The local paper for Downtown wn DEGAS AT MOMA
WEEK OF MARCH - APRIL
< CITYARTS, P.14
A SWEEPING HOUSING BILL PASSES, BUT COMPLAINTS CONTINUE NEWS Neighborhood groups say they’re worried affordability problems will linger BY MADELEINE THOMPSON
A week after New York’s City Council passed the biggest, most extensive changes to New York’s housing and zoning laws since 1961, handing a major victory to Mayor Bill de Blasio, neighborhood groups across the city say
Photo: Kevin Case, via flickr
they still don’t think the changes go far enough. The bill requires developers building in newly rezoned areas of the city to include below-market-rate housing, and encourages developers to build more affordable and senior housing by removing requirements like parking garages and height limits. Both elements of the plan went before all 59 New York City community boards, with only five of them voting in approval. Because of the community boards’ opposition -- and complaints by other
step in the right direction. But he takes issue with its basis in upzoning, a term used when buildings are rezoned for more intensive purposes, like when residential buildings are upzoned for commercial use. “[MIH] doesn’t work without upzoning,” Bankoff said. “And we’re not totally satisfied or thrilled with that as a policy decision to try to cure the affordability crisis.” The historic council’s main concern, however, is with
groups -- council members made changes to de Blasio’s original proposals, which were then passed on March 22. But frustration with the policies remains. Simeon Bankoff, executive director of the Historic Districts Council, said he was “not happy with either of the proposals in their entirety.” While the council primarily focuses on preserving buildings, rather than making them more affordable, Bankoff feels that the Mandatory Inclusionary Housing part of the bill is a
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PETER STANFORD, FOUNDER OF SEAPORT MUSEUM, DIES A passionate and persistent advocate of the city’s and the nation’s maritime history BY EMILY TOWNER
Peter Stanford was the founding president of the South Street Seaport.
Peter Stanford, the founding president of the South Street Seaport Museum and a passionate advocate for New York City’s and the country’s maritime heritage, has died. Stanford, who lived in West-
American Society of Marine Artists (1977); the American Ship Trust (1978); the Hudson River Maritime Museum (1979); and the National Maritime Alliance (1987). Stanford was also instrumental in the founding of the Council of American Maritime Museums.
chester County, was 89. In addition to founding the Seaport Museum with his wife, Norma, in 1967, Stanford was the second president of the National Maritime Historical Society. Several notable institutions were founded under his stewardship at the society, among them The Council of American Maritime Museums, in 1972; the
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City Arts To Do Real Estate 15 Minutes
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2016
Our Take TURN THE GAS BACK ON Kudos to Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer for moving to do something about the latest outrage affecting tenants, many of them low income, in New York. Responding to our story in early March about the surge in gas shutoffs in the city, often targeting rent-stabilized tenants, Brewer has sent a letter to Con Edison, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and city and state regulators looking for answers. “Manhattan’s residents -especially those with low or fixed incomes -- must have cooking gas to feed themselves affordably,” Brewer writes. “Hot plates are not an acceptable long-term substitute.” Brewer has asked for a full report on all buildings currently without gas service, and an explanation of what’s happening to turn it back on. Our reporting, cited in Brewer’s letter, uncovered a 400 percent increase in gas shutoffs in 2015, and a disturbing continuation of the trend so far this year. Brewer said her office is working with the residents of three buildings that have been without gas service for months -one since last September. It’s possible Brewer will find reasonable explanations for the increased shutoffs, including extra vigilence by ConEd in the wake of the fatal East Village gas explosion last year. We’ll see. Our fear, though, is that we’ll be forced to add gas shutoffs to poor doors, hidden surveillance cameras, and the myriad other ways that an unaffordable Manhattan has made life miserable for those among us on the bottom end of the income scale.
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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
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
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MARCH 31-APRIL 6,2016
WHAT’S MAKING NEWS IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD RECORD NUMBER OF TOURISTS EXPECTED The city, which recently reached 8.5 million inhabitants for the first time, is attracting even more people. A record number of tourists are expected to visit this year, according to The New York
Times. The chief executive of New York’s tourism-marketing agency, NYC & Company, Fred Dixon, was expected this week to announce than nearly 60 million visitors would be coming to take a bit out of the Big Apple, which would be 2.4 percent more than came to New
York last year. The English, Canadians and Brazilians are the top three visitors, although tourists from China will increase markedly, The Times reported. About 920,000 visitors from China are expected this year, 8.2 percent more than an earlier estimate of 850,000. A record number of tourists are expected to visit the city this year. Photo: Jim Pennucci, via flickr
The paper said Dixon the increase in overall visitors comes despite worldwide uncertainty, a weaker Chinese economy and a strong dollar. Dixon, picked to lead NYC & Company by Mayor Bill de Blasio, remains committed to encourage travel to the city from overseas. He was to make the announcement about increased tourism from Berlin, the paper noted. NYC & Company’s 2016 budget is about $35 million. “Tourism is an incredibly important piece of our economy,” Alicia Glen, deputy mayor for economic development, told the paper, adding that the city’s share of the budget would reach about $18 million. “When we invest in the sector, we get a really high return.”
$15 WAGE NYU STUDENT WORKERS New York University’s new president, Andrew Hamilton, will set a $15 minimum wage for all student workers, to be rolled out over the next three years, DNAinfo reported. NYU is one of the most expensive universities in the nation, and Hamilton revealed one of the biggest issues for students has been affordability, the publication reported. The wage increase would apply to those students in work-study programs, and will go forward even if the potential statewide minimum wage increase initiative does not go through,
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according to DNAinfo. “Even if there is not agreement on this issue, or if the agreement calls for a longer time frame, NYU will move forward with its plans,” Hamilton wrote in a school wide email quoted by DNAinfo. “And, of course, should state legislation call for a quicker time frame, we will comply with that.”
ELIZABETH STREET GARDEN APPEARS SAFE SoHo residents who had been fighting to preserve the Elizabeth Street Garden emerged triumphant on March 18, after news revealed that the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. declined to fund the Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s plan for affordable housing at the site, DNAinfo reported. “This decision reflects the strength of community support for the garden,” Community Board 2 Chairman Tobi Bergman told DNAinfo. “This same support will eventually lead to failure of any ongoing effort to develop housing there.” Bergman and his colleagues suggested a “better solution” for placing affordable housing on a larger site currently in use by the Dept. of Environmental Protection at Hudson and Clarkson streets, DNAinfo reported.
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CRIME WATCH BY JERRY DANZIG
NEW CHARGES ADDED IN DOCTOR SEXUAL ASSAULT CASE A prominent former New York City emergency room doctor already charged with sexually assaulting two women in his care has been indicted on new charges that he sexually assaulted two other women he treated, prosecutors announced. David Newman, who wrote a book on the patient-doctor relationship and claims to have served in a combat hospital in Iraq, victimized three of the women at Mount Sinai Hospital on separate occasions in August, September and October as well as a fourth woman in January, according to court papers. “I would like to thank these brave women for their strength in coming forward,” said Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr., who called the woman’s abuse while under sedation by a doctor a patient’s “nightmare scenario.” Newman, 45, now faces a total of five
counts of sex abuse, four in the third degree and one in the first degree. He has pleaded not guilty to all the counts. A hospital spokeswoman says Newman no longer works at Mount Sinai and records show his medical license was suspended in February amid a state medical board investigation. Newman is the author of “Hippocrates’ Shadow: Secrets From the House of Medicine,” a book that examines “the fraying of patient-doctor relations” and advocates a “new paradigm to rebuild the bridge between physicians and their patients.”
HABER-DASHERS Two area stores were hit by a team of shoplifters in a two-day period. At 12:15 p.m. on March 18, six men entered the Patron of the New shop at 151 Franklin St., took nearly $15,000 worth of clothes off hangers and left. One of the men told a store employee, “You don’t think we going to pay?” Another thief left behind his hat. Police searched the neighborhood but could not find the shoplifters or the stolen merchandise. The items taken included Balmain jeans, black jeans, blue jeans, white jeans, beige jeans, T-shirts, sweatshirts, and more totaling $14,570. The following day at 3:15 p.m., six men — possibly the same crew —
entered the American Apparel store at 140 West Broadway, took clothing valued at about $3,700 from several racks and a display table and walked out of the store without paying. Again, the bad guys could not be found in the vicinity. The stolen items included denim shorts, tank tops, skirts, jackets, denim shirts, Hyperion shirts, ponte tanks, hoodies, Sofia bodysuits, sweaters, turtlenecks, and more.
STATS FOR THE WEEK Reported crimes from the 1st precinct Week to Date
Year to Date
2016 2015
% Chg
2016
2015
% Chg
Murder
0
0
n/a
0
0
n/a
Rape
0
0
n/a
2
1
100.0
Robbery
1
0
n/a
11
7
57.1
YOU FORGET, YOU REGRET
Felony Assault
1
2
-50.0
12
12
0.0
One Broad Street resident paid a high price for absent-mindedness. At 8:45 p.m. on March 17, a 28-year-old woman entered the Dig Inn restaurant at 80 Broad St., ordered food, sat down and placed her bag on a chair. She then left, leaving her bag before realizing five minutes later what she had done. Her bag was no longer on the chair when she returned. The items stolen included a Prada Slim bag valued at $2,785, a Lenovo Yoga computer priced at $1,798, a pair of headphones worth $129, an Apple phone charger valued at $40, and more. The total of the items in the stolen bag came to $4,752.
Burglary
2
2
0.0
27
36
-25.0
Grand Larceny
18
19
-5.3
246
174
41.4
Grand Larceny Auto
0
0
n/a
4
2
100.0
BIG-BUCKS LOSS AT STARBUCKS A visitor from Los Angeles had no guardian angels when she came to the Big Apple recently. At 2:15 p.m.
on March 14, an unknown man took a 64-year-old woman’s bag from behind her chair in the Starbucks at 195 Broadway. He subsequently tried to use a credit card from inside the bag at a nearby Subway ATM. Items stolen included the Louis Vuitton purse valued at $1,500, a pair of designer glasses priced at $1,600, a Louis Vuitton wallet tagged at $900, an iPhone 6 Plus worth $800, along with $200 in cash, making a total of $5,000.
HOODS IN HOODIES One area resident might wish she had an attack dog. At about 8 p.m.
on March 18, a 30-year-old woman walking her dog and texting on her cell phone at the southwest corner of Pearl Street and Maiden Lane was approached from behind by two men — one of them in his mid-teens and both wearing hoodies. The thief wearing a black hoodie pushed her, while his companion, in a beige hoodie, snatched her cell from her hand. Both thugs then fled eastbound on Maiden Lane before turning southbound on Water Street. A tracker on the phone showed the device’s last location as Whitehall and State Streets before the signal was lost. The stolen cell was a gold iPhone 5S valued at $250.
lower manhattan has many landmarks. but only one hospital. NewYork-Presbyterian/Lower Manhattan Hospital. Just two blocks southeast of City Hall at 170 William Street.
nyp.org/lowermanhattan
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MARCH 31-APRIL 6,2016
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Useful Contacts POLICE NYPD 7th Precinct
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233 W. 10th St.
