Our Town Downtown - April 13, 2017

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The local paper for Downtown wn DINNER WITH DIGNITY < P. 7

WEEK OF APRIL

13-19 2017

Then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg tours a neighborhood damaged by Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Photo: Edward Reed/Mayor’s Office of Photography

CITY COPES WITH TRUMP APPROACH TO CLIMATE CHANGE ENVIRONMENT With proposed cuts to the EPA, will there be more Sandys in Manhattan’s future? BY MADELEINE THOMPSON

“People were living in our backyard in tents,” said Jeff Lydon, board secretary of the West Village Houses. “It looked like Katrina with piles of personal belongings, personal effects, sofas, photographs just piled up. It was terrible.” He was talking about Hurricane Sandy, which became the second-costliest storm of its kind when it made landfall in October 2012. Though most of the damage was to New Jersey and the outer boroughs, Lower Manhattan and the West Side are among those

still recovering. Lydon’s residential co-op houses more than 1,000 people, and many of those whose apartments were flooded during Sandy had to pay for the repairs out of pocket. In a recent study commissioned by Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Office of Resiliency and Recovery, the global nonprofit think tank RAND Corporation found that many New York City households could lose crucial flood insurance if Congress decides to phase out certain subsidies in the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). “A considerable number of one- to four-family structures face substantial flood risk based on their elevation relative to water depth,” the report reads. Individual premiums could increase by $2,000 per year if the government lets the program expire at the end of

September. The mayor said he was proud to unveil the report as part of the city’s “multilayered resiliency program.” “If Congress doesn’t act, rising flood insurance rates will put a critical tool to build more resilient communities out of reach for too many New Yorkers,” de Blasio said in a statement. “In the meantime, we’re making strides in the fight to keep flood insurance affordable by working with [the Federal Emergency Management Agency] to revise New York’s floodplain maps.” In a map of the 100-year floodplain, which highlights areas with a one percent annual chance of flooding, the Manhattan coastline shows significant danger below West 40th Street.

New NYPD officers at their graduation ceremony at Madison Square Garden March 30. A City Council bill would compel the city to maintain an internal information sharing system to track lawsuits and complaints regarding allegations of police misconduct. Photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office.

BILL ADDRESSES NYPD MISCONDUCT DATA LAW ENFORCEMENT Proposal aims to improve city agencies’ access to officer complaint history BY MICHAEL GAROFALO

In the wake of the revelation that New York City Police Department officers involved in the deaths of Ramarley Graham and Eric Garner had previously been investigated for alleged misconduct, City Council members last week discussed legislation that would improve the accountability of the department’s internal system for flagging and addressing improper police behavior. The bill, introduced by Council Member Dan Garodnick, would require the city to maintain an internal information sharing system to track lawsuits and complaints regarding alleged misconduct by police. The system would be accessible by the police department, law department, comptroller and Civilian Complaint Review Board.

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The NYPD currently employs an internal early intervention system to identify officers liable to engage in misconduct, based on disciplinary history and civilian complaints, and place those officers in the department’s performance monitoring system. “I think we can all agree that the goal is that we have an early alert with respect to at-risk officers, and that way we can get these members of the service either monitoring, training [or] increased supervision,” Oleg Chernyavsky, the NYPD’s director of legislative affairs, said at a City Council hearing on the bill April 6. But critics say the system has failed to stop abusive officers from continuing to engage in misconduct. Civilian Complaint Review Board documents recently leaked to the progressive news outlet ThinkProgress show that the cases of Graham and Garner — unarmed black men killed in high-profile cases of alleged police misconduct in 2012 and 2014, respectively — each involved a

Crime Watch Voices Out & About City Arts

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Restaurant Ratings Business Real Estate 15 Minutes

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WEEK OF APRIL

SPRING ARTS PREVIEW < CITYARTS, P.12

FOR HIM, SETTLING SMALL CLAIMS IS A BIG DEAL presided over Arbitration Man has three decades. for informal hearings about it He’s now blogging BY RICHARD KHAVKINE

is the common Arbitration Man their jurist. least folks’ hero. Or at Man has For 30 years, Arbitration court office of the civil few sat in a satellite Centre St. every building at 111 New Yorkers’ weeks and absorbed dry cleaning, burned lost accountings of fender benders, lousy paint jobs, and the like. And security deposits then he’s decided. Arbitration Man, About a year ago, so to not afwho requested anonymity started docuhe fect future proceedings, two dozen of what menting about compelling cases considers his most blog. in an eponymous about it because “I decided to write the stories but in a I was interested about it not from wanted to write from view but rather lawyer’s point of said Arbitration view,” of a lay point lawyer since 1961. Man, a practicing what’s at issue He first writes about post, renders and then, in a separatehow he arrived his decision, detailing blog the to Visitors at his conclusion. their opinions. often weigh in with get a rap going. I to “I really want whether they unreally want to know and why I did it,” I did derstood what don’t know how to he said. “Most people ... I’d like my cases the judge thinks. and also my trereflect my personalitythe law.” for mendous respect 80, went into indiMan, Arbitration suc in 1985, settling vidual practice

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MANHATTAN'S APARTMENT BOOM, > PROPERTY, P.20

2015

In Brief MORE HELP FOR SMALL BUSINESS

The effort to help small seems to businesses in the city be gathering steam. Two city councilmembers, Robert Margaret Chin and Cornegy, have introduced create legislation that wouldSmall a new “Office of the within Business Advocate” of Small the city’s Department Business Services. Chin The new post, which have up told us she’d like to would and running this year, for serve as an ombudsman city small businesses within them clear government, helping to get through the bureaucracy things done. Perhaps even more also importantly, the ombudsman and number will tally the type small business of complaints by taken in owners, the actions policy response, and somefor ways to recommendations If done well, begin to fix things. report would the ombudsman’s give us the first quantitative with taste of what’s wrong the city, an small businesses in towards important first step fixing the problem. of for deTo really make a difference, is a mere formality will have to the work process looking to complete their advocate are the chances course, velopers precinct, but rising rents, -- thanks to a find a way to tackle business’ is being done legally of after-hours projects quickly. their own hours,” which remain many While Chin “They pick out boom in the number throughout who lives on most vexing problem. said Mildred Angelo,of the Ruppert construction permits gauge what Buildings one said it’s too early tocould have the 19th floor in The Department of the city. number three years, the Houses on 92nd Street between role the advocate She Over the past on the is handing out a record work perThird avenues. permits, there, more information of Second and an ongoing all-hours number of after-hours bad thing. of after-hours work the city’s Dept. problem can’t be a said there’s with the mits granted by nearby where according to new data jumped 30 percent, This step, combinedBorough construction project noise Buildings has data provided in workers constantly make efforts by Manhattan to mediate BY DANIEL FITZSIMMONS according to DOB of Informacement from trucks. President Gale Brewer offer response to a Freedom classifies transferring they want. They knows the the rent renewal process, request. The city They 6 “They do whatever signs Every New Yorker clang, tion Act go as they please. work between some early, tangible small any construction on the weekend, can come and sound: the metal-on-metal or the piercing of progress. For many have no respect.” p.m. and 7 a.m., can’t come of these that the hollow boom, issuance reverse. owners, in business moving The increased beeps of a truck has generto a correspond and you as after-hours. soon enough. variances has led at the alarm clock The surge in permits

SLEEPS, THANKS TO THE CITY THAT NEVER UCTION A BOOM IN LATE-NIGHT CONSTR NEWS

A glance it: it’s the middle can hardly believe yet construction of the night, and carries on full-tilt. your local police or You can call 311

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

2 City Arts 3 Top 5 8 Real Estate 10 15 Minutes

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APRIL 13-19,2017

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STRINGER FIELDS IDEAS AND GRIEVANCES TOWN HALL About 60 people attended an Upper West Side town hall where the city comptroller took questions for more than two hours BY RAZI SYED

Housing and transportation issues were the main areas of concern at a town hall with New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer at the Goddard Riverside Community Center on April 6. “Tonight is a very special night to me because, in a lot of ways, coming home,� Stringer said. “Since I became comptroller, our work has expanded to the whole city. So I’ve been to communities all over the city but there’s nothing like having a town hall on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.� In his opening remarks, Stringer joked about the resilience of those who attend Upper West Side town halls. “When it was pouring rain, some of the folks on the staff who aren’t West Sider-types, said to me, ‘Well, I guess that’s it; no one’s coming,� Stringer said, to laughs from the roughly 60 people who showed up. “There is no

better training ground than the Upper West Side.â€? The meeting ran from 6:30 to 9:00 p.m. and had an open format, with residents with concerns lining up by microphones to ask questions. More than a dozen people asked questions before time ran out. While Stringer mostly addressed each question on his own, several city officials were on hand to answer questions on speciďŹ c issues and meet with residents at the end of the event. One resident, a teacher at P.S. 191 who had been keeping a student with her while the student’s mother waits for an apartment in public housing, came to advocate for the family. “I’m his teacher; he stays with me so he doesn’t miss school,â€? she said. “I want to know what it takes for her to get an apartment so can continue at P.S. 191?â€? In response, Stringer told her, “Right now, as you know, the real affordable housing crisis is putting a lot of people at risk, which is why we have a 60,000-person homeless crisis – half of the people who are in shelter children, like the young man here,â€? Stringer said. “I’ve been critical of the administration when they come up with a plan to eradicate homelessness and the best they can tell us is they’ll

reduce homelessness by 2,500 individuals by the next ďŹ ve years, which is a joke.â€? Stringer assured the resident his staff would locate where the student’s mother was on the list and do what they could to make sure he could stay at his school. Occupational therapist Paul Agostini, who works with the disabled, suggested Stringer look into platforms that have accessible entrances onto subway trains for those in wheelchairs. One woman asked that Citi Bike use be audited, claiming the bikes in many areas were largely unused and took up numerous parking spaces. “Is anyone monitoring Citi Bike?â€? she asked. Stringer said he supported a bike network in the city but that he intended to look at Citi Bike in a future audit to determine where the bikes are most needed and where they aren’t. Prior to taking questions, Stringer highlighted the work the comptroller’s office has done to reform the boards of companies in which the city’s pension fund is invested. “These corporate boards suffer from groupthink because, basically, you have the same guys who went to the same schools in Connecticut who

New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer took questions on public transportation, housing and other issues during an Upper West Side town hall at Goddard Riverside Community Center on April 6. Photo: Razi Syed have the same view of life – nothing wrong with that, they just have one set of life experiences,� Stringer said. “These corporate boards are just too male, they’re too pale – this I hate, but it’s true –- they’re too stale. And they look like me but with better suits.� Lastly, Stringer touched on issues concerning President Donald Trump and the federal government. “When they come for immigrants, as they are coming, we not only have to

push back, ďŹ ght back and demonstrate but we also have to make an argument,â€? Stringer said. “And I just want to let you know that immigrants in this city, from 150 different countries, generate $100 billion of income every year in New York and pay billions of dollars of taxes, own 83,000 businesses — in the medical field, the entertainment ďŹ eld — I mean, this country could not run without the immigrants that come here and are coming.â€?

