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WEEK OF MAY POLAR PURPOSE ◄ P. 21
11-17 2017
More than 7,500 sidewalk sheds shade New York City, mostly in Manhattan. A new map gives a better picture of the size and safety purposes of these common features. Photo: Steven Pisano, via Flickr
SHEDDING LIGHT ON SHADE BUILDINGS Buildings department maps scaffolding citywide BY MADELEINE THOMPSON
On West 29th Street, between Eighth and Ninth Avenues, one structure stands out in a row of multi-colored, five-story buildings. Number 339 is shrouded in scaffolding and sheltered at the street level by 22 linear feet of sidewalk shed. The permit for that cluster of wood, steel and other material was issued almost a decade ago, in December 2007. While it’s possible that the shed and scaffolding were taken down at some point over the last 10 years, a Department of Buildings spokesperson said, it is
“overwhelmingly likely” that the structures have been up since their initial assembly. A new map engineered by the department charts that edifice and thousands of others — and confirms what for New Yorkers is a truism: sidewalk sheds are everywhere. As of Feb. 1, roughly 7,500 sidewalk sheds provided temporary protection for pedestrians walking under construction sites, according to the DOB. The map also provides evidence for what many suspect: countless of these removable roofs can hardly be described as temporary. When sorted by longevity, the map shows that some of these scaffoldings are more enduring than the tenants and businesses underneath.
Battery Park City. Photo: Gryffindor, via Wikimedia Commons
BILL WOULD REFORM BPCA BOARD COMMUNITY State legislation would require most Battery Park City Authority members to be community residents BY MADELEINE THOMPSON
After Martha Gallo resigned from the Battery Park City Authority
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(BPCA) last month, there were no longer any residents of Battery Park City or the neighboring area represented. Even before Gallo’s tenure, the board never had more than one local member. The rest of the seven-member authority board has two vacant seats, and four of its members’ terms have expired. A bill that is making its way through the Legislature aims to change that. State Senator Daniel Squadron, AsDowntowner
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FOR HIM, SETTLING SMALL CLAIMS IS A BIG DEAL presided over Arbitration Man has three decades. for informal hearings about it He’s now blogging BY RICHARD KHAVKINE
is the common Arbitration Man their jurist. least folks’ hero. Or at Man has For 30 years, Arbitration court office of the civil few sat in a satellite Centre St. every building at 111 New Yorkers’ weeks and absorbed dry cleaning, burned lost accountings of fender benders, lousy paint jobs, and the like. And security deposits then he’s decided. Arbitration Man, About a year ago, so to not afwho requested anonymity started docuhe fect future proceedings, two dozen of what menting about compelling cases considers his most blog. in an eponymous about it because “I decided to write the stories but in a I was interested about it not from wanted to write from view but rather lawyer’s point of said Arbitration view,” of a lay point lawyer since 1961. Man, a practicing what’s at issue He first writes about post, renders and then, in a separatehow he arrived his decision, detailing blog the to Visitors at his conclusion. their opinions. often weigh in with get a rap going. I to “I really want whether they unreally want to know and why I did it,” I did derstood what don’t know how to he said. “Most people ... I’d like my cases the judge thinks. and also my trereflect my personalitythe law.” for mendous respect 80, went into indiMan, Arbitration suc in 1985, settling vidual practice
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MANHATTAN'S APARTMENT BOOM, > PROPERTY, P.20
2015
In Brief MORE HELP FOR SMALL BUSINESS
The effort to help small seems to businesses in the city be gathering steam. Two city councilmembers, Robert Margaret Chin and Cornegy, have introduced create legislation that wouldSmall a new “Office of the within Business Advocate” of Small the city’s Department Business Services. Chin The new post, which have up told us she’d like to would and running this year, for serve as an ombudsman city small businesses within them clear government, helping to get through the bureaucracy things done. Perhaps even more also importantly, the ombudsman and number will tally the type small business of complaints by taken in owners, the actions policy response, and somefor ways to recommendations If done well, begin to fix things. report would the ombudsman’s give us the first quantitative with taste of what’s wrong the city, an small businesses in towards important first step fixing the problem. of for deTo really make a difference, is a mere formality will have to the work process looking to complete their advocate are the chances course, velopers precinct, but rising rents, -- thanks to a find a way to tackle business’ is being done legally of after-hours projects quickly. their own hours,” which remain many While Chin “They pick out boom in the number throughout who lives on most vexing problem. said Mildred Angelo,of the Ruppert construction permits gauge what Buildings one said it’s too early tocould have the 19th floor in The Department of the city. number three years, the Houses on 92nd Street between role the advocate She Over the past on the is handing out a record work perThird avenues. permits, there, more information of Second and an ongoing all-hours number of after-hours bad thing. of after-hours work the city’s Dept. problem can’t be a said there’s with the mits granted by nearby where according to new data jumped 30 percent, This step, combinedBorough construction project noise Buildings has data provided in workers constantly make efforts by Manhattan to mediate BY DANIEL FITZSIMMONS according to DOB of Informacement from trucks. President Gale Brewer offer response to a Freedom classifies transferring they want. They knows the the rent renewal process, request. The city They 6 “They do whatever signs Every New Yorker clang, tion Act go as they please. work between some early, tangible small any construction on the weekend, can come and sound: the metal-on-metal or the piercing of progress. For many have no respect.” p.m. and 7 a.m., can’t come of these that the hollow boom, issuance reverse. owners, in business moving The increased beeps of a truck has generto a correspond and you as after-hours. soon enough. variances has led at the alarm clock The surge in permits
SLEEPS, THANKS TO THE CITY THAT NEVER UCTION A BOOM IN LATE-NIGHT CONSTR NEWS
A glance it: it’s the middle can hardly believe yet construction of the night, and carries on full-tilt. your local police or You can call 311
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sembly Member Deborah Glick and Assembly Member Yuh-Line Niou have teamed up to pass new legislation that would require a majority of the BPCA’s members to be residents of Community District 1, which includes much of Lower Manhattan below Canal Street. The bill passed the Assembly May 2, but it still has hurdles to jump before becoming law.
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MAY 11-17,2017
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GOOD REASON FOR A BAD HAIR DAY WHEELS Get Women Cycling gears up to rally support for new riders with launch of its third annual #ShowMeHelmetHair social media campaign BY GAIL EISENBERG
“The ‘hat tip’ gesture is a playful welcome to the start of bike season,” says Angela Azzolino, program creator and executive director of Get Women Cycling. “Our goal is to unite cyclists and provide support for active women, femaleidentifying, and non-gender conforming people by offering a way to engage with cyclists on post-ride appearance — an issue often cited as a deterrent to sustained bicycle riding.” Gender disparities became apparent to Azzolino in 2014 after she graduated from the Bicycle Mechanic Skills Academy, a 12-week job program launched by the Lower East Side’s Henry Street Settle-
Angela Azzolino (left) with Gina, a GWC member, after a few test rides. Photo: GWC ment and Recycle-a-Bicycle. She’d read about such discrepancies in reports by industry non-profits like the League of American Bicyclists, but when she was promoted from bike builder to mechanic at a Brooklyn bike shop, she witnessed
them firsthand. “As the only female in a consumer-facing gig on the main service floor I began to experience the sexism in the industry; not so much from my colleagues but from patrons and sales reps,” Azzolino recalls. “I
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noticed how women would enter the shop and look past me to inform the male mechanic of their needs. I noticed women coming to buy bicycles with such enthusiasm and then leaving empty-handed because they were overwhelmed. I noticed a lack of repeat visits from female customers who had purchased bikes and/or accessories,” she says. A red taillight went on in her head. In 2015 the native New Yorker parlayed her twentyfive years of user experience design expertise to develop GWC, whose mission is to elevate and sustain female bicycle ridership through engagement, education, and service reform. GWC and its initiatives have received citywide support from sponsors like New York staple Veselka, NYC Velo bike shops in Hell’s Kitchen and the East Village, as well as active bike advocates Cathy and Daniel Flanzig of Flanzig & Flanzig (aka New York Bike Lawyers), the sibling-run midtown law firm whose focus is on represent-
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Angela Azzolino tips her helmet. Photo: GWC ing seriously injured cyclists throughout NYC. Azzolino’s organization may be young, but her passion for cycling is longstanding thanks to her uncle Pete. He gave her a Schwinn Varsity 10-speed when she was sixteen, and she’s had a bike attached to her hip for the nearly three decades since then. “Everyone who knows me knows me with my bike. I use my bike to commute and explore,” says Azzolino. “In fact, when I got my first car in 2005, I drove it like I rode my bike, opting for streets over highway because I
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was so used to riding bicycles. It didn’t even occur to me that I could take the highways.” The #ShowMeHelmetHair campaign includes a welcome party and fundraiser on May 17th at Joli Beauty Bar, where stylists will demo hairdos and products that work well for helmet wear. Just in time for Bike to Work Day on the 19th. For more information about Get Women Cycling and the #ShowMeHelmetHair campaign, go to www.getwomencycling.com Follow GWC on social media: @getwomencycling
* Par ticipants include : Bar Adrienne’s Pizza Amada Restaurant ATRIO Wine Bar & s Bavaria Bier Hau l Beckett’s Bar & Gril Bill’s Bar & Burger Park City Blue Smoke Battery ouse Bobby Van’s Steakh The Capital Grille Cowgirl SeaHorse taurant Delmonico’s Res The Dubliner wn Eataly NYC Downto Fresh Salt s & Bar The Growler Bite ak Harry’s Cafe & Ste Harry’s Italian & Sushi Bar Haru Restaurant Inatteso use The Ketch Brewho Le District i The Malt House FiD ouse MarkJoseph Steakh akhouse Mor ton’s The Ste et OBAO Water Stre ub Open Door Gastrop k Parm Battery Par se Pier A Harbor Hou house Route 66 Smoke ern Stone Street Tav Stout NYC FiDi SUteiShi The Tuck Room se Ulysses’ Folk Hou
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MAY 11-17,2017
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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
CRIME WATCH BY JERRY DANZIG $17K CLOTHING HEIST Surveillance video showed two men removing two boxes from a truck parked in front of 416 West Broadway at 11:32 a.m. on Monday, May 1. The truck had been left unattended and unlocked, with the rear door partly open. Both thieves were last seen fleeing northbound on West Broadway on foot. The items they stole were multiple pieces of clothing from PINKO valued at $17,100.
