Our Town Downtown - July 6, 2017

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WEEK OF JULY A SLICE, A CEL-RAY AND A SCOWL < P. 16

6-12 2017

Gentrification, ultimately, is a seismic socioeconomic phenomenon that might be slowed but not stopped, a Chinatown civil rights advocate says. Photo: Lily Haight

CHINATOWN’S HOUSING CRISIS COMMUNITY Luxury development and an influx of new money create hardships for longtime and elderly residents

BY CLAIRE WANG

When Xing Zhao Ye, 87, first arrived in Manhattan’s Chinatown from Fuzhou as a seamstress in 1981, the neighborhood was a mecca for migrant hustlers: a factory-laden place where garment workers, cigar rollers and laundry cleaners came together to stitch the Chinese chapter in the city’s history. In the ensuing four decades, she has never ventured out of the neighborhood, stepped on a subway, or learned how to converse in English. “There was no need” to assimilate, she said in Cantonese, her mother tongue.

Swarming with low-wage laborers from Fuzhou and Hong Kong, Chinatown in the 80s could easily have

been mistaken for any southern district in mainland China.

Chinatown is no longer so friendly and accessible to low-income immigrants, even those who have lived in the neighborhood for generations.

An eviction notice last fall and the subsequent court summons in January left Ye blindsided and helpless.

Once a month in court, accompanied by only a cane and a translator, she has begged the judge to keep her in her Grand Street home, and to explain why a forced eviction is even legal if she could afford rent. “I don’t know how to live anywhere else,” she said. “Please help me find a place to live.”

For almost a decade now, Chinatown has been engulfed in an affordable housing crisis. To accommodate ever-increasing demand for housing at every income level, a storm of luxury development has washed onto every neighborhood in Manhattan.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 15

Aaron Foldenauer, right, a City Council candidate, speaking about a federal criminal complaint he filed June 28, alleging that his rights to free speech were violated when NYPD officials confiscated campaign literature prior to allowing him and others into a June 21 event hosted by Council Member Margaret Chin and Mayor Bill de Blasio.

COUNCIL CANDIDATE ALLEGES WRONGDOING POLITICS A challenger to Margaret Chin’s District 1 seat says campaign literature was confiscated illegally

BY RICHARD KHAVKINE

A challenger to Council Member

Margaret Chin’s District 1 seat has filed a criminal complaint alleging that the confiscation of his campaign literature prior to a June 21 town hall meeting hosted by Chin and attended

by Mayor Bill de Blasio violated his right to free speech.

According to the 7-page complaint

by Aaron Foldenauer, which he submitted to the office of acting U.S. AtDowntowner

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SPRING ARTS PREVIEW < CITYARTS, P.12

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

BY RICHARD KHAVKINE

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

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

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

2015

In Brief MORE HELP FOR SMALL BUSINESS

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

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

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

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

BY DANIEL FITZSIMMONS according to DOB of Informacement from trucks.

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

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

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

n OurTownDowntow

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Newscheck Crime Watch Voices

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

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25

torney Joon Kim June 28, uniformed and plainclothes NYPD personnel at a security tent seized political flyers, banners and signs critical of either Chin or de Blasio or that supported opposition candidates before allowing people in to the June 21 event at the YMCA on Bowery.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 15

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‘SOMETHING DID NOT GO WELL’ TRANSIT WOES How the MTA uses jargon to camouflage what the real problems are. A guide to subway-speak

BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN

Derailment. Track fires. Signal failure. Power outages. Inoperable switches. Hourly breakdowns. Sardine-like overcrowding.

Meaningless, crackling, inaudible messages about “train traffic ahead.”

Unannounced, unexplained, multiminute, mid-tunnel stops between stations. And the blowing of swamplike air from air-conditioning ducts.

Those are the 10 plagues afflicting the city’s subway system, and absent locusts, pestilence and wild beasts — at least so far — it still sounds positively biblical.

But there is an 11th plague, under the radar, largely unexamined, just as toxic, which also must be addressed: Obscurantism.

This is the deliberate use of language to mask or obscure facts from becoming known. It’s the practice of evading clarity in communications and sup-

pressing or inhibiting the dissemination of knowledge.

It is actually one of the rare things at which the MTA excels. And no, it doesn’t cause cascading delays. But it camouflages them. It’s not the source of ineptitude, human error or mechanical failure. But it conceals them.

As Joseph Lhota reprises his role as MTA chairman, he must curtail the jargon and bureaucratese that bars a fuller understanding of the history, causation and nature of a dysfunctional system.

Start with a single overused word.

“Disinvestment.” Yes, cash for capital projects has been withheld for decades. But when MTA Communications Director Beth DeFalco claims the subways are hobbled due to the “sins of 1970s neglect and disinvestment,” she is eschewing responsibility, shamelessly finger-pointing, and basically saying, “Don’t blame us for today’s conditions, it happened 40 years ago.”

Likewise, when Governor Andrew Cuomo’s chief spokesman, Richard Azzopardi, tracks the “rapid acceleration” of MTA woes to ex-Governor George Pataki’s “disinvestment” in the system, here’s what he’s really saying:

“Even though we’ve run the subways and controlled the MTA since Cuomo took office 6.5 years ago, it all went to hell in the 1990s.” It may be unkind to note that when Pataki was elected in 1994, the incumbent he toppled was Cuomo père, the liberal lion his son calls “Mario.”

In his spare time, Lhota should pick up the MTA glossary, read it, junk it and start afresh. Where to begin? Try these imprecisions: • “Dwell time” and “throughput.” It may not be particularly helpful, but here’s how the words are used in MTAspeak: “Increased dwell time leads to a degradation of throughput,” an online agency report says.

What this means is that a train on the Lexington Avenue corridor that’s scheduled to dwell for 30 to 45 seconds, to alight and load passengers, may in fact take one to two minutes or longer, thus reducing the number of trains per hour than can pass through a station.

• “Guideline capacity” and “crush capacity.” As used in a hypothetical sentence: Ideally, the No. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 trains should operate at guideline capacity, but unfortunately, they’re now likely to operate at crush capacity.

Guidelines call for three square feet of space for every standing passenger, something you might possibly see at the Whitehall Street station of the R train at 3 a.m. on a Sunday. At more common crush times, a subway train’s maximum physical capacity is utilized or exceeded.

If guidelines were met, there’d be 1,400 to 1,450 people on a typical A, B, C, D, E, F, G, J, L, M, N, Q, R and W train, according to the MTA’s online glossary. At crush capacity, the so-called lettered trains can and do pack in a suffocating 2,010 to 2,300 riders or more.

• “Something that did not go well.”

This translation is easy: An inexplicable, indefensible nightmare underground.

Wynton Habersham, acting vice president of MTA subways, used those words to describe a June 5 incident in which riders were trapped for 48 sweltering minutes on an F train with no power, air or lights — and no live announcements, only a bogus recording about “train traffic ahead.”

The bottom line: Lhota’s mission is to rescue the rush hour — and order his apparatchiks to stop calling it “concentrated commutation time.”

Governor Andrew Cuomo boards an E train at Chambers Street for the ride to Penn Station in September 2014. Photo: Marc A. Hermann / MTA, via Wikimedia Commons

A DESIGNER’S ‘THIRD ACT’ FASHION Diane von Furstenberg’s latest project is a new Statue of Liberty museum

BY JOCELYN NOVECK

Designer Diane von Furstenberg’s current favorite model is, not surprisingly, tall — more than 100 feet, actually. And though this model’s 225 tons don’t exactly fit into a DVF wrap dress, she does have some rather iconic accessories: a tablet and, most importantly, a torch.

Von Furstenberg’s latest project — part of a redirection of her energies in the year since she handed over the creative reins of her company — is the Statue of Liberty. More specifically, it’s a new museum that aims to better serve the four million-plus visitors who come to Liberty Island each year, since the vast majority can’t get into the statue itself due to increased post9/11 security. The goal is to raise $100 million for the project, which is slated to open in 2019; Von Furstenberg has already raised $74 million in a year and a half, according to the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation.

But the veteran designer, who re-

cently turned 70, says she had one key request when signing on as chair of the fundraising campaign: “Don’t call me chairwoman. Give me the title of temporary godmother.”

It’s an apt title in a number of ways.

For one thing, “Diane really is a godmother of fashion,” says Steven Kolb, president and CEO of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, where von Furstenberg serves as board chair. In her role — she was president of the organization for about a decade — she is a key influence and source of support for up-and-coming designers, Kolb says.

And as she shifts into the latest stage of her career — a year ago, she ceded her company’s creative director position to Scottish designer Jonathan Saunders — she has focused increasingly on projects that promote women, including her annual DVF awards, now in their eighth year. She also often speaks to groups of women and girls, and is on the board of Vital Voices, the women’s leadership organization.

The flashy CFDA Awards ceremony that she presides over each year had a more political bent earlier this month, honoring three women for their roles in the Women’s March on Washington in January: feminist author and leader Gloria Steinem, Planned Par-

Diane von Furstenberg. Photo: David Shankbone, via flickr enthood head Cecile Richards, and singer/actress Janelle Monae.

The designer calls this time in her life and career her “third act.”

“I always used to say that life has three moments,” she says, sitting in her downtown office on a recent afternoon. “One is development, until about (age) 30. One is enjoyment, and then the third, the last season of your life, is somehow about fulfillment.”

She says she’d been preparing for the milestone of turning 70 — which she reached on New Year’s Eve — for about a year, asking herself, “What

JULY 6-12,2017

kind of senior citizen do I want to be?

How do I stay relevant?”

What she decided, she says, was to use her voice to focus on women from the inside, rather than the outside. “All my life was about creating a product, fashion, something [women] could use to be the woman they want to be, and now in my third act I want to use my voice to help women be the woman they want to be, but from the inside,” she says. “Because it doesn’t matter how successful and powerful women are ... sometimes you wake up in the morning and you feel like a total

Now, tell us what subway-speak, language, terminology or bureaucratic jargon you find most objectionable. Write Douglas Feiden, at invreporter@strausnews.com. To brush up on the lingo, you can consult the MTA’s own online glossary, http://web.mta.info/ capital/sas_docs/sdeis/glossary.pdf loser. I know I do.”

