Our Town Downtown - June 23, 2016

The local paper for Downtown wn A TURKISH DYNASTY AT THE MET, CITYARTS, < P. 12

WEEK OF JUNE

23-29 2016

POLICE AND THE GAY COMMUNITY, POST-ORLANDO NEWS Symposium tries to heal longstanding rift

BY ISIDRO CAMACHO

Community members, LGBTQ advocates, and members of the NYPD gathered at the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center in Chelsea to discuss the turbulent relationship between the gay community and the police.

The symposium, organized by the

Police outside the entrance to the symposium.

Civilian Complaint Review Board and called “The Rainbow Crossing: Police Accountability and the LGBTQ Community,” had been scheduled for nearly a month but fell three days after the mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando. Audience members at the forum were greeted at the front door by members of the counter-terrorism unit, who were brandishing large guns. While the tragedy in Orlando casted a gloom over the symposium, it re-emphasized the need for closer ties with the police.

People in the LGBTQ community

are not shy when it comes to criticizing the NYPD. During the vigil at the Stonewall Inn following the Orlando shootings, members of the crowd booed Police Commissioner William Bratton. Several people said they were offended he spoke at the event at all.

Members of discussion panels during the symposium explained that the majority of complaints arose from situations in which gay people felt they were unfairly stopped on the street or instances where police were purpose-

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PASSION FOR PAWS Shelter Chic, on Chambers Street, wants to dispel the notion that shelter animals are second-class

BY ERICA MAGRIN

We’ve all heard of Grumpy Cat and Pizza Rat. Some of us have heard of the Taylor Swift screaming goat, Boo the dog, and even the photobombing squirrel. All were caught in quirky poses or notorious act, and achieved fame — or infamy — via the internet.

Furry things, it seems, have an uncanny ability to tap into humans’ warmand-fuzzy places.

Shelter Chic, a boutique-y storefront on Chambers Street, is attempting

to replicate that process by showing a more cheery side of animal shelter life. “Not a business, but a passion,” said Shelter Chic co-founder Brittany Feldman.

The no-kill shelter hosts adoptable dogs and cats and sells accessories for both animals and humans. Feldman and co-founder Amanda Folk got the nonprofit running out of Feldman’s apartment. At first, the co-founders themselves fostered the dogs and cats in their care. Having opened their first location in October, the company has since grown, in large part because of donations.

Though a for-profit could more

Shelter Chic co-founder Brittany Feldman with Cam’ron. Photo: Erica Magrin

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Newscheck Crime Watch Voices Out & About

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City Arts Restaurants Business 15 Minutes

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WEEK OF APRIL

SPRING ARTS PREVIEW < CITYARTS, P.12

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

BY RICHARD KHAVKINE

is the common Arbitration Man their jurist. least folks’ hero. Or at Man has For 30 years, Arbitration court office of the civil few sat in a satellite Centre St. every building at 111 New Yorkers’ weeks and absorbed dry cleaning, burned lost accountings of fender benders, lousy paint jobs, and the like. And security deposits then he’s decided. Arbitration Man, About a year ago, so to not afwho requested anonymity started docuhe fect future proceedings, two dozen of what menting about compelling cases considers his most blog. in an eponymous about it because “I decided to write the stories but in a I was interested about it not from wanted to write from view but rather lawyer’s point of said Arbitration view,” of a lay point lawyer since 1961.

Man, a practicing what’s at issue He first writes about post, renders and then, in a separatehow he arrived his decision, detailing blog the to Visitors at his conclusion. their opinions. often weigh in with get a rap going. I to “I really want whether they unreally want to know and why I did it,” I did derstood what don’t know how to he said. “Most people ... I’d like my cases the judge thinks. and also my trereflect my personalitythe law.” for mendous respect 80, went into indiMan, Arbitration suc in 1985, settling vidual practice

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

2015

In Brief MORE HELP FOR SMALL BUSINESS

The effort to help small seems to businesses in the city be gathering steam.

Two city councilmembers, Robert Margaret Chin and Cornegy, have introduced create legislation that wouldSmall a new “Office of the within Business Advocate” of Small the city’s Department Business Services.

Chin The new post, which have up told us she’d like to would and running this year, for serve as an ombudsman city small businesses within them clear government, helping to get through the bureaucracy things done.

Perhaps even more also importantly, the ombudsman and number will tally the type small business of complaints by taken in owners, the actions policy response, and somefor ways to recommendations If done well, begin to fix things. report would the ombudsman’s give us the first quantitative with taste of what’s wrong the city, an small businesses in towards important first step fixing the problem. of for deTo really make a difference, is a mere formality will have to the work process looking to complete their advocate are the chances course, velopers precinct, but rising rents, -- thanks to a find a way to tackle business’ is being done legally of after-hours projects quickly. their own hours,” which remain many While Chin “They pick out boom in the number throughout who lives on most vexing problem. said Mildred Angelo,of the Ruppert construction permits gauge what Buildings one said it’s too early tocould have the 19th floor in The Department of the city. number three years, the Houses on 92nd Street between role the advocate She Over the past on the is handing out a record work perThird avenues. permits, there, more information of Second and an ongoing all-hours number of after-hours bad thing. of after-hours work the city’s Dept. problem can’t be a said there’s with the mits granted by nearby where according to new data jumped 30 percent, This step, combinedBorough construction project noise Buildings has data provided in workers constantly make efforts by Manhattan to mediate

BY DANIEL FITZSIMMONS according to DOB of Informacement from trucks.

President Gale Brewer offer response to a Freedom classifies transferring they want. They knows the the rent renewal process, request. The city They 6 “They do whatever signs Every New Yorker clang, tion Act go as they please. work between some early, tangible small any construction on the weekend, can come and sound: the metal-on-metal or the piercing of progress. For many have no respect.” p.m. and 7 a.m., can’t come of these that the hollow boom, issuance reverse. owners, in business moving The increased beeps of a truck has generto a correspond and you as after-hours. soon enough. variances has led at the alarm clock The surge in permits

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

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

n OurTownDowntow

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

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JUNE 23-29,2016

Chapter 17

EVE AND OTHERS

BY ESTHER COHEN

Previously: So far, no good leads for finding Alyosha. His abandoned room provided no clues. It was too clean to find anything much. And the call to the number on his lease in Jerusalem, proved to be a dead end, too. His cousin, unfriendly when she answered, had no idea where Alyosha was.

And no suggestions about where to look.

“Maybe,” said tall Richard, a man who was both tentative and insistent, “maybe we should concede defeat today. We’ve tried. Success

is not always possible. Prolonging is never a good idea.” He uttered these words with a little too much good cheer.

“You’re a negative person,“ Richard two replied, unexpectedly. He seemed like a compliant man, the sort of person who rarely rebelled.

“We’ve only started to try,” he added.

“We’ve hardly begun. Who knows.

He could be right in front of us somehow. You’re happier conceding defeat than trying for victory.”

“I don’t know how to begin to respond,” said tall Richard. He looked hurt.

“Never give up,” Mrs. Israel’s voice was a little too loud. She waved her clipboard in front of her. “I’ve written those words right here with a black marker,” she said, and sure enough, she had. “Not that it’s been my motto all along. But for today, it is.”

Here’s a helpful detail,” he began. “Alyosha and I were, briefly anyway, lovers. But briefly counts.”

Eve and Naomi, who had spearheaded the search, both of them, with Charles as their cheerful accomplice, seemed torn about next steps. “I was convinced for no good reason that Jerusalem would yield the clue we needed,” said Eve. “Jerusalem is one of those places where you can assume there will be answers.”

“Jerusalem,” Naomi replied, implying god knows what. “Why in the world would he go to Jerusalem? Did

you have any reason to think he’d be there? Although it is a beautiful city, with all that pink light. So different from New York. This is a black and white city, don’t you think? Jerusalem’s on my Big List of places I intend to be one day.”

Charles, not a peace-making type, more of an arguer really, Charles felt he had to change the tenor of the room. To combat what seemed like hopelessness. He was not a usual leader, but still.

“We will find him,” he said, with more certainty than he could ever remember saying. “Don’t ask me how I know. I do.”

And then, as if on cue, Alyosha’s neighbor Albert entered the room, and entered the discussion. Albert (he pronounced his name Al Bear, as though he were French) had started the search in the first place. He’d told Naomi his neighbor was missing.

Albert was always resplendent, even when his intention was just to buy grapefruit juice at the Red Apple Supermarket. Today, for instance, the day he made his Big Entrance and his Revelation, Albert was dressed in orange velvet, pants and matching jacket.

“Here’s a helpful detail,” he began.

“Alyosha and I were, briefly anyway, lovers. But briefly counts. I know that this society is obsessed with longevity, but we didn’t have that particular hang-up. Brief can be satisfying,” he said to the listening room.

“What do you know about him that can help us locate him?” Mrs. Israel asked. She sat down to record any helpful information.

“I actually know a thing or two,” Albert said, and then he smiled, an actor who delivered a successful line.

“IF ONLY SOMEONE WOULD CLEAN UP THIS PARK.”

BE THE SOMEONE. Every day, we think to ourselves that someone should really help make this city a better place. Visit newyorkcares.org to learn about the countless ways you can volunteer and make a difference in your community.

Cat New York Cares Volunteer

JUNE 23-29,2016

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CRIME WATCH BY JERRY DANZIG

POLICE LOOKING FOR SUNGLASSES THIEF The New York Police Department is looking for a thief who specializes in sunglasses.

Police say the same man stole shades from Manhattan outlets of Sunglass Hut and Solstice Sunglasses on 10 occasions between December and May. Surveillance video from one of the stores shows a man with a medium build and a shaved head.

