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VENDOR REGULATIONS CONFOUND, FRUSTRATE SoHo residents, food cart operators seek clarity on law, enforcement BY MADELEINE THOMPSON
Shamim Ahmad’s halal cart at the corner of Houston Street and Broadway. Photo: Madeleine Thompson
Shamim Ahmad has been operating a halal cart at the corner of Houston Street and Broadway in SoHo for five years, and has been ticketed by police and health officials as many as several times a week.
and flashing lights that accompany street vendors. Several such locals attended a meeting of the First Precinct’s Community Council on March 31 to discuss and complain about the vendors’ presence. “They’re proliferating,” one person said, requesting that there be more diligent monitor-
Nearly all of those citations were eventually dismissed — he says he has only ever paid one $50 fine. The real loss is the day’s wages he must forfeit by having to go to the courthouse. “I get a lot of tickets for nothing,” he said. But at the other end of the spectrum are residents and community members who are bothered by the noise, smells
CONTINUED ON PAGE 5
CITY CORRUPTION PROBES MULTIPLYING NEWS U.S. attorney investigating police and the mayor BY JAKE PEARSON AND TOM HAYS
After a successful attack on corruption in New York’s state government, the hardcharging federal prosecutor in Manhattan appears to have set his sights on New York City. Over the past few weeks, a series of loosely related public corruption investigations coordinated by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara have spilled into public view, with targets including high-ranking New York Police Department officials, the union representing city jail guards, and the po-
litical fundraising activities of several people with ties to New York City’s mayor. Already an embarrassment to the nation’s largest police department, it remains unclear whether the widening probes could do damage to City Hall. So far, nine police officials, including four deputy chiefs, have been transferred or stripped of their guns and badges as internal affairs detectives and FBI agents examine whether officers accepted gifts and trips from businessmen in exchange for police escorts, special parking privileges and other favors. And in recent weeks, the evolving probe has turned to campaign financing practices that have long been scruti-
nized by good government groups. An animal welfare group that has been lobbying Mayor Bill de Blasio to ban carriage horses from city streets confirmed Friday that it had received a subpoena from federal prosecutors seeking documents related to its fundraising efforts for a nonprofit group created to advance the mayor’s policy agenda. Other subpoenas have sought records related to hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations solicited by the mayor’s campaign that were rerouted to upstate Democrats running for the state Senate, The New York Times
CONTINUED ON PAGE 5
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara Downtowner
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Newscheck Crime Watch Voices Out & About
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City Arts To Do Food & Drink 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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CONTINUED ON PAGE
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Our Take THE MAYOR, MONEY, AND ALBANY And here we thought Albany was just being ornery. A leaked report about apparent campaign-finance violations by people surrounding Mayor Bill de Blasio sheds new light on the running cat fight between the mayor and state legislators, particularly Republicans in the state senate. Until now, we’ve been inclined to believe the storyline out of City Hall, which is that partisan opposition to our progressive mayor, together with the usual Albany stonewalling of anything that’s good for New York City, explain de Blasio’s inability to win support for his agenda. But if the State Board of Elections report can be believed, de Blasio has been the architect of his own undoing in Albany. The details are complicated -- and kudos to The Times and the Daily News for ferreting them out -- but the allegation is that de Blasio’s team channeled money illegally through party committees to help Democrats running for the state senate. When those candidates lost anyway, the Republican incumbents not surprisingly, have made it their business to make de Blasio’s life miserable. The mayor and his people have tried to wave away the whole thing. But our sense is that this isn’t going anywhere. The mayor, who hasn’t exactly seemed enamored by the details of local government, will now be spending more and more of his time dealing with the issue, meaning less time on what we elected him to do. It’s hard at moments like this not to miss Michael Bloomberg, who had his faults but also had the money to keep himself out of trouble. Stay tuned.
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APRIL 28-MAY 4,2016
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
Chapter 9
EVE AND OTHERS BY ESTHER COHEN
PREVIOUSLY: A man named Alyosha disappeared. He lived in a small five story building. A friend told a friend that he was gone. Maybe her whole building could help, Naomi thought. Not just Eve and Charles. Or Mrs. Israel. Maybe the whole building would work together in their desire to actually find Alyosha. Or whatever his name was. But how could she interest them? They could call themselves EVE and Others. Solving a crime might tie them together. Naomi went next door to ask Mrs. Israel what she thought, knocking only once before Mrs. Israel answered, dressed in navy blue, as though a government official or a lawyer were arriving momentarily. Something so odd about navy blue. “Why hello,” she said. And then she
asked, “Yes?” waiting for Naomi’s request. She did not say Come Right In, standing by the door officially. “I was just wondering,” said Naomi, “if you’d be interested in helping to solve a crime.” Mrs. Israel looked confused. “Do you have anything in writing?” she replied. “I like to see all requests in writing.” “Do you prefer them typed, or handwritten?” Naomi asked. “I’ve never had that question asked before,” she said, “though considering it now, I’d say hand written. Come back when there’s a document,” she said. It took her a whole day to write a sign, an invitation to the building. Following the preference, she wrote it out by hand. She’d make copies for under each door, and taped one by the elevator. LET’S ALL SOLVE A CRIME How many buildings actually get the chance to solve a crime? A man in our neighborhood has disappeared. All we know about him so far is that he’s 32, a jack of many trades. Like some of us, he knew how to juggle. For anyone who’s interested, we are hosting a potluck dinner (macaroni and cheese! Greek salad! Pepperidge Farm cookies! Cheap wine!) on Thursday night at 7 to discuss this possibility. Leave a note under Apartment 55 if you are
interested. Or leave us a message at 212 555-2323 . And tell us what you are bringing. There can’t ever be too much mac and cheese.) Charles and Eve, sitting on the couch as usual, agreed to listen to an oral recitation of the request. They were practicing Act I Scene One of The View from the Bridge. Eve was reading the play in class. Charles considered himself a rigorous critic of all things. “A fair enough note” he said. “Not outstanding. You could use some adjectives.” “Oh Charles,” Eve said, proud of his peculiar rigor. “O.K.” said Naomi. “What do I have to do to get the most number of people to attend?” “Delicious,” before pot luck would help,” he said. “And you need an illustration. We can’t do an accurate portrait. We’re not there yet,” he said. “When we’re through here, I’ll draw an evocative shadow portrait. Most people,” he said, “want a picture alongside their words.” For previous installments of this serialized novel, go to www.otdowntown. com
Illustration by John S. Winkleman
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FREE swim and soccer event for children ages 6 to 10
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APRIL 28-MAY 4,2016
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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
CRIME WATCH BY JERRY DANZIG
ROAD RAGE LED TO STABBING, POLICE SAY Authorities say a roadside altercation between two drivers left one man with stab wounds. Police were called to East 61st Street in Manhattan around 11:20 p.m. Saturday. Witnesses told them a man got out of his car and tried to pull the driver out of another vehicle. Authorities say witnesses told them the men got into a fight, then the second man stabbed the first man several times. Both men fled the scene in their own cars. Police say the stabbed man crashed into a parked car at 76th Street and Madison Avenue. He was taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
STATS FOR THE WEEK Reported crimes from the 1st Precinct
Week to Date
Tony Webster, via flickr
days later. Seven or eight employees had access to the closet, and the closet lock had not been damaged in any way. The jewelry included Simon G earrings, a ring, a bangle and a necklace.
CHOPPER COPPERS CLOSET CASE This sounds like a case for Hercule Poirot. On April 8, employees of the X O Group, located at 195 Broadway, placed a package in a storage closet after missing an outbound shipment from the office. The package contained jewelry worth about $50,000. The package was discovered AWOL a few
‘Tis the season when thieves’ hearts turn to – stealing motorcycles. In the first incident, on April 15, a woman parked her motorcycle in front of 214 Front Street. When she returned the following morning at 8 a.m., her 2012 Honda CBR 600 was missing. The bike, red with white rims, with New York plates 36SW92 is valued at $8,100. In a second incident, the following
day, a man parked his 2015 Yamaha R1 in front of 350 Albany St. in the early morning. When he returned that afternoon, the bike was gone. A man told him he had seen two men load the motorcycle into a green van. The late-model black and red bike is valued at $18,000.
GEAR SHIFT Burglars had a construction site in their sights over a recent weekend. On the afternoon of Friday, April 9, someone entered a construction site inside 52 Wooster St. being worked on by Foremost Contracting & Building of Brooklyn. The burglars broke through a
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Year to Date
2016 2015
% Change
2016
2015
% Change
Murder
0
0
n/a
0
0
n/a
Rape
0
0
n/a
3
1
200
Robbery
2
0
n/a
16
10
60
Felony Assault
1
6
-83.3
19
23
-17.4
Burglary
3
0
n/a
36
43
-16.3
Grand Larceny
22
27
-18.5
318
261
21.8
0
n/a
7
2
250
Grand Larceny Auto 3
locked gate in the back of the building, and took tools worth about $5,600. The break-in was not discovered until the following Monday. The stolen implements included three Bosch demo hammers, one SKILSAW circular saw, two Makita Dewalt circular saws, two Dewalt Sawzall with blades, a Wilkins RPZ, three Bosch grinders, a Bosch Bulldog hammer drill and a Stihl demo saw.
SICK & HEARTLESS A woman learned the hard way that a work locker is not a safe place to keep a large quantity of cash. Sometime between 3:30 and 5:45 p.m. on Friday, April 15, an unknown perpetrator got into the 31-year-old woman’s bag that she had placed in a locker at the Hale & Hearty location at 110 Maiden Lane. The thief removed $2,000 in cash from the bag.