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CRIME WATCH BY JERRY DANZIG STATS FOR THE WEEK Reported crimes from the 1st precinct Week to Date

ARTSY PARTSY

PRADA PREDATORS

SEIZURE ACTIVITY

Apparently it’s no longer safe to take your handbag off your arm. At 11 p.m. on Friday, March 31, a 40-year-old woman placed her handbag on the sidewalk between her legs while she ordered an Uber cab on her cell phone on Varick Street. In her account to police, she said the bag and its contents, valued at more than $7,000 was gone within a minute. The bag itself, a black Louis Vuitton Artsy, is valued at $3,000. She also lost a wallet, a silk cashmere scarf, a set of house and BMW car keys somehow worth $850, an MTA monthly MetroCard, and other items.

Store mannequins have been losing their handbags too! At 4 p.m. on Thursday, March 30, a 32-year-old male employee of the Prada store at 575 Broadway was reviewing store video surveillance when he saw footage of a man in his 30s taking handbags off a store mannequin and putting them in a 35-year-old male accomplice’s backpack. The two men then left the store without paying. The items stolen were a Prada City Calf handbag valued at $3,080, and a black City Calf handbag priced at $2,430.

Speak about kicking a guy when he’s unconscious. At 12:45 p.m. on Monday, April 3, a 44-year-old man from Great Neck had a seizure inside a McDonald’s at 160 Broadway. While he was unconscious, an unknown perpetrator removed his wallet from his pocket and his phone and jacket from his table. The stolen items included an iPhone 6S, a Prada jacket, a commuter card, $250 in cash, and other items, including personal documents. The total taken came to $2,370.

Year to Date

2017 2016

% Change

2017

2016

% Change

Murder

0

0

n/a

1

0

n/a

Rape

0

1

-100.0

4

3

33.3

Robbery

0

1

-100.0

17

13

30.8

Felony Assault

0

1

-100.0

14

15

-6.7

Burglary

0

1

-100.0

14

30

-53.3

Grand Larceny

16

19

-15.8

241

287

-16.0

Grand Larceny Auto

0

0

n/a

3

5

-40.0

WIRE SCAM

MAKEUP TAKEUP

At 1 p.m. on Saturday, April 1, a 23-year-old male downtown resident transferred $1,800 to a bank account located in the United Kingdom after inquiring about a lease for an apartment there. He had been instructed by the advertiser to wire money to that account. After he transferred the money, the advertiser asked the victim to wire even more money, but without promising him the apartment. Needless to say, the advertisement turned out to be a scam, and the victim was out his $1,800.

These days no Crime Watch column is complete without a Duane Reade shoplifting incident, and here it is. At 7:06 p.m. on Monday, April 3, a 35-year-old man stole merchandise from the chain’s store inside 250 Broadway. The items stolen were 67 makeup products totaling $1,648.39. Police caught up with the shoplifter, however, and Taylor Lynn was arrested later that day and charged with grand larceny.

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APRIL 13-19,2017

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Useful Contacts POLICE NYPD 7th Precinct

19 ½ Pitt St.

212-477-7311

NYPD 6th Precinct

233 W. 10th St.

212-741-4811

NYPD 10th Precinct

230 W. 20th St.

212-741-8211

NYPD 13th Precinct

230 E. 21st St.

212-477-7411

NYPD 1st Precinct

16 Ericsson Place

212-334-0611

FIRE FDNY Engine 15

25 Pitt St.

311

FDNY Engine 24/Ladder 5

227 6th Ave.

311

FDNY Engine 28 Ladder 11

222 E. 2nd St.

311

FDNY Engine 4/Ladder 15

42 South St.

311

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

1 Centre St., Room 2202

212-669-7970

Community Board 2

3 Washington Square Village

212-979-2272

Community Board 3

59 E. 4th St.

212-533-5300

Community Board 4

330 W. 42nd St.

212-736-4536

Hudson Park

66 Leroy St.

212-243-6876

Ottendorfer

135 2nd Ave.

212-674-0947

Elmer Holmes Bobst

70 Washington Square

212-998-2500

COMMUNITY BOARDS

LIBRARIES

HOSPITALS New York-Presbyterian

170 William St.

Mount Sinai-Beth Israel

10 Union Square East

212-844-8400

212-312-5110

CON EDISON

4 Irving Place

212-460-4600

TIME WARNER

46 East 23rd

813-964-3839

US Post Office

201 Varick St.

212-645-0327

US Post Office

128 East Broadway

212-267-1543

US Post Office

93 4th Ave.

212-254-1390

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HILLARY CLINTON IS BACK AND ‘PRETTY WORRIED’ ABOUT AMERICA EVENTS In her first major interview since the election, the former presidential candidate talks about Russia, misogyny and the Trump administration BY MADELEINE THOMPSON

Despite an agenda packed with celebrities, the applause during the eighth annual Women in the World summit that ended last Friday was loudest for former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. At Lincoln Center’s David H. Koch Theater, Clinton gave her first major interview since the election to New York Times journalist Nicholas Kristof, who asked about everything from Syria to her plans for the future. Spoiler alert: they do not include running for mayor of New York City. “As a person I’m okay — as an American I’m pretty worried,” Clinton said to Kristof’s query about how she has been holding up. “The aftermath of the election was so devastating and everything that has come to light in the days and weeks since has also been troubling. I just had to make up my mind that, yes, I was going to get out of bed.” Some of the concerns Clinton cited were Russia’s influence in the election, the role misogyny played in the cam-

Hillary Clinton with Nicholas Kristof. Photo courtesy of Tina Brown’s Women in the World Summit paign and the overwhelmingly male Trump administration. She advocated for a non-partisan investigation into Russia’s involvement, and talked about how important it is for young women to run for office. Relaxed and light-hearted, she even joked about the Republicans’ failure to repeal the Affordable Care Act. “Why do we have to cover maternity care?” she said.

“Well, maybe you were dropped by immaculate conception. Who knows?” Women in the World is an annual conference organized by Tina Brown, CEO of Tina Brown Live Media, in association with The New York Times, featuring prominent women from all walks of life. Panels ranged from “How to Raise a Feminist,” with author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and presi-

dent of Planned Parenthood Cecile Richards, to a conversation with Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau, to “Saudi Women Athletes: Shaking Up the Kingdom.” Not everyone got the warm welcome Clinton received; United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley was booed by the audience when asked about President Donald Trump’s actions on Rus-

sia. “I have had conversations with the president where he very much sees Russia as a problem,” Haley said. “The two things Russia doesn’t want to see the U.S. do is strengthen their military and expand energy, and the president has done both of those.” At one point, a heckler shouted, “What about refugees?” New York City was represented by several summit speakers, including fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg, journalist Maggie Haberman and actor Scarlett Johansson. Though Clinton all but said she was finished with running for office, Johansson told author and businesswoman Arianna Huffington that she wasn’t ruling it out. “I come from a very politically vocal family,” Johansson said. “My grandmother was fighting for tenants’ rights during the whole Mitchell-Lama housing development with [now-comptroller] Scott Stringer. I think that change happens at home.” Throughout the three-day event, women and feminism took center stage. The heartbreaking stories of survival in ISIS-held cities and refugee camps, and even of instances of domestic terrorism like the Charleston massacre, served to remind viewers that though Women’s History Month just ended, it never really does. Madeleine Thompson can be reached at newsreporter@strausnews.com

STATE BUDGET PASSES, CITY’S IN THE WORKS FUNDING City Council calls de Blasio’s spending plan “overly conservative” BY MADELEINE THOMPSON

Nine days after the March 31 deadline, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s state budget proposal passed the Legislature on Sunday. Though a stopgap measure was put in place, extending last year’s budget until a new one was approved, the delay dented Cuomo’s reputation of generally on-time budgets. “It is a blow to the image he’s created of himself as the hands-on, under-thehood governmental mechanic of a guy who makes the engine run well,” Blair Horner, executive director of the New York Public Interest Research Group, told Politico. The extended weeks of debate may come back to haunt the governor if, as is rumored, he plans to enter the presidential race in 2020. Some of the spending plan’s most contentious items included a provision to raise the age at which teens

can be prosecuted as adults from 16 to 18, the ability of ride-sharing services Uber and Lyft to operate upstate, and an extension of the 421a tax abatement for developers until 2022. Funding for education was increased by $1.1 billion, bringing the total amount of education aid to $25.8 billion. Cuomo’s plan to make college tuition free for households making less than $125,000 annually will be phased in over the next three years. To combat the opioid epidemic, the budget devotes $200 million to prevention, treatment and recovery programs. The $153.1 billion budget represents a roughly $2 billion decrease from last year’s spending plan. As news of its passing broke, state legislators and elected officials began issuing statements detailing their takes. Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance called the increase age of adult prosecution a “major step forward for criminal justice reform.” “The adult criminal justice system is not developmentally appropriate for most adolescents — we can, and we must, do better,” he said. State Senator Daniel Squadron,

whose district includes lower Manhattan, broke the budget down by good, bad and “big ugly.” The last, he said, was caused by a lack of transparency in passing the “wacky, dysfunctional” budgeting process, and by the Senate’s failure to pass substantive ethics reforms. Locally, the City Council recently released its response to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s proposed budget, for which the deadline is July 1. The 47-page report follows a month of budget hearings by each Council committee, and concludes that de Blasio’s proposal was “overly conservative” and seeks to make adjustments that “better align with more realistic expectations.” Some of the projects the Council wants to see prioritized are air conditioning in public schools, moving adolescents off Rikers Island and funding the East River Esplanade project. Council Member Ben Kallos, in whose district most of the esplanade is located, said the problem is “bigger than anyone ever thought it was.” The Council asked for $169 million to be included in the city’s 10-year capital plan for the esplanade, which

