The local paper for Downtown wn WHAT TO DO THIS WEEKEND, OUT AND ABOUT, < P. 10
WEEK OF JULY
14-20 2016
LEADERSHIP CHANGES AT CB1 Colleagues praise Catherine McVay Hughes’ tenure as chairwoman as downtown’s population, and challenges, multiplied BY MADELEINE THOMPSON
Community Board 1’s chairwoman, Catherine McVay Hughes, declined to run for another term but will remain on the board another two years. Photo: Madeleine Thompson
After four years as chairwoman of Community Board 1 — a crowning achievement to her nearly two decades of service on the board — Catherine McVay Hughes’ tenure ended on June 30. Hughes decided not to run for a third term as chair, but will be staying on as board member for at least another two years. Arguably her biggest project has been the rebuilding of her 1.5-squaremile district, which includes Ellis, Governors and Liberty Islands, after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. Based on the reports completed by Community Board 1 to keep accurate population figures, the area had about 20,000 residents before 9/11 and half as many
afterward. But their most recent population estimate from this past February counts 70,000 people as CB 1 residents, a significant increase by any measure. “We’re the fastest growing residential neighborhood in the city if not the country,” she said. At the New York Public Interest Research Group, where Hughes worked for about 10 years in the 1980s and 90s, she worked on issues such as lead poisoning prevention that became all the more useful after the health consequences of 9/11 on survivors and emergency workers came to light. “It was really important that those that responded and put their lives at risk had the resources and the medical care that they had earned,” she said. “As we approach the 15-year anniversary, we’re in a very good place.” Pat Moore, who joined the board after her home was destroyed by the 9/11 attacks serves as the chair of the
CB 1 Quality of Life Committee, called Hughes “ubiquitous.” “She’s everywhere at the same time,” Moore said. “How she did it I have no clue.” Moore credited Hughes with developing a good relationship with various agencies that were needed to cooperate on the rebuilding efforts after 9/11. Hughes, whose professional background is in engineering and environmental health, started out as a co-chair and then chair of the board’s Financial District committee. She also spent seven years as chair of the World Trade Center Redevelopment Committee before serving as the board’s vice chair for six years and chair for the last four. “It was something that gave an opportunity for an everyday person to get engaged in quality of life issues,” said Hughes, who has lived in
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NYC PROTESTS POLICE SHOOTINGS NEWS Demonstrations follow a violent week across the country BY WILLIAM MATHIS
Hu nd red s of demon st rators marched through the streets of New
York last week in a third night of protests against shootings of black men by police officers in Louisiana and Minnesota. The protesters marched up Broadway from lower Manhattan, paused for speeches in Union Square, then marched to Times Square and around
CONTINUED ON PAGE 9
Demonstrators at a protest march in Union Square. Photo by Jere Keys via flickr Downtowner
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FOR HIM, SETTLING SMALL CLAIMS IS A BIG DEAL presided over Arbitration Man has three decades. for informal hearings about it He’s now blogging BY RICHARD KHAVKINE
is the common Arbitration Man their jurist. least folks’ hero. Or at Man has For 30 years, Arbitration court office of the civil few sat in a satellite Centre St. every building at 111 New Yorkers’ weeks and absorbed dry cleaning, burned lost accountings of fender benders, lousy paint jobs, and the like. And security deposits then he’s decided. Arbitration Man, About a year ago, so to not afwho requested anonymity started docuhe fect future proceedings, two dozen of what menting about compelling cases considers his most blog. in an eponymous about it because “I decided to write the stories but in a I was interested about it not from wanted to write from view but rather lawyer’s point of said Arbitration view,” of a lay point lawyer since 1961. Man, a practicing what’s at issue He first writes about post, renders and then, in a separatehow he arrived his decision, detailing blog the to Visitors at his conclusion. their opinions. often weigh in with get a rap going. I to “I really want whether they unreally want to know and why I did it,” I did derstood what don’t know how to he said. “Most people ... I’d like my cases the judge thinks. and also my trereflect my personalitythe law.” for mendous respect 80, went into indiMan, Arbitration suc in 1985, settling vidual practice
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MANHATTAN'S APARTMENT BOOM, > PROPERTY, P.20
2015
In Brief MORE HELP FOR SMALL BUSINESS
