good. Often, the City deems properties “distressed” over something as trivial as an unpaid water bill. In November of 2018, after hearing from multiple people and sitting down with stakeholders throughout the borough that had firsthand experience with the program, I wrote a letter with Council Member Robert Cornegy to the Mayor outlining our concerns. We communicated our belief that TPT had unfortunately become tainted by fraud, and that homeowners were being stripped of their equity without the proper recourse. We also demanded that the City, State, and Federal government conduct a “full-scale, forensic audit” into the program.
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July 25, 2019
Eric L. Adams Our concerns turned out to be justified. In March of this year, Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Mark Partnow ruled against the City and restored properties to six homeowners who had their properties seized through the TPT program. In his decision, Justice Partnow wrote, “While the Third Party Transfer Program was intended to be a beneficial program, an overly broad and improper application of it that results in the unfair divestiture of equity in one’s property cannot be permitted.” There is still a lot of work to be done. In July, the City Council held a hearing on the TPT program, and our office submitted testimony. In the testimony, we reiterated our call for a full-scale investigation, and urged the Council to pass Public Advocate Jumaane Williams’ bill imposing a two-year moratorium on the program until we could implement the necessary reforms and strengthen oversight. In the coming weeks and months, we plan to roll out an ambitious, comprehensive agenda formulated with the input of experts and advocates that combats housing theft and rein in the excesses of TPT. I am also encouraging the Governor to sign S1688, a bill the legislature passed in the most recent session that would return stolen properties to their original owners. After all the time spent making a house a home, it is almost unimaginable that it could be taken away from you over arrears or a bureaucratic error. Unfortunately, that is how TPT is currently structured. We have an obligation to homeowners throughout Brooklyn and the City to ensure the homes they spend years cultivating remain in their hands. Eric L. Adams is borough president of Brooklyn. He served 22 years in the New York City Police Department (NYPD), retiring at the rank of captain, as well as represented District 20 in the New York State Senate from 2006 until his election as borough president in 2013.
COURTESY ASSEMBLYMEMBER ROSENTHAL
A ssemblymember Linda Rosenthal with an A .S.P.C. A . cat named Oats. Rosenthal’s bill banning cat declawing in New York State was signed into law on July 22.
New York is first state to ban cats’ declawing BY ALEJANDR A O’CONNELLDOMENECH
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ew York has officially become the first state in the country to ban cat declawing. On Mon., July 22, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law a bill by Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal and state Senator Michael Gianaris banning cat declawing. Under the new legislation, unless the procedure is performed to address a legitimate medical condition, cat owners that declaw their pets are subject to a fine of up to $1,000. “By banning this archaic practice, we will ensure that animals are no longer subjected to these inhumane and unnecessary procedures,” Cuomo said in a statement. Declawing involves the removal of almost all of the last bone in each toe of the cat’s front feet, according to the Humane Society of the United States. The equivalent for a human being would be cutting off each finger at the first knuckle. The procedure also calls for the removal of some tendons, ligaments and nerves in the cat’s paw, and can lead to
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chronic pain for the animals. “Complications from declawing include an increase in biting and litterbox avoidance —which often results in the cat being surrendered to an animal shelter,” said Kitty Block, president and C.E.O. of the Humane Society of the U.S. “The organization applauds Assemblymember Rosenthal and Senator Gianaris for the bill.” According to The New York Times, several cities, including Los Angeles and Denver, have banned the practice. California, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and West Virginia are also pushing to ban declawing, according to the Humane Society. Several Canadian provinces and European countries, including the U.K., Sweden, Germany, Austria and Switzerland, have banned the procedure, as well. Rosenthal, who represents the Upper West Side, said she hopes others will now follow in New York’s paw steps… er, footsteps. “Now that my bill has become law,” she said, “New York has been catapulted onto the leaderboard of humane states, and we expect other states to quickly follow in our footsteps.” Schneps Media
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Dr. Sutton on keeping girls in sports BY NEW YORK FAMILY