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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
APRIL 28-MAY 4,2016
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.
NYPD 1st Precinct
16 Ericsson Place
212-477-7411 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
212-442-5050
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
Photo by Michael Vadon via flickr
New York-Presbyterian
170 William St.
Mount Sinai-Beth Israel
10 Union Square East
212-844-8400
CON EDISON
4 Irving Place
212-460-4600
TIME WARNER
46 East 23rd
813-964-3839
INVESTIGATING WHAT WENT WRONG ON ELECTION DAY
US Post Office
201 Varick St.
212-645-0327
NEWS
US Post Office
128 East Broadway
212-267-1543
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Comptroller to focus on persistent Board of Election problems BY KAREN MATTHEWS
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Even before the polls closed in New York’s primary, the city’s election board dismissed as groundless hundreds of complaints, many from people in Bernie Sanders’ hometown borough of Brooklyn who said they were unable to vote. It wasn’t until days later, after both the state attorney general and the city comptroller launched separate investigations, that New York City’s Board of Elections began to appear to take the accusations seriously, as reports of irregularities began to surface throughout the city, including in Manhattan. It suspended its chief clerk in Brooklyn without pay amid questions into whether she followed proper procedures in what was supposed to be a routine housecleaning of voter registration lists. Between November and April, about 126,000 Brooklyn voters either were removed from voting lists or had their statuses changed to “inactive” -- ostensibly because they had moved, their mail was returned as undeliverable or they failed to vote in two federal elections and didn’t respond to letters. So far, the board has yet to fully explain what might have gone wrong with that process.
To New Yorkers, news that people are unhappy with the Board of Election’s performance was hardly surprising. It has been a punching bag for years, castigated for errors such as polls opening late, broken voting machines and poll workers providing wrong information. A city probe three years ago found widespread abuses including poll workers who peeked at voters’ choices while they cast ballots and others who told voters to “vote down the line.” “The people of New York City have lost confidence that the Board of Elections can effectively administer elections, and we intend to find out why the BOE is so consistently disorganized, chaotic and inefficient,” City Comptroller Scott Stringer said in announcing his audit of Tuesday’s election. Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said his office had received more than 1,000 Election Day complaints about voting problems. Initially, the city Board of Elections executive director, Michael Ryan, described the voter purge as routine. And just hours before Thursday’s announcement of the suspension the Brooklyn elections chief, Ryan suggested that the complaints were mostly coming from Sanders supporters who misunderstood the state’s rules for voting in primaries. “No one was disenfranchised,” Ryan told Fox 5 New York. “What we did see was a concerted effort by some folks to apparently protest New York’s closed primary process by showing up to vote when they weren’t registered to vote. We tracked
down dozens who say they were disenfranchised and as it turns out they weren’t registered in the parties that they were trying to vote for.” Some of the initial frustration over Tuesday’s election was based in New York’s rules for party primaries. Independents are barred from voting in either the Democratic or Republican contests and the deadline to switch parties passed unnoticed by many in October. Nancy Fray, a Sanders supporter who lives in Manhattan, learned too late that she wouldn’t be able to cast her ballot, despite having switched her registration to Democrat in November. “I’m not just upset. This is completely full-out fury!” she said. Then, public radio station WNYC reported on Election Day that state statistics showed that the number of registered Democrats in Brooklyn had declined by more than 63,000 in the past five months. Critics say the voter purge points to problems with voting in New York City and state that go beyond one election. “Regardless of the outcome of any investigations of voter purges, the actual scandal is New York’s outdated and archaic voter registration laws,” said Neal Rosenstein, the government reform coordinator of the New York Public Interest Research Group. NYPIRG is calling for reforms also backed by Stringer including Election Day registration and automatic registration at the Department of Motor Vehicles and other state agencies.
APRIL 28-MAY 4,2016
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
5
A FACE-OFF ON BROADWAY OVER BOOKS NEWS Sidewalk book sellers draw complaints as the neighborhood goes more upscale BY BRYTNIE JONES
A long-time Broadway book vendor is facing opposition from an Upper West Side that is going increasingly upscale. The sidewalk vendor, Kirk Davidson, has been selling books on Broadway between 72nd and 73rd streets for 31 years. But recently, with the arrival of national retailers like Bloomingdale’s in the neighborhood, Davidson has drawn the opposition of Realtors and nearby business owners, who complain that he, and a clutch of other vendors on the same block, no longer belong in the neighborhood. “The vendors are disturbing business and residents by clogging the sidewalks ... leaving rubbish and worse in their wake and turning the
VENDOR REGULATIONS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
ing of the vendors in her area. “Everyone keeps telling us it’s someone else’s issue,” said another. In response, a police officer acknowledged that the subject had come up at Community Board 1 meetings and said there is a vendor unit of officers who are dedicated to the issue. At the community council meeting, residents voiced frustration with regulations governing vendors. One community member called the rules “lax” and suggested that they allow just about anyone to set up a table or a cart and begin legally selling kebabs or jewelry, which is not the case. Vendors go through an application process to obtain a license from the Department of Consumer Affairs and a training process if they are approved. In an effort to reduce confusion about the rules, the SoHo Broadway Initiative, the neighborhood’s business improvement group, published a guidebook in January on sidewalk vending. Among other things, the guide stipulates that food carts must be set up at least 10 feet from a crosswalk or subway entrance, and at least 20
CORRUPTION CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 has reported. Separately, federal agents operated a wiretap that captured the conversations of two businessmen, Jona Rechnitz and Jeremy Reichberg, who were friends with two top police officials and served on de Blasio’s inaugural committee in 2013 and contributed to his campaign, two law enforcement officials said. Investigators want to know whether they have been offered any official favors in exchange for donations, according to the officials, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss an ongoing case. De Blasio, a Democrat, has not been accused of any specific wrongdoing and his campaign organization has said it operated within the laws. But
sidewalks into de facto warehouses for those long portions of the day when their wares are unattended in breach of the law”, said Jesse Krasnow, president of Sirius Realty and a resident of the neighborhood. Davidson started selling books here in 1986. After working for an airline, serving in the military and working at another job that failed, he began living in a shelter. Shortly after, he met a man who said he would show him how to make some money. In the first two days selling books, he said he made $55 in 30 minutes, which then turned into $100 in 20 minutes. It was then that he realized he could make a living off of being a street salesman. But doing so has meant a steady stream of fines and summonses for violations of vending rules. He guesses that he’s received between 185 and 200 summons in the past 31 years, but insists that he has treated people in the area with respect and has been nothing short of polite. “As long as I am here, I’m going to go to court,” he said in an interview near one of his tables. “I
understand how it works. As long as I am black on this side of town, I’m going to go to court.” Davidson is convinced there is a clear racial dimension to the complaints he’s received recently, given that he’s an African-American man on a predominantly white side of town. “Some love it, some can not stand it”, he said. But others in the neighborhood dispute that.
Gregg Wolpert, president of The Stahl Organization and a resident of the Upper West Side, said the booksellers are an easy distraction from people wanting to invest in the neighborhood. “Some lower volume of booksellers might be more tolerable if the city could rid the area of homeless people who hoard their possessions,” he said.
feet from the entrance to any building or store. But it does not specify from which edge of a cart or table to measure -- the back edge closer to the curb or the front edge closer to the main sidewalk traffic. This discrepancy is notable, since measuring from the back of the cart or table would give vendors more margin for error. Mark Dicus, the executive director of SoHo Broadway, who attended the March meeting, later said he hopes the guidebook will serve as a resource whenever the legality of a vendor’s operation is in question or if there are particular trouble spots in his area. “Even if we check it in our map we go out and measure it, too, and that’s what we would want someone from the city to do,” Dicus said. “We try to work with the vendor first. … The fact of the matter is, Broadway is where vendors want to be.” Dicus emphasized that he is eager to collaborate with vendors, and expressed his appreciation for those who are willing to work with him. The stretch of Broadway between Houston and Broome Streets in particular is lined with popular shopping opportunities and tends to be consistently crowded with vendors selling all types of wares. Vendors themselves, though, feel they are too
often typecast as lawbreakers and unfairly and too frequently ticketed despite their efforts to comply with regulations. “For those of us who are following the rules and regulations ... could we just have a respite against all the tickets?” asked a vendor at the meeting. Basma Eid, an organizer with the Street Vendor Project, had heard similar complaints from vendors in the organization, and was at the Community Council meeting in March to help advocate for their rights. “Currently the Street Vendor Project is campaigning for some pretty massive reforms when it comes to vending legislation,” Eid said. “A lot of the rules that exist for vendors haven’t been modified ... in 30 years, and we think a lot of them are pretty antiquated.” Ahmad, the halal cart operator, said he that he has had fewer encounters with police recently. Prior to that, though, he said he has been ticketed as many as six times in a week for allegedly being too close to the crosswalk and for not displaying his license prominently enough. “Sometimes when we put on the apron the license goes inside the apron,” he said, explaining why it might not be visible. “Just by accident.” He has also been cited for a broken water dispenser, a ticket he said was issued while he was
attempting to fix the problem. He has also received citations for standing on a flattened cardboard box in his cart because the metal floor gets cold in the winter and not keeping his food at the correct temperatures. The most common offense for which he is cited, though, is being too close to a crosswalk. But Ahmad said he has “never in [his] life” seen police measure the distance other than visually. Multiple follow-up requests for comment to the precinct and to department spokespersons were not returned. But officers at March’s community council meeting said their squads carry around measuring tapes for that purpose, and suggested that they do measure as a matter of course. Eid, whose organization has around 2,000 vendor members, said updates and clarifications to the regulations are badly needed. “I think there’s a fear that vendors will line the streets, but it’s really impossible because of the 20-foot rule,” Eid said. “It might sound like we’re arguing over a matter of a couple feet, but a couple feet is a day’s work for a low-income worker who is relying on that wage.”
