Our Town Downtown - June 16, 2016 by OurTown Downtown

The local paper for Downtown wn STUDENT AWARDWINNERS AT THE MET, CITYARTS, < P. 12

A SETBACK FOR GANSEVOORT

2016

WHEN THE PAIN FROM ORLANDO HITS HOME

Landmarks Commission OKs a development plan BY MADELEINE THOMPSON

CONTINUED ON PAGE 5

16-22 Our Take

NEWS

The Gansevoort Market Historic District in Greenwich Village, though small, contains a lot of history, which is why the surrounding community was so disappointed when the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved a developer’s plan to revamp a block of Gansevoort Street between Washington and Greenwich streets. Located just inside the district and just outside the Greenwich Village Historic District, the three buildings in question -- 46-50, 52-58 and 62-74 Gansevoort Street -- were built in 1939, 1854 and 1942, respectively, and currently house several restaurants and retail stores. The new development will sharply raise the heights of several of the buildings and revamp their facades. Zach Weinstein, who has been ﬁghting landmarking and zoning battles in the area for 25 years, was at the meeting June 7 to protest the development. “What people think of when they think of that district are these one- and two-story market buildings,” said Weinstein, who co-founded a group called Save Gansevoort. “Low structures with the big ﬂat awnings in front and rails to move the carcasses around.” He and approximately 30 of his fellow community members held up signs during the meeting indicating their disapproval for the development. Ultimately, the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved Aurora

WEEK OF JUNE

Seventh Avenue at Stonewall Place on Monday evening during a commemoration of the lives lost in the mass shooting in Orlando. Photo: Isodro Camacho

5,000 ATTEND VIGIL AT THE STONEWALL A reading of the Orlando shooting victims’ names closed the solemn event BY ISIDRO CAMACHO

Nearly 5,000 people attended a vigil for the victims of the Orlando shooting on Christopher Street last night, according to police. A large crowd silently gathered in front of the Stonewall Inn before the vigil officially started. Several people were crying and holding onto others for support. Grace Bannasch, a 24-year-old from Western Massachusetts, made the 4-hour drive by herself

to attend because, she said, “this is where we go when things are bad.” “Growing up in an LGBT community makes me realize how important an LGBT community is,” she said. People somberly milled about inside the Christopher Street Park across the street where someone had written the names and the ages of the 49 victims on the ground in chalk. Mourners carefully tiptoed to put flowers and candles at the foot of the park’s “Gay Liberation” statue. Charles Davis, a Brooklyn resident, said that many of his friends did not come because they were

either “too emotional or scared to be here.” The sullen attitude of the event changed when the vigil actually started. Before Governor Andrew Cuomo took the stage, the names of all openly gay members of local government were read. This tangible evidence of the LGBT community’s impact in government ignited the crowd. Speakers from all sides of the LGBT community came forth to express their grief and to call for ending discrimination and easy access to ﬁrearms. Mayor Bill de Bla-

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From AIDS to acceptance, same-sex marriage to 49 people dead in a nightclub in Florida. To be gay in America is to swing from hope to despair, then back to hope again. The past year or so had been a jubilant one on the political front, as same-sex marriage bans were struck down in state after state, and everyone from President Obama down to Mayor Bill de Blasio declared that a corner had been turned in terms of civil rights advances for LGBT Americans. Then came the weekend horror in Orlando, and many of our gay neighbors felt the gains of the last year evaporating. At the Stonewall Inn on Monday, thousands of us -including a good chunk of our elected officials -- gathered in a vigil to remember those who died, and to acknowledge why: Though much is still unknown about the killer, it’s clear that his choice of a gay nightclub for the slaughter was not a random one. Candles were lit for the victims, ﬂowers were laid at the Stonewall’s front door, tears were shed by a community once again bound by fear. But then came the pivot back to hope. The mayor not only vowed that this month’s pride week activities would carry on, but he encouraged people from around the country to join New York, to come together in unprecedented numbers to counter the hate. For all of its shortcomings, New York has grown into an unusually welcome place for the LGBT community. It is part of the mosaic that makes us who we are. And now that part of us is aching, once again.

WEEK OF APRIL

SPRING ARTS PREVIEW < CITYARTS, P.12

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

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

9-16

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

2015

In Brief MORE HELP FOR SMALL BUSINESS

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

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

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

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

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JUNE 16-22,2016

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Chapter 16

EVE AND OTHERS

I’m ready to call,” said Eve. “My mother’s brother lives in Jerusalem. Wouldn’t it be an odd turn of events if he knew Alyosha? We could ask my Uncle Aryeh.”

BY ESTHER COHEN

Previously: A man disappeared from the Upper West Side, a mysterious man that no one seemed to know very well. His name was Alyosha. His super, Anibal Ramos, maybe had a way to contact him. There was a phone number in Jerusalem on Alyosha’s lease. A group of tenants from a building a few blocks away decided they’d try to ﬁnd him. “Shouldn’t we all discuss what you’ll say to whomever answers the phone?” asked the tall Richard, a logical man who had the word Consultant on his calling card. He believed he could give advice in many categories. Well read, Richard lived with another Richard, his opposite except in name. Tall Richard was a formal person. He never just

dropped in, even to ask the super a question about water pressure. Richard always called ﬁrst. Born in Boston, he believed in Roberts Rules of Order. Richard two, from a small town in South Carolina, came to New York City after college to work

in theater. As a boy he just knew that theater would be what he would do all his life. He’d seen a dinner theater production of “Oklahoma” and that had been enough, really enough, to shape his path. He hummed along with the words, knowing how happy humming made him. And hum he did, working in any job theater job he could ﬁnd until ﬁnally, he become a stage manager. There was nothing he liked more than working. “Play it by ear, why don’t we,” exclaimed Pin Ball, an odd voice of reason in Anibal’s appealingly unexpected apartment. Orange walls, bright blue trim. No white walls for Anibal. “I’m ready to call,” said Eve. “My mother’s brother lives in Jerusalem. Wouldn’t it be an odd turn of events

HELP US SOLVE THE MYSTERY DEAR READERS of this serial novel: We are asking for your participation. Tell us what you think about where Alyosha might have vanished, and where we should seek out clues. Where

did he go? And why do people disappear in the first place? Do you know anyone who has disappeared or wants to? Tell us. Email us at news@strausnews.com

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if he knew Alyosha? We could ask my Uncle Aryeh. Jerusalem is actually a small city,” she said. “Only about 800,000 people altogether.” “Is there a reason you don’t just call?” Naomi was impatient with Eve. They were each dressed in shiny silver clothing, their own matched set. And then, there they all were. Standing around the phone in a loose half-circle, an informal group of people who, because someone disappeared, had formed their own odd community, people who, except for their street address, didn’t have all that much in common. “We’ve waited long enough,” Mrs. Israel said. “I wrote out some questions while we were standing here, in case you ﬁnd yourself tongue tied,” she said. “I have never been tongue tied,” Eve replied. “I beg to differ,” Charles spoke up. “Would you like some examples? They’re on the tip of my particular tongue.” He laughed at his own joke. “Later,” Eve answered. And then, at last, she picked up the phone, and dialed. No one spoke in the room. They stood at a weird kind of attention. Waiting.

Anibal put the ringing on speakerphone, so everyone could hear. A woman answered the phone. “Shalom,” she said. “Shalom,” Emily replied. “Ayfo Alyosha? Where is Alyosha?,“ she asked, in Hebrew ﬁrst, and then in English. And then, “Do you speak English?” “Yes, of course,” the woman answered, with no accent that anyone could hear. “I am American,” she added. “Just like you. That is, I assume you’re American from what little you said.” “I am,” said Emily, trying not to sound disappointed. “I have no idea where Alyosha is,” the woman offered. “I haven’t seen him in over a year. He’s my cousin,” she added. “We are close, but not in touch. Isn’t he in New York? He called a while ago to say he got an apartment, and he asked if he could give me for a reference. I have a job,” she said, and laughed. “Many of our family members are dutifully unemployed.” “I’m happy for you, said Emily, and hung up the phone abruptly.

Join us for the 6th Season of

The Puzzle: Marble Collegiate Church’s Theatre Festival

An Inspiring Week of Exciting New Theatre

June 20-25, 2016 For more information, visit us at MarbleChurch.org

1 West 29th Street / New York, New York 10001 / 212 686 2770 / MarbleChurch.org

JUNE 16-22,2016

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CRIME WATCH BY JERRY DANZIG

CYCLIST TACKLED AFTER RIDING THROUGH OBAMA MOTORCADE Authorities say a bicyclist tackled by a New York City police officer as President Barack Obama’s motorcade approached has received a summons for disorderly conduct. NBC New York reports that officers shouted and signaled for the bicyclist to stop at around 6 p.m. last Wednesday in Manhattan. He kept going. Video shows an officer knocking the man to the ground. Another officer rolled him face-down onto the pavement and handcuffed him. Seconds later, onlookers on the opposite side of the street waved at the president and cheered as he passed. Obama was in the city to tape “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.”

SWINGIN’, LINCOLN, AND ODD An incident between two men led to an accident and ﬁnally an arrest. At noon on Sunday, a 25-year-old man punched a 60-year-old man at the northeast corner of Vesey and West Streets after the two had a verbal

phones from a drawer, handing them off to a male accomplice, who concealed them under his shirt. Both men then left the store via the stairwell leading to Greene Street. The two made off with 19 iPhone 6 Plus models with a total value of $16,131

JONES FOR JEANS

Tony Webster, via ﬂickr

dispute, according to a police account. The younger man, later identiﬁed as Brandon Lewis, also did damage to the senior’s electronic tablet. Upon seeing the older man walking toward police, Lewis hopped into the other man’s black Lincoln car and sped off. He got into minor traffic accident nearby, and was taken into custody. Lewis and charged with grand larceny auto.

