Our Town Downtown - April 12, 2018

The local paper for Downtown wn POSTAGE DUE FOR BATTLING BELLA? ◄ P.6

WEEK OF APRIL

12-18 2018

CENSUS 2020: 4 KEY QUESTIONS FOR NYC POLITICS City officials weigh in on citizenship status and other challenges for the count

BY MICHAEL GAROFALO

Mayor Bill de Blasio is “very interested” in a proposal to penalize landlords who own buildings with long-term retail vacancies. Photo: Steven Strasser

The 2020 U.S. Census is still two years away, but New York City’s preparations for the decennial count have already begun in earnest.

Focus on the census has been amplified in recent weeks in response to concerns that the potential inclusion of a question about citizenship status could depress turnout among the city’s 3.2 million immigrants.

City officials detailed the most significant census-related issues facing New York at an April 3 forum hosted by CUNY Journalism School’s Center for Community and Ethnic Media. Four key questions:

MAYOR FLOATS RETAIL VACANCY TAX BUSINESS Could a fee on empty storefronts reduce vacancies on Manhattan retail corridors?

What’s at stake?

The census aims to count every resident of the country every ten years and is mandated by the Constitution.

Seats in the House of Representatives are apportioned to each state based on the results.

The city and state use the data to determine where to direct resources and project future needs for infrastructure, education and other critical areas. “In order for any government to provide services it has to know who it’s serving,” said Marisa Lago, director of the New York City Department of City Planning.

BY MICHAEL GAROFALO

Graphic: NYC Department of City Planning

“ICE has its own data. They know where immigrant populations live. They don’t need to rely on the census for that information.”

Bitta Mostofi, acting commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs

CONTINUED ON PAGE 15

Mayor Bill de Blasio waded into the policy debate over how to address persistent storefront vacancies in Manhattan retail corridors by endorsing a controversial policy intended to incentivize landlords to rent out empty spaces more quickly.

In a recent interview with WNYC’s Brian Lehrer, the mayor said he is “very interested ... in fighting for a vacancy fee or vacancy tax which would penalize landlords who leave their storefronts vacant for long periods of time in neighborhoods because they’re looking for some top Downtowner

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Crime Watch Voices NYC Now City Arts

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Restaurant Ratings Business Real Estate 15 Minutes

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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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Newscheck Crime Watch Voices

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

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25

“A vacancy tax, premised on a flawed set of assumptions, will punish owners further and do nothing to address vacancy.”

REBNY President John H. Banks

dollar rent but they blight neighborhoods by doing it.”

“I think there should be a penalty if a landlord does that,” de Blasio said. “That’s something we could get done through Albany.”

CONTINUED ON PAGE 16

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APRIL 12-18,2018

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SCREENING FOR COLORECTAL CANCER HEALTH A gastroenterologist evaluates two procedures: colonoscopy and Cologuard

BY PASCALE M. WHITE, M.D.

Dr. Pascale M. White with colonoscope.

Photo courtesy of Mount Sinai Department of Medicine

Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer in the United States and the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths. In 2018, it is estimated that there will be 140,250 new cases of colorectal cancer in the United States. Current guidelines from the U.S. Multi-Society Task Force on Colorectal Cancer and the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends that patients who are at average risk for colorectal cancer should begin screening at 50 years old. The American College of Gastroenterology specifically recommends that AfricanAmericans begin colorectal cancer screening at 45 years old. The New York Citywide Colon Cancer Control Coalition (C5) was launched in 2003 to increase colorectal cancer screening via colonoscopy for all New Yorkers ages 50 and older. The efforts of this group produced an increase in screen-

ing colonoscopy rates in New York City from 42 percent in 2003 to almost 70 percent in 2014. Patients should be aware that there are different ways they can get screened, including colonoscopy and now Cologuard.

Colonoscopy Screening A colonoscopy is a procedure where an endoscope (flexible tube with an attached camera) is used to identify polyps in the colon. Polyps are abnormal tissue growths from the lining of the colon. Prior to the procedure, a patient is instructed to follow a special diet and drink a liquid laxative preparation that cleanses the colon. During the procedure, the gastroenterologist uses the endoscope to look carefully throughout the colon to find and remove polyps. After the procedure, the polyps are sent to the pathology lab where they will be identified as either benign or precancerous. Depending on the number and type of polyps that are removed, the gastroenterologist will recommend the time interval of your next colonoscopy.

An advantage of having a colonoscopy is that if no polyps are found, the exam can be repeated in 10 years.

If there is a lesion that appears sus-

picious during the procedure, it can be biopsied at that time and sent for evaluation as well. Another important advantage is that having a colonoscopy is both diagnostic and therapeutic, meaning that polyps can be detected and removed to prevent cancer. A disadvantage to having a colonoscopy is the risks associated with undergoing an invasive procedure. Certain barriers for some patients may include time away from work or the home, aversion to the bowel prep, and the need to have an escort home after the procedure.

Cologuard Screening Cologuard is a multitarget stool test that identifies abnormal DNA and human hemoglobin (blood) in the stool. A Cologuard kit is mailed to the patient’s home and they follow the directions to collect their stool sample. Once the kit is ready to be submitted, the patient will arrange for it to be picked up at their home where it will be mailed to a laboratory for evaluation. Advantages of this screening modality are that it is a non-invasive test, no laxative preparation is necessary, no special diets are required prior to collecting the stool sample, there is no time away from work or home, and there

is no need to arrange for an escort or transportation. A disadvantage of Cologuard may be the cost of the test because certain insurance companies may not cover it. If there is a negative result, the Cologuard test can be repeated in three years. However, if the Cologuard test returns positive, the patient will then have to take the next step and undergo a colonoscopy for further evaluation. Cologuard is only recommended for asymptomatic, average-risk patients who are 50 years of age and older. Patients who are having gastrointestinal symptoms (including abdominal pain and blood in the stool) or who have a personal history of colon polyps should not be screened with Cologuard.

Overall, patients should be aware that colorectal cancer could be detected and prevented with appropriate and timely screening. While there are different ways of getting screened, the best test is the one that a patient commits to getting done.

Pascale M. White, MD, is an assistant professor of Medicine and director of the GI Fellows Clinic at The Dr. Henry D. Janowitz Division of Gastroenterology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

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CRIME WATCH BY JERRY DANZIG MAN FIGHTS MUGGERS ON SUBWAY

STATS FOR THE WEEK Reported crimes from the 1st district for the week ending Apr. 1

At 1:30 p.m. on Monday, March 26, a 25-year-old Brooklyn man riding the northbound C train was approached by three male teens as the train pulled into the Canal Street station. The older of the three, about 18 years old, grabbed the man’s $250 Beats headphones from his head and ran off the train. The victim gave chase and grabbed the teen’s backpack and regaining his own headphones. The man’s leg, however, got lodged between the train and the platform. He freed up his leg as the three young thugs surrounded him. The victim then tossed the backpack onto the platform and got back on the train.

He refused medical attention.

Week to Date

Year to Date

2018 2017

% Change

2018

2017

% Change

Murder

0

0

n/a

1

1

0.0

Rape

1

0

n/a

6

4

50.0

Robbery

1

0

n/a

19

17

11.8

Felony Assault

0

1

-100.0

10

14

-28.6

Burglary

2

0

n/a

12

14

-14.3

Grand Larceny

20

16

25.0

243 249 -2.4

Grand Larceny Auto

2

0

n/a

3

3

0.0

Photo by Tony Webster, via Flickr

GET SMART At 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 28, a 50-year-old Bronx man parked his gray 2013 smart fortwo sedan, New York plates, in front of 106 Fulton Street. He left the vehicle unlocked with the key in the ignition in the off position.

The car was gone when he returned two minutes later, he told police. A license plate reader spotted the car at 10:37 p.m. heading southbound on the upper level of the George Washington Bridge. The stolen smart car was valued at $7,000.

UNATTENDED BAG STOLEN

NIKE NICK

A woman lost $5,000 in cash when she left her bag unattended while she shopped at the Zara store at 503 Broadway on Sunday, April 9. The 33-year-old Brooklyn woman told police she had hung her bag up on a clothes rack at about 5:15 p.m., leaving it unattended for about 15 minutes while she shopped. It was missing when she returned. The bag — a Louis Vuitton specimen — is valued at $3,000.