212-741-4811
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FIRE FDNY Engine 15
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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
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3 Washington Square Village
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212-736-4536
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66 Leroy St.
212-243-6876
Ottendorfer
135 2nd Ave.
212-674-0947
Elmer Holmes Bobst
70 Washington Square
212-998-2500
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LIBRARIES
HOSPITALS New York-Presbyterian
170 William St.
Mount Sinai-Beth Israel
10 Union Square East
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128 East Broadway
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Escalators on the 7 line extension shortly before it opened. Photo courtesy MTA
A DRIP, DRIP, DRIP OF PROBLEMS ON THE 7 LINE NEWS Leaks plaguing $2.5 billion extension
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BY MICHAEL BALSAMO AND DEEPTI HAJELA
New Yorkers paid $2.5 billion for a splashy new subway station built deep into Manhattan’s bedrock near the edge of the Hudson River, but Mother Nature is putting a dampener on the depot’s inaugural year. Just six months removed from its grand opening, the station on the No. 7 subway line is suffering from water leaks that have discolored ceiling tiles and sent rivulets spilling down upon commuters as they ride escalator banks. During the winter, the drops hardened into long icicles. Meanwhile, a few miles downtown, more vexing water leaks have contributed to delays in the opening of an underground shopping mall built within a $3.9 billion commuter train terminal beneath the World Trade Center complex. Civil engineers say the problems at the two sites illustrate
the challenges of keeping water out of subterranean projects built below the water table. “Water is always going to seep and water is always going to seek the lowest level and it’s always going to find its own path,” said Robert Paaswell, distinguished professor of civil engineering at the City College of New York. “If there’s a tiny crack anyplace, water is going to find it.” Still, the fact that water found a way into two of the most expensive train stations in city history has drawn lots of eye rolls from passengers and frustrated officials in charge of the projects. “It shouldn’t be trial-anderror for $2 billion,” said Jonathan Ballan, a member of the board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates the city’s subway system and oversees the new Hudson Yards station on the No. 7 line. Officials have blamed the leaks on work performed by a subcontractor, Yonkers Contracting Company, which said it was working with the MTA to resolve the issues.
Michael Horodniceanu, the president of the MTA’s Capital Construction division, said at a recent meeting that officials became aware of the leaks in the No. 7 subway station in 2012, when it was still under construction, and had directed contractors to address them. Contractors will now try a new method to keep the water out, he said. The MTA said Yonkers will cover the cost of repairs, estimated at $3 million. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the World Trade Center site, had blamed the water leaks at the new transit hub there partly on water continuously sprayed by contractors to control dust related to construction. Officials have said the leaks were significantly reduced last fall. The station’s architectural crown, a soaring hall called the Oculus, opened earlier this month, but the shops and restaurants will not open until at least this summer. Dan Stapleton, a principal and senior vice president at GZA, an engineering and construction
consulting firm, explained the challenge of keeping water out of underground chambers. It is harder, he said, than protecting the roof of a building above ground. “It’s a function of the pressure the water is exerting,” he said. “The deeper you go below the water table, those pressures get higher and higher,” he said. And if there’s a crack, or an opening, “you’re going to get a greater impact if you’re applying water under pressure than not.” Leaking water has also been a challenge in Boston’s Big Dig project, a network of costly tunnels that replaced an elevated highway and added tubes across the city’s harbor. The agency that controls those tunnels spends millions of dollars a year pumping out water, which in some winters has left the walls of the tunnels caked in frozen ice and once forced a temporary road closure. Leaks of salt water have also corroded electrical systems, and in one case caused a heavy light fixture to crash into the roadway. “Engineers find these problems a challenge and they have ways to meet the challenge, but meeting it is expensive, takes constant monitoring and constant repairs,” said Paaswell. “Especially with our infrastructure, the frustration is the need for repairs and recognizing it are in conflict with the budget.”
MARCH 31-APRIL 6,2016
Chapter 5
EVE AND OTHERS
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Welcome to the fifth installment of our serialized novel. A summary of the plot so far: We are in the 80s, a time when life was bright orange. There was no such thing as Good Taste Grey. We are in a non-descript but comfortable building. The lobby looks like a subway stop. Walls that are not white and not beige either. Brownish. Fluroescent lights abound. Eve, 80s beautiful woman who actually owns a silver jumpsuit, Eva wants to be an actress. (She is my roommate). Sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d just met a small man named Charles in our elevator. And Charles just moved in.
5
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Illustration by John S. Winkleman
Charles was on the agoraphobic side. He told us when we met that he rarely went out, although going somewhere was always his intention. He claimed to like paintings, music, some modern dance, though seeing any of those was rare. Charles subscribed to a magazine called â&#x20AC;&#x153;Cue,â&#x20AC;? a precursor of TIME OUT. The entire magazine was an impartial listing of the plentitude of events that is always New York. He carried three yellow markers in his pocket (in case one or two went dry, he said) and he would continually highlight events that he could attend, if ever he chose to leave. Visiting Larry in our building was a rare foray for him. Charles and Larry had gone to high school together, in Brooklyn. The very ďŹ rst day of Charles, we all sat in our small living room. Eve and he were together on our velvet coach, as though theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d been together forever. He did not feel like a stranger, as peculiar as we were, he seemed perfectly comfortable in that room and I sat across from them in a big stuffed chair our super had given us. The chair was from
the basement, just sitting there and Anibal brought it up one day, unsolicited, as a gift. Our super, Anibal, was a handsome, generous Dominican man, lived on the second floor with his wife, who worked nights, and his tall teenage son. I felt as though I were watching a play, the lone audience sitting on the side in my chair. The very ďŹ rst conversation between them that I remember was something like this. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Will you decide to tell us something about yourself?â&#x20AC;? Eve had the ability then, to be any character she chose. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Why yes,â&#x20AC;? said Charles, suddenly southern. â&#x20AC;&#x153;And what might that be?â&#x20AC;? she replied. Although I am a natural interruptor, I did not. Not even to offer coffee or tea, or a glass of Mateus, our usual cheap wine. I listened as though I was hearing something important. â&#x20AC;&#x153;My aunt Billie,â&#x20AC;? he began, â&#x20AC;&#x153;she actually wanted to be a go-go dancer and she got a job, a real paying job traveling with a group. They danced between band num-
bers. Billie is only 15 years older than me. Sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s more like an older sister. She and my mother are the same number of years apart. Fifteen. Funny when you think about it that way. Billie fell in love with a famous musician. Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve heard his name. Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s married, of course, but theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re kind of a couple. She says she loves him. Anyway, my grandmother had never heard of him. She invited Billie to bring her man friend to Friday night dinner. If sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d known he was married she never would have but she did because Billie is her baby daughter and she kept talking about Trini this and Trini that and ďŹ nally my grandmother said, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;OK, OK bring him over here to eat somethingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and they all ate some chopped liver together, and some chicken and my grandmother made her delicious sour cream pound cake. Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t you want to know what happened next?â&#x20AC;? he asked us both. We did. Esther Cohen posts a poem a day at esthercohen.com.
Is your screenager stepping out even when sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tucked in bed?
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MARCH 31-APRIL 6,2016
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In accordance with Section 1-12 of the Concession Rules of the City of New York, the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation (“NYCDPR”) is issuing, as of the date of this notice, a Request for Bids (RFB) for the operation of six (6) mobile food concessions within the Battery, Manhattan. Hard copies of the RFB can be obtained, at no cost, commencing Monday, March 28, 2016 through Monday, April 18, 2016 between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., excluding weekends and Holidays, at the Revenue Division of NYCDPR, which is located at 830 Fifth Avenue, Room 407, New York, NY 10065. All bids submitted in response to this RFB must be submitted by no later than through Monday, April 18, 2016 at 11:00 a.m. The RFB is also available for download, commencing on Monday, March 28, 2016 through Monday, April 18, 2016 on Parks’ website. To download the RFB, visit www.nyc.gov/parks/businessopportunities, click on the link for “Concessions Opportunities at Parks” and, after logging in, click on the “download” link that appears adjacent to the RFB’s description. For more information, contact Glenn Kaalund at (212) 3601397 or VIA email at Glenn.Kaalund@parks.nyc.gov.
PETER STANFORD CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 “Peter was a persistent man, endlessly insisting that the apparently impossible could be achieved. And in that — and as long as he and Norma were involved — he was quite right,” said Jonathan Boulware, the museum’s director. “It was Peter’s vision in the 1960s that led to the preservation of the counting houses of the Seaport, including Schermerhorn Row, one of New York City’s treasures,” Stanford hailed from Brooklyn, and was a World War II
Navy veteran. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Harvard in 1949 and his master’s from King’s College, Cambridge, England in 1951. He was also the recipient of an honorary doctor of letters from the State University of New York Maritime College at Fort Schuyler and in 2012. He received the Don Turner Award presented by the USS Constitution Museum for his critical role in saving and preserving historic ships. Among his many magazine articles and books was “A Dream of Tall Ships: How New Yorkers Came Together to Save the City’s Sailing-Ship Water-
front,” which he coauthored with his wife. The book, published in 2013, recounted their efforts to create the historic South Street Seaport. “We have much to do to be equal to Peter’s expectations. But I share the confidence that he placed in us. The legacy of the South Street Seaport Museum lies in Peter’s oftrepeated assertion that ‘this Museum is people,’” Boulware said. “There, we are faithfully carrying on and offering the very best tribute to Peter’s life’s work.” A memorial service is planned for April 9 at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Mount Kisco.