The thief’s biggest haul was 13 pairs from a Sunglass Hut in Greenwich Village on May 19.

Sunglass Hut glasses can cost $200 a pair or more.

GONE SOUTH END One bicyclist learned the hard way that two weeks is too long to leave even a locked bicycle unattended in a public space. On May 15, a 50-year-old man left his De Rosa aluminum bike chained to the bike rack in the rear of 375 South

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

Year to Date

2016 2015

% Change

2016

2015

% Change

Murder

0

0

n/a

0

0

n/a

Rape

1

0

n/a

7

2

250.0

Robbery

1

0

n/a

27

19

42.1

Felony Assault

4

1

300.0

32

33

-3.0

Burglary

7

2

250.0

64

60

6.7

Grand Larceny

21

11

90.9

472

426

10.8

Grand Larceny Auto

1

0

n/a

15

6

150.0

Tony Webster, via flickr

End Ave. When he returned on May 29, his bike was missing. The De Rosa is valued at $2,000.

PLAYGROUND PLUNDER Even a playground is fertile ground for thieves. At 6:45 p.m. on Saturday, June 4, a 28-year-old woman left her property unattended in the Battery Park playground at 1 Battery Place.

Her belongings – among them a Bose Bluetooth speaker valued at $400, an Apple iPad Mini priced at $500, a J. Crew purse worth $130, an Anthropologie makeup bag tagged at $100, plus credit cards and a NY State driver’s license – were gone. The total stolen came to $1,130. She also told police that unauthorized charges of $117 had shown up on her stolen bank card.

CONSTRUCTION DESTRUCTION Some booze-swilling burglars busted up a bar on Broome Street. The owner of the Fork and Parrot bar at 519 Broome St. told police that sometime between 10 p.m. June 4 and noon on June 6, unknown perpetrators broke into her establishment, which was under construction, vandalizing the premises and stealing tools. Multiple empty bottles of alcohol were found inside the building, and a side window was open. There were no signs of forcible entry. A canvass of the neighborhood turned up nothing. The items stolen were various construction tools valued at $1,000.

CITIZEN’S ARREST An alert citizen assisted in the arrest

Apply now to join New York City’s system of high-quality pre-K providers for the 2017-2018 school year.

Visit schools.nyc.gov/ProvidePreK.

of a burglar. At 2:25 a.m. on Friday, June 10, a male witness observed a man and his accomplice stealing beer cases from the rear of a Manhattan Beer Distributors truck parked in front of 459 Broadway. Police searched the neighborhood, and the witness was able to identify one of the thieves.

The accomplice fled in an unknown direction. The items stolen were two 24-bottle cases of Corona beer each valued at $30; one of them was recovered. Jeffrey Williams, age 40, was arrested on June 10 and charged with burglary. He was also wanted on a

previous warrant.

LULULEMON LOSER A burglar was arrested after being seen in the wrong place at the wrong time. At 2:13 a.m. on Saturday, June 11, a sharp-eyed police officer observed a 42-year-old man inside the Lululemon men’s clothing boutique at 127 Prince St. after closing time. A search of the suspect turned up two credit cards in his wallet that were not his. Pedro Delgado Rivera was arrested June 11 and charged with burglary.

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Useful Contacts POLICE NYPD 7th Precinct

19 ½ Pitt St.

212-477-7311

NYPD 6th Precinct

233 W. 10th St.

212-741-4811

NYPD 10th Precinct

230 W. 20th St.

212-741-8211

NYPD 13th Precinct

230 E. 21st St.

NYPD 1st Precinct

16 Ericsson Place

212-477-7411 212-334-0611

FIRE FDNY Engine 15

25 Pitt St.

311

FDNY Engine 24/Ladder 5

227 6th Ave.

311

FDNY Engine 28 Ladder 11

222 E. 2nd St.

311

FDNY Engine 4/Ladder 15

42 South St.

311

ELECTED OFFICIALS Councilmember Margaret Chin

165 Park Row #11

Councilmember Rosie Mendez

237 1st Ave. #504

212-587-3159 212-677-1077

Councilmember Corey Johnson

224 W. 30th St.

212-564-7757

State Senator Daniel Squadron

250 Broadway #2011

212-298-5565

Community Board 1

1 Centre St., Room 2202

212-442-5050

Community Board 2

3 Washington Square Village

212-979-2272

Community Board 3

59 E. 4th St.

212-533-5300

Community Board 4

330 W. 42nd St.

212-736-4536

Hudson Park

66 Leroy St.

212-243-6876

Ottendorfer

135 2nd Ave.

212-674-0947

Elmer Holmes Bobst

70 Washington Square

212-998-2500

COMMUNITY BOARDS

LIBRARIES

HOSPITALS New York-Presbyterian

170 William St.

Mount Sinai-Beth Israel

10 Union Square East

212-844-8400

212-312-5110

CON EDISON

4 Irving Place

212-460-4600

TIME WARNER

46 East 23rd

813-964-3839

US Post Office

201 Varick St.

212-645-0327

US Post Office

128 East Broadway

212-267-1543

US Post Office

93 4th Ave.

212-254-1390

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JUNE 23-29,2016

CHELSEA’S MARVEL OF INNOVATION Built in the early 1930s, the StarrettLehigh Building remains an architectural paragon

BY RAANAN GEBERER

Motorists cruising on the West Side Highway, and joggers and cyclists in Hudson River Park, may well be captivated by a striking brown-brick International-Style Art Deco structure in northwest Chelsea. The building, known as the Starrett-Lehigh Building, takes up an entire square block and has rounded corners typical of the 1930s architecture.

Its brown brick alternates with uninterrupted horizontal bands of floor-to-ceiling windows.

The block-wide and -long building, at 601 West 26th St., is basically a commercial, industrial and warehouse building.

It’s been a New York City landmark since 1986.

To appreciate the building, one must go back to the era in which it was built, 1930-31. In those days, private railroads transported freight into the city, but since there was (and still is) no freight tunnel under the Hudson River, freight cars were de-coupled at the Jersey piers, ferried across the river on barges, then reconnected at huge freight yards near the Manhattan waterfront where the goods were unloaded.

Among these railroads were the Baltimore & Ohio, the Pennsylvania Railroad, the Erie Railroad — and the Lehigh Valley. The Starrett-Lehigh Building, built over the railroad’s freight yard, was a collaboration between the railroad and the Starrett real-estate corporation. When William Starrett (whose company was also the general contractor on the Empire State Building) died in 1932, the railroad bought the building outright.

Part of the genius of the Starrett-Lehigh Building was the way goods were delivered right to the industrial and warehouse tenants. Freight cars were transferred onto special electric trucks, which in turn fit into huge 30-foot elevators.

They were delivered straight to the customers on the upper floors. Regular motor trucks could use these elevators, too.

Early photos of the building are part of a masterful exhibit on the Starrett-Lehigh Building’s ground floor.

The architecture community was impressed with the building and it was included in the International Exhibition of Modern Architecture, sponsored by Museum of Modern Art in 1932. The architects were Russell G. Cory, Walter M. Cory and Yasuo Matsui.

The building had trouble breaking even at first. This was due in part to the fact that another freight terminal building in Chelsea — the Port Authority Building at 111 Eighth Ave., now the Google Building — was under construction at the time, and it offered substantially cheaper rates.

Still, quite a number of firms occupied the Starrett-Lehigh Building. In the early

The Starrett-Lehigh Building, with its 1930s-era features. Photo: Raanan Geberer days, tenants included the Wheeling Tire Company, the Standard Pressed Steel Co., famed architect-inventor Buckminster Fuller’s workshop and the Il Duce Wine Company (which presumably changed its name before World War II).

By the mid-1960s, several textile and garment manufacturing firms had moved into the building, which was now owned by real estate mogul Jacob Freidus.

Part of the genius of the Starrett-Lehigh Building was the way goods were delivered right to the industrial and warehouse tenants. Freight cars were transferred onto special electric trucks, which in turn fit into huge 30-foot elevators”

New technology also affected the building. Rail freight had been declining since World War II in favor of truck traffic. In 1966, the Lehigh Valley Railroad ripped out the tracks and abandoned its railyard under the building. Thereafter, all deliv-

eries were made by truck.

The building eventually suffered because of the downturn of manufacturing in Manhattan. The building went into foreclosure and was sold to hotel magnate Harry Helmsley. At the time, it was 40 percent vacant.

In 1998, the Helmsley organization, which was by that time headed by Leona Helmsley, the “Queen of Mean,” sold the building again. By then, tenants of a different kind were moving in — fashion and art-related businesses. Typical of these tenants were high-end fashion photographer Stephen Hellerstein and the TDF Costume Collection, which contains more than 80,000 outfits from Broadway, offBroadway, film, opera and regional productions. (Hellerstein and TDF are now in Red Hook and Astoria, respectively.)

Today, the Starrett-Lehigh Building is owned by RXR Realty. Among its tenants are Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, design studio Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the Mcgarrybowen advertising agency, Club Monaco of Ralph Lauren Corporation and Tommy Hilfiger USA. These days, a choice of gourmet food trucks can be found in the truck bays on select floors or at curbside, according to the building’s website. The truck elevators carry these eateries-on-wheels to the upper floors. The Starrett-Lehigh Building is once again hip and trendy, with a 21st century flavor.

JUNE 23-29,2016

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The view from the general manager’s box. Photo by Bill Gunlocke

WAITING FOR MICKEY MANTLE STREET LEVEL How a young kid gets introduced to hard ball

BY BILL GUNLOCKE

Here’s my first Yankee experience.