When the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation came calling, von Furstenberg says, she thought, “‘My husband is going to divorce me if I join one more board.’” She also professes to not enjoy asking people for money.

But then, as she recounted to guests last week at a sunset event on Liberty Island, she read about the statue’s story, and found herself riveted. As for the foundation, they were looking for “a woman who spoke French,” quips president Stephen Briganti. He says the Belgian-born von Furstenberg was also perfect because she herself arrived as an aspiring designer in America — those jersey dresses in her trunks — by boat, catching sight of Lady Liberty as she arrived.

Von Furstenberg says her new project was also inspired by her late mother. As she recounts in her 2014 memoir, “The Woman I Wanted to Be,” her mother served in the Resistance in Belgium during World War II, was arrested in May 1944 and sent to Auschwitz. She was one of the very few who survived — the camp was liberated by the Soviets in January 1945 — and when she made it back to Belgium she wrote on a form that she was “in excellent health” even though, her daughter says, she weighed about 50 pounds.

“My mother always said God saved her so she could give me life,” she says. “And she used to add, ‘You are my torch of freedom.’ So it’s kind of the end of a cycle.”

JULY 6-12,2017

3

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CRIME WATCH BY JERRY DANZIG STATS FOR THE WEEK Reported crimes from the 1st precinct for Week to Date

Photo byTony Webster, via flickr

BAD WORD HEARD

PASSWORD FAIL

KICKED AND NICKED

Words certainly can have consequences, as this story suggests.

At 5:42 a.m. on Saturday, June 24, a man in his 30s walked up to a 45-yearold man inside the Staten Island ferry terminal and stabbed him in the left upper arm with an unknown object.

The assailant then told the victim, “You called me the N word” before walking away. A search of the area failed to turn up the attacker who is being described as black, with a muscular build, and last seen wearing a dark baseball cap, black tank top and cargo short with dark sneakers carrying a blue shopping bag and knapsack. The victim was not seriously hurt, police said.

At 3 a.m. on Wednesday, June 21, a 27-year-old woman was standing outside a pub at 120 Cedar Street when an unknown man displayed a knife and forcibly took her iPhone 7. The bad guy then fled on foot eastbound on Cedar. A search of the area proved fruitless. Unfortunately, the woman was unable to track her phone because she couldn’t remember her password.

A transit fare beater was arrested after attacking a police officer. At 10:15 a.m. on Wednesday, June 21, an officer saw a 24-year-old man in the South Ferry subway station bending and altering a MetroCard in an attempt to gain illegal access to the transit system.

The officer stopped the man, who resisted arrest by flailing his arms and trying to flee. The man, later identified by police as Marcus McNeil, then kicked the officer in the head. During the scuffle the officer struck his head on a handrail, causing further injury. He was transported to a hospital for treatment, and McNeil was arrested and charged with assault on a peace officer.

Year to Date

2017 2016

% Change

2017

2016

% Change

Murder

0

0

n/a

1

0

n/a

Rape

0

0

n/a

8

6

33.3

Robbery

2

2

0.0

33

29

13.8

Felony Assault

2

7

-71.4

37

42

-11.9

Burglary

1

5

-80.0

31

70

-55.7

Grand Larceny

31

21

47.6

461

516 -10.7

Grand Larceny Auto

0

3

-100.0

8

22

STROLLER DOLOR

MAKEUP TAKEUP

At noon on Wednesday, June 21, a 27-year-old woman left her purse in her child’s stroller on the second floor of the McDonald’s at 160 Broadway while she took her child to the restroom. When she returned to the stroller her bag was missing. She told police she was missing $1,000, an iPhone 6S valued at $600, a black purse worth $150, a Social Security card, a green card, and three credit or debit cards.

It’s hard for a drugstore to make its income targets when thieves steal its makeup. At 9:44 p.m. on Saturday, June 17, an unknown perpetrator entered the Duane Reade store at 250 Broadway and removed makeup valued at $1,626.74. The theft was not reported until two days later.

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19 ½ Pitt St.

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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

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212-669-7970

Community Board 2

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Community Board 3

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212-533-5300

Community Board 4

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Elmer Holmes Bobst

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TAKING STOCK OF MANHATTAN SUPERMARKETS COMMUNITY Some neighborhoods underserved by affordable food stores, study says

BY MICHAEL GAROFALO

The importance of access to healthy food options in affordable supermarkets needs little additional explanation. How to ensure that all Manhattan residents can easily access such stores, however, is a more complicated matter. A study released last week by Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer catalogs the borough’s existing grocery stores and prescribe solutions for maintaining and expanding the supermarket options available to Manhattan residents.

“We need to make sure we do not have food deserts,” Brewer said in a telephone interview. “In Manhattan we don’t drive — we take public transportation — and we need to have the ability to get to a supermarket in our neighborhood. As the population gets older it’s even more important.”

The study, titled “Manhattan Supermarkets: How to Keep them Alive,” features a comprehensive survey of 229 Manhattan supermarkets, organized by community board, and reports the senior-friendly features available at each store, including wheelchair accessibility, delivery availability and costs, senior discounts, and whether SNAP or EBT benefits are accepted.

Brick-and-mortar supermarkets in Manhattan face challenges on a variety of fronts, according to Charles Platkin, executive director of the New York City Food Policy Center at Hunter College. “There are all these forces which have changed that landscape

A new study from Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer catalogs the borough’s supermarkets and makes recommendations for ensuring their viability. Photo: size4riggerboots, via flickr for supermarkets,” he said. (Platkin was not involved in Brewer’s study.)

High commercial rents have impacted Manhattan retailers across the board in recent years, Platkin said, but the supermarket industry has been hit particularly hard due to its razor-thin profit margins, which have grown even tighter in recent years with the emergence of stiff competition from online grocery delivery services like FreshDirect. To meet the demands of the market, many stores have started offering home delivery services of their own (including 185 of the 229 Manhattan supermarkets surveyed in Brewer’s study), driving up transportation costs and further reducing margins.

“It’s the hardest business imaginable,” Brewer said.

CYCLIST KILLED ON WEST SIDE ACCIDENTS Fifth fatal accident in Manhattan this year, highest total since 2011

BY ESTELLE PYPER

A 17-year-old cyclist was killed early Thursday, June 29, when he was struck by a box truck at the intersection of 10th Avenue and 55th Street.

Police said the teen, Corbin Carr, of East 69th Street, was riding north on 10th Avenue in the east-most lane when he was hit by a truck being driven by a 29-year-old man at about 12:10 a.m. The driver remained at the

scene.

It was unclear from the police account which direction the truck was travelling in, but police said the truck’s driver had a green light.

Carr was taken to Cornell Medical Center where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

The NYPD’s Collision Investigation Squad is investigating the specific traffic patterns of the incident, a police spokesman said. But the publication Streetsblog, citing several prior instances of what it called “misleading” police accounts following bicycling fatalities, was skeptical as to how police were relatively quick in determining that Carr did not have

Many Manhattan supermarkets bear the added cost burden of the commercial rent tax, which imposes an effective tax of 3.9 percent of base rent on the borough’s business tenants south of 96th Street (certain businesses below Chambers Street, as well as tenants with annualized rents below $250,000, are exempt from the tax). “If you’re trying to encourage supermarkets to offer healthy food, especially fruits and vegetables, the additional cost of the commercial rent tax can be a burden,” Platkin said.

Brewer has championed a city council proposal that would eliminate the commercial rent tax for supermarkets. The benefits of making it easier for supermarkets to do business, she said, would far outweigh the negative impact on the city’s coffers. “It would

the right of way.

The teen’s death was the third time a bicyclist was killed in Manhattan in June.

Dan Hanegby, 36, an experienced cyclist, was killed June 12 when he was crushed by a charter bus’ rear wheels while riding on 26th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues.

Five days later, Michael Mamoukakis, 80, was riding south on Seventh Avenue when he was struck, also by a tour bus, and killed at the intersection of 29th Street.

The three deaths bring the number of cyclists killed in Manhattan this year to five, the highest number killed since 2011, when six cyclists were killed, according to the city’s Vision Zero data. Two were killed in Manhattan all of last year.

only be a little over $5 million from the City of New York in terms of lost tax revenue — not a lot of money,” she said.

“We want brick-and-mortar supermarkets to be able to survive, and the CRT bill is one example of what needs to be done,” Brewer added.

There are nearly 2,000 establishments in Manhattan that sell food, but the study included strictly supermarkets that offer a full range of fresh options like produce, meats, and prepared foods.

While residents of many underserved communities rely on bodegas and delis for their food needs, such stores often lack unprocessed options that promote good health outcomes.

“It’s nothing against bodegas, but you’re not getting the healthiest selection of foods that you could potentially get if you shopped at a supermarket,” Platkin said.

Brewer’s report calls for an update and expansion of the Food Retail Expansion to Support Health (FRESH) program, which offers zoning and financial incentives to encourage the establishment of affordable grocery stores offering healthy foods in underserved areas.

FRESH eligibility zones were based on a 2008 study commissioned by the city that identified areas without sufficient grocery options; as a result, benefits in Manhattan are available to supermarkets mostly in neighborhoods above 96th Street. But according to Brewer’s report, due to supermarket closures since the city’s study was conducted 2008, there are a number of underserved communities further south that could benefit from FRESH but are currently ineligible for the program.

The survey identified several East Side communities that suffer from a lack of affordable food options, including Kips Bay, Murray Hill, and Turtle Bay. “Unlike much of Harlem and Washington Heights, these East River neighborhoods are not mapped or zoned to benefit from the FRESH program, and there are no incentives in these neighborhoods to include a purpose-built supermarket unit into new construction,” the study reports.