REPAIR REAPERS A local Apple Store may want to alter their employee dress code. At 5:30 p.m. on June 1, a man entered the Apple Store on Prince Street dressed as an employee and made his way to the second ﬂoor. He managed to enter the phone repair area and then removed

At 8:10 p.m. on June 1, a 50-year-old man and a woman of undisclosed age entered the American Apparel store at 429 Broadway and took items, including a dozen pairs of jeans, from store shelves, placing them into two bags they had brought into the store. They then left the store and ﬂed in an unknown direction. The merchandise stolen included 12 pairs of Easy Jeans at $80 apiece, plus seven pairs of stretch denim pencil pants at $94 apiece, making a total haul of $1,618.

HIGH-FLEEING Another shoplifter took off in a luxurious getaway car. At 4:06 p.m. on Sunday, May 29, a man entered the Saint Laurent store at 80 Greene St. and removed a handbag from a front shelf before leaving the store. A customer alerted a 24-year-old store employee to the theft, and the

STATS FOR THE WEEK Reported crimes from the 1st precinct for Week to Date

Year to Date

2016 2015

% Change

2016

2015

% Change

Murder

n/a

Rape

n/a

250.0

Robbery

n/a

36.8

Felony Assault

n/a

-12.5

Burglary

-33.3

-1.7

Grand Larceny

-8.3

452

415

8.9

Grand Larceny Auto

n/a

133.3

employee followed the thief outside, witnessing him get into a silver Lincoln. The well-wheeled perpetrator drove off alone, and police were unable to ﬁnd him in the neighborhood. The item stolen was a small black Saint Laurent Monogram bag with a gold tassel, valued at $1,890.

Z TRAIN A subway passenger caught some Z’s, and the police caught a thief. At 3:30 a.m. on June 2, a police officer responded to a report that a 24-year-

old man had removed a cell phone and cash from the right front pants pocket of a 30-year-old man asleep on an E train. On the northbound platform of the Canal Street station, the officer approached the pickpocket, who dropped the phone and cash on the ground. The bad guy then resisted arrest by ﬂailing his arms and grabbing onto a railing to avoid being handcuffed, police said. The items stolen and recovered were an iPhone 6 Plus valued at $600 and $20 in cash. Ravi Ramdial was arrested June 2 and charged with grand larceny.

lower manhattan has many landmarks. but only one hospital. NewYork-Presbyterian/Lower Manhattan Hospital. Just two blocks southeast of City Hall at 170 William Street.

nyp.org/lowermanhattan

JUNE 16-22,2016

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Teamsters Local 814 has erected an inﬂatable rat in front of 10 Hudson Yards to protest Coach’s use of an out-of-state moving company. Photo: Isidro Camacho

UNION PROTEST TARGETS COACH’S HUDSON YARD MOVE Teamsters’ local say the company’s use of a mover from New Jersey undercuts developer’s pledge to create jobs in the city

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BY ISIDRO CAMACHO

Members of Teamsters Local 814 erected their notorious inflatable rat in front of 10 Hudson Yards last week to draw attention to Coach’s use of an out-of-state mover as the retailer moved in to the new building. Coach, the luxury retail brand and the ﬁrst major company to move into 10 Hudson Yards, is in the process of relocating its corporate headquarters from 34th Street into the gleaming tower overlooking

the High Line. The Teamsters are angered that Coach has opted to use All Season Movers Inc. rather than a Local 814 affiliated moving company. The crux of the problem, according to Teamster business agent Walter Taylor, is that All Season Movers is based in New Jersey. “These are good middle class jobs from the city” Taylor said. “They should stay in the city.” Julian Tysh, Local 814’s membership coordinator, focused his frustration toward Related Companies, the developer at the helm of the Hudson Yards project. Tysh pointed to the Hudson Yard’s own promise of stimulating economic growth within the city. “If you’re going to say you’re going to create jobs

in New York, persuade Coach to use a New York based moving company,” he said. A spokesperson for Related and the company’s website itself said it used Local 814 affiliated labor throughout the construction process. Coach now owns the space in 10 Hudson Yards so it ultimately decides which type of labor to use. A spokeswoman for Coach could not be reached. All Season Movers is affiliated with Union 514 as well as the Metropolitan Movers Association, an organization that has pitted itself against the Teamsters in the past. Reached by phone, Pat Robbie, who owns All Season Movers and also is Metropolitan Movers Association president, declined to comment. In 2013, the MMA sued then-

City Comptroller John C. Lieu’s office in an attempt to lower the city’s prevailing wage for movers, according to Tysh. In response the Teamsters and moving companies throughout the city formed Moving Forward, an organization of moving companies backed by Local 814. Coach’s move will be complete next week, according to Amaury Parry, a Teamsters member who last week was distributing flyers disparaging Coach and All Season Movers in front of 10 Hudson Yards. While Coach’s move may be over soon, the Teamsters fear that its choice in movers could set a precedent for other major companies that will soon occupy spaces in 10 Hudson Yards.

JUNE 16-22,2016

GANSEVOORT CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Capital’s plans, which Aurora had revised after an earlier version of the project was rejected by the commission in February. The approved plans claim to imitate the taller tenement buildings that existed in the 1800s before the area became known for shorter, industrial buildings. The tallest of Aurora’s proposed buildings would stand at 97 feet, but opponents cite historical documents saying none of the long-ago tenements were ever that tall. “I think [the developers] have really rationalized an approach for the blockfront development which allows for preservation as well as development,” commission Chairman Meenakshi Srinivasan said last Tuesday. She acknowledged the historical character of the area but concluded that the developers had done a good job taking the commission’s earlier concerns into account. Jared Epstein, vice president and principal of Aurora, said construction would begin once the necessary permits are obtained by the Department of Buildings and would last roughly 24 months at most. “We have always said this neighborhood has not one, but many histories,”

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com Epstein wrote in an email. “Those histories have been lost over time, and by restoring and recreating elements of these periods, we believe this plan will help New Yorkers build deeper connections to their city.” He added that they have already had a “diverse range” of businesses express interest in moving there once the new development is completed. In 2003, Weinstein was a part of another effort to protect the Gansevoort Market Historic District when a developer wanted to amend the zoning code to allow for uses besides the traditional manufacturing. Though opponents did not get everything they wanted out of that ﬁght, they did manage to get the City Council to prohibit office use, which would have attracted many developers to the area. After the decision last week, Save Gansevoort released a statement saying they were “deeply disappointed,” but would not give up. “In this day and age, it is disconcerting that even our landmarked areas are no longer protected,” the statement read. “We urge the City Planning Commission and the City Council to block any amendments to the restrictive declaration on these sites that would permit the use of these buildings for office space.”

Photo by Harvey Barrison via ﬂickr

A solemn commemoration on Monday evening near the Stonewall Inn in Chelsea for the lives lost in the mass shooting in Orlando. Photo: Isodro Camacho

VIGIL CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 sio spoke, so did Nick Jonas and Councilwoman Rosie Mendez. Dr. Sheldon Teperman, the chief trauma surgeon at Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx, gave a speech that held the crowd in silence. He commented on the endless cycle of gun violence he sees within his operating room and described in unﬂinching detail the killing power of an automatic riﬂe. Speakers who tried to politicize the issue, including de Blasio, were met with frustrated yells from the crowd to stop and say the names of the victims or “get off script.” Police Commissioner William Bratton, one the event’s last speakers, barely reached the ears of the restless crowd. His presence set the group into a frenzy. He attempted to talk about in-

About 5,000 people attended a vigil near the Stonewall Inn on Monday evening that commemorated the lives lost in the mass shooting in Orlando. Photo: Isodro Camacho creased policing for the Gay Pride Parade later this month but he struggled to speak over cries of “end police brutality” and “white supremacy.” One man, clad in black, climbed atop a bus pole to shout his criticisms of the NYPD. Recognizing the uneasy anger of the crowd, the organizers immediately commenced the vigil. As speakers read the names and ages of

each of the victims a solemn hush fell over the area. The combined light of thousands of cellphone ﬂashlights, candles and lighters set the street aglow. Each name was met with either “rest in power” or, in Spanish, “presente.” Muffled gasps and winces broke throughout the throng of people when speakers read the names of Akyra

Murray and Jason Benjamin Josaphat, teenagers who were in the club. The vigil ended as silently as it started. The crowd quietly dispersed and groups of people began to hug and comfort each other. While most of the people headed home, several moved back toward the Stonewall to continue the tribute.

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IWantToBeRecycled.org

JUNE 16-22,2016

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Richard Barr on the FDR with his Global Fury. Photos by Bill Gunlocke

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE PROFILE Seeing Richard Barr at home before going to the highway where he’s also at home. BY BILL GUNLOCKE

He said on the phone that he lived in apartment #2, that the buzzer didn’t work, but that he faced the street and I’d be able to tell which place was his. I didn’t worry about that when I got to his building on East 71st Street early and sat on the stoop for 10 minutes looking at passers-by and the part of the morning paper I’d brought to read on the train. When I sensed it was time to meet him, I turned to look at both sets of ﬁrst-ﬂoor apartment windows, not knowing what would make his place stand out. Well, I had to grin to myself. His two window sills were adorned with various kinds of plants and maybe the rest was Richard-made art. I didn’t know. But these weren’t your grandmother’s window boxes for sure. He knew I’d like them. I realized then that his phone voice the day before had been pleased that I would be coming uptown to see and be intrigued by what he’d made. I called him then on my phone. I didn’t have a pebble to toss against the window. Suddenly there he was in the hallway, and he let me in.