BRONX MAN THREATENED A Bronx man told police he was punched and threatened by four youths as he crossed West Broadway near Canal Street on the evening of Thursday, April 27. The 21-year-old man said the men, who he described as being in their late teens, surrounded him, before one of the four threw two punches at him and another pointed what he assumed was a knife. The quartet then made off with his headphones and fled.
MONEY DISPUTE LEADS TO ROBBERY At 1 p.m. on Sunday, April 30, a 36-year-old man was approached at the southeast corner of Howard and Mercer Streets by a male acquaintance who asked, “Where’s my money?” The two men had a dispute before the acquaintance demanded all the victim’s money and his cell phone, saying, “I have a weapon” as he unzipped his jacket. The perpetrator then took items from the victim’s hand and fled the scene. Police searched the area but couldn’t find the robber. Sammy Ismail is wanted for questioning in the incident. The items stolen included a 128 GB iPhone 6 Plus valued at $750, plus $570 in cash.
HOW RUDY Yet another high-end collectible disappeared from a local store recently. At noon on Thursday, April 20, an unknown person removed a walnut AM singlecut guitar from a display hook inside Rudy’s Music NYC at 461 Broome St. The staff only discovered the theft the following day when a 42-year-old male employee noticed the empty hook from which the guitar had hung. Then on April 27, the employee received a call from a pawn shop in the Bronx stating they had purchased the guitar. The employee checked the serial number and discovered it matched the one on the guitar taken from the store. The guitar is valued at $12,000.
STATS FOR THE WEEK Reported crimes from the 1st precinct Week to Date
Year to Date
2017 2016
% Change
2017
2016
% Change
Murder
0
0
n/a
1
0
n/a
Rape
1
0
n/a
6
4
50.0
Robbery
2
3
-33.3
19
19
0.0
Felony Assault
2
0
n/a
23
21
9.5
Burglary
2
3
-33.3
18
44
-59.1
Grand Larceny
23
18
27.8
304 355 -14.4
Grand Larceny Auto
1
0
n/a
4
DAVIDOFF RIP-OFF A high-end tobacconist is now lighter one lighter. At 3 p.m. on Monday, April 23, a man entered the Davidoff of Geneva store at 225 Liberty St., took a $14,000 lighter from a display shelf, and left without paying. The lighter is an S.T. Dupont Phoenix.
photo by Tony Webster via flikr
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MAY 11-17,2017
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.
NYPD 1st Precinct
16 Ericsson Place
212-477-7411 212-334-0611
FIRE FDNY Engine 15
25 Pitt St.
311
FDNY Engine 24/Ladder 5
227 6th Ave.
311
FDNY Engine 28 Ladder 11
222 E. 2nd St.
311
FDNY Engine 4/Ladder 15
42 South St.
311
ELECTED OFFICIALS Councilmember Margaret Chin
165 Park Row #11
Councilmember Rosie Mendez
237 1st Ave. #504
212-587-3159 212-677-1077
Councilmember Corey Johnson
224 W. 30th St.
212-564-7757
State Senator Daniel Squadron
250 Broadway #2011
212-298-5565
Community Board 1
1 Centre St., Room 2202
212-669-7970
Community Board 2
3 Washington Square Village
212-979-2272
Community Board 3
59 E. 4th St.
212-533-5300
Community Board 4
330 W. 42nd St.
212-736-4536
Hudson Park
66 Leroy St.
212-243-6876
Ottendorfer
135 2nd Ave.
212-674-0947
Elmer Holmes Bobst
70 Washington Square
212-998-2500
COMMUNITY BOARDS
LIBRARIES
HOSPITALS New York-Presbyterian
170 William St.
Mount Sinai-Beth Israel
10 Union Square East
212-844-8400
212-312-5110
CON EDISON
4 Irving Place
212-460-4600
TIME WARNER
46 East 23rd
813-964-3839
US Post Office
201 Varick St.
212-645-0327
US Post Office
128 East Broadway
212-267-1543
US Post Office
93 4th Ave.
212-254-1390
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WALK OF FAME BY PETER PEREIRA
MAY 11-17,2017
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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
AN ANGRY WELCOME HOME PRESIDENTIAL VISIT Hundreds protest Trump’s first visit to Manhattan as president BY MICHAEL GAROFALO
President Donald Trump’s first trip to Manhattan since taking office was brief. In the span of a few hours on Thursday, May 4, the president departed from Washington, arrived at Kennedy Airport, attended a reception at the Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum marking the 75th Anniversary of the Battle of the Coral Sea, and left the city for his New Jersey golf club. The demonstrations inspired by Trump’s return lasted longer than the visit itself. By the time the presidential motorcade arrived at the Intrepid at around 7 p.m., many of the enthusiastic marchers lining the West Side Highway opposite the aircraft carrier had been protesting Trump’s visit for five or more hours. Hundreds of enthusiastic demonstrators chanted anti-Trump mantras and waving signs with slogans like “This village doesn’t want its idiot back!” and “NY hates you!” to welcome the president back to his hometown. “I’m sure he’ll take some kind of perverse satisfaction in this, being the narcissist that he is,” Roberta Degnore, a professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology, said as she awaited Trump’s arrival. Protester Melissa Hill waved a sign imploring passing vehicles to “honk for revolution.” Drivers who obliged were met with cheers from the crowd. Hill explained that she was visiting from Minneapolis and had chosen to spend the final day of her trip at the demonstrations. “When I heard about this I had to stop my vacation and start protesting,” she said. A small group of Trump supporters draped in U.S. flags and wearing “Make America Great Again” hats
Hundreds of demonstrators marched from a rally at Dewitt Clinton Park to the Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum, where Trump attended a reception honoring veterans of the Battle of the Coral Sea. Photo: Michael Garofalo taunted the protesters. The proTrump demonstrators marched back and forth along the barricaded pens on the sidewalk occupied by protesters, chanting “You lost!” and “Thank you, Trump!” After several intense confrontations between Trump supporters and protesters, police herded the supporters into a separate pen. According to an NYPD spokesperson, there were no arrests. Earlier in the afternoon, hundreds gathered at DeWitt Clinton Park for a rally led by local politicians before marching six blocks south along the West Side Highway to the Intrepid. New York City Public Advocate Letitia James, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, State Senator Brad Hoylman and others addressed the protesters, who waved signs and banged pots and pans in approval of the anti-Trump sentiment. “This illegitimate president has waged a war on the American people,” James said. “He’s trying to strip us of our most basic fundamental rights.” The president’s itinerary initially
A Trump supporter taunts protesters by waving a pacifier. Photo: Michael Garofalo
included two stops in Midtown, at his penthouse apartment in Trump Tower and at the Peninsula Hotel a block away for a meeting with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull (Trump instead met later with Turnbull aboard the Intrepid), but his arrival in New York was delayed after Republican representatives joined Trump at the White House to celebrate the House’s vote, earlier in the day, to pass the American Health Care Act. A small crowd of protesters — and a handful of Trump supporters — gathered along Fifth Avenue outside Trump Tower even after word spread that Trump would head directly to the Intrepid upon his arrival in New York, but the scene was subdued in comparison to earlier protests outside the building after Election Day and the inauguration. “It actually looks like less people than normal,” one police officer remarked as he directed pedestrian traffic at the 56th Street intersection opposite Trump Tower. The NYPD maintained a significant presence outside the president’s former primary residence, as it has since the election. Days before Trump’s visit, Congress reached an agreement to allocate $68 million to reimburse local governments for costs associated with protecting the president and his family, the culmination of a monthslong effort by local leaders to secure federal funding and ease the burden on the city’s budget. NYPD security at Trump Tower cost the city $24 million during the period from Election Day to Inauguration Day. Trump’s wife, Melania, and son, Barron, have continued living at the tower since Trump moved to the White House in January. Their security costs the city an estimated $127,000 to $146,000 per day. During presidential visits, that figure rises to $308,000 per day. “We know that we will be substan-
Protesting on the West Side Highway on Thursday, May 4. Photo: Preston Ehrler
Demonstrators on the West Side Highway. Photo: Michael Garofalo tially be made whole for that time up to Inauguration Day, and we know that the stage has been set to get substantial reimbursement for the days after,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a press conference May 5 announcing the appropriations. After the ceremony at the Intrepid, the president opted against spending
the night at Trump Tower. Instead, he headed west across the Hudson River en route to Trump National Golf Club in New Jersey. “Rather than causing a big disruption in N.Y.C., I will be working out of my home in Bedminster, N.J. this weekend,” Trump announced via Twitter the next day. “Also saves country money!”