“Furthermore, the remaining supermarkets in this area are all at risk, competing for business and for their own spaces with national chain pharmacies, which often outbid supermarkets for their commercial leases all across the city.”

When a supermarket closes, the impact extends well beyond the reduced access to healthy food in the surrounding neighborhood, according to Platkin. Supermarkets are community anchors, he explained — a local grocery shuttering its doors influences real estate prices in the area and can have a very real psychological impact on the community. When a neighborhood market shuts down, Platkin said, “You feel like something’s being taken away from you. You feel like your area’s not worthy.”

In addition to a call to expand FRESH eligibility to underserved areas not currently covered by the program, Brewer’s report recommends the establishment of commercial loading zones in front of all supermarkets to reduce expenses through improved shipping efficiency and calls for a review of unnecessary rules and regulations that could be rolled back to further reduce supermarkets’ costs.

A white bicycle like the one pictured is often brought to the site where cyclists have been killed. Photo: Thomas Brownell via Wikimedia Commons

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COMMUNITY BOARD 7 MOVES TOWARDS SOCIAL MEDIA MEETINGS A live Twitter chat falls flat, but chair Roberta Semer hopes that digital forums will catch on

BY ELISSA SANCI

Firefighters at the scene of a five-alarm fire on East Ninth Street and Broadway Wednesday evening.

Photo: Bryse Ciallella

VILLAGE BLAZE DISPLACES HUNDREDS FDNY A five-alarm fire burns for hours near Astor Place

BY BRYSE CIALLELLA

Hundreds of residents were displaced and 19 firefighters injured, none critically, by a five-alarm fire in a six-story building on East Ninth Street near Broadway Wednesday evening, FDNY officials said.

The building, at 60 East Ninth Street, was extensively damaged by fire, smoke and water, a department spokesman said.

“It was a long operation, a lot of water,” he said.

Fire crews were on scene at 5:48 p.m., three minutes after the first call came in, he said, and worked for about three hours to extinguish the blaze.

The fire might have sparked in a ground-floor deli, FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro said, although no definitive cause has been determined.

No residents were injured by the fire, although one person did have a medical emergency during the blaze the spokesman said A 36-year-old woman who asked to be identified only as Melissa lives in an apartment on the third floor of the building. She was at work at Credit

Suisse but learned of the fire when a friend who lives in Spain saw social media posts of the fire and alerted Melissa.

Melissa headed home, sidestepping her way around the mass of onlookers watching the smoke billowing out of the building’s windows.

Although no people were trapped inside the building, Melissa’s four-year-old dog, Finnegan, was.

A half an hour or so later, a firefighter came out of the building with his arms cradled around the pup. Finnegan had made it.

Community Board 7 chair Roberta Semer wants to give Upper West Siders the ability to voice their concerns and ask their questions in a public forum without leaving the comfort of their homes.

The way to do this? With live Twitter chats. On the evening of Tuesday, June 27, Semer hoped to start a conversation about topics affecting the Upper West Side by hosting CB7’s first live chat, where she intended to answer questions and concerns in real time.

Unfortunately, she’s off to a slow start — only two people reached out to Semer, who was tweeting from her personal handle @rss205nyc.

But this doesn’t discourage Semer. Instead of ditching social media, something she admitted isn’t her forte, she’s already thinking of ways to improve for next time.

“Hopefully it’ll catch on,” she said. “We’re going to do it every two weeks for the summer to see how it goes.”

When board members Linda Alexander and Suzanne Robotti suggested holding the social media forum, Semer said she was in. The live Twitter chat was meant to target people who would otherwise remain unengaged had they not joined in on Twitter, particularly a younger demographic of Upper West Siders who don’t normally attend board meet-

Roberta Semer, chair of CB7. Photo: Bruce Semer ings to voice their concerns.

“We want to reach more people,” Semer said. “We want to get more people in the community involved.

There may be a whole sector of people who aren’t aware of the community board and aren’t aware of what we do and the kinds of issues that we deal with.”

Next time, she and the CB7 communication committee plan to better advertise the live chat so more people are aware beforehand.

“I think we need to put it up on the website and announce it at the full board meetings,” she said. “We really need to do better outreach.”

Semer also intends to pick a topic of conversation for her live chats; she wondered if her first live tweet was too broad, leaving community members overwhelmed and not sure what to tweet about.

Narrowing down the chat

to a handful of topics might encourage people to participate, she said.

“If 20 people tweet and five are concerned with one thing, then we could tweet about that the next time,” Semer said. “We can build on it.”

Although their first attempt may have fallen flat, CB7 is ready to move in a new, digital direction. The board utilizes their website, Facebook page and Twitter handle to engage with the community — most recently, they created an Instagram account.

“We’re all very new to this,” Semer said. “I mean, I’ve tweeted five times in my life before last night. I think I’m going to start using Twitter more and I’m going to start tweeting about things that are happening in the community.”

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SEEK AND YOU WILL FIND LEX IN THE CITY

BY ALEXA DIBENEDETTO

One of the most wondrous things about New York City is that it never fails to surprise you. You might expect that I’d be jaded by now, having lived here for most of my life. Not quite.

In a few ways, yes. I’m jaded by the MTA issues, the indecisive weather.

I’m immune to the odors that out-oftowners notice immediately (what really is fresh air?) and unfazed by the mystery substances that trickle onto my shoulder when I stand beneath awnings and air conditioners.

I’m accustomed to the oddballs yelling Bible verses at me while I wait on the corner for my Uber to arrive or the 100 pop-up eateries that open

every week, each attempting to be more eclectic than the rest.

Beyond these things, I view the city with the same sense of awe as those who’ve just arrived. So often I discover some bizarre new experience, some hidden haunt or quirky club that I couldn’t possibly imagine how one could ever truly become bored here. It’s a place that has something to offer for everyone; if you have an interest or a hobby, you’re sure to find hundreds of others who share it.

Beneath the surface, 1,000 subcultures thrive. Art gallery-goers and poets share the street with analysts and antique dealers, who stand in line for their coffee alongside ravers and race-runners.

My mindset is that if you open the door to opportunity — if you are willing to step outside of your comfort zone, to say “yes” more often —

you’ll naturally uncover the corners of New York that surprise you. The same goes for people — following this method, you’ll meet the most interesting folk.

Said mindset — unfortunately or not, I’ve yet to decide — has pervaded into my dating life. This is the story of how I ended up on a date with an Irish-American rapper almost twice my age.

Everyone has a different approach to dating in New York. Dating apps have gathered more steam than I’d have expected. I’m a “hopeless romantic” (queue eye roll). I envision that I’ll meet my future spouse in a scenario that involves toppled books, coffee spills, or any other circumstance which entangles my constant clumsiness with his modest generosity and unabashedly good looks.

On a Saturday afternoon I walked through St. Marks place, looking for a book. I passed a noticeably handsome guy. He had the aesthetic of someone who also enjoys books. Or

Voices

so I assumed. I think I was projecting.

We made eye contact as we crossed paths. I looked back, and he did too. I kept walking and looked back again — so did he. So I stopped. In a 3-second time frame, I needed to make a decision: did I want to be forward and approach him, or did I want to do what I would normally do, what my gut told me to do, which was to just keep walking.

I approached him.

He seemed cool. We exchanged numbers and agreed to meet sometime soon. I felt bold. Walking home, I envisioned all of the other bold things I would do, like open bills I was afraid to open and tell my crabby bodega owner where to stuff it.

The following weekend, we made plans to meet at the Standard, per his suggestion — a little “bougie” for my tastes, but sure, why not. I spotted him at the bar. He was wearing a fedora.

Welp. I swallowed hard.

In the light of restaurant, I saw wrinkles in his face that I hadn’t

noticed when we first met. He was definitely older than me, but how much older?

Over the next hour, I learned that he was nearly 20 years my senior. He was in advertising but quit to perform music at parties and functions.

His real joy, however, was rapping.

He liked to battle, and he frequented the rap battle scene.

Listen, I’m all for pursuing the things that make you feel like your best self, no matter the medium.

Baking, web design, yodeling, or rapping — if it gives you joy, go for it! Sitting with this man, though, I knew almost immediately that we did not jive. I needed to abort mission. I’d been bold enough.

I can’t remember the excuse I used in order to abandon ship, but we ended the date on good terms and I headed home. Later, I searched the web for his songs, to understand what an advertising aficionado turned lyrical performer sounded like.

If you’re wondering — he’s not half bad.

THE DOCTOR IS NOT IN GRAYING NEW YORK

BY MARCIA EPSTEIN

The women in my group were talking about the difficulty of finding doctors who accept traditional Medicare.

One member said it took her two years to find a doctor when hers retired. It seems that one has to make many phone calls and be told that the doctor is no longer taking Medicare before finding one who will. Even calling hospitals for referrals will not assure you of a doctor who will take Medicare and not just submit the papers after you pay upfront. Many won’t even submit papers – pay the fee and that’s it!

To me this is a moral failure on the part of the medical profession. Yes, doctors have the right to make money, as does everyone else, but to toss aside a whole part of the population in the search for riches is stomach turning.

The best way to find doctors who take

Medicare is networking: Ask everyone you know, send e-mails to friends and acquaintances, ask on Facebook.

I’ve found wonderful doctors this way, but it takes work. Also, most of the walk-in clinics take Medicare. I’ve heard of seniors who use these centers as their primary medical care and it works out fine. It might be the future for us if doctors don’t realize that their obligation is to take care of people. The first question I ask when I phone a doctor is “Do you take Medicare?” Usually I’ve done my research and have a recommendation, but I still ask. It can change from day to day if a doctor decides his or her Medicare list is closed.

