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WEEK OF FEBRUARY VISUAL NOTES FROM THE UNDERGROUND ◄P.12
22-28 2018
‘DOG-MAN’ MAKES FEW FRIENDS IN CHINATOWN PUBLIC ART Bitter battle over sculpture postpones its installation BY CLAIRE WANG
Assemblyman Richard Gottfried sends out Meatless Monday tips to constituents. Photo: Richard N. Gottfried
EATING SMART WHILE PRACTICING POLITICS HEALTH Some elected officials do eat real food — in varying shades of green BY CAROL ANN RINZLER
The New York Times recently published a piece linking the words “politicians” and “ziti.” It seemed to promise an explanation of the legendary political fondness for Italian cooking best captured in the Godfather books and on “The Sopranos.” Alas, it turned out to be about the pols’ using food names as code words for bribery, which is totally tasteless.
In fact, real politicians do eat real food, these days often in varying shades of green. Case in point: Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, who “swears by green drinks,” the weaponized smoothies that may include spinach, lettuce, Brussels sprouts, avocados, bell peppers, Granny smith apples, celery, and eggplant, to provide the “energy and nutritional pick-me-up I need it in these challenging times.” UES State Senator Liz Krueger, who once told the Times she prefers diners to steak houses, also goes green: “Avocado toast for breakfast — where was this magic dish most of my life?” Assemblyman Dick Gottfried is a pescatarian, a person who’s expanded
vegetarianism to include fish and seafood. He’s so dedicated to the diet that each week he sends out yummy recipes and healthful eating tips from Meatless Monday (www.meatlessmonday.com), tempting the rest of us to join him. Public Advocate Tish James needs no urging. Her standard menu is oatmeal with fruit for breakfast, soup for lunch, and salmon for dinner plus “ice cream when I have to listen to Trump. A lot of ice cream!!” Former Councilmember Robert Jackson, who’s now running for the State Senate, is also a fan of fruits and veggies, particularly bananas, one or more every day.
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Months from now, we may still be talking about the legend of the Dogman: a cross-legged, tux-wearing creature with a man’s body and a golden retriever’s head and an oversized red apple in one palm. We may marvel at the ease by which Dog-man brought more mayhem upon Chinatown than did many land development projects. The irony, though, is that hardly anyone even saw him. To celebrate Lunar New Year — and the dog, this year’s zodiac animal — the Chinatown Partnership and Chinatown Business Improvement District (BID) commissioned the bronze sculpture from Australian artists Gillie and Marc Schattner. Mere days after it emerged that the artwork would be erected in Kimlau Square, a hallowed ground memorializing Chinese-American World War II veterans, local residents and activists mounted a fierce crusade against the sculpture and its proponents. A petition to halt its installation garnered more than 300 signatories within the first 24 hours — with scores of signatures pouring in from Queens, Brooklyn and even San Francisco. The protestors’ chief grievances are that Dog-man — the full title of the sculpture is “He Thought This was Going to be a Year of Good Fortune” — perpetuates the Western stereotype that the Chinese are avid consumers of dog flesh, and that its placement directly under the Kimlau Memorial Arch is an affront to reDowntowner
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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
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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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“He Thought This was Going to be a Year of Good Fortune,” a 900-pound ‘dog-man’ by the Australians Gillie and Marc Schattner, has provoked strong feelings in Chinatown. Photo: Community Board 3 vered community icons. The BID has indefinitely postponed the project. Over what should have been the most jovial week of the year in Chinatown, the anthropomorphic canine became a symbol of Chinatown’s bitter existential battles: between economic revival and artistic truth, legacy and gentrification, and clashing factions of activists. The controversy began when false information was included on the petition, according to Wellington Chen, the executive director of Chinatown Partnership. For starters, the organization never planned to place the sculpture under the arch. It wasn’t even supposed to be in the square, he said.
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