ISABELLA HOUSE Independent Living for Older Adults
A great way to live in New York. Join us at our
TELECOMMUNICATION DEVICE FOR THE DEAF (TDD) 212-504-4115
OPEN HOUSE
and experience it for yourself. SATURDAY, April 9th, 11:00 AM – 3:00 PM
525 Audubon Avenue at 191st Street, New York, NY 10040
OUR AMENITIES INCLUDE: 5 Spacious studios and one-bedroom apartments starting at $2,400.00 per month 5 Complimentary Lunch and Dinner served buffet style 5 Basic Cable TV 5 All utilities included 5 24-Hour Security 5 Weekly linen service
5 Visitor parking 5 Pastoral services 5 A wealth of programs, activities and trips 5 Conveniently located near medical, physical therapy, occupational therapy and psychiatric services 5 On-site beauty salon, library, gift shop, laundry, check-cashing facilities and visitor parking 5 Moderately priced lodging for overnight guests
WE’VE THOUGHT OF EVERY THING TO ENR ICH AND ENHANCE YOUR LIFE. If you cannot attend our Open House or would like additional information on scheduling a private tour, please call 212-342-9539
fb.com/IsabellaOrg twitter.com/IsabellaOrg youtube.com/IsabellaOrg
www.isabella.org 525 Audubon Avenue at 191st Street. New York, NY
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MARCH 31-APRIL 6,2016
MAYOR BACKS NURSING HOME PROJECT NEWS Opponents, including parents at a nearby school, vow to continue fighting BY MADELEINE THOMPSON
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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
Residents of the Upper West Side who hope to prevent the construction of a 20-story Jewish Home Lifecare (JHL) nursing home on West 97th Street, between Amsterdam and Columbus, were disappointed last week when Mayor Bill de Bla-
sio threw his support behind the project. For several years, locals and administrators at the adjacent P.S. 163 have been fighting the development, arguing that the construction will create hazardous and disruptive conditions. Several lawsuits have been filed against the developers, one by the parents of P.S. 163 students and one by residents of the Park West Village complex that surrounds the lot JHL wants to build on, claiming that the environmental review conducted by JHL was not accurate. After the city’s amicus brief in support of JHL was filed to the New York State appellate court, elected officials said they were disappointed that the project now seems to be moving ahead. “I had hoped the mayor would at least agree with me that if this project went ahead at all, it needed to do so with full consideration for these problems and whatever mitigation measures are needed to ensure P.S. 163’s students have a safe and productive learning environ-
ment,” Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer said in a statement. “The mayor’s intentions here may be good, but his conclusion is wrong.” Marty Rosenblatt, a researcher and resident who has long been fighting the project, said he remains confident that JHL’s long-term plan to build next to P.S. 163 will not move forward. “De Blasio is doing what his political supporters want him to do, and it’s being done at the cost of the community,” Rosenblatt said. Ethan Geto, a spokesman for JHL, played down the significance of the city’s amicus brief, describing it as more broadly defending the integrity of the environmental review process, though he admitted that it does help JHL’s case. “We feel optimistic that the appellate division is going to look at these issues in a more objective way than the lower court did, and find that the state and city indeed conducted the environmental review appropriately,” he said. Construction on the lot where
JHL is supposed to go has been postponed by litigation several times since 2014, and according to Geto it is unlikely to start until 2017, pending the outcome of the lawsuits. Rene Kathawala, a P.S. 163 parent and lawyer representing his fellow parents in their lawsuit,
was reluctant to predict an outcome, but remains hopeful. “We know that we have developed a record that shows that the Department of Health failed to discharge its legal obligation,” Kathawala said. “The facts are undisputed.”
The site of the proposed JHL project on W. 97th Street
Preventive health services offered in 2016 covered at 100%:
Talk to your doctor about preventive services Medicare offers this year.
Annual Wellness Visit Shots (Flu, Pneumococcal, Hepatitis B) Second Pneumococcal vaccine one year after first vaccine was administered Screening for Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) Bone Mass Measurement Colon Cancer Screening Breast Cancer Screening (Mammograms) Smoking cessation (stop smoking) counseling and more Free, impartial, expert guidance for your Medicare questions: NYC Health Insurance Information Counseling and Assistance Program [HIICAP] For more information on HIICAP services, call 311 and ask for HIICAP or visit us on the web at www.nyc.gov/aging Informacion disponsible en espanol – llame al 311
Department for the Aging
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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.
Poem MANHATTAN city of deep personal enclaves, rabbit warrens to avoid the ever-present sheep pens; stay deep and be ever watchful. The soul is called out of hiding for special occasions.
A ROOM OF ONE’S OWN STREET LEVEL The benefits of living in small spaces BY BILL GUNLOCKE
Here I am. I will walk the streets as though invulnerable, and I will bless the pavement with each step, I, who seek the cosmic stream to dip my toes in --shod in lead but light on my feet-come along and fly over the sparse treetops on my gravitydefying song, sing harmony, and seek with me The Great Chord. (Disregard that car alarm.) --Art Gatti
Photo by David Boyle via flickr
STRAUS MEDIA your neighborhood news source
MARCH 31-APRIL 6,2016
Here’s what I can see from my couch. A framed drawing that one of my daughters did when she was a kid. A yelloworange dog dish that my dog Corduroy, who died 20 years ago in Lakewood, Ohio, used. (Sometimes I can be in another part of town as evening comes and I think I better get home to feed the dog. I still sometimes forget and swipe toast crumbs onto the floor thinking he’ll like them.) I can see a picture of my mother and a picture of my father with his father. There’s a big early childhood photo of me in an oval frame that my parents used to have hanging in the hallway of our big house by our bedrooms. Right next to me is a wood end table that was made in my father’s furniture factory. Off to my right is a framed copy of the first issue of a paper I started in Cleveland. I can see hundreds of books and other framed things that matter to me. A color photo of my daughters in their pre-teen years on a bench by a Northern Michigan lake one summer. They each have some kind of tennis shirt on. Philip Roth’s books are on my shelf. So are Christmas cards with photos of grandchildren and nieces and nephews and their kids. That’s just some of the stuff. In a small living space like a New York apartment, all your stuff is near you. You don’t have to walk down that long ago hallway in your parents’ home to see that picture of you. You don’t have to go in your office in the basement and turn on a light to see
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your newspaper framed. All your important things are right here in a room, or two. I like that. Your life’s always within reach. Things are not put away. If you want to be in a bigger space, you go out for walk, or go in a big store, or to a museum, or sit in a park. You can go have a beer. When the weather gets nice at all, café tables show up and are filled quickly. I like the combination of inner and outer space. It’s a good balance.
You don’t have to go in your office in the basement and turn on a light to see your newspaper framed. All your important things are right here in a room, or two. I like that. Your life’s always within reach. Things are not put away. The thrift stores I go to, like you do, have good books. The people that donated them ran out of room in their apartments. If they had a house, they’d hold on to them longer, maybe till they died. “It has always been a happy thought to me that the creek runs on all night, new every minute, whether I wish it or know it or care, as a closed book on a shelf continues to whisper to itself its own inexhaustible tale.” -- Annie Dillard, “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek” This goes under the category ‘You Wouldn’t Think’: This hit me one day when I was sitting right here on the couch looking at the room.
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One of many things that wouldn’t surprise my mother. Photo by Bill Gunlocke I could see the stove in the kitchen from where I sat. And I thought that it looks like stoves have always looked in my lifetime. The tea kettle looked the same as tea kettles have looked in my lifetime. So did the cupboards above the stove. I thought to myself, my mother’s been dead 40 years; I wonder what she wouldn’t recognize if she were looking at what I’m looking at. Picture frames were the same when she was around. So were the light switches and the light bulbs. The electrical outlets are exactly the same.
So are the picture hooks. And the calendar. The clocks. The clock radio. Hangers. Buttondown shirts. Pillows. Bathroom sinks. Pens and pencils. You still tie your sneakers the same way. If she went in the kitchen and looked in the fridge, milk cartons and butter sticks and pickle jars are just the same. Outside, cars, traffic lights, stop signs, neon signs in windows, door knobs, snow shovels are no different really. It seems impossible that so many things are almost exactly like they were. The computer
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in the other room she’d ask about and the laptop and the iPhone. And me, of course. I wouldn’t look the same. I wish I had better light in my apartment. I need a light on to read. There are only two windows. The sun doesn’t hit them in a lively direct way. Windows are what you want in an apartment. Day in day out, you don’t care about the view. You want light to come in to make your place look its best. You want your life illuminated.
Block Mayors Ann Morris, Upper West Side Jennifer Peterson, Upper East Side Gail Dubov, Upper West Side Edith Marks, Upper West Side
MARCH 31-APRIL 6,2016
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
MOVING ON TO ASSISTED LIVING GRAYING NEW YORK BY MARCIA EPSTEIN
My women’s group is in a kind of mourning because our good friend and long-time member is moving with her husband to an out-of-state assisted living facility in April. Though there are promises to visit and stay in touch, of course it won’t be the same and our group will be immeasurably changed. We will, of course, acclimate to this change, as we did upon the deaths of several valued members in the eight or so years we’ve been together. Life is change, but old age is change upon change and it doesn’t get any easier as those changes accumulate. This group is, and has been for many of us, the glue that holds our week together. As the health of some of us decline, as our grandchildren grow older and need us less, as we are no longer able to do the things we once did, the group supports us and is there to cheer us on. We will miss our friend a great deal, and while wishing her the very best, are very sorry to see her go. This is not the first story I’ve heard of long-time New Yorkers picking up to move to assisted living facilities. In fact, someone I knew had her second bathroom renovated to accommodate live-in help if it were someday needed. Now she is moving to assisted living, deciding that it was the best option after all. It seems there comes a time when a person, or a person’s grown child, decides that it’s no longer feasible to live alone and “age in place.” Undoubtedly, there are benefits to assisted living. No more shopping or cooking, lots of company and activities, and sometimes, depending on the type of community, advanced nursing care if needed. But there’s a catch, of course: money! These facilities are scarily expensive, and I myself could never end up in one. That’s where NORC’s can be life savers. NORC’s (Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities) are usually supported by a mix of public and private funding. NORC programs may include case management, health care management, recreational and education activities. NORC’s are usually flexible in identifying and providing the services needed by the seniors who live there.
The Penn South Naturally Occurring Retirement Community. Photo by Eden, Janine and Jim via flickr A NORC can be a single building, a community (such as Penn South, the first NORC in New York) or a neighborhood. NORCs are now found in more than 25 states around the country. My hope for myself, of course, is to stay in my apartment and, if necessary, be able to find the help I need to do so, if and when that time comes. Bloomingdale Aging in Place (BAiP) is the community NORC I belong to, and someday I may need some of their services and will be grateful for them. A miracle happened in my family. We all actually went away together for a long weekend. It’s hard to arrange even a day when everyone is free, so this weekend in the Poconos was special. It included my two daughters, four grandchildren, two sons-in-law and my partner. That’s the upside. The downside was that it was one of the coldest weekends of the year, and many of the activities took place in buildings away from the main lodge.
The weekend consisted mainly of eating three (excellent) meals a day and following the children from the arcade to the jungle gym and back to the arcade, where they could easily have taken up residence. What can I say? There has been contention over the years with my daughters. Isn’t that the way with mothers and daughters? I think we all decided that this weekend was going to be conflict-free and pleasant, and it was. It took me days to de-ice, not to mention regain my cat’s trust, but it was worth it. We have a group photo with me standing in front. I felt like my Aunt Chana, who was the matriarch of our clan when I was a child. In the photo, we look like the perfect family, but we’re far from that. Like Facebook posts, pictures can be misleading. But we are bonded by blood and love, and being all together for one whole weekend is a blessing that I truly appreciate.
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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
Out & About More Events. Add Your Own: Go to otdowntown.com
Thu 31
Everything you like about Our Town Downtown is now available to be delivered to your mailbox every week in the Downtowner From the very local news of your neighborhood to information about upcoming events and activities, the new home delivered edition of the Downtowner will keep you in-the-know.
REVOLUTIONARIES: THE LATE WORKS OF BEETHOVEN & GINASTERA Trinity Church, 75 Broadway 1 p.m. Free This spring, Concerts at One presents Revolutionaries: The late works of Beethoven and Ginastera. www.trinitywallstreet.org
TINY POETS TIME Poets House, 10 River Terrace 10 a.m.-Noon. Free Poetry reading for toddlers. 212-431-7920. www. poetshouse.org
And best of all you won’t have to go outside to grab a copy from the street box every week.
It’s your neighborhood. It’s your news.
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111 Broadway 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Up to 50% off the retail price on all in-stock watches and gift wear.