The effort to help small seems to businesses in the city be gathering steam. Two city councilmembers, Robert Margaret Chin and Cornegy, have introduced create legislation that wouldSmall a new “Office of the within Business Advocate” of Small the city’s Department Business Services. Chin The new post, which have up told us she’d like to would and running this year, for serve as an ombudsman city small businesses within them clear government, helping to get through the bureaucracy things done. Perhaps even more also importantly, the ombudsman and number will tally the type small business of complaints by taken in owners, the actions policy response, and somefor ways to recommendations If done well, begin to fix things. report would the ombudsman’s give us the first quantitative with taste of what’s wrong the city, an small businesses in towards important first step fixing the problem. of for deTo really make a difference, is a mere formality will have to the work process looking to complete their advocate are the chances course, velopers precinct, but rising rents, -- thanks to a find a way to tackle business’ is being done legally of after-hours projects quickly. their own hours,” which remain many While Chin “They pick out boom in the number throughout who lives on most vexing problem. said Mildred Angelo,of the Ruppert construction permits gauge what Buildings one said it’s too early tocould have the 19th floor in The Department of the city. number three years, the Houses on 92nd Street between role the advocate She Over the past on the is handing out a record work perThird avenues. permits, there, more information of Second and an ongoing all-hours number of after-hours bad thing. of after-hours work the city’s Dept. problem can’t be a said there’s with the mits granted by nearby where according to new data jumped 30 percent, This step, combinedBorough construction project noise Buildings has data provided in workers constantly make efforts by Manhattan to mediate BY DANIEL FITZSIMMONS according to DOB of Informacement from trucks. President Gale Brewer offer response to a Freedom classifies transferring they want. They knows the the rent renewal process, request. The city They 6 “They do whatever signs Every New Yorker clang, tion Act go as they please. work between some early, tangible small any construction on the weekend, can come and sound: the metal-on-metal or the piercing of progress. For many have no respect.” p.m. and 7 a.m., can’t come of these that the hollow boom, issuance reverse. owners, in business moving The increased beeps of a truck has generto a correspond and you as after-hours. soon enough. variances has led at the alarm clock The surge in permits
SLEEPS, THANKS TO THE CITY THAT NEVER UCTION A BOOM IN LATE-NIGHT CONSTR NEWS
A glance it: it’s the middle can hardly believe yet construction of the night, and carries on full-tilt. your local police or You can call 311
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JULY 14-20,2016
Chapter 20
EVE AND OTHERS BY ESTHER COHEN
Albert used a table fork to divine where Alyosha disappeared. The disparate motley group of detectives, all residents of the same Upper West Side building, were not believer types. Still, there was a general bated breath mood as Albert moved the fork, a kind of shake and bake method with his left hand. The fork indicated, according to Albert, that Alyosha was not far away. “It’s all about sex,” said Mrs. Israel, the true wild card in their group. The rest of them, although they did not have all that much in common, not really, the rest of them were in their twenties or thirties. Albert had just turned 40, but he told the world 35 and everyone believed him. He looked good, every single day. Mrs. Israel did not look good. She looked
“It’s always about sex,” she said to the room of young people, all hopeful every single one of them, that theirs would be a different kind of life. It was the eighties. They lived in New York City. Brooklyn was not yet Brooklyn. “ efficient. She was 58, but she was not a young 58. It was the eighties, and young 58’s had not yet peppered the universe. She wore bookkeeper in Queen Elizabeth outfits, featuring a navy blue that had more in common with the British Naval services than anything else. Hers was never a fashion statement. Neat above all, there was no time of day or night when she was not presentable. A bookkeeper, she believed in columns, in rows, and her presence was always a help,
although it took a minute or two to realize that. “It’s always about sex,” she said to the room of young people, all hopeful every single one of them, that theirs would be a different kind of life. It was the eighties. They lived in New York City. Brooklyn was not yet Brooklyn. “We pretend otherwise. Let me tell you a story. It’s true. I don’t know how to tell a story that isn’t true,” she said. “I do,” said Charles, but everyone ignored him. “When I was a girl a long time ago, I lived in a small town near Buffalo. It was not a poor town and it wasn’t rich either. My father worked in a toy factory nearby, and my mother stayed at home and cleaned. Her life was a series of rituals. My sister and I were both B-plus students. Nothing special. Not bad either. That’s who we all were. I had long brown hair back then. It was my strongest asset and even though I was a girl in a small town who didn’t know much, I knew that.” Everyone listened carefully. For a few minutes anyway they forgot about Alyosha. “One day,” she said. “All stories begin with one day.” Pin Ball shouted “Yes!”
Illustration by John S. Winkleman
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CRIME WATCH BY JERRY DANZIG
INVESTMENT BANKER ADMITS TO $38 MILLION FRAUD An ex-executive at a New York investment bank has admitted to defrauding investors of more than $38 million, blaming it on his gambling addiction. Andrew Caspersen pleaded guilty to securities and wire fraud in federal court in Manhattan. Prosecutors say he scammed clients of PJT Partners Inc. into investing millions of dollars in sham private equity investments. They say he invented fictional financiers, created fake email addresses and arranged misleading domain names to carry out his fraud from last July through March. The 39-year-old Ivy League graduate is the son of the late Finn M.W. Caspersen, a prominent philanthropist and former chief executive of the financial services firm Beneficial Corp. Caspersen faces up to 40 years
in prison when he’s sentenced in November.