Police arrested a rogue employee at a local Nike store. On March 26, the manager of the store at 529 Broadway reported to police that between December 22 and March 24, a 22-year-old male employee had executed 15 fraudulent product returns, putting the refund money on Nike gift cards, without permission or authority.

In all, his scam had cost the store $3,506. Abram Bryan was arrested on March 26 and charged with grand larceny.

DELIVER US FROM DISTRACTION If you don’t pay attention, you could lose retention. At 3:40 p.m. on Thursday, March 29, a 50-year-old male employee of Citipak Delivery Systemson West 32nd Street put a bag containing customer merchandise down on the ground next to him in front of 515 Broadway. Something distracted him, and he walked a few feet away from the bag. The bag, along with a pair of necklaces priced at a total $2,650, was gone when he returned 10 minutes later, he told police.

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Pregame Your Brain: Genomics and the Microcosmos

FRIDAY, APRIL 13TH, 6PM Caveat | 21 Clinton St. | 212-228-2100 | caveat.nyc Extract a strawberry’s DNA, learn how bacteria take “photographs,” and explore the microcosmos and new biomaterials at this grown-up science fair (free with advance reservation; $5 at the door).

La Rhétorique des Dieux: A Lute Recital and Talk by Catherine Liddell

TUESDAY, APRIL 17TH, 7PM NYU Maison Française | 16 Washington Mews | 888-718-4253 | salonsanctuary.org American lutenist Catherine Liddell will explain and perform elements of the Grand Siècle manuscript “La Rhetorique des Dieux” in a French baroque Salon/Sanctuary concert ($35).

Just Announced | Be the Change You Want to See in 2018

FRIDAY, APRIL 20TH, 7PM 92nd Street Y | 1395 Lexington Ave. | 212-415-5500 | 92y.org On the National Day of Action to Prevent Gun Violence in Schools (the anniversary of Columbine), Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney will introduce a night of activism that includes “the Millennial Oprah” Cleo Wade and former Bernie Sanders press secretary Symone Sanders ($35).

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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The history of New York City can be told in its humble streetlights: First, in the 1760s, there were oil lamps. By the 1820s, they were replaced by gas-ďŹ red lights. Then, in 1880, the ďŹ rst electric lights were introduced.

Now, the municipal street lighting system is going through yet another defining transformation. In effect, it is being made over into a powerful digital device to usher in the next generation of internet connectivity.

Not everyone is in love with the prospect. And on one Upper East Side block â&#x20AC;&#x201D; where work crews within days are expected to reconďŹ gure a lone city-owned standard light pole â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the backlash has already begun.

Thousands of lampposts and traffic poles are being outďŹ tted with small wireless cellular antennas as telecom players tap into city infrastructure to fuel the turbo-charged growth of broadband and cellular services.

The idea is to provide hyperfast, super-reliable mobile coverage and sharply boost capacity in the run-up to 5G, the fifth-generation wireless system, thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s expected to be introduced citywide by 2020.

Why place the new technology atop street furniture? The needs of 5G hardware differ from early-generation tech.

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Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s changing now on East 66th Street. Residents of the crosstown block between York and First Avenues are alarmed that a streetlight at mid-block is being reengineered to host a cellular antenna with no advance notice to the community, and directly opposite the entrance to a public elementary school. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We believe itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a health hazard as the antenna will be emitting constant radio-frequency

radiation 24/7,â&#x20AC;? said Anat Rosenberg, a writer and editor whose second-ďŹ&#x201A;oor apartment overlooks the streetlight. â&#x20AC;&#x153;And weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re doubly outraged that theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been allowed to place the antenna in such close proximity to a school â&#x20AC;&#x201C; with no notice of any kind to anyone,â&#x20AC;? she added. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The city is potentially jeopardizing the health of its smallest children.â&#x20AC;?

Rosenberg, who describes herself as the â&#x20AC;&#x153;mom of two small kids who wants to live a quiet life without having an antenna in my living room,â&#x20AC;? is not alone.

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APRIL 12-18,2018

POSTAGE DUE FOR BATTLING BELLA?

nan, the first woman to hold the post, with a new proposal: Print an Abzug commemorative stamp to honor a tireless champion of women.

“Her success breaking down barriers for women in politics inspired generations of young people,” Maloney wrote on March 23, and she recalled Abzug’s famous declaration, “A woman’s place is in the House ... the House of Representatives.”

One of her greatest breakthroughs,

Maloney wrote, was that she “empowered countless women to run for office, engage in politics and civic life, and join the women’s movement in pursuit of equal rights and opportunity.”

Known as “Battling Bella,” Abzug was first elected to the House in 1970 and served from 1971 to 1977 in a district that included the Upper West Side, Chelsea, Hell’s Kitchen and Greenwich Village.

With her trademark hat and takeno-prisoners style — she was the first person in Congress to call for the impeachment of Richard Nixon — she made scores of powerful enemies. Yet to the surprise of colleagues she alienated, she also proved a remarkably effective legislator.

Abzug’s landmark bills included the Freedom of Information Act, to bolster transparency and accountability in government, and Title IX, which guaranteed equal protection for men and women in higher education.

In 1976, she became the first woman to run for the U.S. Senate from New York, and in 1977, she became the first woman to vie for mayor, though she lost both times, to Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Ed Koch respectively.

“She had a huge impact on the nation as a civil rights lawyer, feminist leader, and the first Jewish congresswoman in modern times who was one of the most progressive, do-everything representatives in the history of Congress,” said Liz Abzug, her daughter and the founder of the Bella Abzug Leadership Institute at Hunter College.

Noting that her mother was born in

and residents don’t want radiation right next to our building,” Coleman added. “This is not like a microwave oven that you can simply turn on or off. This is a 24-7 operation.”

Neighbors say they were alerted to the project when work crews with jackhammers began preliminary site work, including micro-trenching under the sidewalk, at 7 a.m. on March 24. Other crews returned over the next three weeks, and a city franchisee, ExteNet Systems, confirmed it would install the antenna at some point in April.

Despite neighborhood fears, the American Cancer Society contends there’s “very little evidence” to support a connection between cell towers and cancer risk. Still, 180 scientists and doctors from 35 countries in 2017 called for a moratorium on the rollout of 5G until potential hazards could be fully researched.

The city says there is zero cause for alarm: “The great majority of installations are only noticed by New Yorkers when their cell service improves, and we’re happy to work with the

community to answer their questions and assuage concerns,” said Stephanie Raphael, a spokesperson for the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications.

Known as DoITT, the city agency that handles technological upgrades says there are “no health or safety hazards related to this pole or the other light pole installations across the city.” It says all pole installations are in “strict compliance with federal standards.”

But federal precedence curbs city clout. Not only does the Federal Communications Commission set safety and emissions standards, but the city is also “preempted” from making siting decisions “based on perceived health or safety concerns,” DoITT documents show.

The agency confirmed no advanced notice was provided on 66th Street before work on the light pole began, saying the installation “did not require any notifications.”

In a statement, DoITT said it is “happy to conduct radio-frequency testing on this pole in particular to assuage

COMMEMORATION First, a Greenwich Village street was named for Congresswoman Abzug, and now, her friends, family and supporters launch a new campaign for a postage stamp in her honor

BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN

Fiery, feisty and feminist. Brainy, blunt and belligerent. A principled radical, an outrageous agitator, a notorious confrontationalist. And let’s be blunt: A nuisance, a thorn in the side, even a pain in the ass.

It’s hard to imagine that Bella Abzug — who gleefully wrote being called “tough, noisy, a man-hater, impetuous, uppity, rude, profane, brash, overbearing” — would quibble with a single one of those descriptions.

But above all, as she wrote, too, she was also a “very serious woman,” a fact no detractor could ever deny. And now, 20 years after her death, the selfdescribed “Jewish mother with more complaints than Portnoy” is getting some of the accolades she so richly deserves.

On March 29, Bank Street off Greenwich Avenue, a few doors away from the Greenwich Village home where she had lived from the 1960s through the 1980s, was officially co-named Congresswoman Bella S Abzug Way. And even as preparations were underway for the ceremony, an old friend and fellow feminist, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, was firing off a letter to Postmaster General Megan Bren-

DIGITAL CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5 Networking against a network The center of opposition to the pending installation is the Hardenbrook House, a normally staid red-brick condominium at 404 East 66th Street with 13 floors and 250 residents in 150 apartments. The light pole is nine feet away from its front door on the south side of the street.