the developments have created the perception that a city that was thought to have rid itself of everyday corruption might be slipping back into the bad old days. “If you can find a corrupt mayor of New York City, holy moly, that’s a big prize,” said Jennifer Rodgers, a former federal prosecutor who now heads the Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity at Columbia Law School. Several parts of the multifaceted probe had their origins in an FBI investigation of suspicious financial transactions involving a Harlem liquor store. Campaign financing wasn’t on FBI agents’ minds in 2013 when they were alerted to a series of large transfers and deposits in multiple bank accounts held by a small wholesale liquor business in Harlem, the law enforcement officials said. Ultimately, investigators concluded that a Harlem restaurant owner was using the accounts to
run a $12 million Ponzi scheme, in which Rechnitz and Reichberg were investors. The investigators continued to scrutinize the finances of the businessmen, who have donated tens of thousands of dollars to the mayor’s campaign and advocacy efforts. Authorities also learned that the pair had cultivated a relationship with Norman Seabrook, the powerful head of the 9,000-member jail guard union, and Phillip Banks III, formerly the top-ranking uniformed officer at the police department. The men all visited Israel together in 2014. A federal subpoena issued to the union last year and reviewed by the AP has sought records detailing the flow of funds from Seabrook’s union into a company controlled by Rechnitz, JSR Capital, and into other businesses. A lawyer for Banks declined to comment. Seabrook and a lawyer for Rechnitz didn’t return messages. Calls to numbers listed for Reichberg rang unanswered.
Wiretaps in that probe led to a broader examination of the cozy relationship between highranking police and the city’s Orthodox Jewish community, the officials said. In a related case, a member of a neighborhood patrol in an Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn was caught in a wiretapped conversation bragging that he had used connections in the NYPD to get over 150 gun licenses for people without required background checks, according to court papers charging him last week with bribery and conspiracy. Bharara, the federal prosecutor, has been mum on the details of the investigations, but vowed in a recent speech to continue his efforts, in both state and city government. ”Executive offices in government,” he said, “are far from immune from a creeping show-me-themoney culture that has been pervading New York for some time now.”
Photo: Brytnie Jones
6
APRIL 28-MAY 4,2016
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
“THERE MUST BE SOMEONE WHO CAN GIVE MORE KIDS THE CHANCE TO GO TO COLLEGE.” Fernanda New York Cares Volunteer
SPIRITUAL SLEEPOVERS
When the solo meditation is finished, candles are placed in a boxes filled with sand to provide light for the Midnight Eucharist. Photo: Melody Chan
Overnight programs at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine introduce youth to faiths other than their own BY MELODY CHAN
BE THE SOMEONE.
newyorkcares.org
Thirty-three candles float through the darkened main chapel of the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine. They emerge from a lit stairwell onto the cathedral’s nave. About 30 teenagers and their adult chaperones each hold a candle close, cupping their hands around the flame. One by one, they break off from the group and wander into the dark cathedral. They walk slowly and silently until they find a spot to sit and meditate. They have been told that this is a solo activity, and to think about anything and do so in solitude. About 20 minutes later, a band – guitars, bass, drums – begins a mellow, bluesy introduction to a Hindu mantra ‘Shri Ram Jai Ram’. All of the participants move towards its source, a portable stage in front of the altar. The candles are placed in a box of sand, lighting the way for everyone else and its owner sits down around the band and joins the song. The rituals are part of Nightwatch Crossroads, an overnight program designed to bring teenagers closer to faith through contemplative activities. There are two different sections: Christian and Interspiritual. The programs are held on 12 Friday evenings throughout the year, with participants sleeping over in the cathedral’s basement. “What I hope that we’re accomplishing is to offer the youths a night to unplug and an opportunity to come into a place that is sacred, where every inch of it breathes holiness and respite and sanctuary,” Patti Welch, Nightwatch’s director and the chaplain of the Cathedral School. “We encourage them to be present here because their lives are so hectic and busy and stressful. I work at a middle school, I know exactly what they’re going through.” When she took over Nightwatch four years ago, Welch created Crossroads: Interspiritual and a secular program called Knightwatch: Medieval. The cathedral has been hosting Nightwatch:
Christian since 1975. Welch created Interspiritual to show Christian youths that other religions are not so different from their own. Most of the participants come from church youth groups from outside of the city. The activities are designed to expose Christians to religions with which they might not be familiar. The youths are exposed to traditions, wisdom and poetry from Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism and other faiths to emphasize that underlying values like compassion and a call to service course through all these beliefs systems. In Nightwatch, Welch’s goal is to give the youths a connection with the divine unlike what they might find in their organized religion. “I want to offer them a different way of experiencing the energy of the divine that gets away from the doctrines and the creeds and the dogma,” she says. “And that’s not saying that any of that is bad but this is an age where kids can get stuck. Our programs are really just about a heart connection and a place to let the world go.” Welch designed the activities with the goal of experiential learning in mind, she wanted to give the kids chance to practice faiths rather than just learn about them. Knightwatch: Medieval is a completely different experience. The overnight program is meant for kids aged 6-12 and is completely secular. The night is immersive: From the minute the children and their parent guardians walk through the door, they are transported to “Strathclyde,” a kingdom populated by dragons and swordfighting friars. Everybody is in character (except, of course, security), and the kids are placed into houses and encouraged to come dressed in costume. Welch created the program to give people who may not otherwise have come to the cathedral a chance to witness the majesty and grandeur of one of the largest Gothic churches in the world. Having seen the success of other sleepover programs such as one at the Museum of Natural History, she decided on a themed overnight stay that fit with the feeling of the space. The program is run as an interactive play that takes place throughout the cathedral. The plot involves a princess who is about to be married but has lost her voice. The kids scour “Strathclyde” to find
APRIL 28-MAY 4,2016
7
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
Our Perspective
Car Wash Worker Campaign Continues to Change Lives By Stuart Appelbaum, President Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, RWDSU, UFCW
E
Danny O’Brien leads a drum circle, warming everyone up with hand clapping exercises. Photo: Melody Chan the antidote to get it back so she can say “I do.” The night ends when the participants are put to bed in cots, which are spread out in the cathedral’s nave. They will wake in the morning, the sun shining through the stained glass window above the altar, eat breakfast and be sent on their way. The program runs twice a year, once that is open to the public and another exclusively reserved for the Girl Scouts. Nightwatch Crossroads, designed for kids in middle school and high school, costs $85 per participant and Knightwatch Medieval costs $135. All children must be accompanied by adults as Welch and her staff merely conduct the programs and are not responsible for supervision. Interspiritual, which took place on a recent Friday, began with an orientation and group introduction for its 33 participants. A selection of music and chants from different religions followed. The group sat in a semicircle around a band that provides backup to the religious activities and prayers for the evening. Ambika Cooper, a Brooklyn-based singer, has been conducting the spiritual chants for Welch since she took over the program. Cooper does not identify herself with a religion; rather, chanting and prayers are her main practice. “To me all faiths are true, she says. “They’re what connect me to the divine and the most real part of humanity.” Cooper sang Buddhist and Hindu prayers,
and prayed in front of the group with passion and reverence. The group sang along in a call and response. “It’s not about how well you sing,” Cooper told the participants. “This song is a prayer and the only way to experience it fully is to sing with all your heart.” Welsh’s husband, Lee Welch, a guitarist who also plays bass, directed the rest of the band: His two sons, Brendan and Evan, on acoustic guitar and Danny O’Brien on drums. O’Brien also conducted the drum circle. Standing in the middle of the group, he raised and lowered his body to indicate volume as kids and adults alike beat their drums in sync to various beats. As the drumming progressed and O’Brien’s smile grew, participants started playing other percussion instruments, such as a wooden block or maracas and invented their own beats, layering the original. The result is a euphony of rhythms and sounds that thunder and echo off the ceiling 124 feet above. Other religions also feature throughout the night. Welch explains the Jewish ritual of Shabbat and lights two candles in the center of the group as the band softly accompanied two audience members, who sang the traditional Jewish blessing. Readings from the Koran and the Gospel of John follow at the Midnight Eucharist. Pamela Dear was inspired to attend the program herself when her first son came back from the experience incredibly
moved, especially by the 20 minutes he spent meditating in the dark with a candle. Since then, she has brought her second son to Nightwatch and is now coming back with her daughter. “I love churches and this is an extraordinary place,” Dear said. “There are pieces that are unfamiliar to me but so much of it feels like it’s home. We come from a wooden church and this one’s so different.” Dear’s church has been bringing a group to Nightwatch for at least 20 years and on this night, drove three hours from Connecticut in four cars to participate. Other groups from Long Island and Pennsylvania also made the trip to New York for Nightwatch, which has become a tradition and a recurring experience for many. Welch recalls a man who attended the program last month who had already participated 24 times. She also confirms that the solo meditation with the candle is remarkable for many. “A lot of people tell us that it’s an incredibly powerful experience. That just tells me a lot about what youth are hungry for, and they may not even be able to verbalize it,” Welch said “It’s the silence, and I tell them when I orient them, ‘Remember that silence is God’s first language. If you go upstairs knowing that God is speaking to you in the silence, what’s happening? Be open to whatever.’”