It’s 1958. I’m 11 years old and my father and I come by train from our small town in a rural part of Western New York to see the Yankees play the Chicago White Sox, who were a big deal then. We get in the city on Thursday.

We’re staying until Sunday.

My father is older than my friends’ fathers. In the club car on the train, among businessmen in suits drinking drinks and reading newspapers, I’m having a Coke and some salted peanuts, while my father has a martini and a newspaper. One guy must sense we’re heading to a Yankee weekend.

He says to my father, “Taking the grandson down to a ball game?”

My father took trains a lot. He was a successful guy who went to New York and Washington frequently. He knew his way around train stations. On Friday morning after we had breakfast at our hotel, we take a taxicab to either Grand Central or Penn Station I can’t remember, because my father has found out when the Yankees will be coming in by train from Kansas City, where they had just played three games. They were the last team to give up train travel. So there we were, my father and me alone on the train platform waiting for the Yankees to pull in.

I’ve got a Mickey Mantle T shirt on and I’m holding a Yankee yearbook and my father’s pen.

The train stops right in front of us.

Through the windows I can see the players walking to the door to get out onto the platform where we are. I rec-

ognize every player. They’re almost all wearing pleated pants, Ban-Lon golf shirts buttoned to the neck, and sport coats. Mickey is the last one off the train. He’s dressed a little different.

He’s got on a rust-colored suit, a white golf shirt, and wrap-around sunglasses. He’s also got on white bucks.

When he walks toward where we are, I gingerly hold the Yankee yearbook, folded back to his page, up to him. I hold the pen up next to it too and say meekly, “Mickey can I have your autograph?” He says, “Out of the way kid,” and walks by us. My father and I are the only two there.

A week ago Friday I see big photos of Mickey in Yankee Stadium. I’m with an old high school buddy who’s visiting the city and who’s got two tickets to the game that night. He got the tickets from Yankees GM Brian Cashman, whom he met a year ago, for his loge even though he’s away. That’s why

we’re walking along a hallway where big photos of Yankee legends are on display. We’re in a hallway that’s lit like a Four Seasons hotel.

The seats in the loge are good, as in comfortable. But they aren’t as good as my father used to get: lower deck between third base and home plate where hot dog and beer vendors hawked their goods. We went to quite a few games over the years. He always kept score on a scorecard with his mechanical pencil.

In Catholic boarding school where I’d gone with the guy who got the tickets, and later in college, more than a few nights were taken up with heated arguments over who was the best player.

Mickey Mantle or Willie Mays. They were all Mick fans. All of them. High school and college. I was a Willie guy.

One hundred percent.

The loge has a room with cupboards and a small refrigerator. None of it looks like you think it would from seeing Jerry Jones and his gathering at a Cowboys game. It’s very nice, though.

There are plates of food. Sandwiches.

Meatballs. Chicken wings. I don’t eat meat. So I almost finish off a whole pan

of macaroni and cheese which looks great under the rich, warm lighting.

Around the sixth inning, cookies show up.

I once sat in George Steinbrenner’s box. A college friend was a lawyer for the Yankees and got me and another college friend into a game. We wind up in the boss’s box, which was maybe six rows deep. George was there in the back row. We were right in front.

There’s a guy with Steinbrenner with a face I know I know. After a while I say to my friend, “That’s Roy Cohn. The lawyer that worked with Joe McCarthy.”

At the game the other night Carlos Beltran drove in a run, maybe two.

There wasn’t much action other than that. My friend and I sat there and talked about other friends we haven’t seen over the years. Actually, he and I seldom see each other.

The big picture in the loge, right over the plates of food, has Whitey Ford in it, in street clothes. I maybe could have gotten his autograph that day at the train station, but I was waiting for Mickey Mantle.

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JUNE 23-29,2016

Community Forum How to Protect Yourself and Family Members Against Scams and Fraud

Come hear from law enforcement officials, financial advisers and neighborhood experts about how to safeguard your financial future. Learn to recognize the latest scams and find out what you can do to protect yourself and family members.

Hear what local resources are available to answer your questions.

Monday July 25 6-8pm John Jay School of Criminal Justice 524 West 59th. St This event is free but space is limited. RSVP today at RSVP@strausnews.com. Seating is ďŹ rst come ďŹ rst served.

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JUNE 23-29,2016

Our Perspective

POST-ORLANDO

As Union Strikes Deal with Macy’s, Workers Remain the Real Magic

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 fully unhelpful. Several panel members cited anecdotes when they felt uncomfortable turning to police when they had been a victim of a crime simply because of their identity.

Bianey Garcia-D la O, a transgender woman who came to New York from Mexico, said she faced particular adversity from the NYPD within her community in Jackson Heights, Queens. Speaking through an interpreter, Garcia-D la O told the story of how police were unresponsive when she and her friends complained that they were being harassed.

She said other transwomen in her neighborhood are frequently stopped and arrested because police think they are prostitutes, a practice she dubbed ”transgressive.” A law enforcement panel, which featured two gay members of the NYPD, sought to show how the department is taking steps toward garnering the trust of the gay community.

Detective Brian Downey, president of the Gay Officers Action League, said that the average officer lacks training on how to deal with situations involving members of the LGBTQ community. “[The NYPD] is mostly reactive to calls from the LGBT community,” Downey said.

“We need to be more proactive.”

Detective Tim Duffy, LGBTQ liaison for the NYPD, introduced new guidelines for handling crimes or interactions with trans individuals in 2012. He now teaches these

SHELTER CHIC CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 straightforward to manage, Feldman said that operating that way would not be in the spirit of what she and Folk envision for Shelter Chic. “We’ve stayed true to our vision,” she said.

Shelter Chic operates out of a donated space, available to them until October but Feldman and Folk don’t want to stop then. Their long-term ambition is to secure a permanent location, similar to a cat café.

Feldman thinks of Shelter Chic as being “very transparent, very from the heart.” Her inspiration came from volunteering at an animal shelter. “It was just very sad,” she said. Through Shelter Chic, she and Folk hope to “change the stigma” around animal adoption and animal shelters.

About three volunteers work at Shelter Chic at any one time. They will often dress the shelter’s roughly 20 cats and three or four dogs in whimsical costumes — tutus, polos and Yoda hats among them. The social-media savvy shelter uses similar tactics when posting on Twitter, Instagram and the like. Feldman and Folk often turn their animals into memes. When Alex the cat, the longest resident of Shelter Chic, was adopted, a mock news report ran on the Shelter Chic’s Instagram.

The animals are christened with quirky names during their tenure — Khaleesi, Sugar Bear, Lindsay Lohan, Miley Cyrus,

7

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

A tote bag from the symposium. Photo by Isidro Camacho rules to officers throughout the city.

The NYPD admitted it has significant catching up to do. Moderator Marc Fliedner, who founded the Civil Rights Bureau, explained that this lack of communication and trust between gay communities and police is the root of the numerous complaints.

“People within the NYPD think there’s no problem,” he said.

Marla Erlien, a woman from Harlem, was angered by the law enforcement panel. She called their discussion “pathetic” and felt that they did not address the connection between race, sexual orientation, and policing enough.

Sasha Alexander, founder of Back Trans Media, felt that the Law Enforcement

panel was a “set-up.” Alexander said that they avoided talking about the internal discrimination that LGBTQ officers face.

Improving the channels between gay individuals and officers is a daunting task.

Experts from all panels echoed the sentiment that it only takes one bad experience for a person to lose faith in the police system. The bad experiences, however, disproportionately happen to gay and transgender people.

The day ended with a closing statement from Mina Malik, the executive director of the CCRB. She said her organization was compiling more data about complaints from members of the LBGTQ community and that an official report is forthcoming.

Princess Petunia, Pepperoni and Fries.

Videos of dogs and cats playing or being stroked to hip hop beats also make their way online. Feldman says the nonprofit’s marketing is a way to reach a different kind of animal lover. “The goal with Shelter Chic is to expand the market of people adopting. It is lighthearted, to make people laugh; to draw attention, to get people to look,” she said.

chained up, a few others otherwise discarded, including in a Dumpster or thrown from a window.

“Making [adoption] a happy thing,” she said, is the business’ standard. Feldman, a former special education elementary school teacher, often attends career days at local schools. That way, Feldman says, the students she speaks with will “have it in their head — adopt, adopt, adopt.”

Shelter Chic has also done community service days for these schools, allowing students to learn about and to interact with the animals.

“We’re small, we’ll definitely need some kind of sponsorship down the line,” Feldman said. “We’re a community place. We know our customers’ names.”

She often texts the families that have adopted from Shelter Chic, just to check in on the dogs and cats and their new kin.

Sometimes the owners even beat her to it, sending her pictures of their pet.

All of Shelter Chic’s income goes to the care for the animals.

Though the shop is primarily fosterbased, Feldman and Folk also host adoptable animals.

But not everyone can take home a pet.

Feldman personally meets with each potential fosterer or adopter to make sure that the dogs and cats will be given a loving home. “I want people to adopt an animal because they love and respect it,” she said.

“I would never adopt out to a person that I didn’t feel 150 percent comfortable with.”

Making [adoption] a happy thing,” she said, is the business’ standard. Feldman, a former special education elementary school teacher, often attends career days at local schools. That way, Feldman says, the students she speaks with will “have it in their head — adopt, adopt, adopt.”

Instead of those looking to adopt or foster pitiable animals, such as those glimpsed on TV commercials, all of Shelter Chic’s animals are promoted as warriors. “The ‘sad, three-legged dog’ is such a badass,” Feldman said.