212-349-8900. www. denatale.com
WOLVES OF WEST STREET
1 p.m.-10 p.m. $15; $5 skate rental Grab your skates and join us on the Hudson River Waterfront for a one of a kind skating experience! 917-391-8982. www. brookfieldplaceny.com/ directory/the-rink#
The Palm Tribeca, 206 West St. 5 p.m.-7 p.m. Free Come join The Wolves of West Street at the Palm powered by BeaconCrawl! Just download the BeaconCrawl App and come to the Palm Tribeca and let the games begin! 212-480-2100. http:// EXHIBITION – STATES beaconcrawl.com/?p=562
Sun 3
OF INCARCERATION ►
Sat 2 NERDLESQUE FESTIVAL Le Poission Rouge, 158 Bleecker St. 7 p.m. $25-$75 Hosted by Jeez Loueez, the evening will be headlined by Lux LaCroix (NYC and Los Angeles) and will feature a special surprise! 212-505-3474. www. lepoissonrouge.com
LAST WEEKEND AT THE RINK AT BROOKFIELD PLACE 220 Vesey St.
66 Fifth Ave. Noon-6 p.m. Free States of Incarceration reflects a process of dialogue and discovery among over 500 students and people directly impacted by incarceration in 20 cities. www.events.newschool. edu/event/states_of_ incarceration_-_exhibition
‘HAIRSPRAY’ Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, 566 LaGuardia Pl 2 p.m. $25-$45 HAIRSPRAY is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI). www.events.nyu.edu/#event_ id/94746/view/event
MARCH 31-APRIL 6,2016
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Mon 4 TRANSCENDENT ARTS OF TIBET AND INDIA The Winter Garden at Brookfield Place, 230 Vesey St. 1 p.m.-5 p.m. Free Immerse yourself in the glorious traditions of Tibet and India from April 4-15 in the Winter Garden at Brookfield Place. 416-532-9035. www. artsbrookfield.com/event/ transcendentarts/
PSYCHADASCALIES (PSYCHADASCALIA): AN EXHIBITION The Kimmel Vitrines, NYU, LaGuardia Pl. and West 3rd St. All Day. Free Photographer Jean-Robert Dantou reflects on the boundaries of madness through a series of portraits in which patients and caregivers at a
psychiatric nursing home are portrayed without revealing his subjects’ roles. 212-998-8750. www.events. nyu.edu/#event_id/102743/ view/event
Tue 5
7 p.m.-9 p.m. Free Paul Buhle presents “Ten Years of Non-Fiction Comics,” his notion of where he began and what he has done, touching on work with the 1970s Bay Area oldtimers, WW3, new generations, and as co-editor of DRAWN TO CHANGE (Between the Lines Press). www.events.newschool.edu
THE CRAFTING HOUR The Crafty Kids, 165 William St. 11 a.m.-Noon. $10 Children 18 months to 5 years with caregivers welcome! Spend quality time with your child making special mementos of your time together! Children learn art techniques through fun and simple craft projects. 212-732-5182. www. thecraftykids.com
NEW YORK COMICS & PICTURE-STORY SYMPOSIUM ▼ The New School, 2 West 13th St., room M101
Wed 6 HEALTH & WELLNESS SEMINAR 1 Pace Plaza 5:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m. Free In Collaboration with New York-Presbyterian/Lower Manhattan Hospital and Weill Cornell Medicine. www.pace.edu/governmentcommunity-relations/events/ health-wellness-seminars
MEDIA DARK, MEDIA BRIGHT: URBANITY AND POLITICAL IMAGINATION 239 Greene St. Floor 8 5 p.m.-7:30 p.m. Free Venkatesh Chakravarthy, professor of cinema, will discuss the changing historical portrayals of Chennai, where India’s politically influential film industry, Tamil Cinema, is located. www.events.nyu.edu/#event_ id/101240/view/event
NOTICE TO PERSONS WHO MAY HAVE SUFFERED FROM INADEQUATE ACCESSIBLE FEATURES AT LIBERTY PLAZA AND OTHER RENTAL BUILDINGS On February 11, 2016, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York entered a consent decree resolving a lawsuit brought by the United States Department of Justice against certain builders and developers alleging that they failed to include certain accessible features for persons with disabilities required by the Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3)(c), in the design and construction of Liberty Plaza. Under this consent decree, a person may be entitled to receive monetary relief if, in relation to any of the properties identified below, he or she: E WAS DISCOURAGED FROM LIVING AT THAT PROPERTY BECAUSE OF THE LACK OF ACCESSIBLE FEATURES; E HAS BEEN HURT IN ANY WAY BY THE LACK OF ACCESSIBLE FEATURES AT THAT PROPERTY; E PAID TO HAVE AN APARTMENT AT THAT PROPERTY MADE MORE ACCESSIBLE TO PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES; OR E WAS OTHERWISE DISCRIMINATED AGAINST ON THE BASIS OF DISABILITY AT THAT PROPERTY. The properties relevant to this notice are:
E LIBERTY PLAZA
E THE GRAND TIER
E BRITTANY
E BARCLAY TOWER
E PARAMOUNT TOWER
E EMERALD GREEN
If you wish to make a claim for discrimination on the basis of disability, or if you have any information about persons who may have such a claim, please contact the United States Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York at 212-637-2800. You may also fax us at 212-637-2702 or write to: United States Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York Attn: Civil Rights Unit 86 Chambers Street New York, New York 10007 NOTE: You must call or write no later than February 11, 2019.
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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
MARCH 31-APRIL 6,2016
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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
MARCH 31-APRIL 6,2016
SPRING 2016
Gracie Square Hospital: A Neighborhood Resource for Mental Health Care
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Patients with type 2 diabetes typically XVH D ÂżQJHU SULFN WHVW WR FKHFN WKHLU glucose levels throughout the day. 0DLQWDLQLQJ QRUPDO OHYHOV VSHFLÂżFDOO\ after meals, is important because complications from the disease may arise if a diabeticsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; blood sugar level is consistently high or frequently spikes. The investigators looked at a Western meal with a mix of vegetables, protein, carbohydrates and fat. They worked with 11 patients who are obese, have type 2 diabetes, and take the oral drug metformin to help control glucose levels. To see how food order affected post-meal glucose levels, patients ate a meal consisting of carbohydrates (ciabatta bread and orange juice), protein, vegetables and fat (chicken breast, lettuce and tomato salad with low-fat dressing
and steamed broccoli with butter) twice, on separate days a week apart. 2Q WKH GD\ RI WKHLU ÂżUVW PHDO researchers collected a fasting glucose level in the morning, 12 hours after the patients last ate. Patients then ate their FDUERK\GUDWHV ÂżUVW IROORZHG PLQXWHV later by the protein, vegetables and fat. $IWHU WKH\ ÂżQLVKHG HDWLQJ UHVHDUFKHUV checked their post-meal glucose levels through a blood test at 30, 60 and 120-minute intervals. Researchers and patients followed the same process a week later, but with the food order reversed: protein, vegetables and fat ÂżUVW IROORZHG PLQXWHV ODWHU E\ WKH carbohydrates. The study found that glucose levels were much lower at the 30, 60 and 120 minute checks by about 29 percent, 37 percent and 17 percent, respectively when vegetables and protein were eaten before the carbohydrates. Insulin was also lower when protein and vegetables ZHUH HDWHQ ÂżUVW
NewYork-Presbyterian Participating in Program to Improve Healthcare Quality and Lower Costs All seminars will take place from 6:30 S P WR S P and are held at Uris $XGLWRULXP; :HLOO &RUQHOO 0HGLFLQH <RUN $YHQXH DW WK 6W If you require a disability-related accommodation, or for weather-related cancellations, please call and leave a message on the recording.Visit our website at: ZZZ ZHLOO FRUQHOO HGX VHPLQDUV $OO VHPLQDUV DUH )5(( DQG RSHQ WR WKH SXEOLF Seating is available for 250 people RQ D ÂżUVW FRPH ÂżUVW VHUYHG EDVLV
1HZ<RUN 3UHVE\WHULDQ LV SDUWLFLSDWLQJ LQ WKH 'HOLYHU\ 6\VWHP 5HIRUP ,QFHQWLYH 3D\PHQW '65,3 3URJUDP D ODUJH QHZ 0HGLFDLG UHIRUP LQLWLDWLYH IXQGHG E\ 1HZ <RUN 6WDWH 7KH SULPDU\ JRDO RI '65,3 LV WR LPSURYH WKH KHDOWK RI WKH Medicaid patient population by fundamentally restructuring the healthcare system to reduce avoidable emergency GHSDUWPHQW YLVLWV DQG LQSDWLHQW KRVSLWDOL]DWLRQV E\ SHUFHQW RYHU ÂżYH \HDUV â&#x20AC;&#x153;We are excited by the opportunity DSRIP affords us in promoting community-level collaboration aimed at improving WKH KHDOWK RI WKH SRSXODWLRQV ZH VHUYH ´ VDLG 'DYLG $OJH VHQLRU YLFH SUHVLGHQW RI 1HZ<RUN 3UHVE\WHULDQ &RPPXQLW\ and Population Health. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The initiative allows us to further our work with our collaborators to streamline care across the continuum and to improve the health DQG H[SHULHQFH of those who need it the most in our community To participate in DSRIP, healthcare and social service providers join together in collaborations known as Performing 3URYLGHU 6\VWHPV 336V 1HZ<RUN 3UHVE\WHULDQÂśV 336 RQH RI DFURVV 1HZ <RUN 6WDWH LV FRPSULVHG RI DSSUR[LPDWHO\ FROODERUDWRU RUJDQL]DWLRQV LQFOXGLQJ )HGHUDOO\ 4XDOLÂżHG +HDOWK &HQWHUV SRVW DFXWH FDUH SURYLGHUV independent physicians, behavioral health providers, and a range of community-based organizations. Each PPS is assigned a population of Medicaid patients and is directly responsible for improving its health and well-being. The program aims to provide seamless care coordination across the network, supported by the use of health information
exchange platform. It also addresses the social determinants of health of our patient population, such as housing and food insecurity. (DFK 336 IRFXVHV RQ WKH LPSOHPHQWDWLRQ RI URXJKO\ ÂżYH WR SURMHFWV 6RPH RI WKH DFWLYH SURMHFWV DW WKH 1HZ<RUN 3UHVE\WHULDQ :HLOO &RUQHOO FDPSXV LQFOXGH enhancing a tobacco cessation program, developing a comprehensive strategy WR GHFUHDVH +,9 $,'6 WUDQVPLVVLRQ WKURXJK WKH HVWDEOLVKPHQW RI D &HQWHU RI ([FHOOHQFH IRU 0DQDJHPHQW RI +,9 $,'6 LPSOHPHQWLQJ DQ DPEXODWRU\ LQWHQVLYH care unit focused on pediatrics, providing patient navigators in the emergency department for at-risk populations, and designing a care transitions intervention model to reduce 30-day readmissions for patients with chronic health conditions. 7KH '65,3 LQLWLDWLYH LV RQH RI VHYHUDO SURJUDPV XQGHU WKH XPEUHOOD RI 1HZ<RUN Presbyterian Community and Population Health. Comprised of ambulatory care network sites and operations, community care initiatives and healthcare quality SURJUDPV 1HZ<RUN 3UHVE\WHULDQ &RPPXQLW\ DQG 3RSXODWLRQ +HDOWK LV LPSURYLQJ healthcare through innovative approaches to healthcare for large populations.
said Dr. Gale Drukier and Weill Cornell Medicine Overseer Ira Drukier, who together established WKH SUL]H Âł'U :D\ H[HPSOLÂżHV just why we created this prize: We could not think of a more deserving individual, or someone who is a greater exemplar for the importance of pediatric research.â&#x20AC;?
