The local paper for Downtown wn ALL THE WORLD’S A STAGE, A FEW BLOCKS FROM HOME, CITYARTS < P.12
WEEK OF MAY
5-11 2016
MAYORAL PROBE FOCUSES ON LAX CAMPAIGN LAWS
MELDING SEX AND SHAKESPEARE
NEWS
Hell’s Kitchen writer uses the bard to discuss her own sexual fetish
State disclosure rules are already among the nation’s loosest BY MICHAEL VIRTANEN
A probe swirling around New York City’s mayor has cast a harsh light on some of the nation’s most lax campaign finance laws, with contribution limits so easy to get around that even government watchdogs acknowledge a ring of truth to the familiar excuse: Hey, everybody’s doing it. Mayor Bill de Blasio has been bedeviled by a criminal probe of an effort he helped organize in 2014 to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for Democratic state Senate candidates. He insists that he and his team have done nothing wrong and suggested they have been unfairly singled out for a common practice in New York’s famously opaque campaign funding system. While New York law restricts individual donations to any candidate at just over $10,000 -- already among the highest such limits in the nation -- party committees can receive individual donations of more than $100,000, and the committee can then transfer an unrestricted amount to the candidate. The legal restriction at issue in the de Blasio case is that such an arrangement can’t be specifically worked out in advance. Money can’t be given to a party committee with a direction that it’s passed on to a particular candidate. Even reform advocates acknowledge this restriction has been routinely flouted. “Everybody knows how it’s played so
CONTINUED ON PAGE 5
PROFILE
BY CHRISTIAN SCIBETTA
For author Jillian Keenan, there was no better place than Hell’s Kitchen to write her sexual comingof-age memoir “Sex With Shakespeare.” Keenan, 29, a foreign correspondent and freelance journalist who contributes to The New York Times, The New Yorker, Slate and other local publications has lived in Hell’s Kitchen with her husband David, a doctor in the neighborhood, for two years. Her first book, “Sex With Shakespeare,” is part coming-ofage, part literary analysis in which Keenan uses the plays of Shakespeare to interpret and understand her personal proclivities. The memoir comes out April 23rd, on the 400year anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. “I wrote a lot of the book at Rex’s Cafe on 10th and 57th,” Keenan says while sitting on her overstuffed sofa insider her cozy one-bedroom apartment. A frequent customer at Rex’s, she recommends the lox and avocado sandwich. “It’s a special, so they don’t always have it available. But when they do, you should try it.” The afternoon sunlight pours from her apartment window into the living room where Keenan is seated. She has long brown hair that comes to her chest and a blue T-shirt with a picture of William Shakespeare that she put on for the interview. Across from the sofa is a bookcase covering the entire wall with books. She shows off some of her favorites,
Photo by Christian Scibetta sex positive and a sexually exciting place to live,” she says. Keenan’s love affair with Shakespeare began at age 15 when she saw a rendition of The Tempest at the Utah Shakespeare Festival. She felt immediate kinship with Caliban, the fish-man servant of The Tempest whose outcast echoed her own feelings of alienation. Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis shortly after, Keenan left her familyat 17 to study in Spain. A born vagabond, Keenan then trav-
including a copy of Shakespeare’s works she bought as gift for David and a collection of travel books covering India, Thailand, Cuba and more. In Keenan’s new memoir, she comes out as a spanking fetishist. “Spanking is not a part of my sex life; spanking is my sex life,” she states in her new book. Coming out as a fetishist hasn’t been easy for Keenan, but living in the neighborhood has given her support during the process. “It’s super
Downtowner
OurTownDowntown
O OTDOWNTOWN.COM @OTDowntown
Newscheck Crime Watch Voices Out & About
2 3 8 10
City Arts To Do Business 15 Minutes
12 13 16 21
WEEK OF APRIL
SPRING ARTS PREVIEW < CITYARTS, P.12
FOR HIM, SETTLING SMALL CLAIMS IS A BIG DEAL presided over Arbitration Man has three decades. for informal hearings about it He’s now blogging BY RICHARD KHAVKINE
is the common Arbitration Man their jurist. least folks’ hero. Or at Man has For 30 years, Arbitration court office of the civil few sat in a satellite Centre St. every building at 111 New Yorkers’ weeks and absorbed dry cleaning, burned lost accountings of fender benders, lousy paint jobs, and the like. And security deposits then he’s decided. Arbitration Man, About a year ago, so to not afwho requested anonymity started docuhe fect future proceedings, two dozen of what menting about compelling cases considers his most blog. in an eponymous about it because “I decided to write the stories but in a I was interested about it not from wanted to write from view but rather lawyer’s point of said Arbitration view,” of a lay point lawyer since 1961. Man, a practicing what’s at issue He first writes about post, renders and then, in a separatehow he arrived his decision, detailing blog the to Visitors at his conclusion. their opinions. often weigh in with get a rap going. I to “I really want whether they unreally want to know and why I did it,” I did derstood what don’t know how to he said. “Most people ... I’d like my cases the judge thinks. and also my trereflect my personalitythe law.” for mendous respect 80, went into indiMan, Arbitration suc in 1985, settling vidual practice
9-16
MANHATTAN'S APARTMENT BOOM, > PROPERTY, P.20
2015
In Brief MORE HELP FOR SMALL BUSINESS
The effort to help small seems to businesses in the city be gathering steam. Two city councilmembers, Robert Margaret Chin and Cornegy, have introduced create legislation that wouldSmall a new “Office of the within Business Advocate” of Small the city’s Department Business Services. Chin The new post, which have up told us she’d like to would and running this year, for serve as an ombudsman city small businesses within them clear government, helping to get through the bureaucracy things done. Perhaps even more also importantly, the ombudsman and number will tally the type small business of complaints by taken in owners, the actions policy response, and somefor ways to recommendations If done well, begin to fix things. report would the ombudsman’s give us the first quantitative with taste of what’s wrong the city, an small businesses in towards important first step fixing the problem. of for deTo really make a difference, is a mere formality will have to the work process looking to complete their advocate are the chances course, velopers precinct, but rising rents, -- thanks to a find a way to tackle business’ is being done legally of after-hours projects quickly. their own hours,” which remain many While Chin “They pick out boom in the number throughout who lives on most vexing problem. said Mildred Angelo,of the Ruppert construction permits gauge what Buildings one said it’s too early tocould have the 19th floor in The Department of the city. number three years, the Houses on 92nd Street between role the advocate She Over the past on the is handing out a record work perThird avenues. permits, there, more information of Second and an ongoing all-hours number of after-hours bad thing. of after-hours work the city’s Dept. problem can’t be a said there’s with the mits granted by nearby where according to new data jumped 30 percent, This step, combinedBorough construction project noise Buildings has data provided in workers constantly make efforts by Manhattan to mediate BY DANIEL FITZSIMMONS according to DOB of Informacement from trucks. President Gale Brewer offer response to a Freedom classifies transferring they want. They knows the the rent renewal process, request. The city They 6 “They do whatever signs Every New Yorker clang, tion Act go as they please. work between some early, tangible small any construction on the weekend, can come and sound: the metal-on-metal or the piercing of progress. For many have no respect.” p.m. and 7 a.m., can’t come of these that the hollow boom, issuance reverse. owners, in business moving The increased beeps of a truck has generto a correspond and you as after-hours. soon enough. variances has led at the alarm clock The surge in permits
SLEEPS, THANKS TO THE CITY THAT NEVER UCTION A BOOM IN LATE-NIGHT CONSTR NEWS
A glance it: it’s the middle can hardly believe yet construction of the night, and carries on full-tilt. your local police or You can call 311
n OurTownDowntow
COM
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
12 13 14 18
CONTINUED ON PAGE
25
eled from Spain to California where she earned her Shakespeare chops studying English at Stanford University. “The summer after my sophomore year at Stanford the name I chose for my grant proposal was ‘Shakespeare and Sadomasochism,’” says Keenan. “So I was really unsubtle right from the beginning,” she says, laughing. But Keenan ultimately moved to New York City to work as a journal-
CONTINUED ON PAGE 5
We deliver! Get Our Town Downtowner sent directly to your mailbox for $49 per year. Go to OTDowntown.com or call 212-868-0190
2
MAY 5-11,2016
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
Chapter 10
EVE AND OTHERS BY ESTHER COHEN
Previously: A man named Alyosha disappeared. Naomi and Eve host a pot luck dinner, to see if any of the other tenants would like to join the spontaneous detective team. Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d call themselves Eve and Others. By seven oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;clock, the apartment was full. Naomi and Eve did not know their neighbors. Elevator hellos were all they knew. Charles stood outside the door of apartment 57. He was an unlikely greeter, not a natural shaker of hands. He was dressed, too, to say hello, in his tight black velvet pants, in his black t-shirt that had the words Hello or Else written in script. The t-shirt had never seemed so appropriate. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m Charles,â&#x20AC;? he said, over and over again to the stream of tenants, of all ages and races and sizes. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Who might Charles be?â&#x20AC;? asked Pin Ball, the building drag queen. Pin Ball was dressed in Judy Garland. Her lips could not have been more red. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Interesting name you have,â&#x20AC;? said Charles to Pin Ball. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Given to me, in a dream,â&#x20AC;? he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Judy sang
it loud and clear. Pin Ball Pin Ball You Are Mine. And you,â&#x20AC;? he asked. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Did you become a Charles? Is Charles your by choice name?â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;My mother, a delusional Jew in the projects in Brighton Beach, thought Charles sounded like Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d be a King. King Charles Schwartz,â&#x20AC;? he said, and they both laughed. The apartment was festooned with helium balloons, dripping from the ceiling. Red and purple, silver and gold yellow and orange and turquoise blue. The store on 72nd Street, Good Card Spot, recently acquired a balloon tank, and theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d decided that this potluck, no matter what happened, was an occasion to celebrate, and occasion worth of spending $15.00 for decorations. Mrs. Israel brought a large ďŹ&#x201A;oral plate full of homemade peanut butter cookies, and light pink napkins to match her plate. Her outfit, carefully chosen, consisted of many matching parts: her tasteful pearl earrings, her graduated pearl necklace, the single pearl modestly set in gold on her only ring ďŹ nger. Mrs. Israel would not wear a ring on any ďŹ nger except one. She looked as if she could be the perfect detective, perfect victim, or perfect criminal too. She was in careful disguise. Richard and Richard, a couple from he sixth ďŹ&#x201A;oor (â&#x20AC;&#x153;Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t call either of us Dick,â&#x20AC;? said the taller one. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We are both Richards.â&#x20AC;?) brought a large tray of mini quiches and Eloise, an overweight tap dancer from the third ďŹ&#x201A;oor, came with her favorite cheese cake. She brought many handwritten copies of the recipe on index cards, and propped one on the table next to cheese cake with the tile Only Philadelphia Cream Cheese.
Illustration by John S. Winkleman Charles magically brought out a triangle with a stick, and he hit it a few times until the guests looked his way. Over 20 people were side by side in Apartment 55, happily talking, eagerly eating as much as they could on day glow orange plates with matching knives and forks. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Ladies and Gentlemen,â&#x20AC;? he began. â&#x20AC;&#x153;And others,â&#x20AC;? sang out Pin Ball. â&#x20AC;&#x153;And others,â&#x20AC;? said Charles. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We are here to-
gether for the very ďŹ rst time. This is where we actually begin. Let me introduce your hosts. I too am just a guest,â&#x20AC;? he said. And at that, Eve and Naomi, in silver and gold, stood on the couch. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Hello,â&#x20AC;? they shouted into the room. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Hello.â&#x20AC;? To see previous installments of this serialized novel, go to www.otdowntown.com.
Spring Admission Events Please join us for coffee and conversation with IDEAL Head of School, Janet Wolfe, followed by a brief tour. Lower School (grades K-5)
Upper School (grades 6-12)
Tuesday, May 10th at 9am
Tuesday, May 17th at 9am
Openings available for the 2016-2017 school year. %TTPMGEXMSRW [MPP FI GSRWMHIVIH SR E VSPPMRK FEWMW *SV QSVI MRJSVQEXMSR TPIEWI GSRXEGX XLI %HQMWWMSR 3J½GI EX I\X SV EHQMWWMSRW$XLIMHIEPWGLSSP SVK
Mission The IDEAL School & Academy is an inclusion school dedicated to creating a diverse community that EJ½VQW ERH EGGITXW XLI JYPP MHIRXMXMIW SJ EPP TISTPI [LMPI MRWTMVMRK EGEHIQMG I\GIPPIRGI GVIEXMZI PIEHIVWLMT ERH E HIWMVI XS FYMPH E QSVI NYWX ERH IUYMXEFPI [SVPH
+VEHIW / ; WX 7XVIIX 2I[ =SVO 2I[ =SVO Â&#x2C6; +VEHIW ; XL 7XVIIX 2I[ =SVO 2I[ =SVO Â&#x2C6; [[[ XLIMHIEPWGLSSP SVK
MAY 5-11,2016
3
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
CRIME WATCH BY JERRY DANZIG
TWO SOUGHT FOR MUGGINGS Two suspects are still wanted for consecutive robberies on April 17 and 18 in Central Park and the Upper East Side, police said. In the first incident, two Hispanic men approached a 17-year-old man at East Drive and Tranverse Road #2 in Central Park, showed a knife and demanded money late on April 17, a Sunday night, according to police. One punched the victim in the back of the head and when he fell to the ground, both suspects began kicking and beating him. The victim gave them his wallet containing $150 and his cellphone, police said. The two suspects fled on foot only to approach a 73-year-old male at 81st Street on the Upper East Side about an hour later, at 12:30 a.m. the morning of the 18th. As the victim took money from an ATM, the two suspects asked him for the time, with at least one of them brandishing a knife. They took $200, according to the police report.
TAKEN AND AWAKENED A 23-year-old woman who slept through her stop while riding on a southbound 1 train and again snoozed
STATS FOR THE WEEK on a northbound 1 early on Sunday, April 24, woke at the Rector Street stop to discover her purse had been opened and several items, including her cellphone and cash, were missing. The stolen included an iPhone 6 valued at $600, $60 in cash, a multicolored pink wallet, a variety of debit and credit cards, a driver’s license, and a monthly MetroCard. Several charges on her credit cards had been debited before she was able to cancel them.