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MAY 11-17,2017
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
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20 17 A recent study by Comptroller Scott Stringer showed that while business throughout the city is booming, many low-income and minority business owners are being left out of the proďŹ ts. Photo: Thomas Good, via Wikimedia Commons
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LOOKING BEYOND AN â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;ECONOMIC RENAISSANCEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; COMMUNITY Stringerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s new report highlights disparities in the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s growth BY MADELEINE THOMPSON
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A new study by Comptroller Scott Stringer starts with the good news: the city has â&#x20AC;&#x153;experienced an economic renaissanceâ&#x20AC;? over the last few years, with the number of businesses growing from roughly 203,000 to roughly 237,000 between 2000 and 2015. Lowincome communities saw a 41 percent jump in business establishments during the same time period, compared to just a 12 percent boost in higher income areas. But most of the ďŹ ndings for lower income New Yorkers arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t that promising. The fastest-growing neighborhoods are largely classiďŹ ed as gentrifying, and they also have the highest rates of unemployment. Stringerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s report offers some suggestions to the city to remedy this, including installing a network coordinator to â&#x20AC;&#x153;strengthen the pipeline between local businesses and residentsâ&#x20AC;? and helping entre-
preneurs secure storefront space. Greg David, a columnist at Crainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s New York Business and director of CUNYâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s business and economics reporting program, called these ideas â&#x20AC;&#x153;effective on the margins.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;There are a lot of small ideas that over time have not proved terribly effective,â&#x20AC;? he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t recommend anything because I think city governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s only a marginal force in this.â&#x20AC;? David found the report to be overwhelmingly positive, despite indications that the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s economic gains were not being felt citywide. â&#x20AC;&#x153;As the city gentrifies, businesses are doing well outside the Manhattan core,â&#x20AC;? he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;And as communities are getting better theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re luring businesses and retail. So thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the big picture and thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the good picture.â&#x20AC;? Though the midtown and downtown central business districts saw an eight percent loss of businesses between 2000 and 2015, President of the East Midtown Partnership Rob Byrnes also looked on the bright side. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I think thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sort of a logical outgrowth of the shifting demographics of the city at any time,â&#x20AC;? he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;And thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a good thing. Midtown and lower Manhattan always be the commercial hubs of the
city, but we shouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be the only hubs.â&#x20AC;? However, the report makes clear that minority-owned businesses are struggling to reap their share of the beneďŹ ts. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Though minorities own 34 percent of all city businesses with employees, these establishments account for only 21 percent of business employment and 16 percent of revenue,â&#x20AC;? the study reads. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Blacks, in particular, are signiďŹ cantly underrepresented. While accounting for 22 percent of the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s population, they own only three perfect of local businesses.â&#x20AC;? Between 2007 and 2012, black-owned businesses decreased from 2,294 to 558. In a statement accompanying the release of his report, Stringer said what is needed is an economy â&#x20AC;&#x153;built on fairness.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;The increasing rents and economic distress that accompany gentrification are challenges that we as a city must confront,â&#x20AC;? he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;As the jobs landscape changes, we need to do everything possible to support those who helped build their communities in the ďŹ rst place.â&#x20AC;? Madeleine Thompson can be reached at newsreporter@ strausnews.com
MAY 11-17,2017
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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
THE AGE OF THE BIKE CONTROVERSY SCOPING OUT MANHATTAN Readers responded vehemently — pro and con — to our “Disrupting the Grid” column
N U F E R R E E H S M T R M A U T S S
BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN
Bicycles, for better or worse, are swiftly multiplying on the streets of Manhattan. So too, it seems, are the self-referential celebrations mounted by advocates to trumpet their ascension. Did you know May is National Bike Month? Or that Bike to Work Week runs from May 15 to May 19, climaxing with Bike to Work Day on May 19? Of course, the Five Boro Bike Tour on May 7 was inescapable. But perhaps you missed Bike Expo New York on May 5 and 6? It was against backdrop that we turned to readers to ask two simple questions: “Is the bicycle the scourge of the city or a saving grace? Does it diminish our street life and imperil the grid, or does it green Manhattan and make urban life more livable?” The context was a column, “Disrupting the Grid,” that ran in the May 3 issue and proved a bit controversial, in which I argued that the orderly patterns of Manhattan’s street-grid system, which dates to 1811, were being undermined in the Age of the Bicycle. As the signature design for the island’s roadways, the grid bestowed discipline and order with its straight lines, right angles and linear street walls. It was my contention that an untrammeled, unregulated proliferation of bikes, accompanied by an ill-planned, ill-designed grafting of bike lanes and infrastructure onto the grid, sowed disorder, diminished street life and fostered a climate of fear among pedestrians. Reader response came fast, and sometimes furiously. Typically, it was thoughtful. Always, it was interesting. Via emails, phone calls, tweets and online comments, at least 64 people with strong opinions vented. Roughly 40 percent sang the praises of the city’s biking culture; 60 percent demonized it or criticized the pedal commu-
On Fifth Avenue. Photo: Doug Davey, via flickr nity’s wayward ways. And yes, my central thesis was subject to some ridicule: “I can’t tell if this article is a joke or a really long satirical Onion-style piece,” wrote a reader identified only as “Alex” in an online comment. “Douglas Feiden, you are either really hilarious in making yourself sound like a backwards fuddyduddy, or have no real connection to reality.” A correspondent named “Vooch” agreed, saying, “It must be satire ... It’s gut-busting funny.” Actually, I can assure Alex and Vooch, the column, however executed, was an attempt at a cri de coeur to alert City Hall to the follies of radically re-engineering Manhattan’s streetscape to accommodate the stampede of scofflaws. “Glad that finally someone is bucking the trend and describing the reality of the bike culture in NYC and its negative impacts,” wrote the landscape architect Edmund Hollander, whose fluency in the grid hails from his designs for streetlevel gardens on Murray and Sullivan Streets and rooftop gardens on Park Avenue and Central Park West. Hollander, whose eponymous firm is based on Park Avenue South, offered a modest proposal: “How about license plates for bikes and registration fees, like cars, to help pay for and support the infrastructure?” It’s a first-rate idea. User fees
are a form of taxation that might put the brakes on oversaturation, give government a means of regulating the market, maybe keep ne’er-do-wells off the streets and even fuel a robust enforcement regimen where none currently exists. “They all should be issued ‘mini-plates’ for their bikes, and when they go thru lights, ticketed!” wrote Sherry Ahimsa, who lives on the Lower East Side. “I’m writing to local officials. Maybe you can also.” The column’s focus was on the impact of bicycles on the street-level, or horizontal, grid. But Upper East Side resident James Mahoney argues they’re also proving detrimental to the vertical grid, meaning the forest of skyscrapers that spring from the intersection of street and avenue. “Bikes are insinuating themselves right into our office buildings,” he said. “I for one do not welcome them.” Mahoney is right. Under the 2009 Bicycle Access to Office Buildings Law, cyclists are permitted to park their bicycles in or near their workplaces. As the city Department of Transportation helpfully notes on its website, many offices have unused “dead space” in their reception areas that can be utilized for bike parking. Funny, I always thought a business had the right to decide how it wants to use its reception area, not the DOT. But that’s a column for another day.
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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.
OUR UNSUNG HEROES GRAYING NEW YORK BY MARCIA EPSTEIN
I walk up Broadway with my aching knees and watch the people all bent over, with walkers and canes, some just using shopping carts for support. It reminds me of being pregnant; I noticed everyone who was also pregnant, though I never had before. Now I see all the halt and the lame gamely plodding on; shopping, eating out, just living their lives. Most of them must be in more pain than I am. I don’t have a cane or walker (yet!). I do look bent over, I’m told. Friends are constantly trying
to straighten me up as I yelp in surprised pain. My spine has multiple problems though I don’t know what they are; my doctor has learned that I am a minimalist (another word for phobic) and don’t want tests and scary diagnoses. As long as I can get out of bed in the morning I consider it a good day. And so far, so good. But I digress. It’s the brave souls in much worse shape than I am who leave me in awe. I wonder if they are alone. I am grateful to have a supportive partner, and he’s saved me from many a scary situation (like being run over) by grabbing my arm. Of course he’s not with me all the time, but I can’t imagine
being totally alone and braving the streets to do necessary chores when your spine looks like the letter C. These brave and intrepid souls make me feel like a wimp when I say “ouch” or I have trouble going down stairs. These folks are our unsung heroes. This leads me to a relevant topic. The Center for Independence of the Disabled, NY (CIDNY) is a non-profit organization, founded in 1978, that is part of the Independent Living Centers movement. This is a national network that enhances opportunities for people with disabilities to direct their own lives. CIDNY does not provide housing but it helps people with disabilities and also employs people with disabilities. The staff includes social workers, lawyers and other professionals, including those who speak the many languages used throughout our diverse city. They
have many services, including counseling, independent living skills, healthcare access, peer counseling and nursing home transition. CIDNY has advised government officials on how to make public service better for the disabled. Some of their priorities are transportation, health insurance, education and entitlements. The organization offers training and assistance to public officials, healthcare workers and other service providers on disability issues. It also offers help with skills such as finding housing, transportation, budgeting and goal-planning. CIDNY has two offices, one in Manhattan and one in Queens. Their address in New York is 841 Broadway. They can be reached at info@cidny.org and their telephone number is 212-674-2300. A worthwhile organization indeed. Since I am writing this on the day
after the House Republicans’ vote to repeal Obamacare, I feel the need to add that I might be wise to overcome my fears and have some tests and procedures done now, before it’s all taken away from us. I have a constant pit in my stomach about what’s going on in this country, and I know many of you do also. So very scary, so very immoral and heartless. How can these people (you know who they are) jump around with glee while taking away our basic human rights, which of course don’t affect them. I have remained in a state of shock since Election Day. I wish I knew what else to say. If I prayed, I’d say let’s all pray. And hope. And protest and take action. Here’s hoping the Senate will come through for us.
A SALUTE TO A NEIGHBORHOOD EXEMPLAR BY BETTE DEWING
A makeshift memorial grew outside the Super-Del Market on York Avenue near 78th Street, hours after Manikkam Srymanean, a manager at the market, was struck and killed April 22 by a yellow cab nearby.
