East Villager, February 23, 2012

Frigid Fest is chillin’, p. 19

Volume 2, Number 31 FREE

East and West Village, Lower East Side, Soho, Noho, Little Italy and Chinatown

February 23 - 29, 2012

Phony letters sink expansion plan for Mulberry Mall

BY LINCOLN ANDERSON The Little Italy Merchants Association has dropped its bid to extend the Mulberry St. Mall’s length for an extra block after it was discovered that at least half, and possibly more, of residents’ letters allegedly in support of the initiative were fraudulent, with forged signatures.

According to Community Board 2, the board received 68 letters in support of the one-block extension for the seasonal mall.As the board usually does with petitions

or letters of support or opposition, C.B. 2 staff members made phone calls and sent e-mail queries to the numbers and e-mail addresses listed on the letters to check their validity. The calls yielded the following results: Out of the 68 individual letters, 29 people whose names were listed as having been signatories said they had never signed them.

Eight phone calls resulted in the person answering

Continued on page 6

City spins idea for wind rotors atop buildings

BY ALBERT AMATEAU Are you ready for 55-foot-tall wind turbines atop buildings on the waterfront?

The Department of City Planning is contemplating a citywide “Zone Green” text amendment that would open more opportunities for wind turbines and other energysaving measures.

Vivian Awner, a department spokesperson, made the pitch to the Community Board 2 Land Use and

Photo by Tequila Minsky

On the eve of Board 2’s big vote on N.Y.U.’s application for its superblocks development plan, university students and faculty rallied against the ambitious scheme on Tuesday at Gould Plaza on W. Fourth St. They decried the proposal as irresponsible and wildly expensive. (See Page 2 for more coverage and photos.) C.B. 2 will weigh in on the 2031 Plan on Thursday evening Feb. 23 as part of the city’s ULURP review and issue its advisory resolution, outlining its position on the proposal. The meeting will start at 6 p.m., at St. Anthony of Padua Church, 151 Sullivan St. (just south of Houston St.), lower hall. For members of the public wishing to testify, speakers’ cards will be accepted between 6 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Before that, at 5 p.m., the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation will gather at the church with N.Y.U. faculty and students for a press conference and rally.

515 CA N A L STREET • N YC 10 013 • C OPYRIG HT © 2012 COMMU N ITY M ED IA , LLC

Business Development Committee on Feb. 9 for the amendment that would remove some impediments in the existing zoning text to “green” technology.

The energy-saving features on landmarked buildings or in historic districts would still be subject to Landmarks Preservation Commission review, and the technology would still be subject to Department of

Continued on page 5

PARADISE REVISITED PAGE 13

EDITORIAL, LETTERS PAGE 16

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February 23 - 29, 2012

N.Y.U. students fret debt will go up with mega-plan About 125 N.Y.U. students, graduate students and faculty rallied against the university’s 2031 Plan on Tuesday. They were joined by Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, state Senator Tom Duane, the Rude Mechanical Orchestra, a representative of N.Y.U. for O.W.S. and two Community Board 2 members. Students would be hit hard, speakers said, by the price tag of the mega-plan, which would add 2.5 million square feet to New York University’s two South Village superblocks. “N.Y.U. is the number one university in the country in terms of student debt, incontrovertibly,” said Professor Andrew Ross, an organizer of the rally. “N.Y.U. should make a promise that they won’t be using tuition fees to pay for this.” Speakers claimed the superblocks projects — including four new buildings — would cost a massive $6 billion, a figure they said has been “put out there,” but that hasn’t officially been reported on paper anywhere by N.Y.U. Asked later if that figure was accurate, Alicia Hurley, N.Y.U. vice president for government affairs and community engagement, said, “The cost of the individual aspects of 2031 will vary and have not been determined. It is certainly the case that building on our own property on the superblocks saves us from the cost of having to purchase land in the area.”

Photos by Tequila Minsky

OPEN THINKING | ON A NEW SCHOOL OF THOUGHT No. 3 IN A SERIES

TIME TO REINVENT THE CLASS SCHEDULE?

By Ty Tingley Co-head of school, Avenues The school day has traditionally been divided into equal periods. But is that really the most effective way for students to learn? Certain classes — such as science or literature — might benefit from longer periods, while others are better taught in shorter, more frequent sessions. A flexible schedule can play a critical role in a student’s education.

Read more about Ty Tingley’s thoughts on education at www.avenues.org/tingley. You’ll find articles, video, interviews and details on parent information events hosted by the leadership team of Avenues: The World School.

Ty Tingley is the co-head of school at Avenues and oversees the development of the school’s curriculum.

Avenues is opening this fall in Chelsea. It will be the first of 20 campuses in major cities, educating children ages three to 18 with a global perspective.

WWW.AVENUES.ORG

February 23 - 29, 2012

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LIN SCORES — A FIDI PAD! Don’t be surprised if you spot new New York Knicks sensation Jeremy Lin strolling along the 9/11 Memorial Plaza or dining at Bobby Van’s on Broad St. Lin, who became an overnight celebrity as the Knicks’ new point guard, is close to signing a several-thousand-dollar lease for a posh two-bedroom, two-bathroom suite at the W Hotel in the Financial District, the New York Post reported on Wednesday. The condo, reportedly worth $2.3 million, has $30,000 to $35,000 worth of designer furniture. This is a big off-the-court leap for Lin, who just weeks ago was crashing on a couch at the Lower East Side apartment of his older brother — a student at N.Y.U.’s Dental School. His new, high-end Lower Manhattan crib will complement the new, two-bedroom pad at the Trump Tower in White Plains, N.Y., Lin is subletting from former Knick and Golden State Warriors teammate David Lee. Lin settled for a midrange pad at the hotel, where monthly rents start at $3,600 and go as high as $8,900, according to the Post. The building is equipped with a gym, an entertainment lounge with video games, a movie screening room and a rooftop terrace, among other amenities. State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver immediately released a statement welcoming the athlete back Downtown. “I’m thrilled to once again have Jeremy Lin as a constituent, and I hope he stays in Lower Manhattan for good!� Silver said. “He is sure to enjoy all of the great restaurants, retail and park space near his new home.� Silver added, “Jeremy Lin continues to bring so much excitement to this city. Let’s go No. 17 and let’s go Knicks!�

C

NOTEBOOK

“Gold Medal Chef of the Year�. — Chefs de Cuisine Association

for the Council District 3 seat in 2013 seems to be causing a lot of political rumors and counter-rumors to start flying around. As of now, there are three candidates who seem a sure bet to run for the Greenwich Village/Chelsea/Hell’s Kitchen seat: Brad Hoylman, Yetta Kurland and Corey Johnson. But what about Andrew Berman, whose name unfailingly comes up whenever this race is discussed? He’s always played it cool, though, whenever we’ve asked him whether he would run. What the heck — last week, we asked him again. And again, he gave a version of his standard answer — that he’s up to his ears in antidevelopment and landmarking battles. “Nothing new to report since last time you asked,� he e-mailed us. “Frankly, I am so busy with the N.Y.U. expansion plan fight, Chelsea Market [rooftop addition fight], the Rudin development, getting the city to follow through on promised landmarking in the East, South and Far West Village, etc., that anything beyond the horizon of the next few weeks seems just too far off to discuss.�

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February 23 - 29, 2012

Focusing on ‘kids, dogs, flowers’ and funds for park

BY SCOTT STIFFLER For Blake Beatty, Dec. 12 was a good time of the year — and the right time in her life — to begin work as director of development for Friends of Hudson River Park.

With the lion’s share of the park’s 17 million annual visitors in hibernation, Beatty had a few months to plot a new public outreach initiative, while getting down to the business of securing private funding for the park’s ongoing revitalization. As spring approaches and that first day on the job grows more distant, Beatty’s plans are beginning to take shape.

The Friends are the park’s primary private fundraising organization, and Beatty comes to them with experience. One week before joining the Friends, the National September 11 Memorial and Museum’s senior development officer was looking back upon the successful implementation of a $350 fundraising campaign, and wondering what project could rival the scope and challenge of the one she’d just completed. “After fundraising for the 9/11 memorial,� Beatty said, “I had a very good sense of Downtown. The people I met, and the changes I saw, gave me an edge. I wanted to take that knowledge and enthusiasm and spread it north. I saw the park and thought, there’s overlap there. It made perfect sense.�

A New York resident for the past 15 years, Beatty witnessed the steady growth and development of Hudson River Park. “I spent time there, and enjoyed it‌but I still don’t think a lot of people know about it,â€? she said of the Lower West Side’s “Gold Coast,â€? which snakes its way from Battery Park City to 59th St. “I took the job,â€? Beatty said, “because this park hasn’t been exposed the way it should be. I think it needs a structure, in the sense of dividing the park into regions.â€?

Separating the long and winding, 5-mile park into four distinct zones — Tribeca, Greenwich Village, Chelsea and Clinton — Beatty said confidently, will help “bring more emphasis to the neighborhoods, so the people in Chelsea, for example, will know they own that area of the park.�

The best part of her job, so far, she said, has been meeting “the overwhelming

Photo by Ann Clark, courtesy Friends of Hudson River Park

Blake Beatty, at Pier 40 at W. Houston St., plots a better park through neighborhood participation.

amount of people who want to get involved, and just don’t know how.� They’re about to find out how — as Beatty anticipates the spring launch of a Neighborhood Cultivation Program that will allow people with specific interests to further develop the section of the park they use the most. “We’re hoping to have a major event to kick it off in June,� she said of the enrichment program. “This is definitely the beginning of a new phase for Hudson River Park.

The [Fourth of July] fireworks are, tentatively, coming to the West Side Highway

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this summer, and I hope to do something big around that. There will also be several neighborhood enrichment events before the year ends.�

‘I took the job because this park hasn’t been exposed the way it should be.’ Blake Beatty

Beatty’s vision for hyperlocal participation, in phase one at least, is threefold: dogs, kids and beautification. “A lot of people are very interested in developing the flowers in different regions of the park,� she said, noting that only parents and dog owners rival horticulturalists as frequent park visitors who would welcome a greater variety of amenities and social events. “People who use the playground in

Tribeca,� Beatty said, “would love to have an opportunity to get to know more of the parents living in their region, and use the park as a way to have their children meet new friends.