TART START On the morning of April 18, a 25-year-old female employee of a bakeshop at 135 Sullivan St. was bringing several items down to the basement. The shop was closed at that hour, but the front door was open for employees. When she returned upstairs, she saw an unknown woman in the store. The woman left, but employee later found that her wallet had been stolen. She lost $500 in cash, a gift card valued at $200, a wallet worth $30 and several documents.
THE THEFT OF GAB Two young cellphone thieves were caught after lifting a woman’s
cellphone from her purse. At 1:20 p.m. on Tuesday, April 19, a 47-yearold woman was about to board a southbound 4 train at the Bowling Green station when a 16-year-old boy engaged her in conversation. While he talked, she observed a 15-yearold boy in the reflection of the train removing her cell phone from her bag. She asked the 15-year-old to return her phone, at which time the older boy fled. The 15-year-old told her that his companion had her phone. The woman got on the train and exited at Borough Hall, when she alerted a police officer who managed to collar the thieves, recovering her cellphone from the 16-year-old and a knife from the 15-year-old. The two boys were charged with grand larceny.
SHOPPER’S REMORSE At 2:40 p.m. on April 18, a 39-yearold woman from Weehawken placed a brown wristlet in the upper rack of her shopping cart inside the Whole Foods store at 270 Greenwich St. When she got to the checkout, she noticed that the wristlet was gone. She told police that she had been browsing the entire store and had no idea when her property was taken. The items stolen included a Samsung Note 3 cell phone
You’ve Arrived at World-Class Care Right in the Neighborhood See a Weill Cornell Medicine physician at one of our comprehensive, multi-specialty locations in Lower Manhattan today
Reported crimes from the 1st precinct for Week to Date
Year to Date
2016 2015
% Change
2016
2015
% Change
Murder
0
0
n/a
0
0
n/a
Rape
0
1
-100.0
3
2
50.0
Robbery
0
1
-100.0
16
11
45.5
Felony Assault
2
1
100.0
21
24
-12.5
Burglary
4
5
-20.0
40
48
-16.7
Grand Larceny
23
23
0.0
337
284
18.7
Grand Larceny Auto
0
1
-100.0
7
3
133.3
valued at $500, $350 in cash, a brown Coach wristlet tagged at $199, various ATM and credit cards, a New Jersey driver’s license, and a Weehawken library card.
BAG DRAG A moment of absentmindedness led to the absence of a woman’s bag. At 5:40 p.m. on Thursday April 21, a 25-year-old woman was sitting on a bench on the northbound platform of the Canal Street station waiting for the
A train. When the train arrived, she got on carrying a number of bags, but not until the train had pulled into the West 4th Street station did she realize that she had left her valuable Chanel bag back on the bench at Canal Street. She returned to that location and of course found her bag and its contents missing. She canceled her credit cards before any unauthorized charges showed up. The items stolen included a Chanel bag valued at $958, makeup priced at $200, a weekly MetroCard worth $32, a passport, and various credit, debit, and insurance cards. In total she was out $1,190.
Weill Cornell Medicine. Care that Connects to you. 40 Worth Street 156 William Street
visit us at weillcornell.org to learn more
For appointments, call 1-855-WCM-4YOU Today
4
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
Useful Contacts POLICE NYPD 7th Precinct
19 ½ Pitt St.
212-477-7311
NYPD 6th Precinct
233 W. 10th St.
212-741-4811
NYPD 10th Precinct
230 W. 20th St.
212-741-8211
NYPD 13th Precinct
230 E. 21st St.
212-477-7411
NYPD 1st Precinct
16 Ericsson Place
212-334-0611
FIRE FDNY Engine 15
25 Pitt St.
311
FDNY Engine 24/Ladder 5
227 6th Ave.
311
FDNY Engine 28 Ladder 11
222 E. 2nd St.
311
FDNY Engine 4/Ladder 15
42 South St.
311
MAY 5-11,2016
CHELSEA’S LINK TO THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD A house on West 29th Street served as a center of abolitionist activity
ELECTED OFFICIALS Councilmember Margaret Chin
165 Park Row #11
212-587-3159
Councilmember Rosie Mendez
237 1st Ave. #504
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
LIBRARIES
HOSPITALS New York-Presbyterian
170 William St.
Mount Sinai-Beth Israel
10 Union Square East
212-844-8400
212-312-5110
CON EDISON
4 Irving Place
212-460-4600
TIME WARNER
46 East 23rd
813-964-3839
US Post Office
201 Varick St.
212-645-0327
US Post Office
128 East Broadway
212-267-1543
US Post Office
93 4th Ave.
212-254-1390
POST OFFICES
HOW TO REACH US:
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:
212-868-0190 nyoffice@strausnews.com otdowntown.com
Include your full name, address and day and evening telephone numbers for verification. Letters that cannot be verified will not be published. We reserve the right to edit or condense letters for libel, good taste, grammar and punctuation. Submit your letter at otdowntown.com and click submit at the bottom of the page or email it to nyoffice@strausnews.com.
TO SUBSCRIBE: Our Town Downtown is available for free below 23rd Street in select buildings, retail locations and news boxes. To get a copy of downtown neighborhood news mailed to you weekly, you may subscribe to Our Town - Downtowner for just $49 per year. Call 212-868-0190 or go online to StrausNews.com and click on the photo of the paper or mail a check to Straus Media, 20 West Ave., Chester, NY 10918
NEWS ITEMS: To report a news story, call 212-8680190. News releases of general interest must be emailed to our offices by 12noon the Thursday prior to publication to be considered for the following week. Send to news@strausnews.com.
BLOG COMMENTS: We invite comments on stories at otdowntown.com. We do not edit those comments. We urge people to keep the discussion civil and the tone reflective of the best we each have to offer.
PLACE A CLASSIFIED AD: Call 212-868-0190. Classified ads must be in our office by 12pm the Friday before publication, except on holidays. All classified ads are payable in advance.
PREVIOUS OWNERS: Tom Allon, Isis Ventures, Ed Kayatt, Russ Smith, Bob Trentlyon, Jerry Finkelstein
CALENDAR ITEMS:
ABOUT US
Information for inclusion in the Out and About section should be emailed to hoodhappenings@strausnews.com no later than two weeks before the event.
Our Town Downtown is published weekly by Straus Media-Manhattan, LLC. Please send inquiries to 20 West Ave., Chester, NY 10918.
BY RAANAN GEBERER
With the recent decision to put the image of Harriet Tubman, who helped scores of enslaved African-Americans escape to freedom, on the $20 bill, we are focusing on a local mid-19th century building that was once a stop on the Underground Railroad. That “stop” is the Hopper-Gibbons House at 339 West 29th St., which was once the home of Quaker abolitionists James Sloan Gibbons and his wife, Abigail (Abby) Hopper Gibbons. This building is part of the Lamartine Place Historic District, a group of 12 mid19th century row houses on the north side of West 29th Street between numbers 333 and 355. Lamartine Place, apparently named after the French writer and politician Alphonse de Lamartine, was designated as such by developers William Torrey and Cyrus Mason, who wanted to distinguish their development from the numbered street grid. The houses, all in Greek Revival style, were built in the late 1840s or early 1850s. The city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission recognized Lamartine Place as a historic district in 2009. In addition to providing shelter to runaway slaves seeking freedom, the house at 339 West 29th St. served as a center of abolitionist activity. Both William Lloyd Garrison, editor of the abolitionist newspaper “The Liberator,” and John Brown, who later led an anti-slavery insurrection at Harpers Ferry, were guests at various times. When the Civil War began, James Sloan Gibbons wrote the patriotic poem “We Are Coming, Father Abraham (Three Hundred Thousand More),” which was put to music and became a popular song. Abby Gibbons worked as a nurse in hospitals serving the Union Army in Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia. Back in New York, however, many working-class white men were angry about the draft, especially about the fact that wealthier men were able to buy their way out of being conscripted. Competition between black and white workers for low-wage jobs also fueled their resentment, especially after the Emancipation Proclamation. Their anger exploded in the “Draft Riots” of July 1863, in which the mobs misguidedly targeted the city’s African-American population as objects of their wrath. The Gibbons house, because the family were known as abolitionists, was attacked by vengeful mobs during the Draft Riots. Two of the Gibbons daughters escaped by climbing over the roofs to a neighboring
The Hopper-Gibbons House at 339 West 29th St. was a stop on the Underground Railroad. Its current owner has applied to modify and legalize rooftop and rear additions. Photo: Raanan Geberer house, where Mrs. Gibbons’ sister lived, and from there to a waiting carriage. Today, both James Sloan Gibbons and Abby Gibbons are buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. As for the house on West 29th Street, a historic marker was dedicated there in 2012. The house recently became the object of controversy. In 2005, its owner, Tony Mamounas, received approval from the Buildings Department to build a penthouse addition. The permit was revoked in 2009, though, for failing to comply with the multiple dwelling law, according to a Buildings Department spokesman. A few months later, Landmarks designated the entire group of houses as the Lamartine Place Historic District. A bureaucratic and legal tug-of-war followed, and preservationists also got involved, opposing the proposed addition. The Board of Standards and Appeals upheld the decision to revoke the permit, the Buildings spokesman said.
In February 2015, a panel of state appellate judges ruled to uphold the Board of Standards and Appeals’ 2013 decision. Mamounas has submitted an application to the Landmarks Preservation Commission to modify the roof and rear additions, a commission spokesman said. A public hearing is scheduled for June 21. A visit to the site in late April showed what apparently is the rooftop addition clad in protective construction material. The front of the house is covered by a sidewalk shed and black netting, and some of the windows are boarded up. The Buildings Department spokesman said there are two active permits at the site, one for a construction fence and the other for a sidewalk shed. Whatever the future brings, the controversy has raised the house’s profile as a historic Chelsea link to the Underground Railroad, the Civil War and the Draft Riots.
MAY 5-11,2016
MAYORAL PROBE CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 you really don’t have to be explicit,” Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group said about earmarking contributions. Susan Lerner, of Common Cause, said it’s a “systemic problem” and “should be solved systemically.” “We don’t know what the facts are (in the de Blasio case),” she said. “What we do know is that this is a problem that did not start or end with Mayor de Blasio.” For his part, de Blasio said he and his allies -- a network of committees, consultants, politicians and operatives -- have done everything properly and suggested a political motive behind singling him out. “Everything was done very carefully, meticulously, with legal guidance, and consistent with what so many other people have done,” de Blasio told WNYC Radio on Friday. The case referred by New York’s Board of Elections in January to Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. involves donations to Senate candidates Justin Wagner, Terry Gipson and Cecilia Tkaczyk. All lost contested 2014 races that kept Republicans in control of the chamber and able to thwart measures backed by left-leaning Democrats. On Saturday, at an unrelated event, Vance said he couldn’t comment on the ongoing investigation. “We’re doing our job and beyond that, at this point, I really can’t add more,” he said. Elections board chief enforcement counsel Risa Sugarman, who was appointed by Democratic
SEX AND SHAKESPEARE CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 ist and to live with David, who practices medicine at a local Hell’s Kitchen hospital. In “Sex With Shakespeare,” the characters from Shakespeare’s plays appear as characters in Keenan’s story, which somehow manages to combine her story growing up as a sexual outsider with a survey of Shakespeare’s plays focusing on love, romance, and the sea of troubles they bring. “Literature is a conversation. Books are walkie-talkies,” Keenan says in the book, during a scene depicting a late-night stroll into the Omani desert when, inexplicably, Helena and Demetrius from A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream appear on top of the sand dunes and recite lines from the play. Like visions, or hallucinations,
5
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
Photo: Kevin Case, via flickr Gov. Andrew Cuomo, recommended the criminal referral. In a memo later leaked to the New York Daily News, she said it began with a pair of complaints by Republican officials in Putnam and Ulster counties, where the Senate races took place. Her office subpoenaed bank records and work by prominent consultants involved. Sugarman noted large, unusual donations to the two counties’ Democratic committees that in turn made large donations to the candidates. Campaign records show, for example, the Ulster committee got $60,000 that October from the New York State Nurses Association political action committee and $102,300 each from the
these characters interact with Keenan to illuminate how Shakespeare discussed gender, sex, and relationships. In another instance, Keenan meets up with a modern version of Lady Macbeth for a dinner date in the Financial District, where the two talk about being honest with their spouses. Keenan also taps into the experiences of these characters for insights into her own daily struggles, for example seeing parallels in Ophelia’s tortured relationship with Hamlet to her own crush on a brilliant, but selfish man during college. As a foreign correspondent Keenan continues to travel for her writing, but Hell’s Kitchen has become her adopted home. “I love living here,” Keenan says, reflecting again on the neighborhood. “The bars and wine shops here definitely helped with writing my book, too,” she jokes.
PACs of Communications Workers of America District One and 32BJ Service Employees International Union United American Dream Fund. Over the next two weeks, the committee transferred $320,000 to Tkaczyk. “Review of the documents revealed evidence of campaigns that were coordinated at every level and down to minute detail,” Sugarman wrote, later calling the violations “willful and flagrant.” Attorney Laurence Laufer, representing de Blasio and others named in the memo, responded to Sugarman last week, saying she showed “profound misunderstanding of election law.” “There is nothing novel about the 2014 Demo-
cratic Party campaign to elect Democratic candidates to the state Senate, other than your attempt to selectively criminalize it,” Laufer wrote. In the same few weeks of the 2014 campaign, the Senate Republican Campaign Committee funneled $105,000 to candidates Tom Croci in a contested Long Island race that he won and $80,000 to Sue Serino who beat Gipson for that Hudson Valley seat, while the committee took in almost $500,000 in transfers from the campaigns of incumbent Republican senators with no serious challengers. Campaign records show some of the same consultants -- Metropolitan Public Strategies and AKPD Message and Media -- mentioned in the Sugarman memo were being paid in 2014 by the state Democratic Committee, which Cuomo heads and was funding with millions of dollars from his own campaign account during his reelection race. Cuomo also publicly backed the three Senate candidates. Sugarman’s memo recommending a criminal investigation mentions neither the state committee nor the governor himself, who has been at odds politically with de Blasio. Spokeswoman Dani Lever said neither Cuomo nor anyone on his executive staff authorized Sugarman’s investigation of de Blasio and the others. “The administration was first made aware of the reported investigations by the U.S. attorney, district attorney and Board of Elections when it was reported in the press,” she said. State Party Executive Director Basil Smikle said they routinely support Democratic candidates but neither the state party nor Cuomo campaign used the Putnam and Ulster county committees in the effort.