If ever there was a “love-one-another” New Yorker, it was Manikkam Srymanea, known to all as “Mano.” Many of us wouldn’t have known about him, had he not been so tragically killed, reportedly by a turning cab as he crossed York Avenue near 78th – just outside the Super Del Market he managed for decades. (The police investigation is ongoing and no charges had been filed as of this week.) And had he not been such a mensch as noted in a memorial sign now outside the deli, his tragic death, on April 22, would not have received considerable media coverage or remembered in a packed memorial service at St. Monica’s. Mano, incidentally, was Hindu. He was surely the epitome of someone who takes the “love-one-another” commandment to heart; a role model of the very finest kind, as speaker after speaker at his memorial service recalled. He was known, they said, for his everyday kindnesses, his smiles, his greetings by name. (But how we need those in general in a less and less
connected culture). They recalled his numerable generous, “second mile” acts for people down on their luck or ill or unable to get to the store. When an elderly woman’s computer broke and Mano gave her his own. He paid for another elderly woman’s funeral after no one claimed her body at the morgue. Mano, 50, who lived on East 78th Street nearby, was a great everyday friend to all, including to the children, parents and teachers from nearby PS 158. And I just now learned how grief counseling was needed after Mano’s so untimely, so tragic and yes, preventable death. But we must hear again and again how vehicular failure to yield when turning into a crosswalk is the number 1 killer and maimer of pedestrians. We need on-the-spot warning signs and stencils the Transportation Department is reluctant to provide. The word must really get out there and stay out there until it becomes as abhorrent a traffic crime as driving drunk. Ah, think how Mothers Against Drunk Drivers made the real difference. And let Mother’ Day this May be the start
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of Mothers Against Failure To Yield. The same for Father’s Day in June and Grandparents Day in September. And may this small but densely populated Yorkville community become renown for this continuing crusade — a role model for all neighborhoods — as safe traffic activists. So much to say and do with a need for many a column, editorial and sermons, including memorial service notes taken by my son Todd because my hearing is no longer “20/20.” And while little was said at the memorial service about Mano’s so tragic and wrongful death, now we need to hear, to remember, about the lasting loss and grief especially for those who so personally loved Mano – and how, as my son Jeff said, “so that the changes needed to prevent such traffic tragedies really get made – at long last, are made.” It can be done if enough of us try – if enough of us try. To be continued, of course. BETTEDEWING@aol.com
Editor-In-Chief, Alexis Gelber editor.ot@strausnews.com Deputy Editor Staff Reporters Richard Khavkine Madeleine Thompson editor.otdt@strausnews.com newsreporter@strausnews.com Michael Garofalo Senior Reporter reporter@strausnews.com Doug Feiden invreporter@strausnews.com
MAY 11-17,2017
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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
REGISTERED NURSES REHABILITATION THERAPISTS MEDICAL SOCIAL WORKERS CERTIFIED HOME HEALTH AIDES
Your elderly mother just told you she fell in the bathroom last night at 4 A.M. Now what? Nighttime road work contributes to sound stress. Photo: Billie Grace Ward, via flickr
QUIET, PLEASE! HEALTH How reducing noise can improve your mental and physical health BY ARLINE L. BRONZAFT, PH.D.
Sound starts out as a physical phenomenon: audible pressure waves in the air are converted into nerve impulses as they travel from the ear to the brain. In the brain, sound takes on meaning, and when sound is determined to be unwanted, unpredictable and uncontrollable, it then becomes noise. But loud sounds, even when enjoyable, can harm the ear and lead to impaired hearing. One loud blast of sound near the ear may cause permanent damage, but it is the continuous exposure to loud sounds over time that reduces hearing ability. While hearing impairment is a common problem of aging, national studies have found growing hearing loss among younger people because of overexposure to loud music or vehicles. Noise can also add to stress which, in turn, may raise blood pressure, increase the heart
rate, or make our muscles contract. Sustained stress over time can lead to high blood pressure or insomnia. Scientific literature has found a link between exposure to noise and increased risk for cardiovascular and circulatory disorders. In addition, noise from neighbors, construction sites, or nearby bars that intrudes on our daily activities, especially in our homes, diminishes the quality of life. As the World Health Organization has stated, “Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” As anyone who lives in a big city can attest, the growing din in our community affects our well-being. In my position on the environmental non-profit organization GrowNYC, overseeing its noise activities, I am frequently called upon by New Yorkers who are impacted by noise. Some of the older callers let me know they are hearing impaired, but then add that they can still hear intrusive noises that are bothersome. Both the hearing-impaired and people with good hearing complain to me that it is difficult to dine in “loud” restaurants
where conversation at the table is virtually impossible. New Yorkers can take an active role in lessening the din in their lives. Diners can ask restaurant personnel to lower loud music, and owners can get information about acoustical treatments that can lessen the decibel levels in their establishments. Residents can let managing agents and landlords know they are entitled to quiet in their apartments under the “warranty of habitability” clause of leases. Local public officials and community board leaders should be enlisted in abating the noises in neighborhoods. Readers can go to www.growNYC.org/noise for more information on the hazards of noise and how to reduce the noise in their lives. If you hear something that is disturbing, then do something to correct the problem. Your health is at stake! Arline L. Bronzaft, Ph.D., Professor Emerita of the City University of New York, serves on the board of GrowNYC. She does research, writes and lectures on the adverse effects of noise on health. She is a co-author of “Why Noise Matters” (2011) and author of the children’s book “Listen to the Raindrops” (illustrated by Steven Parton).
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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
More Events. Add Your Own: Go to otdowntown.com
Los Sueños del Caribe (Dreams of the Caribbean): People, Land, and Place Saturday, May 13 | Noon–5 pm FREE FOR MEMBERS OR WITH MUSEUM ADMISSION
This Saturday, celebrate the natural and cultural diversity of the Caribbean at a family-friendly festival! Enjoy activities and the premiere of a new work of music and poetry co-developed by students from the Celia Cruz Bronx High School of Music and Cuban-American legend Paquito D’Rivera, a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master and recipient of the 2005 National Medal of the Arts.
Thu 11 Fri 12
Sat 13
ITALY’S GOLDEN AGE OF BIKES
MOTHER’S DAY GARDEN PARTY
Italian American Museum 155 Mulberry St. Noon-6 p.m. $10 12 different brands of Italianmade bicycles and vintage wool jersey will be shown and will illustrate how Italian ingenuity dominated the world of competitive cycling. 212-965-9000 italianamericanmuseum.org
RON CARTER | BOOK SIGNING Support for Celebrate Culture programs is provided, in part, by the May and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation, Inc.; the Sidney, Milton and Leoma Simon Foundation; and the family of Frederick H. Leonhardt. Los Sueños del Caribe: People, Land, and Place is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. Special thanks: Café Frida and Jazz at Lincoln Center. Photos © AMNH / R. Mickens
Open Daily | Central Park West at 79th St. | 212-769-5100 | amnh.org
David Gage String Instruments 36 Walker St. 5:30-6:30 p.m. Birthday hang and book-signing of “Finding the Right Notes,” with Ron Carter. 212-274-1322 davidgage.com
‘DEAD AWAKE’ OPENS Village East Cinema 181-189 Second Ave. 10 a.m. From the creator of the “Final Destination” franchise comes the paralyzing thriller “Dead Awake,” drawing on the affliction known as sleep paralysis. 212-529-6998 citycinemas.com
‘ALL FALL DOWN’ | PLAY READING The Duplex Cabaret Theatre 61 Christopher St. 9 p.m. Free Traveling troupe led by mysterious Barker, takes one on a musical journey through six true-life tales of human folly, running the gamut from the absurd to the terrifying. 212-255-5438 theduplex.com
Love Child Yoga 1 Horatio St. 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. $16.82 for adult & child, $6.27 additional adult/kids Drag Queen Story Hour, featuring Ona Louise. What do drag queens and children have in common? They love dressing up and all things sparkly and fancy. 512-608-7005 lovechildyoga.com
LILIA | ONE-WOMAN SHOW Jefferson Market Library 425 Sixth Ave. The indomitable Lilia Skala comes to life in her graddaughter’s deeply personal one-woman show. Lilia escaped Nazi Austria, worked her way out of a N.Y. zipper factory to become an Oscar-nominated actress. 212-243-4334 nypl.org
MAY 11-17,2017
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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
Sun 14 RIDE FOR CYCLOFEMME WE Bike NYC 81 Hester St. 11 a.m.-1 p.m. RSVP Yearly women’s cycling day celebrated with rides around the globe. Join for relaxed ride from the Lower East Side to Greenpoint; picnic in McCarren Park. Meet at 81 Hester St. webikenyc.org
ROSÉS AND THEIR REGIONS ◄ Le District 225 Liberty St. 6:30 p.m. $40 Explore French rosé wines and their regions. Class led by in-house sommelier Jacob Daugherty, who has also been head sommelier at several Michelin-starred restaurants. 212-981-8588 ledistrict.com
Mon 15 SECRETS OF THE OPERA The Greene Space 44 Charlton St. 7 p.m. $30 WQXR presents world-class live performances with food created to match the music & drinks. “Metropolitan Opera star Anthony Roth Costanzo curates and hosts three unfettered fêtes celebrating opera in a whole new way.” 646-829-4000 greenespace.org
PUNK OPERA FROM BERLIN Nuyorican Poets Cafe 236 East 3rd St. “Alchemy of Punk,” a live punk opera and work-in-progress extravaganza by Polish director Aneta Panek, just for one evening at the cafe. 7 p.m. $12-$15 212-780-9386 nuyorican.org
Tue 16 SCHIZOPHRENIA EXPERIENTIAL One Art Space 23 Warren St. 3-5 p.m. Hearing Voices of Support is an initiative of Schizophrenia and Related Disorders Alliance of America to promote acceptance, support, hope and recovery for people living with brain disorders. 646-721-7589 oneartspace.com
EARNEST GALLOWS | MUSIC Pianos 158 Ludlow St. 7 p.m. $8
Expect dynamic performances from with Nomads, Fancy Colors and The Welterweights in the Showroom. pianosnyc.com
Wed 17 SUPER KIDS, SERIOUS AUTHORS ▲ McNally Jackson Bookstore 50 Prince St. 7 p.m. Phillip Lopate and Nicole Dennis-Benn join a reception for 826NYC, a nonprofit offering free tutoring, workshops and support for English language learners to develop writing skills. 212-274-1160 mcnallyjackson.com
‘THE ROOF’ | INSTALLATION ART ▼ Arts Brookfield 220 Vesey St. 8 a.m.-10 p.m. Free Floating above the Winter Garden, “The Roof” is a sitespecific suspended sculpture by Thai artist Pinaree Sanpitak that celebrates collaboration and co-existence. Through 7/6. artsbrookfield.com
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THROUGH A LENS, FONDLY Two exhibits showcase the postwar NYC photographs of Todd Webb BY VAL CASTRONOVO
Todd Webb (1905-2000) is one of those figures who achieved a certain degree of fame in his lifetime, then faded from view. He came to New York in November 1945 after being discharged from the Navy, managed to pull off a solo show of his photographs at the Museum of the City of New York in 1946, then followed Georgia O’Keeffe to New Mexico around 1961, photographing her and pretty much flying under the radar before ultimately settling in Maine. Today, he is largely unknown, though in the postwar period he traveled in rarefied circles, hobnobbing with the likes of O’Keeffe, her husband Alfred Stieglitz, Berenice Abbott, Gordon Parks, Walker Evans and Beaumont Newhall, among others. Newhall, head of the photography department at the Museum of Modern Art, recom-
Todd Webb, Under the 3rd Avenue EL, New York, 1946. Courtesy Museum of the City of New York and the Todd Webb Estate.