Dog owners would love more opportunity to get together and talk about their dogs. We would host events on the piers, for people who are members of these groups.�

Those groups would also assist in funding the expansion and upkeep of the park. “A community could give a low level of money to increase or improve the things they care about, and that area might be named after their neighborhood group,�

Beatty explained.

And although much of her job involves securing the large donations necessary to realize the Friends’ ambitious plans for growth, Beatty said of her outreach efforts, “This is as much about getting people involved as it is about raising money. They go hand in hand.�

For information on Friends of Hudson River Park’s programs or to volunteer, call 212-757-0981 or visit fohrp.org. To contact Blake Beatty, e-mail bbeatty@fohrp.org.

Also visit hudsonriverpark.org .

It takes a Villager

Your Downtown news source

February 23 - 29, 2012

5

City is spinning idea for wind power atop buildings Continued from page 1 Buildings codes, Awner said.

Drawing an anxious response from local residents at the Feb. 9 hearing, the wind turbine amendment would allow the devices, including poles and rotors, to rise 55 feet above the rooftop of buildings that are more than 100 feet tall, provided the turbines are set back at least 10 feet from any property line.

On waterfront blocks, all buildings in medium- or higher-density residential, commercial or manufacturing districts could have rooftop turbines up to half the height of the building, or 55 feet, whichever is less. Free-standing wind turbines would be allowed in commercial and manufacturing areas on waterfront blocks. However, all wind installations would have to comply with Department of Buildings requirements.

The existing zoning text restricts wind turbines to the height limits of their districts, so buildings that are already at the district height limit currently cannot install wind turbines.

Assemblymember Deborah Glick told the committee that the proposal raises troubling questions.

“Are 55-foot-high wind turbines on buildings over 100 feet a good idea or a hazard?”

Glick asked. “We don’t know of any existing wind turbines in the city, so we don’t have a lot of experience. But a 10-foot setback doesn’t seem like very much.”

Downtowners at the Feb. 9 hearing were also concerned about noise, as well as potential dangers, like ice flying off the rotors’ blades.

Land Use Committee members noticed that there was no mention of the number of wind turbines to be allowed on a building.

The proposed text amendment also provides that the City Planning Commission chairperson could certify rooftop greenhouses to be exempt from existing floor-area and height limits on a building if these structures have no residences or sleeping quarters. The eligible greenhouse must not exceed 25 feet in height, must be set back from the roof edge by 6 feet and must include practical measures to limit water consumption. Glick wondered what impact rooftop greenhouses would have on birds.

The text amendment would also allow existing buildings to add up to 8 inches of external insulation while exempting the added space from floor-area calculations and regulations for yard and open space. New buildings whose walls are more efficient than required by the city code could have up to 8 inches of additional wall thickness exempted from floor-area calculations under the proposed amendment.

In addition, sun control devices and awnings above the ground floor would be allowed to project 2 feet, 6 inches out over required open areas.

While the current text does not allow solar panels above the maximum permitted build-

ing height, the amended text would allow solar panels on flat roofs anywhere below the parapet regardless of building height. Parts of solar installations higher than 4 feet would be subject to limits on roof coverage and height.

Green roofs, recreational decks, skylights and storm-water detention systems would be allowed anywhere below a building’s parapet regardless of building height. A guardrail up to 3.5 feet tall and no more than 30 percent opaque would be allowed above the top surface of a roof.

The text amendment is currently in a

review process similar but not identical to the uniform land use review procedure (ULURP).

City Planning referred the amendment to all of the city’s 51 community boards, borough boards and borough presidents on Dec. 12 for a 60-day combined review period, which concludes at the end of February.

The measure, with public comments, then goes to the City Planning Commission for a hearing and final draft. There is no time limit on the Planning Commission phase of the review, but the City Council has the final decision on the text amendment.

Maloney: Let women fight at front Congressmember Carolyn Maloney praised the new rules released by the Pentagon that would allow women in the military to serve closer to the front lines, but would retain the longstanding ban on women serving in front-line assignments — such as in the infantry, armored units and special forces.

In a statement on Feb. 9, when the new rules were released, Maloney said, “The new rules on women in combat are a step in the right direction. I give Secretary Panetta credit for opening up as many as 14,000 new jobs for women in the military and for recognizing the leadership and skills of our women in uniform.

“However, I continue to believe that we must end the ban on women in combat,” Maloney added. “Servicewomen are an indispensable part of our operations in Afghanistan, just as they were in Iraq.

Women are carrying firearms, they are involved in the fighting, and they have been killed in battle. The Pentagon’s rules should reflect this reality.

“Combat service leads to higher pay and greater opportunity for advancement,” Maloney said. “There are a great many women who are ready and willing to serve — officially — in combat roles, and fairness dictates that the military should not continue to leave them behind.”

6

February 23 - 29, 2012

Mulberry Mall expand plan is sunk by forged letters Continued from page 1 the phone saying that no one by that name lived there.

Another eight phone numbers were nonworking numbers.

Six calls went unanswered.

Four calls were to households where no one spoke English, so it couldn’t be confirmed either way if a resident had intended to sign one of the letters or not.

Eight messages were left but no one called back.

Five people did say they had, in fact, signed their name to one of the support letters.

Concern over the letters came to light last week and, by the start of this week, the issue had quickly snowballed. On Tuesday, Brad Hoylman, chairperson of C.B. 2, reached out to John Fratta, president of the nonprofit Little Italy Restoration Association, regarding the bogus letters. Bob Gormley, the board’s district manager, also spoke to Fratta regarding the irregularities.

Shortly afterward, Fratta called the East Villager to announce that he and Ralph Tramontana, the president of LIMA, had decided LIMA should drop its application for the one-block extension — though the application for the usual-length mall is still alive and will still be voted on by C.B. 2 at Thursday’s full-board meeting.

On Tuesday, Hoylman told the East Villager

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the mall incident was troubling.

“At this point, the petitions are invalid,” he said. “While all the facts have not been sorted out, it is extremely disappointing and a significant breach of trust that any group would submit phony petition signatures to the community board as evidence of the community’s support for an official action, such as the one being considered in this instance,” Hoylman said. “We’ll be following up if any additional action on the part of the community board is required to get to the bottom of this.”

Councilmember Margaret Chin first learned of the matter on Wednesday when Fratta sent her copies of the disputed letters.

“These are very serious allegations,” Chin said. “I’m committed to working with Community Board 2 and LIMA to get to the bottom of this. Obviously, any instance of forgery or misrepresentation is totally unacceptable.”

For the record, Chin had not issued a letter of support or opposition for the mall extension since it’s an application that would be reviewed by the Mayor’s Street Activity Permits Office (SAPO), not the City Council.

A longtime community activist, Fratta is also a former Democratic district leader and a former district manager for a Bronx community board.

In a phone interview on Tuesday, Fratta said that, with the exception of one business, all the merchants on the proposed extension block — Mulberry St. from Broome St. to

Kenmare St. — supported joining the mall.

Major movers behind the extension push were a gelato shop and a barbershop, both of whose owners feel the block needs a boost in foot traffic to improve their business.

‘It is a significant breach of trust that any group would submit phony petition signatures.’

Brad Hoylman

“I spoke to Ralph today,” Fratta said on Tuesday. “We’re pulling the last block. We have a good thing going. We don’t want to jeopardize what we’ve got,” he said, referring to the rest of the Mulberry St. Mall. “I feel that it’s the right move.”

The mall operates from Memorial Day to Labor Day on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

It stretches from Canal St. to Broome St., and participating restaurants can put their tables out onto the street and merchants can have table displays on the sidewalk.

Fratta said the signatures of support were collected by the barbershop and by building superintendents on that block.

Fratta said he personally did not actually look at the letters and their signatures. He said that Tramontana put them in an envelope and handed them to him. Fratta said he just took the envelope but didn’t look at the letters. He, in turn, handed a packet with the letters to Hoylman at last week’s meeting of the Borough Board — when the chairpersons of all the Manhattan community boards hold their monthly get-together with the borough president. According to Hoylman and another person, previous to the Borough Board meeting, Fratta also handed a packet of the letters to a C.B. 2 member on a board committee that was reviewing the mall-extension application.

Fratta noted that even Tramontana had expressed surprise when he saw a letter he believed was signed by Georgette Fleischer, the head of Friends of Petrosino Square and a vigilant local quality-of-life activist.

“Ralph was so excited when he first saw it: ‘Even Georgette is supporting us!’” Fratta said, recalling Tramontana’s words. “Anyone knows with half a brain, she’s always opposing us.”

Fratta said Gormley also told him he had caught a misspelling of the name of a well-known local resident, John Casalinuova, whose last name was given as “Casanova” on one of the bogus support letters. Fratta said he’s known Casalinuova for years, so if he actually had seen the letters, that definitely would have caught his eye.

LIMA president Tramontana, meanwhile, said he still thinks the signatures were valid, but that people didn’t own up to having signed the letters because of “scare tactics” by Fleischer and another woman, Robin Goldberg. He said

the two women spread misinformation about the mall’s fees, inflating the cost, and telling merchants that they wouldn’t get much in return for paying to join.

“They were using bully tactics,” Tramontana said on Tuesday. “Merchants would call me saying [Fleischer and Goldberg] are telling them the mall is going to put vendors outside and block the store.”

According to Tramontana, the opponents said the mall would just mean more garbage, noise and traffic congestion. But he said, in fact, the mall would leave the block cleaner because there would be more garbage pickup and that it would be quieter since the block would be closed off to car traffic, which would also mean less air pollution.

“It’s a shame they did that,” he said, referring to Fleischer and Goldberg. “That last block really needs help. People were looking forward to it — coming down and sitting and having a coffee without the traffic fumes all around,” he said of the block’s residents.

Tramontana denied there were any forged signatures since they included personal phone numbers and e-mail addresses.

“If some of them were forged, they would have to know detailed information about people — and that’s hard to do,” he noted.