We seniors are being thrown under the bus, and I resent it enormously. If you’re living on Social Security and a small pension, as many are, the situation can be dire. Let’s hope it’s not going to get even worse in the years to come because of what’s going on in Washington, D.C. Don’t forget to check out the Senior

Planet website. It includes may of Senior Planet’s own events, as well as community happenings, such as free weekly chair yoga at Rutgers Presbyterian Church at 236 West 73rd Street. You can attend from 1 – 2 p.m. on Thursdays. The website is a trove of information about movies, museums dances, walks and more. DOROT also has chair yoga, as well as many other free activities. Not much is free these days; it’s worth checking out.

I am guilty of not using all the senior discounts available to me. Hey, if I’ve got to be a senior, I might as well reap the benefits. For example, many retailers offer discounts to oldsters.

Walgreens offers 20 percent off on certain Tuesdays. Applebee’s Restaurant offers a senior discount, but you must remember to ask for it. Ben and Jerry’s and Blimpies also offer senior discounts. You can check out websites such as the Senior List and Retired Brains which post and update businesses that give breaks to senior

Photo: Sole Treadmill, via flickr customers. The Sciddy App has lists of U.S. businesses that offer discounts to those 50+. The discounts consist of food, entertainment, home services, travel, heath and some others. The app has alerts to notify you of the discount when you are at that particular establishment. You also can search for senior discounts near you by us-

President & Publisher, Jeanne Straus nyoffice@strausnews.com

STRAUS MEDIA your neighborhood news source

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

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

Account Executive Fred Almonte Director of Partnership Development Barry Lewis

Director of Digital Pete Pinto

ing the Around Me feature on Sciddy.

Some of the senior discounts available to seniors are at the 9/11 Memorial Museum, the Rubin Museum of Art and many Broadway shows. Ask at the box office. And remember, there’s no shame in asking. We went through a lot to get where we are.

Editor-In-Chief, Alexis Gelber editor.ot@strausnews.com Deputy Editor Staff Reporters Richard Khavkine Madeleine Thompson editor.otdt@strausnews.com newsreporter@strausnews.com Michael Garofalo Senior Reporter reporter@strausnews.com Doug Feiden invreporter@strausnews.com

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Scene in New York PHOTOS BY STEVEN STRASSER

NEIGHBORHOOD LANDMARKS “After working with words as a journalist and journalism educator for more than 40 years,” writes Steven Strasser, a longtime editor at Newsweek and a former professor at CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, “I had an intense interest in learning something about photography. I really had to start

Flatiron building

Belvedere Castle, Central Park

from scratch on digital SLR cameras, as I had no idea how aperture, shutter speed and ISO worked together. I’ve been focusing mostly on things that just sit there — flowers, landscapes, buildings, and so on. The photos printed here were taken with my new tilt-shift lens, a wonderful piece of equipment that’s

Sunrise at 72nd and Broadway

ideal for shooting buildings with the proper perspective and landscapes that remain in focus from front to back. It’s my latest favorite toy, and I’m sure I’ll do many, many more architectural shots before I’m finished.”

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MARBLE COLLEGIATE CHURCH Sunday Worship at 11:00am Sunday Worship, led by Dr. Michael Brown, is the heart of the Marble Church community. It is where we all gather to sing, pray, and be changed by an encounter with God. Marble is known throughout the world for the practical, powerful, life-changing messages and where one can hear world class music from our choirs that make every heart sing.

More Events. Add Your Own: Go to nycnow.com

Busy? Live stream Sunday Worship with us at 11:00am at MarbleChurch.org.

Summer Spirituality Series Jesus, Popcorn, & Me Sundays at 10:00am Seeing the Sacred in the Secular: How Secular Films can be Utilized to Engage in Theological Discussions with Dr. Ava E. Carroll, Rev. Kirsty DePree, Mario Sprouse, and Chris Vega.

Explore the sacred in the secular and how movies can be utilized to engage in theological discussions.

All sessions meet in the Labyrinth Room at 10:00am and will be live streamed.

Upcoming Events

Marianne Williamson

in Partnership with Marble Collegiate Church Tuesdays 7:30pm - 9:00pm New York Times bestselling author, Marianne Williamson brings her weekly lecture series to Marble Church.

The cost to attend is $20, however, no one is turned away for lack of funds. The evening is also available via Livestream by donation.

Event listings brought to you by Marble Collegiate Church.

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

Thu 6

Fri 7

AUDITIONS: DOWNTOWN VOICES

‘CITY OF GHOSTS’

Trinity Church, Broadway and Wall Street Noon. Free Auditions are now open for Trinity Church Wall Street’s acclaimed semi-professional choir, under the direction of Steven Sands.

212-602-0800. trinitywallstreet.org

IFC Center, 323 Sixth Ave. 7:25 p.m. $15 City of Ghosts is an unprecedented, on-the-ground transmission from the frontlines of one of the most important battles of our time: the fight against the Islamic State.

The new film from Academy Award-nominated director Matthew Heineman, opens with Heineman in person for Q/A. 212-924-7771. ifccenter.com

‘CURLY SUE’ Tony Dapolito Recreation Center, 3 Clarkson St. 8:30 p.m. Free Celebrate Throwback Thursdays with a rooftop screening. Arrive by 8 p.m. to reserve a spot; spaces are first come, first served. BYO blanket and bottled water (no glass). A limited supply of chairs will be available.

212-242-5228. nycgovparks. org

‘LA CEREMONIE’ Tompkins Square Park New York.

8:30 p.m. Free Outdoor French Films on the Green screens the 1995 thriller “La Ceremonie” (“a Judgement in Stone”) directed by Claude Chabrol. “La Ceremonie” was selected for the festival by guest curator Matthew Weiner.

With English subtitles.

212-439 1440. frenchculture. org

Sat 8 OPEN STUDIO Whitney Museum, 99 Ganesvoort St. 10 a.m. Free with museum admission.

Get creative in the Whitney’s Hearst Artspace. Make your own art inspired by works on view in current exhibitions. For families with kids of all ages.

212-570-3600. whitney.org

POSITIVELY 8TH STREET West Eighth Street between Fifth & Sixth Avenues Noon. Free A one-day celebration of Eighth Street, its rich cultural history, businesses and institutions, featuring live music, food, pop-up gardens, arts, culture and fun for the whole family. villagealliance.org

JULY 6-12,2017

Sun 9 ‘WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?’ IFC Center 323 Sixth Ave. 11 a.m. $25 IFC Center has added more shows of National Theatre Live’s production of Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” featuring Imelda Staunton and Conleth Hill.

◄YOGA IN THE BATTERY 11:30 a.m. $10 With views of the Fountain, the blooming Bosque and the Statue of Liberty, this might be the most beautiful place to practice in the city. Open to all ages. RSVP required.

212-344-3491. thebattery.org

Mon 10 AFRICAN DANCING AND FOLKTALES▼ New Amsterdam Library, 9 Murray St. 10:30 a.m. Free Audience members become the storytellers in a series of African folktales as the library’s facilitator guides them through an

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interactive African dance class.

Best for children 4 and older.

212-732-8186. nypl.org

HIGH LINE ART TOUR The High Line at 14th St. 6 p.m. Free From sculptures and murals to performances and videos, the High Line is filled with public art.

Join assistant Curator Melanie Kress for an insider’s view on High Line Art’s current Mutations exhibition.

212-206-9922. nycgovparks. org

Tue 11 CURTIS ARMSTRONG TALK AND SIGNING Barnes and Noble Tribeca, 97 Warren St. 6 p.m. Book purchase required.

Famously known as “Booger” from “Revenge Of the Nerds,” Armstrong delivers a hilarious account of a successful life as a typecast actor in Hollywood.

Priority seating with purchase of the book. The author will pose for photos and sign as many copies of the book as you buy.

212-587-5389. bn.com

SUNSET SALSA Hudson River Park, Pier 45 and 46 at Christopher St. 6:30 p.m. Free

Things heat up when the sun goes down in Hudson River Park.

Join in on the fun beginner salsa lessons, led by a professional dancer and compete with music from of NYC’s best DJs. 212-627-2020. hudsonriverpark.org

Wed 12 BEAKERS AND BRUSHES Battery Park City Library, 175 North End Ave. 4 p.m. Free Kids explore scientific concepts through the lens of artists who integrate science in their practices, and get an in-depth look at how artists use a variety of themes like physics, math and technology in their work. Best for children 4 and older.

212-790-3499. nypl.org

Comfort, Security & Community Straus News’ Senior Living Guide How To Improve Your Life!

Make A Better Decision with All The Right Info at Your Disposal

THE COMPLETE UNKNOWNS PERFORM DYLAN City Winery, 155 Varick St. 8 p.m. $25 Covering Bob Dylan’s material spanning his five-decade career, the band provides a complete Dylan experience. Doors open at 6.

212-608-0555. citywinery. com

Reaching 150,000+ loyal readers weekly in Doorman Buildings and Key Locations The dominant circulation based neighborhood newspapers in Manhattan and 80,000+ visitors each month to our websites Issue Date Thursday, July 27, 2017 Ad Deadline Thursday, July 20, 2017 Call NOW for more information!

212.868.0190 x407 or advertising@strausnews.com The local paper for the Upper East Side

The local paper for the Upper West Side

Eastsider Photo by Kurt Bauschardt via Flickr

Westsider

The local paper for Downtown

The local paper for Chelsea

Downtowner

Clinton

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JULY 6-12,2017

ANCIENT CHINA UNEARTHED A stunning view of history at the Met

IF YOU GO

BY MARY GREGORY

When a group of Chinese farmers hit an obstacle while digging a well in 1974, they unleashed an army. The Terracotta Army of Emperor Qin Shi Huang had stood watch over his funerary complex for more than 2,000

WHAT: “Age of Empires: Chinese Art of the Qin & Han Dynasties (221 B.C.–A.D. 220)” WHERE: The Met Fifth Avenue WHEN: Through July 16 www.metmuseum.org/

Jade was believed to have magical powers, protecting the dead in the journey to an afterlife. Princess Dou Wan had a whole suit made for herself. Photo: Adel Gorgy

An ornamental plaque of agate, surrounded by golden and turquoise animals and dragons, bears witness to cultural influences from afar. Photo: Adel Gorgy years. Modern replicas fill theme parks and have traveled the globe.