He’s Richard-made art himself. Right from the instant you see him, you see this about him. I mean he’s wearing two good ties, and he had on a good oxford cloth shirt. He could be some eccentric wooden-boat-owner dressed for the porch of the American Hotel in Sag Harbor. He’s got these long forearms and long hands that a baseball player or a golfer would envy. Or you could think sailor about them, too, if you wanted to extend the Sag Harbor metaphor. But you go inside the apartment and you see that these arms and hands sticking out of the sleeves of his shirt have been busy making art and making an artful place of his apartment. I was there to talk to him and we’re both eager talkers and so that happened naturally, but I could have nosed around his wonderfully cluttered, thickly cluttered, place in silence. “I’m a collector,” Richard Barr says. If you were opening a restaurant from an earlier era, you’d want this stuff. Fishs Eddy looks like Uniqlo compared to Richard’s place. You want the mix of framed things on the walls. You want everything. You want to ask him about the Jim Croce vinyl album. You want to ask him about the old Donald Trump doll still in its box. You want to ask him about the small bedroom you peeked in with a bed that looks like Gertrude Stein’s bed might have looked or Whitsler’s Father’s. You want to ask him who cleans the place.

You do ask him who’s the guy in the big black and white framed photo hanging in the kitchen. And he says that’s his father who was a newspaper editor in the Adirondacks, which is where Richard grew up and where he was given full freedom to roam and where he learned to love nature. And where he realized you could make stuff from what you found in the world. When he talks his arms go out and up like Bernie Sanders. You could listen to him all day. If you met him in a bar, in your drinking days, you’d be doing shots after a while. If it was in the afternoon, the bartender would be listening in to his stories. He’d be fascinated to hear how he knew Andy Warhol or how on a road trip to Florida once, he pulled over to the side of the road and picked up some pieces of truck tires that had blown out. He sensed he could make something out of them. He knew he could. That’s the thing about him. And that’s the thing that most has his attention now. Those pieces of tires. Shredded pieces of truck tires. He’s made cool-looking bracelets from the stuff. He calls the tire pieces Furys. Not Furies, Furys. The biggest Fury is the Global Fury. It’s his main thing right now. For that we’ll have to leave the apartment. You know how you see precarious places where high school seniors have spray painted their school’s initials and their class year? Well Richard’s Global Fury is in a place kind of like that. It’s along a narrow pathway along the FDR that he calls the ‘Low Line.’ It’s one of those places where the cars are whizzing by so close to

you that if you were playing pool you’d have to use the short cue. It’s scary. It’s the FDR, remember. You can see in the picture what it’s like. For me it was like walking along one of the mountainledge paths you see in movies where the packmules go single ﬁle.

Richard isn’t scared at all. His hands have things that they need to do. He ﬁddles with the Fury, the Global Fury, ﬁxing this and that, rearranging this piece of wire, that piece of tire. Cars beep. People look.

JUNE 16-22,2016

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

Voices

Write to us: To share your thoughts and comments go to otdowntown.com and click on submit a letter to the editor.

ON TOP OF ONE ANOTHER STREET LEVEL City living means apartment living BY BILL GUNLOCKE

Look at the building going on here. Twenty stories are going up right across the side street from me, replacing worn, warm red brick four-and-ﬁve story buildings, and ﬁve small shops. Two blocks away a mammoth complex is going up with a phony name that’s supposed to make you think it’s going to be the Canyon Ranch. Or the Cat’s Pajamas.

As most New Yorkers have done, I have given serious and generous thought to the state of my apartment should I get killed during the day.’ -Sloane Crosley

People are moving to cities. Rural populations are disappearing. And that’s not just China they’re talking about. When I was in 8th grade there were 2 billion people on earth. Now there are 7.4 billion. No wonder there’s sprawl. In New York, the sprawl goes vertical. I wish some of the people who want to move to the city would replace the people on my ﬂoor who put their wire hangers wrapped in plastic from the dry cleaners in the paper-only bin in the compactor room. Don’t tell anyone I said this, but they could replace some of the dog owners, too. No one wants to watch other people’s obsessions. I like living in an apartment. Building sounds are comfortable. Faint baby cries, elevator doors opening, people in the hall passing by your door, newspaper being delivered with a soft thump outside the door, sports talk with the doormen.

STRAUS MEDIA your neighborhood news source

The recently-retired mailman of 10 years in my building called me Bob. Of all people not to know your name. I let it go. I thought it was funny. There was a bartender at Herb’s Tavern in Rocky River, Ohio where I lived years ago, who somehow thought my name was Dave. I let that go, too. My buddies got a kick out of it. If they called for me there, they’d ask for Dave. The owner of the excellent breakfast place down the street says the new high rise across the street from the place, with monthly rents more than a year’s room and board was when I was in college, doesn’t bring him much business at all. The new tenants are different from the neighborhood patrons, he says. The cost of living here must be increasingly tough for the increasing number of single people. If I wrote a TV show about single people living in New York apartments I’d call it “Self Storage.” Once a week an exterminator comes to our building. You sign up at the front desk if you want him to come up to your place with his big bag of glue traps. I asked him once if he ever gets frantic calls from people over the weekend who’ve seen a mouse in their apartment. Sure he says, but they can’t always come out on weekends. He knows of women who’ve checked into hotels while waiting for the exterminator to come to their apartment. The exterminator also told me you wouldn’t believe some of the apartments. You can hardly walk around in them, there’s so much stuff every-

I have a switch in my apartment that doesn’t do anything. Every once in a while I turn it on and off. On and off. On and off. One day I got a call from a woman in France who said ‘Cut it out!’” — Stephen Wright

Vice President/CFO Otilia Bertolotti Vice President/CRO Vincent A. Gardino advertising@strausnews.com

Photo by Bill Gunlocke where. I wasn’t really surprised. I see some boxes almost every day in the compactor room on my ﬂoor addressed to the same person. Even though you usually don’t want there to be much mail in your box, you feel a little bereft when the non-descript guy two feet away has an armful of magazines and museum catalogs.

Associate Publishers Seth L. Miller, Ceil Ainsworth Regional Sales Manager Tania Cade

I grew up in a small town in a rural part of the state. We had a big lawn. We didn’t have neighbors as close as my buddies did. I like living with neighbors right on the ﬂoor. Do you get away on weekends? I wouldn’t want the obligations of having a place or the obligation of having

President & Publisher, Jeanne Straus nyoffice@strausnews.com Account Executive Editor In Chief, Kyle Pope editor.ot@strausnews.com Fred Almonte Director of Partnership Development Deputy Editor, Richard Khavkine Barry Lewis editor.dt@strausnews.com

to go to it all the time, or the drive, or having to own a car, but I do sometimes envy the person outside the building on a Friday with all sorts of canvas bags waiting for the car to pull up in front. I envy them that where they’re going they might have a wooden screen door.

Staff Reporters Gabrielle Alfiero, Madeleine Thompson Director of Digital Pete Pinto

Block Mayors Ann Morris, Upper West Side Jennifer Peterson, Upper East Side Gail Dubov, Upper West Side Edith Marks, Upper West Side

JUNE 16-22,2016

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

Snapshot of Summer

Earlier this month, we asked you to send us photos that capture your sense of summer in the city. Among the submissions were these sublime images of Central Park taken by reader Robyn Roth-Moise. To send your photos, email us at news@strausnews.com

JUNE 16-22,2016

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

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

NYCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S BEST + MOST FLEXIBLE

SUMMER DAY CAMPS

SPACE IS LIMITED. REGISTER TODAY! Camps run June 20 - September 2 # " # ! ! SIGN UP FOR 1, 2 OR MORE WEEKS!

Thu 16 HUDSON RIVER DANCE FESTIVAL Pier 63 in Hudson River Park, 205 12th Ave. 6:30-9 p.m. Free. This free event features a diverse program of modern dance by Stephen Petronio Company, Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, and Urban Bush Women. 212-757-0981. www. hudsonriverpark.org/

COMMUNITY BOARD 1 1 Centre St., Room 2202A-North 6 p.m. Quality of Life Committee 212-669-7970. www.nyc. gov/html/mancb1/

SUMMER CAMP

Fri 17 GILDA RADNERâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S â&#x2013;ş BIRTHDAY BINGO BASH H

212.336.6846 chelseapiers.com/camps

DCTV, 87 Lafayette St., $20 6:30 A bingo event in the memoryy of comedian Gilda Radner. Thee event will feature a Radner look-a-like contest and a trailerr for the upcoming documentary ďŹ lm, â&#x20AC;&#x153;LOVE Gilda.â&#x20AC;? Those who dress as one of Radnerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s iconic characters admitted free.