“My assumption is that people got afraid” to admit they had signed the letters, he said.

Reached for comment, Fleischer said, “I’m astounded that Ralph Tramontana claims I actually signed it. I have seen it myself, and I can tell you that that is not my handwriting.”

(See Page 7 for a copy of the fraudulent letter with a forged signature, as well as a sample of Fleischer’s genuine signature, which she submitted to the East Villager for comparison.)

What’s more, the letter claims that Fleischer lives on Mulberry St. between Kenmare and Broome Sts. when in fact she lives a block away on Cleveland Place.

As for Tramontana’s claim that she bullied people into renouncing their letters of support for the mall extension, Fleischer retorted, “That’s pure spin.”

The packet of letters also contained a notarized affidavit from a resident of the block, Dan Weill, vouching that there was “overwhelming support” among its residents and small business owners to add the block to the seasonal mall.

The owner of the Barber’s Blueprint is a Russian immigrant named George. In a phone interview on Wednesday, George, who declined to give his last name, denied the letters were fraudulent, noting they contained personal contact information.

“How do I know their phone numbers?” he said. “Why should I forge anything? Why should I write by somebody’s name? It’s the people that write it. And I had the super’s help.

She’s the super on this block; she has four buildings on this block.”

The main thing, George said, is that he and four or five other stores on the block really want the mall.

“I want the mall to happen because it brings more foot traffic, more business,” he said. “The San Gennaro Festival is 12 days and St. Anthony’s Feast is 10 days, and they come a week before to set up. This kills my business.”

February 23 - 29, 2012

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February 23 - 29, 2012

Photos by Milo Hess

Milking it in Soho Fore! An art vendor took a break from hawking his wares in Soho’s Petrosino Square by playing an invigorating round of milk-carton golf.

February 23 - 29, 2012

9

Let’s not miss this chance for precious park space TALKING POINT

BY RICHARD BARONE At first glance, it may seem like an inconsequential little triangle of land across the street from a boarded-up, vacant hospital, with some nondescript, industrial-looking buildings on its northern side and a dried-up, unkempt garden within. Surrounding high and low exterior walls provide a bizarrely out-of-place, brown-brick barrier. As one approaches from the west on Bank St., the walls, rising several stories, are particularly unattractive and obtrusive. The three-cornered plot can easily be called an eyesore. Yet the triangle at the intersection Greenwich and Seventh Aves. at W. 12th St. is potentially one of the rarest of commodities in our West Village neighborhood: a village green, and a true community park. The land is soon to be restored to public use as a result of the demise

of St. Vincent’s Hospital.

A dozen or so initial designs, presented to Community Board 2 some months ago, revealed several appealing plans for the triangle, with varying percentages of green space, plus paved walkways, trees, benches and all the elements that constitute an open, inclusive meeting place. One particular design with inviting entrances at each of the three corners, a slightly raised grassy hill and a number of unspecified features (such as places for statuary, plaques or fountains), seemed like a good starting point.

Recently, a private competition was held to design an AIDS memorial. But the winning design, which called for a surrounding structure of high exterior walls, was perceived to be flawed — and met with understandable resistance in the neighborhood.

In all of Manhattan, there is always a hopeful quest for open, green space. An enclosed park, with light blocked by high

walls, and with gravel instead of grass, would have frustrated that hope and overwhelmed the area.

However, I believe the community would support a thoughtfully planned AIDS remembrance as part of an open, community park.

For the record, I participated in numerous ACT UP demonstrations in the early 1990s to raise awareness of the AIDS crisis.

This remembrance could be a universal tribute not only to the diverse victims — whose loss to our community should never be underestimated and must never be forgotten — but also to the groundbreaking caregivers of much-missed St. Vincent’s, as well as to the historic activists who bravely raised their voices when too many fell silent. All would be honored by a sorely needed park that symbolizes and celebrates life.

Transforming this drab triangle into a beautiful, living, green space with historical markings that connect the past to the

present and memorialize with subtlety and dignity, while reflecting the diversity that is the hallmark of our neighborhood and city, is a win-win.

The City Council’s final decision of what to do with this little slice of the Village is an opportunity to satisfy the needs of our unique community in this fittingly unique way.

Barone is a recording artist, performer, producer and author who has collaborated with artists from Lou Reed and Moby to Liza Minnelli, Tiny Tim and, most recently, Pete Seeger. The lead singer of the Bongos, his memoir, “Frontman: Surviving the Rock Star Myth,” was published by Hal Leonard Books. Since 1984, Barone has lived in Greenwich Village, where he recently completed work on his fifth solo album, “Glow.”

He recently was appointed professor at the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at New York University.

Village’s ‘Little Hall of Fame’ had a memorable run HISTORY

BY ERIC FERRARA Called the “Old Village’s Most Famous Exhibit” by The New York Times when it closed in August of 1913, Britting’s was a popular dining spot known for its extensive display of playbills, portraits, autographs and theater memorabilia dating back to the 18th century.

Proprietor Charles H. Britting was only 23 years old when he opened his restaurant in 1870, paying a rent of $100

a month for a ground-floor storefront at the former 126-128 Greenwich Ave., overlooking Jackson Square.

He began collecting theater souvenirs as a child in Newark, N.J., where his father owned a restaurant that catered to the show business crowd. Every week he hoarded programs from touring theater troupes, developing relationships with many of the performers. Britting’s passion for theater memorabilia inspired friends in the industry to send him items from around the country, and he eventually acquired enough to fill two large rooms of

A photo from a 1901 issue of The Theater Magazine, showing Charles H. Britting in front of his famous Greenwich Ave. dining room.

his restaurant from ceiling to floor.

The unassuming mini-museum, which had the words “Britting’s Dining Room” painted on its window, quickly became a regular haunt for minstrel and theatrical icons of the day, such as Tony Pastor, Billy Birch and T.D. “Daddy” Rice of “Jumpin’ Jim Crow” fame.

By the end of the century Britting’s was listed as an attraction in city guidebooks.

Tourists flocked to browse thousands of historical treasures, such as an original Nassau Street Theatre playbill from its opening night on Nov. 12, 1753, and a sword used onstage by the late actor and presidential assassin John Wilkes Booth.

When Charles H. Britting first opened his restaurant, Greenwich Village was considered a quaint, out-of-the-way, largely residential vestige of Olde New York. However, by the early 1900s a new-found commercial interest in the quiet hamlet led to the disappearance of many established institutions and landmarks. Britting’s restaurant was a casualty of this early gentrification, closing

its doors in the summer of 1913 after the building changed owners.

Britting became a recluse and his health deteriorated while he was shuttered inside his apartment, alone with his once-famous collection packed away in boxes. He died in March 1914, less than a year after the restaurant closed.

Before passing away, Britting sold off much of his collection to various private parties — including the 1753 Nassau Street Theatre program, which he unloaded in 1913 for a measly $100. Sadly, I can find no trace of where any of his items ended up after all these years.

Ferrara is director, Lower East Side History Project Sources: “Greenwich Walls Lose Old Playbills,” The New York Times, Aug. 19, 1913; “Charles H. Britting Dead in Hospital,” The New York Times, March 9, 1914; “A Theatrical Hall of Fame,” Theatre magazine, Volumes 9-10, 1909.

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February 23 - 29, 2012

From movie house to market to a pricey rooftop pad

BY LINCOLN ANDERSON East Village Farm supermarket, just off Tompkins Square Park, recently closed and the owner’s plan is now to renovate the existing building and add a luxury residential duplex on top.

As of last Friday, no plans had been filed for the property, at 98 – 108 Ave. A, which sits midblock between Sixth and Seventh Sts. But by early this week, according to Department of Buildings records, a description of the planned modifications had been posted.

The work would include renovating the existing two-story building, including the expansion of the cellar floor, raising the entire second floor and installing a new storefront on Avenue A. In addition, a new partial third floor and partial fourth floor for one residential unit would be added, with an adjoining roof garden on the second-floor rooftop for use by the new apartment. More than 8,000 square feet of new space would be added to the existing building. The project’s estimated total cost, as listed on the D.O.B. filing, is about $1.57 million.

In its former life, the building once housed the Hollywood movie theater.

According to Department of Finance records, the property was previously owned

by Gristedes supermarket mogul John Catsimatidis, who acquired it sometime prior to 1973. He sold it in 1985 to a group

Photo by Lincoln Anderson

East Village Farm market recently closed in preparation for the Avenue A building’s planned redevelopment.

of three buyers, Chong Hwa Pak, Jung Yong Suh and Sun Sok Yon. In 1986, they transferred the property to a corporation, Suh Yon Pak Associates Inc., which remains the owner of record.

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EV Grieve has been following the developments of East Village Farm’s demise and what will happen to the building next.

Speculation had been the structure would be torn down. This Tuesday the local blog reported that plans had been posted that day, revealing the owner’s intentions.

‘There’s no need to destroy the theater. It’s totally viable to keep it.’

Chris Flash

About a year ago — proving once again that “Ray always hears it first” — the East Villager’s Scoopy’s Notebook reported that Ray, a.k.a. Asghar Ghahraman, of Ray’s

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Candy Store, said he had heard from the man who delivers his bread that the East Village Farm building’s owner planned to demolish it and build an enormous residential tower. However, while Ray’s information was correct that something was in the works, a high-rise building wouldn’t be allowed under the new East Village / Lower East Side rezoning that went into effect a few years ago.

Last Thursday evening, Ray reiterated, “My bread man, he go there every morning [to East Village Farm] and he told me a year ago, they gonna close — I couldn’t believe it. … It’s gonna be condominiums.”

East Village activist Chris Flash was disappointed that the long-dormant movie theater couldn’t be brought back to life as an entertainment venue in a neighborhood that has lost too many of them recently.

“I got into the theater like two weeks ago,” he said last Friday. “The guy working the store’s counter on the last week let me and a few friends go in there.”

All the cinema’s seats are still in place, he reported, adding, “There’s no need to destroy the theater. It’s totally viable to keep it as a theater.”

Flash, publisher of The Shadow local anarchist newspaper, said the market used to be named SYP. “Some people used to call it, ‘Steal Your Paycheck,’” he quipped.