Flanked by supporters and several Manhattan elected officials, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed legislation on Monday raising the age of criminality in New York from 16 to 18, which was approved when the state budget passed on Sunday. Photo: Kevin P. Coughlin/Office of the Governor stretches from 41st Street to East 124th Street. Several phases of the project have been completed so far, such as landscaping, railings and ramps. The Council’s response to de Blasio’s budget also acknowledged the uncertainty the city faces under President Donald Trump’s administration, and advocated for protecting immigrant communities as well as boosting infrastructure spending. “The Council’s proposals, as laid out in this response, express our view

that in these challenging times, it is critical to budget in a way that is both cautious and compassionate,”the report reads. “The budget must also signal that, no matter the climate in Washington, the City will continue to stand with and raise up all New Yorkers, providing them with essential programs and services that ensure access to opportunity and better their lives.” Madeleine Thompson can be reached at newsreporter@strausnews.com

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NYPD CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

The City Council proposed funding half-priced MetroCards for low-income transit riders in its budget recommendations. Photo: Madeleine Thompson

COUNCIL PUSHES $50M FARE SUBSIDY PILOT TRANSPORTATION de Blasio says responsibility for funding should fall on state, not city BY MICHAEL GAROFALO

A months-long campaign to include over $200 million in the city’s 2018 budget to fund halfpriced MetroCards for low-income New Yorkers appears to have fallen short, prompting “fair fares” advocates to refocus their short-term efforts on a more modest transit subsidy proposal. City council members called for a $50 million pilot program to fund half-priced MetroCards for low-income residents in their response to the Mayor Bill de Blasio’s preliminary budget. The pilot program is a pared down version of an earlier $212 million plan that would have covered each of the roughly 800,000 New Yorkers living at or below the poverty level, which was staunchly opposed by Mayor Bill de Blasio. De Blasio has consistently

maintained that he supports the concept of a fare subsidy, but believes the burden of funding such a program should fall on the state and Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who controls MTA board appointments, rather than the city. The lower cost of the city council’s pilot plan did little to soften the stance of de Blasio, who is scheduled to submit his executive budget to the council by April 26. “The pilot program, like the original proposal, is a noble one, but the mayor has been very clear: the MTA is the responsibility of the state and they should consider funding the program,” de Blasio spokeswoman Freddi Goldstein said in a statement, adding that the city already contributes $60 million annually in subsidized fares for elderly, disabled, and student riders. The MTA board voted to raise fares for weekly and monthly MetroCards in January, but kept the base transit fare of $2.75 in place. The push to secure subsidized fares for lowincome New Yorkers gained considerable support in recent

months from city lawmakers including Public Advocate Letitia James, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, and a number of city council members, including Ben Kallos, Margaret Chin, Mark Levine, and Ydanis Rodriguez, who chairs the council’s transportation committee. The pilot plan touted by Rodriguez would fund half-priced MetroCards over the next fiscal year for an as-yet-unspecified subset of New Yorkers living below the federal poverty level, which is approximately $24,000 for a family of four. The City Council suggested that the $50 million program could fund subsidized fares for more than 70,000 low-income CUNY students, but said it could alternatively target other populations, such as the homeless, veterans, or welfare recipients. The plan calls for funding to increase to $100 million in fiscal year 2019, and then increase again in fiscal year 2020 to subsidize fares for the full 800,000 New Yorkers covered in the original proposal.

separate NYPD officer with a prior history of complaints. A number of city agencies collect data regarding complaints and lawsuits alleging police misconduct, but there is limited interagency coordination in organizing the information and ensuring all applicable parties can analyze it. The proposed legislation would mandate uniform access to the full scope of available information for all concerned agencies. “It should not be so difficult or cumbersome for agencies keeping an eye on police misconduct to have the full universe of information that is relevant,” Garodnick said at the hearing. “The police department has had an early intervention system for years, but we want to build on that by giving these other oversight agencies the ability to share and access information easily,” Garodnick said in a later interview. “The hope is that it will assist in early identification of those few officers who are prone to misconduct and ensure action before somebody gets hurt and before the city has to pay considerable sums in legal claims.” In fiscal year 2016, the city paid out $279.7 million in settlements and judgements of legal claims against the NYPD, the highest total ever. Though payouts have increased every year since 2013, the number of claims filed against the NYPD decreased in fiscal years 2015 and 2016, reflecting the fact that cases often take years to reach a settlement or judgement. For example, in early April, the city agreed to pay $4 million to settle the wrongful arrest suit filed by Thabo Sefolosha, a professional basketball player, in response to his 2015 arrest outside a Chelsea nightclub, during which he suffered a broken fibula and other injuries. The NYPD did

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not admit to any wrongdoing as part of the settlement. The bill would not impact current NYPD policy that governs the handling of officers accused of misconduct, but Garodnick believes that increased information sharing between agencies would contribute to better outcomes. “It’s not a guarantee, but it certainly puts an additional level of accountability in place, which will help,” he said. Robert Gangi, who heads the nonprofit Police Reform Organizing Project and is running for mayor on a police reform platform, said that he supports bills like Garodnick’s, but is skeptical that legislation alone can succeed in reining in police misconduct. “There should be a very strong response from the mayor and commissioner when officers have engaged in reckless, irresponsible or brutal conduct,” Gangi said, adding that the officers involved in the Graham and Garner cases should have been fired immediately. “We are aggressively critical of the police department’s record in disciplining itself,” Gangi said. “The police department protects its own officers. We lay the blame for abusive and discriminatory conduct by police officers directly on the doorstep of the city’s leadership, particularly on [Mayor] Bill De Blasio and [NYPD Commissioner] James O’Neill.” The Civilian Complaint Review Board investigates complaints of police misconduct and makes disciplinary recommendations to the police department based on its findings. About 60 percent of NYPD officers have had at least one complaint filed against them, according to CCRB data. Just 10 percent of officers, however, have ever received a complaint alleging misconduct that was later substantiated by the CCRB. The NYPD did not respond to a request for comment on the legislation. Reporter Michael Garofalo can be reached at reporter@strausnews.com

APRIL 13-19,2017

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DINNER WITH DIGNITY CHURCHES All Souls on the Upper East Side serves restaurant-style meals to almost 400 people every week BY LAURA HANRAHAN

“Dining with dignity” is the motto at All Souls’ Monday Night Hospitality dinner. Every week for the past 37 years, volunteers at All Souls Unitarian Church on Lexington and East 80th Street have prepped, cooked and served sit-down, restaurant-style meals to in-need members of the community. George Collins, the program’s cochair, has been volunteering every Monday night for nearly two decades. Twenty years ago, he says, the average Monday night dinner would serve 75 guests. Now the number is closer to 400. “It’s an aspect of the economy,” Collins said. The program was initially created in response to Upper East Side servants and maids whose living standards declined after losing their jobs due to age. Today, roughly 40 percent of those who attend are homeless,

while others are working poor or elderly. Starting at 4:30 p.m., volunteers busily transform the large, basementlevel church hall into a makeshift restaurant. Twenty-five tables are carefully set with tablecloths, cutlery, china dishes, napkins, bread baskets and vases of flowers. Stations for food and drinks are set up along the outside walls, where the volunteer waitstaff, in their matching aprons, can refill their trays. In the kitchen, a team prepares the evening’s feast. On the menu is a garden salad, vegetable soup and, for the main course, a fig and mustard chicken. The chefs had been tasked with incorporating the jars of fig preserves that had been given to the program through a donation — something, the chefs say, they don’t get often enough. To make sure all of their guests are looked after, the chefs also prepare a vegetarian option, and vegan meals are donated weekly by Candle 79. With an annual program budget of $80,000, each meal can cost only $3.70. “We’re to the penny of how it works,” said Chef Dan Strader, who has volunteered with the program for more than 13 years.

Volunteer coordinator Nancy Ellis Yates (right) with Margot, a longtime guest. Photo: Nancy Ellis Yates

Volunteers in the church kitchen. Photo: Nancy Ellis Yates For those attending the dinner, it offers not only a sense of dignity, but

All set for dinner. Photo: Nancy Ellis Yates

a community. As the guests pour in around 7 pm, the room fills with chatter while the diners, many having attended for years, catch up and swap stories. “They come here for the social contact more than a meal,” Collins said. One attendee, Gina, fell on hard times as the result of medical issues. The Brooklyn native has been coming to the Monday night dinners with her daughter for the past two years. They have made friends through the program and rely on the kitchen’s leftovers, given out to guests in to-go containers, to feed them the next day. Gina’s daughter, a vegetarian, loves that she is easily accommodated. “The people are the nicest, just really the way they should be,” Gina said of the volunteer staff. “They treat everybody like human beings. It’s very good service, excellent service.” Each course is individually served by the waitstaff and guests are offered their choice of beverage, either iced tea, water, coffee, hot chocolate or juice. The meal is finished off with dessert plates sprinkled with cakes and cookies. The All Souls School often donates cupcakes made by the kindergarten class, however, the dinner program is largely in need of more dessert donations, Strader says. To accommodate for the growing number of attendees, several tables are marked as “express.” Guests eating at these tables need to leave by 7:30 to allow for a second seating. Upstairs, social worker John Sheehan, who is at All Souls on Mondays and Fridays, makes himself available to any guests seeking help. “I help people get off the street, but

that’s a process,” Sheehan said. “It’s all types of folks and all types of problems, mostly around housing, but sometime around health, sometimes around documentation issues.” Sheehan will refer guests to shelters, facilitate job searches and help them find clothing donation programs. “We do whatever we can,” he said. Every penny in the budget is accounted for. The dinner program lost its corporate sponsor two years ago and relies heavily on funding from the church. Unforeseen complications — like the dishwasher that broke six weeks ago — go unfixed until enough extra funds can be raised. And with the increasing number of guests coming to dine, the budget is stretched very thin most weeks. “We tend to get a lot more people towards the end of the month,” said Nancy Ellis Yates, the volunteer coordinator. “Benefits have run out, so that meal is super important.” Though homelessness is a weighty issue, all of the 65 volunteers have smiles on their faces throughout the evening, happily welcoming back the regulars and engaging with each diner. And although volunteers can come as often or as little as they would like, according to Yates many tend to come back week after week for several years. “A lot of what we do here is education to the face of homelessness,” Collins said. “What people realize, the volunteers, is that our guests are just like them.” For information on volunteering or donating, contact nancyellisyates@gmail.com.