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ports have always been the go-to when it comes to finding an outlet for your children to unleash their unceasing energy. But it is more than just having them run around and get active. Sports play a key role in building your child’s confidence and set them up for success in the classroom, as well. However, studies have shown that today’s generation is the least active in history and girls are increasingly dropping out of sports because of some of the many obstacles they confront when it comes to playing the game. We caught up with sports expert Dr. Karen Sutton, who spoke to us about why young girls are dropping out of sports, how we can encourage them to stay involved, and the campaign “Keep Her In The Game,” which helps girls feel strong and confident about getting out there and playing sports! What is “Keep Her In The Game” all about? “Keep Her In The Game” is about empowering young girls to stay in sports — either athletically or professionally. I hope that girls will gain an understanding of how sports change during adolescence: the ins and outs of sports bras, deodorant, re-training muscles and managing your period during sports. Coaches and parents need to understand that younger female athletes respond to a positive tone in coaching, understanding the “why” behind drills, and enjoy a group camaraderie. As a surgeon in a field of 6 percent women, sports gave me the courage and tenacity to feel confident in a typically male profession. Surgery requires diligence, intelligence, ability to multitask and leadership, and I honed these qualities as an athlete throughout my life. Sports empowered me to push myself to succeed in my career and life. Studies have shown that girls are dropping out of sports at 150 percent the rate that boys do by the age of 14 and 17 years old. Why is this and what are some key factors involved? A study done by Refinery29 and Gatorade showed that key factors for girls dropping out of sports include social stigma, lack of access, safety and transportation issues, costs and a lack of positive role models. Social stigmas can exist where girls may feel less confident in sports when the spotlight is typically on the male athletes. Additionally, girls have a two-to-eight-times increased risk of anterior cruciate ligament injuries in pivoting and cutting sports. During adolescents there is a weakness in posterior muscles (gluteus medius and hamstrings), which can protect the A.C.L. from injury. Girls are at higher risk for patellofemoral pain syndrome and stress fractures. How are these studies about girl’s involvement in sports conducted? Surveying a diverse group of girls ranging from age 8 to 18 and understanding what is limiting their role in sports despite the work of Title IX. How can we encourage girls to stay in sports? Create a nurturing environment: It’s important to remember that girls respond to their environ-
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PHOTO BY LUKAS FROM PEXELS
Young girls in sports respond best to positive tone, encouragement and team camaraderie.
Dr. Karen Sutton.
ment. They prefer a group setting with teams that offer camaraderie, support and friendships. They want to understand the whys behind certain plays or decisions. If a team has a bad practice and the
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players hang their heads after, having a coach criticize and curse out players will not be well received nor achieve a productive result. Monitor progress: I like Oprah Winfrey’s approach. Keep a journal of your progress against immediate short- and long-term goals. This applies to sports, academics and your career. With respect to athletics, start by working with the team to come up with a saying that all can rally around. Determine your individual and team goals, then chart how you’re doing — whether it’s more playing time, working hard in practice or enhancing skills. Bring your coach, trainer and teammates into the loop, so all are invested in your goal-setting. Why is it so important for children to be involved in sports? Aside from health benefits, do these disciplines contribute to their development of life skills? Being on a team helps girls build confidence in their abilities, meet challenges, overcome adversity and connect the dots between hard work and results. On-field experiences can carry over to the classroom, among friend groups and even into the workplace. A 2017 Ernst & Young survey of high-level female executives found that 90 percent played sports. Among women who held C-suite titles, the proportion was even higher — 96 percent. The rate of girl’s participation in sports has been dropping. What can we hope to see for the future with girls in sports and what is being done now? We can hope to see positive role models in sports and careers and that playing sports increases success in the classroom, as well. Communities have to provide positive female role models in coaching and sports leadership roles. Nonprofits, such as Sporty Girls and Girls on the Run, promote sports and activities in girls for a healthier generation. Do you have daughters yourself? Or nieces? If so, how do you as a parent encourage them to take up sports and stick with them? I have a daughter who is 3 and three sons — 6, 7 and 9 years old — who are very active. My daughter likes to hang with the big boys, play in the backyard, attempt kicking soccer balls, and shooting a basket, etc. I give her developmentally appropriate skills to have fun while trying that out: lower basket, smaller basketball. It’s important to pay attention to developmental milestones. I also give her verbal cues — “Girls are so strong, girls are fast” — and her brothers encourage her, too. How would you deal with a child who swears to hate a certain sport? How long should a kid stick with an activity before quitting. We’re so focused on perfection and drills. Carve out practice time each week for a fun activity. Varsity and travel teams are not the right fit for everyone; consider joining house leagues and participating in intramural sports. Sutton is a sports medicine surgeon with expertise in arthroscopy of the shoulder, knee and hip. She is an associate attending orthopedic surgeon at Hospital for Special Surgery and head team physician for U.S. Women’s Lacrosse, chief medical officer for Federation of International Lacrosse, and team physician for US Ski & Snowboard.