ISABELLA HOUSE Independent Living for Older Adults
A great way to live in New York. Join us at our
OPEN HOUSE
and experience it for yourself. SATURDAY, May 21st, 11:00 AM – 3:00 PM 525 Audubon Avenue at 191st Street, New York, NY 10040
OUR AMENITIES INCLUDE: 5 Spacious studios and one-bedroom apartments starting at $2,400.00 per month 5 Complimentary Lunch and Dinner served buffet style 5 Basic Cable TV 5 All utilities included 5 24-Hour Security 5 Weekly linen service
5 Visitor parking 5 Pastoral services 5 A wealth of programs, activities and trips 5 Conveniently located near medical, physical therapy, occupational therapy and psychiatric services 5 On-site beauty salon, library, gift shop, laundry, check-cashing facilities and visitor parking 5 Moderately priced lodging for overnight guests
WE’VE THOUGHT OF EVERY THING TO ENR ICH AND ENHANCE YOUR LIFE. If you cannot attend our Open House or would like additional information on scheduling a private tour, please call 212-342-9539
fb.com/IsabellaOrg twitter.com/IsabellaOrg youtube.com/IsabellaOrg
www.isabella.org 525 Audubon Avenue at 191st Street. New York, NY
6
MAY 5-11,2016
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
Central Park meet-ups for the park’s vibrant dog community. Next meet-up: May 7, 7:30 a.m.-9:30 a.m. Where: North Meadow, ballfield #12 More info at www. centralpark.com/events
WHAT’S HAPPENING IN THE PARK WEDDING BELLS Spring means birds, blossoms and wedding season in Central Park. White dresses and tuxes abound throughout the park. If you’re thinking about getting married in Central Park, check out our list of the top wedding spots and visit our site for help with planning: www.centralpark. com/guide/weddings
PLAYGROUNDS IN CENTRAL PARK Did you know that the park is home to 21 playgrounds?
All have undergone or will be undergoing a major renovation. Heckscher Playground is the park’s oldest playground and, at nearly three acres, the largest. After Memorial Day when the temperatures reach 80 degrees or higher, water features in all of the playgrounds can be turned on to the children’s delight. To read more about the playgrounds, visit www. centralpark.com.
COMING UP THIS WEEK BAGEL BARK If your dog loves Central Park as much as you do, you won’t want to miss monthly
SUNRISE YOGA TOUR
WHERE IN CENTRAL PARK? Do you know where in Central Park this photo was taken? To submit your answer, visit: centralpark.com/where-incentral-park. The answers and names of the people who identified the feature will appear in the paper and online in two
There’s no better way to relieve the stress and stiffness of travel than with Fit Tours NYC Sunrise Yoga Walks. Combine brisk walking with restorative yoga practice in the most beautiful setting in all of NYC! When: Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6:30 a.m., and Mondays and Fridays at 8 a.m. Cost: $39 More info at www. centralpark.com
ANSWER TO THE PREVIOUS QUIZ:
Event listings and Where in Central Park? brought to you by CentralPark.com.
The William Church Osborn Gates, sculpted by Paul Howard Manship (1885-1966), honor William Church Osborn (1861-1951), who was president of the Children’s Aid Society and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They were originally dedicated in 1953 at the entrance of
the William Church Osborn Memorial Playground, which closed when the museum expanded (where the Temple of Dendur is now located). The two gates were in storage for 30 years but were refurbished and installed in 2009 at the Ancient Playground entrance. Congratulations to Joe Ornstein, Marisa Lohse, Henry Bottjer, Candi George and Gregory Holman for answering the last quiz correctly.
BETWEEN THE LINES AT GRACIE MANSION First Lady Chirlane McCray, herself a poet and writer, to host public book club BY MADELEINE THOMPSON
In keeping with its nickname as the “people’s house,” Gracie Mansion will play host to a public club for New Yorkers who love to read. One such New Yorker is the city’s first lady, Chirlane McCray, herself a writer and poet, who will sponsor and moderate the book club alongside various prominent authors. The first event will be held at Gracie on May 17, with 100 lucky lottery winners attending in person and an unlimited number of additional spectators watching on the first lady’s YouTube channel and posing questions via social media. Gabrielle Fialkoff, a senior adviser to the mayor and director of the mayor’s Office of Strategic Partnerships, said the idea was a collaborative effort between McCray, Tracy K. Smith, a poet and recent addition to the Gracie Mansion Conservancy Board of Advisers, and James Hannaham, whose book “Delicious Foods” won the 2016 Pen/ Faulkner fiction prize and who will moderate the first discussion.
“One of the thoughts that was on the first lady’s mind and my mind was ‘How do we bring more New Yorkers into Gracie Mansion?’” Fialkoff said. “If not physically over the threshold, because of course the family lives there, how to connect virtually ... how to encourage dialogue and conversations about our most important issues of the day.” The theme for the book club’s inaugural year, which will cover six books, is “envisioning distant neighbors. The topic has been a focus of the first lady’s and is also the theme of an art exhibit on display at Gracie that she helped curate. Fialkoff described McCray as being “very involved” in the book club’s planning, just as she was with the art exhibit. Though not as hot of a ticket as “Hamilton,” those entering the book club lottery will likely have significant competition, as roughly 400 people had signed up as of last week, Fialkoff said. Paul Gunther, the Gracie Mansion Conservancy’s executive director, likened McCray’s interest in untold stories and immigrant communities to first lady Michelle Obama’s focus on nutrition and exercise. “[McCray’s] priorities are mental health, etcetera,
but in the cultural field she’s a poet and a writer,” Gunther said. “It’s about the character and the values of those inhabiting [Gracie Mansion] and maintaining it as the people’s house. ... I think if we succeed it’s going to build a diverse community that gathers under the Gracie embrace, and the first lady’s vision to learn, read, share and discuss new fiction that relates especially to distant neighbors.” The book selection will consist mostly of newer fiction written by New York-based authors, at least during the first year, Gunther said. The first book on the schedule is Tanwi Nandini Islam’s debut novel “Bright Lines,” which the author described as a “love letter” to Brooklyn and an earlier time in her own life. Set in 2003, the summer of a recordbreaking blackout in New York City, “Bright Lines,” which was short-listed for the Center for Fiction’s 2015 First Novel Prize, explores themes of gender identity, sexuality and family. “There’s a tragic thing that happens that kind of takes the family out of Brooklyn to Bangladesh where they kind of have to reckon with the family falling apart,” Islam said. “There’s a lot of layers to it.”
Tanwi Nandini Islam signing a copy of her novel, “Bright Lines” recently. Photo: Bri Hightower That particular time and place are special to Islam, who moved to Brooklyn after graduating from college. She now lives in Williamsburg, where she once ran into McCray while the latter was campaigning for her husband, then-mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio. “I’m such a huge fan of hers,” Islam said. “I just went up to her and went ‘we’re so excited to have you guys running,’ so to have her pick the novel was kind of mind-blowing, years later. It’s something that’s such an honor and
says a lot about the kind of conversations she’s trying to create among people who live in the city.” Islam will participate in the discussion on May 17 in front of the lotterywinning attendees, and hopes her novel “resonate[s] with people who are going through change and coming of age.” Though the ticket lottery for the first book club closed on May 4, readers can still participate virtually by signing up at http://www1.nyc.gov/ site/gracie/bookclub/bookclub.page.
MAY 5-11,2016
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
The 39,000 members of the New York State Nurses Association
Celebrate National Nurses Week by renewing our commitment to quality care for all patients Patients Over Profits!
www.nysna.org
@nynurses
@nynurses
7
8
MAY 5-11,2016
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
Voices
Write to us: To share your thoughts and comments go to otdowntown.com and click on submit a letter to the editor.
Letters The following letter was among those received in response to “A Face-Off On Broadway Over Books,” in the April 28 issue: To the Editor: This article on attempts to banish the street bookseller on Broadway/73 St. was too slanted and incomplete. We need more input from local residents, and some objective reporting on any rules/laws actually broken by the vendor. Your articles are usually quite informative, but not this one. Realtor Greg Wolper says the vendor is ‘an easy distraction from people wanting to invest in the neighborhood.’ Really? Like a Bloomingdale’s discount outlet? Invest? Meaning that he can’t raise prices on his apartments if this book seller stays there? Is it such an eyesore? Is the UWS now getting super-gentrified? There’s a larger issue here of economic diversity. Readers would like a few statements from area residents: Do they think there’s any validity to the objections of the realtor-critic? Is he making a mountain out of a book table molehill? And what does this bookseller have to do with tolerating ‘homeless people hoarding their possessions’? Nothing. That quote from the realtor gets no rebuttal. So couldn’t the vendor reduce his table space a bit and keep it neater? If he’s banned, he’ll be deprived of a living, then he might have to join one of those intolerable homeless, and maybe go to one of those dangerous shelters the city doesn’t properly fund? Is this a vicious cycle? Now, the book seller has a good location there near the subway, at a busy, commercial spot. He’s worked and supported himself for 31 years. Who is he hurting? To many, the street vendors add interest to the neighborhood, especially books on the UWS. I’ve browsed there occasionally and maybe bought one or two books over the years. And aren’t there other vendors in the area that also sell items that people need? True, the book tables are rather long, but they’re not ‘disturbing business and residents’. That sounds like it’s ‘trumped up’ (excuse the term) and It’s surprising that after three decades, this vendor is suddenly an issue. Other retail outlets on that corner have co-existed with the book sellers for years. This man is making a living, and people like convenient, low-priced books to browse through and buy. Let him just do a bit of housekeeping. Meredith Balk W 61 Street
STRAUS MEDIA your neighborhood news source
‘HAMILTON’ AND MY FUTURE’S HISTORY BY OLIVE WEXLER
“Hamilton,” the Pulitzer, Grammy and likely Tony-award winning musical that’s the talk of the town, reminded me what it was like to love passion. “Hamilton” was making its transition to Broadway when I first heard about it. I was on the phone, talking about my least favorite topic, applying to college. “Have you listened to the “Hamilton” soundtrack? It’s all I listen to,” my friend remarked. My 45-minute commute to and from school enabled me: I was hooked. It shouldn’t have been a surprise, I’ve been a theater nerd for as long as I can remember. I have always reveled in the worlds that Broadway shows create: the stories they tell are a particular and yet indescribable magic. Broadway shows, however, don’t tell everyone’s story. Broadway has a tradition of being for mostly the rich and otherwise privileged and one of the best things about “Hamilton” is that it challenges the stereotypes people have about Broadway. The show is about a bunch of old white dudes, but no one on stage looks like they are from the Founding Fathers’ friend group. The principal cast is made up of people of color, and this casting eliminates the gap between the audience and the Founding Fathers, and makes Alexander Hamilton’s world and his legacy a little more meaningful. “Hamilton” is a passionate show: Lin-Manuel Miranda, its star and creator, asks some pretty big questions: What are we leaving behind? What is getting erased from our histories? How do we make life count for something? This music, this phenomenon, caters to those who hear the time of their lives ticking by fast. Teenagers, who often hear that clock loudly, seem to have grasped the tightest fist around legacy. They can see what will become of them — a sturdy job, a family and a routine, and they can remember what they used to be — idealistic, sugar loving, discovery machines. I feel like I’m arriving at a pretty meaningful spot on my timeline as a human. I’ve been a teenager for what seems like a really long time. The years I’ve spent navigating high school halls and covering up pimples have a slight tinge of nostalgia to it now: the worst moments of the past four years seem to have been for something, because as all great and terrible things do, my high school years are coming to an end. A lot of this year has felt like treading water. The waves crashed over and over, above my head, and I continued swimming. Listening to “Hamilton” has gotten me through my senior year of high school,
Vice President/CFO Otilia Bertolotti Vice President/CRO Vincent A. Gardino advertising@strausnews.com
Associate Publishers Seth L. Miller, Ceil Ainsworth Regional Sales Manager Tania Cade
With “Hamilton” cast member Christopher Jackson, aka George Washington, on April 19. because it created a connection to something so many people relate to. “Hamilton” is successful because Alexander Hamilton (strange as it may seem) reminds the show’s fans of themselves. Picture a 17-year-old girl: dreams of college momentarily dashed by a smaller envelope, helplessly listening in a quiet classroom: “In the eye of a hurricane/There is quiet/ For just a moment,/A yellow sky./When I was seventeen a hurricane/Destroyed my town./I didn’t drown./I couldn’t seem to die./I’ll write my way out .../Write ev’rything/Down, far as I can see .../I’ll write my way out .../ Overwhelm them with honesty./This is the eye of the hurricane,/This is the only way I can protect my legacy.” Picture a 17-year-old girl, standing outside the Richard Rodgers Theatre. There is snow everywhere. New York is quieter than usual during snow falls, but the buzz around West 46th Street doesn’t get toned down. Everything that she does in the city feels significant, because, whether she likes it or not, she will be moving away soon. Her humming while she waits in front of the stage door for the show she hasn’t yet seen becomes contagious. The group of strangers become friends, and as the snow falls, they sing:
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
“I gotta holler just to be heard./With every word, I drop knowledge!/I’m a diamond in the rough, a shiny piece of coal/Tryin’ to reach my goal. My power of speech: unimpeachable/Only nineteen but my mind is older./ These New York City streets get colder,I shoulder/Ev’ry burden, ev’ry disadvantage/I have learned to manage, I don’t have a gun to brandish/I walk these streets famished.” Picture a 17-year-old girl receiving the big envelope in the mail from her first choice college, Wesleyan University, where her favorite musical lyricist (Yup, you guessed it, Lin-Manuel Miranda) once attended: “I’m past patiently waitin’. I’m passionately/ Smashin’ every expectation/Every action’s an act of creation!/I’m laughin’ in the face of casualties and sorrow,/For the first time, I’m thinkin’ past tomorrow/And I am not throwing away my shot” “Hamilton” is successful with every age because of the passion that exudes out of its every note. It is a phenomenon because everyone believes in passion, and in the future. The show asks its audience who they want to be when they grow up, and no matter where they are on the timeline, adults, teenagers and children will answer.