mended Webb to MCNY and curated his postwar show, “I See A City.” The press release from that exhibit is on display at the museum. “He has seen our city not as a glittering megalopolis, but as a community. He has chosen to focus mainly [on] those blocks where the shops are small and living quarters crowded,” it reads. Indeed, Webb was drawn to people and neighborhoods as much as, if not more than, the city’s landmarks and soaring architecture. The streets of immigrant New York on the Lower East Side and Harlem are pictured with great affection and humanity — even when they are devoid of people. As Bill Shapiro, curator of the show at The Curator Gallery in Chelsea and former editor-in-chief of LIFE, writes in the handout, Inside Todd Webb’s Pictures: “Webb shot both the iconic and the idiosyncratic sides of New York, her sweeping skylines as well as those tiny, fleeting moments that define life in the City.” Stieglitz paid Webb the ultimate compliment when, comparing him to Ansel Adams, he said: “Your photographs have tenderness.” That tenderness is palpable in the 131 vintage prints at the museum and the 33 vintage and modern prints at the gallery, where photographs are for sale. “What you really get to see is what New York was like for a newcomer coming to the city,” MCNY Director Whitney Donhauser said at a preview of the museum’s exhibit. “He used photography to familiarize himself with an unfamiliar setting.” With the encouragement of Stieglitz, who Webb first met in New York in 1942 when he was en route to active duty, he determined to spend one year after the war roaming the streets and photographing what he saw — though one year turned into some 10 years documenting the cityscape. When Webb first moved to New York, he shared an apartment with photographer Harry Callahan and his wife on West 123rd Street near Amsterdam
Todd Webb, The Battery, New York (Peanut Peddler), 1945. Courtesy Museum of the City of New York and the Todd Webb Estate. Avenue. “He lived off his savings from his military pay — he had no job. He just photographed and explored the city,” MCNY’s curator Sean Corcoran said. He habitually took a streetcar across 125th street to the east side of Manhattan, where he would hop the Third Avenue El to Midtown, the Lower East Side and the Financial District. He captured images from the top of the El and from under the El. His subjects ranged from a peanut peddler at the Battery (1945) to a man in uniform getting his shoes shined on a street corner in Harlem (1946). New Yorkers of a certain age will wax nostalgic at the sight of old-style establishments like McSorley’s in the East Village (1946) and Barbetta in Midtown (1946), not to mention long-defunct Sloppy Louie’s on South Street (1959) and bygone bars and storefronts on Sixth Avenue between 43rd and 44th Streets (1948). Webb was driven. In his gallery handout, Shapiro has paired some of his favorite photos with entries from the lensman’s journal, which he started when he arrived in New York. His dedication and enchantment with the city is expressed in an entry from Feb. 25, 1946: “In spite of the cold and windy weather, I had to go out today. The light was beautiful and I was full of New York.” Work was his passion, but he was not in it for the glory — or the money. “I think I understand now that work, not worry about material things, is the key to happiness for me,” he wrote on Dec. 31, 1946.
In 1949, he went to Paris, where he met his future wife, Lucille Minqueau. u. When the pair, now married, returned ed to New York four years later, they lived ed on St. Luke’s Place in Greenwich Vilillage, where Webb shot snowy street et scenes and bannisters. He nabbed back-to-back Guggennheim fellowships in 1955 and 1956 and nd went on to photograph the UN Genneral Assembly before finally leaving ng New York to pursue his calling in New w Mexico and elsewhere. (Eight of his is portraits of Georgia O’Keeffe in the he Southwest can be seen at the Brooklyn yn Museum in “Living Modern,” through gh July 23.) That first summer in the city was a heady time, though. As he enthused ed in July 1946, “It seems like a very good od life ... I am broke. But what the hell, you ou can’t have everything.”
Todd Webb, Lexington Avenue, Near 110th Street, Harlem, 1946. Courtesy Museum of the City of New York and the Todd Webb Estate.
IF YOU GO WHAT: “A City Seen: Todd Webb’s Postwar New York 1945-1960” WHERE: Museum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Ave., at 103rd Street WHEN: through September 4 www.mcny.org
WHAT: “Down Any Street: Todd Webb’s Photographs of New York, 1945-1960” WHERE: The Curator Gallery/ Chelsea, 520 West 23rd Street WHEN: through May 20 www.thecuratorgallery.com
MAY 11-17,2017
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The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in 2014. Photo: Paulo JC Nogueira, via Wikimedia Commons
KEVIN HART I Can’t Make This Stuff Up
BILL NYE Jack and the Geniuses at the Bottom of the World
MAYIM BIALIK The Big Bang Theory
NICOLA YOON Everything, Everything
DAN BROWN The Da Vinci Code
VERONICA ROTH The Divergent Series
CONNOR FRANTA YouTuber
JEFF KINNEY Diary of a Wimpy Kid Series
KRYSTEN RITTER Marvel’s Jessica Jones
KWAME ALEXANDER The Crossover
MARC MARON WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
JEFFERY TAMBOR Are You Anybody?
DAV PILKEY Captain Underpants
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JASON REYNOLDS When I Was the Greatest
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A DIVINE MAGNIFICENCE HISTORY 125 years after construction began, St. John’s is unfinished, but still regal BY RAANAN GEBERER
Aside maybe from Columbia University, the best-known landmark in Morningside Heights is surely the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine. It’s one of the largest Episcopal cathedrals in the world and one of the city’s newest landmarks. Even to the “un-churched,” the cathedral is known for its concerts, its annual ceremonial blessings of animals and of bicycles, and its social outreach programs such as a Sunday soup kitchen. And the church is still not finished. The cathedral had its genesis in 1828, when the Episcopal bishop of New York, John Henry Hobart, discussed the feasibility of building a church with city Mayor Philip Hone, according to the church’s website. The project would be decades in the making, with a site for the nascent cathedral selected only in 1887, when Bishop Henry Codman Potter of the Episcopal Diocese called for a cathedral that would rival the Catholic St. Patrick’s Cathedral in size and in grandeur. The cornerstone was laid in 1892. The first services were held in 1899, as work on the site continued. Construction was stopped during both world wars, but has otherwise continued. Lest anyone erroneously think that the Diocese is dragging its feet, Commissioner Wellington Chen of the Landmarks Preservation Commission pointed out that, historically, it takes about 300
years to build great cathedrals. The cathedral and its surrounding buildings and gardens form an 11.3-acre complex known as the close. In addition to the cathedral itself, the site’s other buildings include the Choir School (built 1912-13), St. Faith’s House (1909-11), the Synod House (1912-14), the Deanery, the Bishop’s House, and the original building of the Leake and Watts Orphan Asylum. The buildings are also home to some notable monuments and artworks. The choir parapet has a series of sculptures of the world’s spiritual leaders since the birth of Christianity. Among them are likenesses of William Shakespeare, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Albert Einstein, Susan B. Anthony and Mahatma Gandhi. On the wall of the American Poets’ Corner are the names of some of the country’s bestknown poets and writers, such as Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Edgar Allen Poe, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Langston Hughes, Herman Melville, Ernest Hemingway, Emma Lazarus and others. As far as art is concerned, the cathedral houses the Barberini Life of Christ tapestries, designed by baroque master Giovanni Francesco Romanelli and produced in Rome before 1644 and 1656. The name comes from Francesco Barberini, nephew of Pope Urban VIII, in whose tapestry workshop the 12-panel series was produced. (Ten of the tapestries are on view in the cathedral’s chapels through June 25.) The church has always been a center for music, both organ recitals and music by larger
groups. Its New Year’s Eve concerts draw people from throughout the city. Jazz great Duke Ellington performed several sacred concerts here, one of which was recorded and issued as an album in 1968. Eclectic “world music” saxophonist Paul Winter has often performed at St. John the Divine, and is scheduled to perform his 37th annual Winter Solstice concerts this December. Among the most-beloved activities at St. John’s is the Blessing of the Animals, held in October to celebrate the Feast of St. Francis. While other churches also host similar blessings, most such ceremonies mainly attract dog and cat owners. At St. John the Divine, cows, sheep, llamas, hawks a and donkeys get blessings. Since 1999, another mass benediction, the Blessing of the Bikes, takes place at St. John’s. It’s held the day before the Five Boro Bike Tour, with bicycle riders attending from as far away as Albany before taking part in the big ride. In February, the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the cathedral as a landmark. “The Cathedral is among the most famous church buildings in the world and is visited by hundreds of thousands of people each year who want to experience this 125-year-old masterpiece and complex with its varied and unique architectural styles,” Commission Chair Meenakshi Srinvasan said. “I’m very proud that this commission has advanced the successful designation of both the cathedral building and six historic buildings in the Close complex.”