A few yards away, on the north side of the street, sits P.S. 183, the Robert Louis Stevenson School, at 419 East 66th Street, which teaches 550-plus students, from pre-K to fifth grade, in 28 classrooms. Some of the school’s parents and teachers were described as distraught.

“The brains of young kids aren’t developed yet,” said Rande Coleman, the president of Hardenbrook House’s condo board and a real estate broker who’s lived in the building since 1976.

“People with small children don’t want them exposed to potentially dangerous electro-magnetic fields,

It’s official: Bank Street in Greenwich Village is now called Congresswoman Bella S. Abzug Way after a street conaming on March 29. Photo courtesy of Liz Abzug

Bella Abzug, wearing her trademark hat, declares her candidacy for mayor in 1977. She lost in the Democratic primary to Ed Koch. Photo: Copyright © Diana Mara Henry / www. dianamarahenry.com 1920, which was also the year of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, giving women the vote, Abzug said that, ideally, a stamp could be timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of both events.

It’s cutting it close. Though the Maloney letter is a critical first step, and the U.S. Postal Service is traditionally responsive to Congressional requests, supporters have not yet submitted a formal proposal to the USPS Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee, which is needed for the stamp-selection process to move forward.

Typically, due to the time required for research and review, ideas for stamp subjects are supposed to be received at least three years prior to the proposed issuance, according to USPS

any specific concerns once construction is completed.”

But Hardenbrook House residents are seeking to block the project. They circulated a Change.org petition, urging Mayor Bill de Blasio to “Stop the Installation of a Cellular Antenna Opposite PS 183!” So far, their 104 signatures include the building’s superintendent, a doorman, two of three condo board members and several parents at the school.

Community Board 8 is watching closely, said Will Brightbill, its district manager. “CB 8 expects the city and franchisee to be in compliance with all federal, state and local laws to protect the safety of Board 8 residents, tourists and New Yorkers citywide,” he said.

Options appear limited. Occasionally, that’s proved vexing for East Side City Council Member Ben Kallos, an attorney who’s studied legal issues involving wireless.

Residents are seldom exercised about mobile phone safety, he said, but every so often, they’ll express concerns about cell antennas posi-

guidelines.

“If it was up to the will of the people, there would be a stamp,” Liz Abzug said. “But let’s be realistic, she was as left and progressive as you can get within the Democratic Party, and this guy [Donald Trump] is a maniac, and he doesn’t like women, so it won’t be easy.”

Asked if the stamp proposal can be expected to encounter political headwinds in the Trump administration, Maloney said by email, “You don’t become a political trailblazer without getting under some people’s skin.”

While Abzug’s advocacy might have seemed radical at the time, issues like her support for LGBT rights and women’s rights have become more mainstream, she said.

tioned above their apartments.

“I have spent more time than I care to admit researching the case law surrounding the placement of antennas in response to these concerns — only to be frustrated by the federal preemption permitting placement anywhere subject to limited zoning restrictions,” Kallos added.

As a result, unbeknownst to most New Yorkers, a vast network of 1,611 cellular antenna units has been assembled on Manhattan street poles, with 1,209 of them sited on avenues and intersections. More recently, 402 have been placed on cross streets, DoITT data shows.

“I am by no means a technophobe,” said Omer Berger, a software developer and Rosenberg’s husband. “But the burden is on the city to prove this technology isn’t harmful to my family — rather than on me as a taxpaying citizen to prove that it is harmful.” invreporter@strausnews.com

APRIL 12-18,2018

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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.

ON FURTHER REFLECTION

BY BETTE DEWING

“Look up already — from your iPhones” is what Archbishop Timothy Dolan recently said on that big device — the tube. Which itself often needs much looking away from, even from G-rated sporting events. But in essence, the archbishop said, look up from those devices, to allow time for reflection about things that matter, what’s happening outside your own world, or as one Protestant confession prayer repents“about things left undone.” Incidentally, this may

well relate to the forthcoming May 13 sermon by Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church’s new senior pastor, Jenny McDevitt, entitled“Don’t forget to look up.”

But about things left undone or unseen really by those who look down a whole lot — except we all better look down when crossing the washboard-like cross streets. Now there may be a law not to walk and look down at a device to save life and limb, but the archbishop meant to save — what? Well, reflection, he said. Some undoubtedly likely to

bring people together. And doesn’t the city around us need big time reflection — not least those washboard streets?

And looking out city bus windows is a great way to reflect on city conditions – by far the best traveling way to see the neighborhoods we pass - preferably from a pokey bus window. W-h -a-a-t? Yes, I said pokey. Pokey is safer and better to see what‘s going on out there. Ah, a brief sidetrack to recall how once people did look out the window when not reading a newspaper — ah, newspapers, a uniting as well as an educational force. Both newspapers and window views are needed to tell us what’s really happening out there.

And let’s reflect about that.

But too few of us saw, let alone acted, about more and more empty storefronts out there - the places that supplied everyday needs and other retail shops and restaurants, once affordable and in wondrous profusion. Now there are also more empty faith group buildings. Oh you know what I mean — it’s been said here countless times – all these people gathering places which make this city so livable and connected.

And don’t forget accessible. If the Americans with Disability Act only somehow covered this basic life need. But advocates for elder and disabled persons should do some serious reflection, especially with the rapidly growing 85-plus citizenry.

But every age group should be re-

flecting, if especially young people, about how connected and yes, multigenerational communities are also safer ones. It takes a village and that really takes reflection and action.

But for starters, action is easily taken on these and other basic needs, by calling elected officials and community boards whose numbers are listed in this paper’s Useful Contacts column. As Archbishop Dolan and Pastor McDevitt remind us, “Reflect” and “Don’t forget to look up!”

Hey, and maybe attend faith group services after the Easter and Passover season. And this column again reminds, “It can be done if enough us try.” dewingbetter@aol.com

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR CYNTHIA NIXON’S RUN Cynthia Nixon is a superb actress, and a fierce advocate for a number of issues, including LGBT rights and education (“Cynthia Nixon’s Gubernatorial Gambit,” March 22-28). And yes, she is a New Yorker from a humble background. Unfortunately, none of this qualifies her to be governor.

We do not know whether she knows how to balance her own checkbook, much less a $100 billion budget. She has not even run her own production company, so there is little reason to believe she could run a state government with over 200,000 employees. And while she has some legitimate understanding of many issues facing those in New York City, there is no reason to believe she knows or understands any of the issues facing the other one-half of the population of New York State.

Your suggestion (and others’ comments) that the mere fact that she is a woman is reason enough for her to run is as absurd as the fact that she is a celebrity. (And haven’t we had enough of that?) What is saddest about Nixon’s quixotic run for governor is that when she loses to Cuomo (probably massively), it will make it harder for her to run for a more local office — which is where she should have started if she is serious about spending the rest of her life in politics.

I do not agree with all of Cuomo’s positions, and I know that I don’t like him as a person. But on balance, he has done more good than bad. As political consultant Hank Sheinkopf notes, “[He]’s passed gay marriage, stopped fracking, and enacted the toughest gun laws in the country” (among many other things). So for me, it is less the need for a “stellar argument” to vote for Nixon as it is the need for a “stellar argument” to vote against Cuomo.

Ian Alterman Upper West Side CRACKDOWN ON E-BIKES? Thank you for your front page article, “NYPD E-Bikes Crackdown Continues” (March 22-28).

I’ve yet to see any evidence that the “crackdown” has even begun. Until the 311 answering personnel have a pre-ordained place to put caller complaints, we will never see any action.

That is, unless someone gets run over and seriously injured. This is a 311 tactic learned from the previous administration. If residents can’t report it, the City can’t track it.

There are real problems. E-bike drivers don’t identify themselves as from any particular restaurant(s). No name tags. City safety reps need to visit each restaurant and take an inventory of

All that remains of the Café Éclair is this fragment of its old sign, which hangs in the office of Landmark West!

Photo: Courtesy of Landmark West! delivery bikes.

Note: even if e-bike riders wear tags to identify the restaurants, residents will be loath to turn in their source for tasty takeout.

Until something is done, keep your eyes open in the back of your head.

They’ll be coming at us up and down already crowded sidewalks. Making dogs crazy. The faster they make their deliveries, the faster they can get back and reload.