The Gale and Ira Drukier Prize in The Drukier Prize honors an early- Childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Health Research was career pediatrician whose research established as part of a $25 million has made important contributions gift to Weill Cornell Medicine towards improving the health in December 2014, which also of children and adolescents. created the Gale and Ira Drukier Dr. Way was recognized for his groundbreaking research on how a womanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s immune system naturally tolerates the developing fetus and placenta during pregnancy, preventing rejection of these genetically foreign tissues. Many pregnancy complications â&#x20AC;&#x201C; including stillbirth, prematurity and preeclampsia â&#x20AC;&#x201C; are associated with disruptions *DOH DQG ,UD 'UXNLHU ZLWK 'U 6LQJ 6LQJ :D\ in fetal tolerance, and Photo Credit: Stephanie Diani children born following these pregnancy complications are Institute for Childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Health. As highly susceptible to infection, part of its mission, this premier, breathing disorders, deafness and cross-disciplinary institute, blindness, along with learning and dedicated to understanding the behavior disabilities. With a better causes of diseases that are understanding of immune cells devastating to children, will award that maintain healthy pregnancy, this prize annually. doctors may be able to provide more â&#x20AC;&#x153;I have enormous gratitude toward effective therapies against these the Drukier family for creating complications to improve the health this recognition, and toward of infants and children. Weill Cornell Medicine and the Dr. Way formally accepted the award, Department of Pediatrics for using which carries a $10,000 unrestricted this award to put pediatric research honorarium, and delivered a public in the national spotlight,â&#x20AC;? Dr. Way lecture on March 16 about reinforcing said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Reproductive immunology and maternal immune tolerance during prenatal infection are specialized pregnancy. research areas, and I am excited for this award to draw more â&#x20AC;&#x153;We are thrilled to honor Dr. Way attention to these understudied with this inaugural award, and to clinical problems that carry formally recognize the quality of profound medical and emotional his vital work and his dedication repercussions for families.â&#x20AC;? to improving childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s health,â&#x20AC;?
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BEYOND BALLERINAS MoMA explores the dark (and light) side of Degas BY MARY GREGORY
Everyone knows Degas’ pastel dancers, all frothy and soft and suffused with light, and MoMA could have put together a kind of greatest hits exhibition and brought in smiling crowds, but curator Jodi Hauptman and conservator Karl Buchberg, along with Heidi Hirschl, a curatorial assistant, and Richard Kendall, an independent curator, decided to focus the exhibition instead on a man, a moment and a medium. The final decades of the 19th century, the period covered in the exhibition, brought tremendous changes. The machine age joined the Gilded Age, the Victorian era and France’s Belle Époque. The FrancoPrussian war had ended, as had our Civil War. Peace and prosperity, along with advancing technology, were altering the landscape. The light bulb, the phonograph and the telephone were all invented within a few years of each other. Jules Verne was kindling dreams with fantastical stories promising the impossible. All these advances — cities lit up at night, speed and frenetic energy, the broadening of what could be imagined — led to the birth of modernism. The advent of the camera had made it possible to freeze the moment. Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas was among the first to try to capture that moment with all the velocity and energy it contained. Academically trained and reluctant to be labeled, Degas was an artist whose work focused largely on the figure. Though he created and exhibited alongside the Impressionists,
“Ingres,” said Jodi Hauptman, “was his big influence above all. But this is about defying Ingres.” Radically opposing Ingres’ cool precision and perfection are Degas’ monotypes. “We believe that this is where Degas is at his most modern,” Hauptman said of the monotypes. “His work is at its most radical, most willing to defy convention and break the rules because he’s reaching for something new — new means and new subjects. He was thinking ‘Paris is changing. How do I depict it? What am I going to use?’ And monotype really served his purpose.” Monotype is not the most familiar art form. The exhibition includes a short video that makes wonderfully clear what it is and how it’s done. There’s a “dark field” and “light field” style. Both entail laying ink on a metal plate, and that was the crucial element for Degas. Whether by inking an entire surface and then pulling, scratching or brushing color away to create areas of light, or starting with a blank sheet and then applying shadows and lines, monotypes allowed Degas to crystallize a fleeting moment. “There are certain technical things that he gets from monotype. One is a looseness and ability to express gesture,” Hauptman explained. “If you think about the plate being a slick surface and the ink being viscous, when you draw across it, you can really move ... . Other kinds of drawing have a resist.” Blurry faces, hazy gaslights, an uncertain separation of dark and light, flatness and more than just hints at abstraction can be seen across the roughly 120 monotypes and 60 related works in the exhibition.
Edgar Degas, “The Two Connoisseurs,” c. 1880. Monotype on paper mounted on board, The Art Institute of Chicago. Photo: Adel Gorgy.
WHAT: “Edgar Degas: A Strange New Beauty” WHERE: Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53rd St. WHEN: Through July 24 www.moma. org
Edgar Degas, “Frieze of Dancers,” c. 1895. Oil on canvas, The Cleveland Museum of Art. Photo: Adel Gorgy.
In several, including “Woman in a Bathtub,” after the first inked or painted metal sheet was rolled through the press onto a damp, absorptive sheet of paper, Degas would run a second page. That piece would be fainter, since much of the ink had previously been transferred. Degas would then go over that second impression with pastels. “It gave him a kind of tonal map to work with” Hauptman said, “so the pastel almost sits
on top. It served his purpose to forward what he was making and also to explore ideas about repetition and transformation which is one of the themes in this exhibition ... Something that’s both the same and different, and that fueled the idea that art was not about finish. It was about iteration. It was about making another, and another, and another, without hierarchy, and they’re all equally valid, and all equally interesting.”
Rooms of largely black and white images of singers under stage lights, laundresses at ironing boards, women in brothels and men in top hats hint at Parisian life in the late 1800s. A gallery filled with highly stylized landscapes that look decades more modern than their Impressionist contemporaries and another filled with starkly lit interiors recalling Rembrandt’s etchings describe how broad Degas’ vision was.
The final gallery is the dessert: a dazzling array of dancers in pink and blue, tangerine and white. Here, after the monotypes and having witnessed what Degas’s friend, the poet Stéphane Mallarmé, described as “a strange new beauty,” are the artist’s ballerinas in all their delicacy and poise in pastel and paint. But we come to them after understanding that Degas admitted that choosing dancers was just “a pretext for rendering movement.” “It’s good to show a different side of an artist that we know,” said Hauptman, who last teamed up with Buchberg on MoMA’s Matisse Cut-Outs show. “At every moment, that’s what the avant-garde is about — saying no to the past and reaching for something new, and that’s what Degas is trying to do here.”
MARCH 31-APRIL 6,2016
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ACTIVITIES FOR THE FERTILE MIND
thoughtgallery.org NEW YORK CITY
Hearing Signs, Seeing Voices: The Voice at the Limits
FRIDAY, APRIL 1ST, 9:30AM The New School | 65 W. 11th St. | 212-229-5108 | newschool.edu Composers, performers, a speech pathologist and an extreme voice coach are among the participants in an all-day affair looking at the human voice, from Circe to Siri. (Free)
Infinite Hope as a Personal and Political Virtue
TUESDAY, APRIL 5TH, 6PM Cornelia Street Cafe | 29 Cornelia St. | 212-989-9319 | corneliastreetcafe.com Philosopher Michele Moody-Adams joins the Gotham Philisophical Society to consider the moral and political implications of having “infinite hope” in the face of injustice, corruption and evil. ($9, includes one drink)
Just Announced | Benjamin Franklin: American Democracy and Innovation “BLDZR: The Gospel According to Moses,” a new rock musical about Robert Moses written by Daniel Scot Kadin and Peter Galperin, receives its first public performance on Thursday, April 7. Photo: David Arcos
A ROCK ‘N’ ROLL ROBERT MOSES TO DO
IF YOU GO BY GABRIELLE ALFIERO
When songwriter and Seattle native Peter Galperin entered a songwriting contest sponsored by the city’s Parks Department, he said, he wound up with an eight-minute tune about Robert Moses. It was too long for the competition, but the song led him to create “BLDZR: The Gospel According to Moses,” a rock musical about the controversial builder. The show receives its first public reading at the Triad Theater on April 7. This interview was edited for length and clarity.
THE BEGINNING One of the reasons I moved to New York in the first place was I didn’t want to spend my life in a car, and I felt it was one of the few places you could use mass transit. So I came to New York and the subways were just kind of disgusting and scary, and I found out about “The Power Broker” by Robert Caro. It’s a huge, 1,300-page book but I read it and it was like an epiphany for me. I was like ‘Oh, this is why it’s such a mess here,’ because [Moses] spent 45 years building roads and bridges
BLDZR: The Gospel According to Moses Thursday, April 7 Triad Theater 158 W. 72nd St., near Amsterdam Avenue 7 p.m. Tickets $15 in advance; $20 at the door For tickets, visit triadnyc. com or bldzr.nyc and not putting any money into mass transit from the 1920s to the late 1960s. And so I thought, this is a great story. I’m sure someone will make a movie out of it someday. I kept waiting for that movie to happen, and it never did.
THE PROCESS I was reading these books, and then I’d write a song. I had this one song to start with and then I’d go, ‘this episode, this scene, this could be a good song.’ I was feeding all these kind of anecdotal stories to [cowriter] Daniel [Scot Kadin], and he would write up a scene and we’d kind of store it, and then I’d feed him another story, another scene. There was an incident—Moses tore down a
building because it belonged to a rival of Governor Smith— and I’d say to Daniel, I think that’s a scene. So we generated all these vignettes, and at the same time I was trying to figure out the timeline. I had to sketch out this long timeline from 1922 to 1968. Jones Beach opens 1929, Triborough Bridge completed 1936, things like that.
THE CHARACTER He was a creature of his time and the automobile was the disruptive technology of its time, just like the Internet and the computer are today. If you’re a young person today, you can’t imagine doing anything without your phone or your computer, and so Moses as a young person in the 1920s saw the car as the future. I think there’s a parallel here for our world today in that we don’t know the downside of the technology that we’re embracing. That takes years. In the 1920s nobody imagined that the car would contribute to 50,000 highway deaths a year and pollution and suburban sprawl and the death of the inner cities. It was just looked at as this wonderful new technology that solved a lot of problems immediately. That’s how I kind of viewed this whole concept. The musical is about the disruptive technology of that era. I think it’s a pretty honest portrayal of who he is, as someone who is an idealist at the start, who rallied against the entrenched political and business interests of the time.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 11TH, 6:30PM N-Y Historical Society | 170 Central Park West | 212-873-3400 | nyhistory.org Best-selling biographer Walter Isaacson speaks about Benjamin Franklin, and how Franklin’s pursuit of innovation went on to influence America’s national character. ($44)
For more information about lectures, readings and other intellectually stimulating events throughout NYC,
sign up for the weekly Thought Gallery newsletter at thoughtgallery.org.