ACTIVITIES FOR THE FERTILE MIND
thoughtgallery.org NEW YORK CITY
Yiddishe Mamas: Mother’s Day Walking Tour
SUNDAY, MAY 14TH, 11AM Museum at Eldridge St. | 12 Eldridge St. | 212-219-0888 | eldridgestreet.org Take to the Lower East Side for a tour that puts the focus on the Jewish women who called the LES home. Anarchist Emma Goldman and Visiting Nurse Service founder Lillian Wald will be among the featured names. ($30)
Sympathetic Spies: George Washington’s Eyes and Ears in Lower Manhattan | Walking Tour
SUNDAY, MAY 14TH, 12PM N’tl Museum of the Am. Indian | 1 Bowling Green | brooklynbrainery.com Learn some intriguing history from America’s origins on the very streets where it took place; tour guide Lucie Levine retraces spy steps between The Battery and Wall Street. ($25)
Just Announced | TimesTalks: Samantha Bee and Jason Jones
THURSDAY, JUNE 1ST, 7PM The New School | 55 W. 13th St. | 212-229-5108 | newschool.edu Samantha Bee is the first woman to host a late-night satirical show. She’ll be in conversation with former “Daily Show” correspondent Jason Jones, who co-produces Full Frontal With Samantha Bee (and who also happens to be her real-life husband). ($40)
For more information about lectures, readings and other intellectually stimulating events throughout NYC,
sign up for the weekly Thought Gallery newsletter at thoughtgallery.org.
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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
RESTAURANT INSPECTION RATINGS APR 22 - 28, 2017 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.
International Bar
12012 1 Avenue
A
Westville
173 Avenue A
A
Somtum Der
85 Avenue A
A
Trattoria Spaghetto
232 Bleecker Street
A
Phil’s Pizza West Village
226 Varick Street
A
Think Coffee
73 8 Avenue
A
NY Gyro Xpress
154 8th Ave
A
Mercer Kitchen
99 Prince Street
A
Hawa
247 8th Ave
A
Hoomoos Asli
100 Kenmare Street
A
Pecorino
197 7th Ave
Not Yet Graded (0)
Wendy’s
650 Broadway
A
Birch Coffee
56 7 Avenue
A
The Kati Roll Company
Five Guys Famous Burgers And Fries
56 W 14th St
A
99 Mac Dougal Street Grade Pending (17) Hot food item not held at or above 140º F. Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation.
Shu Han Ju Authentic Chinese Cuisine
465 6th Ave
Grade Pending (20) Raw, cooked or prepared food is adulterated, contaminated, cross-contaminated, or not discarded in accordance with HACCP plan. Sanitized equipment or utensil, including in-use food dispensing utensil, improperly used or stored. Wiping cloths soiled or not stored in sanitizing solution.
Mo Il Gelato
178 Mulberry Street
A
The Uncommons
230 Thompson St
A
Pepe Rosso To Go
149 Sullivan Street
Grade Pending (25) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation. 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.
Little Atlas Cafe
6 West 4 Street
A
Rubirosa Pizza & Ristorante
235 Mulberry Street
Grade Pending (23) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation. Raw, cooked or prepared food is adulterated, contaminated, cross-contaminated, or not discarded in accordance with HACCP plan. Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred.
Springbone Kitchen
90 W 3rd St
Grade Pending (27) Hot food item not held at or above 140º F. 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. Sanitized equipment or utensil, including in-use food dispensing utensil, improperly used or stored.
Ben’s Pizza
123 Macdougal St
Grade Pending (24) 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. Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred.
12 Chairs
56 Macdougal Street
A
Welcome To The Johnson’s 123 Rivington Street
A
Cake Shop
152 Ludlow Street
A
Hi Thai
123 Ludlow Street
A
Bacaro
136 Division Street
A
Tao Hong Bakery
79 Chrystie Street
A
Prohibition Bakery
9 Clinton Street
A
Two-Bits Retro Arcade
153 Essex Street
A
Antler Beer & Wine Dispensary
123 Allen Street
A
Morgenstern’s Finest Ice Cream
215 Bowery
A
Trapizzino
144 Orchard St
A
The Hideout
42 Rivington St
A
Shorty Tang Noodle Shop
98 8th Ave
Grade Pending (5) Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service.
Cafe Grumpy
224 West 20 Street
A
Anago Sushi / Royal Siam Thai
240 8 Avenue
A
Middle Eats
171 W 23rd St
A
Karaoke Nemo / Trece
54 East 13 Street
Grade Pending (34) 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.
Panera Bread
10 Union Square East
A
City Crab Shack
10 East 16 Street
Grade Pending (6)
Fish Bar
237 East 5 Street
A
Everyman Espresso
136 East 13 Street
A
Belfry
222 East 14 Street
A
Sushi Chosi
77 Irving Place
A
Hot Kitchen
104 2 Avenue
A
Boba Guys
11 Waverly Pl
Not Yet Graded (19) 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. Personal cleanliness inadequate. Outer garment soiled with possible contaminant. Effective hair restraint not worn in an area where food is prepared.
Trattoria Il Mulino
36 East 20 Street
Grade Pending (31) 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.
Momofuku Milk Bar
251 East 13 Street
A
AMC Theatres
66 3rd Ave
A
Verythai
186 Avenue B
A
East Akina Sushi
424 E 14th St
A
Tacos Cuautla Morales
438 E 9th St
Not Yet Graded (68) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation. Food contact surface improperly constructed or located. Unacceptable material used. No facilities available to wash, rinse and sanitize utensils and/or equipment. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service.
MAY 11-17,2017
TRANSGENDER WOMAN DIES AFTER BEATING CRIME Succumbs after she was found with head trauma on a Chelsea sidewalk BY RICHARD KHAVKINE
A transgender woman who died nine days after being found unconscious on a Seventh Avenue sidewalk was beaten to death, the city’s medical examiner said. Paramedics found Brenda Bostick, 59, with head trauma in front of 343 Seventh, a Five Guys outlet on the east side of the avenue just north of 29th Street, about 10:30 on April 25. She was taken to Bellevue Hospital where she died on May 4, police said. Police are investigating her death as a homicide. The city’s medical exam-
SCAFFOLDING CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 About half of the 7,500 sidewalks sheds are located in Manhattan, since the borough is home to about 60 percent of city buildings taller than six stories, whose exterior walls must be inspected every five years. Sheds also have to be installed for construction of a building more than 40 feet high, the demolition of a building more than 25 feet high and when dangerous building conditions exist. According to DOB Deputy Com m i s sione r A rc h a n a Jayaram, publishing the map is part of an effort to “start being more transparent about our massive amount of data” that was made possible by a recent investment into the agency’s analytics team. Jayaram said the map, and the accompanying “Facade Safety Report,” will help tenants and owners appreciate their buildings. “Understanding the relationship between sidewalk sheds and facades, I think, is a critical piece of information in that if you have an unsafe facade, you should have a sidewalk shed,” she said. “If your facade is fixed,
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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
iner said that Bostick died of “complications of blunt impact injury” to the head. The southern portion of the block where Bostick was found is draped by scaffolding and while well-traveled daytimes is relatively empty of commerce during the evenings and at night. The restaurant was closed at the time. Employees of a deli on the corner of 29th Street, next door to the Five Guys outlet, said police had been inquiring of the night in question but that workers that Tuesday night had not noticed any commotion outside. Police said Bostick lived at the BRC transition shelter on West 25th Street. The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs said Bostick was the 10th reported killing of a transgender person of color this year. Bostick you shouldn’t have one.” The map allows users to view sidewalk sheds throughout the city by the age of their permits, their size and their safety status. But for some, it isn’t a big enough step toward bringing down sidewalk sheds that have overstayed their welcome. “Residents are less concerned about the scaffolding on the other side of the city than the scaffolding that’s blocking out their light and air and causing things to drip on their head,” Upper East Side Council Member Ben Kallos said. “Business owners have told me that when scaffolding goes up their profits go down.” Though he said he appreciates the Department of Buildings’ effort, he is hoping for more concrete progress. “What you can tell is that the city is covered in green dots representing scaffolds like a sickness,” he said. “We need to do something about it.” Kallos introduced legislation in the City Council late last year that would require scaffolding to be taken down after six months, or sooner if work is not being done. The bill’s only other sponsors are Council Members Ydanis Rodriguez and Karen Koslowitz, though it has been endorsed by the New York State Restaurant
was black. The organization said that last year it responded to 23 killings of transgender and gender-nonconforming people, the highest number of homicides recorded by the coalition. “We are facing a crisis of violence,” Beverly Tillery, the executive director of the Anti-Violence Project New York chapter, said in a statement. “As a society we can stop this epidemic by hiring trans women of color, making sure they have safe places to live and standing up when we see or hear them being demeaned and attacked and simply by valuing their lives. The moment to act is now.” Anyone with information on the incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stopper hotline at 800-577-TIPS (8477).
