Our Town Downtown - January 7, 2016

The local paper for Downtown wn A TEACHER MAKES THE GRADE < Q&A, P.21

FROM PAYPHONES TO WIFI NEWS Plan would create 7,500 hot spots

BY JENNIFER PELTZ

Operator, won’t you help me replace this call?

A 9-foot-tall, narrow structure installed this past week on a Manhattan sidewalk is signaling a plan to turn payphones into what’s billed as the world’s biggest and fastest municipal Wi-Fi network.

The first of at least 7,500 planned hot spots are due to go online early next year, promising superfast and free Wi-Fi service, new street phones with free calling, ports to charge personal phones and a no-cost windfall for the city.

With some cities nationwide making renewed pushes for public Wi-Fi after an earlier wave of enthusiasm faded, New York officials say their project is democratizing data access while modernizing outmoded street phones.

For now, the first hot spot is still being tested and sits under a gray cover.

But some passers-by like the sound of what’s in store.

“It’s always helpful” to have WiFi to reduce the bite that apps and web-surfing take out of cellular data service, which is capped in many consumers’ plans, Jack Thomas said this week while texting near the dormant kiosk.

But others have qualms about New Yorkers linking their devices to a public network as they stroll down the

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THE DOWNTOWN LIBRARY DESERT NEWS A shortage continues, despite years of complaints by local officials

BY DANIEL FITZSIMMONS

Downtown officials want to know why there are no libraries or community centers in the Financial District east of Broadway, where 60 percent of the population in that district lives.

“I wish I knew,” said Ro Sheffe, chair of CB1’s Financial District Committee, who noted he and others on the board have been pressuring city government for the past decade to provide more community facilities in an area of Lower Manhattan that has seen a steep increase in population over the same time period.

Sheffe said when referring to libraries he means facilities in the New York Public Library system, the closest of which are the New Amsterdam branch just west of City Hall on Murray Street, and further west, the Battery Park City branch on North End Avenue. Community centers, he said, are either non-profit entities like Manhattan Youth Recreation, like the center on the west end of Warren Street, or facilities like Asphalt Green at Battery Park City that are private and

The Financial District in Lower Manhattan, where according to Community Board 1 member Ro Sheffe, is without a public library or community center in its entire eastern half. Source: WikiMedia Commons for-profit, but offer free or low-cost community programming.

Those types of facilities, claims Sheffe, do not exist in the eastern half of the Financial District: from Broadway down to South Street, up past the Seaport to the Brooklyn Bridge, and back west to Broadway.

While there’s no concrete reason for

the dearth of community facilities in that chunk of Lower Manhattan, there are two contributing factors that may help explain the circumstance.

The first is an apparent lack of good data at the official level for just

WEEK OF JANUARY

7-13 2016

Our Take TWO VIEWS OF THE HOMELESS What to make of the skirmish between the governor and the mayor over the city’s homeless problem?

One view is that this is more of the same, childish sniping between the two men who are supposed to be the adults of New York politics. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, in particular, seems constitutionally incapable of letting an opportunity pass to tweak Mayor Bill de Blasio.

The problem is that the mayor gives him so many opportunities.

As is so often the case, the mayor here laid the groundwork for his own misery, insisting over the summer that the homeless population in the city wasn’t going up, a stance that was ridiculous to anybody not shuttling around town in a SUV. Ultimately, de Blasio came around, acknowledging that things are getting worse and laying out an ggressive plan to deal with it.

Cuomo’s proposal, to forcibly remove homeless people when the temperature slips below freezing, is an unprecedently aggressive step for any governor.

And it raises some serious legal issues that de Blasio is right to point out. Being homeless is not against the law, even when it’s cold outside. Moving people inside against their will is not an answer to the fundamental causes of homelessness.

But it’s an important debate to have and, if we can take Cuomo at his word, is rooted in compassion for our fellow New Yorkers sleeping on the streets. Credit to de Blasio for, at least so far, not taking the bait and turning this into another spitball fight .

CONTINUED ON PAGE 7 Downtowner

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City Arts Top 5 Business 15 Minutes

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WEEK OF APRIL

SPRING ARTS PREVIEW < CITYARTS, P.12

FOR HIM, SETTLING SMALL CLAIMS IS A BIG DEAL presided over Arbitration Man has three decades. for informal hearings about it He’s now blogging

BY RICHARD KHAVKINE

is the common Arbitration Man their jurist. least folks’ hero. Or at Man has For 30 years, Arbitration court office of the civil few sat in a satellite Centre St. every building at 111 New Yorkers’ weeks and absorbed dry cleaning, burned lost accountings of fender benders, lousy paint jobs, and the like. And security deposits then he’s decided. Arbitration Man, About a year ago, so to not afwho requested anonymity started docuhe fect future proceedings, two dozen of what menting about compelling cases considers his most blog. in an eponymous about it because “I decided to write the stories but in a I was interested about it not from wanted to write from view but rather lawyer’s point of said Arbitration view,” of a lay point lawyer since 1961.

Man, a practicing what’s at issue He first writes about post, renders and then, in a separatehow he arrived his decision, detailing blog the to Visitors at his conclusion. their opinions. often weigh in with get a rap going. I to “I really want whether they unreally want to know and why I did it,” I did derstood what don’t know how to he said. “Most people ... I’d like my cases the judge thinks. and also my trereflect my personalitythe law.” for mendous respect 80, went into indiMan, Arbitration suc in 1985, settling vidual practice

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MANHATTAN'S APARTMENT BOOM, > PROPERTY, P.20

2015

In Brief MORE HELP FOR SMALL BUSINESS

The effort to help small seems to businesses in the city be gathering steam.

Two city councilmembers, Robert Margaret Chin and Cornegy, have introduced create legislation that wouldSmall a new “Office of the within Business Advocate” of Small the city’s Department Business Services.

Chin The new post, which have up told us she’d like to would and running this year, for serve as an ombudsman city small businesses within them clear government, helping to get through the bureaucracy things done.

Perhaps even more also importantly, the ombudsman and number will tally the type small business of complaints by taken in owners, the actions policy response, and somefor ways to recommendations If done well, begin to fix things. report would the ombudsman’s give us the first quantitative with taste of what’s wrong the city, an small businesses in towards important first step fixing the problem. of for deTo really make a difference, is a mere formality will have to the work process looking to complete their advocate are the chances course, velopers precinct, but rising rents, -- thanks to a find a way to tackle business’ is being done legally of after-hours projects quickly. their own hours,” which remain many While Chin “They pick out boom in the number throughout who lives on most vexing problem. said Mildred Angelo,of the Ruppert construction permits gauge what Buildings one said it’s too early tocould have the 19th floor in The Department of the city. number three years, the Houses on 92nd Street between role the advocate She Over the past on the is handing out a record work perThird avenues. permits, there, more information of Second and an ongoing all-hours number of after-hours bad thing. of after-hours work the city’s Dept. problem can’t be a said there’s with the mits granted by nearby where according to new data jumped 30 percent, This step, combinedBorough construction project noise Buildings has data provided in workers constantly make efforts by Manhattan to mediate

BY DANIEL FITZSIMMONS according to DOB of Informacement from trucks.

President Gale Brewer offer response to a Freedom classifies transferring they want. They knows the the rent renewal process, request. The city They 6 “They do whatever signs Every New Yorker clang, tion Act go as they please. work between some early, tangible small any construction on the weekend, can come and sound: the metal-on-metal or the piercing of progress. For many have no respect.” p.m. and 7 a.m., can’t come of these that the hollow boom, issuance reverse. owners, in business moving The increased beeps of a truck has generto a correspond and you as after-hours. soon enough. variances has led at the alarm clock The surge in permits

SLEEPS, THANKS TO THE CITY THAT NEVER UCTION A BOOM IN LATE-NIGHT CONSTR NEWS

A glance it: it’s the middle can hardly believe yet construction of the night, and carries on full-tilt. your local police or You can call 311

n OurTownDowntow

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for dollars in fees ated millions of and left some resithe city agency, that the application dents convinced

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JANUARY 7-13,2016

WHAT’S MAKING NEWS IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD TRAFFIC DEATHS DECREASE Traffic deaths in the city dipped to record lows for the second consecutive year in 2015, The New York Times reported.

According to city statistics, 230 people were killed last year, 27 fewer

Photo: Timothy Krause, via Flickr

than the 257 who died in 2014, the paper reported. Most of those killed were pedestrians.

Still, if the Vision Zero target of eliminating traffic deaths altogether by 2024 is to be reached, more assertive measures must be implemented, city officials and traffic-safety advocates told The Times.

The city last year lowered the default speed limit to 25 mph, instituted traffic safety upgrades at dangerous intersections and along roadways, and also increased police enforcement of traffic laws, the paper noted.

The mayor said the city would continue to institute traffic safety measures

“We are moving in the right direction,” de Blasio was quoted as saying by The Times. “We know there is a lot more to do, but there is no question that Vision Zero is working.”

agents were not present.

“If there wasn’t one there, I would have gotten a notification,” he said. “I’m sure I would have received numerous complaints.”

PARENTS SAY CROSSING GUARDS NOT ALWAYS ON POST

EPA MOVES UP RIVER REVIEW

School crossing guards are still missing from key locations, despite efforts from the First Precinct, Councilwoman Margaret Chin recently told a council committee, Downtown Express reported. Late last year, police at the First Precinct said that traffic enforcement agents would be at active intersections near Peck Slip School and Spruce Street School to offset a crossing guard shortage downtown.

But Chin told the council’s committee on public safety that stopgap effort was apparently not adequate. She said that parents of students told her that the agents are not always present at Peck Slip School, which opened this fall. “The Peck Slip School’s right off the Brooklyn Bridge,” Chin was quoted as saying by the Downtown Express.

“So there’s a lot of traffic coming through. And parents who are bringing their kids, crossing with their kids, were telling us how dangerous it was.”

The First Precinct’s commanding officer, Capt. Mark Iocco, told the publication that he was not aware the

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will examine the outcome of General Electric’s cleanup of the Hudson River this year, moving up its review by a year, The Villager reported.

GE’s $2 billion-dollar dredging project lasted 6 years, concluding about a year ago. The goal was to remove cancer causing PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls. GE has claimed the project a success and that the toxics it dumped into the river prior to 1977 were removed.

E.P.A. moved up its examination following pressure from environmental groups, which believe that GE ought to and can do more to clean the waterway, the paper said.

State Senator Brad Hoylman, who has been critical of GE’s cleanup efforts, praised the agency’s move.

“I’m glad the E.P.A. has shown the common sense to fast track its review of GE’s dredging in the Hudson River before it lets the company off the hook for bringing the river to the brink of extinction,” The Villager quoted Hoylman as saying.

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CRIME WATCH BY JERRY DANZIG

AIDE TO I.M. PEI ARRESTED FOR ASSAULT A home health aide to 98-yearold renowned architect I.M. Pei has been charged with assaulting him inside his New York City home.

