The local paper for Downtown wn THE WOMAN WHO PIONEERED ABSTRACT PAINTING ◄ P.12
WE’RE GOING TO NEED A BIGGER BALLOT ELECTIONS They’re not exactly the magnificent 17. But the overcrowded public advocate’s race features plenty of liberal activists, some with rap sheets — and an upstart Republican who just might eke out a win BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN
They have street cred and progressive bona fides. Several boast of encounters with the NYPD. Some have even been arrested — repeatedly — during protests, sit-ins and acts of civil disobedience. Their outrage is directed at all things Trump. And they have something else in common: Each ranks among the leading candidates vying in the Feb. 26 special election for the post of public advocate. The cast is dizzying. The field is almost surreally oversized. There are 17 contenders on the ballot, including 15 Democrats, winnowed down from the 23 who originally submitted nominating petitions. No frontrunner has yet surfaced. Political clubhouses haven’t coalesced around anyone. So liberal are the hopefuls, so fractured their support, that if no Democrats break out, an underdog Republican could squeak in. At stake is a citywide office that is supposed to serve as a watchdog and ombudsman for New Yorkers — but that has traditionally functioned as a training ground and launching pad for ambitious pols on the make. While the position has few official responsibilities, its occupants have proved adept at holding press con-
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@OTDowntown
2019
Paul Scariano, Xavier High School alumnus and parent
Xavier High School reached out to students, parents and alumni in the wake of the release of the names of Jesuit priests accused of sexual abuse of minors. Photo: Courtesy of Xavier High School
‘IN A WORD, IT’S A HORROR.’ RELIGION Two elite Jesuit schools confront painful revelations about priests from their past BY EMILY HIGGINBOTHAM
The sexual abuse crisis that has plagued the Catholic Church for decades has now reached two prominent Manhattan high schools. A list naming Jesuit priests, who were identified by the Society of Jesus as having credible allegations of sexual abuse, was published on January 15, revealing that Regis and Xavier high schools were among the institutions where some of these accused priests spent parts of their careers. The step toward transparency comes
as the Catholic Church deals with new investigations by federal and state law enforcement. The release of the list has also forced local institutions to review how they communicate about the abuse crisis, especially when the accused were once a part of their community. Out of the 50 men on the list made public by the Northeastern Jesuit Province, four worked at Regis between the 1950s and 80s, and seven worked at Xavier between the 1940s and early 2000s. One priest spent time at both schools. The time the priests spent at either school varied, with some serving at the institutions for only a couple years and others for more than a decade. In some cases, priests had decades-long careers in which they spent time at several Jesuit schools in New York and Downtowner
O OTDOWNTOWN.COM
7-13 I don’t know what else you can do but be honest about it.”
ferences, issuing reports, hiring staff and generating press releases, often self-aggrandizing in nature. Expect abysmally low turnout. Voters aren’t accustomed to dead-ofwinter balloting in arctic conditions. “You might see 12 to 15 percent,” said Democratic political strategist George Arzt, who served as Mayor Ed Koch’s press secretary in the late 1980s. Winning is not the sine qua non. Self-promotion plays a key role. “A lot of people are in this campaign to raise their profiles for future races,” Arzt said. But if multiple Democrats, each trying to out-progressive the other, fall below, say, a 10 percent threshold, they could effectively cancel each other out, creating a path to victory for Queens City Council Member Eric Ulrich, a moderate, anti-Trump Republican. “I will be Bill de Blasio’s worst nightmare — the last person he’d ever want to see as public advocate,” Ulrich vowed in an interview. As of the Jan. 25 filing, he’d raised $100,462 for his campaign. “If Ulrich turns out his Queens base and wins Staten Island in a low-turnout race, he’s a player who can emerge from this mess and win,” said Hank Sheinkopf, a Democratic consultant who has worked on the campaigns of Bill Clinton, Eliot Spitzer and Mike Bloomberg. The job, which is the first in line to succeed the mayor, is now vacant because, in typical fashion, the last public advocate, Letitia James, resigned on Jan. 1 after her election last year as state attorney general.
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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
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the northeastern United States. Many of the priests are now deceased, while some have been defrocked, have left the ministry or have been restricted from service involving minors. Regis officials declined to be interviewed for this story, but provided Our Town with a statement. “There are four men on that list whose allegations pertain to incidents while at Regis. There is also one man who is on that list who worked at Regis at one time and has an allegation against him from some later time and place,” the statement said. “No abuse is acceptable, and we are horrified and distressed by each one of these allegations. All victims of sexual abuse are in our prayers.”
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