But The Met Fifth Avenue has the real deal. And “Age of Empires: Chinese Art of the Qin & Han Dynasties (221 B.C.–A.D. 220)” is an imposing show of might.

A darkened gallery behind a wall of text greets the audience with a display of power. A life-sized kneeling archer is poised at one side of the room. Four standing warriors face from the opposite wall. Behind them, a shadowy photographic representation gives the sense of endless rows of additional soldiers, ready to fill in for vanquished comrades. In between, two charioteers reign a phalanx of four horses (replicas of the originals) into formation, ready to charge. All the pomp of a royal audience is expressed in the silent timelessness that fills the room.

It’s designed to give a sense of the Emperor Qin Shi Huang’s Mausoleum Museum, a UNESCO World Heritage Site near Xian, China. Whether it at all corresponds with being in the presence of the actual Terracotta Army is something only those who’ve visited it can say. But for those who haven’t, it’s an excellent introduction and a chance to see some of the most important archeological finds of the past century.

The warriors stand at the gateway to an extraordinary exhibition filled with rare works of historical import, most of which have never been seen before in the United States. More than 160 ancient Chinese works of art are included. There are examples of sculptures and painting, ceramics, textiles, bronzes and calligraphy. Arms and armor, spiritual and civic texts, decorative yet functional objects like lamps

and vessels, and a spectacular one-ofa-kind mummy wrapped in jade fill the galleries. Together they give a sense of life at the highest court two millennia ago. All are on loan from museums and archaeological institutions in the People’s Republic of China, so don’t expect to have another chance to see them in one place at one time.

“The Han Empire represents the ‘classical’ era of Chinese civilization, coinciding in importance and in time with Greco-Roman civilization in the West. Like the Roman Empire, the Han state brought together people of diverse backgrounds under a centralized government that fostered a new ‘Chinese’ identity,” explained curator Jason Sun. But, before there was a Han dynasty, there was the Qin. The Qin lasted only from 221–206 B.C., but laid the groundwork for a new civilization. The dynasty led by emperor Shi Huang is credited for introducing standardized weights and measures, examples of which are on view, as well as legal and monetary systems that extended across regions, and for building roads and canals, and beginning the Great Wall.

Beyond that, he sought immortality.

Some 700,000 laborers were reportedly used to create both his army and a comfortable afterlife. His and other funerary sites were filled with musicians and dancers (whose charming forms grace the exhibition), feasting (stunningly naturalistic replicas of goats, cows, pigs and chickens are a highlight), and lots and lots of bodyguards. Shi Huang started his tomb as soon as he took power. According to some historians, Shi Huang, want-

ing to protect his burial site in eternal elegance, had his son bury alive all the artists and workers who’d fashioned it, so its location would remain a secret.

Building upon the Qin’s foundations, the Han dynasty, which lasted by contrast for more than 400 years, took to maintaining and continuing a lasting, powerful and productive society. The sections that follow the focus on the Qin dynasty present artifacts from the Han, as well as objects that testify to the growing importance of international commerce. Both the Silk Road, which evolved during the Han dynasty, and maritime trade brought Persian and Hellenistic influences, as well as exotic materials like amethyst, aquamarine, beryl and rock crystal.

Don’t expect a lot of imperial bling in this exhibition, though. These ancient works represent, largely, the stuff of life, even if transported to the afterlife.

As you go through the exhibition, marvel at the artworks, learn more about our world, but don’t envy the lifestyles of the rich and famous. The emperor Shi Huang, who built an army of warriors that lasted 2,200 years, ruled for little more than a decade, during which he survived three assassination attempts. His first son was forced to commit suicide by political enemies, and another son ruled for a scant three years.

But the advancements started under the Qin and developed under the Han led to a unified China. “Even today,” curator Sun said, “most Chinese refer to themselves as the ‘Han people’ — the single largest ethnic group in the world.”

JULY 6-12,2017

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LOVE, LOSS AND OPERA

ACTIVITIES FOR THE FERTILE MIND

thoughtgallery.org NEW YORK CITY

THEATER

Why Picasso, Calder, and Other Contemporary Artists Found a Home in the Theater

“Bandwidth: The Ups & Downs of a Lesbian Diva,” explores co-writer Ilene Sameth’s decision to leave opera as a young woman, and how, 30 years later, she’s returning to the stage

FRIDAY, JULY 7TH, 7PM The Strand | 828 Broadway | 212-473-1452 | strandbooks.com Cultural critic Charles A. Riley, author of Free as Gods: How the Jazz Age Reinvented Modernism, speaks on the overlap between dramatics and art. ($20, includes complimentary beer and wine)

Mid-Century Japanese American Designers

BY OSCAR KIM BAUMAN

MONDAY, JULY 10TH, 6PM As a young woman, Ilene Sameth gave up her burgeoning opera career to live openly as a lesbian. This decision was followed by a tumultuous period in her life during which Sameth gained weight, lost weight, found love, and completely re-examined her outlook on life. Now, 30 years later, she’s returning to the stage to confront her past. In “Bandwidth: The Ups & Downs of a Lesbian Diva,” playing at Dixon Place in the Lower East Side on July 11th, Sameth tells the story of her experiences with life, love, and more than one kind of loss.

The story of Bandwidth begins during Sameth’s time as a professional opera singer. A favorite role of hers from this time, which features in “Bandwidth,” was Carmen, which she said is “just so well known that you feel this incredible responsibility to perform it well.”

Though she loved the opera, she would soon have to leave it behind.

As much as Sameth loved pretending to be someone else on stage, she couldn’t keep on pretending after the show ended.

At the time, there were no out lesbians in the world of opera, though there were some openly gay men. This lack of lesbian representation, for Sameth, made coming out while continuing her career “basically impossible.”

Around the same time she decided to give up her opera career, Sameth had been gaining weight. Though the pressure to maintain a certain appearance was another factor that pushed her towards leaving opera, Sameth said she believes her weight gain may also have been related to the pressure of keeping her sexuality a secret, noting that she “was having to hide so much of myself in the world.”

Sameth began work on “Bandwidth” two years again, during a period of self-reflection that began when she turned 50.

Center for Architecture | 536 LaGuardia Pl. | 212-683-0023 | cfa.aiany.org Ilene Sameth in “Bandwidth.” Photo: Shelby Zoe Colby Now 58, Sameth said that her 50th birthday was a turning point in her life, prompting her to lose almost 100 pounds and change her lifestyle in the pursuit of health. As a part of this change, Sameth looked back an earlier turning point, her departure from singing.

She would write out vignettes of incidents and experiences from her past, and her partner, writer Barbara Raab would, as Sameth put it, “make them more cohesive, make them funnier.” Sameth said that all the words spoken in “Bandwidth” are hers, making it “a very honest play,” that is “completely autobiographical.”

The title emerged from Sameth’s new philosophy on life.

When changing her lifestyle, she said she came to the conclusion that “in order to make changes in your life, you need to expand your bandwidth to understand what you need to do,” and that the title “Bandwidth” came almost instantly.

The show’s subtitle, “The Ups & Downs of a Lesbian Diva” took some more work. Sameth said it was “about the 27th version of a tagline” she thought of, but when she did, everything clicked into place.

One of the challenges of keeping “Bandwidth” honest was making sure to portray people accurately. Statements taken out of context and put in front of an audience can make even the best of people come off poorly. Sameth says that this was at the front of her mind as she crafted “Bandwidth,” saying that “people say things and do things in your life that can feel hurtful at times, but you learn through life that it’s not intentional and that they’re only doing their best,” and that she tried to depict everyone mentioned in the show, includ-

ing herself, in an honest light.

Despite the challenges she faced, creating and performing in “Bandwidth” has been a largely therapeutic experience for Sameth. Much of this connection comes from the warm reception the show received at its first performances in May. Sameth said that the reaction from the very first audience was “really wonderful,” and that as the show went on, she felt that there was a “profound connection” between herself and the audience, and that they were able to bond over the shared experiences and “battles that we all face.”

During an interview with Straus News, Sameth also shared her advice for those who may be struggling, as she was, between being true to their identity and having a successful career. To Sameth, the two go hand in hand: “You can’t fully achieve what you want in life unless you’re honest about yourself,” she said, and “if you can’t be who you are, you’re never going to be as successful.”

Sameth also highlighted the numerous resources that exist to protect LGBT individuals from discrimination. She noted that there are “certainly more than when I was coming out,” and said that people in situations like she once was should “hopefully turn to those.”

Summing up her experiences with “Bandwidth,” Sameth said that “returning to the stage after almost 30 years, to a sold-out first performance was pretty good.” She described the show as “a funny and moving evening” that she hopes will “really make [the audience] think about things in a different way,” and take them through the same process of reflection and selfdiscovery that she experienced while creating it.

In accompaniment of the exhibition Kaneji Domoto at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Usonia, a panel looks at the role of Japanese-American designers in Mid-Century American design and architecture. ($10)

Just Announced | Lust, Brains, and Taste

THURSDAY, AUGUT 3RD, 6:30PM Museum of Food and Drink | 62 Bayard St. | 718-387-2845 | mofad.org Guerilla Science and You’re the Expert host Chris Duffy lead a session of hands-on activities that will give you insight into the subconscious processes that drive attraction. ($30)

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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JULY 6-12,2017

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

RESTAURANT INSPECTION RATINGS JUN 21-26, 2017 The following listings were collected from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s website and include the most recent inspection and grade reports listed. We have included every restaurant listed during this time within the zip codes of our neighborhoods. Some reports list numbers with their explanations; these are the number of violation points a restaurant has received. To see more information on restaurant grades, visit www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/services/restaurant-inspection.shtml.