ZOOM AND GLOOM
and three Ray-Ban sunglasses of no stated value.
STATS FOR THE WEEK Reported crimes from the 1st precinct Week to Date
DUISBURG DON’T’S
It’s fun to zoom off on a motorbike; it’s not so much fun when a thief zooms off on your bike. At 8 p.m. on July 1, a 36-year-old man parked his was a red 2014 Honda ZZZ opposite 245 Broadway. The Honda was gone when he returned at 3:15 the following morning, A search of the neighborhood turned up nothing, but a surveillance camera caught the motorcycle heading outbound on the Washington Bridge at 2:40 a.m. The owner told police he was not the one driving. He also suggested that the thief might have been a known stalker whom he had seen near the parking spot at the time of the incident. The motorbike is valued at $14,000.
Put a bag on the floor, and it could scoot out the door! At 3 p.m. on Sunday, July 3, a visitor from Duisburg, Germany, placed her backpack on the floor in the Starbucks at 233 Broadway while talking on the phone. When she finished her conversation about five minutes later, her bag was missing. She had not seen anybody make off with the pack. The items stolen included a Canon camera valued at $668, $100 in US cash, €557, several visa cards, the backpack valued at $112, a German ID, MCM sunglasses valued at $1,069, and an Explorer card valued at $334, making a total stolen of $2,839.
SHADES FOR HADES
BELOW THE BELTS
Thieves are targeting sunglasses. At just before noon on June 30, someone entered the Ilori store at 138 Spring St. and took nearly $4,000 of sunglasses and frames from display shelves before leaving the store. The stolen merchandise included six Prada prescription frames valued at $1,805, six Prada sunglasses priced at $1,920,
Add belts to the list of portable and high-value items attractive to thieves. At 4 p.m. Monday, June 27, a man entered the Versace store at 160 Mercer Street, grabbed a number of belts, put them inside a paper bag, and left the store without paying for the merchandise. The stolen belts included a black-and-gold Palazzo valued at
YOU THINK SOMETHING MAY BE WRONG. THE ANSWER IS NOT STARING YOU IN THE FACE. Avoiding eye contact is one early sign of autism. Learn the others today at autismspeaks.org/signs. Early diagnosis can make a lifetime of difference.
Year to Date
2016 2015
% Change
2016
2015
% Change
Murder
0
0
n/a
0
0
n/a
Rape
0
0
n/a
7
3
133.3
Robbery
2
3
-33.3
31
28
10.7
Felony Assault
1
2
-50.0
38
39
-2.6
Burglary
0
1
-100.0
69
69
0.0
Grand Larceny
22
20
10.0
536
495
8.3
Grand Larceny Auto
6
2
200.0
28
10
180.0
$525, a red oval belt tagged at $495, another blue oval belt priced at $495, and a Medusa snake belt valued at $795, for a total haul of $2,310.
DRUNKEN IN DUNKIN’ Apparently, caffeine was administered too late to save a man from thieves. At 5 a.m. on Tuesday, June 20, a 27-year-old man fell asleep intoxicated at a table in the Dunkin’ Donuts at 100 Chambers St. When he woke up, he discovered that an
unknown person had taken his laptop from in front of him, along with his Apple watch. A tracking program on the computer showed it heading westbound on Chambers Street before the connection cut off. The items stolen included a silver 13-inch MacBook Air valued at $1,649, and a black 42-mm Apple watch priced at $1,099.
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233 W. 10th St.
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ELECTED OFFICIALS Councilmember Margaret Chin
165 Park Row #11
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237 1st Ave. #504
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CHELSEA’S ‘SKID ROW’ OF YESTERYEAR Built about a century ago as lodging for white-collar workers, the Allerton on West 22nd Street eventually descended into disrepute BY RAANAN GEBERER
At West 22nd Street and Eight Avenue sits the Gem Hotel, a trendy boutique hotel that advertises itself as being in the midst of Chelsea’s art galleries, restaurants, nightlife and gay community. Local artists’ work is showcased in the lobby. It’s likely that many, if not most, of the guests — especially if they’re non-New Yorkers and under 30 — don’t know that this same building once housed a very different type of hotel — the Allerton. And as the Allerton, it was the source of constant complaints from neighbors for decades. The Allerton Hotel’s beginnings were inauspicious enough. According to the “14 to 42” local history blog, plans were filed in 1912 by the Allerton Realty Co. for a five-story hotel at the site. The Hotel Allerton, as it was known, was one of several Allerton hotels in the city that were built between 1912 and 1922. The chain was designed to provide inexpensive, respectable housing for young white-collar men and women. These hotels were named after Mary Allerton, who came over on the Mayflower and was an ancestor of builder James Stewart Cushman’s wife. Around 1950, a small “Allerton Annex” was opened at 350 West 23rd Street, a short walk from the Chelsea location.