arlier this year, 50 workers at the large SLS car wash in Brooklyn, New York, overwhelmingly voted to join the RWDSU. They did it for the same reasons workers at 10 other New York City car washes since 2012 have done it: to win respect at work, to win better pay and benefits, and to prove that there is dignity in low-wage work. They’ve proven that car wash jobs can be a stepping stone to a better life and not just a sentence to a life of poverty. Car wash workers, like other low-wage workers across the country, have had enough of often illegally low pay, and having their voices – and their rights – ignored. They are calling attention to the difference unions can make in workers lives, and the fact that employers can afford to do right by their workers. Workers at nine New York City car washes have won contracts bringing them better pay, better benefits, better health and safety protections, and paid time off and control over scheduling that had Hillary Clinton talks with RWDSU members never before been at Hi-Tek car wash. a part of their jobs. The largely immigrant workforce has won the right to return to their home countries and have their jobs waiting for them when they return. They’ve shown that a union voice isn’t all about money. It’s about dignity and respect, and fighting for the things that are important for each group of workers. The day before the New York Democratic primary, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton came to Hi-Tek Car Wash in Queens to talk with workers. The workers at Hi-Tek started it all, as the first “carwasheros” east of Los Angeles to win a union election. Clinton’s campaign is focused upon fighting for marginalized people in our society – including low paid workers – and creating a better America with an economy that works for all of us. Car wash workers epitomize this part of her campaign, and Clinton was there to talk with this group of immigrant workers and hear first-hand the story of how they had changed their lives. We see it all around us, throughout our union. We see it in New York City’s car washes, and we see it across the river in New Jersey, where newly-organized workers at Laminated paper products won a short strike in April when the owner agreed to the RWDSU Local 262 members’ terms. Workers are showing that when they stand together and form a collective voice, they can build stronger lives for themselves and their families.
For more information, visit
www.rwdsu.org
8
APRIL 28-MAY 4,2016
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
Write to us: To share your thoughts and comments go to otdowntown.com and click on submit a letter to the editor.
GETTING STARTED WITH SOCIAL MEDIA OP-ED BY CARLOTA ZIMMERMAN
Social media is storytelling. We are all, at any given time, sharing an online narrative; some stories galvanize us, and our goals, some stories electrify our network, while other stories further isolate us, binding us ever tighter to our exhausting, and exhaustive fears. A good story inspires the audience, helping them make an emotional identification, which, over time, leads to connection. A disorganized presence leaves the viewer indifferent. Of course, an intelligent, viable social media presence takes time, trial and effort, as well as personal responsibility: why are you online? What story are you telling? Whom are you telling it to, and why? What’s your audience’s take-away? Why should they
care? As the Cheshire Cat famously said, “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.” There, of course, being nowhere. If you’re online, hoping to promote your business, or yourself, here’s some basic points to consider: * How you present is how you will be perceived. If a stranger were to see your Facebook, Twitter or Instagram profile, what would their immediate take-away be? Would that stranger understand that you, for example, are a published author trying to get published…or would he be underwhelmed by all the cat photos? I share plenty of cat photos, don’t worry, but I also give potential and current clients a solid understanding of my personality, passion and goals as a coach. * Identify the ways your presence actively furthers your goals. Look
THE LOOPHOLE OF AFFORDABLE HOUSING OP-ED BY B. PEARL
I’ve been hearing a lot lately about Mayor Bill de Blasio’s commitment to keeping New York City housing accessible to his lower and middle-income constituents. The way he is going about this is by giving select developers big incentives, including tax breaks, on construction projects when they agree to reserve a small percentage of new units for people who may not otherwise be able to afford living in these units once they’re built. Sounds like a reasonable approach, right? Not to mention that it makes for great headlines, as politicians ap-
STRAUS MEDIA your neighborhood news source
proach elections. Here’s my story, which serves as an example of why this approach to affordable housing requires some serious reconsideration. A few years ago, I got divorced and moved in with my elderly mother, whose health was deteriorating. She lived in a Mitchell-Lama rental unit. For those not familiar with the program, it is basically the 1960s equivalent of what de Blasio is doing now. In keeping with the program’s regulations, I added myself to the annual income affidavit from the time I moved in. Three years after caring for my mother, she unfortunately passed away. I applied to succeed her in the rental agreement. What should have
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Voices
at your social media presence with a gimlet eye: if you didn’t know you, would you understand the story you’re telling online? Would you understand all your special skills, and differentiating qualities? Would you hire you? If not, why assume anyone else would? Does your profile speak to the professional you know yourself to be? You can shrug and say, “Well my friends all know what I’m doing, and anyway, they wouldn’t help me.” How much any of us truly know of what our friends and family are doing is open for debate. Meanwhile, it’s your responsibility to give people a reason to help you. Ideally, you want a smiling, well-groomed profile photo, a cover photo that speaks to your overarching interest, and a succinct profile that captures the reader’s interest. Helping your ideal audience at the end of the day is really about helping yourself. And your wallet. * “Please like me!” Likes are great, numbers are lovely…but online engagement is king. What’s the point, for example, of having 10K Twitter followers if, when you tweet, no one responds? I have less than 1,000 followers on Twitter, and yet I’ve landed clients across the U.S., Australia, New Zealand and Russia. Many clients will tell me that until they can be sure of
having 25K followers, there’s “no point” in getting online. So, essentially: until you’re a success, you’re not going to do the hard work of becoming a success? Tell me how that works out for you. I’ll be over here, coaching clients in Nepal, and giving workshops in Chicago, and public speaking throughout the country, all through clients and connections I met online. * Choose one platform, and commit. Any social media platform you don’t put the time into, will ultimately be useless. You can sell yourself short on numerous platforms, with a shallow, vague, scatter-shot presence, or you can identify your goals, audience and platform-specific voice, and commit
to the hard work of branding, creating the opportunities your talent requires. * Get started by getting started. People say, “Well, once I’ve figured out my brand, I’m going to dive in.” That never works. You didn’t learn how to ride a bike by watching other people: you got on the bike, maybe had some training wheels, and started pedaling. You learn by doing: why would creating a useable, professional social media footprint be any different? Carlota Zimmerman speaks nationally at events, leads public workshops, works privately with clients, and can be reached through her website, www. carlotaworldwide.com.
been a fairly straightforward process turned out to be an education in the realities of affordable housing in New York City. Our building was under new ownership and management. Instead of properly processing tenant succession requests, the owner’s focus appeared to be on quickly emptying out as much of the building as possible with the ultimate goal of exiting the MitchellLama program. In doing this, any empty units would be automatically converted to market-rate apartments. Occupied apartments would convert from Mitchell-Lama to standard Rent Stabilized apartments; this is not a good thing if you purchased a building for the sole purpose of getting everyone out and making a quick buck. Instead of working with NYC’s Department of Preservation and Development (HPD) to judiciously process succession applications, the building’s owner and management company contracted a law firm to litigate and contest every single legitimate application that was submitted, including
mine. They questioned the amount of time that I lived with my mother. After I proved that I was within the guidelines, they questioned the information that I provided on the Income Affidavits. I provided copies of my tax returns showing that my income was in line with what I had reported. They then questioned some of the information on my mother’s Death Certificate. When that was resolved, a few months passed and they then came back questioning the nature of my relationship with my mother. I had kept my married name and, for whatever reason, this suddenly became an issue over a year after I had submitted the original application. I quickly realized that I was involved in a kangaroo court administrative hearing led by an unsuspecting HPD Hearing Officer, who was allowing the management company and the owner’s attorneys to continuously derail and complicate the succession application review process. Unlike the building owner, I was not able to afford an attor-
ney to represent me. I was also unable to secure a pro-bono Legal Aid attorney. Long story short, a year and a half after submitting my succession application, I was evicted and found myself living on random sofas and eventually in a homeless shelter in Manhattan. Shortly thereafter, the building filed to exit the Mitchell-Lama program. Not coincidentally, more than half of the apartments happened to be vacant at the time. If you think my experience was an unfortunate one-off, consider that The Furman Center at NYU recently estimated that within the next decade, 58,288 units of subsidized rental housing in NYC will become eligible to opt out of affordability restrictions. With that will come the legal gamesmanship to strong-arm poor tenants out of their apartments just before applying to opt out of the programs. Mr. Mayor, wouldn’t it be easier to take steps to protect the affordable housing that we currently have rather than waste time and city resources entering into more suspect future development deals?