Chipotle Mexican Grill

200 Varick Street

A

Fig And Olive

420 West 13 Street

A

Dominique Ansel Kitchen

137 7Th Ave S

A

Cool Fresh Juice Bar

333 6Th Ave

A

Cielo

18 Little West 12 Street

Grade Pending (21) Food Protection Certificate not held by supervisor of food operations.

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

Hale & Hearty

350 Hudson Street

A

Numero 28 Pizzeria

2628 Carmine Street

A

Grounded

28 Jane Street

A

Bill’s Bar & Burgers

22 9 Avenue

Grade Pending (20) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation.

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

The Cornelia Street Cafe

29 Cornelia Street

A

Famous Joe’s Pizza

7 Carmine Street

A

Blind Tiger

281 Bleecker Street

A

Five Guys Famous Burgers And Fries

296 Bleeker Street

A

Kumo Sushi

282 Bleecker Street

Grade Pending (20) Evidence of rats or live rats present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Personal cleanliness inadequate. Outer garment soiled with possible contaminant. Effective hair restraint not worn in an area where food is prepared.

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

The Chester

18 9Th Ave

Grade Pending (27) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation.

Live roaches present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas.

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

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

Gaetana’s Cucina Italiana

143 Christopher Street Grade Pending (27) 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/ sewage-associated flies include fruit flies, drain flies and Phorid flies.

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

Arbor Bistro

226 West Houston Street

Grade Pending (17) Hot food item not held at or above 140º F. Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas.

Tue Thai Food

3 Greenwich Avenue

A

Fedora

239 West 4 Street

A

The Quarter

522 Hudson Street

A

Sunshine Cinema

141143 East Houston Street

A

White Horse Tavern

567 Hudson Street

A

Roasting Plant

81 Orchard Street

A

Trattoria I Malatesta

649 Washington Street

Grade Pending (24) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation.

Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred.

Star 99C Pizza

156 Delancey St

A

Orchard Grocer

78 Orchard St

A

Sheng Da Chinese Food Restaurant

27 Eldridge St

A

Remedy Diner

245 East Houston Street

Grade Pending (24) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation.

Food not cooled by an approved method whereby the internal product temperature is reduced from 140º F to 70º F or less within 2 hours, and from 70º F to 41º F or less within 4 additional hours.

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

Retro Grill & Bar (Holiday Inn)

150 Delancey St

A

Vin Sur Vingt

201 West 11 Street

A

The Gem Hotel

300 W 22Nd St

A

Resobox

203 W 20Th St

Not Yet Graded (36) Insufficient or no refrigerated or hot holding equipment to keep potentially hazardous foods at required temperatures.

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

Don Giovanni Restaurant

214 10 Avenue

A

Subway

221 E Broadway

Grade Pending

Starbucks

76 9 Avenue

A

Hua Xia Restaurant

49 Division St

A

Mansions Catering

4042 West 8 Street

A

201 Madison Street

A

Bubble Bar

204 W 14Th St

A

Dunkin’ Donuts, Baskin Robbins

Go Go Curry

144 W 19Th St

A

Lena Nyc

137 Eldridge St

French Roast

78 West 11 Street

A

The Black Derby

310 W 4Th St

Closed By Health Department (33) Food contact surface improperly constructed or located. Unacceptable material used.

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

Not Yet Graded (28) 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.

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

Wiping cloths soiled or not stored in sanitizing solution.

JULY 6-12,2017

CHINATOWN CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Skyrocketing rents in the East Village and in Chelsea have driven swaths of middle-class people into Chinatown, the longtime refuge for low-income immigrant families. Residents in Chinatown and the Lower East Side reported a median household income of $42,102 in 2015, almost $20,000 lower than the citywide average, according to Data USA. Scraping by on an annual retirement income of $19,000, Ye cannot afford to spend more than $566 on rent each month — the amount she pays for a cubicle-sized bedroom. Sensing the growing appeal of Chinatown to the middle-class cohort — gallery owners, college students, budding business professionals — Ye’s landlord, David An, wants to renovate the formerly low-income unit and market it as a luxury complex to a much wealthier demographic. Noisy and distracting remodeling work is already underway, often seeping through plaster walls to drag Ye out of naps. Three Chinese families have caved to the landlord’s relentless demands for eviction and found dwelling elsewhere. After a nine-year tenure in the 4-unit complex, Ye is now its lone tenant.

Terrified to lose her home, Ye has been seeking legal and emotional counsel from Asian American for Equality (AAFE), a nonprofit organization that defends the housing rights

COUNCIL CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Foldenauer said he and a number of his campaign staff had been outside the event space handing out political literature both in support of his candidacy and critical of Chin’s record. Representatives from other organizations, including the National Mobilization against SweatShops, Friends of Elizabeth Street Garden, and opponents of the Real Estate Board of New York, were also outside the YMCA passing out material critical of Chin and de Blasio. Those flyers were also taken from people entering the event.

Flyers and literature supportive of Chin were also confiscated. But speaking after submitting the complaint, Foldenauer called those confiscations a “smokescreen” since, he said, the vast majority of political literature being passed out that evening was critical of Chin or of de Blasio or of both. He also noted that inside the venue, members of Chin’s staff were passing out an “update” from Chin to her constituents, her spring newsletter to the community and other material.

“She had full incentive to ensure literature was confiscated,” he said.

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com of low-income residents in Chinatown.

Donna Chiu, the director of housing and community services, estimates that more than two-thirds of AAFE’s clients are financially strapped seniors like Ye. The sad truth about Ye’s case is that it isn’t winnable. AAFE could not find her pro bono representation because the building is market-rate, meaning that the owner has the legal authority to evict tenants at any time, Chiu said. Ye’s only viable strategy in court is to stall for more time to find new living quarters, a notoriously difficult endeavor for someone of her age and financial status given the dearth of affordable housing options in Chinatown. “The reality is that few landlords want to rent to the elderly or the disabled because they’re more prone to injuries and other liabilities,” Chiu said.

Inadequate progress on affordable housing preservation is not due to a lack of effort from residents and advocates. In 2015, Chinatown Working Group (CWP) crafted a comprehensive rezoning and affordability plan that would have protected the entire district from real estate development, setting height restrictions on luxury condos, preserving land for low-income housing and enforcing stricter anti-harassment laws directed at landlords. After garnering the support of scores of activists and tenants, the plan was struck down by the Department of City Planning, which called the proposal too expansive.

District 1 Councilwoman Margaret

“She had free rein to distribute her literature.”

A spokesman for Chin’s campaign called Foldenauer allegations “baseless and absurd.”

“The truth is, the NYPD and Mayor’s police detail prohibited all campaign literature from being brought into the town hall facility, including Council Member Chin’s own volunteers. Council Members have zero input regarding the actions of the Mayor’s NYPD detail, and Mr. Foldenauer knows that,” the spokesman, Jake Dilemani, said in a statement.

Police officials deferred questions about the seizures to the city’s law department, which did not respond to emailed questions. The mayor’s office also did not respond to an inquiry.

“It’s viewpoint discrimination, in violation of the First Amendment,” Foldenauer said. “I don’t think there can be an explanation of this conduct.”

Foldenauer’s complaint cites several court precedents he said are supportive of his claim that his rights to free speech and against unlawful search and seizure were violated.

The complaint suggests that Chin and de Blasio conspired to keep political opponents from exercising their free-speech rights.

Chin supported an alternative plan that would cover only the historic parts of Chinatown, essentially giving landlords license to displace lowincome families in all unprotected areas. But carving up the neighborhood into protected and unprotected parcels risks exacerbating racial and economic tensions, said Irene Shen, an organizer at People First NYC. Chin’s rejection of CWP’s 2015 proposal and support for the 2008 East Village rezoning plan — a sweeping measure that shielded a young, white, middleclass populace from displacement while neglecting low-income minority groups in Chinatown and the Lower East Side — have inspired aggressive calls for her resignation. “We’ve seen this time and time again,” Shen said.

“Politicians come up with all these racist rezoning agendas that look fair but actually pits minority groups against one another.”

Whereas affordable housing and tenant-rights activists were primarily dealing with city and state politicians during the Obama years, they’ve already begun preparing for the rami-

fications of President Donald Trump’s signature proposals, the most alarming being his stance toward illegal immigration.

“Fear around immigration have definitely played into people’s fear around organizing,” said Melanie Wang, an organizer from Chinatown Tenants Union (CTU), a housing rights group that serves dozens of undocumented immigrants. In response to Trump’s promise to ramp up deportations, a move that has unnerved many of her clients, Wang and other CTU organizers established monthly meetings to answer legal questions and encourage tenants to form a structured coalition to directly negotiate with landlords.

Just before Trump’s inauguration in January, CTU hosted a training session for its undocumented members to prepare them for surprise visits from ICE. Already, though, Trump’s domestic policies have stretched far beyond deportations. His March proposal to slash $6 billion from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Wang said, will translate to “hundreds

An outdoor mobile projection created by Chinatown Art Brigade, an artists’ and activists’ collective. Photo: Claire Wang

15 of millions in cuts” to New York’s housing initiatives — to the city’s Housing Authority, to Section 8 waivers, to funding for land preservation projects. The Rent Guidelines Board, a nine-member panel comprised of tenant and landlord advocates, dealt another blow to affordable housing activists by moving to increase one-year leases in rent-stabilized apartments by up to 1.25 percent for one-year leases, and 2 percent for two-year leases.

“With cuts to funding and a rent increase,” Wang said, “I really don’t see how our folks can find a way to pay for housing.”

The move to “self-advocacy and civic engagement” is also one of AAFE’s main objectives, Chiu said. Many of AAFE’s clients need assistance filing complaints, communicating with landlords and navigating legal notices. In fact, 71 percent of seniors in Chinatown have limited English proficiency, according to a Census document compiled by the Asian American Federation of New York. Because they’re “culturally and linguistically isolated,” Chiu said, senior citizens might unintentionally violate terms on their lease, fail to meet inspection standards, or misread court dates — all of which could easily get them evicted.