Some of the shelter’s residents were picked from the streets, some were

By Stuart Appelbaum, President Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, RWDSU, UFCW

M

acy’s has a unique history and role in New York City. Its iconic flagship store in Herald Square is the largest department store in the United States.

Every year, Macy’s promotes its annual fireworks display here, but the workers are the ones who truly light up the lives of New Yorkers.

Indeed, the workers are the real

magic of Macy’s.

That’s why Hillary Clinton, Mayor Bill de Blasio, and countless political leaders and everyday shoppers threw their support behind Macy’s workers this month during a tough contract fight.

During intense negotiations, 5,000 Macy’s workers from the flagship store and other stores in the New York City area never wavered in their support for each other and for a better future for retail workers.

By standing together and articulating their demands in a unified voice, Macy’s workers achieved a new contract that raises the bar for what retails jobs can be and should be.

Among the key provisions of the contract are: substantial wage increases, a better, more affordable healthcare plan, and scheduling protections that do not require workers to report for shifts on holidays like Christmas or Thanksgiving if they want to have time to spend with their families. Macy’s workers will now see major improvements in the quality of their jobs.

I am deeply moved by the bravery, commitment, and tenacity of these workers who are members of Local 1-S of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), UFCW. Overwhelmingly, these Macy’s workers are women, people of color, and immigrants who are struggling to survive in one of the most expensive cities in the world.

It’s an incredibly diverse group of workers, but they are united in the belief that this contract fight was a fight for the very heart and soul of retail work.

Macy’s workers create a unique shopping experience that has been a big part of the magic of New York City for decades. They are central to the positive image, brand, and profitability of the company.

And this contract is important not just for Macy’s workers, but for all of New York City.

It raises the bar for what retail jobs can be and should be.

It’s a major step forward for the entire retail industry, and it shows the importance of what having a union does to empower retail workers.

With a union, working women and men have dignity, justice and respect.

By coming together and joining a union, retail workers can make their jobs better, and create better lives for themselves and their families.

For more information, visit

www.rwdsu.org

8

JUNE 23-29,2016

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

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

Voices

RAMADAN, WITHOUT THE FAST

BY SABEEHA REHMAN

My baby was barely a week old when Ramadan began. Neither my husband, Khalid, nor I fasted. God had given me a temporary exemption — nursing a baby; and Khalid took a personal exemption — he played hooky. We were just not in the mood. New York City in 1972 did not rejoice in welcoming the holy month of Ramadan: TV news was silent; there were no special Ramadan programs; missing were the sounds of Qur’an recitation; absent were the green and white Ramadan Mubarak signs on stores. I did not hear the sounds of the adhan resonating from the minarets of the nonexistent mosques announcing the beginning of the fast at daybreak; and restaurants remained open. At home, there was no domestic help to cook the predawn suhoor meal; no murmurs of the elders reciting the Qur’an during the afternoon hours; and no chatter of the family gathering for the iftar — breaking of the fast at sundown. The communal sense that goes with fasting was not there. It was just I, home by myself with a newborn baby, fully immersed in diapers and feedings. Islamic rituals had taken a seat in the last row on the bus journeying through childrearing. We were adrift. ****** A gentle knock on my bedroom door in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. It’s 3 a.m., an October morning in 1971. Razia, our cook, calls out to me, “It’s time for suhoor.” I stumble out of bed, brush my teeth, put on my dressing gown, head downstairs. Razia has laid out the table, and Mummy and Daddy are already eating. I break a piece of the greasy, crispy paratha, and scoop the ginger- and garlic-flavored chicken curry. A steaming cup of tea jolts open my sleepy eyes. The clink of forks on china is the only sound as we eat in silence. Razia and Aurangzeb, our butler, eat in the kitchen and clear away after we have retreated upstairs to

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recite the Qur’an. Now I start hearing the voices of men singing in chorus, glorifying God and the Prophet, resonating from the mosque down the street. A chorus from a second mosque joins in, then a third, the closer ones louder, the farther ones fainter, each drumming their own song in a competition of sorts. Voices from the street call out again and again, “For those fasting, it’s time to wake up,” rousing those who have no intention of fasting.

I keep drinking water until the melancholic cry of the adhan rings out, signaling the beginning of the fast. The sky has lost its pitch-blackness with a break of grayish hue.

There will be no eating or drinking until sundown. No water either. No

It was the birth of my children that created that gap.

Later it would be concern for my children that would close the gap” lunch hour in offices, and no ladies’ coffee parties. Restaurants display signs, “Open for Non-Muslims, the Sick, and Travelers.” Thankfully, the signs do not list menstruating women.

A girl seen eating in a college cafeteria is a dead giveaway: she is having her period.

We are getting a little woozy by late afternoon. Iftar won’t be until 8 p.m.

We start counting the hours, and then the minutes, to sundown. Downstairs, we can hear the clatter of Razia’s cooking, the aroma of spices whiffing up the stairs, whetting my appetite.

With minutes to go, we gather for iftar at the dinner table. We pray in silence for God to accept our fast — and, between God and I, to make the seconds go faster. And then the sound we have

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

Sabeeha Rehman in March at a rooftop restaurant overlooking the Badshahi Mosque in Lahore, Pakistan. Photo courtesy of Sabeeha Rehman been yearning for — the adhan. Bis- again at 3 a.m. — the daily ritual for our religious rituals into our new lifemillah! I start — in the name of God! — 30 days. style, we put religion on hold. ****** and we reach out for the dates. Razia It was the birth of my children that Now that you have had a glimpse of created that gap. Later it would be conhas made rooh afza — the refreshing rosewater-flavored drink. The fruit Ramadan in Pakistan, do you blame cern for my children that would close chaat gives me the sugary oomph — me for chickening out? Think of it: a the gap. We would go on to building the battery charger getting plugged sleep-deprived new mom nursing a a Muslim community, break our fast into the outlet. At this time, I am not week-old baby, having to wake up at in a communal setting, and when my thinking of all the hunger in the world that odd hour, cook, eat, try to sleep; children went away to college, they — the idea behind fasting — I am con- and when she finally sleeps, baby took the ritual of fasting with them, versing with my grateful taste buds wakes up; then she is hungry and enlisting the support of the cafeteria thirsty all day. ... Thank you, God, for to prepare special meals for them. And over those crispy pakoras.

Aurangzeb has wheeled in the tea exempting nursing mothers. But what at the workplace, my colleagues saw to trolley. The cup-a-tea I have been was my husband’s excuse? And what it that luncheon meetings stayed off yearning for. I sit cross-legged on the was my excuse a year later? Or the the calendar. Ramadan is now a larger diwan and inhale the aroma of carda- year after? Or the year after that? Let’s thread in the fabric of America. mom-flavored tea. I am feeling lazy just say that the environment and the and sleepy. But wait; there is dinner support system were not there. There Sabeeha Rehman lives on the Upper East — at 10 p.m. Then night prayer made was no flow to go along with. And we Side. Her memoir, “Threading My Prayer longer with the Ramadan Taraweeh did not have the wherewithal to create Rug: One Woman’s Journey from Pakistani Muslim to American Muslim,” will be prayer. To bed at midnight; then up that flow. Not yet. Unable to integrate published on July 5 by Arcade Publishing.

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

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

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

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

JUNE 23-29,2016

9

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

COUNT ME IN GRAYING NEW YORK

BY MARCIA EPSTEIN

The ďŹ rst time I started to feel invisible was when my daughters were 14 and 17 and we took a trip to Mexico. I was in my 40s and still feeling young and peppy. However, men were eyeing my daughters up and down from dawn to dusk (and beyond), and I was feeling brushed aside, hardly there and not at all visible. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s only gone downhill from there.

Friends have told me that, as seniors, they feel invisible. Though we crowd the streets of Manhattan, we feel brushed aside as a vital part of â&#x20AC;&#x153;whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s happening.â&#x20AC;? We have very few stores where we can buy appropriate clothing. We donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t habituate loud, noisy bars and weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d rather talk in restaurants than be drowned out by the pounding music that the young seem to require. While we can, and do, make fulďŹ lling lives for ourselves, many of us donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t feel a part of the â&#x20AC;&#x153;realâ&#x20AC;? world.

I used to participate in paid focus groups, but have aged out. No one

cares about my opinion anymore.

Magazines will have articles on how to look at 40, 50 or 60, but never any older. A friend tells me that, at dinner with her family and some of their young friends, people simply ignored her comments. Not out of meanness but simply because she was old and didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t really count. For women, at least, this sense of invisibility sneaks up slowly and continues unabated. I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to be ogled or receive wolf whistles, but something in me rebels against being not seen. No make-up or sexy clothing will change that (though sexy clothing is not my style). Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s another thing we have to accept ... darn it!

Urgent care centers and walk-in clinics are proliferating like dandelions around the city. It used to be banks and Duane Reades popping up on every block; now itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s medical care centers.

They suddenly they seem to be everywhere. These centers were designed to be a niche between oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s private doctor and the emergency room, and are much cheaper than going to the ER for minor problems such as sore throats

The cat was fed ten times today

Susan Sarandon, as 60-something Marnie Minervini, aka â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Meddler,â&#x20AC;? is a welcome presence on the silver screen. Photo: Sony Pictures Classics and urinary tract infections. Most of them take insurance, and almost all of them take Medicare. For me, thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the major plus of these centers. So many doctors donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t take Medicare anymore, and to me thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s immoral.