NEW YORK CITY GAY MENâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S CHORUS: â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;ITâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S COMPLICATEDâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, 566 LaGuardia Place 8 p.m. $45-$65; $55-$38 for NYU faculty/staff/alumni; $15 for NYU students. A year on from achieving marriage equality, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Complicatedâ&#x20AC;? celebrates love in the 21st century, in all of its magical, messy, mad, and magniďŹ cent splendor. events.nyu. edu/

Sat 18 KAYAK CLASSâ&#x2013;˛ Manhattan Community Boathouse, Pier 96, at West 55th St. 6:30 p.m. Free Learn techniques for maneuvering your kayak. Also held on July 16 and August 20. www.manhattancommunityboathouse.org/

JUNE 16-22,2016

FROM FREIGHT TO FLOWERS

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

Mon 20

The High Line, Gansevoort Street entrance BROOKLYN BRIDGE 10-11:15 a.m. Free PHOTO SAFARI▲ Hear the story behind New York City’s park in the sky 1 Centre St. from knowledgeable High Line 10 a.m. $85 docents. This walking photo tour of www.thehighline.org/activities the Brooklyn Bridge encourages those who love photography to embrace their passion. Those who participate in the tour will not only take photos of the bridge itself, but also of the skyline and surrounding areas. All photography skill levels welcome. Maximum four NATURE WALK participants per party. 391 West Street, Hudson River Park, Christopher Street Fountain: GARDEN PARTY 9 a.m. Free A walk through Hudson River 6 p.m., Hudson River Park, Pier Park is being offered on Sunday, 84, $99: June 19th. Encouraged to attend Pier 84’s Garden Party will are all those who are interested feature samples from multiple in the park’s wildlife. of New York City’s fabulous restaurants as well as an open bar. All proceeds from the Garden Party will support The ‘MONSOON’ Center. The Rubin Museum of Art, 150 West 17th St. 4-6 p.m. $15.00; members, $13.50 Sturla Gunnarsson’s cinematic journey into a terrain where nature, science, belief and wonder converge, “Monsoon” GAY HISTORY WALKING captures the timelessness TOUR and rich human drama of our engagement with the natural Stonewall Inn. 53 Christopher world. St. 212-620-5000. 6 p.m. $20-$35 rubinmuseum.org/events/events This tour explores the history of the LGBT community in the heart of where the movement ﬁrst started. The tour starts and ends at the Stonewall Inn, the historical sight of the 1969 Stonewall riots. Featured topics on the tour include not only the sights, but also the people who lived through this historic time.

Sun 19

Tue 21

MUSICAL PRODUCTION OF ‘HAMLET’ Paradise Factory, 64 East 4th St. 9 p.m. $18 NIX, a contemporary, feminist, musical production of Hamlet, premiers at Paradise Factory. The show will be performed by a cast of seven actors, most of whom are woman, and beneﬁts Women Make Movies, a feminist non-proﬁt organization in the arts and media.

Wed 22

Everything you like about Our Town Downtown is now available to be delivered to your mailbox every week in the Downtowner From the very local news of your neighborhood to information about upcoming events and activities, the new home delivered edition of the Downtowner will keep you in-the-know.

And best of all you won’t have to go outside to grab a copy from the street box every week.

It’s your neighborhood. It’s your news.

SUMMER PARTY ON THE HIGH LINE The Diller-von Furstenberg Sundeck & the Chelsea Market Passage 7–10 p.m. $175 Friends of The High Line and luxury designer Coach are coming together to throw a summer soirée with all proceeds going toward the park’s maintenance and operations. 212-206-9922 www.thehighline.org

MARKING LGBT HISTORY IN THE VILLAGE AND BEYOND Theresa Lang Community and Student Center, Arnhold Hall, 55 West 13th St. 6:30-8 p.m. Free, registration required As part of Gay Pride Month the Greenwich Village Society of Historic Preservation will present a panel discussion with REPOhistory Collective members Todd Ayoung, Jim Costanzo, Betti-Sue Hertz, Kara Lynch, and David Sansone, with Tom Klem as the moderator. events.newschool.edu/

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JUNE 16-22,2016

“Amygdale,” Gold Key in Photography winner by Clare Curry, from the Convent of the Sacred Heart School photo by Adel Gorgy

YOUNG ARTISTS DEBUT AT THE MET SHOWCASE The 2016 Scholastic Gold Key Award Winners Exhibition BY MARY GREGORY

Imagine the first time you exhibit your artwork or publish your writing, and it’s not on the refrigerator, but at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. For hundreds of New York City kids, that’s just what happened. The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards is the country’s longest-running program to highlight the achievements of talented teens. In 2016, thousands of kids in grades 7-12 from New York city schools

submitted their art and writing to a panel of experts that winnowed some 13,000 entries down to about 600 works deemed worthy of the highest recognition – the Gold Key Award. Regional exhibitions of winners, from the over 320,000 nationwide entrants, take place in schools and public buildings all over the country. And all the students selected are, justiﬁably, proud. But young artists from more than 300 schools in the ﬁve boroughs were chosen for New York’s regional show, which was held at the largest art museum in the Western hemisphere. The Met proudly hosted this year’s exhibition of art and writing by some of the city’s brightest and most talented.

The Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, along with Parson’s School of Design, Pratt Institute, and the Met worked together to ﬁll the walls of the Ruth and Harold D. Uris Center for Education with paintings and photographs, video and multimedia works, along with interactive screens that presented stories, poems, cartoons, plays and essays. There were 260 judges, professionals in the ﬁelds of art and literature, who selected works. They considered each carefully, aware of the history and the weight of the honor they bestowed. This is no minor talent competition; previous winners include artists Andy Warhol, Philip Pearlstein, and

Cy Twombly; and writers Sylvia Plath, Joyce Carol Oates, Truman Capote, Stephen King and Lena Dunham. Images of the world we live in were as diverse as the kids who created them, as were depictions of the interior life of these artists. There were local street scenes shot in black and white by photographers with classical eyes, stunning landscapes of distant mountains, pictures of pets and the farthest reaches of space, and expressive self-portraits painted with dreamy romanticism or unflinching realism. But, more than anything else, these works by artists early in their journey express curiosity, exploration, passion and discovery. In them, one sensed visions inspired by

artists like Susan Rothenberg, Diane Arbus, Henri Matisse, Picasso, Pixar and George Lucas. There were intensely felt, moving works of fiction, poetry and prose, and scholarly essays on matters important not just to teens, but to all of us. Though the exhibition at the Met has ended, all the Gold Key award winners from across the country were honored on June 2 in a ceremony at Carnegie Hall, hosted by filmmaker Ken Burns. These hard-working prodigies have long, fruitful roads ahead of them. The only pity is that we can’t fast-forward to see the great work they’ll be producing in 10 or 20 years.

JUNE 16-22,2016

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

ACTIVITIES FOR THE FERTILE MIND

thoughtgallery.org NEW YORK CITY

Hidden Harbor Tour of Gowanus Bay

THURSDAY, JUNE 16TH, 6PM Working Harbor Committee | Pier 11 | 212-298-8600 | workingharbor.com Get out on the water with a Hidden Harbor Tour, cruising from Lower Manhattan through the industrial history (and current prospects) of Red Hook, the Erie Basin, and Gowanus Bay. ($35)

Night at the Museums 2016

TUESDAY, JUNE 21ST, 4PM Various locations | mjhnyc.org/nightatthemuseums A scene from Shakespeare Downtown theater company’s production of “Twelfth Night.” Photo: shakespearedowntown.org/

‘ROUND’ED-OUT THEATER Shakespeare in Battery Park BY ERICA MAGRIN

William Shakespeare’s playing company, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, built the Globe Theatre in 1599. Thereafter, all of the Bard’s works were shown at this open-air, circular amphitheater until June 29, 1613. It was burned down tragically on this date, as the thatched roof became kindling during an error with a cannon in a production of Henry VIII. Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616, but the Globe Theatre would be granted a second life. Shakespeare’s Globe, an approximate replica of the Globe Theatre, was completed in 1997. This new Globe was designed to be everything that the original was: a circular, rooﬂess theater on the River Thames used to stage the great works of William Shakespeare. As for us Americans, it may seem that we have struck out in the department of authentic Shakespeare recreations. Of course, these more than classic plays have been done in the US and all over the world time and time again, but very seldom are productions held in a performance space that harkens back to the reality of what seeing one of Shakespeare’s masterpieces would have been like when they were originally created. Enter Shakespeare Downtown, a theater company that values the importance of classical theater, even in these

modern times – because before there was Hamilton, there was the Bard of Avon. Artistic director Billie Andersson, director Geoffrey Horne, and designer Amy Goossens spearhead Shakespeare Downtown. The theater company started off by performing more American classics, such as A Streetcar Named Desire and The Glass Menagerie, along with many genres of plays, some of Shakespeare’s included, at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute, where Horne was a professor. “When I moved to New York, when I went to the [Strasberg] Acting School, it changed everything for me. ... It gave meaning to my life, almost like a kind of calling,” says artistic director Billie Andersson. Now the troupe focuses on the works of Shakespeare, but what sets them apart is exactly where these performances take place. The setting: Castle Clinton, which, like the Globe Theatre before it, is a round, open-air landmark. Located in Battery Park, it is also right on the water, and obtains all the ambience of the Globe with its own New York flare. All performances are free, as Shakespeare Downtown is a 501(c)(3) nonproﬁt organization. “By staging these free outdoor performances at Castle Clinton, audience members will be able to experience the plays how they were originally done at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre over 400 years ago,” says Shakespeare Downtown’s web page. “If it’s raining,” the website says, “performances are canceled.” This is what

makes this particular theatre troupe’s production of a Shakespeare play different from others: the live genuineness of the experience, presented in a way that is so rarely done, even if this was the only way it was originally done. “[Castle Clinton is] perfect for doing Shakespeare,” says Billie Andersson. “It’s open-air, and in the round.” Shakespeare Downtown also uses historically accurate Elizabethan costumes, and classical theatrical designs. The troupe themselves are close-knit, with most of them having studied at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. Andersson and Geoffrey Horne, the company’s director, are even a husband and wife team. They are also local to the community, as the director and assistant director live in the downtown neighborhood. When forming Shakespeare Downtown, Andersson and Horne set out to ﬁnd a performance theater speciﬁcally downtown in order to share their talents with their community, and now are doing just that at Castle Clinton. Shakespeare Downtown will put on free performances of Romeo and Juliet at Castle Clinton in Battery Park Tuesdays through Saturdays from June 7th to June 25th, 2016. With no intermissions, the performances will start promptly at 6:30 p.m. and run until 8:15 p.m. Though Shakespeare Downtown performances are free, those who wish to see the show must obtain tickets at Castle Clinton the day of the performance.