Associate Publishers Seth L. Miller, Ceil Ainsworth Regional Sales Manager Tania Cade
Photo by Jason Howie via flickr
President & Publisher, Jeanne Straus nyoffice@strausnews.com Account Executive Editor In Chief, Kyle Pope editor.ot@strausnews.com Fred Almonte Director of Partnership Development Deputy Editor, Richard Khavkine Barry Lewis editor.dt@strausnews.com
Staff Reporters Gabrielle Alfiero, Madeleine Thompson Director of Digital Pete Pinto
Block Mayors Ann Morris, Upper West Side Jennifer Peterson, Upper East Side Gail Dubov, Upper West Side Edith Marks, Upper West Side
APRIL 28-MAY 4,2016
A COLLECTION OF BENEFITS FOR SENIORS GRAYING NEW YORK BY MARCIA EPSTEIN
I hope everyone knows about New Yorkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Elderly Pharmaceutical Insurance Coverage (EPIC) Program. This plan is for New York Stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s seniors and administered by the Department of Health. Since I joined years ago, it has been cut back considerably, and then in 2013 some benefits were restored. It is still very worthwhile for those over 65 on limited incomes to check out because it can help supplement their outof-pocket Medicare Part D drug costs. EPIC provides secondary coverage for Medicare Part D. There are income limits that are different for singles and married couples, and for different income levels. Higher income members must pay their own Part D premiums but can lower their EPIC deductible. EPIC has two plans based on income. The Fee Plan is for members with income up to $20,000 if single or $26,000 if married, and the Deductible Plan is for people with incomes ranging from $20,001 to $75,000 if single or $26,001 to $100.000 if married. For more information e-mail eflrp@nylag.org or go to Elderly Pharmaceutical Insurance Program and sign up on your computer. EPIC verifies information with the Social Security Administration and the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer hosted â&#x20AC;&#x153;Up With Agingâ&#x20AC;? at the CUNY Graduate Center on March 20 and drew a crowd of more than 700 seniors to listen to information about brain health and aging. A senior expo followed and included information, services, activities and exhibits from many presenters regarding the brain and aging and participate in events including yoga, tai chi, zumba and drumming. A wonderfully informative booklet was available for the taking, and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s well worth getting if you werenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t at the event. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s called â&#x20AC;&#x153;Age-Smart Manhat-
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APRIL 28-MAY 4,2016
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
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28
Thu
THE BLESSING OF THE BIKES ▼ ‘SPIDERMAN’
crime news, real estate prices - all about your part of town
REVOLUTIONARIES: THE LATE WORKS OF BEETHOVEN & GINASTERA
Trinity Church, 75 Broadway 6:30 p.m.-9 p.m. Free Snacks will be served. St. Paul’s Chapel, Broadway and Fulton Street. www.trinitywallstreet.org
Cultural Events
Trinity Church, 75 Broadway 1 p.m. Free This spring, Concerts at One presents Revolutionaries: The late works of Beethoven and Ginastera. www.trinitywallstreet.org
Sat
CHINA’S GREAT EMPERORS ▲
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China Institute, 100 Washington St. 6:30 p.m.-8 p.m. $10-$15 A six-session lecture series that will explore the history of imperial China through the lives of some of its most fascinating emperors. 212-744-8181. www. chinainstitute.org/event/ chinas-great-emperors
Fri
29
IN KHARMS WAY Tenri Institute, 43 West 13th St. 7:30 p.m. $20 Voice Afire Opera-Cabaret will present an evening of music-theater. Directed and choreographed by Courtney Laine Self. www.voiceafire.com
The Church of Saint Luke in the Fields, 487 Hudson St. 9 a.m. Free “The Blessing of the Bikes” takes place the morning prior to one of the city’s biggest bike events — The TD Five Boro Bike Tour. www.theblessingofthebikes. com
30 Sun 1
Town & Village (T&V) Synagogue, 334 East 14th St. 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Free A Service with full readings from the Torah, Haftorah (Prophets), and Song of Songs. Yizkor will be said as well. www.tandv.org
‘BODY: ANATOMIES OF BEING’ New Ohio Theatre, 154 Christopher St. 5 p.m. $18 The world premiere of Body: Anatomies of Being, conceived and directed by Jessica Burr, written by Matt Opatrny, created and choreographed by the Blessed Unrest ensemble. www.NewOhioTheatre.org
APRIL 28-MAY 4,2016
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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
‘CHINA — THE RED SONS’ China Institute, 100 Washington St. 6:30 p.m.-8:15 p.m. $5 Join China Institute in collaboration with Asia Art Archive for a screening of filmmaker Roger Whittaker feature, filmed during a trip to China in 1968. 212-744-8181. www. chinainstitute.org/
served. Ages 5-12. www.nypl.org/events/ programs/2016/05/01/popbook-workshop
SUZEN Westbeth Gallery, 55 Bethune St. 1-6 p.m. Free SuZen’s 50th anniversary retrospective, “Visions of Light&Spirit” opens at the Westbeth Gallery. Her newest multi-media installation, “Transmigration”, inspired by Buddha’s teachings, will be premiered at the exhibition. www.suzennyc.com
Mon
2
NYU JAZZ ORCHESTRA ▼ Blue Note, 131 West Third St. 8 p.m. $10 Rich Shemaria, Conductor, featuring NYU Jazz Studies students, Artist Faculty, and saxophone legend Tom Scott. www.bluenotejazz.com
Tue
3
POP-UP BOOK WORKSHOP ▲
DEMOCRACY & DISTRUST
Seward Park Library, 192 East Broadway 4 p.m. Free Create your own pop-up books through the basic elements of foldivvng and cutting skills. Participants will learn how to incorporate their own artwork to create pop-up books and cards. Maximum of 10 children: first come, first
Federal Hall, 26 Wall St. 6:30 p.m.-8 p.m. Free Join the NY Council for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities for a conversation on race, inequality and civic trust as part of the Democracy In Dialogue series. RSVP required. www.nydialogues.eventbrite. com
Wed
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SIGN-LANGUAGEINTERPRETED YOM HASHOAH SERVICE CBST, 130 West 30th St. 7 p.m.-8 p.m. Free The ceremony will include remarks from Rabbis of several of the Kehillah’s Synagogues, songs from the Kehillah’s Cantors and Chorus, a candlelighting ceremony and memorial prayers. www.cbst.org
POEMS OF REPOSSESSION: A READING OF MODERN IRISH POETRY Poet’s House, 10 River Terrace 7 p.m.-8 p.m. $10; students/ seniors, $7 The launch of the first comprehensive critical anthology of modern poetry in Irish Gaelic with English translations. 212-431-7920. www. poetshouse.org
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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
APRIL 28-MAY 4,2016
CATALOGUE OF NEUROSES AT CITY MUSEUM Roz Chast’s “Cartoon Memoirs” at the Museum of the City of New York BY VAL CASTRONOVO
She’s the reigning Queen of Worry. Without a doubt, Roz Chast, best known for her quirky cartoons in The New Yorker, knows what trouble is. Her award-winning graphic memoir, “Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?,” is a harrowing tale of the trials and tribulations she witnessed, and endured, as her 90-something parents faced “The End.” The story poignantly plays out on a long wall in “Cartoon Memoirs,” a new exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York featuring more than 200 cartoons from the last four decades of this funny woman’s career. Chast, 61, was born and raised in Brooklyn, but not in the fashionable parts. She grew up in Kensington/
Parkview, or, as she called it at a preview of her show, “deepest Brooklyn, in the middle.” The only child of a public school teacher and an assistant principal, she was often on her own. Sketching helped her pass the time: “I was always drawing, always wanted to draw. It was an outlet.” She went to Midwood High School and graduated in 1977 from the Rhode Island School of Design, where she majored in painting. The following year, she submitted an eccentric cartoon to The New Yorker — and it was accepted. “I thought I’d be lucky to go to The Village Voice,” she said about her good fortune. “It’s still thrilling when they buy a cartoon and depressing when they don’t.” The piece, “Little Things,” is a collection of unrecognizable shapes with unrecognizable names — “chent”, “spak”, “kabe”, “tiv” and other non-
Roz Chast in her studio last year. Photo: Jeremy Clowe
“Subway Sofa” (2016) by Roz Chast. Photo: Val Castronovo sensical words. It caught the eye of famed editor William Shawn and launched her career. The show begins with a selection of her covers for the magazine. Her first, dated Aug. 4, 1986, tells the story of “plain vanilla” ice cream, featuring a single scoop at the top of the drawing, with myriad permutations radiating out from the original scoop. It’s a family tree of ice cream, with descending sodas, cones, sandwiches, sundaes, pops — you name it. A “scientist” in a white lab coat taps a pull-down screen with a long pointer and explains it all. More concretely, literally, there’s Chast’s Second Avenue subway cover, from March 2012. In her inimitable absurdist fashion, she maps the fraught project’s long and winding road to completion, from El Barrio to the Financial District by way of “Brighton Beach, the Yukon and Saturn.” In his introduction to “Theories of Everything,” a compilation of her favorite cartoons, the magazine’s editor, David Remnick, calls her “an innovator” and marvels that “Roz is always creating something different: fake greeting cards, a triptych of fake Sylvia Plath poems ... . [She] has never fallen into set patterns.” Her creativity, wry humor and sheer zaniness are in full force at the mu-
seum. A distinctly New York sensibility colors her view of the world. She explores universal themes (parenthood, phobias, illness, urban living, suburban living, the holidays, death), but through a New York lens — despite having left New York for Connecticut in 1990. As with Jerry Seinfeld, no topic is too mundane. There’s no subject that doesn’t have a funny side. And like Woody Allen, she specializes in neuroses. Anxiety is her beat. Organizers have highlighted her city cartoons. At the museum’s request, she created “Subway Sofa,” a blackand-white mural in the anteroom that she painted on the premises in early April. It imagines a cozy living room in a New York City subway car, with “X” train commuters huddled on a sofa en route to “The Unknown.” Look out for “The Greek Chorus of Apartment 7-H” (2004), a loony drawing of a middle-class mother, father and son seated on a sofa, watching TV, while an imagined Greek chorus intones: “While they are watching a reality show, polar ice caps are melting!”/“Also, many people are starving!!”/“What can be done about it? Who knows? Maybe nothing!!!” Start worrying — or laughing, or both. When Chast is not fretting about doctors, elevators, water bugs and
getting lost, she takes us to the “Planet of Lost Luggage” in Scottsboro, Alabama, where she went on assignment for now-defunct DoubleTake Magazine in 1998. But this is no imaginary place; it’s an actual warehouse for “stuff people left on planes,” with “a rack full of beige trench coats,” she explained to peels of laughter during the preview. The darkly funny Charles Addams is her cartoon hero, but she’s also drawn inspiration from Edward Gorey, Winsor McCay (“Little Nemo”) and Alison Bechdel, among many others. She said that she “loves the cartoon medium. You can combine words and pictures, interweave the two, and can do anything in the panels. It’s a one-person operation.”