Who needs regular care more than the

elderly, and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the poor elderly who suffer most because many donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have the money for private care. Maybe the proliferation of these clinics will help change that. Some clinics are privately owned and some are associated with hospitals. The one I use, on 91st Street

and Columbus Avenue, is associated with Mount Sinai Hospital, and that makes me feel more secure, though Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m told that the independent clinics are usually ďŹ ne. There is a difference between urgent care centers and walkin centers. Urgent care centers have enhanced capabilities and are set up to handle more serious illnesses. Whichever you choose, though, you will pay nothing (if they take your insurance), or much less than you would for a trip to the emergency room. Most are open weekends and some evenings and ďŹ ll an important niche, and the fact that most take Medicare is the big plus for the elderly.

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a pleasure to see a movie for grown-ups, and â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Meddler,â&#x20AC;? with Susan Sarandon, is a very good one.

The meddler (and she certainly is one) is Marnie, a 60ish woman who has lost her husband and moved to California to be closer to her daughter. She does meddle, to the point of being annoying, but sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also a lovable character and there is a love interest with an excop who rides a motorcycle, which is very touching. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a rare movie that shows older people dealing with love and desire. I wish there were more of these films for us seniors. I suppose they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t make much money for Hollywood; hurray to Susan Sarandon for doing this, and for showing that weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re still alive and kicking â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and open to life.

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s never too early (or too late) to talk about Alzheimerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s support.

Call our 24-hour Helpline.

Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re here anytime you need to talk.

(646) 744â&#x20AC;&#x201C;2900 Free | ConďŹ dential | Se habla espaĂąol | áĄ&#x2021;â&#x20AC;ŤŮ&#x2021;â&#x20AC;Źä&#x2026;&#x2018;ѣᎽ ɸɝɾ̴:ÂłÄ&#x2022;Ă&#x2020;Ă?žÞãĂ?Ě´ Ä?ÂłĂ?Ä&#x201A;³˾̴ɚÞĂ&#x192;Ě´"Ă&#x2013;ããò̴̴˳̴̴AÂłÄ?Ě´xãòĂ&#x201D;˾̴Ax̴ɜɾɾɜɟ̴̴ "ãòĂ&#x153;³òĂ&#x2013;Ä&#x2013;Ě´8Ă?ĂŁÄ?Ă?Ě´Â&#x153;Ü̴ÞĂ&#x192;³̴ Ă&#x2013;Ä&#x203A;Ă&#x192;ÂłĂ&#x2020;Ă&#x153;³ò˞Ü̴ ÜÜãŠĂ&#x2020;Â&#x153;ĂžĂ&#x2020;ĂŁĂ?˾̴Ax Ě´ Ă&#x192;Â&#x153;ïÞ³ò "Ä&#x201A;Ă?¯³¯̴¨Ä&#x2013;Ě´Â&#x153;̴žòÂ&#x153;Ă?Þ̴½òãĂ&#x153;Ě´ĂžĂ&#x192;³̴AÂłÄ?Ě´xãòĂ&#x201D;Ě´ZĂžÂ&#x153;Þ³̴ ³ïÂ&#x153;òÞĂ&#x153;ÂłĂ?Þ̴ã½̴(ÂłÂ&#x153;Ă&#x2013;ĂžĂ&#x192;

www.caringkindnyc.org

10

JUNE 23-29,2016

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JAMES ROSENQUIST EXHIBITION

24

registration required The National Sculpture Society’s annual sculpture conference. nationalsculpture.org/

‘STONES IN POCKETS’

The Bitter End, 147 Bleecker St. 6:30 p.m., $10 Judd Foundation, 101 Spring An acoustic rock band.

Street 212-673-7030. www.

1 p.m. – 5:30 p.m., Free–$25 stonesinpockets.com Come see the Judd Foundation’s exhibition of five James Rosenquist art pieces, being held at Donald Judd’s former JANEANE GAROFALO home.

AND D.C. BENNY www.juddfoundation.org/ EastVille Comedy Club, 85 East Fourth St. 7 p.m., $20 LITERATI PAINTING: The comedic acts from CHINA’S UNIQUE ART Comedy Central.

FORM www.eastvillecomedy.com China Institute, 100 Washington Street 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m., $25– $75 Senior Lecturer of Language and Humanities at the China Institute, Ben Wang, leads a seminar on the Chinese art of SCULPTURE Literati Painting.

CELEBRATION www.chinainstitute.org

Sat 25 CONFERENCE

The Marriot Downtown, 85 West St. 9 a.m., $25– $375. Advance

THE BATTERY FAIR The Battery Oval, Broadway entrance to The Battery 10 a.m., Free A market fair with a biodiversity theme. It will feature 90 small-batch producers of agriculture, horticulture, food, craft, flowers and grains. www.facebook.com/ events/1680925592167769/

Sun 26 THE PRIDE MARCH▲ Begins at 36th Street and 5th Ave, Ends at Christopher and Greenwich Street Noon. Free The culmination of Pride Month. www.nycpride.org/events/ the-march/

JUNE 23-29,2016

11

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

JUNE 23-29,2016

A GLIMPSE OF A DAZZLING, PROLIFIC PAST “Court & Cosmos: The Great Age of the Seljuqs” at The Met Fifth Avenue revisits a 1,000-year-old dynasty

BY MARY GREGORY

Few experiences transport us from everyday life, with its traffic, cellphones and crammed sidewalks, more than stepping into the past. And few places offer a better round-trip ticket than the Metropolitan Museum.

“Court & Cosmos: The Great Age of the Seljuqs” offers a glimpse of life in the years 1037 to 1308. The Seljuqs, a Turkic dynasty of Central Asia, were nomadic, prolific and progressive.

They conquered lands across Turkmenistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey, and spread traces of their artistic, scientific and literary advances as far as Alexandria in Egypt.

The exhibition starts with maps and historical information flanked by a pair of almost life-sized painted warriors that once guarded palace doors but now welcome visitors. They lead the way to a dazzling array of objects that attest to the wealth and power of Seljuq rulers, but also their inquisitiveness, invention, openness and acceptance. Under Seljuq rule, astonishing scientific and medical advancements were made, poetry and literature flourished, metallurgy evolved, and perhaps most remarkably given the world we live in, great religions coexisted peacefully.

The exhibition is presented in six sections: Sultans of the East and West; The Courtly Cycle; Science, Medicine, and Technology; Astrology, Magic, and the World of Beasts; Religion and the Literary Life; and The Funerary Arts. The first and second galleries focus on the rulers and their courts, an early version of lifestyles of the rich and famous. Gold medallions, coins, plaques and just about anything, including an inscrutable Sultan Tughril, that could be inscribed with a sultan’s name is included here. The Courtly Cycle includes the magnificent Blacas Ewer, a masterpiece of metalwork created in 1232 in the city of Mosul. Yes, the same Mosul we hear about on the nightly news once housed the greatest metal smith shops in the world.

The Blacas Ewer weaves copper and silver into charming vignettes depict-

ing musicians and dancers, hunting scenes, eating and merriment.

For leisure time, there’s a backgammon board and a cup inscribed with a poem extolling the virtues of wine.

An elegant dish in turquoise shows an ud player with inscriptions on the side wishing “lasting happiness” and advising “make short all long speech” — still good advice at a party.

The sections focusing on science, medicine, technology and magic amaze. The Seljuqs built hospitals and medical schools and performed surgery and dentistry. Manuscripts describe medical preparations. They’re presented alongside pincers and probes and a fearsome surgical saw from the 11th-12th century that now

IF YOU GO WHAT: Court & Cosmos, The Great Age of the Seljuqs WHERE: The Met Fifth Avenue WHEN: Through July 24 www.metmuseum.org/

sports green patina. To be on the safe side, protective inscriptions decorate the blade. A silver apothecary box looks much like today’s version of a seven-day pill container. A gold dental hook looks drastic, but augurs a less severe outcome than death by infection.

From the realm of astronomy, there’s a clever astrolabe with interchangeable dials, and a stunning celestial globe made in Iran in 1144, delicately carved with constellations and planets. An ingenious lockbox used spinning dials with letters that had to be lined up before the lock yielded.

Evoking a distant interior world are treatises on spells and magic that seem to contradict the Seljuq’s scientific inquiry, though, at the time, they were considered as valid as medicine or astronomy.

Heading into the sections covering religion, magnificently carved walnut mosque doors lead to a room filled with stunning, lavishly decorated Qur’ans displaying the height of cal-

A 12th-13th Century Turquoise Bowl Conveys Elegance and Wisdom. Photo: Adel Gorgy ligraphic artistry. Alongside them are Orthodox Christian texts with similar design elements penned by monks in Syria and a cup with Hebrew inscriptions in Seljuq metalwork style.

Last year, when the treasures at the Mosul Museum were threatened and later destroyed, Thomas Campbell, the museum’s director, and The Met issued the following statement: “This mindless attack on great art, on history, and on human understanding constitutes a

tragic assault not only on the Mosul Museum, but on our universal commitment to use art to unite people and promote human understanding.” The Met was rare and early in its wake-up call. This year, the museum has gone further in reminding visitors what marvels have been produced and may be forever lost in this important part of our shared world.

The astonishing ingenuity, touchingly human playfulness, elegance

and beauty expressed in art, poetry, spirituality, science and technology, in the works in “Court and Cosmos” when seen in context of the political realities of the 21st century bring to mind the words of Omar Khayyam, the great poet born under Seljuq rule.

“Your hand can seize today, but not tomorrow; and thoughts of your tomorrow are nothing but desire. Don’t waste this breath.” We all share the history of mankind. Don’t waste this chance to see this moving reminder.

JUNE 23-29,2016

SWINGING TO THE MUSIC A temporary installation at Battery Park is a symphony in motion

BY ERICA MAGRIN

Who didn’t love the interactive step piano at FAO Schwarz? What about banging on a Hasbro drum set as a kid?