Fifteen institutions in Lower Manhattan keep their doors open, running from afternoon into evening. Sites from the National Museum of the American Indian to the National September 11 Memorial Museum extend their hours, many offering special events and activities. (Free)

Just Announced | Meryl Streep with Hugh Grant: Film Screening & Conversation

MONDAY, AUGUST 1ST, 7:15PM 92nd Street Y | 1395 Lexington Ave. | 212-415-5500 | 92y.org Catch a preview of the new ﬁlm Florence Foster Jenkins, the story of a New York socialite who loved to sing in public despite having absolutely no ability to do it. ($80)

For more information about lectures, readings and other intellectually stimulating events throughout NYC,

Advertise with Our Town Downtown today! Call Vincent Gardino at 212-868-0190

otdowntown.com

JUNE 16-22,2016

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

In Brief NEW SPOT FOR LEVAIN Levain Bakery, founded in 1994, will be opening another location in order to meet rising demand. Co-owners Connie McDonald and Pam Weekes had already opened another location in the village of Wainscott on Long Island’s East End in 2000. The newer, larger space will be located at 351 Amsterdam Ave., while the original location is located at 167 West 74th Street. They also have a location in Harlem at 2167 Frederick Douglass Blvd. According to their website, the name comes from, “A French term for a natural leavening agent traditionally consisting of ﬂour, water and wild yeasts. Perhaps better known in the USA as a sourdough starter.” Levain bakery was ranked ﬁfth in a list of the best chocolate chip cookies in NYC by grubstreet. com

Food & Drink

TARA HILL CLOSING Tara Hill Irish Tavern on 108th Street and Broadway is closing on July 1st. The pub, originally known as Cannon’s, has been around since 1934, opening its door just after the end of prohibition. Cannon’s closed in 2004, and returned a few months later as O’Connells after a change in ownership. The pub re-opened in 2013 under its current name, Tara Hill, named after the Hill of Tara in Ireland, which was the seat of the High King of Ireland, according to tradition. Reportedly a regular spot for the late George Carlin, and was also in a movie featuring Eddie Murphy as well as being featured in the TV show Law and Order. The bar’s Facebook page encourages people to come help celebrate their last month in business, and according to the calendar on their website, they have a live music night planned for June 21.

JACKSON HOLE CLOSES, TOO Jackson Hole, a burger joint located at 517 Columbus Avenue, closed its doors suddenly last week after 40 years of business. Besides burgers, they also offer chicken sandwiches, breakfast options, salads, and vegetarian options. In 2014, Jackson Hole made Gothamist’s list for best burgers in NYC, but they later wrote that the burgers were “over-cooked meat bombs,” and that they, “regret the error.” Jackson Hole has four other locations in NYC and another in New Jersey. “It is with great regret that we have decided to close our doors after 42 years in business,” a sign on the door says, according to the West Side Rag. “Thank you for all your support and great memories.”

CALIFORNIA BISCUIT JOINT Traditionally one might associate biscuits with the South, but newcomer to the Upper West Side The Big Bottom Biscuit Bar hails from California. The Big Bottom Biscuit Bar opened earlier this month out of the coffee window of wine bar Osteria Cotta, located on 513 Columbus Avenue at 85th Street. Menu options range from simple butter and jam biscuits to biscuits in gravy, or their ultimate dish, the Sea Biscuit, topped with pickled onions, crème fraiche, and smoked salmon, which is meant to challenge the traditional New York bagel with lox, according to Gothamist.

Some Japanese okonomiyaki. Photo by hirotomo t via ﬂickr

DECODING RESTAURANT MENUS NEWS The impact of globalization on what we eat BY LEANNE ITALIE

Okonomiyaki, anyone? A survey for the restaurant reservation site OpenTable showed that style of savory Japanese pancake is the No. 1 most befuddling term among 2,035 diners, with one in ﬁve saying they won’t order something they don’t understand on a menu. Foodies, stand down. Many of the Top 10 most confusing terms you’re likely familiar with. For the rest of us, as chefs in America have expanded their horizons, we bring you gochujang, piri piri, yuzu and bibimbap, following okonomiyaki in that order. Nearly one in three diners in the Harris Poll conducted online for OpenTable said some menus are more confusing than they need to be. More than half surveyed in March felt ordering an unfamiliar item ruins their restaurant experience. Okonomiyaki was a challenge for 69 percent of the diners ages 18 and over, about half of whom said they eat out at least once a month. But there’s rarely shame. The survey of diners around the country showed two-thirds aren’t embarrassed by their cluelessness, saying they are usually ﬁne asking a server for guidance, said Caroline Potter, OpenTable’s chief dining officer. The fact that some of the rubs, ingredients and completed dishes are a problem at all shows just how far many mainstream restaurants have come, she said. For instance, the 2014 edition of “The Foodspotting Field Guide,” featuring 75 dishes chosen by a gaggle of recreational foodies, posed this question: “Ever heard of Okonomiyaki?” Now, at least among those who don’t know classic Japanese cuisine, “It’s much more prev-

alent on American menus,” Potter said. “It’s interesting that there still remains this confusion on the diner side, whereas chefs and restaurateurs have latched onto it.” The menu issue doesn’t mean some components aren’t easily identifiable. “While you may recognize, you know, carrots, you might not recognize when it says on a menu they’re rubbed with harissa,” Potter said, noting that particular North African spice mixture of chili, cumin, garlic, coriander and olive oil occupies the No. 11 spot on the list of confusing menu terms. In addition to roaming the globe looking for inspiration or to expand their repertoires, the farm-to-table movement has chefs reconsidering heritage techniques that might not be widely known by name. Ballotine, for example, is a piece of roasted, braised or poached meat, poultry or fish that has been boned, stuffed, rolled and either tied or stitched. Think turducken. It’s a classic French way of cooking a chicken thigh, intended to be reshaped to look like one, but the word was unknown to 61 percent of diners surveyed, capturing the 10th spot on the list. It’s clear, Potter said, that diners are trying to catch up with the ambitions of chefs. “Chefs are reaching back, they’re reaching to all corners of the globe. When you talk to chefs, the way they’re spending their downtime, they’re saying I’m going to Thailand for two weeks and I’m going to eat my way through street food and all these restaurants and come back with inspiration,” Potter said. Potter thinks yuzu, which 64 percent of those surveyed found confusing on menus, is a good example of an ingredient enjoying big love from chefs in the U.S. Dallas restaurant Victor Tangos, for example, has used the aromatic Asian citrus fruit known mostly as a flavoring in everything from tempura-fried Brussels sprouts to an infusion for a

cocktail made of gin, shiso (No. 8), French wild cherry liqueur, lemon, honey and orange flower water. “Restaurants are doing everything from serving yuzu miso brown butter on their lobster to yuzu marmalade or yuzu vinaigrette,” Potter said. Recently, at a Manhattan restaurant, she ran across a yuzu pound cake and a yuzu jelly. “That, in particular, is really sweeping the nation, and I have to admit I was kind of, like, what is yuzu exactly?” she said. There is, of course, a segment of diners in search of familiarity and comfort in restaurant food, Potter said. “We do know that diners want to see more descriptors on menus, and they also like to see pictures. That plays to our food photo culture. Instagram is filled with food pictures. That desire is a by-product of how visual our food culture has become,” Potter said. So what is gochujang, the second most confusing term? It’s a savory, spicy, pungent fermented Korean condiment made from red chili, glutinous rice, fermented soybeans and salt. It was deemed confusing by 67 percent of diners surveyed. And No. 3 piri piri, which was misunderstood by 64 percent? It’s a Portuguese term for hot chilies or a hot sauce made from them. No. 5 bibimbap is a Korean dish of rice topped with sauteed vegetables served with chili paste, beef or other meat, sometimes with a raw or fried egg. Gougere, a puff pastry flavored with cheese (usually Gruyere) and often stuffed with a savory filling, showed up at No. 6, followed by guanciale (a type of Italian cured pork made from the cheeks of a pig); shiso, which is an Asian plant in the mint family used as an herb in cooking; and en brodo, a beef or vegetable stock often used on its own as a broth or as the base for sauces and stews.

JUNE 16-22,2016

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

Central Park

WHATâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S HAPPENING IN THE PARK SUMMERTIME IN CENTRAL PARK Central Park in summer offers hundreds of activities and attractions across its 843 acres, such as green meadows, sprawling waters, colorful gardens, unique bridges and walkways, performance centers, educational facilities and classical architecture. Tour these wonders with a licensed expert and learn something that you didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know! Visit our tours page on www.centralpark.com.