July 25, 2019
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Eats
Oddfellows stands out with unique flavors list goes on. We focus on staying true to ourselves and our mission and make things with integrity.” The company pasteurizes its own ice cream base in its Brooklyn kitchen, and uses locally sourced dairy without hormones or additives. And the ice cream is made daily in small batches, with flavors changing on a daily basis in the shops and sometimes even more than once a day. “One of the reasons people come back to us is because we are constantly rotating flavors and have a strong commitment to texture,” Kumar said. “People know they’ll get classics and ‘odd’ flavors with us. But we hope they come back for our texture and curiosity of not knowing what will be in the cabinet when they step foot inside our scoop shop next.” Kumar co-founded Oddfellows with his wife Holiday and friend Sam Mason. The first shop opened in Williamsburg in June 2013.
BY GABE HERMAN
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s its name suggests, Oddfellows Ice Cream Co. makes some unusual flavors, in both savory and sweet categories, to go along with more classic choices. A recent trip to the location at 55 E. Houston St., at Mott St., presented ice cream options like Thai iced tea, miso cherry, lemon meringue pie, carrot cake, extra virgin olive oil and strawberry, and malt maitake mushroom peanut. There was also dark chocolate chunk, vanilla bean and milk and cookies for the slightly less adventurous. Co-founder Mohan Kumar said the wide variety helps Oddfellows stand out in the crowded local ice cream scene. “We were the first shop to really take some risks,” he said, “with flavors like Cornbread, Chorizo Caramel Swirl, Miso Cherry, Saffron Passionfruit, the
PHOTO BY GABE HERMAN
Oddfellows’ offerings at the Whole Foods on the Bower y include dark chocolate chunk.
Do you know THESE MEN?
In planning the company, the three co-founders decided on themes of “carnival” and “weird,” and a shop that wasn’t just for kids, according to Mohan. A Google search of “carnival” and “weird” yielded “Oddfellows,” and the name worked with the carnival feel and including the word “odd,” Mohan said. The store now has four locations, with two in Brooklyn and two in Manhattan, including the one on E. Houston St. and another in the East Village at 75 E. Fourth St., between Second Ave. and the Bowery. A fifth location is coming soon to Bushwick. Oddfellows has a small selection of flavors in Whole Foods shops. The location on E. Houston St. and the Bowery, for example, has three flavors: dark chocolate chunk, burnt marshmallow and banana puddin’. “There is no doubt that being in Whole Foods Market is a boost,” Mohan said. Since there are only a handful of flavors one can get at Whole Foods Market, it leads customers into one of our scoop shops where they’re excited by the unique variety of flavors they can find.” More information on the company can be found at oddfellowsnyc.com.