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
MAY 5-11,2016
9
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
Photo by Jason Kuffer via flickr
A PLEA TO THE M.T.A. OP-ED BY MELITTA ANDERMAN
Riding on city buses is for me an adventure. I look at the people outside on the streets and the ones inside. If the bus is crowded the driver will shout “Move to the back.” The passengers In front dislike this command. It means playing the excuse-me game while jostling and being jostled by others. Animosity is on everyone’s face. It looks like a chain gang as they do the bus shuffle towards the rear. At each stop it starts all over. The lucky passenger by the window has to anticipate his or her stop and negotiate a strategy of moving to the aisle to exit. This usually requires a stronghold of your belongings, which could be either packages, a baby, a stroller, umbrella, shopping cart, using a cell phone in the process. I recently saw a woman jump from her seat at the last minute, rush to the door while talking and fall off the bus. Good riddance, It has come to my attention, as much as I do love my ride, it has become hazardous. Too many shopping carts, walkers that are not closed by their users and stick out, as well as people that cross their legs. Sometimes I feel that those unfortunate ones who are in wheelchairs that come aboard at least have the security of having their chairs affixed to the floor and a ramp being lowered to ascend and descend.
Now, dear members of the bus authority, including the design team, have you ever been on a bus and attempted to exit in back? Because if you did, you would take all the buses, pile them up and shoot out the doors that tell you to press the yellow lines which automatically open doors so passengers can alight. This is a process that requires the agility of an Olympic jumper and the grace of a ballet dancer. I try to get behind a tall person who can push the door and I can follow. If this ruse doesn’t work, it’s up to me to do the work. The following has happened to me during this maneuver. I almost fell into a snow bank, tripped over my legs while grabbing anything in sight, almost lost my arm as door was closing too soon, and my wallet was stolen out of my handbag on an Amsterdam Avenue bus while struggling to get out. How this occurred was a mystery. I was sitting between two nice middle aged housewifely women holding on to my bag. As I got up and pounded on the door to get out, someone got their paws on my wallet. I finally found myself on the sidewalk intact but penniless. The 24th police precinct was helpful but helpless. Whoever heard of a wallet being found and returned. Please, Mr. Bus Authority, hear my plea, get rid of those unwieldy steps in the rear of buses, get sliding doors that open (as in subway trains) and forget about yellow lines (as in The Wizard of Oz).
REGENTS EXAMS
BEGIN
JUNE 1
Offering One Day Regents Test Prep: Earth Science $OJHEUD &RPPRQ &RUH
&KHPLVWU\
*HRPHWU\ &RPPRQ &RUH
3K\VLFV
$OJHEUD &RPPRQ &RUH
*OREDO +LVWRU\ 7ULJRQRPHWU\ )RUPHU 6WG
86 +LVWRU\
%LRORJ\ /LYLQJ (QYLURQPHQW
passtheregents.com or call 212-453-9895
Course Location: St. Vincent Ferrer HS, Manhattan
10
MAY 5-11,2016
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
Out & About More Events. Add Your Own: Go to otdowntown.com Everything you like about Our Town Downtown is now available to be delivered to your mailbox every week in the Downtowner From the very local news of your neighborhood to information about upcoming events and activities, the new home delivered edition of the Downtowner will keep you in-the-know.
And best of all you won’t have to go outside to grab a copy from the street box every week.
It’s your neighborhood. It’s your news.
X
Thu
Yes! Start my mail subscription to the Downtowner right away! 1-Year Subscription @ $49
Name
________________________________________________
Address _________________________________ Apt. #
________
New York, NY Zip Code __________ Cell Phone _________________ Email Address___________________________________________ Payment by
Check # __________
Money Order
Fri
6
REAL/FAKE EXHIBIT AND SCREENING
WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE
180 Maiden Lane 6 p.m.-10 p.m. Free A unique group show exhibition to celebrate the upcoming release of filmmaker Jeff Oppenheim’s new documentary “Real Fake: The Art, Life & Crimes of Elmyr de Hory.” www.andersoncontemporary. com
Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, 566 LaGuardia Place 1:30 p.m. $15-$25 Sail along with Max to the land of the Wild Things! This production is an intimate “guided play” experience. Seating is on mats in the studio. Recommended for ages 3–7. www.events.nyu.edu/
Credit Card
Name on Credit Card (Please Print) ___________________________ Card # _______________________ Exp. Date
5
____ //____ // ____
Signature of Cardholder ___________________________________
Return Completed Form to: Straus News, 20 West Avenue, Chester, NY, 10918 or go to otdowntown.com & click on Subscribe
PARSONS FESTIVAL: CASTLES! A MEDIEVAL CAROLINE EVANS TALK BUILDING SERIES▲ 63 Fifth Avenue 5:30 p.m.-7 p.m. Free A talk by Caroline Evans, Research Leader in the Fashion Programme at Central Saint Martins, where she convenes the Fashion History and Theory Research Group. www.events.newschool.edu
Hamilton Fish Park Library, 415 East Houston 3 p.m.-4:30 p.m. Free Back to a time of lords, knights, jousting, and really large buildings called castles! www.nypl.org/events
Sat
7
ART GALLERY TOUR 526 West 26th St. 1 p.m. $25 Visit seven modern art galleries in the world’s center for contemporary art. 212-946-1548. www. nygallerytours.com
GOODNIGHT MOON AND THE RUNAWAY BUNNY BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center, 199 Chambers St. 1:30 p.m.-2:30 p.m. $25 Mermaid Theatre has earned international acclaim for its unique interpretations incorporating innovative puppetry, striking scenic effects, and evocative original music to provide very young audiences with an effortless introduction to the performing arts and the excitement of reading. 212-220-1460. www. tribecapac.org/
MAY 5-11,2016
Sun
8
MANHATTAN JAZZ QUINTET Riverside Park, 116th Street Overlook 2 p.m. Free The Manhattan Jazz Quintet, a 5-piece band and a favorite of the series plays the season’s final concert. Come out and hear the sound and spirit of standard American jazz. 212-870-3070. riversideparknyc.org
CELEBRATING 101 YEARS OF SISTER ROSETTA THARPE Brookfield Place, 230 Vesey St. 8:30 p.m.-10:15 p.m. Free Presented by Arts Brookfield, the New York Guitar Festival kicks off with a Mother’s Day concert at Brookfield Place, celebrating the music of gospel/ blues legend Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the godmother of rock & roll. 416-532-9035. www. artsbrookfield.com/event/ newyorkguitarfestival
Mon
11
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
9
DOWNTOWN DESIGN FESTIVAL Seaport Studios, 19 Fulton St. 6 p.m.-8 p.m. Free In celebration of the Downtown Design Festival the Seaport District will host an opening night event on the cobblestone pavements of historic Fulton Street. Open and
free to the public, the event will feature music, live entertainment as well as food and spirits available for purchase. www.eventbrite.com/e/ downtown-design-openingnight-public-eventtickets-24005500097
GREAT TALKS: TANEHISI COATES
DIALOGUES Seaport Studios, 19 Fulton St. 6:30 p.m.-8 p.m. Free A series of one-on-one public conversations will be held each evening over an eight-day period, from May 10th to May 17th, 2016, in the event space on the second floor of the Seaport Studios. The evenings will conclude with a reception where guest can mingle informally with the participants and each other. www.southstreetseaport. com/events
Hudson Park Library, 66 Leroy St. 2 p.m.-4 p.m. Free If you missed them live, watch this special re¬play series of LIVE from the NYPL featuring Ta-Nehisi Coates. Engage with the brightest through this special series of screenings, each tackling a THE DURGA PROJECT range of contemporary issues. Speakers investigate everything from feminist politics to Battery Dance Company, 1 reparations to the profound need Pace Plaza for community. 2 p.m.-3 p.m. $25 www.nypl.org/events Battery Dance is an anchor in the cultural life of Manhattan and a global ambassador for dance, having toured to 65 countries. The Company celebrates its 40th anniversary with a world premiere, The Durga Project, directed by its founder, Jonathan Hollander, and a HURT SO GOOD: diverse array of performances at BUILDING THE BODY OF home and abroad. www.batterydance.org/nyTHE BELOVED season/ Poet’s House, 10 River Terrace 7 p.m.-8 p.m. $10; students, $7 PARSONS FESTIVAL: Award-winning poet, author IMPACT! of the collection When My Brother Was an Aztec, and 117 Beekman St. former professional basketball 12 p.m.-7 p.m. Free player Natalie Diaz discusses Running from May 9 to June the relationship between 10, Impact! explores the ways breaking, creating, and love in in which designers, artists, the inspiration, construction and scholars, technologists, and revision of poetry. strategists from different 212-431-7920. www. disciplines come together-poetshouse.org often in unexpected or complex ways--to push the limits of their practice and create new possibilities for social change. CULTURE DISTRICT: www.events.newschool.edu DOWNTOWN
Wed
Tue
10
11
Your neighborhood news source
otdowntown.com
r o v a S
The Hudson Valley Lola’s C
afe
wery Blue Collar Bre Lola’s Cafe
FREE TIME? Actually, it’s priceless. Make sure you’re the spending it wisely. Come Hudson Valley.
ª²Çio
Fireball Run is coming!
About an hour from NYC by car, bus or train.
DistinctlyDutchess
dutchesstourism.com/travel-itineraries
12
MAY 5-11,2016
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
A WORLD OF SONG, AROUND THE CORNER FROM HOME PERFORMANCE The German singer and Manhattan resident Ute Lemper brings the words of Paulo Coelho to Symphony Space BY GABRIELLE ALFIERO
Ute Lemper finds a home on the world’s stages, including at some of New York’s celebrated venues. And the stage has returned the favor, leading her to her adoptive home on the Upper West Side, where she’s lived for nearly two decades. “I’m not such a crazy social person,” said the singer and cabaret performer on a recent afternoon, looking very much at ease in a pair of loose jeans, black slip-on sneakers and a patterned short-sleeve shirt as her brown miniature poodle nestled against her. “I just love to be home and have my residential life.” At least for one evening, she gets the best of both worlds when she brings songs from her latest album, “The 9 Secrets,” based on writer Paulo Coelho’s book “Manuscript Found in Accra,” to Symphony Space on Friday, May 13. The album features Middle Eastern instruments such as the shepherd’s flute and udu drum, and finds Lemper singing in English, French, Portuguese and German. Fluent in all but Spanish and Portuguese, the Münster, Germany native sought the help of her Brazilian neighbor for assistance with her Portuguese. “Most of it is centered around the old world of the word,” said Lemper, 52. A longtime devotee of Coelho’s work,
Lemper first read the book while touring her album of songs incorporating works by poet Pablo Neruda in Australia. A month later, while performing in São Paulo, she mentioned the book to a reporter who happened to know Coelho. The next day, she said, she received an email from “The Alchemist” author, who heard from the reporter that she was a fan. He said he enjoyed her music. After a few months of emailing, Lemper asked Coelho’s permission to adapt his work for an album. He consented. “I said, ‘Okay now I’m going to have to do it, he expects me! Oh my God, what did I get myself into?’” Lemper joked. She worked with musician and arranger Gil Goldstein, who plays accordion on the album and wrote the string arrangements. “The music didn’t fit neatly in any set genre really,” said Goldstein. “It was kind of cross-cultural and fragile in that sense that you couldn’t have a cookie-cutter approach to how you receive it.” The album incorporates bossa nova, a nod to Coelho’s Brazilian heritage, and New York composer Jamshied Sharifi gives the album its Middle Eastern elements, Lemper said. Coelho also lends spoken word to two tracks. Lemper, whose extensive performance and recording history includes works by German composer Kurt Weill and tango composer Astor Piazzolla, among many others, moved to New York in 1998 to play Velma Kelly in “Chicago” on Broadway, after por-
traying the murderess in London for over a year. She’s lived on the Upper West Side ever since, and likened the neighborhood to a “little village where everything is accessible in the middle of Manhattan.” “I lived in London many years. I lived in Paris many years. I lived in Rome,” said Lemper from the couch in her penthouse studio in the same building in which she lives with her four children and her husband, drummer Todd Turkisher, who plays on “The 9 Secrets.” “I have to say nowhere in Europe I felt home immediately like I felt home in New York.” Lemper has lived in her current apartment building on W. 76th Street since 2000, and in 2010, she purchased the penthouse for use as a studio, and evidence of the family that lives below fills the light-filled quarters. Toy trucks are collected messily in a corner. A bin filled with table tennis paddles sits on the floor, and a sandbox on the terrace blends with blossoming trees and plants. The tranquility of
the top-floor studio, remarkably free of the rumble of traffic on Columbus Avenue and decorated with student paintings purchased at a nearby flea market, grants her a creative respite, though she will relinquish some of this space when her two older children return home from college this summer. Having performed on prestigious stages around the city and the globe— her first Manhattan show was a Kurt Weill performance at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall in 1987—Lemper appreciates the subtle luxuries that come from working close to home. She recently performed a collection of Yiddish songs written in concentration camps at the Center for Jewish Research on W. 16th Street, a program she’ll continue in New York in 2017, after performances in Europe throughout this year. “Working in the city is a privilege for me,” said Lemper, who brings her fiveyear-old to play sports at JCC Manhattan, and takes both her young sons to
Tecumseh Playground on Amsterdam Avenue and 77th Street after dinner some nights. When her two older children are home from college, she accompanies them to Amsterdam Ale House down the street. “I love to be home and come home and sleep in my bed, and have my kids crawl in my bed and cuddle after a performance,” she said.