For the adult missing that certain childlike musical glee, and for kids too, “The Swings: An Exercise in Musical Cooperation” recaptures the sentiment.

It did for Suzanne, in town from Dallas, dropping by the Battery Park City installation last week.

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ciana Bergonzi, 19, who was among those in line to get a turn. Also on line were mothers with young children, a group of 20-something friends and a woman in her 50s.

“I’ve never seen this before,” Bergonzi said. “It’s unique.”

Daily tous les jours’ original Swings installation is made up of 21 swings and has been ridden millions of times in the arts and entertainment district of Montreal. This smaller version is on tour. It will be at Battery Park until July 7 before heading to San Jose, Calif.

ten feels overly connected — so connected via social media and the web that we have lost the need for human interaction,” she said. “The Swings reawaken that sense of community. An organic conversation arises when one participates in The Swings — whether spoken or musical — through the peaceful practice of an age old pastime.”

When creating their piece, Mongiat and her co-founder, Mouna Andraos, were influenced both by an orchestra and by a biology lab located

ACTIVITIES FOR THE FERTILE MIND

thoughtgallery.org NEW YORK CITY

Culture of Desire: The Oedipus Myth and Modernity

THURSDAY, JUNE 23RD, 7:30PM Round K Cafe | 99 Allen St. | 917-475-1423 | thinkolio.org Is there more to membership in contemporary society, with its emphasis on freedom and democracy, versus obligation and tradition? A professor of philosophy and religion draws on ancient texts (Oedipus, Plato’s Republic) to ask whether modern society is Oedipal. ($12)

In Conversation: Carmine Appice of Vanilla Fudge

TUESDAY, JUNE 28TH, 7:30PM Sheen Center for Thought & Culture | 18 Bleecker St. | 212-925-2812 | sheencenter.org Hear from the man credited with creating hard rock drumming as we know it (and even the genre of stoner rock) in an intimate conversation spiced with some live performance. ($25)

Just Announced | SciCafe Special Event: ZIKA

THURSDAY, JUNE 30TH, 6PM Am. Museum of Nat. History | CPW at 79th St. | 212-769-5100 | amnh.org Zika is coming. We’ve heard the warnings for pregnant women, but how should others prepare?

A panel of experts lays out the facts about the virus, the mosquito that spreads it, and what’s the latest plan for warding off the threat. (Free)

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

sign up for the weekly Thought Gallery newsletter at thoughtgallery.org.

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Call Vincent Gardino at 212-868-0190

“The Swings: An Exercise in Musical Cooperation,” an interactive installation, will be at Battery Park City through July 7. Photo: Erica Magrin “We were swinging all together, and in time,” she said of herself and her young grandchildren. “It was like going back to my childhood!”

Designed by the Montrealbased design studio Daily tous les jours, and spearheaded by the studio’s co-founder, Melissa Mongiat, the installation is composed of 10 pastel colored swings, each producing the sound of a piano, a harp, a guitar or a xylophone.

When used at the same time, the swings develop melodies.

On a recent afternoon, though, the swingers were, well, more prone to soloing.

“I think they’re all just working on themselves,” said Lu-

The installation tracks how well those who used it actually worked together to make a cohesive piece of music. At the end of the countrywide tour, The Swings will give its verdict as to which section of the country worked together most effectively, or least effectively.

“The point of our projects are meant to have people engaged, that’s what excites us,” Mongiat said of Daily tous les jours’ art.

Debra Simon, artistic director at Arts Brookfield, which is helping to support The Swings’ tour, called the installation an antidote to our increasingly plugged-in universe.

“Today’s digitized world of-

near their studio. “We worked with five professors that study animal cooperators,” Mongiat said. “We worked on this system to bring people to work together.”

And she thinks the downtown installation is ripe for collaboration.

“It can bring people together and also bring people closer to their environment. It can get people together in a non-tense context,” she said. “In New York, you’re by the river. You can see the Statue of Liberty, the skyscrapers. It’s a different environment you’re connected to. Connection is so important in an area with such a heavy history.”

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JUNE 23-29,2016

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

RESTAURANT INSPECTION RATINGS Little Italy Pizza

180 Varick Street

Grade Pending (26) 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.

Raw, cooked or prepared food is adulterated, contaminated, crosscontaminated, or not discarded in accordance with HACCP plan.

Entwine

765 Washington Street

A

Trattoria Pesche Pasta

262 Bleecker St Bsmt Grade Pending (27) Food Protection Certificate not held by supervisor &1/Fl of food operations.

Raw, cooked or prepared food is adulterated, contaminated, crosscontaminated, or not discarded in accordance with HACCP plan.

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.

Mole

57 Jane Street

A

Dos Toros Taqueria

11 Carmine Street

A

Tue Thai Food

3 Greenwich Avenue

Grade Pending (17) 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.

Doma Na Rohu

27 1\2 Morton Street

A

Gardenia Restaurant

64 Downing St

Grade Pending (25) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation.

Filth flies or food/refuse/sewage-associated (FRSA) flies present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Filth flies include house flies, little house flies, blow flies, bottle flies and flesh flies. Food/refuse/sewageassociated flies include fruit flies, drain flies and Phorid flies.

Personal cleanliness inadequate. Outer garment soiled with possible contaminant. Effective hair restraint not worn in an area where food is prepared.

Two Boots

75 Greenwich Avenue

A

Soho House

2935 9 Avenue

A

Hudson Clearwater

447 Hudson Street

A

Potjanee

48 Carmine St

A

Fiore’s Pizza

165 Bleecker Street

A

Le Pain Quotidien

65 Bleecker Street

A

Ciao

178 Mulberry Street

A

Little Atlas Cafe

6 West 4 Street

Grade Pending (22) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation.

Food Protection Certificate not held by supervisor of food operations.

Verlaine

110 Rivington Street

A

Parkside Lounge

317 East Houston Street

A

Fat Baby

112 Rivington Street

Grade Pending (36) Food Protection Certificate not held by supervisor of food operations.

Food worker does not use proper utensil to eliminate bare hand contact with food that will not receive adequate additional heat treatment.

Raw, cooked or prepared food is adulterated, contaminated, crosscontaminated, or not discarded in accordance with HACCP plan.

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.

Subject

188 Suffolk Street

A

Claw Daddy’s

185 Orchard St

A

JUN 14 - 17, 2016 The following listings were collected from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s website and include the most recent inspection and grade reports listed. We have included every restaurant listed during this time within the zip codes of our neighborhoods. Some reports list numbers with their explanations; these are the number of violation points a restaurant has received. To see more information on restaurant grades, visit www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/services/restaurant-inspection.shtml.

Blue & Gold Bar

79 E 7th St

A

Juke Bar

196 2nd Avenue

A

Soba-Koh

309 East 5 Street

Grade Pending (17) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation.

Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service.

Chipotle Mexican Grill

117 East 14 Street

A

Vapiano

113 University Place

A

Ainsworth Park

111 East 18 Street

A

Momo Sushi

239 Park Ave S

Grade Pending (22) 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, crosscontaminated, or not discarded in accordance with HACCP plan.

Personal cleanliness inadequate. Outer garment soiled with possible contaminant. Effective hair restraint not worn in an area where food is prepared.

Sakebar Decibel

240 East 9 Street

A

Korilla East Village

23 3rd Ave

Grade Pending (27) Hot food item not held at or above 140º F. Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation.

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.

East Village Tavern

158 Avenue C

Grade Pending (19) 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.

Yerba Buena

23 Avenue A

A

Nai Tapas Bar

174 1 Avenue

Grade Pending (27) Live roaches present in facility’s food and/or nonfood areas.

Hand washing facility not provided in or near food preparation area and toilet room. Hot and cold running water at adequate pressure to enable cleanliness of employees not provided at facility. Soap and an acceptable hand-drying device not provided.

Personal cleanliness inadequate. Outer garment soiled with possible contaminant. Effective hair restraint not worn in an area where food is prepared.

Angelina

37 Avenue A

A

Root & Bone

200 E 3rd St

A

Kingsley

190 Avenue B

A

Famous & Fresh 99 Cents Pizza

91 Avenue A

Not Yet Graded (21) Hot food item not held at or above 140º F. Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation.

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

Juice Vitality

192 1st Ave

A

Dorian Gray

205 East 4 Street

A

Hector’s Cafe & Diner

44 Little West 12 Street

A

JUNE 23-29,2016

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VETERAN POLICE COMMANDER ARRESTED James Grant, who led the 19th Precinct until April, among three NYPD officials facing federal corruption charges

BY TOM HAYS AND JAKE PEARSON

Two high-ranking New York Police Department officials, including the former commander of the 19th Precinct on the Upper East Side, and a police sergeant who oversaw gun license applications were among the latest arrests in a case that has cast a cloud over the nation’s largest municipal police force.

Charges brought against four men arrested Monday in a widening city corruption probe include lurid claims that the former precinct commander, James Grant, roomed with a prostitute during a Las Vegas trip as businessmen spent tens of thousands of dollars to ensure unformed officers were available as their private security force.

A businessman who contributed heavily to the election campaign of Mayor Bill de Blasio already has pleaded guilty in the case. Earlier this month, federal prosecutors charged the head of the correction officers’ union with taking kickbacks. De Blasio has not been implicated in any wrongdoing.

Among favors was $59,000 spent on a private jet in February 2013 that took Brooklyn businessman Jeremy Reichberg, Grant and an unidentified detective to Las Vegas, the court papers said. The complaint said Reichberg and another businessman arranged for a prostitute to join the flight and spend the weekend with the group, staying in Grant’s luxury hotel room.