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PHOTO BY BOB KRASNER
From right, the Bush Tetras’ C ynthia Sley and Pat Place, with an audience member on percussion. Sley invited people to come up and dance onstage. One woman danced. This guy played.
Bush Tetras and Co. get hot for Justice BY BOB KR ASNER
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ance beats, punk rock and noise mingled in the heat in Tompkins Square Park on Friday in the interests of justice. Specifically, Avenues For Justice, a nonprofit that was founded 41 years ago on Avenue B. The organization’s main focus is to keep kids between the ages of 14 and 24 out of prison by finding alternatives to incarceration and preventing recidivism, according to Gamal Willis, the group’s manager of outreach and court advocacy. Headliners Collapsing Scenery instigated the show, suggesting to an A.F.J. board member that they celebrate their latest album’s release with a benefit gig. The Bush Tetras, definitely the crowd favorite, were also celebrating a new release — a single on Third Man Records. Their mix of old and new tunes included the classic “Too Many Creeps.” Lead singer Cynthia Sley had some complaints about the heat, but not after they hit the stage.
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PHOTO BY BOB KRASNER
Zah was a change of pace.
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“Once we were onstage we were happy,” she said. Also appearing were the ambitiously eclectic band Nymph and solo artist Zah. An intriguing performer, Zah mixed voice and electronics while wearing an elaborate robe, horrormovie contact lenses and a piece of lingerie that is not normally found on one’s head. Weston Muench, A.F.J. social media director, judged the event a success. “It was our first time doing this,” he said. “We raised money, people signed up for our newsletter and took the pamphlets. We’re gauging the possibility for future events — we want to do it again.” More information about Avenues For Justice, including on their two Manhattan community centers, can be found at www.avenuesforjustice. org . The Bush Tetras will be at the Mercury Lounge, at E. Houston St. near Essex St., on Aug. 3. Schneps Media
Marianne & Leonard: A lasting love BY LINCOLN ANDERSON
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he new documentary “Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love” reportedly may not break much new ground for hardcore Leonard Cohen fans. But it nonetheless paints a riveting and thought-provoking portrait of the artist and Marianne Ihlen, his Norwegian “muse,” from their idyllic time together on the Greek island of Hydra in their 20s all the way to the end of their lives. After achieving notoriety as a poet in his native Canada, Cohen bought a house on Hydra — which sported a bohemian artist enclave — and tried to make a go of it as a novelist. He met Ihlen in a cafe and soon they were living together. Baking on his porch in the hot sun while hammering away at his typewriter on speed, Cohen cranked out “Beautiful Losers.” Meanwhile, Ihlen did the shopping and adored him. But the book received mixed reviews. Instead, Cohen switched to songwriting. With an assist from Judy Collins, who promoted him, his brooding, romantic compositions and inscrutable mystique soon made him a star. Cohen asked Ihlen to come join him living in New York City, but the doors to fame had been flung open for him, and he jumped through lustily. We learn about how, while Cohen was trysting with Janis Joplin “on an unmade bed” at the Chelsea Hotel, Ihlen was in the dark about it all. Providing a knowing, humorous commentary on Cohen is Aviva Layton, the wife of his great friend the Canadian poet Irving Layton. Basically, she explains, Cohen is the type of man that all women want — but that none can have. Indeed, Cohen bounced from relationship to relationship throughout his life. We also learn about how the legacy of Hydra was like a curse for its bohemian artists and their families, who were racked by substance abuse and other problems. A thread of madness runs through the film, starting with Cohen’s mother. We see entertaining footage of Cohen on tour, showing his lighter, playful side with bandmates, a stark contrast to his stoic stage presence. Ron Cornelius, his guitarist — and a doppelganger for Bill Clinton — recalls they were taking so much Mandrax (Quaaludes) on tour, that one night he literally faceplanted onstage. And then there were the 23 straight nights of dropping acid.
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Marianne Ihlen and Leonard Cohen stepping out on Hydra.