Another defunct East Village movie house, the Charles on Avenue B, also still has all its seats in place. But efforts to renovate the property by a church group that owns it stalled about two years ago after it was revealed the work was being done without the proper permits, and a stopwork order was issued. Flash had hoped to do some arts programming in that space if it had been renovated. But the church’s pastor had issues with Flash’s pitch.

“He tried to make a lot of demands on content,” Flash said. “No performing artist is going to like that.

“The real crime is we’re losing these venues,” he added. “Continental doesn’t do shows anymore, C.B.G.B.’s is defunct, and we’re about to lose two historic theaters. As the venues shrink, these two places could have had live shows and performances.”

February 23 - 29, 2012

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RESTAURANT REVIEW

Capital Dining at Albany Street BLUE PLANET GRILL: Healthful Food for Healthy Appetites

By Rowann Gilman

I

Photo by Jefferson Siegel

She walks the line On Sunday afternoon, Amber Reynolds, 18, who lives in the East Village, tried “Slacklining” in Washington Square Park, walking on a narrow slackline tied between two trees. Slacklines are made of nylon webbing and are flat, which allows better footing than on a traditional tightrope and makes it easier for the walkers to do jumps and tricks. The world recently got a glimpse of the slacklining craze during Madonna’s Super Bowl halftime show performance, when a man wearing what looked like a toga did some fancy bouncing moves on a slackline before dismounting by catapulting off of it dramatically with an energetic spring.

City Council to vote on medical pot

BY PAUL DERIENZO A bill legalizing medical marijuana in New York State may be on the verge of a big boost if the City Council follows the advice of its Mental Health Committee and endorses the measure now before the New York State Senate and Assembly.

The scheduled Council vote on Wed., Feb. 29, comes as the city revealed that nearly 700,000 people were searched by police in the past year under the department’s controversial “stop and frisk” policy. These stops, often justified by marijuana found in the person’s possession, are held responsible for an increase in annual pot busts in the city to more than

50,000 last year.

Introduced by Councilman Danny Dromm (Democrat, of Jackson Heights, Queens), the bill was the subject of hearings last year that pitted the Bloomberg administration against cancer survivors and potheads who want to see New York follow the lead of New Jersey, which is required to open marijuana dispensaries for approved patients.

Speaking of the 69 percent increase in marijuana arrests since 2005, Dromm recently noted, that’s “enough to fill Yankee Stadium.”

Activists say they’re planning to attend the Council meeting to speak for passage of the measure.

chopped fine with a hit of red onion served with a hard-boiled quail egg and skinny toasts for spreading, and Lobster Sliders, intense rounds of chunky lobster meat inside a crunchy crust slipped into a homemade brioche bun. Each mouthful was big and satisfying. Following appetizers, a salad Lyonnaise—the classic frisée salad with lardons of bacon, crou-

n the city’s ever-expanding galaxy of restaurants, Blue Planet Grill is a friendly haven for diners seeking the kind of goodness food used to have before it became a star-studded industry. Its health food ethic takes shape in traditional American foods with a slight European twist, and it’s evident in an elegant selection of dishes prepared with all-organic, local ingredients. Hormone- and antibiotic-free meat comes from locally raised cows, chickens are from Amish country, and ingredients have no preservatives. Breads are homemade too.

You get a genuinely friendly welcome at the door, and immediate but not overbearing attention from the wait tons, and a poached egg crown—was staff. Walls are a wash of glowy peach and slightly heavy on dressing but authentic, yellow, and low-wattage lights, pendant and a personal favorite. By far, though, from the blue ceiling, soften autumn’s the evening’s prize went to Braised Short early-darkening sky. Linens are crisp Ribs in a reduced Cabernet sauce. These and white and, in a classy tradition, fresh generously-sized, melt-in-your-mouth flatware is laid out with each course. No slices are what anyone who’s ever made short ribs aspires to achieve, with having to save your forks here.

Blue Planet also happens to house a a sauce so rich and thick that deciding lively bar scene with an assortment of whether to lick the plate became my dihouse cocktails. Ours, recommended by lemma. I could have gone back the next resident mixologist Artemio Vasquez, day for more, but the dinner menu offers was the Red Finance, a mix of tequila, other ravishing choices to try, like aged St. Germain and fresh lime juice—but prime rib, dry-aged burgers, good oldfashioned Beef Stroganoff, it’s what’s around the rim seared black sea bass, whole that gets to you. It’s dipped BA S I C S : in lemon juice, then in hot Blue Planet Grill is located at grilled branzino, and plenty of other diverse dishes.

120 Greenwich Street paprika and salt for a kicky (at Albany Street) There is an assortment of bite with every sip. All of Artemio’s creations are Open for brunch and dinner; salads and soups too. hours: 10:00 AM Desserts at Blue Planet are made with freshly squeezed to 12:00 AM nothing to shout about, but juices and homemade syrPhone: 212-571-1700 we accompanied our StrawOnline reservations: ups. If you want a real prewww.blueplanetgrill.com berry Shortcake, somewhat dinner jolt, try his Poquito Wheelchair access: two lacking in strawberry flavor, Picante, a mix of gin, jalasmall steps up to door with a dessert cocktail from peño, cucumber and cilanCocktails: $12 the talented bar: The Wall tro. For non-drinkers, there Appetizers: $12 to $18 Street, an addictively frothy Entrees: from $18 to $37 is a two-page menu of teas and herbal infusions served Major credit cards accepted espresso-Crème de Menthe doozy with three fresh cofin beautiful glass pots.

My guest and I chose dinner, even fee beans floating on top for crunching.

The Planet was pretty quiet on a Monthough the brunch menu is huge and tempting, featuring a range of dishes day night, but judging from the lively from Belgian Waffles to Crêpes with bar, it’s likely to be noisier during the Caviar, and Lobster Macaroni and week. Still, enjoying brunch or dinner at Cheese. Dinner started with Yellow- Blue Planet Grill will leave you feeling in fin Tuna Tartare, sushi-quality tuna the pink.

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February 23 - 29, 2012

Sculptor dogged by a past act deserves forgiveness CLAYTON

BY CLAYTON PATTERSON Elsa and I are dog lovers. We got our first dog around 1978. A friend was getting divorced and had to give up the dog. We took the dog in. When we came to New York City, the dog, a part of the family, came with us.

After our canine friend passed and enough time went by, we went to an ASPCA just to have a look. We saw this nervous German shepherd cowering in its cramped cage. Once she was let out, the first thing she did was to urinate on the floor, and then she leaned her whole body against my leg.

This was Lucy, our second dog. She was always a little nervous, afraid of being abandoned, but she adjusted, stabilized, and turned out to be an amazing addition to the family. She lived to be 13, a ripe old age for a large dog.

In New York City we’ve always had a dog, sometimes two, and once three, and often a cat. Three dogs is too many.

All of our dogs have been rescue animals. Why not save the life of a dog?

I think anyone who is deliberately cruel to an animal is mentally ill and a menace to society. But most of our rescue dogs started off with some kind of behavioral setback, and adapted to our family. People, as well, can change, grow up, mature, adjust. And I believe this is the case with our longtime friend and neighbor sculptor Tom Otterness.

Tom lives with his wife of many years, filmmaker Coleen Fitzgibbon, and his well-adjusted, late-teen daughter.

In 1977 Tom, at age 25, looking to find himself as an artist, struggling in N.Y.C., desperate to get noticed, committed a very stupid, cruel and despicable act. He bought a dog, tied it up, shot it and recorded a video of its final moments as it whimpered to death in agony, which he played in a gallery on a video loop. But times change and people change, and Tom has found his humanity.

If an artist is any good, the art he or she makes is a reflection of who the person is; it exposes the artist’s character and inner being. A madman makes mad art. A contemplative artist makes contemplative art. I like outsider art, but

THERE’S NO DEBATE...

The Villager and East Villager rock!

Photo by Clayton Patterson

Artist Tom Otterness (with glasses, to the left of sculpture), Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe, school officials and students at the ribbon-cutting for Otterness’s “Coqui” in the P.S. 20 playground in October 2007.

would not watch Tom’s early video. Tom has changed from a madman to a sensitive, kind, loving, introspective, socially conscious human being and his art reflects this. All a person has to do is look at the art Tom has made over the last couple of decades. It would be impossible for a social deviant to make this art.

Tom’s art is playful, imaginative, inoffensive, loved by children and adults alike, and often, in an innocent way, has a social message. Much of his art is for the public. If you live in N.Y.C., you have seen his art. For example, there’s “Life Underground,” his playful bronze figures in the subway station at 14th St. and Eighth Ave.; as well as his sculptures at Montefiore Children’s Hospital in the Bronx; his frog at P.S. 234 in Tribeca; his “The Lesson” at the Little Red School House; and the piece that I cherish the most, his “Coqui,” another bronze frog, a symbol of Puerto Rico, in the P.S. 20 playground, at Essex and Houston Sts. I live across the street from P.S. 20. The reason I’m particularly fond of Tom’s large bronze “Coqui” is because this elementary school’s students are typical of an inner-city school. For the most part, they come from poor families, the parents have a limited education, and art is not a part of family life. What is not typical is the school is well maintained, well organized, well run. From an outsider’s perspective, all the teachers I have met appear to be caring and thoughtful.

The crossing guards, I am sure, are some of the city’s best.

Because I grew up in a working-class community, I know how far the distance is between high art and a community with no art. I discovered art in high school. Art changed my life. Art gave me life. Art connected me to a spiritual side of life I never knew existed. Bloomberg is talking about cutting art out of school programs.

Tom’s frog is high art, but children can play on it, wrap their arms around it, can feel its essence against their skin.

These inner city kids are connecting to high culture without even knowing it.

Not only are Tom and his family good neighbors, but he has gone from a failing, dysfunctional person and transformed into a highly functional, contributing member of

society. He is one of those rare artists who has achieved fame and prominence, and reached a level in his field most can only dream of. His work is in the collection of some of the most prestigious museums, in esteemed private collections.