IF YOU GO WHAT: Ute Lemper performs “The 9 Secrets” WHERE: Symphony Space 2537 Broadway, at 95th Street WHEN: 8 p.m. Tickets $40-$60 To purchase tickets, visit www. symphonyspace.org or call the box office at 212-864-5400
MAY 5-11,2016
13
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
MASS MARKETING HATRED Nazi-era objects, pamphlets and other documents detail the steady rise of a virulent anti-Semitism that culminated in the Holocaust
thoughtgallery.org NEW YORK CITY
Discovering Design: Isaac Mizrahi
FRIDAY, MAY 6TH, 7PM The Strand | 828 Broadway | 212-473-1452 | strandbooks.com
BY LEIDA SNOW
“The Holocaust museums and memorials miss the point,” said Kenneth Rendell, who has loaned objects from his collection to the New-York Historical Society for a chilling exhibition tracing anti-Semitism in Germany from 1919-1939. Rendell, the founder and director of the World War II Museum in Boston, explained that focusing only on what happened to the Jews during the Shoah is vital, but that it is only a part of the story. It’s the old frog-in-the-water problem: While there were many accomplished Jewish lawyers, doctors and other professionals in Germany well before World War II, there was also an undercurrent of Jew hatred. Hitler stoked existing prejudices, indoctrinating other German citizens to consider Jew-hating as acceptable and normal. Rendell emphasized that Hitler mass-marketed anti-Semitism in the guise of nationalism. In the wake of the German Reich’s humiliating defeat in World War I, Hitler coined slogans like “Germany awake” and “Bring back Germany.” The exhibit’s 61 objects, among them pamphlets, signs and newspaper clippings, are on display in a small, dimly lit room. One of the earliest shows Hitler’s handwritten comments on a copy of the Versailles Treaty printed in a newspaper. “The peace treaty aims at preparing Germany for the Jewish dictate,” Hitler wrote in the margins. “The Jews must therefore leave Germany.” Also on view are three-dimensional objects, such as a cane handle and ashtrays depicting Jewish stereotypes. Runaway inflation was blamed on the Jews, and in 1932, banknotes were overprinted to make them Nazi propaganda leaflets. A coloring book, possibly meant for children, consisted of 25 full-page caricatures of Jewish men. There’s also a book that warned children that a mushroom might look pleasant enough but prove poisonous.
ACTIVITIES FOR THE FERTILE MIND
Designer Isaac Mizrahi’s work has been seen everywhere from Fashion Week runways to Broadway stages and the aisles of Target. Hear from the icon himself as he discusses his new book and retrospective at The Jewish Museum. (Buy a copy of Isaac Mizrahi or a $20 gift card to attend)
A Burglar’s Guide to the City
MONDAY, MAY 9TH, 6PM Center for Architecture | 536 LaGuardia Pl. | 212-683-0023 | cfa.aiany.org FBI agents, reformed burglars, security consultants,and architects inform this exploration of the relationship between architecture and burglary from both sides of the law. ($10)
Just Announced | Ute Lemper’s The 9 Secrets
FRIDAY, MAY 13TH, 8PM Symphony Space | 2537 Broadway | 212-864-1414 | symphonyspace.org One night only catch a brand-new song cycle composed in collaboration with the novelist Paulo Coelho (The Alchemist). Journey through exotic song landscapes with six musicians from six countries, framed by time-warp scenery. ($40; 30% off with Thought Gallery code TG30)
For more information about lectures, readings and other intellectually stimulating events throughout NYC,
sign up for the weekly Thought Gallery newsletter at thoughtgallery.org. Unknown artist, “Mander s’ischt Zeit!” (It’s Time Folks!), 1938. Postcard. The Museum of World War II, Boston The mushroom, of course, stands in for a Jew. The 1920 program of the Nazi Party announced goals of segregating Jews and abrogating their political, legal and civil rights. It also declared that “no Jew can be a member of the German nation.” For Rendell, the importance of his museum and its educational programs, and of the Historical Society’s exhibit, is to get people to understand “how easy it is to be against people if you don’t know anything about them.” Some people, dissatisfied with the way things are, might blame others when they speak out, he continued, “but there are evil people and they use this disaffection. It’s hard for good people to appreciate the danger.” When asked if what’s on view at the Historical Society echoes political discourse this election season, Rendell reserves comment, citing the nonpartisan nature of his museum. The exhibit’s curator, Marilyn Kushner, said perhaps the most important document in the exhibit is the 1939 manuscript in Hitler’s handwriting, where he outlined the speech delivered to the Reichstag on Jan. 30,
1939. Hitler wrote that “Europe will not have peace until the Jewish question has been disposed of,” and that if there is a world war, it will result in “the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe.” Kushner said the speech represents the climax of Hitler’s indoctrination of the German people and the steady erosion of Jewish rights. Even those familiar with the Holocaust’s history might be astounded at how determined Hitler was, and how early he started his campaign. The series of measures were incremental, excluding Jews from public life, even going so far as forbidding Jews to use the same park benches as “Aryans.” Eventually all contact between Jews and other Germans was prohibited. Rendell pointed out that anti-Semitism in the 1930s was a phenomenon that took root worldwide, including in the United States. “People forget that Henry Ford was an anti-Semite, and that Father Coughlin had a radio program with millions of listeners” that spewed Jew hatred, he said of a Roman Catholic priest who
CONTINUED ON PAGE 15
Join Us!
Saturday, May 14
OPEN HOUSE
Visit Your Neighborhood Fire House or EMS Station Meet the Firefighters, Paramedics and EMTs who help keep your community safe every day!
Sessions are 11 a.m.-1p.m. or 1 p.m.-3 p.m. Stop by to… • Take a tour • View demonstrations • Learn fire and life safety tips • Explore FDNY careers ...and much more! To find your neighborhood Fire House or EMS Station, and to check the time of your Open House event, go to: nyc.gov/fdny Bill de Blasio, Mayor Daniel A. Nigro, Fire Commissioner
www.nyc.gov/fdny
www.fdnysmart.org
14
MAY 5-11,2016
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
RESTAURANT INSPECTION RATINGS APRIL 25 - 30, 2016 The following listings were collected from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s website and include the most recent inspection and grade reports listed. We have included every restaurant listed during this time within the zip codes of our neighborhoods. Some reports list numbers with their explanations; these are the number of violation points a restaurant has received. To see more information on restaurant grades, visit www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/services/restaurant-inspection.shtml.
Dumpling Man
100 St Marks Place
A
5C Cafe & Cultural Center
68 Avenue C
A
Matilda
647 East 11 Street
A
Lavagna
545 East 5 Street
A
Desnuda
122 East 7 Street
A
75 9 Avenue
A
Two Boots
42 Avenue A
A
Arts And Crafts Beer Parlor 26 W 8th St
A
Molecule Water Store
259 East 10 Street
A
Mokbar
75 9th Ave
A
Teshigotoya
432 E 13th St
A
Sammy’s Noodle Shop & Grill
453461 6 Avenue
A
Pylos
128 East 7 Street
A
Xanadu Coffee
225 W 23rd St
A
Mace
649 East 9 Street
A
Washington Square Cafe
103 Waverly Place
A
Whitman’s
406 East 9 Street
A
Milk Bar Chelsea
220 8th Ave
Not Yet Graed (6)
Tartine
253 West 11 Street
A
Original Sandwiches
58A Greenwich Avenue
Closed (49) Hot food item not held at or above 140º F. Raw, cooked or prepared food is adulterated, contaminated, cross-contaminated, or not discarded in accordance with HACCP plan. Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. 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.
Havana Alma De Cuba
94 Christopher Street
Google Water Tower Cafe
111 8 Avenue
A
Grade Pending (38) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation. Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. 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.
People’s Pops
425 W 15th St
Not Yet Graded (5) Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service.
Ghandi Cafe
283 Bleecker Street
A
The Spotted Pig
314 West 11 Street
A
Ninth Street Espresso
Naturees
21 E 1st St
A
Fig And Olive
420 West 13 Street
A
Kiin Thai Eatery
36 East 8 Street
Grade Pending (21) 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. Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas.
Dominique Ansel Kitchen
137 7th Ave S
A
Bennys Burritos
111113 Greenwich Avenue
A
Ramen Thukpa
70 7 Avenue South
A
Thunder Jacksons Urban Roadhouse
169 Bleecker Street
Grade Pending (21) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation. Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas.
Navy
137 Sullivan St
A
Starbucks
1325 Astor Place
A
Grand Sichuan
1923 St Marks Place
Grade Pending (22) 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.
Taqueria St Marks Pl
79 Saint Marks Pl
A
Balthazar Bakery
80 Spring Street
A
Haru
220 Park Avenue
A
Kulu Desserts
123 W 3rd St
A
Cherin Sushi
306 East 6 Street
A
Dante
79 Macdougal St
The Players Club
16 Gramercy Park South
Grade Pending (20) Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service.
Not Yet Graded (24) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation. Filth flies or food/refuse/sewage-associated (FRSA) flies present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Filth flies include house flies, little house flies, blow flies, bottle flies and flesh flies. Food/refuse/sewageassociated flies include fruit flies, drain flies and Phorid flies. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service.
Peacefood Cafe Downtown 41 East 11 Street
A
Shabu Tatsu
216 East 10 Street
A
Chikalicious Dessert Bar
203 East 10 Street
A
Broadway Gourmet
584 Broadway
A
Craftbar
900 Broadway
A
Mcnally Jackson Cafe
52 Prince Street
A
Burp Castle
41 East 7 Street
A
Piccola Cucina
184 Prince Street
A
ABC Beer Co.
96 Avenue C
Grade Pending (26) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation. Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service.
Freud
506 Laguardia Pl
A
The Burgary
67 Clinton St
A
Im Star Cafe
19 Division Street
A
Forgtmenot
138 Division Street
A
MAY 5-11,2016
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
15
ANTI-SEMITISM CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13 hosted a weekly national broadcast. There were also “gentlemen’s agreements” and “restricted” establishments. And history records that Breckenridge Long, the State Department official in charge of European refugee affairs during World War II, obstructed rescue attempts and drastically restricted immigration. Louise Mirrer, the Historical Society’s president, noted that recent terrorist attacks targeting Jewish communities in Europe and elsewhere demonstrate that the current exhibit is all too relevant. Meanwhile, anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant, anti-government and antiwoman rhetoric show all too clearly that hatred of “the other” isn’t limited to anti-Semitism. Sara Lipton, a Stony Brook University history professor who lives on the Upper West Side, said it was important to acknowledge the centuries-old history of antiSemitism. But, she emphasized, ”that doesn’t mean violence is inevitable.” There are everywhere suspicions and even hatred of “the other,” but these can be dissipated and controlled until specific conditions come into play and latent ideas are inflamed, she said. “There is more likely to be violence,” she continued, “when propaganda and rhetoric come into the picture.”
IF YOU GO WHAT: “Anti-Semitism 19191939” WHERE: New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West WHEN: Through July 31, 2016 www.nyhistory.org/ Deputy Inspector Clint McPherson, the 19th Precinct’s new commander, speaks to residents on May 2. Photo: Madeleine Thompson
NEW POLICE COMMANDER MEETS RESIDENTS Deputy Inspector Clint McPherson, a 23-year veteran of the department, takes over at the 19th Precinct following the demotion of James Grant BY MADELEINE THOMPSON
After the demotion and transfer of the 19th Precinct’s previous deputy inspector, James Grant, amid charges of corruption, around 40 people showed up to the precinct’s community council meeting Monday night to meet his replacement. Deputy Inspector Clint McPherson was welcomed by City Councilman Ben Kallos and introduced to generous applause. “When I heard about what happened, I actually remarked to my staff that if there is one commanding officer that I wanted ... if we got lucky enough to have Clint McPherson as our C.O. that
would be amazing,” Kallos said. Nick Viest, the precinct council’s president, echoed those sentiments before McPherson took the podium himself, saying the precinct was “very happy to have him here.” “He understands this precinct because he’s been handling very similar issues,” Viest said. McPherson, a 23-year police veteran, then gave a short speech emphasizing his gratitude for the opportunity, and summarized his history with the NYPD. He has spent most of his career in Brooklyn, though he was last stationed at the 17th Precinct, which serves the Midtown area, and led the department’s counterterrorism unit for a time. He wasted no time in getting right to the heart of a major concern for Upper East Side residents: “From what I un-
derstand, bikes are a big problem,” he said. “I think the 19th precinct is the only command in the city that writes and confiscates more bicycles than the 17th precinct. I think the officers here … are aggressively pursuing it. And my goal is to continue that.” McPherson then took questions from attendees about everything from sidewalk sheds to street vendors. Jody Schneider, a member of the precinct’s executive council and the East Sixties Neighborhood Association, wanted to know when residents would get a chance to use the NYPD’s shredder truck and whether the precinct was still accepting donated cell phones for women in shelters. “We’re not, but it’s something we can look into,” McPherson said in response to the latter. As for the shredder truck, a visit is in the works.
Grant, the precinct’s prior commander, was among four high-ranking police officials placed on desk duty last month as part of a federal corruption investigation into the activities of two fundraisers for Mayor Bill de Blasio. The police officials were ensnared in a wide-ranging federal inquiry into the fundraising activities of two men, Jona Rechnitz and Jeremiah Reichberg, both of whom contributed to Bill de Blasio’s mayoral campaign in 2013 and were later part of a 70-person committee planning the mayor’s inaugural celebration. Both men sought out associations with high-ranking police officials as merit badges of sorts.