The Allerton Hotel, at West 22nd Street and Eight Avenue, in March 2006. Photo: Elvert Barnes
In September 1989, The New York Times reported that the Human Resources Administration, after action by Legal Aid, agreed to move 122 families out of the Allerton because conditions were a threat to their health and safety. The article quoted a physician as saying that entire families were staying in rooms “the size of a prison cell.” Still, HRA didn’t rule out using the Allerton to house clients entirely.”
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By the 1950s, the Allerton was still a respectable hotel. Soon after, though, the Allerton took a nose dive, first becoming a welfare hotel and then providing temporary housing for the homeless. Singer-songwriter Patti Smith, in her book “Just Kids,” recalled a stay with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe at the Allerton in the 1970s, when both were down on their luck. Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York quotes her as saying their room “reeked of piss and exterminator
fluid” and a pillow crawling with lice. She recalled seeing addicts trying to shoot up. In the end, the couple escaped to the Chelsea Hotel. In September 1989, The New York Times reported that the Human Resources Administration, after action by Legal Aid, agreed to move 122 families out of the Allerton because conditions were a threat to their health and safety. The article quoted a physician as saying that entire families were staying in rooms “the size of a prison cell.” Still, HRA didn’t rule out using the Allerton to house clients entirely. Rhea Lewin Geberer, my wife, was a volunteer at Project ORE, an agency to help the Jewish homeless, elderly and low-income, in the mid-1990s. She recalls that HRA had a 28-day limit for stays at the hotel, and this created hardships for many welfare clients. In particular, she knew two clients who lived at the Allerton, a mother and her college-aged son who was unable to work. When the 28 days ended, they would temporarily go back to the streets, spending hours at a McDonald’s or riding the subways. After a few days, the rules allowed them to re-register and move back in. In 1998, The Times reported that earlier that year, a newer city agency, the Depart-
ment of Homeless Services (DHS), had started to use the Allerton to temporarily house clients whose eligibility for permanent housing was being reviewed. All this time, some “regular” paying guests continued to stay at the Allerton, and on May 25 of that 1998, one of those guests was killed. A tug-of-war was under way between then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who wanted to cut funding for two DHS caseworkers at the hotel, and the City Council, which resolved to override the mayor’s veto. “The Allerton was a terrible place,” Tom Duane, who represented Chelsea in the state Senate from 1999 to 2012, recalled in a recent interview. “It was a `two-in-one,’ meaning that there were both couples and single women. And men would gather outside and yell up to the single women – sometimes they were dealing drugs. There was a social worker there, but he wasn’t always in his office. We didn’t want to close it — just make conditions better.” But the Allerton Hotel did close, courtesy of the booming Chelsea real estate market. In 2007-08, it was transformed into the Gem. The Allerton Annex on 23rd Street closed around the same time and was replaced by a new residential building.
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REMEMBERING DOE-DOE, THE GREAT FIRST PERSON Recalling, 50 years later, a beloved dog and a boyhood in the city BY JOHN MOYLAN
In 1950 I was a 10-year-old boy living with my Irish immigrant parents in New York City. Home was a ramshackle railroad apartment at 114 W. 90th Street, where the rent was $36 a month. My parents loved their only child and, owing to my father’s periodic excursions with me to the Museum of Natural History, I loved life -- especially animals. One day, aware that there was a puppy in the neighborhood in need of a loving home, I put pressure on them to let me have it. The friendly female, mixed breed, black and brown pup, who wasn’t yet two months old, belonged to a young and childless couple living nearby who had no desire to keep her. Nevertheless, they felt obligated to find the dog a good home. Everyone knew one another and one evening, when my parents and I were being informally interviewed as potential adopters, the puppy, with divinely orchestrated timing, walked over to my father and
laid her head in his lap. I had my dog. Delighted with my new charge, who was named Lucky, I dutifully and lovingly kept my promise to care for her. Aesthetically beautiful, with a perfect temperament, she was intelligent, sensitive and athletic: primal positive proof to me of God’s existence, giving strong credence to the religion classes conducted by those devoted Presentation Sisters at St. Gregory the Great. In these simple and wonderful days in New York, you could let your dog off the leash. I would thrill to see Lucky’s ears pinned to her head as she blazed across the breadth of the softball fields at 84th Street in Central Park, delighting in her speed. Then it would be a swim in Castle Lake, where she continually astounded people by the size of the branches she could bring to shore. Each day I walked her in the morning and took her to the park after school. Dad walked her in the evening and it didn’t take long to see that this dog especially loved my father and that the feeling was mutual. Then one evening dad pre-emptively renamed Lucky, Doe-Doe, saying it better fit with her warm, loving and pert personality.