Association and the New York City Hospitality Alliance. This has frustrated Kallos, who believes “elected officials should be working for the people, not for real estate interests.” Sidewalk sheds were mandated by the City Council after the death in 1979 of Barnard College student Grace Gold, who was struck by a falling piece of a building on West 115th Street and Broadway. It was not the last time such a tragedy would occur — 2-year-old Greta Greene died in 2015 after a piece of terra cotta fell on her from eight stories. Roberta Semer identified sidewalks sheds as a concern of Community Board 7, of which she is chairperson, and said she was grateful for the map. “At both our land-use and business committee meetings, we discussed trying to figure out where all the sidewalk sheds were, and then two weeks later this wonderful map appeared,” she said. Semer told of several cases where she noticed businesses struggling under longstanding sidewalks sheds, but conceded that “on the other hand, you want to protect people.” Madeleine Thompson can be reached at newsreporter@ strausnews.com
YOU READ IT HERE FIRST The local paper for the Upper West Side
February 9
April 20
RECORD NUMBER OF 311 CALLS MADE IN 2016 BY MADELEINE THOMPSON
Last year saw the largest number of calls ever to city helpline 311, with noise complaints raking in the most of the 19,378,299 total calls. With a population of approximately 8.5 million, that amounts to about 4.2 calls per New Yorker. According to 311 spokesman Bill Reda, the steady increase over the past few years is likely due to the addition of the 311 website in 2009, followed The local paper for the Upper East Side
March 29
April 20
FIGHTING FOR POCKET PARKS They are hidden between blocks and tucked inside skyscrapers. You might walk through them, or past them, without ever knowing. But not all New Yorkers have forgotten that they are entitled to access the city’s more than 500 privately owned public spaces, or POPS. Last summer, the New York Times noticed that a marble bench in the atrium of Trump Tower, which is a POPS, had gone missing and their reporting resulted in its quiet return. The local paper for the Upper East Side
April 6
April 14
‘CITIZEN JANE’ DOCUMENTARY PROFILES URBAN ACTIVIST PLANNING A timely new film spotlights the groundbreaking author of ‘The Death and Life of Great American Cities’ BY MADELEINE THOMPSON
Jane Jacobs, with her signature oval glasses, began a lifelong dedication to fighting urban renewal when plans emerged to continue Fifth Avenue through Washington Square Park. Critics labeled her a “housewife” who couldn’t possibly be more than a fly in the ointment of the project, but Jacobs had been writing and reporting about cities and architecture long before the park was threatened. Her story and the lessons of her groundbreaking book “The Death and Life of Great American Cities” are the focus
on April 21 at select theaters. Matt Tyrnauer, the film’s director, and producer Robert Hammond, who is also the executive director of Friends of the High Line, got the idea for the documentary several years ago when they realized there had never been a film about Jacobs before. “We thought we’d be introducing this film about a very brilliant woman who was sort of a seer, a visionary in a lot of ways, and politically active, in an atmosphere when we had the first woman president,” Tyrnauer said at a screening last Thursday. “Much to our surprise, it went the other way. There’s some resonances in the film that maybe were unintended but it’s interesting to see how the public has received them.” Hammond described the film as “a playbook for resistance,” and hopes that viewers will be able to learn from Jacobs how best to fight their battles. “What’s interesting now is people getting out in the street — it’s not just
FI R S T I N YOU R N E I G H BO R H O O D
(212) 868-0190
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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
Business JUST THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF BRIGHT The bespoke lampshade shop Blanche Field has been customizing light for more than a century BY LAURA HANRAHAN
Anyone walking into the East 56th Street office of Blanche Field is immediately immersed in the littleknown world of couture lampshades. Every surface in the part-showroom, part-factory, part-design studio and overflowing with wire frames, ribbon spools, lamp bases and shades. “As much as this looks like grandma’s attic, we kind of know where everything is,” said Lisa Simkin, Blanche Field’s head designer and New York director. “It’s organized mayhem.” Blanche Field is an old-school business, having been in operation in Manhattan for more than a century. Everything, including the filing system, is still paper-based, with email being the only task done online. Near the store’s entrance, between Third and Lexington Avenues, a team of six women quietly sit at a long table, sewing intricate patterns onto the custom, handmade lampshades on which Blanche Field has built its 112-year reputation. Meanwhile, in the back, Manuella, the electrician, works on converting just about any object you can imagine into a light fixture. Most of Blanche Field’s customers are New York City-based interior designers looking for pieces for their cli-
Lisa Simkin, Blanche Field’s head designer, in the East 56th Street store. Photo: Laura Hanrahan
ent’s homes. But Blanche Field has also designed lamps for the SoHo House hotel and club, Chanel stores and the Campbell Apartment in Grand Central. When it comes to creating a new custom design, Simkin emphasizes the need to find the perfect size for each individual lamp. To do this, she has her clients bring in to the shop the base they want to use. “Because I have so many molds and samples here, it’s like trying on hats for your head,” said Simkin, who has been with Blanche Field 17 years. “You don’t know what’s going to fit until you try it.” Once the size and shape are chosen, a wire frame is created. “We have a frame maker who hand-makes every single frame,” she said. “It comes back to the shop, and then the ladies start to work on them.” Choosing the exact material and style for the shade’s fabric, however, might feel like an almost impossible feat to someone unacquainted with the craft. Pleated or laminate? Colorful or neutral? Patterned or simple? The options are seemingly endless. Like an interior-design matchmaker, Simkin says she likes to pair the shade’s style to the client’s personality. “How do we make it yours? Who are you? Who’s the personality that you’re designing for? Even the lampshade has to have a personality,” she said. “You can have a classical lampshade
and totally make it whimsical with some little detail, and that to me is the fun part.” Simkin has seen a Remington statue and even a cowboy boot turned into a lamp. “I always tell people you can take the most inexpensive object, like from West Elm, or a candlestick, and convert it into a lamp,” she said. “You can buy something in a flea market, but put a great shade on it and it becomes a great lamp.” She mainly works with silks and handkerchief linens, but has created lampshades with Hermes scarves, a silk blouse and even a Levi’s shirt with snaps on it. “I always tell people bring me a shirt, bring me a good old shirt, because the cottons in shirts are beautiful,” she said. With the extra care and personalized detail that goes in to each piece, there is a price tag to match. Small chandelier shades start at $165, while larger shades average around $450. Each day brings its creative challenges, which keeps the office fun and the passion flowing. “I’m still amazed, I can look at something after 17 years when it’s in my workshop and go ‘oh my god that’s so beautiful,’” she said. “It might not even be my taste or in my home, but I can just appreciate how beautiful it is. Maybe just because I know the work that goes in, the handwork that goes in behind it.”
ON THE SIDE STREETS OF NEW YORK RAGS-A-GOGO — 218 EAST 14TH STREET A visit to Rags-A-Gogo is worth it simply to meet the owner, Joshua Suzanne, known as JS. JS is friendly and warm, hilarious and candid, helpful and knowledgeable. JS has been in the vintage business for decades. The store is filled with rack upon rack — perfectly organized — with what JS calls “disco blouses,” cowboy shirts, military jackets, one-of-a kind t-shirts and jerseys, leather in every form, silk scarves, and tons more. Spending time in the store feels a bit like being at a party hosted by the Grateful Dead, in the best way possible. To read more, visit Manhattan Sideways (sideways.nyc), created by Betsy Bober Polivy.
Owner Joshua Suzanne. Photo: Alex Nuñez Caba, Manhattan Sideways.
MAY 11-17,2017
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UES TAXI USE DOWN SINCE NEW SUBWAY LINE OPENED TRANSPORTATION Steep decline in pickups outpaces rise in app-based rides BY MICHAEL GAROFALO
Pickups by taxis and for-hire-vehicles on the Upper East Side have dropped modestly since the opening of the Second Avenue subway earlier this year, according to a study by NYU’s Rudin Center for Transportation. Along the corridor served by the Second Avenue subway, which opened on New Year’s Day, overall pickups decreased 4.1 percent from 2016 to 2017, the researchers found. While the drop is likely due in part to the availability of an additional transit option with the opening of the new subway line, the data also speaks to a larger trend — the decline of taxi ridership and the rise of for-hire-vehicles hailed with apps like Uber and Lyft. Despite the slight overall drop in combined taxi and for-hire-vehicle pickups from 2016 to 2017, the appbased segment of the market actually grew significantly during the period in question. The Rudin Center, which compared peak-hour data for one-
A new study says taxi pickups on the Upper East Side have dropped significantly since the opening of the Second Avenue subway. Photo: Michael Garofalo week periods in January 2016 and January 2017, found that for-hire vehicle pickups on the Upper East Side rose from 28,175 in 2016 to 32,630 in 2017. The overall drop was driven instead by a steep 15.71 percent decline in taxi pickups, which fell from 48,302 in 2016 to 40,175 in 2017. The researchers noted that “although [for-hire-vehicle] pickups are increasing quickly, they have not matched the rate of decrease in taxi pickups since the [Second Ave-
nue subway] opening,” which explains the 4.1 percent decrease in combined pickups despite the rise in for-hirevehicle use. The timeframe examined by the study is small and the researchers call for further research, but a lasting reduction in taxi and for-hire-vehicle ridership fueled by the Second Avenue subway would be noteworthy, as Upper East Siders have historically relied on taxis for their commutes at higher
rates than residents of other parts of the city. In Manhattan as a whole, less than three percent of residents reported commuting primarily via taxi, according to 2015 American Community Survey data cited by the researchers. But in certain parts of the Upper East Side — particularly its easternmost areas — taxi use was much higher. Residents of Lenox Hill and Yorkville living east of First Avenue commuted via taxi at 9
BPCA BOARD CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
Moms are Great!
Glick said many of her colleagues, though they represent all areas of the state, were respectful of the Lower Manhattan community’s need for more say on the BPCA. She and Squadron emphasized the need for residents who support the bill to write to Senator Michael Ranzenhofer, the chair of the Corporations, Authorities and Commissions Committee, who will decide whether to bring the bill to a vote. “Unfortunately, in the stunted legislative process of the Senate, things don’t happen until they do,” Squadron said. “But the more public pressure there is, the more likely we can get that vote. I’m confident that if we do it will pass.” In response to an interview request, the BPCA issued a statement saying calling its members “devoted and wellaccomplished individuals with diverse professional backgrounds.” “The choice of candidates for the Board is entirely within the purview of the governor with a confirmation process in the
percent and 7.3 percent rates, respectively. The Rudin Center’s data showed that Lenox Hill and Yorkville, which are served by the new Second Avenue subway stops at 72nd, 86th and 96th Streets, experienced the greatest reductions in taxi and for-hire-vehicle pickups among all Upper East Side neighborhoods since the line opened.