Pei told police that 28-yearold Eter Nikolaishvili grabbed his right forearm and forcefully twisted it Dec. 13. Authorities say Pei’s arm was bruised and bleeding after the attack.

Police investigated for two weeks before arresting the aide. The aide was arraigned in Manhattan criminal court on a charge of felony assault. She was released without bail. he aide’s attorney hasn’t returned a phone call seeking comment.

Pei’s designs include the John F. Kennedy Library in Massachusetts and the glass and steel pyramid at the Louvre in Paris.

STATS FOR THE WEEK

In 1983, Pei was awarded the Pritzker Prize, known as the Nobel Prize of architecture.

valued at $785 apiece, making a total of $1,570 gone with the wind.

FLOORED

NORTHERN INHOSPITALITY

Week to Date

Do thieves break into as many cars in Tennessee? At 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 26, a 27-year-old female visitor from the Volunteer State parked her black 2015 Dodge Durango opposite 129 Front St. When she returned half an hour later, clothing and other items worth $2,850 was missing from the trunk of the SUV. There were no signs of forced entry into the vehicle, and the driver thought she had locked her door.

The missing items included a Pandora full charm bracelet valued at $600, four coats worth $500, two pairs of True Religion jeans tagged at $400, an Apple iPad worth $400, ten polo shirts priced at $300, a Samsonite bag valued at $200, Lancôme and Dior cosmetics worth $200, along with assorted souvenirs, a backpack and blankets.

2015 2014

% Change

2015

2014

% Change

Murder

0

0

n/a

1

0

n/a

Rape

0

0

n/a

7

8

-12.5

Robbery

2

3

-33.3

78

51

52.9

Felony Assault

1

1

0.0

85

75

13.3

Burglary

5

1

400.0

133

144

-7.6

Grand Larceny

21

10

110.0

1,089

897

21.4

Grand Larceny Auto

0

2

-100.0

21

33

-36.4

This might help explain why some plumbing bills are so high.

At 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 22, a $3,000 piece of plumbing equipment was left chained up on a floor under construction in the new Saks Fifth Avenue store at 225 Liberty St. When he got to work the following morning, a 36-year-old male employee of Louis L. Buttermark Plumbing of Staten Island found that the chain had been broken and a Ridgid EP core drill was missing. Apparently, the floor was accessible to a number of individuals in the building.

SADDLE SORE Baked beans were not the problem recently at the Blazing Saddles bike store. At 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 8, two men did not return rented bicycles from the South Street store. A store employee told police that the men had used a non-active credit card to secure the rental.

The bicycles stolen were two Specialized crossroad bikes

CREW CUT Police took down a gang

Reported crimes from the 1st Precinct for Dec. 21 to Dec. 27

of bandits who hit two SoHo stores in quick succession. At 6 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 28, four men in their early twenties entered the MCM clothing boutique at 100 Greene St. and made off with two key ring charms valued at $770, another key ring charm valued at $345, another priced at $690, and three more tagged at $780 apiece, making a total haul of

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$2,585.

Then just eight minutes later, the same criminal quartet entered the What Goes Around Comes Around store at 351 West Broadway, took a Louis Vuitton bag worth $1,150 from a display shelf, and concealed it on their persons before exiting the store without paying for the item. Police caught up to the four individuals shortly

afterward. Patrick Noble, 20, William Winter, 22, Samuel Whitmire, 20, and Delano Ballenger, 20, were placed under arrest and charged with grand larceny. They were also found to be in possession of the merchandise from the MCM clothing boutique without the proper sales receipts.

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JANUARY 7-13,2016

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

Useful Contacts POLICE NYPD 7th Precinct

19 ½ Pitt St.

212-477-7311

NYPD 6th Precinct

233 W. 10th St.

212-741-4811

NYPD 10th Precinct

230 W. 20th St.

212-741-8211

NYPD 13th Precinct

230 E. 21st St.

NYPD 1st Precinct

16 Ericsson Place

212-477-7411 212-334-0611

FIRE FDNY Engine 15

25 Pitt St.

311

FDNY Engine 24/Ladder 5

227 6th Ave.

311

FDNY Engine 28 Ladder 11

222 E. 2nd St.

311

FDNY Engine 4/Ladder 15

42 South St.

311

ELECTED OFFICIALS Councilmember Margaret Chin

165 Park Row #11

Councilmember Rosie Mendez

237 1st Ave. #504

212-587-3159 212-677-1077

Councilmember Corey Johnson

224 W. 30th St.

212-564-7757

State Senator Daniel Squadron

250 Broadway #2011

212-298-5565

Community Board 1

49 Chambers St.

212-442-5050

Community Board 2

3 Washington Square Village

212-979-2272

Community Board 3

59 E. 4th St.

212-533-5300

Community Board 4

330 W. 42nd St.

212-736-4536

COMMUNITY BOARDS

Sam Chinita, at Eighth Avenue and 19th Street, in 1991. Photo: Robert J. Fisch

LIBRARIES Hudson Park

66 Leroy St.

Ottendorfer

135 2nd Ave.

212-243-6876 212-674-0947

Elmer Holmes Bobst

70 Washington Square

212-998-2500

HOSPITALS New York-Presbyterian

170 William St.

Mount Sinai-Beth Israel

10 Union Square East

212-844-8400

212-312-5110

CON EDISON

4 Irving Place

212-460-4600

TIME WARNER

46 East 23rd

813-964-3839

US Post Office

201 Varick St.

212-645-0327

US Post Office

128 East Broadway

212-267-1543

US Post Office

93 4th Ave.

212-254-1390

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TWO SIDES TO THE MENU Cuban-Chinese eateries, which proliferated and prospered along Eighth Avenue in Chelsea 40 years ago, have virtually disappeared

BY RAANAN GEBERER

In the 1970s and ‘80s, CubanChinese restaurants, serving inexpensive and flavorful food, were almost as ubiquitous in New York City as pizzerias, diners, Irish bars and Jewish delis. While some still exist (including one in Chelsea), their number is a fraction of what it was then. And Chelsea, specifically Eighth Avenue, had a large concentration of these eateries.

The story of Cuban-Chinese, or Latino-Chinese, restaurants begins in Cuba. Just as they did in the U.S., many Chinese immigrants came to Cuba in the 19th and early 20th centuries, some of them to work on sugar plantations. According to Larry Tung’s Gotham Gazette article “Cuban Chinese Restaurants,” from 2003, “By 1940, an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 [Chinese] were living in Havana and other parts of the island.”

Of course, some of them opened restaurants.

With the rise of Castro and Communism, many of these Cuban-Chinese people fled to the U.S. Since most spoke fluent Spanish, many opened up

restaurants that served the Hispanic community and offered both Hispanic and Chinese food.

Culturally, the Cuban-Chinese immigrants were a blend of both traditions: A 1985 article in The New York Times, “For Cuban-Chinese, the Twain Meet,” describes one such family: “The Loos speak Spanish, Chinese and English at home, celebrate the Chinese New Year and listen to Latin music.

Jesus Loo usually eats Chinese vegetables and fish, while his wife and children prefer beefsteak, fried plantains and black beans.”

There are certain similarities between traditional Chinese and traditional Cuban cuisine — rice and pork are staples of both. Among the dishes that were popular in Cuban-Chinese restaurants, Tung wrote, were fried pork chop, fried chicken crackling, beef steak (or bistec de palomilla), fried plantains and ropa vieja (shredded beef, or, literally, “old clothes”). Of course, many people also ordered lo mein, chow mein, egg foo yung and other familiar Chinese dishes.

Kaci, a commenter on cabdriver/tour guide/food writer “Famous Fat Dave’s” blog, wrote in 2006 that the first Cuban-Chinese restaurant in Chelsea was Asia de Cuba,

which opened in the 1960s.

“Soon afterward, several other Cuban-Chinese places opened within a block. One was on 20th Street, which lasted for some years,” he wrote.

“Asia de Cuba was utilitarian, it had small tables,” remembers Anne Skagen, a retired editor who lived in Chelsea from the 1970s through the 1990s. “It had good food, and you could get a hot meal for a reasonable price. Service was good — you didn’t have to wait long for your meal.”

The two Cuban-Chinese restaurants on Eighth Avenue that are probably most remembered today were Mi Chinita (later Sam Chinita), in a large dinertype building on 19th Street and Eighth Avenue that was similar in looks to the Empire Diner; and La Chinita Linda, on 18th and Eighth. Famous Fat Dave, in his 2006 article, said about La Chinita Linda: “Their Chinese food was above par. Their egg rolls, heavy on the shrimp, light on the cabbage and fried until they were a dark, crispy brown, were some of the best I’ve ever had.

And the beers were under $2 a bottle.”

My wife, Rhea Lewin Geberer, a retired social-service case worker who has lived in Chelsea since the 1970s, had lunch every week at a Latino-Chinese

place on 15th Street and Eighth Avenue. “Their ropa vieja was always a little different. One day, the cook explained that he was Dominican, not Cuban, and used a different spice.”

She also remembers Mi Chinita. “I would always get the chicken with cashews. There were lots of cashews, and the chicken was perfect.”

Why did these restaurants diminish in number? Changing demographics and surging rents certainly played a part. But like other immigrant groups, many of the children of the original Cuban-Chinese immigrants preferred to go into the professions rather than operate their parents’ small businesses Thankfully for food aficionados, there is still one LatinoChinese restaurant in Chelsea — El Paraiso on 14th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues, which replaced a similar restaurant called La Nueva Rampa. The Chinese side of the menu still features Cantonese dishes like chow mein, chop suey and egg foo yung, which an increasing number of modern Asian restaurants have abandoned. And on the Upper West Side, you can find La Caridad 78, Flor de Mayo (which is Peruvian-Chinese) and several others.

JANUARY 7-13,2016

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MALFUNCTIONING ELEVATOR KILLS MAN NEWS A falling elevator trapped and crushed a man to death on New Year’s Eve, and witnesses said he helped a woman to safety before losing his own life.

The man, identified as Stephen Hewett-Brown, 25, was riding the lower Manhattan elevator around midnight when it malfunctioned. He was able to push a woman out of the lift and

onto one of the building’s floors before getting pinned between the elevator car and the shaft as he tried to escape himself, witnesses said.

They said he wished onlookers a happy new year before he died from his injuries. Witness Manuel Coronado said he tried to help Hewett-Brown but couldn’t lift him out.

“He was saying, `I can’t breathe.’ I tried to pull him up, but he said, `Leave me here, leave me here,’” Coronado told the Daily News.

The New York Police Department said the victim was unconscious, suffering from severe body trauma, when officers arrived shortly after midnight. A police spokesman said he had no information on the exact circumstances of Hewett-Brown’s death, but the department says no criminality is suspected.