According to the FBI complaint, the prostitute told law enforcement agents that Grant and others “took advantage of her services” during the trip.

The court papers also contained allegations that Reichberg and an unidentified real estate businessman who has pleaded guilty and is cooperating with authorities wore elf hats as they drove to Grant’s Staten Island home on Christmas 2013 to give Grant a video game system for his children and a $1,000 piece of jewelry

E H T T E E M S R O T I ED The 19th Precinct’s former commander, Deputy Inspector James Grant, was arrested Monday on federal corruption and other charges. for his wife. Authorities said they captured Grant on a recorded telephone call a year later grumbling that his two “elves” did not come for Christmas a year later.

The head of Grant’s union declined to comment. His lawyer did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

A criminal complaint accompanying the latest charges described how Reichberg exploited his connections within the police department to arrange arrests, speed up gun application processing, make tickets disappear, obtain police escorts for him and his friends, get assistance from uniformed personnel to resolve personal disputes and boost security at religious sites and events. A Reichberg lawyer didn’t immediately return a message seeking comment.

The complaint said Reichberg even managed to use connections to local law enforcement agencies to shut down a lane of the Lincoln Tunnel and obtain a police escort for a businessman visiting the U.S. In return, the businessman showered his favored police officials with well over $100,000 in benefits from 2012 to 2015, including free fl ights and hotel rooms, expensive meals, home improvements and prime seats

at sporting events, the complaint said.

Among those arrested was Deputy Chief Michael Harrington, who was second in command at police headquarters in an office responsible for all uniformed operations.

The complaint said Harrington and an unidentified police chief let a businessman buy dinner once or twice a week for 18 months at expensive Manhattan restaurants, where bills ran $400 to $500.

Andrew Weinstein, Harrington’s lawyer, said the charges against his client were politically motivated.

“Chief Harrington is a loyal and devoted family man who has an unblemished record and has spent the last three decades working tirelessly to keep New York City safe. I consider it a privilege to represent him,” Weinstein said.

“One would be hard-pressed to find a straighter arrow in their quiver.”

Reichberg, Harrington and Grant were each charged with conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud.

The fourth individual arrested Monday was David Villanueva, an NYPD sergeant assigned to the department’s gun license bureau. He was charged with conspiracy to commit bribery.

We’re putting our newsroom on the road and coming to you in our mobile newsroom.

Kyle Pope

What neighborhood stories are we missing?

Richard Khavkine

What’s going on that we should be looking into?

Look for our truck and give us your story ideas.

Here’s where our mobile newsroom will be: Wednesday July 6 | Between 11am-3pm 81st and Madison Opposite Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel Thursday July 7 | Between 11am-3pm 76th and Amsterdam Opposite Riverside Memorial Chapel

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JUNE 23-29,2016

Photo by Pete Jelliffe via flickr

Business A PENN STATION THRILL RIDE

BIDDERS SHORTLISTED FOR JAVITS CENTER RENOVATION

NEWS

In Brief

Though the expansion of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center was planned to begin this year, the delay in selecting a designer indicates that it will likely not start until 2017.

Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that Gilbane Building Company, Skanska USA and two architecture firms are in the running to carry out the $1 billion expansion, according to the Commercial Observer website. The bidders are required to submit their plans by October 31 for the 1.2-million-square-foot space.

The expansion is part of an overhaul project that will renovate Penn Station, add a track to the Long Island Railroad, add wifi to subway stations and build a new tunnel under the Hudson River. The Javits Center will get “more amenities, new state-of-the-art meeting rooms and ballroom spaces, 27 loading docks, a rooftop terrace and a pavilion that can accommodate around 1,500 people,” according to Commercial Observer.

“This is an important milestone in our plan to transform Javits into a 21st century venue for the next generation and I look forward to seeing this project get off the ground,” Cuomo said in a statement.

DE BLASIO SNUBBED BY SENATE, GETS CONTROL OVER CITY SCHOOLS FOR ANOTHER YEAR Six weeks of fighting with the New York Senate has resulted in what is considered a huge loss for Mayor de Blasio, who was granted another one-year extension on his control of city school in exchange for publishing information on the schools’ budgets and changing the way charter schools are run.

According to Politico, “While final details are still being hammered out, the extension now appears to come with a litany of new funding disclosure rules for individual school budgets, provisions that will essentially impose a new school budget process on top of existing protocols.”

This will burden the New York City school system — the largest in the country — far more than elsewhere in the state, and will result in considerably more paperwork for its Department of Education. Though mayoral control is widely regarded as the best method of governance for the school system, de Blasio was forced to concede considerably in order to get his extension, which he was hoping would be much longer than one year. The mayor will have to return to the Senate next spring to negotiate his next extension, at which time he will be beginning to run for re-election.

Proposal comes from two city-planning veterans

BY KAREN MATTHEWS

Catching a train at New York’s crowded Penn Station is no thrill. But a development team has proposed a novel plan to overhaul the station: Build a 1,200-foot thrill ride on top of it and pay for renovations by charging $35 a ticket.

The plan submitted to state officials envisions a transparent tower called the Halo with 11 gondolas offering free-fall rides of varying speeds.

“You’re experiencing New York City in an unforgettable way,” said Alexandros Washburn, president of Brooklyn Capital Partners, the partnership behind the plan. “It’s something you will not be able to do anywhere else in the world.”

John Gerber, chairman of Brooklyn Capital Partners, said the ride is feasible from an engineering standpoint, but he acknowledged that government agencies and New Yorkers might not embrace the idea.

Other ideas floated for renovating the station have included more traditional concepts, like building office towers.

“It’s a public process and there are a lot of stakeholders,” Gerber said. “Anything that’s new is going to be complicated.”

Washburn and Gerber submitted their plan after Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo put out a request in January for proposals to renovate the rail hub he called “a blight on the greatest city in the world.”

Plans to redo Penn Station, which handles more than 650,000 passengers daily on Amtrak and commuter rail lines, have been stalled for years.

Washburn and Gerber both previously served as president of the Penn Station Redevelopment Corp., a public-private body that oversaw an earlier upgrade.

“We have been there. We know that a new approach is needed,” said Washburn, an architect who also has held the job of chief urban designer for New York City.

Washburn said that as “out of the box” as the thrill-ride plan might seem, “It’s coming from people who have worked on building New York City for 20 years.”

Washburn and Gerber say the Halo could be situated either on top of Madison Square Garden, the arena that crowns the underground Penn Station, or one block west atop the Farley Post Office building. They say it would generate $25 million to $38 million a year in ticket

sales.

Washburn said he got the idea from the New York Wheel, the 630-foot Ferris wheel now under construction on Staten Island. “We figured, aha! Take that circle, make it horizontal and elevate it,” he said.

Jonathan Gouveia, senior director of planning and infrastructure for the Municipal Art Society, an urban planning advocacy group, said he sees problems with the thrill ride.

Gouveia said placing the ride on top of Madison Square Garden and Penn Station would foreclose the option of moving the Garden off Penn Station, which his organization has pushed for. “We think both of those facilities

are bad for each other,” he said.

Gouveia also noted that midtown Manhattan is not zoned for amusement park rides.

A spokesman for Empire State Development, the agency that’s reviewing Penn Station proposals, said it can’t comment on the proposals until a development team has been chosen.

Washburn admitted that the tower-ride proposal was missing one requirement: a $15 million bond.

“They wanted a $15 million bond or line of credit in their hands,” he said. “There was a disconnect because they also asked for innovation. We decided that it’s worth submitting.”

JUNE 23-29,2016

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

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IWantToBeRecycled.org

JUNE 23-29,2016

JUNE 23-29,2016

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FATHER’S DAY STRIKE AT THE HAMILTON NEWS

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Union protesting cut wages, longer hours

Downtowner

BY MADELEINE THOMPSON

A group of families celebrated Father’s Day last Sunday by participating in a union strike at 1735 York Avenue and E. 90th Street.

Members of 32BJ who work at the building — along with their children, some of the tenants, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and City Council Member Ben Kallos — were there to protest their treatment by Bonjour Capital, which bought the building from Glenwood Management. The strike started last Thursday and ended Monday morning.

“As far as I understand it, they haven’t come to any conclusion about going back to our regular pay, and we don’t have benefits,” said Marcella Elson, the Hamilton’s shop steward.

She is one of 14 remaining union members who work in the building, out of the 17 who were there when Bonjour took over in May. Bonjour has announced that iot would be de-unionizing, and cut workers’ pay from $23 per hour to $12, while extending the work week to six days and declining to offer any benefits.

Elson said she and her colleagues have not heard anything from Bonjour since the strike started, though the company did send a letter to the building’s tenants. The letter called the strike a “scare tactic” and described the union’s conduct as having a “loose grip on reality.” It also alleged that the strike was unlawful because it did not notify management, the tenants or the service companies management hired to replace the union. Bonjour Capital could not be reached for comment.

The union’s district director John Santos insisted that 32BJ would fight for the workers’ rights as long as it takes. “[Bonjour] has a game plan, and that game is that they’re greedy and are trying to make all the money off the workers’ backs,” Santos said. “We’re in it til we

News of Your Neighborhood that you can’t get anywhere else

Dining Information, plus crime news, real estate prices - all about your part of town

Cultural Events in and around where you live (not Brooklyn, not Westchester)

Hector Figueroa, 32BJ president, at the Sunday strike. win it.”

Santos and Elson also expressed appreciation for the

It’s frustrating, especially when it comes to the end of the day and there’s no money. We’re determined that we’re going to see it out. We’re going to stay and fight.”