We see a brief clip of Cohen during his Upstate Buddhist-retreat phase, where he is the servant of a seemingly crotchety monk.
man and get an office job. Through the years, Cohen continued to invite her to his shows. And we see her in the audience at one show in their later years, smiling and singing right along to his jaunty breakup song to her, “So Long, Marianne.” The two died just months apart from each other in 2016. Cohen was 82 and Ihlen, 81. A little online reading reveals that Ihlen gave Cohen the central image for one of his most famous songs, “Bird on a Wire.” She had seen a bird sitting on a telephone line, and said it looked like a musical note, and suggested he do a song about it. In a side note, after the movie’s release, Bono and his family, while “is-
Cohen is the type of man all women want. The movie’s director, Nick Broomfield, is an experienced filmmaker, known for his documentaries, whose credits include “Monster in a Box,” “Heidi Fleiss: Hollywood Madam,” “Kurt and Courtney,” “Biggie & Tupac” and “Sarah Palin: You Betcha!” among many others. Broomfield himself also had a shortlived affair with Ihlen, whom he recalls as having a knack for helping people identify their true skill. She encouraged him to get into documentary filmmaking. The director also artfully uses archival footage of Ihlen sailing off of Hydra by D.A. Pennebaker. These gauzy shots evoke the feel of an earlier, faraway paradise. It’s hard not to feel a bit sad about Ihlen’s fate. She does go on to return to Norway and marry a Norwegian
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land hopping,” visited Cohen’s former home on Hydra and posted a photo and slightly doctored lyrics to “Bird on a Wire” on the U2 Instagram page. This movie gives one a lot to think about, about creativity and relationships, Cohen’s music, career and psyche, endings — endings that are not really endings — life itself and aging. We are left with the haunting, somewhat faded and blurry image of Marianne on the gently bobbing sailboat, with the yellow sun burning over the silver-sparkling Aegean sea — a moment in time in two complex lives. As one filmgoer at the Angelika Film Center recently said, as the credits started to roll, “That was a beautiful film.”
July 25, 2019
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Steve Cannon in 2014 at the ďŹ nale of A Gathering of the Tribes, on E. Third St., when he was forced to leave the legendary space.
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riends and family of Steve Cannon packed the Bowery Poetry Club on Sun., July 14, for a marathon memorial for the late East Village poet and arts icon. Cannon, 84, who was blind, died July 7 while recuperating from a broken hip he had suffered a month earlier in a fall in his Avenue D apartment. A writer who also had an earlier career as a teacher, in his mid-50s, Cannon turned his E. Third St. apartment into A Gathering of the Tribes, a welcoming, anything-goes literary and arts salon. He was known for nurturing — and haranguing with tough love — generations of young poets and writers. He also published some of them as an independent publisher. “It was six hours. It was Steve’s domain,� Bob Holman, founder of Bowery Poetry Club, said of the event, which he emceed. “There was heckling. The hecklers were being heckled. There was music. There were tears.� He said 10 members of Cannon’s family, mostly from Baltimore, were sitting at “the big table in the corner.� Meanwhile, a big blown-up whacky photo of Cannon, with his glasses askew, by Clayton Patterson, was “the backdrop� for the memorial speakers and performers. The memorials came in the form of poetry, reminiscences and music. Two Boots Pizza fittingly provided its aptly dubbed A Gathering of the Tribes pies. “It’s got a lot of meat,� Holman noted of the pizzas named after Cannon’s famed space. Summing up the eclectic mix of people, performances and pizza at the memorial, Holman said that, both literally and figuratively, “It was A Gathering of the Tribes.� Hoylman added it’s hoped that a complete six-hour video of the memorial will be available for viewing by midweek.
Extra! Extra! Local News Read all about it!