Hugh G. Upper East Side REMEMBERING CAFÉ ÉCLAIR I moved to the Upper West Side in 1970. Discovered the Café Éclair before very long (“Secrets of the Café Éclair,” March 15-21). Needless to say, I remember the delicious desserts and coffee. But what has remained with me

to this day is a lesson owner Alexander Selinger gave my friend and me one evening.

He came over to our table and told us that when placing a knife or spoon into a jar of jam, jelly or preserves, one must make sure it is clean — not having been used to spread butter or cream cheese first. Otherwise, he said, you are contaminating the contents of the jar and it will spoil sooner.

I don’t remember exactly why he approached us with the friendly advice, but I’ve kept it in mind ever since, and after reading your article, I contacted my old friend, and he said he too has always remembered to do what we were told way back then. Thanks for reminding me again.

Richard Barr Upper West Side

My favorite memory of the Éclair restaurant was walking there in 1978 with my late first wife Karen and my cousin David Lehrman. “They make wonderful Napoleons there,” said Karen. “Oh?” asked David. “Do they leave out the bony part!”?

Leonard J. Lehrman Valley Stream, NY Loved your article!

My German refugee parents lived in Wilmington, Delaware. My memories of visits to Fort Washington to see their childhood friends and gorge on pastries from Eclair will not leave me.

I long for a re-creation of the Hazelnut Torte. Any ideas where to find their recipes?

Judy Perlman Manhattan Valley

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EMPOWERING ELDERS THROUGH TECH GRAYING NEW YORK Senior Planet in Chelsea assists those over 60 with digital skills to improve their lives

BY ASHAD HAJELA

The sunlight ďŹ&#x201A;ashes through a large window into the highceilinged center in Chelsea.

Computers sit in a corner opposite the reception area of a well-lit room. This is the headquarters of Senior Planet, a project under the non-profit Older Adults Technology Services, affectionately referred to as OATS. Senior Planet opened five years ago and is trying to empower people over the age of 60 with technology skills to achieve a goal or better their lives. Senior Planet is a flagship program of OATS, which has been operating since 2004.

Membership is free. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We try to create an environment in here where it doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t feel difficult to interact with the technology. It is supposed to feel very open and free and communal,â&#x20AC;? said Alex Glazebrook, the OATS Director of Technology. â&#x20AC;&#x153;People who come here really are driven to use technology to change something in their lives.â&#x20AC;?

Senior Planetâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s programs include computer basics from

using a mouse to browsing the Internet. One program, Team Senior Planet, is more advanced and focuses on health and wellness â&#x20AC;&#x201D; teaching members how to use ďŹ tbits, for example. These members are taken to gyms around the boroughs where trainers coach them.

Such activities are part of Senior Planetâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ďŹ ve content areas: financial security, advocacy, social engagement, creativity and health and wellness. Content about senior dating also appears on the Senior Planet website.

In light of the Cambridge Analytica Facebook scandal, however, Senior Planetâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s job has recently become more difficult.

Members were skeptical of technology to begin with, and the scandal only makes the situation worse. Facebook is sending over guest speakers to talk about privacy on social media.

Senior Planet has links with many large tech companies including Facebook, Google and Dropbox to provide extra programming for seniors. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re lucky because weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re kind of cool,â&#x20AC;? said Glazebrook. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Companies want to work with us.â&#x20AC;?

One of Senior Planetâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most interesting programs is called Startup, which focuses on providing members with digital skills to lay the foundations for a business. Senior Planet

only focuses on the basics like social media, making websites and connecting PayPal to these websites. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t do coding,â&#x20AC;? said Glazebrook.

Carol Ballantyne, a member of Senior Planet originally from Trinidad, joined to explore the possibilities for online business and has also been part of the Startup program. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I believe we seniors have a lot to give back,â&#x20AC;? she said, citing the organization as a platform that helps her do so.

Senior Planet has had its success stories. Cindy Riley, a longtime member and a Jamaican immigrant, said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have a fear of technology anymore.â&#x20AC;?

Glazebrook also reflected on â&#x20AC;&#x153;an older adult ... here who was facing evictionâ&#x20AC;? about two years ago.

The person he mentioned did not have enough income to keep living in her home. She used to be a journalist, so Senior Planet recommended that she use ELance, a site where writers go to make pitches. If the people on the site like the pitch, writers win bids for contracts. This womanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s prominence on ELance made her enough money to keep paying her rent. â&#x20AC;&#x153;This is what technology can do to empower some,â&#x20AC;? said Glazebrook. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s what weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re all about.â&#x20AC;?

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Wed 18 ALEXANDER CHEE: ‘HOW TO WRITE AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NOVEL’ The Strand, 828 Broadway 7 p.m. $15.99 admission & copy of the book/$15 admission and store gift card 212-473-1452. strandbooks.com The author of the best-seller “The Queen of the Night,” in his first collection of essays, explores his life as a man, a writer and an activist. His latest work delves into how we form our identities as teacher, reader and writer, and considers Chee’s identities as a son, a gay man, a Korean-American, an artist, a lover and a friend, and how the lessons he learned from reading and writing have shaped who he is.

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Thu 12 Fri 13

Sat 14

AMERICA SCORES NY: KIDS’ POETRY READING

PASSWORDS: POET DANEZ SMITH ON AUDRE LORDE

► NYC PARKS DOG FORUM: MANHATTAN

The Strand 828 Broadway 4 p.m. Free Through a combination of soccer, poetry and service learning, the after school program America Scores New York teaches kids about self-expression. In celebration of National Poetry Lunch, the organization is launching its first ever poetry book, featuring the work of some of the young “poet-athletes” at this kid-lead reading.

212-473-1452 strandbooks.com

Poets House 10 River Terrace 7 p.m. Free Poet Danez Smith, author of the National Book Awardnominated “Don’t Call Us Dead,” discusses the life and work of legendary poet and activist Audre Lorde, whose radical poetics broke new ground in addressing racism, sexism, class inequity and homophobia.

212-431-7920 poetshouse.org

Tony Dapolito Recreation Center, 1 Clarkson St. 10 a.m. Free Join NYC Parks and representatives from volunteer dog groups across the city to hear more about the current state of the city’s dog runs, learn about community engagement strategies for your local park, and share your opinions about a range of topics important to dog owners. This event is dogfree. Light refreshments will be served.

212-360-2778 nycgovparks.org

APRIL 12-18,2018

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Photo: Bart Everson, via Flickr

Sun 15 Mon 16 Tue 17 THE EGG HOUSE 195 Chrystie St. 10:30 a.m. $18 Tickets must be purchased online in advance The first ever egg-themed pop-up installation is an immersive experience that’s part art exhibition, part play space. Follow the journey of “Ellis the egg” and interact with the installation’s background to find a delightful sunny surprise.

Open through May 21. theegg.house

▲ ‘DAWSON CITY: FROZEN TIME’

PEN OUT LOUD: THE OPPOSITE OF HATE

IFC Center, 323 Sixth Ave. 7 p.m. $15/$11 seniors This meditation on cinema’s past from “Decasia” director Bill Morrison pieces together the bizarre true history of a long-lost collection of 533 nitrate film prints from the early 1900s, screened on a rare 35mm print.

Screening to be followed by a Q&A with director Bill Morrison.

212-360-2778 ifccenter.com

SubCulture 45 Bleecker St. 7 p.m. $15 How do we begin to repair the world around us and move towards collective, positive change? That’s the question CNN commentator Sally Kohn asks as she investigates the roots and lasting effect of political, cultural and personal hatred in a new book. Kohn will be joined by WNYC’s Rebecca Carroll in a frank conversation on the opposite of hate.

212-533-5470 subculturenewyork.com

Wed 18 PUBLIC PROGRAM: PAKISTAN, THEN AND NOW National September 11 Memorial and Museum, 180 Greenwich St. 7 p.m. Free America has long relied on Pakistan for military and intelligence support in the War on Terror, but relations have grown increasingly frayed. C. Christine Fair of Georgetown University will discuss whether there is still a mutual basis for American-Pakistani cooperation.

212-312-8800 911memorial.org

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Janette Beckman with Dorothea Lange photo. Photo: Anne Kristoff

APRIL 12-18,2018

Nobuyoshi Araki Polariods. Photo: Vikki Tobak

WALKING THE PHOTOGRAPHY SHOW After the transporting AIPAD experience, exhibitions go on at some city galleries

BY ANNE KRISTOFF

Adama Delphine Fawundo’s “Intersections.” Photo courtesy of the artist

I spent an afternoon being transported from Broadway and Canal in 1984, to Chicago in 1949, to Memphis in 1968. Nepal, Okinawa, Cape Town. I saw Muhammad Ali boxing underwater, Frida Kahlo “acting clownish,” and The Beatles having a pillow fight. I stood before a mountainous wave as it was about to swallow me whole and beneath a towering sequoia covered in snow.