Marcella Elson

support of the building’s tenants, who provided them with coffee, food and support during their strike. “Things are heating up in the building,” said L. Gail, a tenant who asked to be identified by her first initial

so as not to be singled out by the management. “There was overwhelming support by the tenants for the strikers at our building. My personal experience, and many others at the building, found a definite lapse in security. Bonjour Capital hired a few temporary people to be at the front door. However, since they could not distinguish the tenants from outsiders, people were just walking in and out of the building.”

Gail also pointed out lapses in cleanliness and timely delivery due to the fact that the UPS and FedEx workers would not cross the picket line.

Elson, who has worked at the Hamilton for more than 21 years, is preoccupied by worries of how she will pay for diabetes medication now that her wages have been cut almost in half. “It’s frustrating, especially when it comes to the end of the day and there’s no money,” she said. “We’re determined that we’re going to see it out.

We’re going to stay and fight.”

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THE WORLD IN A DAY A celebration of James Joyce’s ‘Ulysses’ at Symphony Space

BY BILL GUNLOCKE

Here’s how James Joyce’s “Ulysses” starts: Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed.

More than a few people know that line. They could score points with it on Trivia Night at their neighborhood bar. Way fewer people read to the end.

That would require sticking with it for almost 800 pages -- almost 800 pages dense with the details of just one day in Dublin.

Like readers of “Infinite Jest” or “Gravity’s Rainbow” or any Salinger book. who want to live in those books, readers of “Ulysses” want to live in it, too. They reread it. They read books about it. They buy various paperback editions of it. They join study groups about it. They go on YouTube and watch the movie version which I, a college junior, saw with my girlfriendlater-wife at an unlikely art house in South Bend, Indiana in 1967. They go to Dublin to follow the book’s footprints. They buy “Ulysses” T shirts at the Strand.

And if they’re lucky enough to live here, they go to Symphony Space on June 16 for Bloomsday on Broadway.

Leopold Bloom is the protagonist/ hero of the book.

There are celebrations all around the world on June 16, the day in 1904 that the book’s about. Symphony Space has been doing it for 35 years, all because a Joyce fan named Isaiah Sheffer got it going and cared for it until his death a few years ago. It goes on still, guided by his spirit.

I went to it last week. I’d been to it maybe four times before. Why I don’t go every year is a testament to how un-

reflective we humans are. It had been a wonderfully stimulating time, each time.

If all they did was read “Ulysses” out loud on a stage, you wouldn’t go back, and it wouldn’t have lasted 35 years.

So each year they do something fresh.

Here’s what they did this year, in front of maybe 300 people who paid $25 to get in for the 7 p.m. start time: It began with eight to 10 actors in street clothes reading a digested version of Joyce’s “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.” Perfectly read, perfectly coordinated for almost an hour. It could have gone on.

Next came eight to 10 actors (some the same as in the first performance) to read poems and letters and proclamations having to do with the Easter Rising in 1916. Two young women each sang a song that took your heart away.

It too could have gone on longer than it did. People in the audience clapped with their hands above their heads.

When I say eight to 10 actors, that sounds generic, and nameless. Like neighborhood theater. Well, every single person on that stage was up to it, at the highest level. It’s New York, after all.

And next, more actors came out to join the ones we’d seen to read perfectly chosen parts from each of the 18 chapters of “Ulysses.” Wow. You even said wow to yourself out loud a few times. That could have gone on, too.

At this point you’re glad you live in New York, that you get to be there. But it’s 11:30 and you’re a sports fan and you don’t even know how the NBA game is going, so you can’t possibly stay for the show-stopping highpoint final act of the night, Molly Bloom’s soliloquy performed by Fionnula Flanagan. And you leave and walk across the street to the 96th Street subway station and there you go. Still floating a little from what you’ve just seen.

I brought my copy probably just to feel like a schoolboy. Photo by Bill Gunlocke

VISIT OUR WEBSITE! at OTDOWNTOWN.COM

JUNE 23-29,2016

JUNE 23-29,2016

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

YOUR 15 MINUTES

STRENGTH THROUGH ADVERSITY A 17-year Army veteran turned his struggle into a career dedicated to advocacy

BY ANGELA BARBUTI

Luis Carlos Montalván uses his experience in what he calls “the war after the war” to advocate for and spread awareness of the hardships veterans encounter that civilians may forget.

A recipient of a Purple Heart and two Bronze Stars for his service in Iraq, he now lives on the Upper West Side with his service dog Tuesday, who assists him with the physical and mental challenges of war’s aftermath.

In 2011, his memoir, “Until Tuesday: A Wounded Warrior and the Golden Retriever Who Saved Him,” became a bestseller. Besides the time he spends public speaking on the topic, he is also earning his second master’s at Columbia and has even introduced children’s books to his growing list of projects.

Montalván is one of the subjects chronicled in “Buried Above Ground,” a documentary that sheds light on the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder. The film premieres on June 28 on the World Channel as part of the America ReFramed series.

What do you want people to learn about PTSD from the documentary?

We hope a candid and deep discussion about post-traumatic stress disorder is able to be facilitated from the film. From the stories of the Katrina survivor, the domestic and child abuse survivor and myself, that PTSD will go from being what it is now, a household term, to something that is better understood.

How does Tuesday help you? Explain what he’s trained to do.

He helps me physically and psychologically. Although the film is about PTSD, I have some serious physical disabilities too. He does things like help me sleep. I don’t have them as frequently, but I used to get very bad nightmares, so he can wake me up and snuggle and put me at ease. He helps me walk. He has a handle on his harness which helps me with balance. He also helps me with mental balance.

Obviously the stress part of PTSD is significant, so he is able to mitigate most of the symptoms of PTSD.

There’s a scene in the film where a taxi driver doesn’t let you in because of Tuesday. What’s it like traveling around the city with him and what kind of discrimination have you faced?

First of all, things have gotten better in terms of access issues related to ser-

vice dogs. But mostly that’s because of advocates fighting back, not because of the right reason, which would be education in the form of teaching and public service announcements and things of that nature. Most of this education has come because of lawsuits and media that has spread situations like the ones we’ve experienced. That said, there’s still quite a problem in the city and the country that people with disabilities who have service dogs face. And it varies from restaurants to companies of any sort to security personnel and law enforcement, merchants of all kinds, and even the government. There are so many employees and owners of various private and public sector organizations who are ignorant of the law and deny people with disabilities access. And that’s a very painful thing because it’s a liberty and a freedom. And when you’re denied that freedom, it is a gross violation of basic civil liberties.

How did you meet Senator Al Franken and what has he done to aid the cause?

I met him at an inaugural ball for President Obama in 2009. And I mentioned to him, as I mentioned back then to so many people, that it would be sensational if he would consider championing a piece of legislation to partner service dogs with veterans.

This is a very badly needed form of assistance for people with disabilities and there was no governmental support for it. There’s no funding. And the government pays for wheelchairs, has Medicare, does all kinds of things for people, but as significant a help as dogs like Tuesday are, there’s no support for that financially. So, thankfully, he listened and his first piece of legislation as a U.S. senator was the Service Dogs for Veterans Act.

Was writing “Until Tuesday” a form of therapy for you?

The original intention of the book was to discuss mostly what I would call the war after the war. The war that comes after, the battle that veterans and their families face after war, because that war is too often forgotten. So it was to really elucidate the challenges and problems, but also the goodness, especially in the form of Tuesday. To be able to help people of all sorts, even those who were not veterans, move on in their recovery and lives. Nowadays, there’s been a lot said about writing as a form of catharsis. But back then, that was not common. There were no writing warrior workshops. I wasn’t really writing it for therapy, although it certainly did

become therapy.

There is a movie being made based on the book. How involved will you be in that?

Yeah, it’s been bouncing around like a lot of other movies. They’re still in pre-production at this point. At least in my case, I don’t want any major motion picture to lose its essence, so Tuesday and I will be pretty involved.

You’ve written children’s books as well.

What feedback have you gotten from teachers and parents?

The children’s books are really aimed at helping to educate and delight children with a discussion of living and thriving with disabilities.

Teachers, parents, librarians and lots of other adults involved in education have found the book extremely use-

ful in discussing subjects like mental health that too often go undiscussed.

Because it’s a dark subject. It’s difficult for anyone to discuss that, let alone to discuss it with a child. I was in the army for 17 years, so I never thought I was going to be an author. Life just happened that way. Towards the end of writing “Until Tuesday,” I really thought that writing a children’s book would hopefully be an important means to reaching other generations.

Afghanistan in particular and warriors’ ability, willingness and courage to candidly discuss very serious mental health conditions, civilians are emboldened to do the same. And really what we’re doing is continuing to speak about trauma and recovery and healing in ways that hopefully help people better their own lives.

To learn more about Luis, visit www. luiscarlosmontalvan.com

What are your future plans?

Really to keep spreading hopeful and informative messages. I think one of the big bright lights in the 21st century is a focus on mental health. In the 20th century, there was very little focus on it. It was very dark and unknown. Because of the wars in Iraq and

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VOL. 2, ISSUE 10

10-16

Our To wn ha The pa s much 2016, per celebrat to be thank an OTTY d this we es its 45th ful for. ek Award anniv made ersary winnershonors its a un lat The OT ique differe , noting pe est group in ople wh of nce on You -- TY award the o ha s ha munit ve always -- short for OuUpper East ve Sid be y strong. service, an en a reflect r Town Th e. d this anks year’s ion of deep Our ho list is parti combusiness norees inc cularly owners lude co heroe mm an s.

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