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Manhattan Happenings BY MICAEL A MACAGNONE
THEATER Swashbuckling drama: Hudson Warehouse presents “The Man in the Iron Mask” — about the aging Four Musketeers — adapted by Susane Lee and directed by Nicholas Martin-Smith, July 25-28, on the North Patio of the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument, in Riverside Park at W. 89th St. and Riverside Drive, at 6:30pm. Admission is pay what you can and no tickets necessary. Free classical Greek: New York Euripides Summer Festival presents “Iphigenia Among the Taurians,” fully staged, free classical Greek theater. Synopsis: Iphigenia actually was not sacrificed by Agamemnon but saved by Artemis, whom she now serves as a priestess in the goddess’s temple at Tauris, which her brother Orestes and friend Pylades arrive to rob. Mon., July 29, 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m, at the East River Park Amphitheater. No intermission. Free. The festival will present its other summer show, “Daughters of Troy,” the following night, July 30. All dolled up: In “Reborning,” Kelly is an artist who creates lifelike dolls… often based on real babies – sometimes for collectors, other times for mothers dealing with the loss of their infants. Things take a dramatic turn in this dark comedy when new client Emily commissions baby doll Eva. At the Soho Playhouse, 15 Vandam St., through Aug. 3. Daily shows except for July 29. For tickets and information, visit sohoplayhouse.com.
MUSIC Kickin’ it: The Afropop quartet Magic System has been known for high-energy performances and magical vibes since its founding in 1996 in Ivory Coast. Their 2014 hit single “Magic in the Air” became a signature song of the FIFA soccer World Cup. Sun., July 28, 2 p.m. to 7 p.m., at Rumsey Playfield in Central Park. Free.
OUTDOORS High Line tour: Learn the history of the High Line on the “From Freight to Flowers” tour on Tuesdays, from Schneps Media
Magic System will be bring their upbeat Afropop to the Rumsey Play field in Central Park on Sun., July 28
about planting seeds, tending crops, harvesting and cooking. Includes a raw-cooking demo and tasting with produce harvested from Battery Urban Farm. RSVP at tbcevents.eventbrite. com. Sat., July 27, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m, at Battery Urban Farm, at State St. and Battery Place. Sunny delight: The Amateur Astronomers Association and solargazing return with solar telescopes specifically designed to look at the sun safely and see sunspots and prominences under a summer sky. Sun., July 28, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m at Pier I, in Riverside Park South, W. 70th St.
6:30 p.m. to 7:45 p.m., and Saturdays, from 10 a.m. to 11:15 a.m., through October. The 75-minute tours are led by High Line docents — knowledgeable volunteer guides with an insider’s perspective on the park’s history, design and landscape. Meet on the High Line’s southern end at Gansevoort St. Because space is limited, arrive at least 15 minutes early to guarantee a spot. Tours are subject to cancellation due to weather. Check @highlinenyc on Twitter for updates prior to arriving at the park. Heroic coastal cleanup: Join Riverside Park Conservancy and TRASH HERO to clean up garbage and recyclables that are carried in with the tides and pile up along the Hudson River coastline. Closed-toed work shoes required. Do not bring additional bags; there is no storage for belongings. Dress comfortably and prepare to get dirty. For more event information or to register, call 212870-3073 or e-mail grassroots@riversideparknyc.org. Sat., July 27, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Meet at W. 59th St. by the Hudson River. Young green thumbs: Facilitated by Battery Conservancy, learn to engage kids of any age in gardening. Battery Urban Farm’s educators will share their insights with budding gardeners
TALKS Talks, for Reel: Film Every Monday until Aug. 19, the Reading Room in Bryant Park offers “Reel Talks,” hosted by film connoisseur Scott Adlerberg. On Mon., July 29, the talk will feature Radha Vatsal, co-editor of the Women Film Pioneers Project. 12:30 p.m. to 1:45 p.m, at the Reading Room in Bryant Park, at Sixth Ave. and W. 41st St.
