The local paper for Downtown wn INSTRUMENTS OF REVOLUTION < P 12
WEEK OF FEBRUARY
9-15 2017
COUNTING THE HOMELESS Volunteers take to the streets to find out how many New Yorkers are without shelter. But how effective is the survey? BY MADELEINE THOMPSON
“An Empty White Cube That Smells Like Dollars.” Mike Bouchet’s “sculpture” fills the Marlborough Chelsea art gallery on West 25th Street. Photo: Lily Haight
SMELLING GREEN Move over Chanel No. 5: artist and chemist create money fragrance BY LILY HAIGHT
Mike Bouchet’s latest “sculpture” fills all 45,000 cubic feet of the white-walled, concrete-floored Marlborough Chelsea art gallery. There’s nothing to see. But don’t let the bare walls confuse you: the art is the smell. For his latest exhibition, entitled “Tender,” Bouchet has created the smell of money. The 25th Street gallery’s high ceilings and bright lights illuminate a blank room, inviting people to come in, wander and sniff. “I really got into the idea of this as a sculpture because although the artwork is invisible, it fills up every molecule of the space,” Bouchet said. “One is enveloped in the sculpture.” To capture the elusive scent of dollar bills, Bouchet worked with Marc vom Ende, a senior perfumer at the German fragrance house, Symrise. Besides creating famous perfumes such as the Iceberg Homme cologne, vom Ende also develops commercial fragrances, like the four luxurious “new car smell” atomized fragrances he created for the Mercedes-Benz
CONTINUED ON PAGE 7
Despite the saying, New York City does sleep each night. But some residents, for reasons of poverty or mental illness, do so in subway stations or park benches because they lack a home to return to. On a cloudy Feb. 7 evening, thousands of volunteers — the exact number wasn’t available, but 2016 set a record with 3,800 — spread throughout the city to find out exactly how many New Yorkers were without shelter that night. This year marked the 12th annual Homeless Outreach Population Estimate (HOPE) count, a study mandated by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development to measure the number of the homeless. In the cafeteria of P.S. 199 on West 61st Street, long after students had gone home, roughly 90 people chatted amiably while awaiting further instruction. The city’s Department of Homeless Services had requested that volunteers for the HOPE count arrive around 10 p.m. on Monday night, though the training portion didn’t begin until 11 p.m. A table with donuts, coffee and granola bars sat in the corner, as did a group of NYPD officers who would later accompany volunteer teams whose survey areas included subway stations and parks. The volunteers were remarkably energetic in the face of a night spent walking around in the cold. By a show of hands, about a third of the crowd at P.S. 199 had participated in HOPE before. The rest, including myself, were first-timers. When 11 p.m. finally rolled around, district leader Martha Kenton guided the volunteers through the rules. Teams were to tackle three geographical areas near each other, and fill out a one-page form for every person they came across. If someone identified themselves as homeless, there were eight questions about age, veteran status, and location. Volunteers were then supposed to ask the person if they would like to be taken
Department of Social Services Commissioner Steven Banks and Manhattan Outreach Consortium Director Mario Arias engage a woman living on the street. Photo courtesy of the Department of Homeless Services to a shelter, though we were reminded that they had every right to stay where they were. For non-homeless people, the only question after “Do you have a place to go tonight?” was, “Has anyone already asked you these questions?” We left for our survey areas before the 12:15 a.m. start time. My team leader, Mike, a financial analyst who participated in last year’s HOPE count, brought a car which we gratefully piled into for the journey up to Morningside Park. Other teams took the subway or walked to their locations. Our group — which included Mike’s brother Dave, visiting from St. Louis, and Sonia, a holistic healthcare provider from Hell’s Kitchen — found a decent parking spot and walked to the starting point. Downtowner
OurTownDowntown
O OTDOWNTOWN.COM @OTDowntown
Crime Watch Voices Out & About City Arts
3 8 10 12
Restaurant ratings 14 Real Estate 17 15 Minutes 21
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
9-16
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
COM
Newscheck Crime Watch Voices
for dollars in fees ated millions of and left some resithe city agency, that the application dents convinced
2 City Arts 3 Top 5 8 Real Estate 10 15 Minutes
12 13 14 18
CONTINUED ON PAGE
25
A little over two hours later, after canvassing a segment of Morningside Heights and one slightly north in Harlem in addition to the park, my team of four returned to P.S. 199 having encountered zero homeless people. We ran into a total of 13 people on the sidewalks of our routes, but they were all either on their way home or out walking their dogs. “Do I look homeless?” a woman asked worriedly at West 110th and Morningside Drive. The last people we surveyed, at about 2:15 a.m., were congregating outside El Puerto Seafood on 125th Street between Amsterdam Avenue and Old Broadway. After Mike introduced himself and described what we
CONTINUED ON PAGE 6
We deliver! Get Our Town Downtowner sent directly to your mailbox for $49 per year. Go to OTDowntown.com or call 212-868-0190