Gentrification, ultimately, is a seismic socioeconomic phenomenon that might be slowed but not stopped, Chiu said. Even with more generous tenantprotection laws and more ambitious rezoning policies, America’s most iconic Chinatown will continue to lose the attributes that made it a wondrous time capsule of New York’s immigrant history — family-run restaurants, senior community centers, former peddlers and cigar men and seamstresses who once led fulfilling lives knowing just a few words in English.

More damaging than the loss of a shared culture and identity, though, is the loss of influence and the breakup of a formidable political coalition.

While its Asian population has remained stagnant, Chinatown’s white population has risen by 19 percent since the turn of the century, according to Census data from 2010. Chinese immigrants, old and new, are migrating in droves to outer boroughs; the unofficial Chinatowns in Sunset Park and Flushing now boast larger Chinese populations than the official one in Manhattan. Still, it may take years for the Chinese diaspora in Brooklyn and Queens to amass the power and status they’ve enjoyed in the Manhattan enclave since the mid-18th century. Bensonhurst, a bustling Brooklyn neighborhood with a burgeoning working-class Chinese population, is still an Italian stronghold unlikely to share center stage their East Asian neighbors anytime soon.

“Chinatown used to be a place where Chinese people could consolidate their political power–a place where we could vote for someone who stood for our interests,” Chiu said. “It’s sad that we will never have this power again.”

16

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

JULY 6-12,2017

Business

A SLICE, A CEL-RAY AND A SCOWL At Sal and Carmine, tradition endures

BY NOAH WILLIAMS

I’m not local to New York City, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned quickly, it’s the difference between good pizza and bad pizza.

I grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee, went to a small liberal arts college in the middle of Ohio, and moved to Manhattan exactly 10 days after graduating last year. My dad grew up in Brooklyn. My grandma, who I now live with, has lived in a “classic six” apartment on the corner of West 101st Street and Riverside Drive for 53 years.

Two blocks away, on Broadway, is Sal and Carmine Pizza: the staple neighborhood pizza shop owned by a family of Italians. It was started by two immigrant brothers from whom the store received its name. It’s not an impressive space — the store is roughly 10 feet wide, 15 feet high, and 40 feet deep, akin to a large shoebox turned on its side. The pizza is displayed on the counter to the left when you enter, and there are some chairs and tables in the back of the space. The front window is often hazy, lightly coated with flour. There’s a red neon sign in the corner of the window that reads, “Crispy Pizza Large Slice.”

In the center of the window, an old, iconic cash machine rests on a counter.

Originally from a candy shop, it’s an antiquated machine with keys similar to those of a manual typewriter, dedicated almost entirely to transactions of less than a dollar. The keys read one through 10 — or the number of cents needed to purchase candy way back when. There is a $5 key, but that sum was likely not often exchanged during

the machine’s heyday.

A plain slice costs $3; an additional topping brings the total to $4 — fair prices for what many consider to be one of the city’s best slices.

I find taste hard to describe. But, I would describe Sal and Carmine’s pizza as sweet, with salty undertones.

The dough is made in the shop’s back room every day, the sauce comes from a private distributor, and the cheese is fresh mozzarella. “No basil, no Parmesan,” the current owner says. “The pizza doesn’t need it.”

How Sal made the pizza is how the pizza is still made. As the arrangement went, Sal made the pizza and Carmine worked the counter. Both operated with a type of religious zeal that I have come to understand is unique to Italian immigrants: They never closed the store, never got sick, and never sat down behind the counter.

Sal died eight years ago. The funeral procession reportedly shut down an entire section of the New Jersey Turn-

pike. Several of Sal’s and Carmine’s descendants worked in the store, but when Sal passed, the store closed for a week — the longest it had ever been shut. The family was unsure how or if the store would reopen, and if it did, how it would continue. After several legal disputes and a significant brotherly feud, the store was left entirely in a single grandson’s capable hands.

Behind the counter now stands Sal’s grandson, who runs and owns the place. Luciano Gaudiosi, 33, is a sturdy man at 5 foot, 9 inches. He is always wearing his Ford Mustang cap, a white apron, and a look of apathy that can border upon contempt. As was common for Sal’s grandchildren, Gaudiosi began working in the store while barely in his teens. He briefly left for mechanic’s school in 2003 and then for a stint fixing and maintaining Delta’s fleet at LaGuardia Airport.

“I tried to get out, but they pulled me back in,” says Luciano, quoting from “The Godfather.”

Luciano has made few changes to the store. The most significant being that the store now delivers. Sal believed that the time involved in a delivery would spoil the quality of the pie.

But Gaudiosi maintains the work ethic and atmosphere instilled by his grandfather and great uncle: always standing behind the counter with a tough countenance, which sometimes becomes almost amiable. On one occasion, a worker brought in a stool and served the public while seated. Gaudiosi waited until the end of business hours and then smashed the stool into pieces in front of him.

The store has now been in operation for nearly 60 years and it still sells out almost every day. As Gaudiosi puts it, “There’s no stopping this train.”

Throughout the day, customers line

Luciano Gaudiosi has instituted a few changes at Sal and Carmine Pizza, but his grandfather’s recipes remain the same. Photo: Noah Williams up, sometimes out the door. They’re there for the pizza and the experience.

The transaction usually occurs with only one word spoken by the counterman. Entering customers are often met with a look that may be construed as saying, “What do you want? Why are you here?” It’s often abrupt, and borderline curt, but that’s just tradition. It’s business.

After an undetermined amount of time, a customer might become acknowledged as a “regular.” This just means that Gaudiosi and the counterman will respond with more than a grunt if you ask a question. It’s a vague invitation to have a conversation while standing at the counter.

I knew I had become a regular when I walked into the store one night near closing time. There was just one slice, with sausage, left on the pizza tray.

The day had been particularly rough for me. I ordered by pointing at the slice. Gaudiosi slung it in the oven.

When I went to hand him the $4, he waved it away, saying “don’t worry ‘bout it.” And just like that, my day had

ON THE SIDE STREETS OF NEW YORK WONDERLAND BEAUTY PARLOR — 418 WEST 13TH STREET Michael Angelo’s Wonderland Beauty Parlor is true to its name. Michael has designed his salon with his own style, complete with a beautiful chandelier, underwater-themed sinks, and a piece of a Coney Island carousel. As David Benjamin, the

salon’s general manager explained, “if you get to know Michael, it all makes sense.”

Michael opened the salon in 2005, hoping to bring the Meatpacking District’s authenticity to life in the parlor. “I don’t want people to take themselves too seriously,” Michael said.

To read more, visit Manhattan Sideways (sideways.nyc), created by Betsy Bober Polivy.

Photo: Alex Nuñez Caba, Manhattan Sideways

been salvaged and I my appreciation for the shop exponentially increased.

It’s not just a store.

On rare occasions when Gaudiosi must close for a day (such as, for instance, when his young son, Sal Jr., is sick), would-be patrons gather outside the store, assuming the worst and discussing where they will get their pizza if the shop ever closes.

But Gaudiosi has built a strong team: Barry, an older, African-American gentleman who prepares ingredients and keeps the place clean; Jimmy, an Asian-American man who works the counter on occasion; Francisco (Gaudiosi calls him Saint Francisco), a former Navy man from the Dominican Republic who works the counter; Reuben, a strong-legged MexicanAmerican who works delivery every night except Sunday; Napoleon, a Mexican-American and the only other pizza maker besides Gaudiosi; and the newest addition, a guy from Knoxville who delivers pies on Sunday nights, and works the counter Mondays and Tuesdays.

JULY 6-12,2017

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

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JULY 6-12,2017

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TALKING POPS PLANNING Urban planner Raquel Ramati on Manhattan’s open spaces

BY MICHAEL GAROFALO

Privately Owned Public Spaces, or POPS, have been a feature of Manhattan zoning for decades. The basic concept is simple: private developers create public plazas and other open spaces in or around their buildings; in exchange, the city permits the developers to build additional floor area, which generally translates into more high-value stories at the tops of buildings. POPS haven’t always lived up to their goals — more than half of the spaces included in a recent city comptroller’s audit were found to have failed to provide the required public amenities. And the legislation has been periodically revisited by the city council, most recently last week, when the council passed a bill mandating a comprehensive database of all POPS locations and regular compliance inspections.

Few people know more about POPS and incentive zoning than Raquel Ramati. As director of the Department of City Planning’s Urban Design Group and Chief Architect of Manhattan, Ramati had a close hand in drafting and improving open-space zoning legislation and worked throughout her career to improve the city’s streetscapes. Today, she continues to advocate for public urban space as a professor at Columbia and NYU and as a private consultant through her firm, Raquel Ramati Associates. Ramati joined Straus News for a conversation on open space in Manhattan.

How have POPS changed since they were first introduced?

The first incentive zoning was in 1961. There was no real definition of a POPS, and as a result, there were many POPS or plazas that were sunken. Developers, because retail underground does not count towards Floor Area Ratio [FAR], sunk the plazas down. They got incentives and created retail. The plaza where the Apple Store is now used to be a sunken plaza. Nobody ever used it. So the first legislation in 1961 created open space, a lot of which was influenced by the Seagram Build-

We have to think about the street as an urban room, as an important place ... The parks and streets are our public spaces.”

Raquel Ramati

ing plaza.

But in the late sixties, the city realized that the plazas had not really met the goals, and since then, in different iterations, some of which I was part of, we tried to create plazas that are an extension to the street. We created the requirements that plazas would be at street level, that they had to have a certain size. We introduced covered pedestrian spaces and arcades.

In general, do you feel that POPS achieve the goals that they are intended to achieve?