One of his sculptural images was made into a balloon for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. His expansive Brooklyn studio is a small, independent industry that employs a number of staff people, including skilled craftspeople. He is our Henry Moore. I admire his achievements.

He is quite unassuming, unpretentious, but he is one of the most accomplished artists to come out of the Lower East Side, and he still lives here.

People can and do change. Tom is not the same person he was 35 years ago. He has changed and we should accept that fact. As someone on the inside of certain situations, I know for a fact that he, and Coleen, on the down low, have helped, in numerous ways, disadvantaged neighbors with real life problems.

There gets to be a point when one has to question what the motivation is behind all of these attacks against Tom. These ruthless attacks are destroying his business. Destroy his business and we lose another homegrown industry, as well as local jobs. It has become nearly impossible for a fineart craftsperson to find employment.

The only difference I see between a corporate raider who destroys an American business and the Otterness attackers is that the raider does it for profit and these attackers do not.

Either way, they’re all destroyers. The line between the stupidity of what Tom did, in his youth, 35 years ago, and this killing of his business, destroying his opportunity to make art, gets lost. There is something damaged about the soul which cannot forgive. Are forgiveness and redemption not a part of life’s equation?

In April 2008, Tom told the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, “Thirty years ago, when I was 25 years old, I made a film in which I shot a dog. It was an indefensible act that I am deeply sorry for. Many of us have experienced profound emotional turmoil and despair. Few have made the mistake I made. I hope people can find it in their hearts to forgive me.”

February 23 - 29, 2012

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Actor revisits community that shaped his character

BY BOB KRASNER What do Sonic Youth, Spike Lee and Charlie Sheen have in common? If you answered “Richard Edson,” you’ve been paying attention to the career of a classic character actor who spent his formative years in the East Village, thinking that his career was going to be in music.

He lives in L.A. now, because that’s where the work is, but the seeds of that career were sown in a neighborhood that was quite a bit different than it is now. In the days when you didn’t venture past Avenue B unless you were looking for trouble — or drugs, or both — Edson was the original drummer for Sonic Youth (he’s on the first album), before switching gears to play trumpet and percussion in the groove-oriented Konk.

He grew up in New Rochelle. But as a teenager he frequented the Fillmore East on Second Ave., seeing the likes of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, B.B. King and Emerson, Lake and Palmer.

Edson moved into the city in 1980, to a loft at Grand St. and Bowery, then to Fourth St. between Avenues A and B, and then another apartment on 12th St. and Avenue A.

Also gone is the coffee shop where he met director Jim Jarmusch, who cast him as a lead in ‘Stranger Than Paradise.’

His friends still live in that last one, a memorable abode where he was ripped off on his first night in residence.

“I moved in, went out for dinner and when I came back all my stuff was gone,” he recalled. “Not that I had that much stuff! We got hit three times. Each time we got more gates.”

The idea then “was to be a musician,” and in the process of becoming one, he supported himself with a series of jobs. One was painting the interiors of parking garages.

For nine months, he had “a great job” as the darkroom technician at The Soho News, another establishment lost to history.

On a walk through the East Village recently while back for a visit, he noted all the other places that are also gone: Life Cafe (closed since this past summer), the memorabilia shop Love Saves The Day (where his girlfriend worked), the 24-hour hangout Kiev and, of course, The Fillmore, which is now a bank.

He found the entrance to the basement on Second Ave. where Konk used to rehearse, and, while walking past the site of the former Tompkins Square Park band shell, he fondly remembered their free shows there.

Also gone is the coffee shop where he met film director Jim Jarmusch, who cast him as a lead in “Stranger Than Paradise” alongside fellow Downtown musician John Lurie, despite Edson’s lack of acting experience.

Since then, Edson figures, he’s been in “60 or 70” movies, including Spike Lee’s “Do The Right Thing” and Oliver Stone’s “Platoon,” in addition to “lots of TV.” But don’t mistake his attachment to his old neighborhood for any kind of yearning for the good old days.

Sitting in front of his one-time apartment on E. 12th St. he said, “I try to be nostalgic, but I’m really not. It’s another time now, and things are different. I like a lot of things about that time — it was an important time and place, more than just personally. The cultural things that hap-

Photos by Bob Krasner

Richard Edson, on a recent visit back to the East Village, outside one of its longtime local landmarks, now closed, Life Cafe.

Edson by the former Tompkins Square Park band shell in 1986, right before a performance by his band, Konk.

pened here still have repercussions today.”

He was talking about the clothes that “have become standard urban wear,” as he put it, and the music, of course, among other things. And, he noted, “One of the great things about the East Village is that it’s always in flux.”

In 1991 he moved to Los Angeles and hasn’t really looked back. He’s still playing music — Afro-Cuban is what he’s into now — and he’s pretty serious about his photography, as well. His only complaint about the acting profession is that he doesn’t work as much as he’d like.

But if his TV pilot gets picked up he could get his wish.

He has no qualms about being a character actor and you can look for him alongside Charlie Sheen in Roman Coppola’s upcoming flick “A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III.” He’s probably got some Charlie Sheen stories, but the only thing that he’d say was that Sheen is “crazy, like a fox” and was a total professional on set.

Wrapping up our walk through the old world before heading back to the West Coast, Edson pondered the question of whether there was anything he’d take back with him to L.A. from his old stomping ground, if he could.

“The people,” he said, “with all their attitude — good and bad.”

Ah, it’s nice to be appreciated.

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February 23 - 29, 2012

Photo by Tequila Minsky

Still Occupied with art for cause of the 99 percent Folk artist Evelyn Talarico — profiled as the “Umbrella Artist of Occupy Wall Street” in the East Villager’s Nov. 22 issue — was recently in Washington Square Park with one of her Occupy artworks that she painted during the Zuccotti Park encampment. “There’s supposed to be an O.W.S. student gathering,” she said, puzzled when she didn’t spot the group. Later, she learned the meeting was, in fact, in Union Square.

February 23 - 29, 2012

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February 23 - 29, 2012

EDITORIAL Progress that’s worth price at Trade Center The preliminary audit of the Port Authority in many regards only highlighted the obvious: that the agency is facing a huge debt exacerbated by the redevelopment of the World Trade Center.

The audit identified the W.T.C. project as the root of the authority’s financial woes, principally due to added costs associated with completing the National 9/11 Memorial by the attack’s 10-year anniversary.

The audit states that the project’s price tag increased from $11 billion in 2008 to a current estimated cost of $14.8 billion.

We find it’s no coincidence that the year 2008 also happens to be when former Port Executive Director Chris Ward took the helm. Governors Andrew Cuomo and Chris Christie were quick to pin the “dysfunction” of the agency — following the public outcry over last year’s toll increases — on Ward and to award a $2 million contract to a consulting firm to perform the audit.

As with any audit, there were suggestions of costcutting measures, including requiring employees to pay into their healthcare plans.

We must remember that these are typical areas that auditing firms tend to focus on to trim the fat at any corporation or city or state agency, and that, while many media outlets jumped on the opportunity to slam the Port, they failed to concede that any mammoth redevelopment project spread over many years reasonably entails budget changes and unexpected costs. To think the agency could have met the 10-year anniversary date for the memorial’s completion without cost overruns — which were directly attributable to dealing with third parties, such as New York City, the M.T.A., Silverstein Properties and the 9/11 Memorial Foundation — is shortsighted at best. Mayor Bloomberg acknowledged this fact, calling it “naive” to not expect ballooning costs in the rebuilding of “perhaps the most complex construction project in the history of the world.”

Bloomberg also pointed out an important fact barely mentioned in the audit — that the $1 billion surplus for the tenant fit-out of One W.T.C. wasn’t included in the project’s original budget calculations.

The audit does acknowledge the adversities the agency endured during the last 20 years, from the February 1993 W.T.C. bombing to 9/11, the latter which resulted in the death of its then-executive director, Neil Levin, along with 83 other employees. Needless to say, one of the adversities is managing a project of this length and complexity through four governors apiece for New York and New Jersey and four heads of the Port Authority.

In particular, the Port must resolve its prolonged deadlock with the 9/11 Memorial Foundation over unanticipated construction costs as quickly as possible.

It is unacceptable that work on the 9/11 Memorial Museum has slowed significantly due to a disagreement over the project’s finances.

As much as we must recognize these financial hurdles, it’s important not to forget the poignant milestones that were met. Completing the memorial by the one-decade anniversary was a strong first step.

The audit tells nothing of the emotions that were felt when One W.T.C. finally started rising and when family members of those who died on 9/11 stepped foot on to the memorial site last September.

What would the costs have been if we had to stand up in front of the city, the nation and the world and admit we couldn’t get the job done?

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Still more bigoted claims?

To The Editor: Re “C.B. 2 O.K.’s full length for Gennaro Feast; Mall on tap” (news article, Feb. 16): As a leader in the Italian-American community, I am once again appalled at the bigoted, unsubstantiated claims by Kim Martin, that those who spoke out against the feast or the mall were being threatened or bullied. I would hope that anyone who was threatened would have filed a report with the police and had the person committing such an act arrested.

However, it is typical of Martin and others like her, when they have a disagreement with an Italian-American, or with Italian-Americans as a group, to use such language. There is no room in our community for people who negatively stereotype others, and I wish Ms. Martin would stop.

I, along with the other members of the Italian-American community, will continue working with those in the community that have legitimate issues that need to be addressed.

I look forward to working with Community Board 2, Councilmember Chin and SAPO (the Mayor’s Street Activities Permit Office) to have two great events in Little Italy once again this year.

John A. Fratta

N.Y.U. risks rotting the core To The Editor: Re “N.Y.U. has a right to build, but must scale back plan” (editorial, Feb. 9): Yes, N.Y.U. has a right to build. And we have existing zoning laws to cover what it may build on land it does own.

But the university seeks to control land it does not own as well, land that belongs to the public. It also wants to change the zoning designation of the superblocks, the city zoning law text and even to get additional waivers beyond that.

These are changes that may well set a precedent for the rest of the city — so be careful what you ask for.