IF YOU GO WHAT: “Roz Chast: Cartoon Memoirs” WHERE: Museum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Ave. (at 103rd Street) WHEN: Through Oct. 9 www.mcny.org/
APRIL 28-MAY 4,2016
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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
ACTIVITIES FOR THE FERTILE MIND
thoughtgallery.org NEW YORK CITY
PEN World Voices Festival: Prison Branding in the Age of Mass Incarceration (Parts I & II)
SATURDAY, APRIL 30TH, 1PM The Cooper Union | 41 Cooper Sq. | 212-353-4100 | cooper.edu Two panels look at prison privatization in the U.S., with the first covering marketing and prison products, followed by an examination of the rhetorical strategies of corporate corrections. ($12)
Laurie Anderson & Red Shirley
SUNDAY, MAY 1ST, 6:30PM Tenement Museum | 103 Orchard St. | 212-982-8420 | tenement.org
Composer Kenneth Fuchs, with baritone Jarrett Ott and David Krane.
FROM 9/11 TO OPERA A musical adaptation of a Don DeLillo novel debuts on the UWS BY GABRIELLE ALFIERO
Following the events of Sept. 11, composer Kenneth Fuchs, a 20-year resident of Manhattan who was living in Oklahoma at the time, sought a way to respond to the tragedy through his work. Years later, on an airplane, he started reading Don DeLillo’s 2007 novel “Falling Man,” about a survivor of the attacks, and knew instantly that he wanted to adapt parts of the book. Fuchs, a professor of composition at the University of Connecticut, discusses how DeLillo’s book inspired him to compose his work for orchestra and a baritone singer, which he recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra, with a libretto adapted from DeLillo’s novel by poet J.D. McClatchy. He also talks about how he and his collaborators adapted his earlier work and created a 20-minute stage production for one singer and eight instrumentalists, which premieres at Symphony Space on Friday, April 29. This interview was edited for length and clarity. THE INSPIRATION I heard about [Don DeLillo’s novel “Falling Man”] and because I was interested in 9/11 it piqued my interest. I bought it at the [San Francisco International] airport and I started reading it on the plane. The moment I opened that book and I started reading the prologue,
Delve into politics and families with a screening of Lou Reed’s film Red Shirley, about his activist cousin Shirley Novick, along with a live conversation with Reed’s wife, artist Laurie Anderson. (Free)
Just Announced | Showtime’s The Circus: Inside the Greatest Political Show on Earth
TUESDAY, MAY 10TH, 8PM 92nd Street Y | 1395 Lexington Ave. | 212-415-5500 | 92y.org
the novel is set up with a prologue, and then the body of the novel and then an epilogue, and when I read the first five pages of the prologue I knew that I had found the inspiration for what I wanted to do. THE CHARACTER The novel concerns a protagonist who stumbles out of the falling rubble of the World Trade Center—he’s a survivor—and he witnesses chaos and the terror and the horror and the unspeakable things that happened to so many people, and the prose is so riveting. I thought this person, this protagonist is really like an everyman for all of us, bringing us to the core of the tragedy, and so I decided that it would be for a solo voice and a symphony orchestra. FROM SCORE TO STAGE [Musical director and conductor] David [Krane] very brilliantly took the entire orchestral score for 75 players and just brilliantly adapted it for eight players. It was his idea to contact the 9/11 Memorial & Museum. He said, of course given his experience working on Broadway, you know, this would be so very effective with videography, video projections to accompany the solo baritone and the ensemble. So I wrote to the museum and they were very intrigued. They invited David and me down to the museum and gave us the grand tour. We told them what we wanted to do and they contributed a number of 9/11 photographs from their collection
and we engaged a wonderful projection designer, Justin West. I just saw the 20-minute video for the first time. I just fell apart. I just burst into tears at the end of it. It is so moving.
Charlie Rose brings together three political experts to talk about the 2016 Presidential race and Showtime’s real-time behind-the-scenes look at this most entertaining of campaign seasons. ($38)
For more information about lectures, readings and other intellectually stimulating events throughout NYC,
sign up for the weekly Thought Gallery newsletter at thoughtgallery.org. THE IMAGES David Krane, who suggested all of this to begin with, suggested that we’re really trying to create an integrated work of art in which the images fuse with the text and the music, and we’re inside this man’s mind. So what he’s seeing and by extension what we’re seeing behind him projected on the video screen, is what he’s seeing and how he’s imagining it. It’s not just slide by slide of one realistic photo after another of debris falling or orange balls of flame coming out of the buildings. That is all there, but sometimes it’s in slow motion, sometimes it’s speeded up, sometimes it’s fragmented and it dissolves into another image. It’s really about creating an emotional and visual texture, kind of the world of this man’s mind.
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Advertise with Our Town Downtown today! Call Vincent Gardino at 212-868-0190
IF YOU GO “Falling Man” Friday, April 29 Symphony Space 2537 Broadway at 95th Street 8 p.m. Tickets $30 To purchase tickets, call 212864-5400 or email boxoffice@ symphonyspace.org
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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
APRIL 28-MAY 4,2016
MAY 3-8, 2016 VIP PREVIEW MAY 3
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APRIL 28-MAY 4,2016
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Photo by Clementine Gallot via flickr
TACKLING CRIMINAL JUSTICE AT TRIBECA NEWS Film festival reflects national attention BY JAKE COYLE
At a time when criminal justice reform has gained national attention and bipartisan support from even the leading candidates for president, a handful of documentaries at the Tribeca Film Festival are giving a close-up to the human cost of mass incarceration. The films pursue the issue in numerous directions, from the conditions of solitary confinement to the difficult re-entry to society ex-convicts face. But they’re united in depicting a system that’s dehumanizing and destructive for all who enter it. “There’s a lot of talk about a change moment. There hasn’t been that much change,” says Kelly Duane de la Vega, co-director of “The Return.” “We’re hoping that this film and the many, many others that are in this struggle together can catalyze on this moment.”
“The Return,” also directed by Katie Galloway, movingly trails a pair of men released after California altered the harsh sentencing of its “three strikes” law. David Feig’s “Untouchable” delves into the distorted effects of Florida’s stringent sex offender laws (more than 800,000 are listed on the state’s sex offender registry). “Prison Dogs,” by Geeta Gandbhir and Perri Peltz, documents psychically damaged inmates finding healing by caring for puppies. For “Solitary,” Kristi Jacobson spent a year and half documenting a Virginia supermax prison and the lives of inmates who spend 23 hours a day within a 10-foot by 8-ft. cell. There’s even a virtual reality exhibit at the festival that simulates the experience of solitary confinement. The films are filled with tender and tragic stories of people -- many of them poor, many of them black men -- who made mistakes at a young age and were locked away for questionably long terms. They are stories of debatable justice, but are more principally films about human dignity. “The main thing I wanted my film
to do was make you think about who these people are as humans: human beings who had childhoods and wives and for one reason or another, wound up here,” says Jacobson. “The difference between them and you may be thinner than we think.” An estimated 2.2 million Americans are behind bars, many times more than most industrialized democracies. Though crime has fallen drastically since its peak in 1991, the prison population has grown exponentially. The National Research Council found that the 2009 state and federal prison population was seven times what it was in 1973. Studies have found increased incarceration rates only slightly improve crime rates. Recently, criminal justice reform has emerged as a rare bipartisan issue. Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz has voiced support for easing mandatory minimum sentencing, as has Democratic candidate Hilary Clinton, who has written of an “incarceration generation.” Last year, President Barack Obama became the first sitting president to visit a federal prison. “The Return” debuted at Tribeca but its true premiere was at Manhattan’s
Otisville Correctional Facility. There, inmates peppered one of the film’s subjects, Bilal Chatman, for advice on how to make it on the outside. For Chatman, who has found a good job and remarried, agreeing to do the film was first simply about “survival” -- a means to help him get released. He had to rethink his commitment to the film once he was out. Not only were cameras a distraction in a trying time, he didn’t want to be defined as an ex-con. “I didn’t want them around,” said Chatman. “Then I felt this sense that I had this opportunity to get this out there to the world. I had a sense of responsibility to all the guys that are still left there.” The film’s other subject, Kenneth Anderson, has had a harder road. He served 14 years, entering prison with four young children. His struggles include mental health and crushing guilt over his absence. “I’ve been yearning for freedom even though I’m walking around free,” he says in “The Return,” which PBS’s “POV” will air in May. “I’ve seen it three times and I’ve cried all three times,” says Chatman,
who will meet Anderson next month. “Kenneth’s family moves me every time. ... My connection to them is life long.” The personal tales of “Solitary,” filmed at Virginia’s Red Onion State Prison, are no less emotional. One inmate asks, “Could you live in a bathroom for 10 years?” The toll of nearly zero human interaction is severe. Another inmate, fighting for his sanity, says, “I feel like I’ve been buried alive.” Yearning for human connection, inmates often contort themselves to speak to other inmates through air vents in their cells. And the prison is grueling for the guards, too, many of whom took the job as the only local option aside from the coal mines. “The system is dehumanizing for all of us,” says Jacobson, whose film will later air on HBO. “But there is some hope. We’re at a particular moment in time where people who have been working on this issue for decades, just coming up against really well built brick walls, seem to be legitimately saying there is real progress and real reason to have hope.”