All of this, and much more, was on view at Pier 94 at the 38th edition of The Photography Show, one of the few art shows in the world dedicated to photography as a medium. It is presented by the Association of International Photography Art Dealers (AIPAD). The show ran from April 5-8 and featured 96 galleries and over 30 book sellers from 14 countries and 49 cities. There were three special exhibitions including, “A Time For Reflection,” curated by Sir Elton John, and “All The Power: Visual Legacies of the Black Panther Party,” curated by Michelle Dunn of the Photographic Center Northwest.

While this year’s edition of The Photography Show has wrapped, you can still view many of the works at galleries around New York, including two of the picks listed below. A Nobuyoshi Araki solo retrospective will be on view at The Museum of Sex through the end of August, and Adama Delphine Fawundu will be included in “Refraction: New Photography of Africa and Its Diaspora,” which opens at Steven Kasher Gallery on April 19.

I walked the show with legendary subcultures photographer Janette Beckman and Vikki Tobak, photo curator and author of “Contact High,” a forthcoming book about hip-hop contact sheets.

Among their picks for “Best in Show:”

Nobuyoshi Araki “Dead Reality” (Little Big Man Gallery and Polaroids at Komiyama Books)

Tobak: Nobuyoshi Araki is a either a genius or a master pornographer, depending on who you ask. To me, he’s both, in the best sense. Little Big Man Gallery has shown his work extensively and honors the Japanese photobook tradition with this series “Dead Reality.” These images of scenes, ruined by developing the prints in boiling fixative, speak to his dedication to analog tradition and also themes of death and destruction. He’s a prolific pho-

tographer who has produced thousands of photographs over the course of his career. Meanwhile Komiyama Books has a portfolio of Araki’s Polaroids of flowers as well as female muses in sexualized poses of “Kinbaku,” Japanese traditional rope bondage. Sex, death, life. Araki is all of those things.

Dorothea Lange, “Towards Los Angeles, Calif.” 1937 (Richard Moore Photographs)

Beckman: Ever since I read the “Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck as a kid ...

I always had this image of America and the dusty roads stretching into the nowhere, because you don’t get those vistas in Europe. It’s the dust bowl era. It’s so atmospheric. It looks like they’re carrying all their belongings and they’re heading towards California on a dusty road and there [are] no houses or anything in sight.

It’s a really deep picture. Very soulful. It’s a silver gelatin print, not a digital print, and it has all these beautiful mid-tones, blacks and grays that you don’t normally see because everything now, with digital, is so hyper-contrasty and the colors are all turned up and everything is on this kind of hyper plane, as if you’re listening to music with no bass and no treble. It’s a certain pitch. Whereas this has so many waves and tones.

Adama Delphine Fawundu “Intersections” (Steven Kasher Gallery)

Tobak: Delphine started her career photographing the male-centric hip-hop world in the early 90s and those early photos are some of my faves. Her new work shows how she has evolved as a fine artist pushing the boundaries. She is one of the founders of “MFON: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora,” a publication committed to establishing and representing a collective voice of women photographers of African descent.

LaToya Ruby Frazier “Woodlawn Street, Braddock, PA” 2010 (Steven Kasher Gallery) Helmut Newton “Rue Aubriot, Yves Saint Laurent, Paris Collections” 1975 (Staley Wise Gallery)

Beckman: I didn’t know who LaToya Ruby Frazier was but I was attracted to the image because it’s a gorgeous, strong woman on the street. Steven Kasher told me that it was an homage to the Helmut Newton photo that was hanging nearby.

I was blown away by the synchronicity of the two photos hanging near each other.

I just love strong, beautiful women on the street.

APRIL 12-18,2018

13

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KEY:

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APRIL 12-18,2018

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

RESTAURANT INSPECTION RATINGS

Alin Sushi Ii

55-59 Chrystie Street A

MAR 28 - APR 3, 2018

Pan Duo Chuan BBQ & Pizza

89 Canal St

A

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

The Grandaddy

290 Grand St

A

Mother’s Ruin

18 Spring Street

A

West 3rd Common

1 West 3 Street

A

Song E Napule

146 W Houston St

A

Andy’s Deli

291 Broadway

A

Bite

333 Lafayette St

A

Roast Kitchen

199 Water St

A

JG Mellon

89 Macdougal St

A

Gong Cha

1 Catherine St

A

La Newyorkina

240 Sullivan St

A

Tomorrow

200 Water St

A

Cafe Belle

280 Mulberry St

A

Burger King

106 Fulton St

A

The Phluid Project

684 Broadway

Potbelly Sandwich Works

127 Fulton St

A

Denny’s

150 Nassau St

Not Yet Graded (54) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation. Food Protection Certificate not held by supervisor of food operations. Evidence of rats or live rats present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Hand washing facility not provided in or near food preparation area and toilet room. Hot and cold running water at adequate pressure to enable cleanliness of employees not provided at facility. Soap and an acceptable hand-drying device not provided. Tobacco use, eating, or drinking from open container in food preparation, food storage or dishwashing area observed. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service. Wiping cloths soiled or not stored in sanitizing solution.

CLOSED (86) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation. Food Protection Certificate not held by supervisor of food operations. 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 contact surface improperly constructed or located.

Unacceptable material used. Hand washing facility not provided in or near food preparation area and toilet room. Hot and cold running water at adequate pressure to enable cleanliness of employees not provided at facility. Soap and an acceptable hand-drying device not provided.

Freud

506 Laguardia Pl

Grade Pending (3)

Do Cookie Dough Confections

550 Laguardia Pl

A

Joe & The Juice

161 Prince St

A

Galanga Thai Cooking

149 West 4 Street

A

Cuba

222 Thompson Street A

Ground Support Cafe

399 West Broadway

A

Gunter Seeger NY

641 Hudson St

A

Barrow Street Theatre

27 Barrow St

A

Due West

189 W 10th St

A

Wilfie & Nell

228 West 4 Street

A

The Iron Horse

32 Cliff Street

A

La Mela Restaurant

167 Mulberry Street

A

Two Hands Tribeca

251 Church St

A

Sapori

105 Mulberry St

A

Le Relais De Venise L’entrecote

15 Watts St

Grade Pending (21) Hot food item not held at or above 140º F. Filth flies or food/refuse/sewage-associated (FRSA) flies present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Filth flies include house flies, little house flies, blow flies, bottle flies and flesh flies. Food/refuse/sewageassociated flies include fruit flies, drain flies and Phorid flies.

May Wah Pork Chop Fast Food

190 Hester St

A

Jeju Noodle Bar

679 Greenwich St

Not Yet Graded (17) 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.

Patacon Pisao

139 Essex St

A

Spunto

65 Carmine Street

A

Way Point

65 Ludlow St

A

Tacoria Meza

95 7 Avenue

A

Lil’ Gem

29A Clinton St

A

Hudson Hound

575 Hudson Street

A

95 Fusion Tea Room & Kitchen Bar

95 Chrystie St

Not Yet Graded (24) 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 contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred.

Tea Drunk

123 East 7th Street

A

The Roost

222 Avenue B

A

Butter Lane

123 E 7th St

A

Tang’s Noodle

125 Canal St

A

The Tang

120 1st Ave

A

Zest Sushi

249 Broome St

Not Yet Graded (38) 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 contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred.

Flinders Lane

162 Avenue A

Grade Pending (25) Food worker does not use proper utensil to eliminate bare hand contact with food that will not receive adequate additional heat treatment. 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.

Subway

6466 Delancy Street

A

5C Cafe & Cultural Center

68 Avenue C

A

Blue Ribbon Sushi Izakaya

187 Orchard Street

A

Noreetuh

128 1st Ave

A

San Loco

111 Stanton Street

A

Papaya Dog

239-11 1 Avenue

A

Fools Gold

145 E Houston St

A

Blind Pig

233 East 14 Street

A

New Super Taste

26 Eldridge St

A

Little Italy Pizza III

122 University Place

A

Local 138

138 Ludlow Street

A

Ribalta

48 East 12 Street

A

Fahr Fresh And Hot Pizza

117 Orchard St

A

Yo Sushi

208 3rd Ave

A

APRIL 12-18,2018

Census data is also used by the federal government in determining how to distribute funding for programs among the states. “The federal government funnels $53 billion to New York state through programs that are dependent upon the census,” Lago said, noting that population-based formulas govern funding allocations for a diverse array of federal programs, including school breakfasts for low-income students, funding to support people with disabilities and homeland security.