The city Buildings Department was investigating the accident. It came after a string of complaints and violation notices over the years about the

Broome Street high-rise’s three elevators, Buildings Department records show. They indicate it was inspected as recently as September and that a violation notice concerning the upand-down lights was unresolved as of Thursday.

“The elevators were a problem and needed to be fixed,” former Tenants Association President Dashia Imperiale told WABC-TV, saying the lifts sometimes lurch up and down. But another resident, Zin Halcomb, told

the station he felt the building was well-maintained.

Meanwhile, a friend of the victim’s, Ejiro Omenih, was absorbing the news of his death and the accounts of his life-saving actions.

“I feel that that alone shows his character,” Omenih told WABC-TV. He said Hewlett-Brown was an aspiring musician who played piano and performed hip-hop and soul.

Brown’s mother told the Daily News the family declined to comment.

IN NEW APARTMENTS, HOW SMALL IS TOO SMALL? NEWS ‘Micro’ apartments can be as little as 265 square feet

BY JENNIFER PELTZ

The apartments in a new Manhattan building boast little balconies, tall ceilings, dishwashers and storage space. All in 360 square feet or less.

It’s micro-living in the nation’s biggest city, and New Yorkers could be seeing more of it. Planning officials are proposing to end a limit on how small apartments can be, opening the door for more “microapartments” that advocates see as affordable adaptations to a growing population of single people. Critics fear a turn back toward the city’s tenement past and question whether less space will really mean less expensive.

At Carmel Place, the Manhattan building that marks the city’s first experiment in decades with building supersmall dwellings, the pitch is that little can be just enough.

“An efficiently designed micro-unit,” says developer Tobias Oriwol, “is just a nice apartment.”

Due to open early next year, Carmel Place features 55 apartments ranging from 265 to 360 square feet. By comparison, a typical one-car garage can be about 200 square feet.

As an experimental project,

Carmel Place got city land and a waiver from New York’s 400-square-foot minimum on new apartments, set in 1987. A proposed elimination of that minimum would allow smaller studios in buildings with a mix of apartment sizes, but entire micro-unit buildings would continue to need waivers.

“For us, it was really important to demonstrate how small space could be an enhancement to quality of life,” said Christopher Bledsoe of Stage 3 Properties, which designed the interiors and amenities at Carmel Place.

Long, flat walls without columns maximize furniturearranging options, although some units come furnished with fold-out wizardry, including a desk that expands into a 12-seater table and a retractable bed that pulls down tidily over a love seat. Developer Monadnock Construction and architecture firm nArchitects worked inch-by-inch -- sometimes by eighth-inch -- to meet such requirements as a wheelchair-accessible bathroom within the small space.

Forty percent of the units have rents set by affordablehousing programs topping out at around $1,500 a month, but market-rate ones rent for $2,650 to $3,150, roughly on par with many studios in the nearby Murray Hill neighborhood. About 20 people have applied and hundreds requested

information for eight marketrate units so far, while over 60,000 have entered a lottery for the affordable ones.

Mayor Bill de Blasio’s housing plan says Carmel Place and other projects show “developers can build compact units that are livable, safe, healthy” options for small households.

Of course, tiny apartments in New York are not exactly new.

Veteran appraiser Jonathan Miller estimates there are about 3,000 older apartments citywide that measure less than the 400-square-foot minimum. And some real estate agents say New York’s young

professionals are increasingly seeking small studios, willing to sacrifice space to be near work and away from roommates.

Cities from San Francisco to Boston have OK’d some microapartments in recent years, seeking to address housing squeezes in a nation where 28 percent of households are people living alone, up from 13 percent in 1960. It’s higher in some cities including New York, where about a third of households are single people.

Tiny units haven’t always been welcomed. A micro boom in Seattle spurred complaints

from neighbors and new regulations last year. Still, some housing advocates see microapartments as improvements on cramped quarters some people endure in shared apartments.

“People are spending $1,800 a month renting a room that’s 10by-10 and living with strangers that they met on Craigslist” in New York, said Sarah Watson, deputy director of the Citizens Housing Planning Council, an advocacy group.

But critics see micro-units as a step backward in the city’s affordable housing crunch -- still pricey, just smaller.

“It just, on some level, is offensive: The only way we can manage to house people is to stick them in a closet,” says state Assemblywoman Deborah Glick, a Manhattan Democrat who knows the limits of living small herself.

She and her spouse live in an apartment that Glick says measures a bit over 400 square feet. But they moved in together only after acquiring a more spacious weekend home.

“There was no way two lives could reasonably exist in the space that we have,” Glick said.

“We get along extremely well, but we do have a safety valve.”

6

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

JANUARY 7-13,2016

IN SEARCH OF DIRT AND A KIT KAT WALKING AND TALKING

BY DAVID WILLIAMS

For the past 21 years, Nancy Ploeger has been president of the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce. Since joining the chamber in 1994 as the executive director, Nancy has represented the business community on a wide range of critical issues, most notably those involving health insurance, MWBE certification, government procurement, small businesses globalization, diversity and business resources for services sectors, among other issues.

In February, Nancy is leaving her position at the chamber to take over at the wheel at an organization co-founded by the Chamber, International Women’s Entrepreneurial Challenge.

Mileage covered: 1.3 miles Overcast, unseasonably 59 degrees Central Casting’s idea of what makes a great Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive – someone possessed with effortless boosterism, a lack of apparent guile and an ample reservoir of energy and bonhomie – Nancy Ploeger, President of the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce, and I are meeting to go about her rounds late one recent Friday afternoon.

We join each other beneath her apartment building awning on East 88th Street, between First and Second.

“So, where are we headed?” I ask as Nancy and I walk west, pushing her empty shopping cart that, clearly, has a lot of mileage on it.

“We’re headed to Wankels. It’s about 97 years old, one of the few hardware stores left in the area. We’re going to be buying some dirt because we’re planting bulbs tomorrow in Ruppert Park,” she tells me.

Like many New Yorkers (myself included) Nancy has caught the adopt-aNYC-park bug. And she’s starting from the ground up. Literally.

“All the soil in the park has worn away and all that’s left is concrete. I want to get some potting soil so the bulbs will have a chance to live.”

Saint Louis born, Nancy has (Central Casting again) all the zest for living in her adopted city that only a true transplant possesses. The recipient of countless community and city accolades, Nancy would be a five star NYC general. If there were such a thing.

“My first apartment was on East 90th Street. Then I moved to 88th between First and York for a year. Then my current place, since 1973. It’s a great prewar building.”

At the Second Avenue crosswalk Nancy and I run into Rick, whom

Nancy has known for years. Informing me that he was born in her building two-plus generations ago, Nancy is corrected.

“No, Doctor’s Hospital,” Rick reminds her as he peels off to continue his own Friday rounds.

“Many of the people have lived in my building a long time,” she continues.

“But we have a lot of new people. Families with kids. And we have a BEAUTIFUL (all caps) laundry room, with a TV you can watch while your laundry is being done.”

I tell Nancy that she lives on a nice looking block. Great, mature trees.

And the church…

“What makes the block is the church (Church of the Holy Trinity). The garden out front is one of my favorite places. You can just go in, sit on a bench and read a book,” she notes. It’s an active church with a homeless program. A few people spend the night there and then are out at 6:00 in the morning.

“Plus, they have a search and care program for the elderly, and a day care center for kids.”

But enough of the church’s role in the community. It’s now time to load up on some good mother earth at Wankels for Nancy to do her own important work in Ruppert Park. On our way, we swing by yet another park Nancy has adopted. A small, “pocket” park adjacent to a high-rise. “This park actually belongs to 200 East 87th. The owners were able to add extra height to the building if they added the park. For the first seven years they planted and cared for it but after then the homeless and others kept digging up the plants.

And they got tired of spending all the money.

“So now all they do is pick up the garbage and keep the water fountain working.”

While she is doing all the heavy motivational lifting, her cause is being aided and abetted by a local church group that wants to do the gardening.

They plan to put in bushes and a few trees. Nothing that is easy to dig up and spirit away.

Wankels (“In the same family since 1896,” according to their website) has exactly what Nancy needs so we peel off, her cart loaded to the handle with potting soil. I offer to drive but this appears to be a bit of a temperamental shopping cart, a vintage vehicle best driven by its owner.

Before we head down to 86th Street we retrace our steps so Nancy can drop off the bags of terra firma. We pick up where we left off, talking about community parks whose best days were way on the other side of a couple

Photo by David Williams of city recessions. Ruppert is one of them. And where Nancy is focusing most of her efforts.

“Thanks to (Council Member) Ben Kallos, some funds were given to the park. We were looking into irrigation but this would be the third iteration.

It’s never been done well, and the park is on a slope. Piping and tubing is popping out everywhere.

“We are trying to get Parks to make a master plan. And we need a dog run.

In the meantime we are having kids events every month and if you looked at it a year ago it is no where near what it looks like this year.”

Miles to go, but her pride shows.

“We cleared out all the dead plant material. Painted all the exterior fences. We’re doing all we can.

“The amazing thing is the volunteers. On our first It’s Our Park Day we had three groups. The first group was the Muslim Volunteers of New York City. And these Muslim families came, kids, mothers, fathers, grandmothers.

I think we had about 40 of them. They care about this Park and trying to give back to the community.

“Then we had a Baptist Church, Christ Church, and we had about 15 volunteers from them.

“Finally, we had another group of veterans. Vets who are returning come through an organization, based in St. Louis, called Mission Continues.

Its philosophy is to help veterans reestablish in the community by working with nonprofits. They will pay a vet to work for a nonprofit for 20 hours a week for $600.“ Anyone who has lived under the same roof for 42 years knows a thing or two about what has changed in a neighborhood. And what has withstood the New York test of time. After she takes me on a short stroll around the grounds of Holy Trinity we set out on an important mission: Buying a stash of dark chocolate Kit Kat bars at the international newsstand on 86th Street. En route I ask her if she ranges

very far afield when she has takeout to buy or shopping to do.

“I pretty much stay local. One of the reasons I like it here is I can walk to the corner and get Vietnamese. Sushi or Japanese on another. French on another. And then there’s The Writing Room (owned by the Parlor Steakhouse folks) that has all kinds of fancy American food.”

And, like anyone, she has an all-time favorite restaurant. Maz Mescal, on 86th Street between First and Second.

Nancy lives midway between Central Park and Carl Schurz Park. Her mission to “take back” Ruppert Park reflects the well-know fact the Upper East Side lacks, proportionally, the park acreage per capita, that other New York City communities benefit from.

Plus, “There are a lot of elderly people, and families with young kids who aren’t in a stroller, that don’t want to go too far to one of those parks. Ruppert is one acre and one of the largest open park spaces between (Carl Schurz and Central Park).”

As we turn right onto First Avenue Nancy catalogs the shops and services that have gone to retail heaven.