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FAMILY FRIENDLY GRAYING NEW YORK BY MARCIA EPSTEIN

Last week I took my “kids” (They are 44 and 47) out for dinner for my younger daughter’s birthday. This, folks, is what the joy of parenthood comes down to: laughing and talking with your adult children and knowing that all is on the right track. On and off over the years, we’ve had plenty of issues. I didn’t

talk to one daughter for years, and had disagreements and periods of silence with the other. But none of us wanted that kind of situation to go on forever, and now we’re in a good space. My feeling is that it will last. Without going into personal details, I can only say that I think we’ve all come to terms with each other’s faults and good points, that we all love each other, and that the time of friction is over (crossed fingers). I’m not young anymore, and I have four grandchildren. I own my part of the problems we had and have done what I can do make things better. My family is very important to me and the grandchildren are still young. They need a cohesive family, and so do I. There’s so much in the world to be sad and angry about, I no longer have the energy or desire to be out of communi-

cation with the people I love most. It takes patience and forbearance to overlook annoyances, and the desire of all concerned to accept differences, to make any relationship work. The adult child/parent relationship is no different. But it’s worth it, so very worth it. I looked at my beautiful daughters and thanked the powers that be that we were laughing and having fun, and were in such a good space at last. I have a serious case of PESS (Post Election Stress Syndrome). I’m a TV news junkie and can spend hours switching between MSNBC and CNN just to hear the same stories over and over again. When I told my psychiatrist that I was worried about being more depressed, he asked me if I watched a lot of news. His prescription was to stop, cold turkey! Also to watch Steve Colbert.

Voices

He told me that many of his patients were complaining of the same thing, and that watching or reading too many news stories about our present political situation was causing stress and depression in many people. I don’t know if I can do it cold turkey, but I’m going to taper off. It’s back to my books and crossword puzzles and goodbye Wolf Blitzer and Rachel Maddow. Maybe I’ll sneak in a little bit of Chuck Todd. I can’t give up Chuck entirely. I’ll keep you posted on whether it works. There’s a new permanent home for an experimental theater group on the Upper West Side, in the basement of a hostel on West 106th Street. Ildiko Nemeth has been using different performance spaces for many years, but finally she’s found a place of her own. The New Stage Theatre Company performs alterna-

PLUGGING THE NEIGHBORHOOD BY BETTE DEWING

Now here’s some media Easter/Passover deliverance — thanks to actor and Little Italy cheese shop owner Tony Danza’s call to the mayor on the Brian Lehrer radio show late last month. Bless him for his save-theneighborhood-stores vision, and taking action (and more of us must — it’s good for our health and the cause). And due to his celeb status, this message miraculously received coverage! Danza, who is a partner in Alleva Dairy on Grand Street, said to be the nation’s oldest Italian cheese shop, asked the mayor his thoughts “about what I like to call the ‘neighborhood wasting disease.’ You know we have so many longtime establishments that have anchored neighborhoods in this city that are just being pushed out by exorbitant rents.” And while sympathetic, the mayor

replied that there’s little government can do. Of the public sector’s ability to help keep small business afloat in the city, de Blasio’s said, “we are generally not in the position of subsidizing businesses and we don’t really have another great tool to do it.” Now rent control possibility is indeed arguable, and Danza might have added that while the mayor is all for affordable housing, where will these residents find a nearby place to “break bread” or even buy it? Even our supermarkets are being priced out! And looking to the future, Danza at 65, might have noted how the fast-growing elder population especially needs nearby neighborhood stores and affordable eateries. And don’t forget how the city’s overriding stress on city transit — getting somewhere fast and conveniently, mostly to work or to school, while neighborhoods where we live are ever

Tony Danza, a partner at Alleva on Grand Street, last month asked what Mayor Bill de Blasio and his administration might do to ensure the city’s small businesses are not pushed out by high rents. Photo: Marcela, via flickr more, yes, like suburbia. The mixeduse diversity every group needs is in dire need of saving and restoring. But what Danza’s impassioned plea did was get the message out there — celebs can do that. Ah, but dear Tony Danza, you must do infinitely more — keep this desperate need out there, Get other celebs, small biz and the general public on board. And then run for mayor on a long-overdue Save the Neighborhood Party. Long overdue is a mayor who

cares about saving small local businesses that meet neighborhood needs and keep the city’s fabric from being torn asunder. About NY1, while many New Yorkers watch it for local news, small business loss along with city bicyclists’ habitual disregard for the laws of the road never got much coverage. But now under new boss, Spectrum, we’re losing Sunday’s “The New York Times Close Up” and, more distressing, “The Call” nightly show, when city residents get

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tive theater pieces and on April 7 her inaugural performance premiered in her new space — a multimedia theater piece based on a Charles Mee play. It’s a smallish space, seating no more than 50, but Nemeth is thrilled. She plans to have a variety of cultural programming for Upper West Siders for family-friendly and alternative works. She also plans to work with the puppet theater company Loco 7 to produce shows and workshops for children. Tickets are $18 and $15 for students and seniors. Find it at www.newstagetheater. org. It’s time to stow the heavy sweaters and boots. Aside from eschewing the news, I’m going to find the daffodils and take a big, long sniff of spring air. Let’s find happiness wherever we can. It’s all we can do right now.

to call in or email their concerns. And thank you, Susan Susskind for alerting me to the derniere “The Call” program — after 12 years, it’s being shut down — the hard truth is the public is being told to shut up. This too needs to get out there. Also that the last program got only a half-hour for that most gracious host, John Schiumo, to air some past “call-in” excerpts and to especially thank all his callers and emailers, especially the regulars. Schiumo really wanted to know what even the often not-so-enlightened had to say. Unlike some moderators, his comments were brief. Schiumo said he was not weeping and would be at the station for a while yet. Half-jokingly, he suggested that prospective employers get in touch. We sure do need more self-effacing and gracious people in media – not to mention the White House — and, yes, in general. So here’s to viewers — all the concerned to “not go gently (silently) into that dark night...” That directive could not apply more to the wrongful destruction of small neighborhood business. It also means plugging a Danza or a similar advocate for mayor, and a Save the Neighborhood political party — A near revolution, in other words, from the city status quo. And doesn’t that relate to what urban deliverance and redemption are all about? dewingbetter@aol.com

Editor-In-Chief, Alexis Gelber editor.ot@strausnews.com Deputy Editor Staff Reporters Richard Khavkine Madeleine Thompson editor.otdt@strausnews.com newsreporter@strausnews.com Senior Reporter Michael Garofalo Doug Feiden reporter@strausnews.com invreporter@strausnews.com

APRIL 13-19,2017

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BREAST CANCER SCREENING BILL ADVANCES HEALTH Seawright bill would require insurance companies to fully cover so-called 3-D mammograms BY LAURA HANRAHAN

Patients would not incur out-ofpocket costs for 3-dimentional mammograms, which are better at detecting breast cancer than more common 2-D imaging procedures, according to a bill passed by the Assembly last month. The bill, sponsored by Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright, would require medical insurance policies within New York to cover the procedure, called breast tomosynthesis. Seawright, who represents the Upper East Side, Yorkville and Roosevelt Island, said she sponsored the bill after hearing from local medical professionals about the lack of coverage. “Insurance weren’t covering 3-D mammogram screenings and they felt like they should be required to,” Seawright said of the doctors she spoke with. “I feel the 3-D mammograms are one of the strongest weapons in combating and fighting breast cancer because it promotes early detection

and we all know that early detection is key.” Seawright suggested that the Assembly’s 146-0 vote on March 30 indicated a crucial need for the procedure’s widespread availability. “The legislature is predominantly men but I think men get breast cancer,” Seawright said. “They have daughters, wives, nieces, women in their lives and I think they see the importance of the bill.” The state Senate will now consider the bill. Dr. Nicole Saphier, a healthcare legislation advocate and clinician at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center — the hospital that first approached Seawright about the possibility of authoring a bill — described the issues that can arise with the limited scope available in 2-D imaging. “The problem with that is there was a lot of overlapping tissue, what we call the ‘masking effect,’ so a lot of cancers were being hidden,” she said. “Now what we’ve done is we reconstruct 3-D images, which means that we take several more images from different angles, put them together, and make a volumetric model of the breast, just like you’d see in real life, and that way not only are we finding more cancer, we’re also not having as many false

CLIMATE CHANGE CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 East Harlem and parts of Yorkville, bordering the East River, are also at risk. Asked how much of a difference affordable flood insurance would make, Lydon said “a lot.” Some of his neighbors, he said, didn’t find out that their insurance wouldn’t cover flooding from a storm until they filed a claim. “The definition of what is covered under a Sandy kind of event is very unclear in the policies,” he said, noting that West Village tenants, in a common practice for landlords, are required to have insurance. “[Policies] cover flooding from an apartment upstairs maybe if their toilet overflows, but from a major storm event, a lot of people’s policies didn’t cover it.” It took the West Village Houses two years to completely renovate the damaged roughly 30 damaged apartments, and the board was only recently compensated by the city’s Build It Back program for about 70 percent of that cost. But the board isn’t stopping there. According to Lydon, the West Village Houses has also purchased a $600,000 AquaFence, which can be deployed if another major storm is predicted. The group also paid Brooklyn-based Local Office Landscape Architecture to devise a plan to avoid such catastrophes in the future. To implement the plan, however, would cost $10 million that the board doesn’t have. Lyndon said the West Village Houses

positives.” Clinicians are also able to detect smaller masses through much denser tissue than they could with 2-D scans. Christy Gamble, director of health policy and legislative affairs for the Black Women’s Health Imperative, a national nonprofit, said the will directly benefit women she advocates for. “3-D mammography is the best screening tool out there for detecting breast cancer in women with dense breast tissue and unfortunately black women more than likely are going to have dense breast tissue,” Gamble said. “Using the traditional 2-D mammogram, for a lot of black women there’s a misdiagnosis, there’s the possibility of having further callbacks, which is very expensive, and unfortunately black women tend to disproportionately make up those in the low income population.” Many insurance plans do not cover 3-D mammograms. Of the ones that do, there tends be substantial out-ofpocket costs. “Insurance has been giving us a really hard time about it, saying that it is still investigational, however, it absolutely is not still investigational,” Saphier said. “We have several very large robust studies that prove its efficacy and now we’re starting to see

Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright following the Assembly’s 146-0 vote on March 30 in favor of a bill that would cover 3-D mammograms at no cost to patients. Photo: The New York State Assembly states covering it because they’re finally acknowledging that it is the new standard of care for women.” While the price of 3-D mammograms is significantly higher than their 2-D predecessors, Seawright, Gamble and Saphier all agree the long-term savings outweigh the initial costs. “The 3-D right now is about three times more expensive, but if you factor in the long-term effect of finding the

cancer earlier, it will be less expensive to treat it,” Saphier said. “It’s much less expensive to treat an early cancer than a late-stage cancer.” According to Saphier, 30 percent more cancers are being detected and 25 percent fewer people are being called back due to uncertainty in results.