John Moylan, a half century after the death of his beloved family dog
This struck truth for mom and me and was readily accepted. We all loved Doe-Doe and appreciated the apt mushiness of her name, which in no way detracted from her elegant bearing. Even my mother, who was neutral toward animals, caved in when Doe-Doe curled up to her during her frequent bouts with migraine headaches. We were indeed an enriched family. And divine providence was indeed watching over us, for during this time Doe-Doe survived being lost in Central Park for three hours, running under and out the other side of a moving bus on Columbus Avenue, and poisoning, when my quick-thinking father induced vomiting by shoving bacon fat down her throat. With my father being a lithographer and my mother a part time cook, we were not poor; however, our lower middle class status compelled frequent movement in Manhattan’s fastchanging housing market. By 1964 I had graduated from Cardinal Hayes High School, worked a half dozen jobs, got a brief chance at professional baseball, and joined the Marines. Meanwhile Doe-Doe had matured into one of the most beautiful canines in all God’s creation. Exuding health and happiness, her good nature, bag of tricks, and unqualified love made wherever we lived a happy home. More than a few times it was suggested to my parents to make her a show dog, but that kind of vanity was alien to them. In 1966, I experienced extra sensory perception for the one and only time in my life. Having just given up on my dream of earning my living as a professional baseball player, I was in a run-down restaurant in San Francisco one afternoon going over the want ads while wondering what I should do next. Suddenly, very clear, it came to me that Doe-Doe had just died. I called New York to hear my mother weeping. When she told me that our beloved dog had died in dad’s arms I did not mention my premonition for fear of exacerbating their profound grief. I cried, too, right there in that desolate restaurant. Within a week my 16-year-old dream of being a baseball player had died, along with my 16-year-old dog, who had made my boyhood so happy and fulfilled. For many years afterward I would recall the love that Doe-Doe had engendered and wonder if it would matter in the plan of the Creator. My intuition said that since Jesus had affirmed His Father’s care for the birds and sparrows He would certainly not forget His beautiful messenger, who having a share of His Divine Breath, had so faithfully imparted her Maker’s presence us. Still, I was hesitant to broach the issue.
Doe-Doe, on the Upper West Side Then, in 1990, Pope John Paul 11 proclaimed that animals do have souls and are as near to God as men are. Around the same time, the late Cardinal John O’Connor, asked if it should be out of the question that all things will endure in harmony. Further light was cast by Fr. Merio Canciani, a prelate in Vatican City, when he pointed out that the word animal comes from anima - Latin for soul.He reminded us that St. Francis called the animals “our little brothers and sisters” and informed us that it was in his Rome parish that the late Pope Paul VI told a little boy whose puppy had just died that he would one day see him again in the mystery of Christ. And now the visionary Pope Francis has weighed in by echoing the sentiments of the late Paul VI. The Pontiff’s words were: “One day we will see our animals again in the eternity of Christ. Paradise is open to all of God’s
creatures and there they will be vested with the joy and love of God without limits.” For us who love, work with and share our lives with animals - and see positive proof of God’s majesty in them - it is patently obvious that animals have souls and will have a place in heaven. Does anyone really think that the animals who were present at Christ’s birth, or the colt who bore Him into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, could be forgotten - or excluded? Dr. Patrick Glidden, a veterinarian of the Michigan Humane Society, sums it up best: “To see a soul, look at an animal you know. Most of us can say, ‘My dog is a distinct individual, with a distinct personality.’ That relationship shows the dog’s soul. Animals are such innocents. Why wouldn’t God want to surround Himself with their goodness - the goodness of creations that didn’t reject Him, as we did.”
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FIRST THE GARDEN, NOW THE INSECTS THE MANHATTAN GARDENER BY MIA KRAVITZ
Every summer, Roosevelt Park is always the first place I see fireflies -- or as we used to call them, “lightning bugs.” The not-walked-on lawns surrounding the American Museum of Natural History aren’t mowed as often as Central Park, and the taller grass really attracts these floating bits of neon, flickering on and off to amaze yet another generation experiencing nature in the city. Small kids find all bugs fascinating. It’s only when we get older that we begin to categorize “good bugs” and “bad bugs.” In reality there are just bugs. “Help save the honeybees!” says the earnest young lady, waving her clipboard on the sidewalk in front of the pet supply store. “Sorry, I’ll pass,” I say, which stops her in her tracks long enough for me to tell her that the honeybee is not a native North American insect. The mite/ virus/colony collapse fiasco that is killing them off is, in my view, “Mother Nature’s market correction” in removing an interloping insect. The honeybee was brought here in colonial times to pollinate fruit trees. Thomas Jefferson’s diary records he brought back French bees from Paris with an eye to improving yields on his grapes and apples in Monticello. Like a lot of American gardeners, he was unfamiliar with native pollinating bees, such as the orchard mason bee, the carpenter bee, and the bumblebee, which is critical to pollinating that tomato plant on your terrace. According to Cornell University, there are about 450 wild bee species already adapted to modern food crops, and they advocate encouraging native pollinators. That giant, four-inch-long, reddishbrown “waterbug” is a native New Yorker. Wave hello next time you see it. It’s the German cockroach -- small, fast and shiny -- that’s the real vil-