HARLEM MEER PERFORMANCE FESTIVAL For an international and cultural experience right here in

Central Park, check out the Harlem Meer Performance Festival. Held at the Dana Discovery Center, the festival features a different type of musical and/or dance performance every Sunday during the summer. For the 2016 Harlem Meer Performance Festival schedule visit our activities page on www.centralpark.com.

COMING UP THIS WEEK

races, free bike valet parking and outdoor gear exhibits. When: June 18 Time: 11 a.m.- 4 p.m. Where: Bandshell area in Central Park. Enter the park at 72nd Street. For more info visit: www.centralpark.com/ events

VINYASA YOGA CLASSES Join The Yoga Trail in Central Park on the grass for this relaxing yoga class. This class is relaxing and meditative, but it is still a vinyasa ï¬&#x201A;ow and will involve a good amount of movement and some sweat. When: Weekdays through October Time: 5:45 p.m.-7:15 p.m. Visit www.centralpark.com/ events for more details and booking information.

ADVENTURES NYC Join NYC Parks to celebrate the great outdoors and enjoy a day of adventure â&#x20AC;&#x201D; for free! Activities will include: rock climbing, stand-up paddleboarding, kayaking, yoga, mountain biking, obstacle

Event listings and Where in Central Park? brought to you by CentralPark.com.

WHERE IN CENTRAL PARK? Do you know where in Central Park this photo was taken? To submit your answer, visit: centralpark.com/wherein-central-park. The answers and names of the people who guess right will appear in the paper and online in two weeks.

ANSWER TO THE PREVIOUS QUIZ Victorian Gardens at Wollman Rink is one of a few amusement parks in the New York metropolitan area. This small but well-designed park opened in 2003, and it occupies the Wollman ice skating rink every summer in Central Park from Memorial Day thru September. The park

hosts 12 rides. The majority of the rides are designed for children between the ages of 2 and 12. Congratulations to Marisa Lohse, Gregory Hol-

man, Joe Ornstein, Candi George, Bill Ferrarini and Ravi Rozdon for answering the quiz question correctly.

The Mary Louis Academy Excellence in Education for Young Women since 1936

Congratulations to the Class of 2016 t FBSOFE B 3FHFOUT %JQMPNB XJUI SFDFJWJOH UIF IJHIFTU EJQMPNB BXBSEFE CZ UIF 4UBUF PG /FX :PSL UIF 3FHFOUT %JQMPNB XJUI "EWBODFE %FTJHOBUJPO t %POBUFE NPSF UIBO IPVST JO DPNNVOJUZ TFSWJDF QSPHSBNT t TFOJPS DPNQMFUFE POF PS NPSF "EWBODFE 1MBDFNFOU DPVSTFT GSPN BNPOH "1 DPVSTF PÄ&#x152; FSJOHT t TFOJPST DPNQMFUFE POF PS NPSF )POPST -FWFM DPVSTFT

The Class of 2016 has received over $45 million in academic scholarships and grants Sponsored by the Sisters of St. Joseph, Brentwood, NY Chartered by the New York State Board of Regents. Accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges & Schools

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JUNE 16-22,2016

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

RESTAURANT INSPECTION RATINGS MAY 27 - JUN 10, 2016

Rustico

81-83 St Marks Place Grade Pending (27) 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. Filth flies or food/refuse/sewage-associated (FRSA) flies present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Filth flies include house flies, little house flies, blow flies, bottle flies and flesh flies. Food/ refuse/sewage-associated flies include fruit flies, drain flies and Phorid flies. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service.

Roast Kitchen

27 E 13Th St

Zabb City

244 E 13Th St

Not Yet Graded (16) Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Filth flies or food/refuse/sewageassociated (FRSA) flies present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Filth flies include house flies, little house flies, blow flies, bottle flies and flesh flies. Food/refuse/sewage-associated flies include fruit flies, drain flies and Phorid flies.

The following listings were collected from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s website and include the most recent inspection and grade reports listed. We have included every restaurant listed during this time within the zip codes of our neighborhoods. Some reports list numbers with their explanations; these are the number of violation points a restaurant has received. To see more information on restaurant grades, visit http://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/services/restaurant-grades.page Holiday Cocktail Lounge

75 Saint Marks Pl

Mamoun’s Falafel

30 Saint Marks Pl

Not Yet Graded (58) Food Protection Certificate not held by supervisor of food operations. Food worker does not wash hands thoroughly after using the toilet, coughing, sneezing, smoking, eating, preparing raw foods or otherwise contaminating hands. Filth flies or food/refuse/sewage-associated (FRSA) flies present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Filth flies include house flies, little house flies, blow flies, bottle flies and flesh flies. Food/refuse/sewageassociated flies include fruit flies, drain flies and Phorid flies. Toilet facility not provided for employees or for patrons when required.

Bagel Belly

114 3Rd Ave

Not Yet Graded (27) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked ﬁsh and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation. Food not cooled by an approved method whereby the internal product temperature is reduced from 140º F to 70º F or less within 2 hours, and from 70º F to 41º F or less within 4 additional hours. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service. Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred.

Village East Cinemas

181 2 Avenue

Ichiba Ramen

125 University Pl

Grade Pending (23) Hot food item not held at or above 140º F. Food not cooled by an approved method whereby the internal product temperature is reduced from 140º F to 70º F or less within 2 hours, and from 70º F to 41º F or less within 4 additional hours. Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas.

Paddy Maguire’s Ale House 237 Third Avenue

Union Square Catering Facility Ballroom

27 Union Square West A

Jp Street

52 E 8Th St

Edwin & Neal’s Fish Bar

345 E 6Th St

10 Below Ice Cream

10 Mott St

Jing Fong Restaurant

20 Elizabeth Street

Grade Pending (27) 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.

Buona Notte Ristorante

120 Mulberry Street

M1-5

52 Walker Street

Grade Pending (32) Food Protection Certiﬁcate not held by supervisor of food operations. Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service.

National Arts Club

15 Gramercy Park South

Astor Center

399 Lafayette Street

Shuko

47 E 12Th St

Starbucks

180 West Broadway

Bluestone Lane

51 Astor Pl

Not Yet Graded (45) 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. Wiping cloths soiled or not stored in sanitizing solution.

Galli Restaurant

45 Mercer Street

Sushi Azabu

428 Greenwich Street A

August Gatherings

266 Canal St

Joe Coffee

330 Hudson St

Not Yet Graded (58) Food contact surface improperly constructed or located. Unacceptable material used. Hand washing facility not provided in or near food preparation area and toilet room. Hot and cold running water at adequate pressure to enable cleanliness of employees not provided at facility. Soap and an acceptable hand-drying device not provided.

242 Cafe Bakery

242 Canal Street

Grade Pending (21) Hot food item not held at or above 140º F. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service. Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred.

Kabab Bites

369 Broome St

Not Yet Graded (25) Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Live roaches present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service. Wiping cloths soiled or not stored in sanitizing solution.

Ken’s Asian Taste

40 Bowery

The Randolph At Broome

349 Broome Street

Pings

22 Mott St

Royal Seafood Restaurant

103105 Mott Street

Menkui Tei

63 Cooper Square

Otto Enoteca Pizzeria

1 5 Avenue

Side Bar

120 East 15 Street

Coffee Shop

29 Union Square West Grade Pending (18) Food not cooled by an approved method whereby the internal product temperature is reduced from 140º F to 70º F or less within 2 hours, and from 70º F to 41º F or less within 4 additional hours. 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.

Panna Ii Garden Indian Restaurant

93 1St Ave

Xi’an Famous Foods

81 St Marks Place

Arte Restaurant

21 East 9 Street

Big Daddy’s Diner

239 Park Avenue

Chickpea

210 East 14 Street

JUNE 16-22,2016

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JUNE 16-22,2016

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JUNE 16-22,2016

SKATE PARK PLAN TO GET SECOND LOOK Dozens of skateboarders have lobbied for a more inclusionary design than that proposed by the city’s Parks Department BY SILAS WHITE

A planned $1.8 million redesign of Riverside Skate Park back will be reconsidered, to the delight of dozens of skateboarders who are advocating for a more inclusionary design than the one proposed by the city’s Parks and Recreation Department. “The new design doesn’t fit the skate community at all,” skater Ian Clarke told Community Board 7 before the board voted Tuesday night to send the plan back to its Parks and Environment Committee for further discussion. “We look at the design and say, ‘you just don’t get it.’” The skaters contend that the proposed design, with its largest bowl reaching to just 6 feet high, would have excluded socalled “vert” or “transitional” skaters, who prefer to skate up and down ramps and bowls. The park, at the level of West 108th Street, now has a threetiered system, with ramps at 3 feet, 6 feet, and 9 to 10 feet high. The proposed design would have eliminated this scheme, which is currently the park’s largest draw, said Clarke, who spoke on behalf of the roughly 25 skaters who attended the meeting. The planned design would dedicate two-thirds of the park to street-type skating, involving urban obstacles. That design, Clarke said, would exclude the vert skating community, which he said is already underrepresented within the city’s roughly 20 skate parks. The park, the city’s ﬁrst dedicated to skateboarders, is considered a landmark by many city skaters. It was built in 1995 in close consultation with skating legend and Upper West Side resident Andy Kessler, whom Clarke called the “godfather” of the New York City skating scene. Kessler died in 2009 at the age of 49 following an allergic reaction to a wasp sting. Clarke said the new design went against Kessler’s original vision of a three-tiered system, which allows skaters to work their way up as their skills progressed. The skaters last month released a statement on their Facebook page detailing problems with the proposed design.