York City, and those folks are scared to report to the landlord [that] they’re on the lease,” Thompson said.

Suspicion among immigrant populations of submitting personal information to the government, homelessness, language barriers and informal housing arrangements like illegal basement dwellings and subdivided apartments are a few of the challenges facing census enumerators, who are tasked with counting individuals regardless of their legal or residential status.

“The census doesn’t care about the legality of where you live, it just wants to know where people live,” Lago said.

Why is NYC a challenge for census takers?

What steps does the city take to ensure an accurate count?

“Urban areas — and in particular, poorer urban areas — are notoriously hard to enumerate properly,” Lago said.

J. Phillip Thompson, Deputy Mayor for Strategic Policy Initiatives, said that the city conducts extensive outreach efforts to engage communities that might otherwise not participate in the census. “I think New York is always undercounted, and one reason is that we have a large number of doubled-up households in New

Demographers within the Department of City Planning work closely with the U.S. Census Bureau to disseminate the census to as many residents as possible. The starting point for the distribution of census forms is a list of addresses compiled by the Census Bureau, which the city works to bolster.

“The census is mailed to addresses,” Lago said. “If the Census Bureau doesn’t have your address, you’re never going to get the form and you don’t

CENSUS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

15

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com rates and request that resources be directed toward increasing engagement in areas where undercounting is suspected.

If the citizenship question is included, will undocumented immigrants be at increased risk of deportation by participating in the census?

Graphic: NYC Department of City Planning ellite dishes.

“We are able to report back to the Census Bureau around 100,000 additional addresses,” Lago said.

After the census officially kicks off in March 2020, the Department of City Planning will work with the Census Bureau in real time to monitor response

have the possibility of being counted.”

The city sends staff into the field to search for addresses not included in the list provided by the Census Bureau, looking for signs of residences in commercial districts and other nonresidential areas, which might include extra doorbells or sat-

On March 26, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross directed the Census Bureau to include a question about respondents’ citizenship in the 2020 Census.

“Prior decennial census surveys of the entire United States population consistently asked citizenship questions up until 1950 ...” Ross wrote in a memo.

The Justice Department requested that the question be included on the grounds that it would help enforce the Voting Rights Act, but critics have said it is intended to decrease immigrant turnout and impact congressional apportionment.

Thompson called the Voting Rights Act explanation “entirely specious.”

New York City was home to 3.2 million immigrants as of 2015 — 38 percent of the city’s total population — an estimated 750,000 of whom were undocumented. Roughly one million households in the city include at least one undocu-

mented person.

Census data is aggregated and anonymized, and individual responses are subject to strict confidentiality protections. The city will work to inform immigrant communities of these protections and combat the misconception that data could be used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to target immigrants for deportation.

“ICE has its own data,” said Bitta Mostofi, acting commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs.

“They know where immigrant populations live,” Mostofi said. “They don’t need to rely on the census for that information. This is more about the chilling effect and fear that it is intended to perpetuate and less about, frankly, their need for such information — they have that.”

City officials will focus on efforts to inform immigrants that completing the census does not put them at increased risk. “I think the intent of including the question is to drive immigrants underground, and the best way to fight that is actually to stand up and be counted and to resist that effort to try and make immigrants invisible,” Thompson said.

APRIL 22, 2018 ALL DAY (7 AM–8 PM) Free with Museum admission and for Members

From early-morning yoga in the Cullman Hall of the Universe to performances that include John Luther Adams’ Become Ocean by The Chelsea Symphony and “The Umbrella Project” by Pilobolus in the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life, visitors can enjoy a Museum-wide festival of art, science, and culture in honor of Earth Day. Renowned artists and scholars join Museum scientists on special Museum tours for critical conversations on sustaining the beautiful planet we call home. Visitors can also see pop-up performances by Fela!’s Abena Koomson-Davis, Martha Redbone, Ashley Jackson, and the Secret Drum Band; view films and art installations, and more.

EarthFest is made possible by OceanX, an initiative of the Dalio Foundation, as part of its generous support of the special exhibition Unseen Oceans and its related educational activities and public programs.

Central Park West at 79th Street

|

New York City

|

AMNH.ORG

16

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

APRIL 12-18,2018

Business WHERE TO SHOP FOR FUN AND HEALTH es. They also have a food bar, baked goods and sushi. Garden of Eden is one of the largest local grocery stores in the area and the presentation is one of the best. It’s easily accessible from Union Square or Fifth Ave, and is an all-around great place to shop.

FOOD Four Manhattan go-to places for nutritious and well-sourced groceries

BY LIZ RICHARDS

C-Town When I first moved to New York, the question I got most often from friends and family back home was, “Where do you do your grocery shopping?” The assumption was that I had to stock up at Whole Foods, whose prices can be steep for a millennial grad student/ waitress/aspiring writer, or wait endlessly in line at Trader Joe’s. Don’t get me wrong, I love both of those places. The occasional splurge on raw almonds from Whole Foods or a leisurely day out at Trader Joe’s are two of my favorite ways to spend time. But for day-to-day food shopping, it’s essential to have a few go-to places for fast and affordable groceries that are nutritious and sourced well. Here are a few of my favorite spots:

4th Street Food Co-Op This Lower East Side gem has been a hidden staple of the community for over forty years. In recent years, they’ve gone completely vegetarian, but not vegan. That means that they are the perfect not-so-secret shop for organic produce that is locally

VACANCY CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 The mayor has yet to put forth a detailed proposal, but similar policies have been implemented and explored outside New York in recent years.

In 2014, San Francisco adopted an ordinance requiring landlords to register vacant storefronts with the city within 30 days of a space becoming vacant. If the storefront is not occupied within 270 days of registration, the landlord is required to pay a recurring annual fee of $711.

Failure to register can be punished with penalty fees of more than $6,000, but a recent report found that in spite of this threat, the penalty is rarely imposed and compliance among property owners is low.

In all of San Francisco, just 25 vacant storefronts were registered with the

Zabar’s is a community staple. Photo: kennejima, via flickr

The name sounds like C-Town should belong to a big chain grocery store, and that’s because it does, kind of.

With hundreds of locations sprinkled throughout NYC, it is one of the largest independent grocery stores around.

It’s almost too big to fall into this category. However, C-Town does carry options that are organic and locally sourced. Stores are clean and inviting, and with a membership rewards program that mimics corporate grocery stores, C-Town is a convenient and affordable place to shop.

sourced whenever possible, a robust selection of bulk grains (plus two different coffee roasts, a variety of snack mixes, flours, cocoa, and more), herbal teas, oils and a few packaged organic snacks. It is a small and modest space, but packed with all of the essentials for your cupboard. The best part about the 4th Street Food Co-Op? Unlike most food co-ops throughout the city, they are open to the public. They accept both working and non-working memberships (which come with proportional discounts) but any and ev-

eryone is welcome and encouraged to shop there.

A fixture of Union Square, Garden of Eden is a prime destination for NYU and New School students because of its locale — and a student discount in light of slightly higher prices. Walking into this store feels like walking into an open market. The produce is bountiful, beautifully displayed and very well-maintained. The store has a wide selection of breads, meats and chees-

No list of favorite local grocery stores would be complete without this legend. The world-famous establishment has called 80th and Broadway home for generations and is still a great place to shop. Better known for their coffee, deli classics and overall cultural significance, Zabar’s is also a wonderful grocery store. The deli is superior, boasting an unbelievable display of packaged meats, soups, salads and more. The produce is clean

city in 2016 — “clearly an understated amount,” according to a January 2018 report prepared by a city analyst.

Other municipalities have adopted similar vacancy policies with fee schedules that escalate the longer a storefront remains empty. The Borough of Metuchen, N.J., for example, charges an initial registration fee of $500 that increases with each annual renewal, reaching $5,000 by the third renewal. The borough may waive the fee if “a consistent good faith effort is shown to market, rent, sell, or lease” the storefront. The ordinance notes that merely placing a “for rent or lease” sign in a storefront does not in and of itself meet the requirements of such a good faith effort.