The drycleaner where Nancy, lacking a doorman, could leave her keys for guests who were coming to stay. The 24-hour deli, “Owned by Annie,” who could no longer afford the rising rents.

“This is what’s happening in other neighborhoods, too. But at the same time we have a lot of new businesses opening. A lot of new restaurants,” she spins. Spoken like a true Chamber of Commerce executive.

We pass Maz Mescal as Nancy sings the praises of the restaurant owners, Mary, from the Midwest, and her husband, Eduardo, from Mexico.

“They have a very good sense of community. Always hosting events, like the third attempt to create a Business Improvement District on 86th Street.”

Our last stop is the international newsstand on 86th Street, a few doors east of Second. By the cordiality of the reception, it is clearly a business that knows Ms. Ploeger.

We have come for what is, apparently, a hard-to-find commodity in these here parts: those dark chocolate Kit Kats.

It takes some rummaging through the counter display but, happily, Nancy does not leave Kit Kat-deprived. She is in luck.

“I’ll take five.”

A small pleasure, found in what is, more notably, a well-stocked international newsstand.

We part ways, two longtime UES denizens, partisan residents who share a love for their neighboring zip codes. Though not necessarily for dark over milk chocolate Kit Kats.

JANUARY 7-13,2016

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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

FROM PAYPHONES TO WIFI

A LIBRARY SHORTAGE DOWNTOWN

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

street, though the city has said data will be encrypted and any information harvested for advertising will be anonymized.

“I think it makes us all more vulnerable to wrongdoers,” Bee Mosca said as she eyed the future hot spot.

Payphones may seem like telecom relics when 68 percent of Americans own smartphones, according to the Pew Research Center on Internet, Science & Technology. But about 8,200 payphones still dot New York streets.

Some were pressed into service amid outages after 2012’s Superstorm Sandy, but their numbers and usage have declined overall, and 37 percent of those inspected last year were inoperable.

The cit y ex perimented with providing Wi-Fi from a few payphones in 2012, then hatched the current, eight-year “LinkNYC” plan.

A consortium of companies, including wireless technology player Qualcomm Inc., is to pay the estimated $200 million installation cost and take half the revenue from the kiosks’ digital advertising, projected at $1 billion over 12 years. The city gets the other half, more than doubling the $17 million a year it gets from payphones now.

Each hot spot covers about a 150-foot radius with what’s pledged as one-gigabit-per-second service, about 20 times the speed of average home Internet

how many people live in the district.

In 2010 the U.S. Census Bureau found that the population in Lower Manhattan, comprising the Financial District, Tribeca, Battery Park City and the Seaport, had grown 77 percent to 61,000 over the previous decade. Those figures were contested by the city and CB1 as being too low, which resulted in the U.S. Census Bureau revising them upward. Sheffe said despite the revision the city did its own count, which the board felt was still too low.

A study commissioned by the board in 2011 found the population in Lower Manhattan nearly doubled since 2000, and that the population in the Financial District has more than tripled.

A board-commissioned study from 2008 predicted population in the Financial District alone would triple to almost 28,000 from 2000 to 2013.

But those are figures that are used by CB1 in assessing needs in the district, not city officials who make decisions on where to allocate resources. Sheffe said the city’s failure to grasp just how many people live in the Financial District, and how many have moved there in the past five years, has led to the belief that the area is adequately served by existing community facilities.

He did note that in recent years the Dept. of Education has sited three new schools in

service. Officials have said the service is intended for outdoor use; it’s not clear whether it might extend inside some businesses and homes.

Though many Americans now carry Internet connectivity in their pockets, the network “can be a win for users who can save on their data plans, and it can be a win for (cellular) networks if they’re really overtaxed,” said Erik Stallman, general counsel of the Center for Democracy and Technology, a group that advocates for Internet liberties and access.

Tourists without local cellular service also could benefit, noted John Breyault, a National Consumers League vice president.

LinkNYC isn’t without opponents: A payphone company has sued the city, saying it created a monopoly for the new consortium. The city has said it believes the arrangement is

legal.

Many U.S. cities strove to cover themselves in Wi-Fi in the early 2000s. But a number of the plans foundered as home access proliferated, usage and ad revenues disappointed and some Internet service providers complained the city networks were unfair competitors.

But some cities have recently recast and reinvigorated their efforts. Boston is working to expand a “Wicked Free WiFi” network with over 170 hot spots, and Los Angeles is encouraging private companies to provide free basic wireless to all homes and businesses, with outdoor coverage as a goal.

Still, some question whether it’s wise for city governments to get into offering Wi-Fi, rather than leaving it to businesses.

But “New York is not a typical city,” said Jeff Kagan, a telecommunications analyst and consultant.

the Financial District, an effort he lauded, but one he said is still not enough to match demand from the growing population.

When reached for comment, officials at City Hall did not address what population figures they work off of in Lower Manhattan, and specifically in the Financial District. A City Hall spokesperson said the city’s most recent budget included $46 million in new operating funds for the NYPL system, bringing the total to $358 million for the 2016 fiscal year.

Those funds are being used for universal 6-day service, extended hours in many locations, and create nearly 500 new jobs, said the spokesperson.

As for community centers, City Hall spokesperson Monica Klein said city-run Cornerstone programs run out NYCHA houses, of which there are none in the Financial District or Community District 1, or public schools, which are called Beacon programs, and are available in high-need areas.

“The administration continues to take steps to ensure Lower Manhattan is a complete neighborhood, from supporting the development of open space and rehabilitating the waterfront to keeping streets safe and opening new schools,” said Klein.

Klein provided a list of eight Cornerstone and Beacon programs, none of which are in the Financial District, and 13 senior centers, only one of which is in the Financial District.

The City Hall Senior Center, which is affiliated with Hamilton Madison House Inc., is at 100 Gold St., at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge. The center’s mission statement, however, indicates that it primarily provides senior services to those living in Two Bridges, the Lower East Side and Chinatown.

The other contributing factor to a lack of community facilities in Lower Manhattan east of Broadway, which is related to the question of population, is that the Financial District is still largely considered commercial in many minds, Sheffe said.

“We have very little of the residential infrastructure that most urban neighborhoods take for granted and that’s because we were a commercial

district for hundreds of years,” said Sheffe. “So people are accustomed to thinking about it that way, and perceptions are hard to change.”

He claims the Financial District is now more residential than anything else, a perception that’s hard to change because many of the buildings in the district appear to be commercial. But people forget (or don’t know), Sheffe said, that many commercial buildings in the district have been converted over to residential use in past years.

“It’s just something that hasn’t reached the consciousness of people and I’m afraid maybe the same is true of City Hall,” said Sheffe.

Sheffe said CB1 has been asking for a library and community center in that part of the district on their annual list of priorities submitted to City Hall.

“For more than a decade a library and a community center east of Broadway has been at the top of that list, right above schools,” said Sheffe.

“The disparity between facilities to serve Battery Park City and Tribeca and those that serve the Financial District is remarkable…and I frankly cannot understand it.”

Sheffe said the board had reached out to elected officials on every level in pursuit of a new library and community center. They’re sympathetic, he said, but nothing seems to change.

When contacted for comment, State Senator Daniel Squadron, who represents the Financial District, praised the recent opening of the Peck Slip School and said, “I appreciate that [Community Board 1] is continuing to look at ways to expand local services east of Broadway. I look forward to continuing to partner with them.”

Sheffe added he was optimistic his clamoring for new community facilities would bear fruit when former Mayor Michael Bloomberg was succeeded by current Mayor Bill de Blasio, but so far his pleas have been ignored.

“I was hoping that with a change in administration there would be a change in policy, but it hasn’t materialized yet,” he said.

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Voices

Write to us: To share your thoughts and comments go to otdowntown.com and click on submit a letter to the editor.

Letters IN PRAISE OF NEW YEAR’S EVE To the Editor: Happy New Year to all the folks at Our Town. Every week I look forward to reading your newspaper.

I have a few comments to make about New Year’s Eve in Times Square. I was so proud of New York for the spectacular show it put on. And I salute the NYPD for a job well done in making everyone there feel safe and secure. And finally, the music! “New York, New York”, America The Beautiful” & “What a Wonderful World” sung by the greatest. It proves that New York is still “top of the heap”.

Sincerely, Jane Bonia

SCHOOL SEGREGATION — STATUS QUO To the Editor: Your editorial of Dec. 24-30, “A New Wrinkle on School Segregation,” is misleading. There is nothing new in this city about white parents who avoid sending their children to schools with predominately black/Hispanic enrollments.

This is one of the main reasons why Photo: Jason Lawrence, via Flickr New York City’s schools remain largely segregated 50 years after the Brown vs. Board of Education decision.

Charter schools likewise are just as segregated as public schools but unlike public school officials make no pretense that integration or increased diversity is a part of its overall plans for its classes.

The issue of school segregation has been moribund until recently. Its awakening can be traced to a smattering of complaints, a presupposed liberalism tarnished by its education system being repeatedly cited as one of the most segregated in the country and a mayor only half through his term busily meeting with his political consultants planning his reelection.

The few steps taken thus far to address the segregation issue have been superficial. Timid education officials are fearful of alienating white parents who are more politically savvy. There is in fact no in-depth short or long-term master plan being considered to address this long existing problem. The department of education is a top-heavy bureaucracy, which I believe lack the commitment, the vigor or the vision required to break free of its longstanding, very comfortable status quo positions.

B. Wallace Cheatham

STRAUS MEDIA your neighborhood news source

Vice President/CFO Otilia Bertolotti Vice President/CRO Vincent A. Gardino advertising@strausnews.com

A VICTORY AT THE GYM SENIOR LIVING

BY MARCIA EPSTEIN

I am so proud of my building for being the first in the city to win equitable access to a gym built originally only for market-rate tenants.

Our whiz bang of a board president, Jean Green Dorsey, fought for us because virtually all of the rentstabilized tenants are senior citizens and certainly could use what the gym offers. The case was brought on the grounds of excluding senior citizens from the gym, and justice prevailed.

But more than the exclusion of seniors is the fact that it’s morally wrong to exclude half of a building’s tenants from a facility because they don’t pay market rates. We were always willing to pay the going rate for gym usage.

This is like the “poor door” that some buildings have for rent-stabilized tenants, which hopefully will go the way of the no-access gym. Rent-stabilized tenants deserve to be treated with the same dignity and fairness as anyone else who lives in a building. Most of us are seniors and have lived here for decades, raised our children here, and watched the neighborhood change from not so hot to upscale. Onward and upward in the fight for equal treatment.

The Altman Foundation and The New York Community Trust have awarded

Associate Publishers, Seth L. Miller, Ceil Ainsworth Sr. Account Executive, Tania Cade

major grants to Service Program for Older People (SPOP) to launch a new partnership with Mount Sinai Visiting Doctors. SPOP now offers psychotherapy and physical and behavioral health care to people 55 and older in their clinic at 302 West 91st Street.