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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
Food & Drink
RETAIL TAPS AN UNDERGROUND SOURCE TurnStyle, 30,000 square feet of commerce, opens at the Columbus Avenue subway station BY MELODY CHAN
Dining’s gone underground. So has shopping for cosmetics, hats and sunglasses. On a renovated passageway connecting the two subway lines at the 59th StreetColumbus Circle subway station, dozens of businesses, including several sit-down restaurants and, of course, coffee outlets, are vying for commuters’ attention, and their dollars. TurnStyle, as the 30,000-square-foot commercial corridor was christened, opened last week. “Most of the times you think of subways as kind of icky and grimy and this is fresh and cool and it’s a community spot. That’s what I’m just digging about it,” said Lisa DeSpain, a composer and musician, after grabbing coffee at one of the bakeries. “It makes me feel less grumpy. I can de-stress from a commute.” TurnStyle, the brainchild of Susan Fine, who heads the development company OasesRe, cost about $14.5 million, all of which was privately raised by an investment team led by Fine and Goldman Sachs Urban Investment, a TurnStyle spokesman said. The venture is short on chains; most of TurnStyle’s retailers are independent, city-based small businesses with some cachet. In other words, it’s no longer your great-grandparents’ IND stop, circa 1932, the year the Eighth Avenue subway line opened. “High-end works because it’s different,” said the spokesman, David Simpson. “It’s New York City, people have a certain expectation that when things are changed, they’re changed for the better.” Simpson said that for all its distinction, TurnStyle is a utilitarian outpost, however singular, and will attract a distinctly different clientele than that shopping above ground. “Time Warner Center is a shopping center, people who don’t work during the day will come there for high-end shopping. That’s not the demographic that TurnStyle will cater to. It will be for people going to and from work or people who live in the area and operate as a spot for them to grab a gift for someone or an organic juice,” he said. Fine, then the MTA’s director of real estate, managed Grand Central’s renovation in the 1990s. She and her company will
In Brief
FOUR SEASONS TO MOVE TO NEARBY SPACE The New York Post reported that the Four Seasons’ managing partners Alex von Bidder and Julian Niccolini have tapped Paul Goldberger, an architecture critic, to help them in their search for an architect for the restaurant’s new space at 280 Park Ave., which they expect will open in 2017. Four architects are currently in the running, the Post reported. The restaurant’s dining room three blocks away at 99 E. 52nd Street will close on July 16 and the restaurant’s furniture will be sold at auction. Major Food Group, which operates several Manhattan eateries including Santina on Washington Street and three Parm locations, will take over the current Four Seasons space, Eater reported.
A FORMER CHEF AT PER SE NOW HEADS DELIVERY ONLY’S KITCHEN Joseph Nierstedt, who also worked at Colonie in Brooklyn, The Restaurant at Meadowood in Napa County, California, and Mugaritz in Spain, is overseeing a Pearl Street kitchen turning out a 50-item menu that includes short rib shawarma, lobster mash, mahi mahi tacos and $14 chicken tenders. According to Eater, Delivery Only’s mission is to “master the art of the dining-in experience.” The company’s owner, restaurateur Tim Powell, is looking to deliver food that’s unmatched in the city’s crowded delivery market, with dishes cooked to order and made from scratch, Eater said. The news site reports that Powell is looking to add another half-dozen locations in the city. About 40 shops and eateries comprise TurnStyle, a retail corridor recently opened at the Columbus Circle-59th Street subway station. Photo: Melody Chan have operational control is responsible for maintaining the space and its appearance. Simpson said the venture directly created about 250 jobs. Nearly all of the retail space has been leased, he said. The lease runs for 20 years, plus a 10year extension at the tenant’s option. In the first year, the MTA will receive 10 percent of TurnStyle’s net operating income and in the second year 10 percent of gross revenue. In year three, the agency will receive an annual base rent of $720,000 that will increase 3 percent annually, as well as 20 percent of gross revenue exceeding a so-called “breakpoint” that starts at $2.77 million and climbs to $3.37 million by the start of the option period. TurnStyle is drawing aspiring entrepreneurs and small companies, themselves hopeful of attracting some of those who add up to the station’s 23 million annual subway fares — or, since it’s outside the turnstiles, even those who don’t ride the trains. Jeff Zhang, who owns Spectre & Co., a menswear company, opened his first store at TurnStyle. His space, like many of the other stores, is separated from the pathway by glass windows and a door, giving his shop and some of the other boutiques a stand-alone feel. “We’re really excited about the foot traffic and being in Mid-
town West,” Zhang said. “People come in during lunch breaks, while coming to work or getting off work and they’re curious. And there’s a good number of tourists too.” In the middle of the football-field-long corridor, among a line of booths, Greyston Bakery stocks its first retail location with two of its bestselling products: chocolate fudge brownies and brown sugar blondies. “There’s a constant stream of traffic, it’s clean, it’s open,” said Greyston’s Mindy Srebnik. “I mean, what’s better for a subway station?” On a recent afternoon, the space is crowded and animated. Lines form at Ellary’s Greens, MeltKraft and other food vendors as people who work above ground venture below for lunch. Alan Markinson, former house manager at the Helen Hayes Theater, doesn’t like subways but since he lives two blocks from the market, nevertheless came down to visit. Sitting in one of the few seats at fast-food sushi place Yong Kang Street, he considers the redesign and comes away impressed. “It’s bright, it’s airy, it’s better than I thought it would be,” he says. “For New York it’s kind of unusual and I like the fact that it’s rather compact. You can actually get around and see the business everyone’s doing.”
RECETTE, THE COZY WEST 12TH STREET RESTAURANT OWNED AND RUN BY YOUNG CHEF JESSE SCHENKER, HAS SERVED ITS LAST CHARCUTERIE PLATE Recette, which opened six years ago, closed Saturday. But on the restaurant’s website, Schenker assured its devotees that the small eatery would “live on” at The Gander, Schenker’s restaurant in the Flatiron and flourish in planned “other ventures.” Recette was given two stars by The New York Times shortly after opening. The reviewer, Sam Sifton, said the restaurant’s cooking was “smart and imaginative,” “elegant and full of flavor.” The Times reported that Schenker’s decided to close Recette because of rising rent and its small size. “Recette was not a failure,” Schenker was quoted as saying by The Times. “It was a steppingstone to where I am today.”
Scallops with caviar beurre blanc at Recette. Photo: Krista, via flickr
APRIL 28-MAY 4,2016
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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
RESTAURANT INSPECTION RATINGS APR 8TH - 20TH, 2016
Fika
155 7Th Ave
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 http://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/services/restaurant-grades.page
The Gem Hotel
300 W 22Nd St
A
Le Zie Trattoria
172 7 Avenue
A
Bar B
84 7Th Ave
A
Lena
1 W 8Th St
A
Jupioca
200 W 14Th St
Not Yet Graded (2)
Wichcraft
62 Chelsea Piers
A
Insomnia Cookies
304 W 14Th St
A
Think Coffee
73 8 Avenue
A
Saturdays Surf
17 Perry Street
A
Dunkin Donuts & Baskin Robbins
395 Hudson St
A
En Japanese Brasserie
435 Hudson Street
A
Quality Eats
19 Greenwich Ave
Not Yet Graded (32) Hot food item not held at or above 140º F. Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Hand washing facility not provided in or near food preparation area and toilet room. Hot and cold running water at adequate pressure to enable cleanliness of employees not provided at facility. Soap and an acceptable hand-drying device not provided. 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.
Almanac
28 7 Avenue South
A
Subrosa
22 Little West 12Th St
A
The Four Faced Liar
165 West 4 Street
Grade Pending (25) Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Filth flies or food/refuse/sewageassociated (FRSA) flies present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Filth flies include house flies, little house flies, blow flies, bottle flies and flesh flies. Food/refuse/sewage-associated flies include fruit flies, drain flies and Phorid flies. 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.
North Square
103 Waverly Place
A
Subway
37 7 Avenue
Grade Pending (19) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation. Raw, cooked or prepared food is adulterated, contaminated, cross-contaminated, or not discarded in accordance with HACCP plan.. Wiping cloths soiled or not stored in sanitizing solution.
Westville
246 West 18 Street
Grade Pending (17) 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.
Google-Truck Pit
111 8 Avenue
A
Flavors
100 West 23 Street
A
Serai
150 West 17 Street
A
Tuck Shop
75 9Th Ave
A
Barrys Bootcamp
135 W 20Th St
A
Beans & Greens Kosher
121 W 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. Raw, cooked or prepared food is adulterated, contaminated, cross-contaminated, or not discarded in accordance with HACCP plan. Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred.
Eleni’s New York
75 9 Avenue
A
The City Bakery
3 West 18 Street
Grade Pending (27) 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. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service. Wiping cloths soiled or not stored in sanitizing solution.
8Th Street Winecellar
28 West 8 Street
A
Lucky’s Famous Burgers
264 West 23 Street
A
Perry Street
176 Perry Street
A
L’arte Del Gelato
75 9Th Ave
Grade Pending (19) Filth flies or food/refuse/sewage-associated (FRSA) flies present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Filth flies include house flies, little house flies, blow flies, bottle flies and flesh flies. Food/refuse/sewage-associated flies include fruit flies, drain flies and Phorid flies. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service.