Lawmakers in other cities, including Berkeley, Calif., and Boston have also raised the possibility of implementing a commercial vacancy tax.

A retail vacancy tax in New York City

would face opposition from the real estate industry and would likely require approval from the state.

The Real Estate Board of New York swiftly panned the idea in the wake of de Blasio’s comments. “The City’s retail environment is going through a transition primarily due to macromarket forces, like Amazon, and increasingly unfriendly local regulations,” REBNY President John H. Banks said in an emailed statement.

“Property owners take a substantial financial hit when they are unable to secure a tenant. A vacancy tax, premised on a flawed set of assumptions, will punish owners further and do nothing to address vacancy.”

A retail vacancy tax would take aim at one specific condition that can lead to long-term vacancies — landlords holding properties empty until a tenant willing to pay their asking rent comes along — but speculation is just

one of a variety of reasons storefronts become and stay vacant, which can differ by neighborhood, commercial corridor and individual storefront.

The city does not comprehensively track retail vacancies or their causes.

Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, who is supportive of a vacancy tax in principle, has advocated for better data collection by city agencies as a first step.

“Unless we quantify the problem before, during and after we attempt to enact a solution, how will we be able to assess our success and how to best proceed in combating commercial vacancy in our neighborhoods?”

Brewer said at a City Council hearing on the topic in December. “So the bottom line is we really need the data and we really need the agencies to help us gather it.”

A December City Council report outlines a number of other poten-

Garden of Eden

Zabar’s

Into the shopping cart at the 4th Street Food Co-op. Photo: Liz Richards and well-stocked. Zabar’s bagels and breads department is extraordinarily fresh. Not only is this a community staple and a one-of-a-kind experience, it’s also a fun and fully functional grocery store for Upper West Siders.

The city is full of options for grocery shopping. It’s easier here than anywhere to shop locally, affordably, responsibly and — most important — deliciously. In every corner of the city there are fun and fresh places to shop to stock our cupboards and fuel our busy lives. Happy eating!

tial policies intended to reduce the vacancy rate in Manhattan retail corridors, including one idea to offer a tax abatement or subsidy to landlords willing to enter into leases with renewal riders setting a maximum threshold for rent increase — a carrot, in contrast to the stick of a penalty fee for vacancies.

In the meantime, the retail leasing market has shown signs of a correction. Average asking rents dropped in 13 of 17 high-profile retail corridors tracked by REBNY from fall 2016 to fall 2017, the most recent data available. Price reductions were significant in many key corridors over the period, decreasing by 25 percent on Bleecker Street in the West Village, by 15 percent on Broadway in SoHo, and by 16 percent on Columbus Avenue on the Upper West Side.

APRIL 12-18,2018

17

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

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Tour Breweries of the Black Dirt Region un

e 9 2018

dirt

B re w H p di

Saturday, June 9 12n - 5pm

r t- m a g.c o m

Serena Dykman as seen in “NANA.” Courtesy of First Run Features

A GRANDDAUGHTER BEARS WITNESS FILMS

95

$ Hop on Dirt Mag’s beer bus and embark on a tour of the best breweries Orange County has to offer. Enjoy flights and pints of beer harvested from the historic black dirt region—known for its exceptionally lush soil and tasty brews. See the breweries in action. Tour the malt farm. Sip local beers.

Get dirty. $

95

tickets:

dirtbrewhop.com or call Molly at

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Hop On

In a new documentary, director Serena Dykman retraces her grandmother’s story of survival in Auschwitz and how past atrocities can shape our future

BY ALIZAH SALARIO

Every film about the Holocaust reminds us to never forget. Very few articulate what it takes to always remember.

“NANA,” (First Run Features) the debut feature film from Serena Dykman, documents her journey as she and her mother Alice retrace her grandmother’s story of survival, from her childhood in Poland to Auschwitz, where she was forced to be a translator for the “Angel of Death” Josef Mengele, to her postwar life in Belgium.

Dykman, who was raised in Paris and Brussels and graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, says she knew she wanted to make the film when she finally read her grandmother’s memoir, the day after the Charlie Hebdo attack in January 2015.

“I didn’t realize what she lived and what she stood for, and the activist that she was.

I think the combination of being in Paris during that time [of the Charlie Hebdo attack], and reading the memoir made me very angry to see that people like my grandmother did such amazing and important work, but so many survivors are already gone and can’t do that

job anymore. I just felt like I had to do something about it,” says Dykman, who was eleven when she lost her grandmother.

Three and half weeks later, Dykman began shooting “NANA.” At first, she says, people were skeptical; it was very hard to be taken seriously as a 22-year-old woman tackling the Holocaust. Dykman focused on making sure that her grandmother’s story was told from a transgenerational perspective, alternating from her grandmother to her mother to herself.

Then, after filming, Dykman got an unexpected boon. She began receiving footage from all over the world of her grandmother, the Polish-born Maryla Michalowski-Dyamant. After the war, Michalowski-Dyamant had devoted her life to sharing her story, repeatedly sitting down for televised interviews and even returning to Auschwitz to educate visitors. Her testimony became part of her survival, and it boomeranged back to her granddaughter.

Dykman wound up with nearly 100 hours of her grandmother’s testimony, which she juxtaposes with interviews and footage of her own trip to Auschwitz. Michalowski-Dyamant is compelling on camera, and her testimony is by turns lifeaffirming and humorous, bonechilling and incomprehensible.

She recalls thanking the guard who tattooed a number on her arm because she understood this meant she would be allowed to live. She describes the fear that infused her every interaction with Mengele, then

calls him a very handsome man. Her testimony captures both the barbarism and selfless sacrifice that humans are capable of, and it comes together in a pastiche of different B-roll segments artfully spliced into a seamless narrative. The effect of fragmentation is powerful: Michalowski-Dyamant told her story again and again and again, and yet could never capture the totality of her experience.

For the skeptics, Dykman’s youth is in fact one of the film’s strengths. This is a story of Holocaust survival, but it is also a master class in transmission.

The first image of the film is a home video clip of a newborn Dykman, cradled by her mother as her grandmother looks on. Through her testimony, Michalowski-Dyamant projected the past into the future, transcribing it onto today’s pages darkened by new shadows of authoritarianism and fascism.

NANA’s story is now Dykman’s story, and, the film seems to suggest, it must be ours, too.

IF YOU GO WHEN: April 13-19 WHERE: Cinema Village 22 East 12th St. SHOWTIMES: 1:15, 4:30, 7:00, 9:15 TALK: The Friday & Saturday 7 p.m. shows will be followed by a Q&A with director Serena Dykman

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The museum’s latest expansion proposal conceives of the viewing garden, formerly slated for eradication, as a centerpiece

Downtowner

BY RICHARD KHAVKINE

The garden, after all, will stay in the picture.

Almost three years after folding up expansion plans that had met vociferous opposition, The Frick Collection this week unveiled a design proposal that would add roughly 90,000 square feet to the museum for its exhibits and programming, education and conservation endeavors.

Crucially, the proposal retains — and would restore — the museum’s 70th Street garden, whose prospective elimination in the Fifth Avenue institution’s 2014 expansion plans became a flashpoint for a coalition of residents, artists and preservationists. Opposition ultimately succeeded in getting Frick officials to retreat and start anew.

This new plan, conceived by Selldorf Architects, a New York City firm, would repurpose 60,000 square feet of the Gilded Age building and build 27,000 square feet of new space.

The viewing garden off of East 70th Street is now envisioned as akin to a centerpiece, viewable from a reconfigured lobby, second-floor store, café and classroom, and elsewhere within the museum.

The garden, created by the landscape architect Russell Page in 1977, will be restored

by Lynden Miller, a renowned public garden designer who has worked on the Conservatory Garden in Central Park, Bryant Park and the New York Botanical Garden.

As with the previous plan, this one attends to what Frick officials have said is a pressing need for more exhibition space both for its permanent collection and special exhibits. It also adds resources for programming, education and conservation, as well as visitor amenities and accessibility.

The proposal, as before,

News of Your Neighborhood A rendering of The Frick Collection’s reception hall, as conceived in a new expansion proposal, looking east toward the 70th Street viewing garden. Courtesy of Selldorf Architects would convert a suite of secondfloor rooms into gallery space for the permanent collection.