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Their main concern is that the Parks Department’s design does not equally allocate beginner, intermediate and advanced spaces. The statement, issued on May 26, called the new design a “swing and monkey bars” playground design. While the skaters say the Parks Department “indeed has the best of intentions” and that they look forward to a redesign, the proposed plan’s faults resulted from a lack of consultation with the skating community. The statement said that the $1.8 million allocated for a redesign of the park should result in a

cate two-thirds of the park to street skating and be open 24/7, with only the part of the park dedicated to vert skating fenced off and requiring an attendant, she said during the board meeting. Clarke called the Pier 62 Skatepark in Chelsea, run by the Hudson River Park Trust, “legit” and a model of how a skate park should be laid out. That park, he said, attracts skaters of all ages and backgrounds, while the proposed design for the Riverside facility would likely only attract teen and younger skaters when built.

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Cultural Events The Riverside Skate Park, looking north. Photo: Ian Clarke world-class facility. A parks spokeswoman, however, said the department held two scoping meetings and a design discussion on site. Altogether about 50 skaters attended the meetings and onsite discussion, she said. The park’s designer also received input from representatives of the skating community. The department will review the proposed design, she said, with the intention of designing a park that accommodates skater at all skill levels. “NYC Parks … is excited about providing a re-envisioned skate park to Riverside Park skateboarders that takes into consideration a wide range of usership and skating skills,” the spokeswoman said in an email statement. According to the architect behind the project, one of the goals behind the new design was to allow the park to be open around the clock. It is now only open at certain hours and an attendant is required to monitor the skate park during its operating hours to insure safety protocols are followed, particularly on the larger ramps. The new design would dedi-

“The Riverside Skatepark location is the most important and significant location currently being developed on the East Coast. We’d like the City of New York, W Architecture and Landscape Architecture and whichever vendor it chooses to design and build to frame the design with this in mind,” the statement says in part. The skaters, from teens in T-shirts to adults in suits, celebrated outside following the board’s vote, at Fordham University. Michael Massagli, a local resident, was delighted at the board’s 35-3 vote in favor of returning the redesign to the board’s Parks and Environment Committee. Another skater credited the victory to the sheer amount of skaters who showed up, which he said made the board more aware of community dissatisfaction. “There’s definitely strength in numbers, if there were ﬁve of us, we would have been out of there,” another skater said. The Parks and Environment committee next meets on June 27. Clarke said the skaters would once again have a chance to voice their opinions and discuss their designs.

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OUT OF THE BLUE, AND RUNNING FOR CONGRESS NEWS

I studied nuclear weapons. My knowledge is outdated because when I was in school the probability of hitting a silo was a quarter of a mile, but now with GPS and things like that you can get much closer. I’m a statistician, I do probabilities, I make what are mathematical models … but I also do marketing.

porter Madeleine Thompson on his debut in politics.

A long-shot run against Maloney He has no staff, no endorsements, and no campaign war chest, but Pete Lindner is hoping the voters of the Upper East Side will elect him to Congress. Lindner is the only Democratic challenger against Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, who has represented the 12th congressional district for 23 years. A graduate of MIT with a background in statistics and computer programming, Lindner wants to legalize marijuana and prostitution, promote gun safety, and eliminate corruption. (He was inspired to get into the June 28 race by a run-in with Maloney’s ofﬁce over an allegedly corrupt judge, though a spokesperson from Maloney’s office said there is “not a shred of truth” to Lindner’s accusations.) Lindner spoke with Our Town re-

On reducing crime:

On how he got on the ballot: I hate to quote Donald Trump, but the system is rigged. I went to the New York City Democratic Committee and I said I wanted to speak to somebody about running on the ticket. That was Keith Wright, and he said ‘I’ve been friends of [Carolyn Maloney’s] for 25 years’ and he told me to speak to his aide to set up an appointment and the aide refused. That was in October. The ﬁrst week in May you have to go before the Board of Elections and have people challenge or not challenge your petition, and I challenged Maloney’s. But she had way more signatures than she needed and I didn’t, and so they challenged me. To make a long story short both our challenges were thrown out and I argued that I should be on the ballot anyhow and the chairwoman said ‘Mr. Lindner do you realize our ruling means you’re both going to

be on the ballot?’ I said no, I didn’t. [laughs] So now I’m on the ballot.

On the lack of endorsements or support for his campaign: Well I was sort of hoping that I could get coverage on this. You’d think that newspapers would cover me but they’re not. And so I’m upset about that. I spoke to the League of Women Voters and they tried to get her to debate me, she said her calendar was booked.

If there are high crime areas I’d also have the government check to see what the unemployment is. Because if it’s high, I feel the government should be the employer of last resort, and they should be able to sweep the streets and clean up the parks and things like that. However, let’s say the minimum wage is $15 an hour, the government can also encourage companies to hire these people by paying $10 of the $15 per hour for their salary. That way the company gets a worker for $5 an hour and $10 straight by the government, plus the worker has a job, learns something, gets benefits -- unemployment, medical coverage, sick leave, IRA and things like that -and has a vested stake in the community. That’s what we want. I think that would make things safer so people wouldn’t have to steal or trade drugs, do illegal things, in order to stay alive.

On his education and background:

UNPACKING THE MARKET’S HISTORY BY RAANAN GEBERER

The phrase “Meatpacking District,” or just “Meatpacking,” is routinely used nowadays to describe the area roughly between Hudson Street and the Hudson River, 14th and Gansevoort Street. But if you asked the young people coming out of the many boutiques and trendy restaurants there exactly what the term means, chances are that many of them wouldn’t know. Jacquelyn Ottman, a member of a family whose history in the meat business goes back to the mid-19th century, recently explained the ins and outs of the business as it existed for many years. During a June 7 lecture sponsored by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, her focus was on her family ﬁrm, Ottman and Company, which operated in three buildings whose address is now known as 1-5 Little West 12th St. from 1919 until 1986, when it moved to Massachusetts. While she is now a green-marketing and sustainability consultant, she grew up working summers in the company. Several of her family members were in the audience, including her father, Jack, who was celebrating his 90th birthday. To begin with, she said her father and her other older relatives never called the area the Meatpacking District, but just “the Market.” During the mid-19th century, the area was a thriving produce market, but in the 1880s, the city

built the West Washington Market, a now-demolished group of brick buildings housing meat and poultry operations, directly across West Street. In 1949, the city built the Gansevoort Market Meat Center, which still houses a handful of meat firms. Ottman and Company, she told those assembled at the Westbeth Community Room, was basically the descendant of two other firms, although they were spelled “Ottmann.” In 1859, Phillip Ottmann, a German immigrant, founded the company in what became known as the Fulton Fish Market. He brought other family members over, they joined the firm, and it prospered. In 1916, Louis Ottmann, at that time the company’s president, sold the firm, which had been renamed William Ottmann and Company, to the Beinecke family. Two years later, the elder Jack Ottman (Jacquelyn’s grandfather) decided to open his own meat business. But the Beineckes owned the original name, so, she recounted, he dropped the new name’s final “n.” The firm provided beef, lamb, pork and veal to hotels, restaurants and other high-end customers. Some of these included the Stork Club, the 21 Club, Luchow’s and Le Pavilion. Originally, Ottman said, cattle from points west were transported on barges that traversed the Hudson River to the stockyards in the general area of today’s Hudson Yards. They were

Ottman and Company, ca. 1950. Jacquelyn Ottman’s family ran a meat business out of this building (and later acquired the two other buildings pictured) from 1919 to 1986. It was built by Vincent Astor in 1913. Photo courtesy of Jacquelyn Ottman slaughtered, with carcasses put onto freight cars and transported via the High Line to the “Market.” The reason sides of beef were always hung from hooks, she added, is that if you put them down on the ﬂoor horizontally, the weight of the bones would crush and ruin the meat. After World War II, Ottman continued, there was a change in the business. Meat could now be vacuumpacked and packaged air-tight in Cryovac, a thin plastic material. Then, in the 1960s, beef packers in Iowa real-

ized that they didn’t have to send the cows to New York to be slaughtered — they could slaughter them there, process the meat into cuts, pack it into boxes and ship it to New York in refrigerated 18-wheelers. Subsequent deliveries mainly brought boxed beef, rather than whole sides. Another change, Ottman said, came when many restaurants no longer had butchers on their staffs, and wanted pre-cut steaks and chops. So Ottman and Company trimmed some of its meat and cut it, with the aid of a band-

JUNE 16-22,2016 On his PETE system for tracking complaints: The PETE number stands for Personal Event Tracking Envelope. Suppose you call the police about something, you tell the whole story, and they say, ‘Oh, you’re calling precinct 13, you should call precinct 10.’ They would assign a PETE number, which is a unique number in the world, and then they would pass that number to the other agency or whatever and it would have a record of the whole conversation, all the notes and things like that, so you wouldn’t have to repeat it. It would be like a ﬁle.