“Half?” Why are you expecting N.Y.U. to have a change of heart, when for more than a year as it developed this plan, it refused to yield to the community by even a fraction. When it gave up on the “pinwheel” hotel, it was only because of the embarrassment to N.Y.U. by I.M. Pei’s public rejection of the proposal — not because of any compromise with the community.

The superblocks’ existing zoning is a restriction on development agreed to first in the 1950s and again in the ’70s. Why would a deed restriction on land transferred to the city for a

public school now in 2012 have any more meaning than the existing deed restriction on the superblocks created in past agreements? What happened to “a deal’s a deal”? Should past agreements be thrown out each time N.Y.U. wants more?

The wide support for the plan at the city level offers an opportunity to spread N.Y.U.’s growth throughout the city more widely. Opposition to this plan does not reduce the possibilities for job growth. On the contrary, it has the potential to spread jobs throughout the city. And the university’s strength would not be diminished by such a spread; rather, it would enhance it. Consider the fact that N.Y.U. thrives now and is in several locations around this and other cities.

Perhaps that’s precisely why it is thriving.

N.Y.U.’s need to expand should not be fulfilled in its core.

Expansion there will only serve to rot the core.

Jeffrey Rowland

Behemoth is back for more To The Editor: Re “N.Y.U. has a right to build, but must scale back plan” (editorial, Feb. 9): N.Y.U. has always had one plan: world domination.

Witness the recent expansions in Asia and the Arabian Peninsula, similar to those of banks, luxury-goods purveyors and other multinationals.

Regarding N.Y.U.’s “new plans,” this newspaper’s editorial board has chosen to fall on the wrong side of history.

There are several questions that must be asked. Why does a corporate behemoth with a “yearly membership” tag of $60,000 per student continue to pay no taxes? What is the community at large receiving (other than false and broken promises) for the privilege of hosting this voracious developer in its midst? Education? It’s only for the cast that can afford such tuition: transient scions of the global 1 percent — actually, much less than 1 percent.

Students educated at N.Y.U. don’t stay in the community.

I am a notable exception, but I was here before studying there. Most only milk the area for its cultural worth, burden it with their carousing and leave with their degrees. If their rich families are socked with hundreds of thousands of dollars in costs, it’s no biggie.

N.Y.U.’s only concern is self-aggrandizement. How great to be part of it, if you are an administrator, tenured faculty or a rich student whose family can pay the ticket. Meanwhile, the university’s promises to the community remain undelivered,

Continued on page 18

IRA BLUTREICH

The revamped teacher evaluations may put a new face on education.

February 23 - 29, 2012

17

Save The Cooper Union without losing its identity TALKING POINT

BY BARRY DROGIN Three months ago, this newspaper reported on a summit meeting in The Great Hall of The Cooper Union, in which Cooper students, faculty and alumni gathered to voice unified support of keeping the colleges of art, architecture and engineering as tuition-free institutions. Pledges were made, processes were started and eloquent testimonies offered. It is time for a progress report.

To promote the idea of philanthropy, the students started a drive to collect money — even a token penny — for which students received an “I Support The Cooper Union” sticker.

Other students signed a pledge to donate when they graduated and became alumni. Alumni continued the process started at the summit, holding several breakout sessions to work on practical solutions to the college’s various problems, not only financial, but also communications and community service. The alumni council — elected representatives of the alumni association — unanimously adopted a resolution in support of maintaining free education at The Cooper Union, and striving for full participation in alumni financial support of the college. The faculty bodies and elected student representatives are readying similar resolutions. In a collaboration between students, faculty, alumni and staff, an online pledge site, Money On The Table, has raised more than $250,000 from more than 500 donors. Several Web sites on various social media platforms have been launched, including a petition drive with more than 4,000 signatures, a Facebook page with more than 1,000 members, and friendsofcooperunion.org, a conglomeration site that unifies them all and promotes activism under the acronym FoCUS (Friends of Cooper Union Strategies). A FoCUS event on Tues., Feb. 21, which was planned after this talking point was written, was expected to attract students, faculty, alumni and staff.

The unity isn’t surprising, considering that there is significant overlap between the stakeholders of what is called “The Cooper Union Community.” Students, of course, graduate to become alumni. Many alumni return to teach as faculty or as visiting artists. Both students and alumni act as staff — in the Computer Center, in shops and studios, and in public service roles in the Saturday Program for more than 1,000 high school students. Even the board of trustees, in addition to four elected alumni representatives, has a large number of alumni, including the board’s chairperson.

The local community — not just those in the specialized professions, but residents of all New York City — are also stakeholders in The Cooper Union, not just as residents and through the school’s Continuing Education programs, but through decades of progressive political gatherings in The Great Hall, too numerous to list here.

The Cooper Union is first and foremost a college. In 1998 the Middle States Association, which accredits it, criticized The Cooper Union for not having a clear mission statement.

Over the next two years, the stakeholders of The Cooper Union gathered to formulate what, in 2000, was adopted by

its board of trustees as the mission statement of The Cooper Union: “Through outstanding academic programs in architecture, art and engineering, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art prepares talented students to make enlightened contributions to society.

“The College admits undergraduates solely on merit and awards full scholarships to all enrolled students. The institution provides close contact with a distinguished, creative faculty and fosters rigorous, humanistic learning that is enhanced by the process of design and augmented by the urban setting. Founded in 1859 by Peter Cooper, industrialist and philanthropist, The Cooper Union offers public programs for the civic, cultural and practicable enrichment of New York City.”

In 1998 the accrediting Middle States Association criticized The Cooper Union for not having a clear mission statement.

The Save Cooper Union movement, as it is known (“Free Cooper Union” was clever, but its meaning less clear), needed to define what The Cooper Union was in order to define what it was saving.

This war of words has become the strategy the Save Cooper Union movement has embraced, with the mission statement at its core. The focus remains not only on the phrase “full scholarships to all enrolled students,” but many other phrases in the mission statement, as well. The stakeholder process that resulted in board adoption cannot be arbitrarily ignored.

Nonprofit boards have three duties under New York State law: a duty of care, a duty of loyalty and a duty of obedience.

Violation of the duty of care — to reject presidential budgets and investment manager recommendations if they place the institution in peril — has already led to the college’s precarious financial state, one which Villagers should know can lead to bankruptcy, as seen in the case of St. Vincent’s Hospital.

Egregious violations of the duty of loyalty — conflicts of interest within the board — have been corrected. It is now the duty of obedience to the mission of the institution which is under direct threat. That threat comes from the institution’s new president that the board selected and installed in July 2011.

In a letter to the Cooper Union community in November, in a presidential address in December, in task forces appointed in January, and in a Web site that fully sprang to life in February, President Jamshed Bharucha has called for the “reinvention” of The Cooper Union. All four elements of Member of the New York Press Association

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this “reinvention strategy” violate the college’s mission statement. Instead of full scholarships to all enrolled students, the new president wants to substitute access for the lower class. Instead of the college’s devotion to its urban setting and, specifically, New York City, the new president wants to substitute globalization. Instead of Cooper’s civic and cultural public programs, the new president wants to deploy technology and design for the nation and world. And instead of preparing students with outstanding academic programs, the new president wants the faculty and students to engage in entrepreneurial activity.

Bharucha has already launched a fifth element, inherent only in the title of the institution but not present in its mission statement: to develop cross-disciplinary courses to bring about a “union for the advancement of science and art.”

Instead of implementing an austerity budget and layoffs, the new president announced a hiring freeze that has already been violated. And instead of embracing the community summit process started in December, he is attempting to implement a parallel closed-door process, with confidentiality agreements and approved minutes, to implement his “reinvention strategy.” Apparently, one week of open forums, no matter how well moderated, was too much for the new “transparent” president and his administrative staff.

When put into the context of the 19th-century words of its “Deed of Trust” and Peter Cooper’s letter to the trustees of the college, this “reinvention” — which happens to jibe exactly with the new president’s educational policy speeches prior to coming to New York City — can be made to appear to make sense. But The Cooper Union is no longer a vocational school for the lower classes; it is a unique, tuition-free, accredited institution of specialized higher education that for 110 years has admitted undergraduates — lower class, middle class and upper class — solely on merit.

After Sept. 11, 2001, an alumnus architect supplied The Cooper Union with blueprints of the seven-story, 16-acre basement of the World Trade Center complex. Forty students labored for three weeks to build a scale model out of plexiglass, balsa wood and plastic foam to aid in the excavation — a model that the executive deputy commissioner of the city’s Department of Design and Construction called, “Truly amazing.”

The service The Cooper Union provides to the citizens of New York City is well known. As stakeholders, please join with other friends of The Cooper Union to ensure the board acts to save and preserve the mission, the accreditation and the existence of the college.

Drogin, a West Village resident, is publisher of The Alumni Pioneer, an online newspaper devoted to investigative journalism about the Cooper Union financial crisis. A 1983 graduate, he was The Cooper Union’s first Tau Beta Pi laureate, for diverse achievements in music and journalism.

His YouTube video, “The New Colossus,” satirizes in music, lyrics and images the “reinvention strategy” of The Cooper Union’s new president.

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18

February 23 - 29, 2012

OPENING THIS WINTER!

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

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as your recent reprint of then-Councilmember Carol Greitzer’s 1970 talking point made clear; the promise (now rehashed and muchreduced) of a school was made to obtain a variance to allow the Coles gym/Silver Towers superblock to be developed.

Now the behemoth is back for more, with more promises that are instrumental to getting its way; it’s nothing but lip service.

If Bloomberg and his henchmen intend to deliver a large chunk of Downtown’s most vital area to a questionable entity, let them try to override the community’s opposition.

Sante Scardillo, Scardillo is a member, Little Italy Neighbors Association, and a graduate of N.Y.U.’s Tisch School of the Arts (Class of ’85)

Steeples connection To The Editor: Re “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: A look at St. Brigid’s rehab” (news article, Feb. 16): I grew up in St. Brigid’s and also was married there. I’m happy to say that I have years of photos of the original church and so many memories of going there and also of being taught catechism by the nuns.

I hope that it will be possible to see the refurbished church, but I now live in Kentucky and age is creeping up. I was thrilled to see that maybe new steeples for the church will be made in Kentucky and shipped to New York City. I’ll still have a connection.