Those rooms were formerly living spaces for the industrialist and art collector Henry Clay Frick and his family, the original occupants of the mansion, which was built by Carrère and Hastings in 1914.

The conversion of the second floor, currently offices and meeting areas that have never been open to the public, would add nearly one-third more exhibit space to the museum.

Access to the second floor will be via either a new bank of elevators or a new staircase. The original mansion’s main staircase will also open to the public for the first time.

The proposal also envisions an education center and group entrance, to be built between the museum’s main building and its reference library.

The construction portion of the project is budgeted at $160 million. Pending approvals from the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission and the Board of Standards and Appeals, construction would start in 2020 and last roughly two years, said Heidi Rosenau, a museum spokesperson.

The Frick’s 1,400 objects, including paintings by Goya, Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Constable and Velázquez, could be exhibited elsewhere in the meantime.

“We are working that out,” Rosenau said. “We are exploring options as we speak.”

PRESERVING INTIMACY The museum abandoned its 2014 plans, which included a six-story addition on the 70th

Street garden’s footprint, in June 2015 after residents and then a coalition of artists and others denounced it as intrusive and counter to one of the Frick’s most alluring qualities — its intimacy.

Although museum officials at the time disputed that notion, this proposal doubles down on the Frick’s singular grace and elegance.

“Our proposed design is the result of an unwavering commitment to maintaining the intimate experience of viewing art at the Frick that is unique and special to many — myself included,” Annabelle Selldorf, the architecture firm’s principal, said in a statement accompanying the Frick’s press release on the plan.

One of the previous plan’s most prominent detractors, New York Times architecture critic Michael Kimmelman, applauded this latest incarnation.

“Frick admirably listened,” he wrote. Selldorf’s proposal “preserved what’s great about Frick and fixed what wasn’t, mostly backstage. The process worked.”

The mansion was converted into a museum and opened in 1935. This expansion and renovation would be the first comprehensive such effort since then, museum officials said.

Betty Eveillard, the chairperson of the Frick’s Board of Trustees, said in the press release that, together with Selldorf, “the Frick has set forward a plan that graciously ushers our institution into the twentyfirst century while preserving our Gilded-Age grandeur and a sense of tranquility.”

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YOUR 15 MINUTES

SUSTAINING CINEMA IN THE CITY The deputy director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center on fostering his passion

BY ANGELA BARBUTI

Eugene Hernandez has been to so many film festivals he’s lost count.

“When you go, they often give you these little plastic badges that you wear around your neck and for over 25 years, that’s the one keepsake I have from each of my festivals. They’re in boxes, in my closet, hanging up on hangers. There’s hundreds of them,” he said of the mementos that grace his Hell’s Kitchen apartment, the same one he moved into in 1994 when the California native started work for ABC TV. His penchant for film began during his student days at UCLA, attending screenings at the university’s student union. Hernandez would eventually run the office that scheduled programming there. Once in New York, the world of cinema opened up to him in a different way. “I was intrigued ... because, it turns out, a lot of my favorite movies were made in New York ... ‘Paris is Burning,’ ‘Do the Right Thing,’ ‘Metropolitan.’ There were so many movies that were so important to me that were rooted in New York. So I had this cinematic view of the city.”

His job at ABC was in walking distance form the Film Society of Lincoln Center, and he would frequently

attend screenings there on his way home. IndieWire, the online film publication he started in 1996, was born from his growing passion.

Now, as deputy director of the Film Society, Hernandez cultivates his dedication to the art every day. Besides running the Film Society’s day-to-day aspects, he oversees special events and programs, including a dozen film festivals a year, and serves as co-publisher of the institution’s magazine “Film Comment.”

Hernandez is now gearing up for The New York Film Festival, the Film Society’s biggest event, which starts in late September and run through midOctober. He’s also planning its most important fundraising event of the year, the Chaplin Award Gala, scheduled for April 30, at which Helen Mirren will be honored.

Have you always been a movie buff?

I became more focused on movies during college. I went to UCLA. As a student, I just started watching movies on the weekend at the Student Union. Screenings were like a dollar or two dollars. So I just started experimenting and watching movies I had never heard of, the kind of movies you watch on college campuses like “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” or “Blue Velvet” or John Waters movies.

Those were the typical college campus in the ‘80s midnight movies. And I think it was these kinds of movies you would watch with 1,000 people in an

auditorium that had this communal movie-going experience that changed my perspective. And when I started seeing movies coming out of the Sundance Film Festival in the late ‘80s, early ‘90s, like “Poison” or “Paris is Burning,” “Reservoir Dogs,” those are the kinds of movies that really opened me up to independent film.

Tell us about the beginnings of IndieWire.

I was in New York working for television, but had this growing passion for movies. I have to mention the place I work now because it’s integral to the story of IndieWire. Down the street from ABC is Lincoln Center. And I just started going to movies at the Film Society because it was on my way home from work. There was just so much happening in New York in the early to mid-90s in independent film production. So the idea for IndieWire was born out of creating a publication that would champion new filmmakers and films. It was a startup, with no funding and no investors.

Did you ever think the site would grow into what it is today?

I couldn’t have imagined that it would become anything, because I didn’t imagine it as anything more than a passion or a hobby. It wasn’t meant to be a company. Through the support of the film community here and other filmmakers, it grew, and eventually I left my job at ABC to work

on it full time. We gott a point in the early 2000s where we e couldn’t even afford an office. There were three of us.

We were all working from home and having our work meetings eetings at Starbucks and sending our ur mail to a post office box. We struggled; gled; the dotcom crash happened in n the late ‘90s and the seccond dot-com crash happened in 2007.

We finally had to get an investor, and we sold the company to Ted Leonsis and Steve Case, the guys who started AOL. A nd t hat was what really stabilized the company. It’s in such a great place now, owned by Jay Penske at PMC.

You are started at the Film Society as director of digital strategy. What are some initiatives you’ve worked on so far that you’re most proud of?

I am, without question, most proud of these new initiatives that I feel really enrich the mission of the organization. We re-energized an education program here. In the history of this organization, which will be 50 years old next year, education was a key program very early on. From the very beginning, it took filmmakers into local schools. It took Martin Scorsese into high schools. It brought students to Lincoln Center to watch movies. So we brought that back because when we opened the film center in 2011, we realized that it was an opportunity to re-engage the city and the Upper West Side and Lincoln Center in our mission. So I started organizing free events, free talks. I’m very proud of the free events that we do in our film center all the time and daily during the New York Film Festival, because sometimes people just needed to be invited in.

Who is a memorable person you’ve met through your career?

Eugene Hernandez, deputy director of the Film Society of Lincoln, with the film director Sofia Coppola. Photo: Mettie Ostrowski

The first person that came to mind was John Waters, and I think it’s because, as I mentioned, his films were so important to me as a college kid.

He was just doing something totally different in Baltimore and I found his movies just so outrageous, funny and totally distinctive. So when I came to the Film Society, one of the first programs I was thrilled to collaborate on with my colleagues and our director of programming, Dennis Lim, was a complete retrospective of John Waters’s films on the occasion of his 50th year making movies. So we had John

Photo: Getty Images here at Lincoln Center and showed every single movie, including his short films and stuff from his personal collection. Movies he had stored in his attic in Baltimore, and he lives here in the West Village as well. He’s a huge cinephile; he comes to movies here at the Film Society. By way of Baltimore, he’s such a unique New Yorker.

You were honored on Out Magazine’s Out100 list. What did that recognition mean to you?

When I was included, I was invited to stand alongside Christine Vachon, another really amazing and influential New Yorker. She’s arguably the leading independent film producer in the city. She produced “Poison,” and films by so many other filmmakers that I’ve grown to respect and gotten to know in New York. So when the magazine asked me to stand alongside her for a photo for their Out100 issue, it was just a tremendous honor, because she is someone whose work as a producer has had such a dramatic influence on me personally. We stood there as representatives of an entire film community, an entire LGBT community in New York, a creative community here, and of so many amazing filmmakers who Christine has produced or I’ve been able to interview or champion or celebrate, both at IndieWire and now at Lincoln Center.

Know somebody who deserves their 15 Minutes of fame? Go to otdowntown.com and click on submit a press release or announcement.

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WORD SEARCH by Myles Mellor V I A J Z N D R S W Q Q H A O

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SUDOKU by Myles Mellor and Susan Flanagan

by Myles Mellor

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CROSSWORD

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APRIL 12-18,2018

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