Though I wrote about SPOP in a previous column, this is a new initiative, which involves partnering with Mount Sinai Visiting Doctors to provide behavioral health treatment to homebound seniors who are receiving in-home medical care from Mount Sinai Hospital. Dr. Cameron Hernandez, Medical Director of Mount Sinai’s Ambulatory Care, says “we are thrilled to partner with SPOP….we share a common goal of providing excellent homebased care to New Yorkers.” Though SPOP already has a program of home visits to frail clients, this new partnership will mean that nearly half of all appointments will take place either in the home or at a neighborhood senior center. You can reach SPOP at 212-787-7120.

Partners in Care is part of the Visiting Nurse Service of New York. It provides certified home home aides and nurses in the home and is accredited by the Community Health Accreditation Program and is accredited by the Community Health Accreditation Program (CHAP) and licensed by the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH).

President & Publisher, Jeanne Straus nyoffice@strausnews.com Account Executive Editor In Chief, Kyle Pope Fred Almonte, Susan Wynn editor.ot@strausnews.com Director of Partnership Development Deputy Editor, Richard Khavkine Barry Lewis editor.dt@strausnews.com

Partners in Care makes compatibility a top priority, ensuring that home health aides, and other home care professionals, are matched to your loved ones needs. They provide home health aides, round-the-clock care at home or at a nursing facility, medical help at home, respite care if you need a breather, and other services. s a leading provider of private, at-home care, Partners in Care is often featured in the news. Call 1-888-735-8913 On another note, you know you’re old when the women’s group you’ve been in for over eight years spends most of its time talking about medical issues. We’re always being reminded by one or another of us to sign up for a Life Alert. You know, the kind you see on TV where the woman says “Help, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up,” and she presses a button and help miraculously arrives. Well it’s true, it does. There are several companies providing this service besides Life Alert. Look at consumersadvocate.org for more, or ask your local hospital. This conversation always gives me that “yes, I really am elderly” shock. I don’t think I am ready for an alert, though my cohorts don’t agree. Even though I have a partner, I am home alone fairly often.

But no, not yet. I’m not nearly ready.

Wouldn’t that really mean I’m an old person? Still, it’s good information to have. Maybe someday I’ll give in.

Someday….

Staff Reporters, Gabrielle Alfiero, Daniel Fitzsimmons

Block Mayors, Ann Morris, Upper West Side Jennifer Peterson, Upper East Side Gail Dubov, Upper West Side Edith Marks, Upper West Side

JANUARY 7-13,2016

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IWantToBeRecycled.org

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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

Out & About More Events. Add Your Own: Go to otdowntown.com

Thu 7

SPRING SPORTS CLASSES AT THE FIELD HOUSE Spring Semester Starts January 23 ONGOING REGISTRATION

The Kitchen, 512 West 19th St. 8 p.m., January 6â&#x20AC;&#x201C;9, 13â&#x20AC;&#x201C;16.

DANIIL SIMKINâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S $25 The company returns to â&#x20AC;&#x153;INTENSIOâ&#x20AC;? its dance roots for its 25th The Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth anniversary celebration, theatrically re-imagining the Ave. conventions of a repertory Through January 10: Thu. program. & Fri.: 8 p.m.; Sat. 2 & 8 p.m.; 212-255-5793. www.

Sun.: 2 p.m. $10 at 212-242thekitchen.org/event/big0800. All other tickets can be purchased online dance-short-form â&#x20AC;&#x153;Nocturne/Etude/Prelude,â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Welcome a Stranger,â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Simkin and the City,â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Simkin and the Stage,â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Island of Memories,â&#x20AC;? with American Ballet Theatre company members and CĂŠline Cassone from Les Ballets Jazz de MontrĂŠal.

212-691-9740. www.joyce. â&#x20AC;&#x153;SICARIOâ&#x20AC;? â&#x2013;ź org/

Sat 9

â&#x20AC;&#x153;BRIGADOONâ&#x20AC;?

212.336.6520 chelseapiers.com/fh

Fri 8 CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS ON FRANK STELLA Whitney Museum of American Art, 99 Gansevoort St., Susan and John Hess Family Theater 6 p.m. Event tickets are required ($8 adults; $6 students and seniors; free for members and children under 18).

A roundtable discussion with artists Walead Beshty, Keltie Ferris, Jordan Kantor and Sarah Morris explores key aspects of Stellaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s heterogeneous approach to painting and its signiďŹ cance for younger generations of artists.

212-570-3600. whitney.org/ Events/WorkingSpace

in this 2015 feature.

212-243-6876. www.nypl.org/events/ programs/2016/01/09/ďŹ lmscreening-sicario

ART GALLERY TOUR IN CHELSEA Meet at 526 West 26th St. 1 p.m. $25 Art scholar Rafael Risemberg leads a visit to seven modern art galleries, considering exhibits in painting, sculpture, electronic media and photography.

212-946-1548. www. nygallerytours.com

Sun 10

VIOLINIST HLIF Hudson Park Library, 66 Leroy SIGURJONSDOTTIR

St. 2 p.m.

Hudson Park Library, 66 Leroy After rising through the St. ranks of her male-dominated 2 p.m. profession, an idealistic FBI The classic movie version of agent receives a top assignment the original musical with Gene Kelly.

212-243-6876. www.nypl.org/events/ programs/2016/01/07/ moviemusicial-brigadoon-1954120-mins

BIG DANCE THEATER

National Opera Center, 330 Seventh Ave. 8 p.m. $15 Icelandic violinist Hlif Sigurjonsdottir performs solo violin compositions, including

JANUARY 7-13,2016

Runa Ingimundar’s “From My Home,” J.S. Bach’s “Partita II” in d minor, BWV 1004 and American composer Merrill Clark’s “The Sorceress.”

516-586-3433. www. operaamerica.org/Applications/ Calendar/index2.aspx

MULCHFEST Various locations citywide.

Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

The 20th annual MulchFest provides New Yorkers with a fun and environmentally-friendly opportunity to recycle their trees into woodchips that will nourish trees and gardens throughout the city. www.nycgovparks.org/ highlights/festivals/mulchfest

Mon 11 “TAMADUNI Y LEYENDAS”

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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

and New Jersey official and Silverstein Properties and other matters.

212-669-7970. www.nyc.gov/ html/mancb1/html/community/ community.shtml

Tue 12 PEN PARENTIS CELEBRATES WINTER POETRY NIGHT ▼ The ANDAZ Wall Street, 75 Wall St. 7-9:30 p.m.

Meet editor and founder of Drunken Boat, Ravi Shankar, and other award-winning poets, Lydia Cortes, Amy Dryansky, and Karen Skolfield.

212-501-2031. www. penparentis.org

Wed 13

LISS FAIN DANCE NEW INSTALLATION AT 3LD 1/13-17 3LD Art & Technology Center, 80 Greenwich St. 7-9 p.m. $20.

An evening-length immersive installation for six dancers, “The Imperfect is Our Paradise” integrates text from William Faulkner’s 1929 novel The Sound and The Fury into highly physical choreography.

866-811-4111. www.3LDnyc. org

GLOBAL/LOCAL 1960– 2015: SIX ARTISTS FROM IRAN Grey Art Gallery, New York University, 100 Washington Square East 6:30 p.m. Free.

Conversation with Shiva Ahmadi, artist in Global/ Local, and Lynn Gumpert and Ally Mintz, Grey Art Gallery in conjunction with an exhibit on view at the gallery 212-998-6780. events.nyu. edu/#event_id/85863/view/ event

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Glass Box, 55 West 13th St. 7 p.m. Free, seating first-come, first-served.

Recital by flutist Valerie Coleman, composer and founder of Mannes College of Music’s ensemble-in-residence Imani Winds. events.newschool.edu/event/ tamaduni_y_leyendas_-_faculty_ recital_by_flutist_valerie_ coleman#.VoLwLvkrJ1t

COMMUNITY BOARD 1 Community Board 1, 1 Centre St. , Room 2202A-North, conference room 6 p.m.

World Trade Center updates

by Port Authority of New York

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Excerpts from librettist David Henry Hwang’s new opera “Dream of the Red Chamber” will be performed for the public on Jan. 18 at Trinity Church. Photo: Lia Chang.

JANUARY 7-13,2016

Composer Sheila Silver’s new opera is based on the novel “A Thousand Splendid Suns” by Khaled Hosseini.

A FIRST LOOK AT NEW OPERAS A showcase of new work comes to Trinity Church

BY GABRIELLE ALFIERO

Four new operas still in development will be performed for the public at Trinity Church on Wall Street on Monday, Jan. 18.

The event is part of a forum on new works, which gives the creators a chance to discuss the operas with fellow artists and showcase their progress to producers.

The forum has taken place since 2011, and the event also marks the first time the performance of the new works is open to the public.

“Thirty years ago opera leaders woke up and realized that if we didn’t support new opera in a focused way that opera in the United States would become just a museum art form, built on a repertoire of largely 19th-century works,” said Marc Scorca, president

and CEO of Opera America, the Chelsea-based organization presenting the event.

The four selections range in subject matter and style, and include a loose modern day retelling of “Beowulf” by composer Hannah Lash, and an adaptation of a 1940 novel by Stewart Copeland, best known as the drummer for the Police. “Beowulf,” about a doctor with post-traumatic stress disorder, was commissioned by Guerilla Opera in Boston and will open in May. The orchestra NOVUS NY will perform the works, along with vocalists.

Pieces were chosen by a small panel that includes composers, a librettist, a director and a singer, and the final selections represent a “healthy cross section of the creative output that is taking place today,” Scorca said.

In previous years, the showcase was for attendees of the invite-only industry forum, but is open to the public this

year and will also stream online, as it has in the past.

Often, Scorca said, new opera-goers will seek out familiar titles, or works that offer a personal connection.

“There are many different doors through which newcomers to opera can walk,” he said. “Especially when the new opera resonates in deep ways with the world we live in.”

Composer Sheila Silver’s opera “A Thousand Splendid Suns” is based on Khaled Hosseini’s 2007 novel about two women in Afghanistan who are married to the same man. The opera, with a libretto by Stephen Kitsakos, was born from Silver’s love of the novel’s female characters.

In composing the music for the opera, which Silver hopes will show in both an intimate chamber music setting and as a main stage production, the composer spent six months in India studying Hindu music in order

to infuse her composition with the sounds of the region. She incorporated a bansuri and tabla, an Indian flute and drums, but she recreates the drone of the Indian tanpura through the orchestra, and will first hear the sounds come together at the showcase.

Silver hopes for a premiere sometime in 2018, and thinks staging this work in the United States is important, especially now.

“We see [the characters] as people, not as clichés,” she said. “Having this opera on stage will send the message to the world that not all Americans are Islamophobic.”