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BILL PASSES CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 the other part of the bill, called Zoning for Quality and Affordability. Bankoff particularly dislikes the way the new zoning policy endangers the character of many New York neighborhoods by countering measures--like height limits--that various community groups have fought for in order to preserve that same character. He described it as “top-down, really messy and indiscriminate,” and worries that it will put pressure on the Landmarks Preservation Commission to approve more development in historic districts. “The basic concern is what we see to be an inherent conflict in public policy,” he said. “The fact that the city has now gone on record saying ‘our policy is to encourage development’ now puts additional pressure on the historic districts and on the Landmarks Commission itself to approve bigger buildings. (The LPC) doesn’t want to be seen as standing in the way of city policy.” According to Bankoff, his group was involved in countering the legislation -- meeting with city councilmembers, making presentations at community meetings and sending letters -- from the start. “To their credit, city planning listened a little bit and City Council responded better and kept a lot of the height limits in place,” he said. “But it’s still, at the end of the day, a plan that’s being imposed across the city to encourage higher, denser developments in areas that had fought very hard to not have that kind of development.” Maritza Silva-Farrell, campaign director of Real Affordability for All, also conceded that changes represent steps forward, despite there being much more to accomplish. RAFA, a community coalition with a variety of campaigns, was formed once it became clear that affordable housing would be a main focus of de Blasio’s administration. “We came out with a report about a year and a half ago identifying about 700,000 people who needed affordable housing and did not get it,” Silva-Farrell said. One of her key issues with MIH is that it does not include provisions for the creation of jobs to go along with all the new construction the policy will supposedly encourage. “What kind of jobs are going to be created?” she asks. Hopefully, she said, ones that pay more and that employ local workers so that they will be able to afford the new housing being built in their neighborhoods. Emily Goldstein, senior campaign organizer at the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development, said her organization was most concerned with the fact that the original proposal’s lowest Area Median Income (AMI) required by MIH was 60 percent, or roughly $51,000 per year for a family of three. ANHD pushed to change the proposal and helped get it lowered to 40 percent AMI, adding about half a million households to those eligible, though the group was hoping for 30 percent. “We think that it is far from perfect, but we also think it is a very strong policy,” Goldstein said. “That said, it’s still not enough.” She is particularly concerned, like Bankoff, about the likely increase in upzonings that will result from the new policies. “Displacement is another huge issue,” she said, referring to residents who will be suddenly priced out as their once-affordable neighborhoods are upzoned. “You can’t build your way out of this mess,” Bankoff said.
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MARCH 31-APRIL 6,2016
A MILESTONE FOR THE GUITAR MAN OF CENTRAL PARK PROFILE A park busker goes indoors for a gig at Symphony Space BY GABRIELLE ALFIERO
David Ippolito’s nearly 25-year run as a Central Park busker did not have a promising start. The musician had struggled with alcohol addiction and was newly sober in the summer of 1992 when he first decided to set up a guitar, amplifier and microphone in Central Park in hopes of finding some lunch money in his guitar case by the end of the day. He made it through four or five songs. “I packed everything up because I felt like such a loser,” said Ippolito. “I think it was the change that was hitting the guitar case.” A few weeks later he tried again, loading up his gear in a wire shopping cart and setting up in the Hernshead section at the west side of the park. He started with “Sweet Baby James” by James Taylor and he didn’t stop for about four hours, after a group of 300 people had amassed, he said. He invited the crowd to sing along. “I thought I had less of a chance of getting arrested,” he said. “If everybody’s singing, are they gonna arrest us all?” The concerts in the park became a regular warm weather gig for Ippolito, and that same section of the park has been his weekend stage ever since. He’s seen his equipment confiscated, and paid fines, but he eventually received permission to play one day a weekend at the same location. Now, Ippolito celebrates his time as “That Guitar Man from Central Park” with an anniversary concert at Symphony Space’s Peter Jay Sharp Theatre on April 1, though the occasion is accidental. He typically performs a year-end show at Merkin Concert Hall on W. 67th Street, but this year the space was booked. “There’s no schedule. There’s no record label. There’s no managers. There’s no agent,” he said. “I don’t work for the city. I don’t work for the park. I’m a fiercely independent songwriter who’s got the best gig in the world.” Andrea Sluchan was introduced to Ippolito through a mutual friend. She first saw him play at one of his
annual shows at Merkin Concert Hall. “The vibe or the energy, it’s almost as if you’re in a room filled with friends,” said Sluchan, who bonded with Ippolito over the New York Yankees. Each year, they attend opening day at Yankee Stadium together, where, Sluchan said, other fans recognize him from the park, and wave and smile. A native New Yorker, Ippolito, 59, looks like he might be at home on a California beach. His skin appears freshly tanned, his slightly shaggy, blonde-gray hair somewhat windblown and untamed. Ippolito doesn’t think he’s an especially talented singer, but he’s productive, and has recorded nine albums to date. “If I write a song and it works, it’s going on an album,” he said. “I don’t have 500 songs under the bed in a shoebox.” On Sept. 16, 2001, the Sunday after Sept. 11, he went to the park as usual. As he played, he said, the crowd grew, maybe into the thousands. He played James Taylor songs and the theme song from “Gilligan’s Island,” with the crowd joining in. He performed his own “City Song,” an acoustic love song to New York, and when he finished everyone stood and applauded. “It was remarkable,” he said, tearing up. His writing became more sociallyconscious after Sept. 11, but most of his songs don’t have a political message, he said. A registered independent, Ippolito dislikes politics. “OBI (Oak Beach Inn)” is a bright, horn and harmonica-infused song about his teenage party spot. “Tea Party Anthem,” set to music from Les Miserables, is a humorous takedown of the movement. He recently repurposed a song about Occupy Wall Street as a pro-Bernie Sanders anthem. Ippolito has started diving deeper into his next creative identity: playwright. He has a few works under his belt, including a musical called “Possibility Junkie” about a musician whose song about a right-wing newscaster goes viral, which was workshopped at Theater for the New City a few years ago. His newest play is still in development but already has some industry interest. Ian Lithgow, the son of actor John Lithgow, read a part during a recent table reading, he said. Ippolito sent
David Ippolito performing in Central Park in 2015. He plays at Symphony Space on Friday, April 1, at 7:30 p.m. Photo: Sean Friedman the script to theater producer and general manager Jeffrey Chrzczon, who passed it to actor Danny Aiello, who attended another reading at the home of playwright Gretchen Cryer, Ippolito said. He feels this play has a future. Which might mean that his days at
the park are numbered. “I’m ready to miss it, and I know I will,” he said. “I know I will be alone someday looking out the window and crying and just missing it and aching about the days that I was in the park in the sunshine singing songs for 500 people.”
MARCH 31-APRIL 6,2016
PARISHIONERS HOPEFUL CHURCH WILL REOPEN Our Lady of Peace’s appeal to the Vatican, among five outstanding, extended for the fourth time BY RICHARD KHAVKINE
Parishioners at Our Lady of Peace, who are appealing the East 62nd Street church’s closing last summer by the Archdiocese of New York, are cautiously optimistic following the extension of their appeal to the Vatican. Our Lady of Peace’s appeal was among 14 submitted to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Clergy, which in the last few weeks in effect amended the closure decrees of six churches even while it upheld the closures of three churches. The amendments state that the six churches will open for their annual feast days and their anniversary dates, and, for two of those churches, also on other occasions. That Our Lady of Peace’s appeal is among five still outstanding recourse efforts “is reason for hope,” said Janice Dooner Lynch, a longtime parishioner. “Before that, everyone got the same letter” from the Vatican, she said. “There are finally differences. I look at it as they’re taking an opportunity to very carefully look at our recourse. That means they’re taking it seriously.” A letter from the Congregation for the Clergy’s prefect, Cardinal Beniamino Stella, and addressed to Lynch and others earlier this month said
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the Congregation “found it necessary to seek additional information” from the Archbishop of New York, Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan. The recourse was extended to April 30, the fourth time a decision on the parishioners’ appeal has been pushed back. The Archdiocese, as it did when it shuttered and merged dozens of churches in the city and across the region July 31, cited declining attendance, shifting demographics, financial constraints and a shortage of priests for the closure of Our Lady of Peace. Lynch and others on the church’s appeals committee have sent the Congregation for the Clergy more than 10 volumes of documents, including financial records, to try and persuade the Vatican that the Archdiocese acted without merit in closing the church. Parishioners have also raised about $500,000, an amount they say would pay church expenses for 10 years. “We’ve hit our goal and we’ve exceeded it, and that’s a positive,” said Shane Dinneen, a parishioner at the church for nine years and the president of Friends of Our Lady of Peace, the nonprofit administering the fund. Dinneen, who has contributed more than $250,000 to the fund, said he was hopeful that the substance of the parishioners’ appeal would support their contention that, contrary to the Archdiocese’s claims, attendance at the church had
been growing and that Our Lady of Peace was in good financial health. “Rome isn’t just deferring to the cardinal. And that was a possibility,” he said, referring to the amended decrees. “Churches are going to be handled on a case-by-case basis, which we think is good for Our Lady of Peace because we think we’re different.” Sister Kate Kuenstler, a canon lawyer who is representing the 14 parishes in their appeals, said “there is great hope” for the five parishes whose appeals are still before the Congregation. Kuenstler, who is based in Rhode Island, said it appeared that a newly installed group of canon lawyers were taking a closer look at parish closings since Pope Francis appointed Stella as the Congregation for the Clergy’s prefect in 2013. “Previous prefects were not interested in protecting the rights of the parishioners,” she said. “They have been very disturbed by what’s happening.” She said the “due diligence” of Our Lady of Peace’s recourse efforts were “clearer than any of the ones already received” by the Vatican. “I think they have a very good future,” she said. “I really think they will get a better decision.” Officially, Our Lady of Peace merged with St. John the Evangelist Church, on East 55th Street, to create a brand new parish, with St. John’s designated the parish church, when the former was shuttered.
YOU READ IT HERE FIRST The local paper for the Upper East Side
At Dizzying Heights, Prices of Luxury Apartments May Have Found Ceiling
It’s a question of supply and demand. On a seven-block stretch of 57th Street and nearby, there are at least 300 apartments in seven buildings priced at a billionaire-friendly $5,000 a square foot either for sale or scheduled to go on the market in the next 24 months. But despite a record $100 million sale of a penthouse last year, the volume of sales at that level topped out two years ago, at 55 transactions. In 2015, there were just 47
March 10, 2016 The local paper for the Upper West Side
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August 5, 2015 The local paper for the Upper East Side
LUXURY MEGA-TOWER COMING TO SUTTON PLACE EXCLUSIVE East Side officials already gearing up to fight the project BY DANIEL FITZSIMMONS
Call. 1888 345 8881 stateaccmgt@gmx.com
March 15, 2016
Plans have been drawn up for a luxury 900-foot condo tower in Sutton Place, which, if completed as planned, would rank as one of the tallest buildings in Manhattan. The 268,000-squarefoot tower will become the second-tallest on the Upper East Side, behind the in-progress 432 Park Avenue at 1,400 feet, and one of the tallest in the city. Construction permits
degree views of Midtown, Downtown Brooklyn and Manhattan, Central Park and the East River.” The 268,000 square feet of buildable space and air rights, which includes 58,000 square feet of inclusionary housing rights, have already been delivered. It’s unclear if the affordable housing will be offered on- or offsite, or how many units of affordable housing will be included. Representatives for The Bauhouse Group, which owns the site, declined to field questions about the Sutton Place Development, but a representative of the company provided a press release to Our Town that said the
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150 East 2Nd Street
A
Luke’s Lobster
93 East 7 Street
A
F & F 99 Cents Pizza
153 Avenue C
A
Fukurou
87 Macdougal Street
A
Laduree Soho
398 W Broadway
A
Peasant
194 Elizabeth Street
A
Estela
47 E Houston Street
A
Gato
324 Lafayette St
A
By Chloe
185 Bleecker St
Grade Pending (22) Hot food item not held at or above 140º F. 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. Raw, cooked or prepared food is adulterated, contaminated, crosscontaminated, or not discarded in accordance with HACCP plan.