didn’t interact with federal agencies after Sandy and has gotten no financial help from them, but he expects that they will need it in the future. That may be more difficult than it was five years ago, as President Donald Trump’s administration last month began retracting some of the environmental protection commitments made by President Barack Obama. Trump’s proposed budget slashed funding for the Environmental Protection Agency by 31 percent, and he has ordered its director Scott Pruitt to begin rewriting Obama’s Clean Power Plan, which aimed to close hundreds of coal power plants and replace them with alternative energy plants. New York City is attempting to provide what it can with its $20 billion OneNY plan, which has completed multiple infrastructure projects to improve protection against climate change. But many of those rely in part on federal funding. Council Member Corey Johnson, whose district encompasses Manhattan’s lower West Side, did not hold back in predicting the potential effects of Trump’s policies. “By rolling back climate protections, Trump is virtually guaranteeing that we’ll have more Sandys in the future, with greater frequency and severity,” he said in a statement. “That should outrage all of us.” Eventually, no amount of affordable flood insurance will suffice. Madeleine Thompson can be reached at newsreporter@strausnews.com

A map shows that the areas with a heightened risk of flooding did, in fact, line up with the areas hardest hit by Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Map courtesy of FEMA

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Out & About More Events. Add Your Own: Go to otdowntown.com

Photo by Pedro Szekely via Flickr

Thu 13 Fri 14 ‘IF VENICE DIES’▲

DIRTY PICTURES

Center for Architecture, 536 LaGuardia Place 6-8 p.m. $10 Salvatore Settis discusses his latest book and warns that “hit-and-run” visitors are turning landmark urban settings into shopping malls and theme parks. 212-683-0023. main.aiany.org

SoHo Photo Gallery, 15 White St. 6 p.m. Free Author of “The Homoerotic Photograph,” on multiple meanings of homoerotic photography and why, since Mapplethorpe, images are easy prey for right-wing fundamentalists. 212-226-8571. sohophoto. com

FRANK STELLA New School University Center, 63 Fifth Ave., room U100 6 p.m. Free. RSVP. Paul Goldberger, Pulitzer Prize winning architectural critic, engages Stella on his life and work. 212-229-5600. newschool.edu

Sat 15 SLEEPWELL | RELAXATION► Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance, 55 Bethune St. 7-9 p.m. $22 Live music by composer Michael Whalen from his album “Dream Cycle”: sound healing and restorative Yoga. Be prepared for deep relaxation. 212-229-9200. marthagraham.org

WRITING BIOGRAPHY Deutsches Haus at NYU, 42 Washington Mews 6:30 p.m. Free. RSVP. Thomas Sparr, editor-at-large at the “Suhrkamp Verlag” in Berlin, on “Difficulties of Writing a Biography of Paul Celan,” followed by discussion. 212-998-8660. deutscheshaus.as.nyu.edu

STREET FAIR Hester Street Fair, Hester and Essex Streets 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Opening weekend of “one-of-a-kind cultural and community gathering,” drawing from the diversity of the local neighborhood and citywide.

APRIL 13-19,2017

hesterstreetfair-com.

Sun 16 PIZZA PAIRING New York Vintners, 21 Warren St. 2-3:30 p.m. $75 Which wines take N.Y.C.’s favorite food, pizza, to the next level? Join popular class “Perfect Pizza Pairings.” 212-812-3999. newyorkvintners.com

Gerard read. Fama is the author of “Fantasy,” and Gerard is the author of forthcoming essay collection “Sunshine State.” 212-674-0910. poetryproject. org

FORTUNE SOCIETY

Mon 17 POETS READ The Poetry Project, 131 East 10th St. 8-10 p.m. $8 Poets Ben Fama and Sarah

Diller-von Furstenberg Sundeck, 820 Washington St. At dusk. Free Look at the stars, peer through high-powered telescopes provided by knowledgeable members of Amateur Astronomers Association, see rare celestial sights. 212-500-6035. thehighline.org

City Winery, 155 Varick St. 6-9 p.m. $150-$10,000 One of the nation’s most respected nonprofit organizations offering services to formerly incarcerated men and women holds its spring Benefit. 347-510-3607. fortunesociety.org

Wed 19

Tue 18

Lovecraft Bar, 50 Avenue B 7-10 p.m. $10 + 2 drink min. In third of a series, DM Paranormal lectures on subject of the fascinating legend of the Mothman. 212-432-2802. dmparanormal.com

TINA TURNER TRIBUTE Café Wha?, 115 MacDougal St. 7:30 p.m. $15 Singer LaRita’s alto voice “reaches back in time to charismatic music” of soul, jazz and R&B, and pays tribute to Tina Turner and Earth, Wind & Fire. 212-254-3706. cafewha.com

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OPEN PERFORMANCE Eden’s Expressway, 537 Broadway. 7 p.m. $3 Non-curated, shared showings of dance experimentation and work-inprogress. Discussion moderated by Movement Research artistin-residence. 212-598-0551. movementresearch.org

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Center for Italian Modern Art, 421 Broome St., 4th Fl. 6-8 p.m. Free. “Italian Art — Rediscovering America” explores the experiences of the artists Fortunato Depero, Giorgio de Chirico, Ugo Mulas and others — from Futurism to Pop Art. 646-370-3596.

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APRIL 13-19,2017

TEXTILE ART IN THE CATHEDRAL EXHIBITIONS

IF YOU GO

After a long hiatus, the Barberini tapestries are again on view at St. John the Divine BY VAL CASTRONOVO

St. John the Divine is once again a showcase for the Barberini tapestries, a gift to the Morningside Heights cathedral from Elizabeth Coles of New York and Newport in 1891, one year before the church’s cornerstone was laid. The items are world-renowned works of art, united for the first time in decades. Ten tapestries from the 12-panel Life of Christ series adorn three of the chapels in advance of Easter. The 17th century Italian Baroque hangings have been cleaned and restored at the cathedral’s on-site Textile Conservation Laboratory, after a serious fire in the north transept in 2001 damaged some of the works. Two of the panels, “The Last Supper” and “The Resurrection,” were badly burned and only fragments from the former are included in the current show; four suffered smoke damage. The other six were spared because they were already at the laboratory, which was set up in 1981 specifically to

WHAT: “The Barberini Tapestries: Woven Monuments of Baroque Rome” WHERE: The Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine, 1047 Amsterdam Ave., at 112th Street WHEN: through June 25. www.stjohndivine.org

care for the series, Marlene Eidelheit, the lab’s director, told us. “It’s the first time we are telling the whole story of the tapestries,” Eidelheit, also the exhibit’s co-curator, said. “It’s the first time they are being shown at eye level, versus 50 feet up in the air.” Cardinal Francesco Barberini (15971679), nephew of Pope Urban VIII, commissioned the works, which were produced at the tapestry workshop he founded in Rome in 1627. The series was designed by Baroque painter Giovanni Francesco Romanelli and woven by members of the della Riviera family over a 13-year period from 1643 to 1656. The massive weavings measure roughly 16-feet high and 12-to19-feet wide and stand testament to the political and cultural power of the Barberini family.

The Barberini tapestries, scenes from the Life of Christ series: Detail from “The Agony in the Garden.” Photo: John Bigelow Taylor

In the 17th century, they decorated Palazzo Barberini in the center of Rome and were loaned out to St. Peter’s Basilica and a host of churches and secular venues. Photos of the buildings in Rome that housed the tapestries line the walls here, with another set of photos showing the works installed at various locales within the cathedral since their donation more than 100 years ago. “For a long stretch, they were hung behind the high altar in the apse,” Eidelheit said. At the Chapel of St. James, seven of the wool-and-silk-woven panels are wrapped around the room, providing a panoramic view of scenes in the life of Jesus — namely “The Annunciation,” “The Nativity,” “The Adoration of the Magi,” “The Baptism of Christ,” “The Consignment of the Keys to St. Peter,” “The Agony in the Garden” and “The Crucifixion.” The four corners of each work bear cartouches with images of three bees from the Barberini coat of arms. Other cartouches grace the borders, boasting images of a rising sun and three bees pushing a plow — emblems of the power and work ethic, respectively, that distinguished the Barberini dynasty — in addition to symbolic images of the Christian virtues of faith, hope and charity. The adjacent Chapel of St. Ambrose houses the complementary pieces, “The Rest on the Flight into Egypt” and “The Holy Land” (a woven map). Behind the high altar, the Chapel of St. Saviour concludes the exhibit with a single tapestry, “The Transfiguration,” depicting the ecstatic scene, described in the Gospels, after Jesus climbs a mountain and appears to three of his disciples in shining glory. (Two darkened fragments from “The Last Supper” are in a display case nearby.) This is a house of worship and, therefore, the works here have an added spiritual dimension. One approaches them with reverence, like the reverence reserved for the altars in the chapels. During our visit, people were sitting on chairs and contemplating the divine, as expressed in the art and felt in this soaring, still unfinished cathedral, the largest in the world. But this house of prayer is also functioning like a museum or gallery, with bold signage, in the chapels and outside them, explaining the history of the art and the cast of characters that

The Barberini tapestries, scenes from the Life of Christ: Detail from “The Rest on the Flight into Egypt. Photo: John Bigelow Taylor made it possible and brought it to New York (plus a timeline and exegesis of textile conservation). A booklet and double-sided guide, plus two looms and a catalog by Eidelheit and her cocurator James Harper, a Barberini tapestries scholar, provide additional context. Tapestry production flourished in the Middle Ages and beyond, especially in northern Europe. Per the booklet, prior to the Industrial Revolution, workshops employed “tens of thousands” to manufacture these luxury items — “portable art” prized by royals and aristocrats who moved around a lot.

“They added warmth to the stone of castles, churches and great houses (where they often hung right next to each other around a room, as close as wallpaper panels) and could be used as curtains to cover doorways or provide privacy in bedchambers,” the booklet reads. Textile series, especially, were prized for their versatility. They could be shown in their entirety or piecemeal — inside the manor or outside at the parade. “This is a one of a kind set that stuck together since it left the Barberini family,” Eidelheit said.