In general, I think the idea is an excellent idea, because the city will never be able to purchase open space that is as expensive as in Midtown Manhattan. We have over 500 plazas now. I think some of them are very successful. If you look at the old IBM building, which I take my students to each semester and is now owned by Ed Minskoff, it has a covered pedestrian space that is very successful. And why is it successful? It’s large enough, it’s well-maintained, it has a small commercial area where you can buy a cup of coffee (but you don’t have to), it connects two streets, 57th and 56th, and it’s transparent so from the street you can see it.

In many areas between 7th and 8th Avenues, where the block is very wide, the idea of having another way for pedestrians to cut through the block is also very successful.

Several of the plazas are not very successful. For instance, on Third Avenue there are several plazas that ... don’t have seating; they don’t have all the requirements that POPS have

A POPS at the Kimpton Hotel Eventi, near 29th Street and Sixth Avenue. Photo: Michael Garofalo now. They were built after 1970, but they don’t meet today’s requirements.

What aspects of POPS deserve more attention?

The security issues of today create a new reality, which really, really worries me. And the question is how do you address it? You see these truck attacks all over the world — what do we do? Are we putting back the bollards that we used to be against? That, to me, is a major issue that nobody has addressed yet. I’m very interested in it and I was thinking about doing some research about that.

How could POPS be further improved?

The question is: is there any thing that you can replace the plaza with if it doesn’t work? The city hasn’t addressed that. I think it’s a mistake, because many developers are very frustrated because they want to improve the public spaces and they find it extremely difficult. The process has been too lengthy, in my opinion, too demanding, while the developer has been willing to invest a lot of money.

City planning has been spending so much time on every detail, every tree, every seat, and I think after 30 years, these spaces need renovation. It’s become extremely difficult. There has to be a way to encourage developers to renovate their spaces rather than discourage them by creating such a long process.

How can the city work to ensure good outcomes in projects like these, which involve multiple stakeholders — planners, developers, architects, the

I am teaching a course at NYU that I call ‘Good Design is Good Business.’

I am a great believer that the developer eventually benefits out of these public spaces, and the city benefits as well.”

Raquel Ramati

public — with interest that don’t always perfectly align?

I am teaching a course at NYU that I call “Good Design is Good Business.” I am a great believer that the developer eventually benefits out of these public spaces, and the city benefits as well.

The dynamic between the developer and the architect and the developer and the community is often not as smooth as it should be, because the developer is not as familiar with the process of what architecture is, and the architect or the community is not very interested in the financial pro forma of the developer. It doesn’t have to be an adversarial relationship, and

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in many places it works really well. If you look at the plazas or the entrance to the subway at the Bloomberg building, for example, because the site is big enough, the subway entrance does not impede the value of either the residential or the commercial space.

On big sites, there’s a lot that you can do with mixed use. It’s more difficult at smaller sites — and Manhattan is made up of a lot of small sites. I think that the developers in Manhattan are pretty sophisticated today, much more than they were 20 or 30 years ago or when the plaza legislation was written. When I came to the city, when you had a new building you never knew who the architect was, because it wasn’t an important part. Today, architecture and amenities are part of the branding of buildings. The developer gets an advantage, often, off the amenities that he provides, and part of it is the public space.

What other lessons about open space can you share?

We have to create real plans for the linkage of buildings to each other. The incentive now to developers is site by site. We have to think about the street as an urban room, as an important place. I think those linkages between buildings is really what creates a street.

In New York, we have such small apartments. The public space is even more important here than in other places. The parks and streets are our public spaces.

JULY 6-12,2017

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JULY 6-12,2017

Nothing beats newspapers as the most reliable source of local news in print and online Recent studies show:

‘‘

Newspapers led online consumption for local news” Coda Ventures Survey August 18, 2016

‘‘

Local media users named newspapers as their “most relied on” source for deals across a range of goods and services.”

Coda Ventures Survey August 18, 2016

‘‘

What accounts for print’s superiority?

Print - particularly the newspaper - is an amazingly sophisticated technology for showing you a lot of it.”

‘‘

Local newspapers are still the top source of news about readers’ communities, including their branded Web sites and social media channels.”

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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

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

YOUR 15 MINUTES

VERSES FOR THE SMALLER SET Howard Eisenberg on chronicling World War II, being Eddie Fisher’s press agent and “Adorable Scoundrels”

BY ANGELA BARBUTI

When Howard Eisenberg traveled with his wife, Arlene, during book tours for “What to Expect the Toddler Years” (the follow-up to “What to Expect When You’re Expecting”), he would entertain the audience with original poetry inspired by the little ones who were the very subject of her book.

A self-proclaimed “Toddler Poet Laureate,” Eisenberg recently published a collection, “Adorable Scoundrels.”

It is dedicated to Arlene, who he said would entertain his grandchildren by

reading poems aloud and pausing to let them complete the rhyme.

The Upper West Sider has a storied career with fascinating highlights that include starting as a 18-year-old journalist covering World War II and working as pop singer Eddie Fisher’s first press agent. He’s written hundreds of articles, many of which were co-authored with Arlene. After she passed away and he was ready to date, he even penned a book with his thengirlfriend, entitled “It’s Never Too Late to Date.”

Even at 90 years old, he is constantly updating his resume. His current project involves streaming all his children’s books for classrooms.

Did you always know you wanted to be a writer?

I was 18 years old and had spent

six weeks in the last part of the war as an infantryman. And we wound up in what had been an SS barracks and it got kind of boring after all the excitement we’d been going through.

So my commanding officer said, “I’ve been looking through the files here and Private Eisenberg, I understand you had a couple years of college. How about you write us a newspaper?”

The Germans had left a mimeograph machine and I just sat down and interviewed some of the guys and all of the sudden I was a journalist. And out came “The Company K Rifleman.” So I put out two issues and apparently that got me some attention from war headquarters and I was called up to work on the 90th Division newspaper, “The American Traveler.”

How did you meet Arlene?

We met at the Paramount Theatre.

I was Eddie Fisher’s first press agent and he had just come back from being in the U.S. Army band in Korea. And it was his big break, and I was thinking, “Well, Frank Sinatra got started at the Paramount.” That’s where the Bobby Soxs craze began. So I needed a Bobby Soxer to start some fan clubs for Eddie. And as I approached the stage door, there she was, with her mother.

She was 16 at the time at Hunter High School. But it was her mother who had insisted on going there because she had heard Eddie on the radio and loved his voice. So after exchanging pleasantries, I asked Arlene if she perhaps would like to start a fan club. And she said, in effect, “Hunter girls don’t do that.” But I didn’t give up. I told them about an interview with Barry Gray that Eddie was doing that night. And so the whole family showed up — the father, mother, brother, Victor and Arlene. And they sat at a table. And I was told just last year by my brother-in-law Victor something that is perhaps my most precious memory. That Arlene’s mother pointed at Eddie and said, “You’re going to marry him.” And Arlene pointed at me and said, “No, I’m going to marry Howard.”

How did her and your daughter’s book “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” come about?

They just knew that they wanted to answer the questions that Heidi, my daughter, had been unable to find in any of the books she bought. And she bought them all. Two of her questions were, “Walking across the street, I fell on my belly. Would this damage my fetus?” and “Before I knew I was pregnant, I was drinking a glass of wine every night. Would that cause fetal alcohol syndrome?” So they wrote this book as mostly Q&A, which I thought, at the time, was not a good idea. I thought it should be anecdotes.

Smith Davis Photography But once again, I was wrong. [Laughs.]

And it turned out to be a rather successful book.

Ooh! Fire truck. Very pretty tree! Toddlers open our eyes to things we’ve forgotten to see.”

Arlene read poems aloud to your grandchildren in a unique way.

As far as other projects, you co-authored “It’s Never Too Late to Date” with your girlfriend at the time, Shirley. What made you want to write that?

That was kind of wonderful. And of course, that was Arlene .... And I’m going to start to cry. It’s been 16 years, but I had 48 with her. Plus two when she was 16 years old .... She did two things with them. She was a great grandmother. She’d always be doing jigsaw puzzles; she loved doing them, and would gather the kids around to help her. And she’d be teaching them at the same time; she was always teaching morals and good behavior.

She just was a natural-born wonder woman. But what she did when she read poetry was she would read a line and pause to let them come up with the rhyme.

How did you get the ideas for the poems in “Adorable Scoundrels?”

Well, I met an awful lot of toddlers when Arlene was doing “What to Expect the Toddler Years.” I often traveled with her, partly because the one time she went by herself because I couldn’t, she lost her ticket. After that, she insisted I go with her. I enjoyed going anyway. She would introduce me when she did her lectures on toddlers and she’d say, “If you’re gonna have a toddler, you’re gonna need a sense of humor.” Then I’d come up and read some of these poems that I’d been writing. I’ve been at restaurants in town and see a child throwing a tantrum at the next table, and I’d tell the appropriate poem. For example there’s one called “Just Looking.” I was on the bus and there was someone in front of me, she might have been a nanny. And this little girl was pointing out the window at things that she marveled at. She was 3 years old. And the nanny was totally ignoring her. So I wrote that poem. “Look at the bird!

Arlene was gone. And affection is a very important part of all of our lives. And I kind of went nuts when she died. It took a long time for me to get over it. And finally, one of my relatives put me on JDate. I didn’t know how to do it. And I started shopping.

[Laughs.] And I had some dates and found someone who was very interesting and we had a fairly long relationship. She had lots of great stories and I thought, “Well, this could be a really good book.” Here I am, in my seventies. And she just died recently.

But we had already broken up, because she liked to fight and I don’t.

What are your future plans?

I suppose living is one of them. But I’m starting to stream all my children’s books on something called Streaming Learning which goes into schoolrooms all over the country and into homeschool homes. I’ve done one already with the “Guess Who Zoo” [His three-book series]. I asked kids in the classes to write poems about their favorite animal and to my surprise, an envelope came in with 23 poems in it. So apparently I made some kind of impression. But because I did the zoo streaming, I was asked to do six more. howardeisenbergauthor.com

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JULY 6-12,2017

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

JULY 6-12,2017

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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

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