“Dream of the Red Chamber,” librettist and playwright David Henry Hwang’s new work with composer Bright Sheng, is a love story based on the 18th-century novel of the same name. Tackling the source material, which is considered one of the most significant pieces of Chinese litera-

ture with its own field of study called Redology, was a “daunting task,” Hwang said, a project that began over a year ago with Sheng, after Hwang read the lengthy book.

Hwang, who wrote the 1988 Tonywinning play “M. Butterfly, ” said hearing the work performed shows where room for changes exist; sometimes story elements seem confusing, or the audience doesn’t respond in an expected way. The creators workshopped the opera on piano in Hong Kong earlier this year, which informed certain changes, but will hear the full orchestration for the first time during the showcase. The show will open in September at San Francisco Opera.

“In live theater the audience is the final piece of the collaboration,” said Hwang. “They’re the last collaborators to enter the process.”

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JANUARY 7-13,2016

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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

ACTIVITIES FOR THE FERTILE MIND

FOR THE WEEK

BY GABRIELLE ALFIERO OUR ARTS EDITOR

THEATER

thoughtgallery.org NEW YORK CITY

The Ninth Annual Charles Bukowski Memorial Reading

FRIDAY, JANUARY 8TH, 6PM Cornelia Street Cafe | 29 Cornelia St. | 212-989-9319 | corneliastreetcafe.com Writers, playwrights and poets come together to toast the late legendary writer, with tales, poems, explorations of current events, an open mic and plenty of door prizes. ($15, includes 1 drink)

A FUNNY THING HAPPENED: SONGS FROM THE ROAD TO BROADWAY Opening the 2016 season of 92nd Street Y’s long-running Lyrics and Lyricists series, veteran Broadway choreographer and director Kathleen Marshall reveals how some theater tunes were lastminute additions or axed altogether from the final production. Marshall and other vocalists perform songs from “Pippin,” “Thoroughly Modern Millie,” “Wicked” and other well-known shows.

A Funny Thing Happened: Songs from the Road to Broadway Jan. 9-11 92nd Street Y 1395 Lexington Ave., at 92nd Street Assorted show times Tickets $58-$86 To purchase tickets, visit 92y.org or call 212-415-5500

FILM

TUESDAY, JANUARY 12TH, 6:30PM Tenement Museum | 103 Orchard St. | 212-982-8420 | tenement.org Hear about the travels of an investigative journalist who went through Syria and Turkey to reconstruct her grandfather’s flight to the far reaches of the Ottoman Empire in the wake of the Armenian deportations of WWI. (Free)

Just Announced | The Magicians: From Page to Screen

SUNDAY, JANUARY 24TH, 7:30PM 92nd Street Y | 1395 Lexington Ave. | 212-415-5500 | 92y.org

NEW YORK JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL AT 25: A RETROSPECTIVE

SWIMMERS AND DANCERS: CAROLE EISNER’S PAINTINGS FROM THE 1980S AND 1990S

The Jewish Museum and Film Society of Lincoln Center screen 10 films shown at earlier festivals as part of the annual event’s 25th anniversary. 1926 silent film “Benya Krik” screens with live accompaniment, along with “The Castle” from director Michael Haneke, based on Franz Kafka’s unfinished dystopian novel.

New York Jewish Film Festival at 25: A Retrospective Jan. 13-26 Film Society of Lincoln Center 165 W. 65th Street, near Amsterdam Avenue Assorted show times Tickets $14 To purchase tickets, visit filmlinc.org or call 212-875-5601

Former fashion designer Carole Eisner went from painting mainly geometric pieces to creating figurative works, inspired by her children’s active lives. She put paint on canvas in textured and layered manners and referenced the figures from her old design sketches for this body of work.

Swimmers and Dancers: Carole Eisner’s Paintings from the 1980s and 1990s Jan. 14-Feb. 25 Susan Eley Fine Art 46 W. 90th St., 2nd floor, between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue Gallery hours: Tuesday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.

FREE For more information, visit susaneleyfineart. com or call 917-952-7641

GALLERIES

DANCE

SAVED: RECYCLED ARTIST BOOKS

“THE IMPERFECT IS OUR PARADISE”

Irmari Nacht converts discarded books into treeshaped sculptures in a deliberate nod to the book’s origins. Nacht reworks her sources without waste as she incorporates whole books in her sculptures.

Four additional artists show simultaneously at the gallery, including abstract painters Mitchell Lewis and Mike Filan.

Saved: Recycled Artist Books Jan. 7-28 Carter Burden Gallery 548 W. 28th St., #534, near Eleventh Avenue Gallery hours: Tuesday-Friday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m.; closed Monday FREE For more information, visit carterburdengallery.org or call 212-564-8405

The Hundred Year Walk

San Francisco dance company Liss Fain Dance’s immersive “The Imperfect is Our Paradise” nods to William Faulkner’s “The Sound and the Fury.” The production includes spoken text drawn from the 1929 novel, along with visual projections of imagery, including a decrepit barn, that evokes the novel’s setting. Six dancers perform in the evening-length piece.

“The Imperfect is Our Paradise” Jan. 13-17 3LD Art & Technology Center 80 Greenwich St., near Rector Street Assorted show times Tickets $20 To purchase tickets, visit 3LDnyc.org or call 866-811-4111 To be included in the Top 5 go to otdowntown.com and click on submit a press release or announcement.

Learn how sci-fi reaches the small screen as Lev Grossman and other principals behind The Magicians talk about their process. Included in the night is a special preview showing of Season 1, Episode 1 of the new SyFy series. ($32)

For more information about lectures, readings and other intellectually stimulating events throughout NYC,

sign up for the weekly Thought Gallery newsletter at thoughtgallery.org.

More neighborhood celebrations? neighborhood opinions? neighborhood ideas? neighborhood feedback? neighborhood concerns?

Email us at news@strausnews.com

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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

A BLUES AESTHETIC AT THE WHITNEY The Jazz Age painter Archibald Motley chronicled the black community at home and abroad

BY VAL CASTRONOVO

The Frank Stella retrospective may be the big attraction at the Whitney right now, but there’s a sleeper show on the eighth floor that vies for our attention and the end is near (last day: January 17). “Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist” is a compact survey of the works of the Harlem Renaissance painter, who, by the way, never lived in Harlem but mostly resided in Chicago.

Some 42 works arranged in six sec-

tions trace the career trajectory of an artist who painted American scenes but never achieved the name recognition of contemporary figure painters like Edward Hopper, Thomas Hart Benton or Reginald Marsh.

Archibald John Motley Jr. (18911981) chronicled urban culture and the black experience during the Great Migration, the movement of AfricanAmericans from the rural South to cities in the North that began in 1915.

He staked out a neighborhood on the south side of Chicago, dubbed the “Black Belt” or “Bronzeville” for its diverse inhabitants, though he himself

Archibald J. Motley Jr., “Self-Portrait (Myself at Work),” 1933. Oil on canvas, 57.125 x 45.25 inches (145.1 x 114.9 cm). Collection of Mara Motley, MD, and Valerie Gerrard Browne. Image courtesy of the Chicago History Museum, Chicago, Illinois. © Valerie Gerrard Browne.

lived in Englewood, a mostly white ethnic enclave nearby.

A master colorist, he was known for his refined portraits of family and friends and vivid, stirring Jazz Age tableaux — street scenes, bar scenes, pool halls and dance halls in Chicago and bohemian Paris, where he spent a year on a Guggenheim Fellowship from 1929-30.

He recorded bourgeois characters and raunchy characters alike, evincing a keen awareness of race, class, gender and sexuality and an amusing, if sometimes disconcerting, penchant for caricature and satire. His expressive paintings have been called the visual equivalents of jazz music for their vibrant rhythms — proof of his artistic modernity, per art historian and exhibit curator Richard J. Powell, who trumpets Motley’s “blues aesthetic” in the catalog.

Motley was born in New Orleans in 1891. His family settled in Chicago three years later. His father was a Pullman porter; his mother a teacherturned-housewife. His teenage sister had a child out-of-wedlock, Willard Motley, who was raised as a sibling and became a best-selling novelist.

Motley visited Willard in Mexico in the 1950s and painted American tourist destinations.

A recent visit to the Whitney found visitors crowding the portraits in the first gallery. The artist’s arresting “Self-Portrait (Myself at Work)” (1933) kicks off the show, with Motley wielding the tools of his trade — a paintbrush and palette. An emblem of his training — a classical statue — appears on the right; a product of his training, a painted female nude that seems to have alluringly come to life, peers out from the left.

Motley was one of the first black artists to attend the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he received a rigorous academic education. He married a white woman, Edith Granzo, a neighborhood friend, in 1924. Two masterful paintings of his wife, “Portrait of Mrs. A.J. Motley, Jr.,” (1930), and “Nude (Portrait of My Wife),” (1930) — one formal, one a more intimate portrayal — are included in the show.

As scholar Amy Mooney writes in the exhibit catalog, Motley believed there were “three criteria by which art should be judged: personality, intensity, and sympathy.” In his portraits especially, he aimed to paint a variety of skin tones, “trying to fill the whole gamut,” he explained — dark skin, light skin, and all the in-between skins — because he himself was of mixed descent.

The sophisticated “Octoroon Girl” (1925) and “Mulatress with Figurine and Dutch Seascape” (c. 1920) riff the Dutch masters and are among the show’s most striking works: “[T]heir settings, poses, and personas present viewers with the possibility of individuals of mixed-race heritage free from tragedy, self-doubt, and the threat of exposure,” Mooney writes, adding, “the visual presence of these women offers a critique of the color line and

JANUARY 7-13,2016

Archibald J. Motley Jr., “Mulatress with Figurine and Dutch Seascape,” c. 1920. Oil on canvas, 31.375 x 27.625 inches (79.7 x 75.6 cm). Collection of Mara Motley, MD, and Valerie Gerrard Browne. Image courtesy of the Chicago History Museum, Chicago, Illinois. © Valerie Gerrard Browne.

Archibald J. Motley Jr., “Black Belt,” 1934. Oil on canvas, 33 × 40 1/2 in. (83.8 × 102.9 cm). Hampton University Museum, Hampton, Virginia. Image courtesy the Chicago History Museum. © Valerie Gerrard Browne asserts confidence in blackness and in one’s ability to be accepted in society at large.”

Mooney cites literary scholar Cherene Sherrard-Johnson, who viewed Motley’s portraits as “part of a wider discourse during the Harlem Renaissance that fetishized ‘the mulatta as the ideal race woman.’”

These singular portraits are followed by a parade of raucous, gaudy narrative paintings — along “the Stroll,” an entertainment strip in Bronzeville, in the cafes and cabarets of Paris and elsewhere. Motley was famous for his high-octane nightscapes and use of hot colors that mimicked “hot jazz.” In 1934, he painted “Black Belt,” a neon snapshot of the Stroll, illuminated by street lamps and featuring a rotund figure at its center who, hands in pocket, stands alone as he

takes in the scene. This voyeur, who appears in other panoramas, is believed to be Motley’s alter ego.