The Warren
131 Christopher St
A
Valbella N.Y.
421 West 13 Street
A
Dairy Queen Grill & Chill
54 W 14Th St
A
Oaxaca Greenwich
48 Greenwich Ave
A
Gingersnaps Organic
113 W 10Th St
A
Momoya Chelsea
185 7Th Ave
A
Lenwich
66 W 9Th St
A
Da Umberto Restaurant
107 West 17 Street
A
Aleo
7 West 20 Street
A
Brownstein Caterers
557 West 23 Street
A
The Grey Dog
242 West 16 Street
A
Just Made Sushi (Dd Maru) 267 West 17 Street
A
Jacks Coffee
A
Ifc Center
323 6Th Ave
A
Blue Ribbon Bar
34 Downing Street
A
Bongo
395 West Street
A
Upholstry Store
715 Washington St
A
Tio Pepe
168 West 4 Street
A
Cagen
414 East 9 Street
A
Thirstea Cafe
280 East 10 Street
A
Zucker Bakery
433 East 9 Street
A
Caracas Arepa Bar
939312 East 7 Street A
Desi Galli
172 Avenue B
Not Yet Graded (2)
International Bar
12012 1 Avenue
A
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ROUND-THE-CLOCK CONCERNS ABOUT CHAPIN CONSTRUCTION Neighbors fear more 24/7 work permits to come BY MADELEINE THOMPSON
The Chapin School at East 84th Street and East End Avenue was issued a 24/7 work permit by the Department of Buildings for an ongoing construction project that has drawn the ire of the neighborhood. That permit ends April 28, but residents are concerned that it is a sign of more similar permits and
An Our Town Cartoon
after-hours work to come. Cynthia Kramer, who lives nearby, said that in order for an ambulance to get to her building during an emergency this past Sunday, her super had to stand outside and direct traffic around the construction so the ambulance could pull up. “Our super went and … stopped traffic while the demolition crew was waiting for a truck to arrive,” Kramer said. “If our super hadn’t done that it would’ve been chaos.” Chapin is already per-
mitted to work from 7 a.m. to midnight on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends. DOB record indicate that 144 24/7 building permits have been issued in Manhattan so far this year, eight of them in the same zip code as Chapin. The school has hosted meetings with residents to update them and hear their concerns, but the neighbors do not feel that it is enough. “In some ways we’re hopeful they’re going to turn the page and be more consid-
erate of the neighbors,” said resident Lisa Paule. “But seven days a week work is totally not acceptable.” Paule is nervous that construction will ramp up even more this summer, when Chapin’s students are on break. “This is the prelude,” she said. The 24/7 permit was issued for indoor work, according to DOB records, and residents acknowledge that the latest round of construction has not been significantly disruptive. However, this does
not lead them to believe that the rest of the project might go more smoothly; they worry that it is the calm before the storm. “Work within and near schools often must take place outside of standard work hours to ensure the safety of students,” a DOB spokesperon wrote in a statement. “The work variances issued at this address were issued for public safety reasons as permitted under the City’s Administrative Code.”
Neighborhood Scrapbook SPRING CLEANING BY NY CARES Approximately 4,000 New York Cares volunteers cleaned and greened 74 New York City public parks and community gardens during the 22nd Annual New York Cares Day Spring, sponsored by HSBC. New York Cares, the city’s largest volunteer network, mobilized the volunteers who gave a day of their time throughout the five boroughs, installing flower beds, repairing damaged shoreline, removing invasive species, planting bulbs, and removing litter and chemicals that can enter soil and surrounding waterways. In Riverside Park, 250 volunteers descended to repair and restore the damaged Hudson River coastline. The volunteers picked up trash and debris to keep it out of the waterway, planted native grasses to mitigate erosion, and removed invasive species.
Illustration by Peter Pereira
Over 200 employees from HSBC prepare for a day of volunteering at Riverside Park during the 22nd Annual New York Cares Day Spring Saturday. Photo by Lynn Coscia
APRIL 28-MAY 4,2016
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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
YOUR 15 MINUTES
To read about other people who have had their “15 Minutes” go to otdowntown.com/15 minutes
ENRICHING EDUCATION Change for Kids’ board member Louise Phillips Forbes on assisting New York City’s public schools
BY ANGELA BARBUTI
“We can’t change the educational system. We can’t change the world. But we can change one school, one child and one community at a time,” Louise Phillips Forbes said. A real estate power broker with Halstead Property and mother of two, Phillips Forbes dedicates her time to serving Change for Kids, an organization working to transform New York City public schools in need. The organization, headquartered on East 23rd Street, serves eight elementary schools in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx with financial support and educational programming. “We have a very rigorous application process. The first thing we do is find the great principals at very highneed public schools in the city. We work with that principal, the teachers and parents to understand their specific, pressing needs,” Phillips Forbes explained. Besides providing money and resources to fund projects such as new computer labs, Change for Kids pro-
vides enriching programming like a Museum Arts Residency, parent workshops, literacy tutoring and musical instruction. They also host a wide range of events at their partner schools from career days and school beautification days to science nights and family game nights. Their Pre-K Reading Buddies program, where volunteers read to students, helped lift literacy scores at Brooklyn Landmark Elementary from 11 to 57 percent. I read an interview in the Wall Street Journal where you explained that you learned about Change for Kids after going on a date with its founder. Yes, that’s a true story. That’s how I found Change for Kids. While that was not the intent, the founder, Ted Madara, and his sister and two other friends were on Spring Street on a Saturday afternoon having drinks in a little bar and struck up a conversation with these three ladies. One was principal and the others were kindergarten teachers in a public school. Ted bought them a round of drinks. When he paid for the drinks, it was $13-something and they compared it to the $12.79 each child was allocated for all of their supplies for the entire year from the Department of Education. And what many people may or may not know, Parent Associations supplement the curriculums for the school.
Louise Phillips Forbes, a board member of Change for Kids, at Brooklyn Landmark Elementary School in 2014. Photo: Courtney Lamb Whether it’s the music program that doesn’t exist, additional supplies … So when you’re in very high-need public schools in areas where 80 percent of students qualify for a federal lunch program, you’re not getting a big flush from the Parent Association.
So the organization started with a change bucket on a trading desk? It was born from the idea of literally putting change in a bucket on a trading desk. So when you would order lunch at the trading desk, it would be $8 and you would put the $2 of change in this bucket. And at the end of the year, they would call the principal and say, “What do you guys need this year?” Ted ended up visiting the school in April, towards the end of the year. He walked into the art class and there were literally cut-up grocery bags with Q-tips with egg cartons with watered-down tempered paint. And the kids were drawing and didn’t know what they didn’t have. They only knew the joy that they had. A lot of those resources came from these teachers who were so invested. Everybody can think about their childhood and teachers who impacted their lives by giving you the attention. And they’re everywhere in our New York City public school system.
What kind of fundraisers have you been involved in?
Change for Kids board member Louise Phillips Forbes. Photo: Abigail Holstein
Oh my goodness, what haven’t I been involved with? We have some amazing partners. I’ve done Bowl for Kids, Run for Kids, Spin for Kids, Shop for Kids. Casino Night for Kids. We do some corporate building opportunities where they can have a beautification day on a Saturday. We can have 40 of our vol-
unteers and they have 40 of their employees and they can go in and paint and clean a playground. And often, our kids from that school will want to join. So there is that opportunity to take pride in your backyard.
college and give $100 to Change for Kids. That is beautiful; I was so excited. And I didn’t even suggest it.
Explain one project Change for Kids has taken on at a school in need.
He is a force to be reckoned with. When I first met Colin, he was in his 20s and recently graduated from UVA. He was the president of our Junior Council and in 2008 after several years of working at Change for Kids, he felt that his Wall Street life was not as fulfilling. He literally left Wall Street and served on the board solely and then offered to be the executive director for no pay for some time because he believes so wholeheartedly in what we’re doing.
One of our schools. P.S. 81, had this shameful construction caution tape across this huge classroom in their building that was the computer lab. It was under construction for literally 10 years. But it wasn’t really under construction because they didn’t have the budget for it. There were floppy disk computers that even the teachers couldn’t teach with because we haven’t seen them since the ‘80s. That was a source of shame for the principal, so we basically we went back to our board and reached out to our hedge funds and said, ‘When you’re getting new computers, please let us know. And if anyone is moving their office, we’re looking for desks and chairs.’ It cost us not one penny and the school got something that they were so proud of.
Your husband was the chairman of their board. Are your children invested in the program too? Oh absolutely. My children have made hundreds and hundreds of beaded bracelets and sold them on the beach in Montauk and the Hamptons for Change for Kids. They do lemonade stands and donate some portion of the proceeds to Change for Kids. My son had his first modeling job at Ralph Lauren earlier this year and made $600 and he told me that he wanted to put $500 in his savings account for
Tell us about executive director Colin Smith, who left Wall Street to work for CFK.
Explain some events that Change for Kids hosts at schools. There’s a pre-K buddies program where you can go and read to the kids. I go to Career Day in as many schools as I can to talk about what I do. We have Chess programs. We have Poetry Night, Family Fitness Night, Wellness Night, College and Career Explorations. We have Science labs on the weekends. We have students from high schools who take one Saturday every month and do science projects with the kids. To learn more, visit www.changeforkids.org
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APRIL 28-MAY 4,2016
APRIL 28-MAY 4,2016
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VOL. 2, ISSUE 10
10-16
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