On legalizing marijuana: It’s a big issue because that’s been going on for 30 or 40 years and it’s about time. It’s a Schedule I drug along with LSD and heroine, so it was misclassiﬁed and you can’t have a law that’s not based on reality. And the other side issue is that whites and black smoke it approximately at the same rate, but there are four times as many blacks in prison for the same event. I would let them out immediately. I would have judges expunge their records so they could say ‘I was never arrested and never put in jail’ and be telling the truth so that doesn’t affect their getting a job in the future, of course except for violence.

saw, into exact portions. Then, these ready-to-cook portions were vacuumpacked in another plastic material known as DuPont Bivac and frozen to 60 degrees below zero within two seconds. “We worked with Clarence Birdseye himself to develop a technique of freezing beef without getting ‘freezer burn,’” Ottman said. Birdseye, in the 1920s, discovered how to freeze fish and vegetables, and Birds Eye frozen foods are still a popular brand today. Ottman and Company also pioneered a “Chef Ready” line of pre-cooked meats, mainly roasts, that were ready to be heated in an oven. They came with their own thermometers. Ottman and her father told some interesting stories about the company. After a certain point in time, the meat had to go through a metal detector. American Airlines, which used Ottman meats, had found a bullet in one of their steaks. This was a rare occurrence. They also talked about the huge orders of boxed steaks sent to Saudi princes through a distributor. These steaks were packed in refrigerated shipping containers that were plugged into a power source so they could survive the 30-day ocean voyage to Saudi Arabia. After the company moved to Massachusetts, Ottman concluded, it was sold to a larger firm. Today, 75 percent of the meat sold in the U.S. comes from about five companies. The ground-floor space in the former Ottman building is now occupied by the upscale restaurant Bagatelle.

JUNE 16-22,2016

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YOUR 15 MINUTES

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

A NONPROFIT GETS BETTER WITH AGE Executive director of the Carter Burden Center for the Aging on his meaningful work

BY ANGELA BARBUTI

William Dionne has watched the Carter Burden Center for the Aging ﬂourish in the 25 years he’s been its executive director. “It’s been ever growing. When I started there was just one location. We now have nine different locations,” he said of the philanthropic organization that provides services for New Yorkers 60 and older. When he began there in 1991, the center was assisting 1,500 seniors. It now helps 5,000 with 3,500 volunteers and a staff of 85. Dionne says his work at CBCA keeps him enthusiastic and quite busy, since the landscape for elderly residents is constantly changing. “The issues that we’re facing in aging today are very different than the ones we were looking at 25 years ago. And the gaps in service and need just keep growing,” he explained. As for initiatives that have launched since his tenure began, one has been the building of a facility on East 99th Street to house 1,700 people after the decommissioning of the Coler-Goldwater Hospital on Roosevelt Island. Another worthwhile project they’ve instituted is an art gallery in Chelsea where reemerging senior artists can exhibit their work.

What is your business background? Did you have experience in nonprofits? Yes, I did. My degree is in health administration. I have worked in the aging field for over 35 years. I got involved on the board of directors for a community-based organization in Park Slope and being on the board for a few months, they asked me if I would consider being executive director. That was 30 years ago and I just fell in love with the idea of continuing my work in aging, which I had done in nursing homes before that and being able to embrace the community. After being there for five years, I was approached by the Carter Burden Center to apply for the position as the executive director. And here I am, 25 years later, still the executive director. If someone would have told me that, I would have said, “That is crazy.” But it has just been an amazing organization.

What does your job entail? What is a typical day like for you there? A typical day is that nothing is ever typical. And it’s interesting because in my life I tended to have jobs for four year and then I would want to move on. But it’s been a position that just keeps me excited because we’re always looking at new things to help better serve the community. Carter Burden was a city councilman and started the center 47 years ago because he had so many older folks coming to his office, that he recognized there was a need for aging services and he went to his

family foundation, so the Carter Burden Center was born from philanthropy and it just kept growing.

How do you ﬁnd the artists featured in the Carter Burden Gallery? We merged with an organization called Elder Craftsmen and their location is right across the street from FIT. And our assistant director said, “This could be an interesting gallery.” We had no idea what the needs would be, but we knew that we wanted it to focus on aging artists. Your question is a great one about how we get artists. It’s word of mouth. The community is, I guess, they’re great gossips or something, and each share with each other the fact that there’s this gallery. And the art world, the gallery world especially, is very ageist. They’re always looking for the new, emerging artist. Whereas our gallery is looking at what we refer to as reemerging artists, artists who have had a passion and career in art but because of their age, have a hard time figuring out where they can exhibit their work. We have now shown hundreds of artists with hundreds and hundreds of artists waiting to show.

What is one of CBCA’s projects you’re proud of? We have worked with probably ﬁve different senior centers, some of which were underperforming. And I remember opportunities where we would get to a center — the Department for Aging is an example — where we were expecting to serve 60 meals. And what

William Dionne, executive director of the Carter Burden Center for the Aging. Photo: Carter Burden Center for the Aging in fact was happening was they were only serving 30. As a result of Carter Burden Center getting involved, we have seen the centers triple and quadruple. So I’m very proud of that, but I think if I were to say one thing that is overarching in all of our programs is how welcoming each of them are. There is this idea that we are really in the hospitality business.

You also serve meals to the homebound. We serve about 1,200 meals a day in total. But with regards to the homebound population, we do a meals-onwheels, where we have people literally bring food to people’s homes. The importance of that program is that many of the folks we’re serving are people that we may well be the only contact that they have. Oftentimes there’s not family involved, so we’re the people that recognize what’s happening in people’s lives. Because of the consistency of delivery, we can see when there’s changes in their lives. It’s a great way for us to advocate, but also be the mouthpiece for their needs.

Tell us about why the 99th Street facility was created.

Seniors participate in a fashion show at the Carter Burden Center for the Aging/Leonard Covello Senior Program. Photo: Carter Burden Center for the Aging

There was the decommissioning of the Coler-Goldwater Hospital on Roosevelt Island. And when that happened, there were 1,700 people who needed to be placed in other facilities. The building on 99th Street was built for that purpose of housing some of those folks who were deemed to be able to live in independent housing. However, some of the folks had been living in the hospital for 22 years. So imagine going from a situation where you were living in institutional care for 22 years

and then being put in a facility where you’re living independently. Of course, that needed to be stopped. Carter Burden’s role in the center is really looking at quality of life issues and programs.

Your Associates Council program, a group of young professionals, visits seniors and deliver meals. Yes, every month they do a meal delivery. The wonderful thing about that is that the program has been going on for so long that one of the ﬁrst associates stayed with the program to the point that she joined the board and is now the treasurer. She has grown with us from right out of college. For a lot of folks who may be here, not living near their grandparents, many of those associates have said that’s why they joined the committee because they miss the aging contact. It’s also wonderful in breaking the divide of generations and the misconceptions of generations. It really has proven to be a wonderful program and my favorite part is that every year they will throw a senior ball and pay for everything for the seniors. They get music and all of them come and dance. It’s just a wonderful event. For more information, visit www. carterburdencenter.org

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Bu On Sa 13 10 15 siness BY EM ILY TOW parishioturday mo Minutes 16 NER rn and low ners, comm ing, archit 19 ered in er Manhatt unity me ects, mb vision St. Paul’s Ch an residents ers for Tr ap gat el hto discu inity Ch building ss urch’s The ex . new pa the rish Place acr isting bu ild been cle oss from Tr ing, on Tr inity inity Ch ared for 1923, urc de it the chu no longer sermolition. Buh, has tower rch and the ves the ne ilt in wi com ed The we ll be built in munity. A s of new in a ser ekend me its place. eti — collabies of commu ng was the needs orative for nity “charr ﬁfth an um ett the low d wants of s to addre es” a whole er Manhatt the church ss the and an com . “In ou munit of r y initial as about charr buildinghow we wa ettes we talked for the to be a homented th is pa hood,” homeless an for the spi rish rit fer, Tr said the Re d for the neigh ual, v. Dr. Wi ini bor“We tal ty Wall Street lliam Lu ked ’s prector What ab . they wo out minis try act look,” uld be ivi Lu marke pfer said. , how they ties. wo t underst study in ord“We condu uld cte desires and neighbo er to objec d a dream as well as rhood needtively s.” parish s and He sai hopes and sion em d the churc tality braces a ph h communit The can tha ilo ride in coming t is “open sophy for y’s viCe carouseldidate’s owne ho , ﬂexibl .” On the ntral Park. “We wa e and spifamilia puts New Yo rship of the wela white wall next to nt it street r bind rkers in , access to be visiblP.9 > that rea placard wi the entrance a Gemm ible to e from the com and Re ds, “Trum th red letter is well, a Whitema the CONTINU p Ca munit gulat ing who we n and ind It’s y, BY DAN Engla ED ON Joel Ha re on lat icatio ions” -- rousel Ru PAGE 6 weekd e afternoon IEL FITZSIMM presid ns that Do one of the les day, nd and rode vacation uxONS ay, an on only sai the en fro nald a mi tial d lining opera bearing d they notic carousel Mo m up to pakids and tou ld winter tes the candidate, J. Trump, ed the Trum ntially ow car ris y Tr $3 for “It p’s ns an placar New Yo a qu ts are see um p’s po ousel. d ma was in my name. OurTown d rk mo lit ics ping int n, he ment: intesenDowntow wh ad o the car have be 20gav a carou weigh 16 e he en asked ,” said Wh n gu sel an aft a deep ernoo ousel, as rid n in En r pause. “H if the realiz iteOTDOW O n esc ly divisiv gla ati ers e’s NTOW like, ‘Do nd, so in my not very lik on e candid ape again N.COM st he ed I want ate. Newsche to give ad I was a bit ck money @OTD CO Cri me Wa NTINU to this owntown 2 Cit tch ED ON y

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