DANCE It takes…you to tango: Put on your
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dancing shoes and learn to dance tango and milonga with Strictly Tango NYC Dance School in Washington Square Park. Come with your partner, your friends or by yourself and fi nd a new dancing partner! If rain, the event will be canceled. Tues., July 30, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., at Holley Plaza in Washington Square. Free. Sponsored by Washington Square Park Conservancy.
ART Staff stunners: For the fourth consecutive year, the Whitney Museum of American Art presents an art show — Westside Exposure: Whitney Staff Art Show 2019 — featuring the work of roughly 100 Whitney staff members. The exhibit is open Wednesdays to Sundays, 1 p.m. to 6 p.m., until Aug. 15, at the Westbeth Gallery, 55 Bethune St., between Washington and West Sts.
COMMUNITY BOARD Community Board 1 full board, Tues., July 30, 6 p.m., Municipal Building, 1 Centre St., north mezzanine. July 25, 2019
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Real Estate
FiDi tenants win rent-reg fight BY GABE HERMAN
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ower Manhattan tenants scored a decisive win in a late June Appeals Court decision, which ruled they had the right to rent stabilization, rent refunds and lowered rents, and that landlords receiving 421-G tax breaks could not deregulate apartments. The 421-G tax exemption for landlords passed the state Senate in 1995. It incentivized turning Lower Manhattan office space into residential use during a time when people were fleeing the area. In return for the tax breaks, apartments would be rent stabilized, with only small rent increases and guaranteed lease renewals for as long as the 421-G benefits were being received. Before the state Senate voted on the bill back in 1995, then-Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno submitted a “Giuliani Letter” into the record. Not officially part of the legislation, the letter said that the city’s view of the bill was that luxury deregulation would still be allowed for apartments with rents over a certain amount. Landlords have used the Giuliani Letter to argue that they can raise rents. In two Manhattan State Supreme Court cases involving Financial Dis-
trict-area buildings, Kuzmich v. 50 Murray Acquisition and West v. BCRE—90 West, the court ruled in 2017 in favor of the tena nts
and said that luxury deregulation did not apply to 421-G tax breaks. However, the Appellate Division then overturned those decisions, ruling that the apartments had been properly deregulated under the Rent Stabilization Law from 1993, and were not exempted from deregulation by 421-G. Now the Court of Appeals has had what will likely be the final word on the matter, according to attorney Serge Joseph, who represented tenants at 50 Murray St. and 90 West St. The Court of Appeals wrote in its majority decision regarding the 421-G tax breaks, that the law required rent regulation for as long as the buildings receive the tax breaks. “The Legislature’s intention, as reflected in the language of the statute at issue here,” the decision read, “is clear and inescapable.” The Appeals Court decision was 6-1 in favor of the tenants. The majority decision noted that because the 421-G legislation passed after the Rent Stabilization Law, its exemption from luxury deregulation was sufficient and did not require go-
PHOTO BY GOOGLE MAPS
Tenants at 90 West St., above, blocked their landlord from using luxur y deregulation.
ing back to the earlier law to amend it for this exception. Joseph told this paper that he was very happy about the Appeals Court decision, after fighting for more than a decade on this issue, which affects thousands of Lower Manhattan tenants. “I’ve been partying, drinking Champagne,” Joseph said. “It was a long fight, and now this is it.” Tenants at 90 West had joined the issue over 421-G after the building’s owner, The Kibel Company, tried to raise rents by 33 percent in 2016, tenant Taylor West told this paper in 2017. An amicus brief supporting tenants at 90 West was filed by then-Public Advocate Letitia James in 2016 and signed by 37 other local politicians, including Assemblymember Deborah Glick, Councilmember Margaret Chin and state Senator Daniel Squadron. A similar suit was also previously filed by local politicians supporting the tenants at 50 Murray St. “It has been a very long and arduous fight,” said Joseph, in a statement after the Appeals Court decision. “We look forward to working with Downtown tenants to ensure that as many tenants as possible benefit from the Court’s decision.”