STRAUS MEDIA your neighborhood news source
lain in kitchens. Improvements in pesticides have made these less of a scourge, but we’ve yet to find solutions to other imported pest species, such as the Norway rat and the rock pigeon. And so on to mosquitoes. The Health Department tells us that the “type of mosquito” native to New York is not the same species that carries the Zika virus. But even ours carry a nasty bite, so their advice to use window screens at home, insect repellent in the park,
PLACES TO FIND NATIVE AMERICAN PLANTS AND INSECTS Central Park Turtle Pond (enter 81st Street and Central Park West, walk east) Roosevelt Park (stretch along Columbus between 77th and 81st Streets) High Line (Accessible entrances 14th Street at 10th Avenue; 34th Street at 12th Avenue)
and clean up any standing water in your backyard is still excellent. I wish there were more places you could learn about insects. Roosevelt Park is now a surprisingly contentious bit of park land, and while the American Museum of Natural History is a good source for scholarly data on bugs, in my opinion its bid to reduce the tree canopy and lawns around the building may deprive native insects, not to mention New Yorkers who also enjoy the shady walks and flower plantings. Other places to find native insects are areas that include native plants: this includes the Turtle Pond plant-
Vice President/CFO Otilia Bertolotti Vice President/CRO Vincent A. Gardino advertising@strausnews.com
Butterflies and pollinating insects find Cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis) on the perimeters of Central Park’s Turtle Pond. ings in Central Park, now lively with native flowers, and the High Line, also well planted with native flowers and grasses. Online, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (www.fws.gov/polli-
Associate Publishers Seth L. Miller, Ceil Ainsworth Regional Sales Manager Tania Cade
nators/) celebrates “National Pollinator Week” with a variety of videos and activities for kids. Not long ago I found a Walking Stick insect (Diapheroma femorata) in my
President & Publisher, Jeanne Straus nyoffice@strausnews.com Account Executive Editor In Chief, Kyle Pope editor.ot@strausnews.com Fred Almonte Director of Partnership Development Deputy Editor, Richard Khavkine Barry Lewis editor.dt@strausnews.com
window box, and I do get the occasional butterfly. Keep an eye out; send me a photo (mia@newyorkinbloom.com) and let’s share the insects that share our city world.
Staff Reporters Gabrielle Alfiero, Madeleine Thompson Director of Digital Pete Pinto
Block Mayors Ann Morris, Upper West Side Jennifer Peterson, Upper East Side Gail Dubov, Upper West Side Edith Marks, Upper West Side
JULY 14-20,2016
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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
NOTARO TAKES CB1 REINS Longtime board member takes over from Catherine McVay Hughes BY ERICA MAGRIN
Community Board 1 has a new chairperson. As of July 1, Anthony Notaro replaced long-time chairperson Catherine McVay Hughes after the latter declined to run for a third term. Notaro has big shoes to fill, as McVay Hughes has worked in public ser-vice in Lower Manhattan for a quarter of a decade. However, his background as the vicechairperson of CB1 and head of the Battery Park City committee speaks to Notaro’s experience. “I have been on the board for 15 years,” said Notaro. He ran unopposed for the position, as his one-time challenger Paul Hovitz, co-chair of the CB1 Youth and Education Commit-tee, opted instead to run for vice-chair. Though there were claims of a “unity ticket” for Notaro and Hovitz, Notaro refutes this. “I voted for Paul and I think he’ll be a great vicechair,” he said. “But every officer has won on their own. Everyone decides individually. We don’t have a ‘ticket’, like a Democrat or Republican party, everyone votes themselves.” Hovitz ran against the Tribeca Commit-tee chairperson, Elizabeth Lewinsohn,
POLICE SHOOTINGS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 midtown. As many as 1,000 people joined the protest, but many left when it started raining late Saturday night. Police officers marched alongside the protesters and tried to keep them on the sidewalk by playing a recorded announcement warning them that they risked arrest if they stayed in the street. A police spokesman said there were at least 20 arrests. Zayanahla Vines, a nephew of Delrawn Small, who was shot to death by an off-duty officer in Brooklyn during a road-rage incident Monday, choked back tears before kicking off the march. “My uncle was killed in cold blood by somebody who was wearing a badge and that man’s still walking free today,” Vines said. He added, “This is about black people in America, this is not about me. This is not about any of us as an individual.” New York state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced that he will investigate the death of Small, who was black, as were the men fatally shot by police officers in Baton Rouge
for the vice-chair position, ultimately winning the election with 27 votes, while Lewinsohn received 13. “I’m very excited about being the new chair,” Notaro said. “I have a lot to live up to. Our former chair was a very accomplished supporter of our community. Catherine had a legacy of how to rebuild our community after 9/11.” While speaking about challenges fac-ing Lower Manhattan, Notaro remarked on McVay Hughes’s instrumental leadership at the time of the Sept. 11 attacks. Since then, he said, times are changing in the community. “Now we live in a post 9/11 world in Lower Manhattan. We have had massive develop-ment, which is wonderful. Lots more business is coming in, and there are benefits and im-pacts.