The show ends on a jarring note with the openly political “The First OneHundred Years” (1963-72), an all-over blue history painting that symbolically and graphically sums up race relations in America. A radical departure in terms of style and subject matter from the rest of the works presented here, Motley considered it one of his greatest achievements.

WHAT: “Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist” WHERE: Whitney Museum of American Art, 99 Gansevoort Street WHEN: Through Jan. 17 whitney.org

JANUARY 7-13,2016

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

“I WISH SOMEONE WOULD HELP THAT HOMELESS MAN.”

BE THE SOMEONE. Sam New York Cares Volunteer

Every day, we think to ourselves that someone should really help make this city a better place. Visit newyorkcares.org to learn about the countless ways you can volunteer and make a difference in your community.

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In Brief BOROUGH PRESIDENT’S OFFICE ACCEPTING CAPITAL FUNDING APPLICATIONS Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer recently announced her office is accepting applications through Friday, Feb. 12, for fiscal year 2017 capital funding, and welcomed any organizations interested in capital funding to meet with her staff.

Under the City Charter, each of the five borough presidents can direct the allocation of a portion of the city’s capital budget to invest in the infrastructure of their borough’s schools, public facilities, nonprofit organizations and cultural institutions.

“Capital funding gives us the opportunity to invest in Manhattan’s future,” said Brewer. “Whether we’re fixing the roof at a branch library, renovating a playground, or building out a new computer lab at a local school, these capital awards are going to strengthen our borough and our city, and improve people’s lives.”

In the FY 2016 city budget, Brewer’s office awarded $30 million in Manhattan capital projects, including improvements and purchases for 92 schools, nine CUNY and SUNY campuses and 16 public parks, among other causes.

While Brewer’s office will continue to fund a broad range of purchases and improvements with her FY 2017 capital funds, her office has also reserved up to $1 million for schools to invest in hydroponics, urban gardening, and farming, according to a press release.

The borough president’s office will accept applications through Friday, Feb. 12. Capital funding recipients will be selected by the MBPO for inclusion in the city budget after a thorough review of all applications, and are subject to review by city agencies and the City Office of Management and Budget.

For more information visit the capital grants page at the Manhattan Borough President’s Office web site.

ELECTEDS CALL FOR BETTER COORDINATION OF CONSTRUCTION WORK Council Member Dan Garodnick and 19 Manhattan colleagues in city and state government recently sent a letter to First Deputy Mayor Anthony Shorris, calling for a construction liaison operating out of the Mayor’s Office.

The group articulated concern about the abundance of after-hours work variances (AHVs), and a failure of city agencies to coordinate efforts.

“Complaints about late night or illegal construction shouldn’t land in a black hole of bureaucracy,” said Garodnick. “We need a point person coordinating the permit process, and ensuring that unreasonable or illegal construction doesn’t take place, and is dealt with swiftly when it does.”

The construction liaison’s primary task would be to evaluate and reduce the number of AHVs, which allow construction to take place at night and on weekends.

According to a release sent by Garodnick’s office, “the Dept. of Buildings hands out these permits with remarkable frequency, and too many New Yorkers suffer from non-stop, overnight construction.”

The release went on to say the liaison would also streamline the complaint process, so that agencies cannot point the finger at one another for a failure to correct problems.

Business

LAST RIDE ON THE FERRIS WHEEL IN TIMES SQUARE NEWS High rents at Toy R Us forced the shutdown

BY JAKE PEARSON

For decades, children visiting New York City savored one stop above all: a trip to the kind of toy store that existed only in their imagination. Now they’ll have to keep dreaming.

The massive Toys R Us superstore in Times Square, which wowed shoppers with a 60-foot indoor Ferris wheel, a growling, 20-foot animatronic Tyrannosaurus Rex, and a life-size Barbie dollhouse, had its last shopping day on the Wednesday before New Year’s.

The closing ended a 14-yearrun as a must-visit destination for any family willing to brave the big crowds. It followed the July closing of F.A.O. Schwarz, the palace of expensive and unique toys romanticized in the 1988 film “Big.” Shoppers and tourists came out for a last look at the type of extravagance unavailable to shoppers online or at the local mall.

“It’s a one-in-a-million type of place,” said Janet Roman, of Berlin, Connecticut, as she gave her 9-year-old grand-nephew, Sherman Williams, his first -and last -- tour of the over-thetop store. “Our Toys R Us doesn’t have a Ferris wheel in it.”

A steady stream of people coursed through the 110,000-square-foot space smack dab in the heart of the Crossroads of the World. Shoppers rushed to buy must-go gifts and games. Others took photos outside. The truly ambitious waited on a long, winding line to get one last ride on the Ferris wheel.

“When they were little guys,

this was the big thing,” said Mike Packer, of Wayne, Pennsylvania, whose 18-year-old son and 15-year-old daughter decided, for nostalgia’s sake, to take a final spin.

“This is like an event to come here. It’s an afternoon,” added his wife, Lisa Packer. “It’s obviously fun for all ages.”

Toys R Us opened in Times Square in 2001, when the neighborhood was still only a few years removed from its bad-olddays as a center for adult entertainment and grime. The company decided not to renew its lease, which expires in January, because of the high cost of renting the space, company spokeswoman Elizabeth Gaerlan said.

Toys R Us also cited high rent costs in July when it closed F.A.O. Schwarz, when had enraptured generations of children in two locations near Central Park.

She said the company is searching for another Manhattan flagship store and will try to find positions for those among the more than 350 employees of the store who want to keep working at Toys R Us. C. Bradley Mendelson, an agent for the building’s owner, Bow Tie Partners, said that at roughly $2,000 per square foot, rental prices for ground-floor space in the area have become extraordinarily expensive -- and with 21,000 square feet of it,

Toys R Us simply had too much space to cover.

“That’s a lot of rent,” he said.

“Rent has gone from $400-asquare-foot to $2,000 in the last 15 years when they rented the space.”

Two retailers, Gap and Old Navy, have signed leases to occupy some of the ground-floor space and other parts of the building and will move in by mid-2016, Mendelson said.

“Here’s really the story about why they’re leaving,” he said.

“The rents have gone so high that nobody can afford that amount of ground floor space in Times Square.”

JANUARY 7-13,2016

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Photo by Margaret Schweizer

NEIGHBORS COMPLAIN OF EAST SIDE SMOKE NEWS Residents pinpoint a residential building on 89th Street

BY DANIEL FITZSIMMONS

A couple on the Upper East Side are concerned about thick black smoke hanging over Yorkville that they say regularly billows out of a residential building on 89th Street and is polluting the area.

“Almost every half hour, and it’s thick black smoke, and we’ve tried everything,” said Carlo Schweizer, who lives with his wife Margaret on York Avenue between 88th Street and 89th Street, and whose apartment overlooks an area where the smoke is highly visible.

Schweizer said he and his wife have contacted local elected officials as well as city, state and federal agencies in an attempt to find out what is causing the smoke and if it can be mitigated in any way.

The building in question has two addresses: 400 East 89th Street and 401 East 88th Street. Public records show it is owned by 1700 First Avenue LLC, which according to a boiler permit filed with the Dept. of Buildings, is connected to Solil Goldman Investments. Records on file with the Dept. of Finance

indicate the building contains over 100 rent stabilized units, though the total number of units is unknown.

A call made to the building manager, listed as Adam Goldblatt in Dept. of Housing Preservation and Development documents, went unreturned.

“The smoke is coming into [our apartment], it’s pollution,” said Schweizer. “There seems to be no end of it, nobody is paying attention and they keep doing it.”

A s s e m bly m e m b e r D a n Quart’s office said their records indicate the building is burning Number 4 heating fuel and has been for over a year. “But burning it certainly shouldn’t cause the kind of smoke from that photo,” said Amanda Wallwin, Quart’s chief of staff, referring to a photo of the smoke provided by the Schweizers.

Although the building falls outside of Quart’s district on the Upper East Side, he has made air quality and eradicating dirty heating fuel a policy wedge during his time in office and is knowledgeable on the topic.

Heating oil Number 4 and Number 6 are considered the dirtiest among those burned in buildings in New York. According to new regulations ad-

opted by the city in 2011, both fuels are in the process of being phased out of nearly 10,000 residential buildings in NYC. Those regulations say that by 2030, or upon boiler or burner replacement (whichever is sooner), all buildings must convert to one of the cleanest fuels, which includes ultra-low sulfur Number 2 fuel, biodiesel, natural gas, or steam.

A spokesperson for the Environmental Protection Agency said the agency has no information on the Schweizers’ complaint and referred comment to the state Dept. of Environmental Conservation, which did not return a request for comment by press time.

EPA spokesperson Elias Rodriguez said residents concerned about smoke pollution should call 311, which will refer the complaint to the DEC or the NYC Dept. of Environmental Protection.

Schweizer said his neighbors don’t seem to care but it’s affecting he and his wife’s quality of life.

“We feel something should be done to stop this,” he said. “The air is polluted anyway with all the construction that’s going on, and this makes it worse.”

JANUARY 7-13,2016

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PREPPING YOUR PET FOR WINTER PETS Dogs and cats can withstand cooler weather when certain conditions are met. Some breeds are even known to develop heavier coats for colder climates. There are, however, some breeds that are not equipped to handle drastic changes in temperatures. Pet owners need to use common sense in order to protect their pets during colder seasons. If you and your pet enjoy the winter months and wish to spend time out of doors, the following information can help you protect your pet from the cold. * Antifreeze is poisonous to your pets. Make sure to wipe up any spills and keep these and other harmful chemicals out of your pet’s reach or path. * Feral and stray cats often take winter refuge under cars and can sometimes even make their way under the hoods.

Make sure the coast is clear before starting your car. * Be sure to wipe your dog’s

feet (and stomach in small dogs) after a winter walk. Rock salt or other ice melting chemicals can cling to your pet’s fur and he can ingest these harmful chemicals when cleaning himself. * ALL PETS NEED TO BE INSIDE. Never leave your pet outside for extended periods of time in the cold, even in a doghouse. When the temperature drops, your pet can get frostbite or even freeze to death. If you notice a pet being locked outside in the winter, be sure to report it to your local law enforcement and humane officers. * Keep an eye on your pet’s water dish to ensure it doesn’t freeze. * Short-coated dogs are especially vulnerable to the cold and shouldn’t be outside unattended or for too long. * Pets should not be left in the car. Most people know not to leave their pets in a car in the summer, but the same goes for the winter. A car interior can get as cold as an ice box and a

pet can easily freeze. * Check your dog’s paw pads for ice balls. If your dog is lifting his feet a lot or seems to be walking strangely, his feet are probably too cold or ice may be forming which can cause frostbite. * Keep your pet groomed.