16
MAY 5-11,2016
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
Business
In Brief NYPD ORCHESTRATES LARGEST EVER GANG TAKEDOWN A historic Bronx gang bust occurred in the early hours of April 27 when the NYPD arrested more than 100 gang members from the Big Money Bosses and 2Fly YGz gangs. Authorities reported that it was the largest NYPD sting to date, and that almost 700 federal agents and NYPD officers were involved. Charges include murder and drug dealing, as well as white-collar crimes such as bank fraud. Both gangs are connected with several tragic deaths dating back to 2007, from teenagers who were stabbed to a 92-year-old struck by a stray bullet. U.S. Attorney General Preet Bharara praised the year’s worth of investigative work that was required to bring the criminals to justice. “We bring these charges so that all New Yorkers, including those in public housing, can live their lives as they deserve -free of drugs, free of guns and free of gang violence,” he said in a statement.
HISTORIC CHURCH BURNS DOWN IN FLATIRON Just hours after hundreds of worshipers gathered to celebrate Orthodox Easter Sunday at St. Sava Church on W. 25th Street and Broadway, a massive four-alarm fire began to consume it. The 165-yearold Serbian church, which is registered both as a national landmark and was made a city landmark in 1968, caught fire around 6:50 p.m., according to the FDNY. Videos taken of the fire show flames billowing out from what was once a stained glass window. In about two hours, the nearly 150 firefighters working to put out the blaze had it under control, though they were still around on Monday morning tending to some lingering pockets of fire. “Once the fire caught the wood there was flames coming out of the top of the church. That’s when the people were going crazy,” Alex Velic, the church caretaker’s stepson who lives next door to the New York Daily News. “I’m in shock still, it’s terrifying, I don’t know what to say. It’s sad.”
CITY SEES 12 PERCENT DROP IN STREET HOMELESS POPULATION A recent count by the Homeless Outreach Population Estimate (HOPE) found that the number of homeless people living on the streets dropped 12 percent since last year, and 36 percent over the last decade. HOPE’s survey, which is required by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, counted 2,794 homeless people on the streets as opposed to 4,395 in 2005. There was also, for the first time in seven years, a decrease in homeless people found in the subway. However, HOPE’s methods have long been in question for several reasons; for example, the survey does not count young homeless people, and it takes place during the winter when more people are likely to find shelter inside. President and Chief Executive of the Coalition for the Homeless Mary Brosnahan told the New York Times that “anyone who believes that street homelessness has declined in New York City over the past year — let alone declined by double digits — should make sure their windows are closed and locked, because they’ll also be seeing dozens of pigs in flight later this afternoon.”
Photo by Paul Sableman via flickr
ALBANY WISH LIST INCLUDES CORRUPTION FIXES AND UBER FOR UPSTATE NEWS Agenda influenced by fall election BY DAVID KLEPPER
New York lawmakers return to Albany to begin the final weeks of their work for 2016, confronting a to-do list that includes a possible upstate expansion for Uber, a decision on control of public schools in New York City and the challenge of addressing Albany’s perennial corruption problem. Over the course of seven weeks, the Senate and Assembly will take up hundreds of bills with an eye on the fall elections. Here’s a look at the top issues they will face:
CORRUPTION In the last year, Albany’s two most powerful lawmakers were convicted on federal corruption charges, joining more than 30 other lawmakers who left office facing criminal or ethical allegations. But even after the downfall of former GOP Senate Leader Dean Skelos and ex-Democratic Speaker Sheldon Silver, lawmakers have been slow to respond. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has proposed tighter campaign finance rules and restrictions on how much lawmakers can make from side jobs. Those ideas face opposition in the Senate, however. One idea with broader support is a ballot referendum that, if approved by voters, would allow a judge to strip the pensions of convicted lawmakers. A 2011 pension forfei-
ture law doesn’t apply to lawmakers elected before that bill was passed, meaning that many lawmakers can keep their pensions even if convicted of corruption. So far, the Assembly and Senate cannot agree on wording for the referendum. “Ethics is going to be the main focus between now and June,” Cuomo told a group of upstate editorial boards in April. Government watchdog groups hope public outrage over the recent scandals will push lawmakers to act. Silver, the Manhattan Democrat who led the Assembly for decades, is set to be sentenced on Tuesday, the same day lawmakers reconvene. “It’s an election year,” said Blair Horner, of the New York Public Interest Research Group. “Lawmakers are going to have to go back to their constituents and say `Yes, I voted for those legislative leaders that are now in the slammer.’ And they’re going to have to say what they did about it.”
NEW YORK CITY SCHOOLS New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, must once again persuade lawmakers to extend his control of city schools, a policy which is set to expire June 30 after lawmakers renewed it only a year in 2015. Senate Republicans are skeptical about giving the city control over its own public education system, even though mayoral control was first authorized in 2002. Two hearings have been scheduled on extending it, and de Blasio is expected to face tough questions about his handling of education from his GOP
critics. “Without a detailed and thoughtful exchange, it is difficult to craft an extension that is in the best interests of New York City’s students and teachers,” said Sen. Carl Marcellino, a Long Island Republican who chairs the Senate Education Committee.
UBER AND LYFT The app-based ride-hailing services want lawmakers to pass regulations allowing them to expand operations into upstate cities such as Rochester and Buffalo, the latter being the largest U.S. city not served by Uber or Lyft. Currently the two companies are limited to the New York City area. While many upstate mayors support the expansion, taxi companies are fighting it, saying Uber and Lyft shouldn’t be given special regulations when they aren’t subject to the same rules governing yellow cabs.
ELECTION REFORM Hundreds of people complained of registration problems during the state’s recent presidential primary, prompting some lawmakers to propose changes to make it easier for voters to register, change their party affiliations or fill out a ballot. “The time for good governance is now in order to make the electoral process better for everyone, including new Americans, senior citizens and new young voters,” said Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte, a Brooklyn Democrat who has introduced two electionrelated bills.
MAY 5-11,2016
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
17
18
MAY 5-11,2016
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
Tired of Hunting for Our Town Downtown? Subscribe today to Downtowner News of Your Neighborhood that you can’t get anywhere else
Dining Information, plus crime news, real estate prices - all about your part of town
Cultural Events in and around where you live (not Brooklyn, not Westchester)
Now get your personal copy delivered by US Mail for just
$
49/Year for 52 issues
To Subscribe : Call 212-868-0190 or go online to otdowntown.com and click on subscribe
FIGHTING LYME DISEASE IN PETS PETS Symptoms can be the same as in people BY MELISSA TREUMAN
You’ve probably been hearing a lot about Lyme disease lately. In 2015, musician Avril Lavigne, was featured on the cover of People magazine alongside the quote “I thought I was dying.” The article went on to discuss the musician’s ongoing battle with the illness, which had left her completely bedridden for months. Lyme disease is a lot more serious that many of us may realize, and it also poses a significant threat to our four-legged friends. Lyme disease is caused by a spirochete bacteria which is transmitted through the bite of infected ticks. When the infection leads to disease in dogs and cats, the animals can experience a host of symptoms including inflammation of the joints (which can lead to lameness), lack of appetite, difficulty breathing, a stiff walk
with an arched back, swollen lymph nodes, heart abnormalities and severe kidney disease (Lyme nephritis). If your pets are diagnosed with Lyme disease, they will be treated with antibiotics. Antibiotics are generally effective in treating the joint disease but the kidney and heart diseases have poorer outcomes. It’s also important to remember that outdoor pets can carry ticks directly into our homes and into the vicinities of our two-legged loved ones. Some ticks are easily visible and others can be as small as poppy seeds, which can make detection, and early treatment a challenge. When Lyme disease is caught early, there is a much greater likelihood that it can be treated successfully, but once the disease has been in a host’s system for a significant amount of time, it can be incredibly difficult to treat and almost impossible to eradicate. While many may associate ticks with heavily wooded areas, the reality is that dog ticks have been found in abun-
dance in all five boroughs of New York City. Fortunately, there are several preventative measures that can be taken to keep our pets tick-free. It is recommended that dogs use two forms of tick prevention; namely oral (Nexgard) or topical (Frontline), in addition to a tick collar (Preventic or Scalibor). When used in conjunction, these preventative measures are extremely effective and can keep your pets free from ticks and tickborne diseases. May is Lyme disease awareness month, and to encourage tick prevention for the summer months, the Animal Hospitals at Bideawee are offering 50% off Preventic Collar ($15) with the purchase of 3 months of Nexgard or Frontline, as well as discounted tick and heartworm testing (regular value of $78 for Accuplex or 4Dx test) for only $50 with any office visit. Call 866-262-8133 to make your appointment today. Melissa Treuman is director of communication at Bideawee
MAY 5-11,2016
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
IWantToBeRecycled.org
19
20
MAY 5-11,2016
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
GUILTY PLEA IN UWS KILLING Michael Adams is second of three men to admit a role in the shooting Bubacarr Camara inside his father’s Amsterdam Avenue store last year BY RICHARD KHAVKINE
The second of three men accused of shooting and killing Bubacarr Camara inside his father’s Amsterdam Avenue store in June has pleaded guilty. Michael Adams, 30, faces a maximum term of life in prison and a mandatory minimum of 10 years when he is sentenced, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District said. Adams, of the Bronx, pleaded guilty Thursday, April 28, before U.S. Magistrate Judge Frank Maas to robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery, and to possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence resulting in death. His brother, Stephen Adams, pleaded guilty to the same charges last month. A third man, Zubearu Bettis, is still facing charges. Camara, 26, a recent arrival from Gambia, was killed about noon on June 18 during what a police source called a “botched robbery” of his father’s shop, BNC General Merchandise, on a mostly residential stretch of Amsterdam Avenue between 104th and 105th Streets. Adams was arrested on July 9. Stephen Adams and Bettis were arrested on June 26. All three were charged with Camara’s killing following a federal grand jury indictment.
A makeshift memorial last June for Bubacarr Camara, a 26-year-old shopkeeper killed during a robbery of his father’s Amsterdam Avenue store. Two of three men accused in his killing have pleaded guilty to federal charges. Photo: Richard Khavkine
HOW HUMOR CAN HEAL HEALTH Laughter can be a natural anxiety release BY ALICIA SCHWARTZ
My days are mostly spent working closely with the elderly and their loved ones to develop and coordinate a home healthcare plan that addresses each patient’s individual needs. In this line of work, I have found that the adage “laughter is the best medicine” is truly applicable — and healing. Most of the members in our plans have multiple chronic illnesses they’ve been coping with for several years. Humor can be very helpful in helping them adapt so they can continue to live safely and independently in the homes where they feel comfortable and secure. Nurses know that especially when caring for an elderly person with multiple chronic conditions, a touch of humor can really help “the medicine go down.” My colleagues and I work to build patient relationships that are based in trust, and sometimes just encouraging a smile can go a long way. Here are a few insights into the benefits of using humor when
caring for someone with chronic health issues.
powerful as a full-on belly laugh.
Illness is What You Suffer From, Not Who You Are
Humor Can Be Healing
Humor in home health care starts with listening and careful observation. I’m genuinely curious about the people in my care, so I talk to them and try to learn as much as I can about their backgrounds, hobbies, family and work life so as not to let their illness define who they are. The key is finding what someone is interested in, and then finding the humor in what they love to do or talk about. One of my patients had arthritis and she suffered from severe knee pain. We would speak about the importance of exercise and how this would help her condition. We learned through our conversation that she loved to dance. And that’s how we laughed our way to progress. During one visit, we danced, all of us in the home, the escort, the aide, and me. We laughed as we danced and the member discovered that her pain had lessened. From then on, the aide and the member took dancing as a form of exercise. Every time I checked in, we would recall the experience and laugh again at the memories we shared.
Studies show that laughter brings physical benefits and releases endorphins. It also boosts the immune system, improves stamina and can strengthen breathing. And of course there are emotional and social benefits too, like reducing depression or anxiety, and helping us feel close with friends and family. Humor is one of the best ways that people overcome challenges in life, and that includes coping with health and medical challenges. Humor is important for family caregivers too, providing them with a release and break from the stresses of their daily lives. Healthcare is in and of itself a serious issue and focused on end results much of the time. While the end result is indeed important, connecting with patients on a personal level and incorporating unique approaches to care has helped me and my patients realize that creating a pleasurable journey there is just as vital. May 6 through May 12 marks National Nurses Week, a time set aside to celebrate and recognize the men and women who have dedicated their lives to the field of nursing. As a care coordinator and registered Nurse for VNSNY CHOICE Health Plans, I am honored to count myself among the nurses who continue to find unique ways to connect with patients and help them achieve the best quality of life possible. To learn more about health plans that help elder New Yorkers live more comfortably, safely and independently in their own homes, visit www. VNSNYCHOICE.org or call 1-855-AT CHOICE (1855-282-4642).
Humor is a Universal Language Humor can’t be forced, but I’ve found that most people need a little humor on a regular basis. It’s a natural anxiety release. The trick is to listen and know who you’re talking with. Learn to hear the subtle invitations to trust and be trusted. Humor breaks down many barriers and creates a relaxed atmosphere but one must know when and how to use it. Every person I work with is different. Every person has something they care deeply about and enjoy. Someone who doesn’t speak because of a stroke might express humor in a more subtle way, but the healing quality of a smile or a chuckle at a funny song or quip on TV can be just as
Alicia Schwartz is a registered nurse care coordinator for VNSNY CHOICE Health Plans
MAY 5-11,2016
21
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
To read about other people who have had their “15 Minutes” go to otdowntown.com/15 minutes
YOUR 15 MINUTES
HIS HEART’S ON BROADWAY Gavin Creel on his early days finding auditions in a newspaper, Elder Price’s arc and sharing the stage with a “great group of people” BY ANGELA BARBUTI
Gavin Creel on his early days finding auditions in a newspaper, Elder Price’s arc and sharing the stage with a ‘great group of people’ Gavin Creel exudes lots of charm in his first villainous role on Broadway. In “She Loves Me,” he dazzles as Kodaly, a womanizer who has Illona, played by Jane Krakowski, under his spell. They join Zachary Levi and Laura Benanti on stage as close-knit coworkers in a parfumerie, where drama naturally ensues. An Ohio native, Creel studied musical theater at the University of Michigan and came to New York in 1998. He said he “got lucky very quickly” in the theater world, and it’s not very hard to see why. At 40, he’s already earned his status as a Broadway veteran, earning two Tony nods, one for his Broadway debut in “Thoroughly Modern Millie” and the other for his performance in “Hair.” Even though the stage has become a second home, he still revels in his experience. “There’s a part of me that’s always going to be kind of
pinching himself, going, ‘I do this for a living. They pay me to do this.’ I don’t ever want to lose that,” he said.