Anthony Notaro is the new chairman of Community Board 1.
and a suburb of Minneapolis. Protester Cynthia Howell said she wants to see accountability for police misconduct. “We are not against the police, but we want accountability and we want justice,” said Howell, a niece of Alberta Spruill, who died of a heart attack in 2003 after police threw a concussion grenade into her Harlem apartment during a mistaken raid. “We want those who do reckless, dangerous things held accountable.” Danny Salk, a filmmaker from Brooklyn, brought his two young daughters, Indigo Hubbard-Salk, 10, and Cypris Hubbard-Salk, 14, to the protest. “I came out to protest the killing of black people by cops and racism in general,” Salk said. “I think it’s time we stopped racism.” He said his daughters were the ones who inspired him to come. “They’re the activists. They said it’s very important that we go,” he said. “It’s very empowering to stand in the street and chant and practice democracy. This is the only way we’re going to wake people up.” Saturday’s protest against police killings followed demonstrations on Thursday and Friday in New York City and around the country.
“I’m very excited about being the new chair,” Notaro said. “I have a lot to live up to. Our former chair was a very accomplished supporter of our community. Catherine had a legacy of how to rebuild our community after 9/11.” While speaking about challenges fac-ing Lower Manhattan, Notaro remarked on McVay Hughes’s instrumental leadership at the time of the Sept. 11 attacks.”
CB1 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 the same apartment with her husband and two sons for the last 28 years. “Both my parents have been in nonprofits, and where I went to school and college it was very important to serve your community and get engaged,” she said. Recovery from Hurricane Sandy has also been a priority for her, as Lower Manhattan suffered significantly from the storm but perhaps did not get as much attention or funding as other hard-hit areas. “I think that she has been absolutely extraordinary in particular with resiliency,” said Marco Pasanella, chair of the CB 1 South Street Sea-
port Committee. “Without her advocacy, it would’ve been easier for certain things to have been glazed over. In particular ... the city won [a grant to fund Sandy recovery] and then said initially that the $100 million they put in would all be outside of the most affected district in Manhattan, which is downtown, she really was not having it.” At her last full board meeting as chair, Hughes was showered with recognition from friends, colleagues and elected officials who came to thank her for her service. “It was overwhelming, frankly,” she said. A proclamation was made declaring June 28, 2016 “Catherine McVay Hughes Appreciation Day in the Borough of Manhattan,” she was honored by borough President
Now we have to deal with the impacts of it, like to our instructor, the impact of de-velopment,” he said. “We will be planning for resiliency. How can we prevent and protect for the future?” Much of that effort will be directed at the development and redevelopment of the South Street Seaport. “In Lower Manhattan, events that have caused impact are 9/11, and all of the impacts that followed after that,” he said. “Then there was a large move from being just a central busi-ness district — the population has doubled in the last 10 years.” And while talking about the main goals he has as chairperson, Notaro takes a very inclusive approach. “Some of the basic things [to tackle as chairperson] are the population growth and continuing de-velopment of more housing units. These are the challenges. We need more schools seats. Even congestion on the sidewalk, traffic. These are very important in terms of supporting everyone,” he said. “I don’t have specific answers – not everyone has all the answers, but it’s important to have specific questions. I plan to engage all of the board and other devel-opers. What can we do? How do we plan? How do we prioritize things?” Notaro, 64. has given years of volunteer service to the community board while also head-ing multiple committees. “I think my goals will be to hopefully help in terms of engaging more people on the board and prioritizing real issues that we have to tackle,” he said. “I see myself as helping to set out a strategy and help remove obstacles in our way.”