Joyce Sloan

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Don’t leave it up to S.C.A.! Hashing out the facts To The Editor: Re “N.Y.U. rep says they’ll give land, not cash, for a school” (news article, Feb. 9): In your article on N.Y.U.’s promise of public school construction, you mention that “the plan for the entire building is driven by S.C.A. [School Construction Authority] action.”

It is this element of the situation that makes local parents the most skeptical. It is precisely S.C.A. inaction that has led to the present school overcrowding crisis — the failure of the authority’s models for predicting enrollment growth and its unwillingness to accommodate enrollment growth when it occurs.

The Village needs N.Y.U. to advocate for a school and actively to generate it, not simply to acquiesce in it. Otherwise, we are confident that no school will be built and the land will revert to N.Y.U. for its own purposes. Was that the intention all along? Observers recall that N.Y.U. simply reneged on its 1963 promise to build a school when it bent the rules to acquire the superblocks in the first place. This time, perhaps S.C.A. will give N.Y.U. cover.

Ann Kjellberg

Cops and cannabis issue To The Editor: Re “Killed over a bag of weed” (letter, by Jerry The Peddler, Feb. 9): Police are people in a position of trust and should not be perpetuating cannabis (marijuana) prohibition or condoning shooting teenagers over a bag of weed. Police and their unions are to be disrespected if they continue to lobby to cage responsible adults who choose to use the extremely popular, relatively safe God-given plant (see the first page of the Bible) cannabis.

Stan White

To The Editor: Re “Rosalind was in the mix” (letter, by Eddie Woods, Feb. 2): After decades of misleading information, the facts have finally come to the surface.

Subsequent to his letter in the East Villager, Eddie Woods confessed to me in an e-mail that he, too, was told by Ira Cohen that Ira had written “The Hashish Cookbook.” But Eddie knew that this was not true. However, Eddie would only tell me that the author was a woman by the name of Rosalind.

I felt that the woman author should be recognized, her full name should be known, and I wanted the facts to be correct in the soon-to-be-released book that I’m editing and in which Ira is included, “Jews: A People’s History of the Lower East Side.” After many e-mails back and forth with Eddie, he finally sent me the following information: “Ira Cohen published ‘The Hashish Cookbook’ (NYC, 1966) under the Gnaoua Press imprint and managed to sell 10,000 copies in six weeks. The book was written in Tangier (at Brion Gysin’s suggestion) by Ira’s then-girlfriend, Rosalind Schwartz, using the pseudonym Panama Rose. Over the years, for whatever reasons, Ira came to be identified as the author. He was not.”

Clayton Patterson

E-mail letters, not longer than 250 words in length, to lincoln@thevillager.com or fax to 212-229-2790 or mail to the East Villager, Letters to the Editor, 515 Canal St., Suite 1C, NY, NY 10013. Please include phone number for confirmation purposes. The East Villager reserves the right to edit letters for space, grammar, clarity and libel. The East Villager does not publish anonymous letters.

February 23 - 29, 2012

19

EASTVILLAGERARTS&ENTERTAINMENT Two handfuls of reasons to love the FRIGID New York Festival Three theaters, 12 days, 150 performances FRIGID IS LIKE A VAUDEVILLE BILL YOU PROGRAM YOURSELF, WITH DRINKS IN BETWEEN

BY MARTIN DENTON Just when the winter doldrums threaten to kick in, along comes FRIGID New York to bring a jolt of energy and excitement to the NYC theater landscape. A production of Horse Trade Theater Group, FRIGID packs in a surprising variety of performance in a truly festive environment. I love FRIGID, and I’m about to tell you why you should too.

Everything in FRIGID lasts an hour or less. Shows start right after work on weekdays and around 1pm on weekends, and run until midnight or thereabouts. The Red Room and the Kraine are housed in the same building (85 East 4th Street). Under St. Marks, four blocks north and one block east, is a leisurely ten-minute stroll. So you can easily pack in two, three or even four shows in a single day/ evening. The East Village location means that there are plenty of pubs, taverns, saloons and eating establishments of every stripe nearby.

See a 6pm show at the Red Room, have dinner, catch a 9pm show at Under St Marks, grab a quick drink and wrap up your night with the late show at the Kraine at 10:30pm.

FRIGID IS EASY ON THE POCKETBOOK All of the shows cost between $10 and $16.

You could see everything in the festival (which would keep you very entertained — there are 30 shows altogether!) for about the price of 3 Broadway theater tickets.

FRIGID IS ARTIST-FRIENDLY FRIGID IS FUN

One hundred percent of box office receipts goes to the individual shows. I don’t know of another theater festival in town that operates in this fashion.

The most important reason of all! The nights I’ve spent floating from one FRIGID show to another are some of the most enjoyable I’ve spent in my years covering NYC theatre. This is a festival with an easy, relaxed vibe.

The array of offerings is eclectic and delightful — from a teeny-weeny tabletop show inspired by the works of Edgar Allen Poe (“Poe-Dunk: A Matchbook Entertainment”) to a two-person clown/acrobatics show (“Aerial Allusions”) to no fewer than three burlesque programs.

Something for everybody, as they say.

Martin Denton is editor/producer of nytheatre.com (where you can find reviews of FRIGID shows throughout the festival’s run).

His latest project is indietheaternow.com.

FRIGID IS NOT CURATED That means that there’s a degree of randomness in what shows end up in the festival. Randomness breeds diversity, and diversity is good. I can honestly say that in five years of FRIGID-going, I have only seen one show that I really was sorry to have spent time with.

FRIGID IS A BREEDING GROUND FOR EMERGING TALENT One example: No.11 Pro-ductions has been in FRIGID three times. Their first show was a rare revival of Antonin Artaud’s supposedly unproducible “Jet of Blood.” They followed that with a “Medea.” Then last year, they hit pay dirt with an original musical called “Quest for the West: The Oregon Trail!” — a show that has gone on to runs at the Capitol Fringe and Kentucky Repertory Theatre. It’s been exciting watching these young artists grow and learn. So I’m looking forward to their 2012 FRIGID offering (“Coosje,” about two modern-day artists… and a singing pear).

FRIGID EQUALS GOOD PLAYS Lots of shows in the festival are of the comedy/variety/burlesque type, but just as many are authentically fine dramatic literature. We’re celebrating this fact on Indie Theater Now — the website I founded and curate that is best described as “iTunes for plays” — with a FRIGID New York collection that features 16 of the best scripts from the past years’ FRIGID festivals, including works by Chris Harcum, Bricken Sparacino and Una Aya Osato, all of whom will have new shows in 2012. (Check out their previous work to get an idea of their styles.)

Photo by David Leyes

One part Lady Gaga and two parts Sam Kinison (with a splash of “Vagina Monologues”), Rachelle Elie’s “Big Girls Don’t Cry” tackles Haitian fathers, Kenyan night clubs and aging Barbies.

FRIGID IS WHERE I DISCOVER AT LEAST ONE GREAT NEW THEATER ARTIST EVERY YEAR Honest — and often, I find the gems where I least expect them. Best example: “Conversation Storm/Great Hymn of Thanksgiving,” in FRIGID 2008, was the show that introduced Rick Burkhardt to New York. Rick went on to win an Obie for “Three Pianos” (at New York Theatre Workshop) last year. But FRIGID fans saw him first.

FRIGID FEATURES TOP-NOTCH TALENT STRETCHING THEIR WINGS Mac Rogers, stellar award-winning playwright, is starring in a one-man play (not written by him) called “Judge, Yuri and Executioner.” Actress Ching Valdes-

Aran, whose credits span decades at La MaMa, Ma-Yi Theatre and other venerable companies, is directing “Breathe, Love, Repeat” — and former Blue Man Group performer John Grady is doing a one-man play called “Fear Factor: Canine Edition.”

FRIGID IS NOT JUST A BUNCH OF SOLO SHOWS There are plenty of one-person entertainments in the festival, to be sure, but just as many multi-cast efforts. This year, look for “Initium Finis.” by Theatre Reverb, “Drowning Ophelia: A New Rock Musical,” “Missed Connections” (based on Craigslist ads) and “Stripper Lesbians from Rising Sun Performance Company,” among others.

Photo by Kevin P. Hale

A teeny-weeny tabletop show inspired by the works of Edgar Allen Poe: “PoeDunk: A Matchbook Entertainment.”

The FRIGID New York Festival runs through March 4, at the Horse Trade Theater Group venues (The Kraine Theater and The Red Room, at 85 E. 4 St. — and UNDER St. Marks, at 94 St. Marks Place). For tickets ($10-16), call 212-868-4444 or visit smarttix.com. For a schedule of events, visit frigidnewyork. info. Also visit horsetrade.info.

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February 23 - 29, 2012

Earl explores mind of Muppets maker Jim Henson’s ‘right hand man’ recalls, reflects FILM JIM HENSON’S FANTASTIC WORLD Through March 4 At the Museum of the Moving Image 36-01 35th Ave. (at 37th St.), in Astoria Subway: M (weekdays only) or R to Steinway St. Q (weekdays only) or N to 36th Museum Hours: Tues.-Thurs., 10:30am-5pm; Fri., 10:30am-8pm; Sat./Sun., 10:30am-7pm Admission: $12 ($6 for ages 3-18; $9 for students & 65+; admission to the galleries is free on Fridays, 4-8pm For info, call 718-777-6888 or visit movingimage.us Also visit puppetschool.com and jimhensonlegacy.org

BY SCOTT STIFFLER A frog, a log, a swamp, a song and a dream: That image, from the opening scene of 1979’s “The Muppet Movie,” is also the first thing you see upon entering “Jim Henson’s Fantastic World.” Through early March, you can find that world — in the form of a remarkably insightful Smithsonian traveling exhibition — in Astoria. Make the trip. It’s worth the effort.

Snake your way through the lobby of the Museum of the Moving Image, up a set of stairs and past the amphitheater’s screening of Jim Henson’s 1965 live action short “Timepiece,” and you’ll come face to face with the soft-spoken visionary’s most enduring creation. There’s Kermit the Frog — under glass, frozen in time, not having aged a bit since his days on public television, in the movies and as a TV variety show host.