APRIL 13-19,2017

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Do you or your loved one have Alzheimer’s? dŚĞ ZŽĐŬĞĨĞůůĞƌ hŶŝǀĞƌƐŝƚLJ ,ŽƐƉŝƚĂů ŝƐ ĐŽŶĚƵĐƟŶŐ Ă ƐƚƵĚLJ ƚĞƐƟŶŐ Ă ŶĞǁ ĚƌƵŐ ƚŚĂƚ ŵĂLJ ŝŵƉƌŽǀĞ ŵĞŵŽƌLJ͘

Poet Marie Howe crafts customized verses for Talia, 18, left, and Jocsan, 17, students from CUNY Prep in the Bronx. Photo: Katherine Warren

THE LYRICAL EVERYDAY WRITING At Grand Central, poets pen little epics to go a long way BY KATHERINE WARREN

The clickity-clack of electric typewriters and the deep tones of a classical cello mingled with quotidinal hustle and bustle at Grand Central Terminal Friday. In the midst of midtown’s frantic transport hub, people lined up in Vanderbilt Hall to sit across from strangers, open up and try to make a connection. But they weren’t there for speed dating; they were there for poetry. More than 30 poets spent the day writing verses for New Yorkers, most of them complete strangers, inspiring people to engage with alliteration and assonance, meter and metaphor. The free and public event, ties to National Poetry Month, was part of a years-long effort to catch New Yorkers’ attentions by the MTA Arts & Design program and the Poetry Society of America. Guitarists, cellists and violinists, performers from the MTA’s Music Under New York project, added their aesthetic. “This is a really special event where the public gets to engage with living, breathing poets and have a really special connection with them and see themselves directly in a poem,” said Laurin Macios, program director at the Poetry Society of America. “We hope it encourages people who don’t engage with poetry, or particularly contemporary poetry, to

feel inspired to do so.” The array of writers, all of them published poets, were chosen by the Poetry Society and former New York State Poet Marie Howe. They sat at tables beneath signs proclaiming “The Poet is In.” Interested participants and poets would chat a few minutes and the poets would then tap out customized verses. “It’s what we call on occasional poem,” Howe said. “Someone sits down, we listen to them, we ask them questions, and then we try to use what they give us and transform it in some way and put it back out. It’s this idea of bringing poetry into a public space.” The poets asked questions such as “What’s a dream you had that you still remember?” or “If you were to tell the story of your life, what would be the first sentence?” CUNY Prep students Talia, 18, and Jocsan, 17, sat down with Howe, and the poet asked them to imagine an door, behind which was something or someone they had lost and would like to see again. Independently, both said they would like to see their grandmothers again. The two students came to the event with two English teachers from CUNY Prep, a transitional school in the Bronx that helps students who’ve dropped out get their high school equivalencies. One CUNY Prep teacher, Latasha Drax, said she wanted to expose her students to a literature-based event and take them out of their comfort zones. “Poetry is one of those art

forms that they can really relate to because it connects to rap and other art forms,” she said. “They make a personal connection.” After typing out the poems, the poets signed them and read them aloud to the recipients. “That’s a very important part of it,” Howe said. “A lot of people cry. I think people are moved to be heard and to have what they say given back to them, transformed. And once people forget about trying to be smart or interesting, they’ll just say things that matter.” Friday’s event was put together by the same groups that bring poetry to city dwellers by way of posters in the city’s subway cars and buses, competing with straphangers’ predilictions for their iPhones. Claudia Candelario of Brooklyn, a poetry lover who was given a poem by poet and novelist Victoria Redel, said people appreciate reading verse in the subway. “It’s not only me reading the poetry in there,” she said. “Some people write the name and title down or take a picture. The other day a lady asked me to switch seats so she could get a picture with the poetry.” Public verse, in other words, invites consideration. “It’s poetry outreach,” Macios of the Poetry Society said. “Poetry is something that creates empathy and passion and inspires people, brings people together. Getting someone out of the world of their phone and into the public space and getting to read the same poem that the person next to them is reading is really powerful.”

To be eligible, you or your loved one must: ͻ Ğ ďĞƚǁĞĞŶ ƚŚĞ ĂŐĞƐ ŽĨ ϲϬͲϴϱ ͻ ,ĂǀĞ ďĞĞŶ ĚŝĂŐŶŽƐĞĚ ǁŝƚŚ ŵŝůĚ ůnjŚĞŝŵĞƌ͛Ɛ ĚŝƐĞĂƐĞ ͻ Ğ ŽŶ ĚŽŶĞƉĞnjŝů ; ƌŝĐĞƉƚΠͿ Žƌ ƌŝǀĂƐƟŐŵŝŶĞ ; džĞůŽŶΠͿ Žƌ ŐĂůĂŶͲƚĂŵŝŶĞ ;ZĂnjĂĚLJŶĞΠͿ ĨŽƌ Ăƚ ůĞĂƐƚ Ϯ ŵŽŶƚŚƐ͘ΎΎ

What the study involves: ͻ dĂŬŝŶŐ ƚŚĞ ƐƚƵĚLJ ĚƌƵŐ Žƌ ƉůĂĐĞďŽ ĨŽƌ ϲ ŵŽŶƚŚƐ ͻ ůŽŽĚ ǁŽƌŬ ͻ DZ/Ɛ ͻ W d ƐĐĂŶƐ ͻ ŽŵƉĞŶƐĂƟŽŶ ΎΎ ůů ƉĂƌƟĐŝƉĂŶƚƐ ǁŝůů ĐŽŶƟŶƵĞ ƚŽ ƚĂŬĞ ƚŚĞŝƌ ĐƵƌƌĞŶƚ ŵĞĚŝĐĂƟŽŶ ĚƵƌŝŶŐ ƚŚĞ ƐƚƵĚLJ

To learn more, contact our Recruitment Specialist at 1-800-RUCARES or email us at RUCARES@Rockefeller.edu

ACTIVITIES FOR THE FERTILE MIND

thoughtgallery.org NEW YORK CITY

The Psychology of Relationships: How Experimental Science, Empirical Data and Seinfeld Help Us Understand Love

FRIDAY, APRIL 14TH, 7PM The Strand | 828 Broadway | 212-473-1452 | strandbooks.com Big Data comes to date night. Biology, psychology, and sociology come together in relationship science, bettering our understanding of couples and why we even need these connections. ($20)

Patrick Vieira + John Krakauer | Keeping Your Eye on the Ball

MONDAY, APRIL 17TH, 7PM Rubin Museum of Art | 150 W. 17th St. | 212-620-5000 | rmanyc.org World-class athletes (at least some of them) have reputations for focus. Can that mix of determination and precision help mortals like us? Neuroscientist John Krakauer sits down with soccer star Patrick Vieira to find out. ($30)

Just Announced | Beau Lotto: Experiments in Perception

SUNDAY, APRIL 23RD, 3PM Rubin Museum of Art | 150 W. 17th St. | 212-620-5000 | rmanyc.org “Warning: You will know less at the end of this program than you do now.” Neuroscientist and artist Dr. Beau Lotto leads a Brainwave session through places the brain was evolved to avoid. There will also be a signing of Lotto’s Deviate: The Science of Seeing Differently. ($30)

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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APRIL 13-19,2017

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

RESTAURANT INSPECTION RATINGS MAR 28 - APR 5, 2017

Stromboli Pizza

83 St Marks Place

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.

Bar None

98 3 Avenue

A

Modern Gourmet

793 Broadway

Grade Pending (22) Hot food item not held at or above 140º F. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service. Wiping cloths soiled or not stored in sanitizing solution

Amy’s Bread

75 Ninth Avenue

Grade Pending (20)

Cha-An Teahouse

230 East 9 Street

A

Rin Thai Cuisine

265 West 23 Street

A

La Colombe

400 Lafayette Street

A

The Meatball Shop

64 Greenwich Avenue

Grade Pending (22)

Jebon

15 St Marks Place

A

Roccos

162 7Th Ave

A

A

23 W 19Th St

A

Irvington Bar And Restaurant/Studio/Lilium

201 Park Ave S

Gotham Coffee Roasters 99 Cent Tasty Pizza 6 Ave Inc.

388 Ave Of The Americas

A

Juicego

333 E 9Th St

A A

62 Greenwich Ave

Not Yet Graded (47)

Al Horno Lean Mexican Kitchen

57 1St Ave

Greenwich Steak House Fg Tabata

601 6Th Ave

A

Barbounia

A

Ny Gyro Xpress

154 8Th Ave

Grade Pending (2)

250 Park Avenue South

Cafe Manna

20 East 16 Street

A

Pourt

35 Cooper Sq

A

Mayahuel

304 East 6 Street

A

Villanelle

15 E 12Th St

A

Iggy’s Pizzeria

173 1 Avenue

A

Cafe Orlin

41 St Marks Place

Grade Pending (40) 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. Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred.

Davey’s Ice Cream

137 1 Avenue

A

Daryl Roth Theatre

101 East 15Th Street

A

Thai Villa

5 E 19Th St

Not Yet Graded (21) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation. 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. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service.

Le Pain Quotidien

801 Broadway

A

Korilla East Village

23 3Rd Ave

Grade Pending (66) Hot food item not held at or above 140º F. Food from unapproved or unknown source or home canned. Reduced oxygen packaged (ROP) fish not frozen before processing; or ROP foods prepared on premises transported to another site. Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. No facilities available to wash, rinse and sanitize utensils and/or equipment. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service.

Yakitori Taisho

5 St Marks Place

Grade Pending (22) Eggs found dirty/cracked; liquid, frozen or powdered eggs not pasteurized. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service. Sanitized equipment or utensil, including in-use food dispensing utensil, improperly used or stored.

Dan And Johns Wings

135 1St Ave

A

Senor Pollo

221 1 Avenue

A

Maoz Vegetarian

59 East 8 Street

A

Breads Bakery

18 East 16 Street

A

Pure Green

60 E 8Th St

A

Happy Burrito

211 E 14Th St

A

Southern Cross Coffee

300 E 5Th St

A

Che Cafe

113 1St Ave

Not Yet Graded (9) Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service.

Good Shepherd Services

337 East 17 Street

A

Republic Restaurant

37 Union Square West A

Bar Virage

118 2 Avenue

A

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Tired of Hunting for Our Town Downtown? Subscribe today to Downtowner News of Your Neighborhood that you can’t get anywhere else Dozens of immigrant workers at the city’s Tom Cat bakery and their supporters rallied outside Trump Tower on Saturday in defiance of an edict that the workers prove they are in the country legally. Photo: Simon, via flickr

FAMED NYC BAKERY’S IMMIGRANT WORKERS DEFY TRUMP ACTIVISM Tom Cat employees protest administration’s threat to fire them if they don’t produce work documents BY VERENA DOBNIK

Immigrant workers at a famed New York bakery who are threatened with being fired if they don’t produce legal work papers defied the government outside President Donald Trump’s Manhattan home on Saturday. Thirty-one employees of the Tom Cat Bakery also could be deported if they don’t prove by April 21 that they’re in the country legally. The mostly Spanish-speaking workers and about 100 supporters rallied outside Trump Tower to protest what they called the Trump administration’s “bullying.”