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 www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/services/restaurant-grades.page. Juice Press
122 Greenwich Avenue
A
Alta
64 West 10 Street
Grade Pending (30) 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. 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.
Subway
244246 West 14 Street
A
Margaux
5 W. 8Th Street
A
Wood And Ales
234 W 14Th St
A
Basta Pasta Restaurant
37 West 17 Street
Grade Pending (21) Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Personal cleanliness inadequate. Outer garment soiled with possible contaminant. Effective hair restraint not worn in an area where food is prepared.
Grade Pending (30) 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. Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service.
The Park
118122 10 Avenue
A
Aldea Restaurant
31 West 17 Street
A
Drunken Horse
225 10 Avenue
A
Starbucks
482 West Broadway
A
Fika
555 6Th Ave
A
No Ho Juice Bar & Deli
208 Mercer Street
A
El Temerario
198 8Th Ave
A
Thunder Jacksons Urban Roadhouse
169 Bleecker Street
Bowery Eats (Bowery Kitchen Appliance)
460 West 16 Street
A
Closed by Health Department (43) Food Protection Certificate not held by supervisor of food operations. Live roaches present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas.
Audrey Bakery & Cafe
12 Chatham Sq
Intelligentsia Coffee
180 10 Avenue
A
Spain Restaurant & Bar
113 West 13 Street
Grade Pending (26) 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. 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.
Grade Pending (31) Hot food item not held at or above 140º F. Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service.
22 Thai Cuisine
22 Maiden Lane
A
French Cafe Gourmand
911 Maiden Ln
A
Roti Mediterranean Grill
100 Maiden Lane
A
Fields Good Chicken
101 Maiden Ln
A
Wrapido
104 8 Avenue
A
The Beekman
15 Beekman Street
A
La Sirena
88 9Th Ave
A
A.I.G.\Chartis
175 Water Street
A
The Mezz (Google)
75 9Th Ave
A
Dunkin’ Donuts
100 Maiden Lane
A
Pret A Manger
179 Broadway
A
Keg No. 229
229 Front Street
A
Wicked Juice & Kitchen
88 W Broadway
A
Birch Coffee
8 Spruce St
A
Mariachi’s Restaurant
156 Chambers St
Not Yet Graded (2)
City Winery
155 Varick Street
A
The Patriot Saloon
110 Chambers Street
A
Subway
137 Hudson St
A
Little Italy Pizza
11 Park Place
A
A
100 Church Street
A
Kana Tapas Bar & Restaurant
324 Spring Street
Aroma Espresso Bar Bluespoon Coffee
76 Chambers Street
A
Dunkin’ Donuts
125 Lafayette Street
A
J R Sushi
86A W Broadway
A
MARCH 31-APRIL 6,2016
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MARCH 31-APRIL 6,2016
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Residents of the Upper East Side, along with Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney, attended the Second Annual Women of Distinction Awards ceremony at the community office of Assembly Member Rebecca A. Seawright honoring six local women for their outstanding work and dedication to the community. Recipients included: * Loraine Brown, a member of Community Board 8, where she serves as co-chair of the Housing committee. * Alice Heyman, best known as the founder of the First Women’s Bank. She has dedicated her life to women empowerment and volunteerism with organizations like the East Sixties Neighborhood Association Citizen Response Team. * Zoe Markowitz, the youngest member of Community Board 8, where she serves on the Land Use and Youth and Education Committees. Zoe has also worked with U.S. Senator Charles Schumer and advocates for seniors on the DOROT Next Generation Teen Council. * Margie Smith, a lifetime New Yorker and longtime Roosevelt Island resident. She is chair of the Governance Advisory Committee and a member of the Operations Committee of RIOC. Currently, she is also the Director of Administration for one of the largest brand licensing companies in the world. * Ellen Polivy, an activist on Community Board 8, serving as a host on CB8 Speaks. Polivy is an activist in her own community as co-chair of Roosevelt Island Community Coalition and former president of the Roosevelt Island Residents Association. * Eileen Toback, a labor advocate, coalition leader and campaign organizer, currently serving as executive director of the New York Professional Nurses Union, advocating for safe staffing of nurses and quality patient care.
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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
To read about other people who have had their “15 Minutes” go to otdowntown.com/15 minutes
YOUR 15 MINUTES
PREPPING TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE Prep for Prep alum Jessica Alcantara will use her education and training to advocate for others, including on racial justice issues
No, but I always knew I wanted to go to graduate school because I enjoy learning. While I was in the Peace Corps, one of the counterparts I worked with was an awesome female lawyer. I saw all the power that she had and thought, “Maybe this is a path to implement change.”
BY ANGELA BARBUTI
Jessica Alcantara reached seemingly unattainable educational heights through her impressive work ethic as well as the guidance of Manhattanbased nonprofit Prep for Prep. The organization places New York City’s academically gifted African-American, Latino and Asian-American students in selective day and boarding schools and mentors them on their pedagogical paths. A student at The Mott Hall School in Harlem when she connected with Prep for Prep, the program placed Alcantara at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, for high school. That was the Washington Heights native’s first time out of New York and she embraced the experience. “It was a nice change, but I liked both. I liked coming home for breaks and I liked going back,” she said. That was just the beginning of her journey towards lifelong learning. She attended Dartmouth, then received a master’s at Fordham, and is currently earning a law degree at Columbia. When she graduates this spring, she will be relocating to Washington, D.C., where she will work with Advancement Project, a civil rights organization rooted in implementing policy change. Alcantara, who won the prestigious Skadden Fellowship awarded to graduating law students who will use their degrees in pursuit of public interest, will focus on black and Latino communities facing school closures.
What was your experience like growing up in Washington Heights? I enjoyed my time growing up there. Looking back, it’s hard to
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You’re graduating this year and got a fellowship to work in D.C. Prep for Prep boasts that many of its students end up in the best colleges in the country Jessica Alcantara describe because I don’t know another way of growing up. I loved getting a quarter and buying an ice cream from the ladies who would park themselves outside of school. And going to the bodega before class starts or meeting up with friends and getting Chinese food. Things that are very uniquely a New York young person’s experience. I loved that aspect of it, that there are always things to do. We could just hang out outside on the stoop or go to a park.
When did you first connect with Prep for Prep? The public school system is different now in New York, but back then, when I was going through in the 90s, it was precharter schools. I was District 6 because I’m from the Heights at a magnet school for gifted and talented students called The Mott Hall School … Mott Hall had been sending kids to Prep; they had a history. So in fifth grade, they handed out Prep applications. I remember everyone in line and getting an application. And I remember not applying because I didn’t want to not graduate. Because I had left elementary school after third grade, I didn’t get to graduate in fifth grade. [Prep for Prep places fifth- and-sixthgraders in day schools.] These are the thoughts of a 10-yearold. Prep for Prep also had another version called PREP 9 [their boarding school program]. And that’s what I ended up doing. Two years later, in seventh grade, is when I applied to PREP 9.
You left New York to attend Phillips Academy. What was that
transition like? It was a big change for many reasons. I don’t know how familiar you are with Washington Heights, but it’s predominately Dominican. If not Dominican, definitely Spanish speaking. Maybe it’s different now, but in the 90s, you could live in Washington Heights and never speak English. So the biggest change was probably, culturally, language wise, going to a suburban small town. Andover has that one main street where all the businesses are on, and that’s it. The rest is houses. But Andover was pretty diverse. I want to say it was one-third students of color when I was there. I think that’s around what it was. And they had a lot of international students.
Who were your mentors throughout high school? Prep had a mentorship component, so while we were still in the city, we were in advising groups led by older Prep alum. And then, while you’re at boarding school, Prep assigns you a placement counselor and every semester they come up and visit all of us there at Andover. We each meet with them individually; they buy us dinner one night. We still had the Prep support system as well as Andover’s own mentors and teachers.
students think about how to be successful in school, work and life.
How did you choose Dartmouth for college? What did you study and what were your extracurricular activities there? I loved my time at Andover. I loved everything about it. And I wanted that again, essentially, for my college experience. I double-majored in geography and Latin American and Latino studies. I didn’t do much besides working. I had two jobs and worked about 20 hours a week. I worked in the school convenience store and I also interned at the medical
school like an office assistant. Towards the end of college, I helped found a Dominican student group on campus.
After college, you joined the Peace Corps as a youth development facilitator in Azerbaijan. What did your job entail? It’s the type of development and extracurricular activities that they do in a Boys & Girls Club here. I did a lot of English conversation clubs. We did an arts camp in our town over the summers.
Now you’re in law school at Columbia. Did you always want to study law?
What are your future plans? The fellowship is two years, so I’ll be at Advancement Project for that time. And hopefully, if it’s possible, I would like to stay with Advancement Project because I love the organization.
BE THE SOMEONE
WHO HELPS A KID BE THE FIRST IN HER FAMILY TO GO TO COLLEGE.