Believe it or not, knotted or matted hair doesn’t insulate properly. Brush your dog’s hair regularly in the wintertime especially. * Adjust your pet’s diet as necessary. If your dog spends a lot of time outside, he may need more calories in the winter to produce body heat. If your dog spends most of his time indoors and has a decrease in activity, he may require fewer calories. When in doubt, always ask your veterinarian about seasonal diet changes.

If, despite these precautions your pet suffers from exposure to the cold, wrap him up in a blanket and go to your veterinarian as soon as possible. Do not immerse your pet in warm water and avoid heating pads that may cause thermal burns.

If you notice a pet being locked outside in the winter, be sure to report it to your local animal control facility.

Submitted by North Shore Animal League America.

To learn more about keeping your pets safe and healthy at all times, visit www.animalleague.org

Cultural Events in and around where you live (not Brooklyn, not Westchester)

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RESTAURANT INSPECTION RATINGS DEC 15 - 31, 2015

Cafe Champignon

200 7 Avenue

Grade Pending (31) Food worker does not use proper utensil to eliminate bare hand contact with food that will not receive adequate additional heat treatment.

Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service.

Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred.

Sanitized equipment or utensil, including in-use food dispensing utensil, improperly used or stored.

Wiping cloths soiled or not stored in sanitizing solution.

Joe: The Art Of Coffee

405 West 23 Street

A

Golden Crepes

262A West 15 Street

A

Coppelia Cuban Luncheonette

207 West 14 Street

A

Pastai

186 9 Avenue

A

Adp Innovations Lab

135 W 18th St

A

Bec

148 8th Ave

A

Acccord Asian Cuisine

1 E Broadway

Grade Pending (9) Live roaches present in facility’s food and/or nonfood areas.

Cemita’s

19 Fulton St

Grade Pending (55) Food Protection Certificate not held by supervisor of food operations.

Filth flies or food/refuse/sewage-associated (FRSA) flies present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Filth flies include house flies, little house flies, blow flies, bottle flies and flesh flies. Food/refuse/sewageassociated flies include fruit flies, drain flies and Phorid flies.

Tobacco use, eating, or drinking from open container in food preparation, food storage or dishwashing area observed.

Ruben’s Empanadas

64 Fulton Street

A

Subway

23 Maiden Lane

A

R&R Coffee

76 Fulton Street

A

The following listings were collected from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s website and include the most recent inspection and grade reports listed. We have included every restaurant listed during this time within the zip codes of our neighborhoods. Some reports list numbers with their explanations; these are the number of violation points a restaurant has received. To see more information on restaurant grades, visit www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/services/restaurant-inspection.shtml.

Wichcraft

601 West 26 Street

A

Miss Korea

10 West 32 Street

A

Dunkin Donuts

243 9 Avenue

A

Bean N Bean Coffee

320 8th Ave

A

Madman Espresso

234 W 35th St

A

Costas

30 W 35th St

A

Chickpea

0 Penn Station

Grade Pending (24) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation.

Food not cooled by an approved method whereby the internal product temperature is reduced from 140º F to 70º F or less within 2 hours, and from 70º F to 41º F or less within 4 additional hours.

Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred.

Subway

2 West 35 Street

A

Guy & Gallard

339 7 Avenue

A

B & D Halal Restaurant

163 West 29 Street

A

Cafe Riazor

245 West 16 Street

Grade Pending (21) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation.

Live roaches present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas.

Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred.

Johnny’s Bar

90 Greenwich Avenue A

Stout NYC

90 John St

A

O-Mai

158 9 Avenue

A

A-Wah Restaurant

5 Catherine Street

One Star

147 West 24 Street

Grade Pending (19) Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas.

Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred.

Rocking Horse Cafe

182 8 Avenue

Grade Pending (26) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation.

Filth flies or food/refuse/sewage-associated (FRSA) flies present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Filth flies include house flies, little house flies, blow flies, bottle flies and flesh flies. Food/refuse/sewageassociated flies include fruit flies, drain flies and Phorid flies.

Personal cleanliness inadequate. Outer garment soiled with possible contaminant. Effective hair restraint not worn in an area where food is prepared.

Closed by Health Department (88) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation.

Appropriately scaled metal stem-type thermometer or thermocouple not provided or used to evaluate temperatures of potentially hazardous foods during cooking, cooling, reheating and holding.

Live roaches present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas.

Insufficient or no refrigerated or hot holding equipment to keep potentially hazardous foods at required temperatures.

Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred.

Sanitized equipment or utensil, including in-use food dispensing utensil, improperly used or stored.

Blind Pig

233 East 14 Street

A

Desi Shack

135 4th Ave

A

Tia Pol

205 10 Avenue

A

Oddfellows Ice Cream

75 E 4th St

A

Boqueria

53 West 19 Street

A

Juice Generation

28 E 18th St

A

Gym Sports Bar

167 8 Avenue

A

JP Street

52 E 8th St

Boxers NYC

37 West 20 Street

A

Not Graded Yet (16) Hot food item not held at or above 140º F. Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation.

Toro

85 10 Avenue

A

The Graffiti Room

184 Mott St

Wood And Ales

234 W 14th St

A

Not Graded Yet (10) Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service.

Soho Room

203 Spring St

A

Favela Cubana

543 La Guardia Place

Miyabi Sushi & Asian Cuisine

118 W 3Rd St

A

Grade Pending (38) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation.

Raw, cooked or prepared food is adulterated, contaminated, crosscontaminated, or not discarded in accordance with HACCP plan.

JANUARY 7-13,2016

21

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

YOUR 15 MINUTES

To read about other people who have had their “15 Minutes” go to otdowntown.com/15 minutes Gustavo Goncalves, a math teacher at Eleanor Roosevelt High School, has been recognized for his student’s high test scores

MAKING THE GRADE A high school math teacher goes above and beyond his job description

BY ANGELA BARBUTI

Last month, seven New York City high school teachers received the Sloan Award for Excellence in Teaching, which annually honors instructors of math and science for motivating and inspiring their students. Gustavo Goncalves, a math teacher at Eleanor Roosevelt High School on the Upper East Side, was recognized for his unwavering commitment to his students’ success.

The Brazil native, who came to New York as an international student in 2001, teaches AP calculus, pre-calculus, math foundations, algebra II/trigonometry, geometry and discrete math. A testament to his dedication is the fact that his students’ AP calculus AB exam average is a 4.75 out of 5. When asked how he managed such a feat, he said, “All I did was I connected with them. I raised the standards and they stepped up to it. I expected 100 percent from them, and they gave me 100 percent.”

Mr. G, as his students call him, also instituted a math foundations class after observing the varying degrees of aptitude from students who were entering high school from different caliber middle schools. “They take six classes with me, and I see the kids’ difficulties and struggles and what they are lacking. I’m really surprised to see how many kids don’t know how to add or subtract,” he said.

When the bell rings at the end of the school day, Goncalves’ work is nowhere near done.

Having a passion for soccer, he also coaches the school’s team.

And when he leaves the field, his job shaping young minds is still not over, since he returns home to two children of his own, a 16-month-old son and a 3-month-old daughter.

As for his future plans, Goncalves plans on continuing his

work at “ELRO,” a high school he refers to as “heaven for teachers.” And there’s no better compliment he can give the school than by saying he would like his own children to attend one day. “I would definitely send my kids to Eleanor Roosevelt when they’re ready to go to high school.”

You grew up in Brazil. When did you know you wanted to become a teacher?

I came to New York in 2001.

It’s actually an interesting story. I wanted to do mathematics. When I came to the United States, I had four jobs at one point. I was an international student so had no financial aid or scholarship. I had to pay for my tuition which was $5,500 first semester. And one of these jobs was teaching. I was teaching SATs in Queens and also worked as a TA and worked as a teacher at the learning center. And I enjoyed it and was like, “You know, why not?” And that’s how it started.

I read about your impressive 4.75 average on the AP calculus AB exam. What can you attribute to that success?

The kids. They’re amazing.

Every year it’s the same thing.

So I think it’s the kids. The kids are the best part about teaching. If you have good kids, you can love your profession. If you have bad kids, you can hate it.

And in my case it’s no different. I love my kids. My kids are great. And of course, you end up having like half a dozen who can really … But for the most part, the kids are amazing.

How do you work at maintaining a good relationship with the students?

I bring a lot of humor to the class. No one laughs at my jokes except me. That’s one thing that works well with the kids. And I try to be honest with them. If they struggle with a topic, I tell them. If they’re good at one topic, I’ll let them know as well.

Why is it so important to you that high schoolers excel at math?

Well, first of all, I teach math just for the beauty of it, not to worry about a test. I always go above and beyond what a test covers. It’s New York State, so a lot is test based. You’re going to take the SATs, Regents and AP courses. That’s how the state board and college board evaluates the kids. And it’s good to see the kids getting a 5. I have a “high 5” club in my class. All the kids who scored a 5 on the AP exams, they have their names up for years. And when they come back after they graduate, they see their names on this poster. They feel proud of their accomplishments. And a good score gets you college credit as well. I have a lot of kids coming back and saying, “Mr. G, I don’t have to take any math classes because of my AP score.” Well that’s a good thing and a bad

thing. The bad thing is you’re not going to take math classes again, but the good thing is you save up to $2,000, depending on the school you go to.

Explain the math foundations class you started.

In the past, we had a lot of difficulty teaching students coming from middle schools. They come from different middle schools, good and bad ones.

And we noticed that middle schools tend to inflate their grades so the kids can get into good high schools. I was looking at some transcripts five years ago and was like, “How can this kid be a 90 in math if he can’t add or subtract?

Something is wrong with this.”

Across the board, our SAT, Regents and AP scores were not good enough. So we decided to create the class to close the gap, to make sure all kids come in ready for us.

You’re getting your second master’s now.

I’m getting it in pure mathematics. I got my first in mathematics education. I stopped because I had two kids, one after the other, and I became the soccer coach at our school.

My second passion is soccer, so I decided to go for it, and I’ve been coaching for five years now. It’s fun.

What are the challenges to your job?

My challenge right now is sometimes we get unreasonable parents. I had a parent once who said, “I want my child to be challenged, but I don’t want him to struggle.” How is that possible? But I’m very blessed that my administration approves what I do, because I know it can be a pain if your boss doesn’t like you. Both my principal and assistant prin-

cipal support and approve of what I do. And that makes my job much easier.

What are your future plans?

My future plans as a professional is to get my Ph.D. in mathematics. I know the clock is ticking. [Laughs] I like to be in a school environment. I don’t want to be a professor. I like being a high school teacher for many reasons. First of all, my school is great. And I would like to help build a computer science department because we don’t have one in our school.

That’s something I’m looking forward to.

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22

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

JANUARY 7-13,2016

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Photo: Craig Cutler © 2015 New York Cares, Inc. *Messaging & data rates may apply.

Text STOP to 41444 to stop; Text HELP to 41444 for help.

JANUARY 7-13,2016

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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

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