Tom Cat managers summoned the workers one by one last month to tell them that the Department of Homeland Security was investigating the company, and they would be fired if they could not provide the documents, according to Daniel Gross, executive director of Brandworkers, a nonprofit that defends food manufacturing workers’ rights. Multiple calls to the Tom Cat plant in Queens went unanswered. “It made me feel so sad, angry at the same time, because I never expected this was going to happen,” said Hector Solis, 45, a native of Mexico City and a Brooklyn resident. He supports his family with work that starts at 4:30 a.m. daily. Solis had a heart attack several years ago and is afraid to lose his job along with his health insurance. Though he produced what appeared to be work documents a dozen years ago for his job, he

acknowledges that he’s not legally permitted to work in the U.S. — “no, not really” — but says he’s been paying U.S. taxes for 20 years. The 31 workers are represented by the Urban Justice Center “in their struggle to remain in their jobs and inspire working people around the country to resist immigration enforcement actions,” the nonprofit said in a statement released by attorney Reena Arora. She said the center is considering various legal options. The bakery employs about 180 workers in the Long Island City neighborhood, churning out artisanal bread 24 hours a day that supplies some of New York’s finest restaurants and gourmet stores. Associated Press radio correspondent Julie Walker contributed to this report.

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APRIL 13-19,2017

Business ON THE SIDE STREETS OF NEW YORK MUSIC INN WORLD INSTRUMENTS — 169 WEST 4TH STREET Located at the same address for over fifty years, every nook and cranny of this tiny storefront’s space is full of an extensive and eclectic collection of musical instruments from around the world. Instruments hang from the ceiling just as haphazardly as they are stacked on top of one another from the floor. To read more, visit Manhattan Sideways (sideways.nyc), created by Betsy Bober Polivy.

Photo: Tom Arena, Manhattan Sideways

VIRTUALLY PROFESSIONAL ENTREPRENEURS Local students show off business skills at global business fair BY MICHAEL GAROFALO

At first glance, the trade show last week at Pier 92 on the West Side looked just like any of the dozens of other conventions held in Manhattan each year. Thousands of conventioneers hailing from 10 countries navigated row upon row of display booths on a bustling sales floor, exchanging cards and introductions in a whirlwind of networking and deal-making, wide smiles and firm handshakes all around. But a closer look revealed that this wasn’t a normal business conference — none of the companies in attendance sold any real-world products, and all of the bright-eyed young professionals were teenagers. The three-day event, held April 3-5, was the annual Youth Business Summit of Virtual Enterprises International, an education nonprofit that operates in 500 schools nationwide and tasks middle and high school students with founding and running “virtual companies” that do business with firms from other schools in a global simulated marketplace. During the school year, students build and manage all aspects of their businesses — staffing entire marketing and payroll

You can’t understand how to run a business unless you do it first” Iris Blanc, executive director, Virtual Enterprises, International

departments, preparing budgets and developing products — and receive classroom mentorship from corporate sponsors along the way. “You can’t understand how to run a business unless you do it first,” Iris Blanc, the program’s executive director, said. By the year-end convention, the simulated companies are full-fledged enterprises, complete with social media feeds, websites and marketing materials. On the convention floor, a massive salesmanship competition is an opportunity to show off businesses to fellow students and industry professionals, who can purchase products and services for their own firms using virtual currency.

The student-run businesses at this year’s summit covered a diverse range of industries, including technology, marketing and entertainment. Seniors from the High School of Economics and Finance in the Financial District touted their financial services company, which invests the retirement savings of student “employees” from other firms in 401(k) plans. Sales manager Mamadou Ly, 18, detailed the investment strategies and stock holdings of the three mutual funds offered by the firm. Ly, who plans to study accounting and finance at Baruch College or Hunter College next year, explained that a team of student portfolio managers invests virtual funds in a simulated stock markets. And apparently they know what they’re doing — one of their funds has posted a 21.8 percent return since September. “What’s not to love about a 401(k), right?” Ly said with a smile. Ly’s teammate Kayele Spencer, 18, said that she gained valuable management skills in the class. “My biggest learning experience was just working with different personalities and being to pick up what everyone’s strengths were,” said Spencer, who hopes to attend Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey next year. The Virtual Enterprises program has its roots in New York City public schools, where city administrators implemented it in 1996 after observing a similar program in Austria. In addition to the High School of Economics and Finance, students from

Mamadou Ly (left) and Kayele Spencer, seniors at the High School of Economics and Finance in the Financial District, showed off their class’s virtual company at the global Youth Business Summit April 4. Photo: Michael Garofal

seven other Manhattan high schools showcased their VE businesses at the summit, including the Upper West Side’s High School for Arts, Imagination and Inquiry, which formed a robotics company, and the Manhattan Business Academy in Chelsea, where students developed a viral marketing firm. A number of the program’s alumni have gone on to found businesses of their own, including Bobby Lenahan, who worked in the accounting department of his class’s virtual firm during his senior year of high school on Long Island. As a sophomore at Molloy College in Rockville Centre, Lenahan

started IV Hero, a company that aims to make hospitals less scary for children by selling sleeves that fit over IV bags, illustrated with superheroes to help kids imagine they’re getting injected with superpowers rather than medicine. Now in his senior year at Molloy, Lenahan’s sleeves are used in 15 hospitals across four states. He credits the high school program with pushing him toward entrepreneurship. “It got me motivated to go into business,” Lenahan said. “And that’s why I chose my major as accounting, because I loved what I was doing in VE so much.”

APRIL 13-19,2017

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APRIL 13-19,2017

Council Member Helen Rosenthal (left) and P.S. 75 principal Robert O’Brien (speaking) called for safety improvements that would reduce the area’s high collision rate. Photo: Madeleine Thompson

‘GETTING EMOTIONAL’ ABOUT STREET SAFETY CROSSINGS Helen Rosenthal pushes for improvements as supporters recount personal experiences BY MADELEINE THOMPSON

Every New Yorker has a story. Maybe you were traversing a crosswalk right outside your apartment and almost got mowed down by a car, or maybe you saw it happen to someone else. “It was about four o’clock that Wednesday afternoon,” said Upper West Sider Hilda Chazanovitz, speaking through a megaphone at the intersection of West End Avenue and 96th Street. “I was going to meet a colleague, I was in the crosswalk, I had the green signal. And the next thing I knew I was on the ground in the middle of the street.” Chazanovitz was hit by an SUV just steps from her home last year, but she considers herself one of the lucky ones. She joined Council Member Helen Rosenthal last Wednesday morning to push for street safety improvements throughout the city. Rosenthal and four of her colleagues introduced a package of legislation last November that would better protect pedestrians and cyclists. In front of a crowd of about 30, Rosenthal advocated for her

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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

bill, which would study the feasibility of implementing a traffic device known as the Barnes Dance in some of the most dangerous intersections. The Barnes Dance — named after former city traffic commissioner Henry Barnes — gives all pedestrians at a given intersection the walk signal at the same time, so no cars are moving and people can traverse the intersection in any direction. As of November 2016, 89 intersections employ the Barnes Dance. To the passersby and supporters who gathered last week, Rosenthal described a recent bike ride in the area during which she found herself “getting emotional” about the 2014 death of nine-year-old Cooper Stock, who was hit by a taxi cab as he was crossing the street at West 97th and West End Avenue. She credited the Department of Transportation (DOT) with an immediate response to that tragedy, but said that in comparison to the dangers just a block away at West 96th Street, “the silence is deafening.” On the southwest corner of that intersection is P.S. 75, which houses 800 students who cross the surrounding streets every day. “In the many years that I’ve been here, one of the things that’s been scary is how many close calls we’ve had,” said Principal Robert O’Brien. “The aggressiveness

of some drivers, particularly taking left-hand turns, is really scary to watch. To their credit, DOT has made some changes … but they haven’t been sufficient to give us comfort.” A crossing guard who has worked at West 96th and West End Avenue for two years explained that what results in so many collisions is a combination of the entryway to the West Side Highway and drivers making left turns. “We’re not supposed to cross adults — we only work for the school — but because it’s so dangerous we sometimes try to [help them],” said the guard, who asked to remain anonymous because they weren’t sure if they were allowed to comment. The guard thought the Barnes Dance could reduce incidents, but advised making the traffic lights last longer so cars wouldn’t get backed up. The other bills accompanying Rosenthal’s proposed Barnes Dance legislation would, among other things, force cyclists to obey pedestrian signals at some intersections, study Citi Bike stations near parks, regulate commercial cyclists and study overcrowding at several pedestrian-heavy intersections. Madeleine Thompson can be reached at newsreporter@ strausnews.com

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YOUR 15 MINUTES

To read about other people who have had their “15 Minutes” go to otdowntown.com/15 minutes

FINDING HER VOICE Laurissa “Lala” Romain, who grew up backstage as an actor, recently released her first single BY ANGELA BARBUTI

At just 19 years old, Laurissa “Lala” Romain has a maturity and joie de vivre that goes way beyond her years. Raised in Hell’s Kitchen by parents in show business, she started her career as an actor, but being the multitalent that she is, went on to pursue makeup artistry and singing, which is her main focus now. “I stopped because I found something I was more in love with.” It is therefore quite fitting that on Valentine’s Day, she celebrated a career milestone with the release of her debut single “Wasn’t Love.” On April 30, she will be gracing the stage of The Bitter End with both original work and covers from artists like Christina Aguilera, Lady Gaga, Adele and Amy Winehouse. As for her future plans, audiences can expect to see a

lotmore of “Lala” performing at iconic venues throughout Manhattan. “Music makes me so happy. It gives me so much life that I don’t think anything else has before or can.”

How did you get your start in the business? My mom is an actress and my dad works in film as well. I never wanted to have things handed to me, but they definitely guided me and pushed me in that direction, which I was very happy about. I’m very grateful for the opportunities and they led me to music and finding my own voice. It helps having an acting background for sure.