You went back to teach at Prep. What subject did you instruct on? I taught there the summer before I started law school. I didn’t teach in Prep 9, the program I was in, I taught in Prep for Prep, the fifth-grade program. I taught a class called Invictus which was created by the founder of Prep, Gary Simons. It’s a class meant to help
The organization I’ll be working with is Advancement Project, where I interned last summer. And they have a partnership with the Journey for Justice Alliance, which is a national collation of grassroots organizations that are doing work on school closures. So with them, we’ll be deciding where, geographically, I’ll be focusing the work.
newyorkcares.org
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MARCH 31-APRIL 6,2016
“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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THE M NEW ET'S MODE
CITYAR RNISM TS, P.2 > 4
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His Eminence Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan
Dr. Maura D. Frank Gustavo Goncalves
Just $49
James Grant Paul Gunther
Harris Healy
Susan H enshaw Jones
Mallory Spain Dr. David Thomas
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, ma fen t The Am lands ke up the groPark, amon ders cap g erican BY GABRIELLE Histor Hilderbr e archit up. The pro othALFIER Mu y ec O hood for is tapping seum of Na ings, wh and will tu re fir m ject’s int also att Reed ich be that wi a communit o the neightural “It en gin portionll weigh in on y working bor- wo ’s always be on March d meet4. rk with group en where of Theodo the redesignCITY the com our inten AR the TS re ob the tion to munit jectiv museu Roosevel of a wo , P.1 quartery to t uld lik2 > es of wh m at the achieve e to do posed acre of gre pla ns to Park, the mu us expan en spa ne sion. ce for e a as thi eds of the and make su seum Frien a procom re s profit ds of Roose Dan Sli project mo munity are that vel ves for met the cit that manage t Park, the ernme ppen, vice wa y’s presid rd,” said nt relati mu seu Parks De s the park non- thi ent of on nk pa wi m, s tha rtm at th all govthe mu t what with the wi ll co y sol -chair ent and the we’re seu museu the gr m. Blo we alw idifying, in doing now m. “I ou ck ass a ays int is ociation p ended.”way, efforts res, CO that NT
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First, obvious: let’s start wit condition h the city’s hom s inside thi disgrace. eless shelte rs are as A ser one mo ies of terrible (includinre horrible tha crimes, month g the killing n the last of ear lier this daugh a woman has higters in Statenand her two hlighted Island), living con the the ma ditions for shameful cities inrgins of one ofpeople at Blasio, the world. Ma the richest wh yor o has bee Bill de his app from theroach to homn halting in has final beginning elessness proble ly begun to of his term, from thim, but years ofaddress the others, s administra neglect, tion and will take But years to correct. recent none of that exc office grandstanding uses the appareof Gov. Andrew by the Cuomo, he can’tntly sees no iss who In the try to belittl ue on which attempt governor’s late the mayor. officials at a hit job, est sta compla then pro ined te Post, abomptly to the to the city, homele ut a gang New York alleged ss shelter, purape at a city VOL. 77 had tim event before blicizing the , ISSUE pol e 04 As it turto investigate ice even ned out, it. never hap the officials pened, infuriaincident media hitwho called it ting city a ” “po aim the mayor ed at em litical . More cha barrassin counter-c rges and g THfolElow the me harges Dicken antimeA , of cou ed. In Tditrse men, wosian livingR OionF, the con in New men D kidsIM s for Yor andEN Here’s k goe s on. in shelters CITY ARTS, leadershi hoping tha t som P.2any eday our as intere p in Alb 0 as it is in sted in helpinwill become back fro agains scoring pol g them t sit itical poi 17 fee m FDR Drour ive byting mayor. nts t 16 to out of and raise
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PAGE 9
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FOR PARK REDESIGN
Bu On Sa 13 10 15 siness BY EM ILY TOW parishioturday mo Minutes 16 NER rn and low ners, comm ing, archit 19 ered in er Manhatt unity me ects, mb vision St. Paul’s Ch an residents ers for Tr ap gat el hto discu inity Ch building ss urch’s The ex . new pa the rish Place acr isting bu ild been cle oss from Tr ing, on Tr inity inity Ch ared for 1923, urc de it the chu no longer sermolition. Buh, has tower rch and the ves the ne ilt in wi com ed The we ll be built in munity. A s of new in a ser ekend me its place. eti — collabies of commu ng was the needs orative for nity “charr fifth an um ett the low d wants of s to addre es” a whole er Manhatt the church ss the and an com . “In ou munit of r y initial as about charr buildinghow we wa ettes we talked for the to be a homented th is pa hood,” homeless an for the spi rish rit fer, Tr said the Re d for the neigh ual, v. Dr. Wi ini bor“We tal ty Wall Street lliam Lu ked ’s prector What ab . they wo out minis try act look,” uld be ivi Lu marke pfer said. , how they ties. wo t underst study in ord“We condu uld cte desires and neighbo er to objec d a dream as well as rhood needtively s.” parish s and He sai hopes and sion em d the churc tality braces a ph h communit The can tha ilo ride in coming t is “open sophy for y’s viCe carouseldidate’s owne ho , flexibl .” On the ntral Park. “We wa e and spifamilia puts New Yo rship of the wela white wall next to nt it street r bind rkers in , access to be visiblP.9 > that rea placard wi the entrance a Gemm ible to e from the com and Re ds, “Trum th red letter is well, a Whitema the CONTINU p Ca munit gulat ing who we n and ind It’s y, BY DAN Engla ED ON Joel Ha re on lat icatio ions” -- rousel Ru PAGE 6 weekd e afternoon IEL FITZSIMM presid ns that Do one of the les day, nd and rode vacation uxONS ay, an on only sai the en fro nald a mi tial d lining opera bearing d they notic carousel Mo m up to pakids and tou ld winter tes the candidate, J. Trump, ed the Trum ntially ow car ris y Tr $3 for “It p’s ns an placar New Yo a qu ts are see um p’s po ousel. d ma was in my name. OurTown d rk mo lit ics ping int n, he ment: intesenDowntow wh ad o the car have be 20gav a carou weigh 16 e he en asked ,” said Wh n gu sel an aft a deep ernoo ousel, as rid n in En r pause. “H if the realiz iteOTDOW O n esc ly divisiv gla ati ers e’s NTOW like, ‘Do nd, so in my not very lik on e candid ape again N.COM st he ed I want ate. Newsche to give ad I was a bit ck money @OTD CO Cri me Wa NTINU to this owntown 2 Cit tch ED ON y
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Accor DOB, Coding to sta STREETORY OF OU tis R agency nEd report tics provid S ed by over 20 in 2015, a ed 343 shutoff the The 40 Ruby BY DAN trend 14’s 67 shu 0 percent s to the New Yorworst and the IEL FIT ey on Mak has been ap toffs. increa ZSIMM takeo An So far pears to be Monday k were both best of ONS ut tha spending mid-d in 2016 increa d the upwa se on displa mo mo issert n acc mid a the sin re rd docto ording y town. rning on 36th mong eve re ha ation is worki Street in ng at lea , and her ne rate stude “Since to the DO ve been 157 n more: Ca rol “A lot nt B. Da shu w rice st as uplaise, toffs, noticing the spring owner cooker to eat of it is just ou hard. the a no gas, a lot of pe of last year crossingof a jewelry com 77-year-o cook at lot more,” t of pocket, op we sta going rted water either cookin le coming Street Madison Av pany, was ld steam home it’s jus said Mak. “W ,” out in ing an said Donna g gas or he that had when a during the mo enue at 36th cally.” things with t a rice cooker hen we at livery-cab rning rus it, or ma Ameri d commun Chiu, direct and hot cor . You can ner h dri ity or can La st Se and hit ke rice, her. ver turned the Chiu cal s For Equa ser vices forof housptemb The basihundred er Asian said AA led the inc lity. arresteddriver of the car no natur s of others her bu ild ing ing an FE is worki rease “freak pedest for failing to was joi ned an ins al gas, cut across the d pe off town almost a dong with Ma ish,” and been citrian, and cop yield to a Building ction blitz by Con Ed city with an ser vic d the Lowe zen others k’s buildtraffic vioed for at leasts say he had a month s that bega by the city’sison after es. 10 oth lations advocat And Ch r East Side in ChinaIt sin wa East Vil after a fat n last April, Dept. of iu, lik ce 2015. er es, ha al ga e ma to restor exp les litany ofs but the latest lage tha s t claim s explosion s than lon loitation by witnessed ny housinge that hav traffic deaths in a sad ed two bu g servic in the a lives. e interr ilding owne pattern of Mayor e lingered on, and injuries rs wh uptions curb traBill de Blasio’s despite CONTINU in an eff o proffic crashe efforts ort to ED ON Da to uplais s PA
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accuse capita d of overleve l. very James Beninati anraging invest lions aftCabrera, we d his partn or re BY DAN Antar er the firm sued for mier, The Ba IEL FIT es ZSIMM condo uhouse Gr assets was stripp ’s collapse, lONS and ou ed of mo in p’s 90 the lat project on A rep the late-a st of its 0-foo Sutto n Place t the Ba resentative ughts. velopmeest lux ur y res for uhouse fundin nt to suffer idential is a req Group Beninati an ue de g, fro did st for d - tim as inv ingly comm not return estors m a lack of e. wary ent by are inc of fin at the Sto press rea ler an top a surpl end of the cing projec s- Deal ne also spok outlookus in inven market du ts a notic wspaper las e to the Re tor e will ma on whether y and a tep to ap ar tmeable decre t month ab al ase out affluent terialize id lig en News buyer hted ma t sa les, whin high-end down of s the roa the 80 rke ich hig squa re avera d. -st ge nu t data tha hmb April, foot propo or y, 260,0 t apart ments er of days said the an 00 squat d sent the sa l broke las spent in new for-sa neigh and sleepy comparative t perce on the marke developme le VOL. 42 bo nt munit rhood int Sutton Pla ly and the between t increased nts , ISSUE o the y 47 en 09 tions, Board 6 vo a panic. Co ce “E very d of last yea end of 20 man ice 14 on d r. d Council e’s a its ob Kallos Stoler lit jec the bu came out str member Be - $2,50 told TRD. “W tle worri ed ilding 0 ’s heigh ongly again n lende [per square ith anything ,” plicat ions. rs are t and soc st at foo t] ver or But it Stoler ial imtold thi y cautious.” more, opposit wa sn’t jus s ne wspape house ion workingt commun CONTINU r that ED ON Mi aelprincipal Jo against Baity PAGE 5 seph u20ch Sto ne r16 at the ler, a mana Beninati. Jewish invest ging pa son Re wome me n and the wo backg alty Capital, nt firm Ma rtgirl rld by rou lighting s light up candle tares Inv nd also plasaid Beninatidis every the Sha yed bbat Friday 18 min a role. ’s Benin estment Pa eve utes bef < NEW An ati co Friday ore sun ning -foundertners, the fi schoo S, Ma set. l rm P.4 For mo rch 11 – 5:4 boast classmate thad with a pre 1 pm. re info ed $6 rm www.c billion t at one po p habadu ation visit int in ass pperea ets, wa stside.co s m.
WEEK OF MAR CH
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AN EN D "BR TO WINDO OKEN WS"? NEW
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VOL. 2, ISSUE 10
10-16
Our To wn ha The pa s much 2016, per celebrat to be thank an OTTY d this we es its 45th ful for. ek Award anniv made ersary winnershonors its a un lat The OT ique differe , noting pe est group in ople wh of nce on You -- TY award the o ha s ha munit ve always -- short for OuUpper East ve Sid be y strong. service, an en a reflect r Town Th e. d this anks year’s ion of deep Our ho list is parti combusiness norees inc cularly owners lude co heroe mm an s. Cardi We’re also d medical anunity activi na tak fall’s wi l Timothy ing a mome d public saf sts, Franc ldly succes Dolan, who nt to recog ety is. nize sheph sful vis Kyle Po In his interv erd it iew wi to the city ed last pressi pe, Dolan by th Our ref ng Town Pope warning issues sti lects on thaCI Editor ll TYit, ARon movin s he receiv facing the t vis TS, g to Ne city,2 an>d on the w York ed from his P.1 Read nine his profile, seven years friends be the OT TY an fore ag Thom awards d the profi o. pso les of the oth We are n, in the spe by repor the wi proud to bri cial sectio ter Madelei er nners n ne part of ng it to you inside. our com , and pro ud to cal munit y. l
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