Bowling alley? Own pool? Amenities frenzy BY MARTHA WILKIE
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first experienced Hudson Yards accidentally, while en route to the High Line. I walked past a gleaming glass tower set directly atop the access route to the Lincoln Tunnel — 24hours-a-day honking. I thought, why would anyone live here? See that sunset on the roof deck? That’s why. Developers compete with each other for the most over-the-top amenities. (Warning: if you’re the type who rages that Manhattan’s being ruined by the 1 percent, you may wish to stop reading now.) Extras include climbing walls, IMAX theater, golf simulators, basket-
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ball courts, yoga studios, automated robotic parking (what even is this?) and even access to private yachts and jets. Parents used to lugging strollers to fourth-floor walk-ups will rejoice at stroller valet. Hand-delivered mail is a nice touch. Does someone pick up the garbage, too, or are there “Jetsons”-like pneumatic tubes? Adrienne Berman, an agent with Brown Harris Stevens, is realistic. “In some markets, amenities sell the apartment,” he said. “However, today, buyers are looking for value and are willing to forgo the valet parking. The one exception is in-unit washers and dryers. There’s no amount of money New Yorkers won’t pay for that golden amenity.”
As for me, I happily live in a building with laundry in the basement and a bike room. Here are four listings, all with the latest mod cons: A no-fee rental studio in Hudson Yards offers “unparalleled amenities,” including a climbing wall, full-size basketball court, piano and poker lounge, billiards room, and that stunning roof deck. $3,924. The Lucida, at 151 E. 85th St., is the first LEED-certified building on the Upper East Side and has a nifty indoor basketball court with a wall that opens to the street, a pool and free Pilates and yoga classes. A two-bedroom, two-and-a-half bath with soundproof TVG
floor-to-ceiling windows is renting for $12,000. In the Financial District, the former J.P. Morgan building, at 15 Broad St., offers reflecting and swimming pools, a sports lounge, concierge, squash courts, bowling and more. Two bedroom, two bath. $1.9 million. In West Chelsea, at the Soori High Line, at 522 W. 29th St., a five-bedroom, with five-and-a-half baths, sports an “Augsburg oak paneled private elevator” and “Bavarian Spessart oak” in the kitchen. (I’ll take, “Obscure German Oaks” for $1,000, Alex.) Amenities include a “lifestyle concierge” and private parking spaces. $22.5 million. Schneps Media
Dr. Nicole Carreau Joins NYCBS’ Central Park Oncology Team Studying medicine has been Dr. Carreau’s passion and she was inspired to pursue it. “I was always interested in science and I wanted to build a career in which I could make a difference in people’s lives every day.” Dr. Carreau’s research in both Hodgkin’s and Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma patients included leading a team of investigators across 17 centers in the US and Canada. Her research could allow patients who were previously considered transplant-ineligible to become candidates for the procedure, resulting in longer-lasting remissions. “There are so many subtypes of lymphoma, each of which behaves differently. It affects people of all ages and both genders,” said Dr. Carreau. She credits her experience from practicing at three locations: Perlmutter Cancer Center, Bellevue Hospital, and the Manhattan “VA” Medical Center. Dr. Carreau also credits her skills and expertise during college and medical school. At the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, she attained several honors, being the recipient of the Carl F. Hinz Jrs. Scholars in Medicine Award. During her residency at Mount Sinai Hospital, Dr. Carreau was the recipient of the Student Teaching Award and the Arnold P. Gold Foundation’s Humanism and Excellence in Teaching Award. As Chief Fellow at New York University, Dr. Carreau received the ASH Abstract Achievement Award.
Dr. Carreau will be accepting new patients at our: Central Park Location at: 12 East 86th Street, New York, NY 10028 To make an appointment with Dr. Carreau, please call 212-861-6660
NEW YORK CANCER & BLOOD SPECIALISTS 1-833-CANCER9 Schneps Media
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