You just released your first single. Take us through the process of writing and collaborating. I wrote it at Cove City Sound Studios out in Glen Cove, Long Island, with Aaron Cannata, the producer on it. John Arbuckle was mixing and recording it and Richie Cannata, it’s his studio. I wrote most of the lyrics and Aaron chipped in, because I don’t

Photo: Zachary Grullón really play anything, so he helped me with that. I just went in there and said, “I want to write something that kind of got this classical feel, like this really old-school vibe, but then adding in some modern-day almost like hip hop, R&B style.” And that’s what we did. We wrote it in one day. We recorded it the second and I went in on the third day and just listened to it and tweaked little things here and there. So it was all really fast. It was one of those things that just kind of was so perfect and just happened. I knew I was going to the studio and couldn’t write anything and didn’t have anything I wanted to write about. And then the night before, at one in the morning, I couldn’t sleep and just wrote the whole song. Inspiration just struck at the perfect time. I’m really happy with it.

Did you ever take any formal voice lessons? No, actually. I always just kind of sang on my own. I’ve only just recently started to go in and check that I’m using everything correctly and see how I can improve. I definitely feel like you can always get better, so I’m working towards performing more and really taking it seriously. So I really want to make sure I’m doing it safely and as best as I can.

Who are some musicians you look up to? You sang backup for Mariah Carey. What was that like?

Photo: The Glass Camera

That was amazing. She was really, really sweet and great to work with. I mean, how could you not love Mariah? Her music is amazing. Her voice is amazing. I definitely look up to her. Amy Winehouse is a huge inspiration to me. Jessie J is just my idol since I was in seventh grade. When she came out with “Who You Are,” that really helped me get through a lot of things. I love Adele, Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu,

Jill Scott, India Arie. I really like listening to old jazz. Julie London is great.

How did you get the nickname “Lala?” I also call it my name too, because it really kind of is. I basically have had it since birth. My real name is Laurissa, but my cousin who is two years older than me, I was days old and he was two years old and couldn’t say Laurissa. And everyone said, “Say Baby Laurissa,” and he said “Baby Lala.” And we lost the baby part, but Lala stuck. And it’s been that way since I was literally born. I like to go by Lala. My original name is the name I was using when I was acting, but I really want to go just by Lala.

You were in the “South Pacific” revival for its entire run at Lincoln Center Theater. What was that experience like? I played Ngana, who was Emile de Becque’s — the main character’s — daughter. We only spoke, acted and sang in French. She was a little island girl. She was sassy and tough, kind of like me. I did that show for three years; we closed on our thousandth show. I did every show, eight shows a week, every week. Mondays were the only day we had off, but we would do two shows on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and then matinees on Sunday. That’s not normal, because usually kids rotate. I feel like I really grew up and lived a big part of my life, 9 to 12 years old, there and you change a lot. I grew up backstage.

How did you balance school with that? I was homeschooled for all of it. There were two other kids in it, but they went to regular school. I was the only one who was homeschooled. I just work better in that environment and I ended up doing it even when I wasn’t in shows. We did homework backstage every day.

You also work as a makeup artist. How did you get your start in that and who

are your clients? I mostly do beauty, like editorial fashion. I’ve done Fashion Week, “Vogue Mexico.” I’ve assisted the makeup artist for Zoe Kravitz, Naomi Campbell, FKA Twigs for the Met Gala. And then I also do body painting. I went to school for that. And special effects a little bit too. I got into that because I stopped acting for a little bit. I actually got really sick four years ago with Crohn’s and lost all my mobility. I was painting on canvas. I really always loved art and the only things I could really use were my hands, since I was bedridden. So I would always paint and draw. I was really fascinated by body painting and the second I could start walking again, I wanted to do that on people.

What can we expect from your show at The Bitter End? How are you preparing for it? I’m preparing for it just by singing and trying to go to as many lessons as I can go to and afford. I’m going to probably be singing Christina Aguilera, Lady Gaga, Adele, Amy Winehouse. I only performed one of (Winehouse’s) songs once, but I really love her stuff. I just never have the right show to perform it at. So I’m going to be really excited for that. I’m also singing my debut single, “Wasn’t Love,” and two other originals that aren’t released yet. www.inthelandoflala.com www.makeupbylala.com

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

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SUDOKU by Myles Mellor and Susan Flanagan

by Myles Mellor

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1

APRIL 13-19,2017

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

APRIL 13-19,2017

CLASSIFIEDS MASSAGE

MERCHANDISE FOR SALE

REAL ESTATE - RENT

NEED TO RUN A LEGAL NOTICE? Quick | Easy | Economical

Call Barry Lewis today at:

212-868-0190 PUBLIC NOTICES

PUBLIC AUCTION NOTICE OF SALE OF COOPERATIVE APARTMENT SECURITY. PLEASE TAKE NOTICE: By Virtue of a Default under Loan Security Agreement, and other Security Documents, Karen Loiacano, Auctioneer, License #DCA1435601 or Jessica L Prince-Clateman, Auctioneer, License #1097640 or Vincent DeAngelis Auctioneer, License #1127571 will sell at public auction, with reserve, on April 26, 2017 in the Rotunda of the New York County Courthouse, 60 Centre Street, New York , NY 10007, commencing at 12:45 p.m. for the following account: Donald Weber, as borrower, 64 shares of capital stock of 350-

23

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

PUBLIC NOTICES 52-54 W. 12th Street Owners Corp. and all right, title and interest in the Proprietary Lease to 354 West 12th Street, Unit 1D, New York, NY 10014 Sale held to enforce rights of CitiBank, N.A., who reserves the right to bid. Ten percent (10%) Bank/CertiďŹ ed check required at sale, balance due at closing within thirty (30) days. The Cooperative Apartment will be sold “AS ISâ€? and possession is to be obtained by the purchaser. Pursuant to Section 201 of the Lien Law you must answer within 10 days from receipt of this notice in which redemption of the above captioned premises can occur. There is presently an outstanding debt owed to CitiBank, N.A. (lender) as of the date of this notice in the amount of $322,954.17. This ďŹ gure is for the outstanding balance due under UCC1, which was secured by Financing Statement in favor of CitiBank, N.A. recorded on April 27, 2007 under CRFN 2007000217862. Please note this is not a payoff amount as additional interest/fees/penalties may be incurred. You must contact the undersigned to obtain a ďŹ nal payoff quote or if you dispute any information presented herein. The estimated value of the above captioned premises is $520,000.00. Pursuant to the Uniform Commercial Code Article 9-623, the above captioned premises may be redeemed at any time prior to the foreclosure sale. You may contact the undersigned and either pay the principal balance due along with all accrued interest, late charges, attorney fees and out of pocket expenses incurred by CitiBank, N.A.. and the undersigned, or pay the outstanding loan arrears along with all accrued interest, late charges, attorney fees and out of pocket expenses incurred by CitiBank, N.A., and the undersigned, with respect to the foreclosure proceedings. Failure to cure the default prior to the sale will result in the termination of the proprietary lease. If you have received a discharge from the Bankruptcy Court, you are not personally liable for the payment of the loan and this notice is for compliance and information purposes only. However, CitiBank, N.A., still has the right under the loan security agreement and other collateral documents to foreclosure on the shares of stock and rights under the proprietary lease allocated to the cooperative apartment. Dated: March 14, 2017 Frenkel, Lambert, Weiss, Weisman & Gordon, LLP Attorneys for CitiBank, N.A. 53 Gibson Street Bay Shore, NY 11706 631-969-3100 File #01-080328-F00 #91232

Telephone: 212-868-0190 Fax: 212-868-0198 Email: classified2@strausnews.com

POLICY NOTICE: We make every eort to avoid mistakes in your classiďŹ ed ads. Check your ad the ďŹ rst week it runs. The publication will only accept responsibility for the ďŹ rst incorrect insertion. The publication assumes no ďŹ nancial responsibility for errors or omissions. We reserve the right to edit, reject, or re-classify any ad. Contact your sales rep directly for any copy changes. All classiďŹ ed ads are pre-paid.

The Volunteer Referral Center & Bellevue Hospital Center invite you to learn about

Volunteer Opportunities in Healthcare Use your career skills or develop new ones to make a difference in a healthcare setting Date: Thursday, April 27, 2017 Time: 3:00pm - 6:00pm Location: Bellevue Hospital Center Saul Farber Auditorium 27th Street and First Avenue ADMISSION IS FREE!

RSVP to reserve your place 212 889-4805 or info@volunteer-referral.org

Directory of Business & Services To advertise in this directory Call #BSSZ (212)-868-0190 ext.4 CBSSZ MFXJT@strausnews.com

Antique, Flea & Farmers Market SINCE 1979

East 67th Street Market (between First & York Avenues)

Open EVERY Saturday 6am-5pm Rain or Shine Indoor & Outdoor FREE Admission Questions? Bob 718.897.5992 Proceeds BeneďŹ t PS 183

“THERE MUST BE SOMEONE WHO CAN GIVE MORE KIDS THE CHANCE TO GO TO COLLEGE.�

Antiques Wanted TOP PRICES PAID t 1SFDJPVT $PTUVNF +FXFMSZ (PME t 4JMWFS 1BJOUJOHT t .PEFSO t &UD

OFFICE SPACE

AVAILABLE IN MANHATTAN

300 to 20,000 square feet

Elliot Forest, Licensed RE. Broker

212 -447-5400 abfebf@aol.com

:H DUH D SURXG PHPEHU RI WKH $VVRFLDWHG 3UHVV DQG WKH 1DWLRQDO 1HZVSDSHU $VVRFLDWLRQ

Entire Estates Purchased

212.751.0009 Fernanda New York Cares Volunteer

BE THE SOMEONE. SOHO LT MFG

462 Broadway MFG No Retail/Food

newyorkcares.org

+/- 9,000 SF Ground Floor - $90 psf +/- 16,000 SF Cellar - $75 psf Divisible Call David @ Meringoff Properties 212-645-7575

24

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

APRIL 13-19,2017

Nothing beats newspapers as the most reliable source of local news in print and online Recent studies show:

‘‘

Newspapers led online consumption for local news” Coda Ventures Survey August 18, 2016

‘‘

Local media users named newspapers as their “most relied on” source for deals across a range of goods and services.” Coda Ventures Survey August 18, 2016

‘‘

What accounts for print’s superiority? Print - particularly the newspaper - is an amazingly sophisticated technology for showing you a lot of it.”

‘‘

Local newspapers are still the top source of news about readers’ communities, including their branded Web sites and social media channels.” Publisher’s Daily - August 30, 2016

‘‘

Residents are eager for news about their own communities, which, increasingly, only local news organizations can provide” Editor & Publisher - June 1, 2016

Politico - September 10, 2016

STRAUSMEDIA your neighborhood news source 212-868-0190 | nypress.com

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