In addition to drawings, storyboards, props, video clips and photographs, the exhibit features 15 original puppets. Some

are familiar and iconic. “Sesame Street” buddies Bert and Ernie are there, as is Miss Piggy — in full bridal regalia, eagerly anticipating her wedding to a certain amphibian. Other Henson creations, seen in the form of video clips from his early work on 1960s TV commercials, are less familiar. But they set the stage for things to come (Sir Linit, a knight whose body is made out of a spray can, looks an awful lot like Ernie; and the clumsy gait of a giant dragon anticipates that of Big Bird).

“I was taken with the fact that people were laughing at this old commercial of the dragon coming around the corner and knocking grocery items off the shelf with his tail,” says Michael Earl. A four-time Emmy Award-winning puppeteer (formerly Mr. Snuffleupagus on “Sesame Street”), Earl and his business partner, Roberto Ferreira, joined us on a trip through “Jim Henson’s Fantastic World.” Of audience reaction to those ancient black and white TV commercials, Earl notes, “I thought it was funny that they laughed so much. I saw it twice, with two different groups of people, and it reminded me of the timelessness of Jim’s humor.”

Earl, who had touched or worn most of the Muppets on display, began his career as a 19-year-old puppeteer working on “The Muppet Movie” (that’s him, as Big Bird, in the film’s climactic scene). Early on in the filming, Earl recalls, “I noticed there was a spot on the monitor, where the director sits.

Jim was standing there, and I said, ‘There’s a spot on the picture.’ It turned out there wasn’t a spot on the film, just the monitor.

Very graciously, instead of getting annoyed with this young kid, he said, ‘It’s okay. We have people to take care of things like that.’

In a gentle and caring way, he let me know I needed to relax and not worry.”

Henson’s mellow demeanor remained consistent throughout their years of working together, Earl says — adding, however, that the businessman who ran the Muppet empire was “a delegator who only gave one minute to a problem. When he set a goal, he wouldn’t look at the whole staircase, just a step at a time.”

When it came to creative collaboration, delegation was a necessity. Earl spent time

Photo courtesy of the Puppet School

Puppet School co-founder Michael Earl (with glasses, back row, left) preps a new generation to build on the Henson legacy.

as Henson’s right hand man — literally. “It would have been around 1978,” Earl recalls, when for the first time he performed as “Sesame Street” regular Ernie.

“The Muppets have something called ‘right handing,’ ” explains Earl. “When Jim and Frank [Oz] would do Bert and Ernie, they needed somebody to do the right hand, and sometimes I’d be assigned the job. The right hand has to sort of compliment the lead puppeteer. If you watch any Muppet performance, you’ll notice the left hand is the most active — which is not something people would think about, because it’s supposed to be seamless.

But the technique behind that seamless quality is that the right hand movement is very subtle, like salt and pepper on a meal.”

The meat of the exhibit, for Earl at least, was the wealth of production notes.

Henson’s handwritten thoughts shed light on the conceptual phase of everything from “Fraggle Rock” to 1982’s “The Dark Crystal” (an ambitious original fairy tale that Earl refers to as Henson’s “Fantasia”).

“I love that you could see inside the mind of Jim, through his sketches and storyboards.

I love seeing all those pieces together in the

exhibit, because it gave you a more complete picture of who he was.” Having known Henson largely as the man who’d show up on set as a puppeteer, Earl says he now has a greater appreciation that, “This was only one side of him. I didn’t see the intimate nature of his conceptual mind. When you see the actual drawings with pencil marks on it you realize that even though he had people like Don Sahlin build [Muppets] for him, the original idea for a character like Rowlf still originated with Jim. So there are the two sides of him that I now think about — the one that came to work, and the one that sat quietly and conceived these other worlds and characters.”

Michael Earl and Roberto Ferreira are founders of the LA-based Puppet School, which recently brought its curriculum to NYC. Beginning Feb. 25, Earl will teach a 4-week course in NYC (Interimediate TV Puppetry Workshop). Beginning Feb. 26, The Puppet School offers a 6-week course, also in NYC (Beginning TV Puppetry Workshop). For info, call 818-986-9944 or visit puppetschool.com, facebook.com/ puppetschool and youtube.com/puppetschool.

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February 23 - 29, 2012

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Grit, glamour and seismic shifts BOOKS BLOOD & BEAUTY: MANHATTAN’S MEATPACKING DISTRICT

By Pamela Greene Published by Schiffer Publishing Ltd. (2011) $34.99 Visit schifferbooks.com and pamelagreenephotography.com

BY SCOTT STIFFLER Like an enduring red stain on a white butcher’s coat, the 124 photos from Pamela Greene’s wry look at nine years in the evolving life of the Meatpacking District settle into your head and remain stubbornly lodged there. It’s not an unpleasant sensation — although the sights aren’t what you might expect from a collection of images taken during the decline of one industry and the rise of another.

Rather than mourn the loss of longtime establishments or praise the area’s rapid ascension as a fashion hub, Greene’s body of work (shot from 2002-2011) instead succumbs to the wonder of a neighborhood that lives and dies every 24 hours — then does it all over again.

An embedded witness to the daily changing of the guard from retail glory to nightlife glamour to industrial grit, Greene’s insightful framing and chronological storytelling extracts common elements shared by meatpacking workImage courtesy of Schiffer Publishing Ltd. and Pamela Greene

Continued on page 23

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THE HOUSE Created with audience ages 10 and beyond in mind, “The House” is the latest production from HERE’s “StartHERE: Innovative Theater for Young People” program — which is designed to bring unique performing arts events to family audiences. This innovative theater piece certainly qualifies. International artist Sofie Krog (Denmark’s Sofie Krog Teater) collaborates with members of HERE’s Dream Music Puppetry Program to tell a tale of creeps, thrills and laughs to be found behind the closed doors of a house doing double duty as a funeral home. Occupied by the reclusive Mrs. Esperanza (and her faithful dog), this house has many rooms filled with devious inhabitants and oddball visitors. A revolving set brimming with intricate lights and complex contraptions will keep audiences on the edge of their seats. Fri., Feb. 24 at 7pm; Sat., Feb. 25 and Sun., Feb. 26 at 2pm & 7pm. At HERE (145 Sixth Ave., one block below Spring St.). For tickets ($20 general, $15 Youth Ticket, for ages 10-18), purchase at the Box Office day of show, call 212-352-3101 or visit here.org.

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February 23 - 29, 2012

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The Villager .com

February 23 - 29, 2012

23

Meatpacking District photo project charts change Continued from page 21 ers, models, restaurateurs, clubgoers and prostitutes. All possess a similar devotion to routine, but only some are aware (and care) that their days are clearly numbered.

Given the fact that so many dynamic worlds collide within this relatively small patch of Manhattan, it would have been easy for Greene to simply pursue moments when all those disparate elements could be jammed into one busy shot. Instead, she wisely plays her juxtaposition card by way of the layout. The naked slabs of meat in “Hanging Hoofers” (on page 116) are complemented, just to the right, by page 117’s “Coats” (white butcher’s long coats dangling from their own miniature version of the same hooks lodged firmly in those aforementioned hoofers).

Greene’s left/right study in contrast gets a similar workout when page 30’s “Shadows and Light” shows construction workers unceremoniously emptying a garbage can — while, on page 31, “Tourists” has a couple consulting their map as a companion busily chats on his cell. This method provides a much more effective window into the changing times than what would have been achieved if Greene strained to make a single photograph do that job.

“A model going up the street, trying to dodge a side of beef? You didn’t really see that,” Greene maintains — noting that in reality, it was the photographer who often found herself yielding ground to the Meatpacking District’s most enduring product. “I was flat against the wall,” she says of the process that gave “Blood & Beauty” its cover shot. “You didn’t have to tell me not to move. I mean, you don’t want to run into a side of beef. That’s six hundred pounds.

You’d be a goner.”

Considering all the people she did run into (and all the cows she managed to avoid),

Greene emerged remarkably unscathed — but not unchanged. “It was personal by then,” she says, pinpointing a time in 2003 when she realized, “I wanted to do a book, a long-term project. I got to go deep, and understand the people — not the neighborhood. I wasn’t interested in the political science of it,” says the former poli-sci major without the slightest desire to shade that comment with irony.

“I wanted to know the people. Although there were times when I took a month or so off, I completely immersed myself.” Greene, who’s been working for some time now on an “immigration project,” declares she’s not yet sure where that effort will lead — except to say, “I really am much happier when I’m working on a project that takes all of my time.”

What Greene found in the Meatpacking District was a hive of subcultures — most of which were in the throes of collapsing or bursting. “People adapt,” Greene says admiringly. Referring to the meatpacking workers, she notes, “The key people I photographed are still around…but they’re working on the real edges of the district.”

Of James Rogers (see his photo in this article: “James at Hector’s”), Greene recalls, “I took a lot of pictures of him. He told me he was very proud of his years in the Meatpacking District, and put his pension on hold so he could work as a freelancer.

He knew that eventually, all of these plants would probably go.”

Greene doesn’t cast the fashion industry in the role of encroaching villain (in fact, she praises its pioneer spirit). Nonetheless, she recalls how meatpacking workers like Rogers viewed the new arrivals. “As soon as they heard [Diane] Von Furstenberg was going to move her world headquarters to Washington and 14th, they knew that virtually everything was going to be renovated, and they’d have to move. No question about it. One group was leaving — and they made their whole lives in that neighborhood.”

Images courtesy of Schiffer Publishing Ltd. and Pamela Greene

“Fashion Fun”

“Street Scene”

“James at Hector’s”

“Walking Across the Plaza”

February 23 - 29, 2012

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The Lobster Place was one of Chelsea Market’s original tenants.

As the market has grown, so has its business, and the Lobster Place now employs 57 people and serves more than 2,000 fresh seafood fans every day.

The growth and evolution of small businesses is just one success story to grow from Chelsea Market. Expand Chelsea Market: it’s what’s next.

For more, visit www.ChelseaMarketNext.com Paid for by Putting New Yorkers to Work