What was the audition process like for you when you first got here? It was a different time. The Internet was just getting started. We had phone services, trying to get meetings with agencies and stuff. “Backstage” was still a paper; it wasn’t online, obviously. You just had to grab your “Backstage” newspaper and circle the auditions that you thought might apply to you. I got an agent and found my first big audition in “Backstage.” It was a North American tour of the musical “Fame.” I went to the audition and got a callback and my agent was like, “You know, we’ll send you on those kind of things.” And I was like, “Well you didn’t, so I went.” I ended up getting a callback and they took care of it and I got the job. And that was sort of my first big job. We rehearsed in the fall, so I got lucky pretty quickly. I had a job for a year and was touring the country and then came back. It’s just one of those things where I just worked. Wherever I could get a job that seemed interesting or even just seemed like something where they would hire me, I just got jobs and worked. I was very lucky very quickly.
You played in Elder Price in “The Book of
Gavin Creel and Jane Krakowski in “She Loves Me.” Photo: Joan Marcus
Mormon” in London and on Broadway. I read an interview with you where you said you didn’t think that show was a fit for you at first. Yeah, I didn’t. I felt like it was a brand of humor that I wouldn’t really succeed with or didn’t really get. It was just intimidating because it was so brilliant and one of my good friends originated the role that I was eventually going to play. It was one of those things that as an adult you kind of go, “Oh boy, I don’t know if I can do this.” But my good friend Casey Nicholaw, who is the director and choreographer, said, “I really think you can do this and I would love it if you would consider it.” I got an offer I couldn’t refuse and it was a great, great time. I grew a lot, I think, as an actor during that time. I really enjoyed it. It was hard work. Hardest thing I’ve ever done, but it changed my life in a lot of ways.
My younger sisters wanted me to tell you that they’re fans of yours from the Eloise movies. That’s very sweet. The nice thing is that one of them is a Christmas movie so it shows up every Christmas on the Hallmark Channel or ABC Family or something and gets replayed so I get new little fans and they’re like, “Oh you’re Bill from the Eloise movies.” But then a lot of people now come and tell me they love me from Eloise and they’re like 25 and I think, “Wow, that was a long time ago.”
I read that you played the role of Kodaly in college.
Photo: Robert Mannis
I did. We did a little student production of it in the summer after my sophomore year. It wasn’t really a theater, per se, but we put something together and did it. It was a lot of fun. Actually Ilona was played by Rachel Hoffman who is now one of the big-
gest casting directors in the theater in New York. All friends from college did all the leads and stuff, so it was a lot of fun. We did it in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. So I got a chance to try it on, but it’s nice to be able to professionally explore it with this incredible cast and the team and the Roundabout Theatre Company. So I feel very fortunate to be there.
How do you feel about playing villainous roles? Did you base him off anyone? I don’t have any experience with playing quote unquote villainous roles. And I kind of enjoy it. I mean, Elder Price is kind of a d**k, but he comes around. That was really fun to play because his arc is long and slow, like he’s sort of a d**k the whole time to get what he wants and at the very end he goes, ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve been a d**k,’ and then comes around. So I don’t have a lot of experience in it, but that’s what’s fun. It’s kind of fun to play a role that I’m not used to playing. And I didn’t really base him on anything. The idea I had though is that he moves artfully and smoothly. Because he’s a womanizer and making his way around the world of women in the ‘30s, which is a classier time. The architecture is so beautiful. It’s Budapest. I thought, “I think this man takes dance classes to meet women. I think he goes through elocution lessons and knows how to cook. He’s training with a chef because women love it.” Just all the feminine things that certainly men in our country, but maybe not men in the ‘30s in Budapest, would turn their noses up at and say, “That’s not a very manly thing to do.” I think he willingly and joyfully does them with the sole purpose of endearing himself to women so that they’ll open up to him and then he can ruin their lives. I had a lot of fun thinking about that.
What is it like working with Jane, Zach
and Laura? Jane is a force and Laura is a force and Zach is a force. It’s humbling to be on stage with them. Michael McGrath, Byron Jennings, the young Nick Barasch is nailing it. It’s a really great group of people to be up there with. I don’t do a whole lot in the show. I have a nice part, but it’s not huge or anything. But the nice thing is to know I’m sharing this moment with some of the best, so I feel like I’m in a alright place cause I’m up there with them. I guess they look across the stage and think the same thing.
“She Loves Me” runs until July. What are your plans after that? Do you have any dream roles you still want to pursue on Broadway? Yeah, I want to do new pieces. I’d like to spend a better part of my 40s doing new pieces. Whether I’m writing them, I hope to write some stuff. I hope to get on the other side of the table, directing and creating. I love teaching, so I hope to do some more of that in the next 10 years. I just want to get more into developing things myself and also helping other people develop new works. I’ve been very lucky doing a lot of revivals and I intend to do more of them if the parts line up. But in the next couple of years, I hope the next projects I start working on are new pieces written by people I respect and love and hopefully write some myself. More on the show at www. roundabouttheatre.org
Know somebody who deserves their 15 Minutes of fame? Go to otdowntown.com and click on submit a press release or announcement.
22
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
“I WISH SOMEONE WOULD HELP THAT HOMELESS MAN.”
BE THE SOMEONE. Sam New York Cares Volunteer
Every day, we think to ourselves that someone should really help make this city a better place. Visit newyorkcares.org to learn about the countless ways you can volunteer and make a difference in your community.
MAY 5-11,2016
MAY 5-11,2016
CLASSIFIEDS PEST CONTROL
23
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
HELP WANTED
MASSAGE
Telephone: 212-868-0190 Fax: 212-868-0198 Email: classified2@strausnews.com
POLICY NOTICE: We make every eďŹ&#x20AC;ort to avoid mistakes in your classiďŹ ed ads. Check your ad the ďŹ rst week it runs. The publication will only accept responsibility for the ďŹ rst incorrect insertion. The publication assumes no ďŹ nancial responsibility for errors or omissions. We reserve the right to edit, reject, or re-classify any ad. Contact your sales rep directly for any copy changes. All classiďŹ ed ads are pre-paid.
REAL ESTATE - SALE
To advertise in this directory Call #BSSZ (212)-868-0190 ext.4 CBSSZ MFXJT@strausnews.com
MERCHANDISE FOR SALE SERVICES OFFERED
ANTIQUES/COLLECTIBLES
Directory of Business & Services Antique, Flea & Farmers Market SINCE 1979
East 67th Street Market
CARS & TRUCKS & RVâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S
LEGAL AND PROFESSIONAL
(between First & York Avenues) Open EVERY Saturday 6am-5pm Rain or Shine
REAL ESTATE - RENT
Sell it in the &ODVVLÂżHGV Â&#x2021; Â&#x2021;
REAL ESTATE - SALE EMPLOYMENT
TUTOR
Indoor & Outdoor FREE Admission Questions? Bob 718.897.5992 Proceeds BeneďŹ t PS 183
ANTIQUES WANTED TOP PRICES PAID Chinese Objects Paintings, Jewelry Silver, Furniture, Etc. Entire Estates Purchased
800.530.0006
Sell it in the &ODVVLÂżHGV Â&#x2021; Â&#x2021;
VACATIONS
HEALTH SERVICES MASSAGE
WANTED TO BUY
NEED TO RUN A LEGAL NOTICE?
â&#x20AC;&#x153;IF ONLY SOMEONE WOULD CLEAN UP THIS PARK.â&#x20AC;?
Quick | Easy | Economical
BE THE SOMEONE. Every day, we think to ourselves that someone should really help make this city a better place. Visit newyorkcares.org to learn about the countless ways you can volunteer and make a difference in your community.
Cat New York Cares Volunteer
Call Barry Lewis today at:
212-868-0190
24
MAY 5-11,2016
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
Don’t go out into the heat. GET YOUR LOCAL NEWS DELIVERED It’s your neighborhood. It’s your news. And now your personal copy is delivered directly to your mailbox every week!
THE M NEW ET'S MODE
CITYAR RNISM TS, P.2 > 4
2
0 1 6 OTT Y AWA
RDS
His Eminence Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan
Dr. Maura D. Frank Gustavo Goncalves
Just $49
James Grant Paul Gunther
Harris Healy
Susan H enshaw Jones
Mallory Spain Dr. David Thomas
CELEBR BEST OF ATTHING THE EAST SIDE E UPPER Bett y Cooper Wallerstein
IS THE LUX SLOWING DURY MARKET OWN?
OUT OF GA S
IN VE ST IG
UP TH NG MET'SE TEMPL E
, ma fen t The Am lands ke up the groPark, amon ders cap g erican BY GABRIELLE Histor Hilderbr e archit up. The pro othALFIER Mu y ec O hood for is tapping seum of Na ings, wh and will tu re fir m ject’s int also att Reed ich be that wi a communit o the neightural “It en gin portionll weigh in on y working bor- wo ’s always be on March d meet4. rk with group en where of Theodo the redesignCITY the com our inten AR the TS re ob the tion to munit jectiv museu Roosevel of a wo , P.1 quartery to t uld lik2 > es of wh m at the achieve e to do posed acre of gre pla ns to Park, the mu us expan en spa ne sion. ce for e a as thi eds of the and make su seum Frien a procom re s profit ds of Roose Dan Sli project mo munity are that vel ves for met the cit that manage t Park, the ernme ppen, vice wa y’s presid rd,” said nt relati mu seu Parks De s the park non- thi ent of on nk pa wi m, s tha rtm at th all govthe mu t what with the wi ll co y sol -chair ent and the we’re seu museu the gr m. Blo we alw idifying, in doing now m. “I ou ck ass a ays int is ociation p ended.”way, efforts res, CO that NT
TRINITY COMES INTOWER FOCUS TO
idents as ites estSide paris hioners Spirit well as froinput m
Cell Phone ________________________________
Newsche Crime Wack Voices tch Out & Ab out
2 Cit y 3 Th Arts ings to Do 8
ake
GE 25
WEEK OF FE BRUARY-MAR CH
25-2 2016
to hav e is the sixthin the city. past thre been hit by a person car in the to The ee days alone. least 20New York Tim According cyclists pedestrians es, at have bee and thr accidents ee n kill more tha so far this ed in traffic VOL. 2, yea n ISSUE been inju 900 pedest r, and 08 rians hav It’s demred. e of victim oralizing. If fam s, ilies heighten a devoted mayor and a dent in ed awarenes the proble s can’t ma Amid the ke m, wh at can? New Yor carnage, Immedia kers once agathough, hit, bys tely after Da in rallied. A CASI group tanders ran to uplaise was MANH NO IN managof them, workin try to help. in hopesed to flip the carg together, A < BUSI ATTAN? of NESS, on res its cuing Unfor sid P.16 She wa tunately, it didDauplaise. e, Bellevues pronounced n’t work. The a short wh dead at citizensefforts of our ile later. fell to hearten save a str ow us, despit anger sho recklessn uld e who con ess of a danthe continued a place tinue to makegerous few THE SE of traged our street y. OFsOU COND DISG
Downt owner Our T
12
ake
SHELTER HOMELES RACE S RS
First, obvious: let’s start wit condition h the city’s hom s inside thi disgrace. eless shelte rs are as A ser one mo ies of terrible (includinre horrible tha crimes, month g the killing n the last of ear lier this daugh a woman has higters in Statenand her two hlighted Island), living con the the ma ditions for shameful cities inrgins of one ofpeople at Blasio, the world. Ma the richest wh yor o has bee Bill de his app from theroach to homn halting in has final beginning elessness proble ly begun to of his term, from thim, but years ofaddress the others, s administra neglect, tion and will take But years to correct. recent none of that exc office grandstanding uses the appareof Gov. Andrew by the Cuomo, he can’tntly sees no iss who In the try to belittl ue on which attempt governor’s late the mayor. officials at a hit job, est sta compla then pro ined te Post, abomptly to the to the city, homele ut a gang New York alleged ss shelter, purape at a city VOL. 77 had tim event before blicizing the , ISSUE pol e 04 As it turto investigate ice even ned out, it. never hap the officials pened, infuriaincident media hitwho called it ting city a ” “po aim the mayor ed at em litical . More cha barrassin counter-c rges and g THfolElow the me harges Dicken antimeA , of cou ed. In Tditrse men, wosian livingR OionF, the con in New men D kidsIM s for Yor andEN Here’s k goe s on. in shelters CITY ARTS, leadershi hoping tha t som P.2any eday our as intere p in Alb 0 as it is in sted in helpinwill become back fro agains scoring pol g them t sit itical poi 17 fee m FDR Drour ive byting mayor. nts t 16 to out of and raise
IN CEN KIDS AGTARIAL PARK, WEIGHI NST DOCNAl NG LiDnTtRo UMnP WEEK OF JA NUARY-FEBR UARY 28-3 MOVING FO R A GUIDE TO CAMP
NE W S
BUILDING, WARD ON THE DESPITE C ONCERNTSIN 3 Top Arts 8 Re 5 10 15 al Estate Minutes