Senate,” the statement read. “We have complete confidence that Governor [Andrew] Cuomo will continue to select members of the highest caliber.” The authority is overseen directly by the governor, who so far has not been responsive to the call for more local representation. Tensions between the community and the authority have been evident since well before the Assembly’s vote. In early 2016, the BPCA decided to replace the Parks Enforcement Patrol that had long handled security in Battery Park City with a private security firm, frustrating residents who were not consulted or informed of the decision. Community members also say that the BPCA’s purpose has changed since it was created in 1968 for the purpose of “developing and maintaining” the area. It is now mostly a landlord for Battery Park and a manager of the neighborhood’s 13,000 residents. Given its current role, Anthony Notaro, chair of Community Board 1, said the influence of community voices “needs to be even stronger.” In a resolution passed on March 28, Community Board
1 expressed support for the concept of more representation, but asked for a change from its elected officials. “[Community Board 1] asks that language showing a preference for the appointment of [Battery Park City] residents, as opposed to the larger group of Manhattan Community District 1 residents, be added to the bill or entered into the official legislative record,” the resolution states. Notaro stressed that Battery Park City residents are most affected by the authority’s decisions, and should therefore have the most say in them. Glick was aware of this request, but said she worried that a bill requiring a majority of the BPCA to be comprised of Battery Park City residents would be too narrow to succeed. Whether including all residents of Community District 1 will be enough to get the bill passed remains to be signed. Even if it does get through the Senate, it will still face the governor’s judgment. Madeleine Thompson can be reached at newsreporter@ strausnews.com
MAY 11-17,2017
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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
MOTHER’S DAY WITH DONATELLA ARPAIA Food Network star shares holiday memories and recipes
spring pea & mascarpone risotto Ingredients: 1 lb. Arborio rice 1 oz. butter 1 medium onion 1 glass dry white wine 1 qt. vegetable or chicken broth Salt and pepper to taste Spring peas (2 cups) 4 tbsp. of grated parmesan 3 tbsp. of mascarpone cheese (optional) Bunch of spring pea shoots (garnish)
Like all Manhattan mothers, Donatella Arpaia is an expert at multitasking. She has run awardwinning restaurants — Davidburke & Donatella, Anthos, and Kefi — and last fall launched her latest venture, Prova Pizzabar in Grand Central Station. She writes cookbooks and guest-stars on The Today Show. And when you flip on The Food Network after a long day, there she is performing as a judge on Iron Chef America. Her success in the culinary world all ties back to the summers spent at her family’s olive oil farm where she spent her days jarring homemade sauce and learning family recipes from Mama Maria as she stood on a stool and Donatella Arpaia peeked up at the stove. “My mom was the cook in the family when I was growing up and she really steered me out of the kitchen! But on Mother’s Day, I always got up extra early to make her coffee in bed. She loved espresso and I would use the old-fashion espresso maker on the stove top — not a machine,” says Donatella. “I would always give her a homemade Mother’s Day card, which she still has saved to this day.” Now she’s the one getting homemade cards and breakfast in bed, courtesy of her husband and her 5-year-old son, Alessandro. “We spend Mother’s Day at our weekend home and have made a tradition of breakfast in bed, followed by packing a picnic and going on a family hike,” she says. “We end the night with a sunset cruise on the lake with wine, cheese, and snacks as we look at the stars — what’s better than that?”
Photos courtesy of Donatella Arpaia
Ingredients: 2 parts chilled Brut Champagne 1 part orange juice Method: Pour orange juice into flute glass. Top with Martini Asti and garnish with strawberry.
fettuccine with salmon in a lemon cream sauce Ingredients: 1 lb. fettuccine 4 tbsp. unsalted butter 1 pint heavy cream Zest and juice of 2 lemons 2 garlic cloves, minced 2 tsp. tarragon, chopped 8 oz. flaked salmon (grilled or baked) Salt and pepper, to taste
Method: Saute chopped onions in olive oil and butter until golden brown Add rice and stir for 2 minutes Add wine and stir until it evaporates Add warm broth untiil rice is covered Let simmer and cook and stir adding broth every time broth is almost completely absorbed by the rice Add in bag of peas and let cook When rice is cooked and broth is almost completely absorbed, remove from the heat Add some grated cheese Stir until the risotto reaches a creamy consisteny Garnish with pea shoots Variation: Add 3-4 slices of bacon, saute for 2 minutes before adding broth for added flavor
the ‘mom-osa’
Donatella and her son, Alessandro
Method: 1. Cook the pasta until al dente. Reserve 1 cup of pasta water. Draine, rinse, and set aside. 2. In a large skillet, melt the butter, then add garlic and cook until fragrant. Pour in the heavy cream and stir untili mixture thickens. Add lemon zest, 1 Tbsp. lemon juice and 1 tsp. tarragon. Season with salt and pepper. 3. Add the pasta to the cream sauce and toss. If too thick, add some pasta water to the pan. 4. Add the salmon and 1 tsp. tarragon. 5. Serve immediately.
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Nothing beats newspapers as the most reliable source of local news in print and online Recent studies show:
‘‘
Newspapers led online consumption for local news” Coda Ventures Survey August 18, 2016
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Local media users named newspapers as their “most relied on” source for deals across a range of goods and services.” Coda Ventures Survey August 18, 2016
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What accounts for print’s superiority? Print - particularly the newspaper - is an amazingly sophisticated technology for showing you a lot of it.”
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Local newspapers are still the top source of news about readers’ communities, including their branded Web sites and social media channels.” Publisher’s Daily - August 30, 2016
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Residents are eager for news about their own communities, which, increasingly, only local news organizations can provide” Editor & Publisher - June 1, 2016
Politico - September 10, 2016
STRAUSMEDIA your neighborhood news source 212-868-0190 | nypress.com
MAY 11-17,2017
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YOUR 15 MINUTES
To read about other people who have had their “15 Minutes” go to otdowntown.com/15 minutes
POLAR PURPOSE A talk with conservation photographer Paul Nicklen on his new SoHo gallery BY MICHAEL GAROFALO
You might not know Paul Nicklen by name, but you probably know him by his photographs. Nicklen’s images of the world’s polar regions — stark Arctic landscapes and intimate portraits of the creatures inhabiting them — have reached the eyes of millions from the pages of National Geographic magazine and through his popular Instagram account. Nicklen, a tireless conservation advocate, views his work as a call to action — a tool for inspiring and mobilizing people to preserve imperiled ecosystems and fight the effects of climate change. The latest step in the Canadian photographer’s conservation efforts is an eponymous SoHo gallery, which launched last month on West Broadway and features large-format prints of his photos. Half of Nicklen’s proceeds from the venture support Sea Legacy, the nonprofit he started to highlight threats to marine ecosystems. Nicklen spoke with Our Town last week via telephone during a rare stint at home in British Columbia.
How often are you on the road? Probably 10 months a year, I’d say. I’m always fighting to spend some time at
home, but it’s really hard. I could be on the road 360 days a year if I let it. So many people write me every day saying “Oh my gosh, I must have your job, just to travel the world and take pictures,” and they don’t realize what it means to be living in hotels and tents and airports all year long. So I love getting home, but I also love telling these stories.
Why did you decide to open a gallery in New York? Especially in a place like New York, I just see the disconnect that people have from the environment and nature. It’s a fantastic city full of great people who are passionate and care, but they have no idea about the urgency of how quickly these ecosystems are changing. As a journalist and a storyteller, by shooting all these images, it allows me to have a microphone. I really did not want another gallery saying, “Here’s a pretty picture of a bear. I hope you like it, I hope you buy it. Thanks.” It’s a gallery to convene people to start a conversation about conservation. It’s a gallery about the urgency of our changing world. It’s a gallery that will bring in other talented artists, other photographers who can come in with their bodies of work and tell their story. And a large part of these proceeds go back to our nonprofit called Sea Legacy, which allows us to have the autonomy to go do our work. It’s a convening place. It’s a place
“Home Ice Advantage.” Juvenile chinstrap penguins on a large iceberg along the Antarctic Peninsula. Photo: Paul Nicklen where people can come and learn and become aware. They can also get a feeling of hope. It was amazing at the gallery opening, with 2,000 or 3,000 people coming through — people are looking for leadership. They’re looking for guidance. They’re scared, they’re worried, and they need someone to give them some direction.
How have recent political developments affected your outlook? With Obama — or if it had been Hillary or definitely Bernie — you think, OK, politicians kind of have our backs. We’re gonna wait and see what they do. But the silver lining with Trump is that he makes it very clear that he does not care about anything to do with the environment. He’s blowing up the EPA and the environment is his least concern. So I think that people have actually woken up and realized that nobody’s got their back now. That’s what excites me about being in New York. We all need to sort of start this movement together and we’re not going to be able to rely on any government figure or program or initiative to have our back, because they don’t. Now the people sort of have to rise up and take this into their own hands.
The experience of seeing a wall-sized photograph in the gallery is quite different from viewing the same image on a smartphone. What’s it like to see your work at that scale?
“Face to Face.” A polar bear peeks into a cabin in Svalbard, Norway. Photo: Paul Nicklen
I love to see my work big. With every image I shoot, I’m trying to find that cross-section of art, science and conservation. I want that image to be beautiful and transport people, whether it’s into a magazine or into their phone or — hopefully, definitely — into a really large, 60-inch by 90-inch print on the wall. You are transported into that world with that animal. I want people to look at these animals in the eye and feel themselves as a part of that ecosystem, and I think the fine art imagery creates that sen-
sation. It’s almost like a 3-D experience of being there with these animals.
Your nonprofit helps fund nature photographers covering climate change and threatened ecosystems. Why do you view visual storytelling as so important in promoting conservation? Science is crucial — we need science — but it has failed to drive any change whatsoever, really, in the emotional connection that we have to these habitats and these species. When science is saying polar bears are going to disappear within the next hundred years, it sucks, but you feel kind of helpless and you kind of forget about it. But all of a sudden you start to show pictures of polar bears dying and starving to death and it slaps you in the face. I’m there to sort of be a massive wake-up call to everybody. I’m there to break down the walls of apathy and to really connect people to the polar regions that are warming twice as fast as anywhere else on earth. I can honestly tell you: it sucks to care. It really does. It’s emotionally gut-wrenching. It’s a bit draining. I wish I didn’t care so much. But once you start caring, it’s really hard to go back. Portions of this interview have been edited and condensed for clarity.
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Downtowner 1
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