Voices Out & Ab out
12 13 16 21
PAGE 9
it on the floo as red d plain, e foot uc building e the heigh as well three. from four t of the storie HAPP s to The ref urbishe would SNOWY LITTLE d sit FLAKES pier pil atop newl bu ild ing y food ma ings and restored Reme board co Transpa officia sio’s fi mber Mayo Jean-G rket overseenntain a expre ls, but rst r Bil eorge linger ov rency concer by sse me W ch Th s Vong hat a winter in his l de Blaef mbers e pr ns develop d concern dif fer redeveloper Howard Hu new years the de oposal also erichten. er ’s vis s that the ence Se ma molit ca lls a coup job? Seaport ment plans ghes’ pieapor t is be ion for th Ho ion for Hit wi kes. le of for the ing e tw use and Lin of the He ceme after th a snow ad o dil k Bu compre al instead relea sed sto tak new ma ing off ice rm shortly of in on adjacen apidated str ild ing, hensive Howa BY DAN t e in pro uc The new would yor fumble in 2014, th IEL FIT front ofto the Tin Bu tures CB1’s rd Hughes posal. d in a wa ZSIMM e co Jan. 19 ly restored me Pie ild joi ONS Re half of ing r 17. to The joi cen Tin presen South nt La nd mamet with his ter define th y that nt La nd tation Building, as by the tly announ Stree un So rk e m. to Comm fi ut fir s lle envisio ced Ho h ma Ce Po an t Seap st d. Stree nter d Ce plans poration ward Hu ned unity Bo storm Official wa tholes we t Seap rks and nter gh pla ns on Jan. 19 or t/Civic nt ’s ard 1. in Howard Hu at the for the Tin es Corfor th to unve Residen severity wernings on the a resolucomm ittee or t/Civic ghes a fou e s passe re mu ts in ne re ce iveSouth Stree Building r-s tory Tin Build il the pr tion in did dd igh d n’t led t supp structur ing bo op prov al d preli mi Seaport plaine vote for de rhoods tha . e at thelandm arke , of Howa osal, but req or t of na co d from being that their strBlasio com-t comm ry ap - Hording to the Seaport. Acd pla n for rd Hughes uested plo un ity a was lat wed -- a eets weren - ing wa rd Hu gh presentation - the Seap redevelopmmaster su ’t es ort , wo to mo tion-trucer proven spicion tha ve the is propos uld inc as a whole ent at ou t Tin Bu , wh lude the This k GPS data. t by sanitailding compa ich new detime aroun ny’s CONTINU d, ED ON ch arge Blasio seem an entirely PAGE 5 was for . Before th ed to be Sanitati e storm in ceful, Ins on bu tea , t no he d architect Dept. build closin of jumpin t panicke d. g g storm ure, is press ing, praised waited subways or the gun an ed into for d service its then ac for the storm schools, he during detectedted decisive to develop the , We do a sense of huly. We even n’t wa mor in The bu cre nt it all dit tha to give BY DEE to life ilding looks him mo . someth n is due, PTI HAJ , all re bu ELA ing can loo angles an like a mode t there about seeme rn d wa thi d nation k bluish or gra edges, with art painting New Yo to bring ou s storm tha s t rkers. t the be in any of the three. yish or wh concrete wa come On Su itish, or settin lls st of functi g, but It would be some that alpine nday, the cit an no on pounds it was cre ne more tha unusual str combiskiers vil lage. Cr y felt like an ate uc of the n rock sal d for --- sto the fairly pro ture snow plied the pa oss-cou nt ry rin t bo sai tha rks g CONTINU c tho t the cit hot ch ots and pa , people y’s De usands of ED ON ololat rkas ord in partm PAGE 29 wi es, th su ered kid ent of of sledd nburned fac s came home es after ding. There a day tent. Qu were pock ets the plo eens reside of disco nand elew trucks by nts felt th at the sch cted offici passed them, als closed ools should there sa id for ha But ov another da ve stayed %TGCVKX just en erall, consid y. G 9TKVK PI r &CPEG snows dured the secering we ha r /QVK torm in d QP 2KE lovely our his ond-biggest VWTG # litt TVU r and his le chapter tory, it was /WUKE a for the subjects r 6JG mayor CVTG r . 8KUWC
NE W S
THE SALT SPOTLIGH SHED’S T MOMENT NE W S
Email Address_________________________________________ Signature______________________________Date _______________
ART
LIVES HERE
Return Completed Form to: Straus News, 20 West Avenue, Chester, NY, 10918 or go to strausnews.com & click on Subscribe
FOR PARK REDESIGN
Bu On Sa 13 10 15 siness BY EM ILY TOW parishioturday mo Minutes 16 NER rn and low ners, comm ing, archit 19 ered in er Manhatt unity me ects, mb vision St. Paul’s Ch an residents ers for Tr ap gat el hto discu inity Ch building ss urch’s The ex . new pa the rish Place acr isting bu ild been cle oss from Tr ing, on Tr inity inity Ch ared for 1923, urc de it the chu no longer sermolition. Buh, has tower rch and the ves the ne ilt in wi com ed The we ll be built in munity. A s of new in a ser ekend me its place. eti — collabies of commu ng was the needs orative for nity “charr fifth an um ett the low d wants of s to addre es” a whole er Manhatt the church ss the and an com . “In ou munit of r y initial as about charr buildinghow we wa ettes we talked for the to be a homented th is pa hood,” homeless an for the spi rish rit fer, Tr said the Re d for the neigh ual, v. Dr. Wi ini bor“We tal ty Wall Street lliam Lu ked ’s prector What ab . they wo out minis try act look,” uld be ivi Lu marke pfer said. , how they ties. wo t underst study in ord“We condu uld cte desires and neighbo er to objec d a dream as well as rhood needtively s.” parish s and He sai hopes and sion em d the churc tality braces a ph h communit The can tha ilo ride in coming t is “open sophy for y’s viCe carouseldidate’s owne ho , flexibl .” On the ntral Park. “We wa e and spifamilia puts New Yo rship of the wela white wall next to nt it street r bind rkers in , access to be visiblP.9 > that rea placard wi the entrance a Gemm ible to e from the com and Re ds, “Trum th red letter is well, a Whitema the CONTINU p Ca munit gulat ing who we n and ind It’s y, BY DAN Engla ED ON Joel Ha re on lat icatio ions” -- rousel Ru PAGE 6 weekd e afternoon IEL FITZSIMM presid ns that Do one of the les day, nd and rode vacation uxONS ay, an on only sai the en fro nald a mi tial d lining opera bearing d they notic carousel Mo m up to pakids and tou ld winter tes the candidate, J. Trump, ed the Trum ntially ow car ris y Tr $3 for “It p’s ns an placar New Yo a qu ts are see um p’s po ousel. d ma was in my name. OurTown d rk mo lit ics ping int n, he ment: intesenDowntow wh ad o the car have be 20gav a carou weigh 16 e he en asked ,” said Wh n gu sel an aft a deep ernoo ousel, as rid n in En r pause. “H if the realiz iteOTDOW O n esc ly divisiv gla ati ers e’s NTOW like, ‘Do nd, so in my not very lik on e candid ape again N.COM st he ed I want ate. Newsche to give ad I was a bit ck money @OTD CO Cri me Wa NTINU to this owntown 2 Cit tch ED ON y
Address _______________________________ Apt. # ________ New York, NY Zip Code _____________
Our T
THE ST
PAGE 5
WESATS serID iesEof for SPIRne ums on IT.w paMh build the fro COris ing inv church’s @W m res
Name ______________________________________________
AT IO N
Accor DOB, Coding to sta STREETORY OF OU tis R agency nEd report tics provid S ed by over 20 in 2015, a ed 343 shutoff the The 40 Ruby BY DAN trend 14’s 67 shu 0 percent s to the New Yorworst and the IEL FIT ey on Mak has been ap toffs. increa ZSIMM takeo An So far pears to be Monday k were both best of ONS ut tha spending mid-d in 2016 increa d the upwa se on displa mo mo issert n acc mid a the sin re rd docto ording y town. rning on 36th mong eve re ha ation is worki Street in ng at lea , and her ne rate stude “Since to the DO ve been 157 n more: Ca rol “A lot nt B. Da shu w rice st as uplaise, toffs, noticing the spring owner cooker to eat of it is just ou hard. the a no gas, a lot of pe of last year crossingof a jewelry com 77-year-o cook at lot more,” t of pocket, op we sta going rted water either cookin le coming Street Madison Av pany, was ld steam home it’s jus said Mak. “W ,” out in ing an said Donna g gas or he that had when a during the mo enue at 36th cally.” things with t a rice cooker hen we at livery-cab rning rus it, or ma Ameri d commun Chiu, direct and hot cor . You can ner h dri ity or can La st Se and hit ke rice, her. ver turned the Chiu cal s For Equa ser vices forof housptemb The basihundred er Asian said AA led the inc lity. arresteddriver of the car no natur s of others her bu ild ing ing an FE is worki rease “freak pedest for failing to was joi ned an ins al gas, cut across the d pe off town almost a dong with Ma ish,” and been citrian, and cop yield to a Building ction blitz by Con Ed city with an ser vic d the Lowe zen others k’s buildtraffic vioed for at leasts say he had a month s that bega by the city’sison after es. 10 oth lations advocat And Ch r East Side in ChinaIt sin wa East Vil after a fat n last April, Dept. of iu, lik ce 2015. er es, ha al ga e ma to restor exp les litany ofs but the latest lage tha s t claim s explosion s than lon loitation by witnessed ny housinge that hav traffic deaths in a sad ed two bu g servic in the a lives. e interr ilding owne pattern of Mayor e lingered on, and injuries rs wh uptions curb traBill de Blasio’s despite CONTINU in an eff o proffic crashe efforts ort to ED ON Da to uplais s PA
MUSEUM T APS NEIGH BORHOOD GROUPS
Yes! Start my $49 subscription right away! Plus give it to a friend for just $10
CITY WIN FO APPLE R
2 Cit y 3 To Arts Do 24 8 Foo 25 10 15 d & Drink MinuAtes 26 surge s shu rent-stabof ga29 ilized tentoffs, particu larly for ants
NE W S
Clinton
Wests ider
3-9
Newsche Crime Wack Voices tch Out & Ab out
INUED ON
accuse capita d of overleve l. very James Beninati anraging invest lions aftCabrera, we d his partn or re BY DAN Antar er the firm sued for mier, The Ba IEL FIT es ZSIMM condo uhouse Gr assets was stripp ’s collapse, lONS and ou ed of mo in p’s 90 the lat project on A rep the late-a st of its 0-foo Sutto n Place t the Ba resentative ughts. velopmeest lux ur y res for uhouse fundin nt to suffer idential is a req Group Beninati an ue de g, fro did st for d - tim as inv ingly comm not return estors m a lack of e. wary ent by are inc of fin at the Sto press rea ler an top a surpl end of the cing projec s- Deal ne also spok outlookus in inven market du ts a notic wspaper las e to the Re tor e will ma on whether y and a tep to ap ar tmeable decre t month ab al ase out affluent terialize id lig en News buyer hted ma t sa les, whin high-end down of s the roa the 80 rke ich hig squa re avera d. -st ge nu t data tha hmb April, foot propo or y, 260,0 t apart ments er of days said the an 00 squat d sent the sa l broke las spent in new for-sa neigh and sleepy comparative t perce on the marke developme le VOL. 42 bo nt munit rhood int Sutton Pla ly and the between t increased nts , ISSUE o the y 47 en 09 tions, Board 6 vo a panic. Co ce “E very d of last yea end of 20 man ice 14 on d r. d Council e’s a its ob Kallos Stoler lit jec the bu came out str member Be - $2,50 told TRD. “W tle worri ed ilding 0 ’s heigh ongly again n lende [per square ith anything ,” plicat ions. rs are t and soc st at foo t] ver or But it Stoler ial imtold thi y cautious.” more, opposit wa sn’t jus s ne wspape house ion workingt commun CONTINU r that ED ON Mi aelprincipal Jo against Baity PAGE 5 seph u20ch Sto ne r16 at the ler, a mana Beninati. Jewish invest ging pa son Re wome me n and the wo backg alty Capital, nt firm Ma rtgirl rld by rou lighting s light up candle tares Inv nd also plasaid Beninatidis every the Sha yed bbat Friday 18 min a role. ’s Benin estment Pa eve utes bef < NEW An ati co Friday ore sun ning -foundertners, the fi schoo S, Ma set. l rm P.4 For mo rch 11 – 5:4 boast classmate thad with a pre 1 pm. re info ed $6 rm www.c billion t at one po p habadu ation visit int in ass pperea ets, wa stside.co s m.
WEEK OF MAR CH
AMNH electe d transpo working gro and pa officials, Co up rtation, park reds to focus on of Teddrk advocacy mmunity Board group y Roose esign LIGHTI 7, ers De vel
WestS ideSpirit
>
NE W S
53 Lud low Str mom, hav eet, Fitzsim e been witwhere a dozen mons hout coo ten king gas ants, includ since las ing Ruby Mak and t Septe mber. Pho her to by Dan iel
Westsider
S, P.4
Concern high en s about a glu t at the d
OurTown EastSide
Eastsider
AN EN D "BR TO WINDO OKEN WS"? NEW
2016
MORE THAN SCREATHE M
@OurT ownNYC
VOL. 2, ISSUE 10
10-16
Our To wn ha The pa s much 2016, per celebrat to be thank an OTTY d this we es its 45th ful for. ek Award anniv made ersary winnershonors its a un lat The OT ique differe , noting pe est group in ople wh of nce on You -- TY award the o ha s ha munit ve always -- short for OuUpper East ve Sid be y strong. service, an en a reflect r Town Th e. d this anks year’s ion of deep Our ho list is parti combusiness norees inc cularly owners lude co heroe mm an s. Cardi We’re also d medical anunity activi na tak fall’s wi l Timothy ing a mome d public saf sts, Franc ldly succes Dolan, who nt to recog ety is. nize sheph sful vis Kyle Po In his interv erd it iew wi to the city ed last pressi pe, Dolan by th Our ref ng Town Pope warning issues sti lects on thaCI Editor ll TYit, ARon movin s he receiv facing the t vis TS, g to Ne city,2 an>d on the w York ed from his P.1 Read nine his profile, seven years friends be the OT TY an fore ag Thom awards d the profi o. pso les of the oth We are n, in the spe by repor the wi proud to bri cial sectio ter Madelei er nners n ne part of ng it to you inside. our com , and pro ud to cal munit y. l
OURTOW O NNY.C OM
Eastsi der
WEEK OF MAR CH
N #TVU
Our T
ake