Gale Brewer, Councilwoman Margaret Chin and State Senator Daniel Squadron, to name a few, and received a letter of commendation from Governor Andrew Cuomo, among other honors. Moore saw the effusive praise for Hughes’ tenure as entirely appropriate. “That just proves what she has done and accomplished,” Moore said. As for her next steps, Hughes is taking a moment to appreciate her own hard work. “Right now I’m enjoying the neighborhood that we all helped build,” she said. Madeleine Thompson can be reached at newsreporter@ straunews.com
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Whitney Museum, 99 Gansevoort St. 2–4 p.m., Free with museum admission Lyon’s “Media Man” and “Two Fathers” will be shown as a part of an exhibition of the filmmaker. whitney.org/
‘THE GOLDEN BRIDE’ Museum of Jewish Heritage, 36 Battery Place 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., $30– $45 Featuring a score by Joseph Rumshinsky. The show will be performed by a cast of 20, feature a 14-piece orchestra, and will be presented in Yiddish with English and Russian subtitles. nytf.org
Sat
16
ANIME CLUB
‘REAR WINDOW’▲
Seaward Park Library, 192 East Broadway 3 p.m., Free A discussion of all things anime and manga. Club members may even learn a little Japanese! Snacks will be provided; the club is recommended for ages 13 to 18. www.nypl.org/
Anthology Film Archives, 32 Second Ave. 9 p.m. Free Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 film stars James Stewart and Grace Kelly. It is being shown as part of the series “Voyeurism, Surveillance, and Identity in the Cinema.” anthologyfilmarchives.org/
‘STREET OF SHIPS: THE WRAPPED IN GOOD PORT AND IT’S PEOPLE’ TASTE Southstreet Seaport Museum, 12 Fulton St. 11:30 a.m. $12 The exhibition is an insight on the Seaport’s history and New York City’s rise as the busiest port city in the world during most of the 19th and 20th centuries. southstreetseaportmuseum. org/visit/
Merchant’s House Museum, 29 East Fourth St. Noon–5 p.m., Free with general admission fee. The exhibition explores the fashion of prominent woman of New York society in the 19th century. merchantshouse.org
JULY 14-20,2016
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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
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Tues
ALEJANDRO ZAMBRA McNally Jackson, 52 Prince St. 7 p.m. Zambra’s new book, Multiple Choice, does exactly what its title claims — it turns standardized test questions into a genre of literary fiction. www.mcnallyjackson.com/
COMMUNITY BOARD 1, SEAPORT/CIVIC CENTER COMMITTEE 1 Centre St., Room 2202A-North 6 p.m. www.nyc.gov/html/mancb1/
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Dining Information, plus
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Sun
JEWISH LOWER EAST SIDE WALKING TOUR 7 Second Ave, corner of East Houston Street 10 a.m. $25, cash only admission fee. This walking tour of the Lower East Side features the historical significance of Jewish immigrants in particular, and explores the gentrification of the area. www.leshp.org/
PHOTO SAFARI City Hall 4:30–7 p.m. $100 Take pictures of famous landmarks like the Municipal Building, Tweed Courthouse and the World Trade Center complex. newyorkcityphotosafari.com/
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Mon
BROADWAY STANDS UP Skirball Center for the
Performing Arts, 566 LaGuardia Place 7 p.m. $60 Now in its 14th year, Broadway Stands Up for Freedom brings together advocates, supporters and Broadway’s finest performers to honor the New York Civil Liberties Union. www.nyclu.org/broadway.
BIG CITY FISHING Pier 46 at Charles Street 5-7:30 p.m. Free Hudson River Park’s program for those as young as five eager to learn both how to fish and about the Hudson River environment. Rods, reels, bait and instruction provided. 212-627-2020. www. hudsonriverpark.org/
Wed20
crime news, real estate prices - all about your part of town
DESIGN TOUR: ELEVATED DESIGN
Cultural Events
High Line, location provided via email following RSVP 6-7:15 p.m. Get an insider’s look at the unique design elements of the High Line and the notable architecture in the neighborhood! 212-206.9922. www. thehighline.org/activities
SARAH ANDERSEN: ‘ADULTHOOD IS A MYTH’ The Strand, 828 Broadway, at 12th Street Andersen will talk about the weird and wonderful world of not growing up. Commiserate and get your copy of “Adulthood is a Myth” signed by the author! 212-473-1452. www. strandbooks.com/events/
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JULY 14-20,2016
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
REMBRANDT’S GRIEVING JUDAS An early biblical painting by the Dutch master makes its American debut at The Morgan Library & Museum
BY VAL CASTRONOVO
In 1629, Constantijn Huygens, a Dutch diplomat and art advisor to the Prince of Orange, paid a visit to Rembrandt van Rijn and Jan Lievens, two prodigies sharing a studio in Leiden, a university town in the Dutch Republic. His opinions are now the stuff of legend, dutifully recorded in an autobiographical manuscript, on loan this summer from the Royal Library at The Hague for an exquisite presentation at The Morgan, “Rembrandt’s First Masterpiece.” A showcase for the rarely seen biblical painting, “Judas Returning the Thirty Pieces of Silver” (1629), the exhibit also includes drawings and etchings of the Gospel narratives and five early self-portraits. The Morgan owns hundreds of drawings and prints by Rembrandt (1606-1669), a world-renowned collection started by Pierpont Morgan in 1900.
Considered his first mature work, or masterpiece, the Judas painting, now in a British private collection, floored Huygens when he first saw it. As he later enthused in Latin in his autobiography, a jewel that graces the entrance to the show: “Rembrandt ... devotes all his loving concentration to a small painting, achieving on that modest scale a result which one would seek in vain in the largest pieces of others. I cite as an example his painting of the repentant Judas returning to the high priest the silver coins which were the price for our innocent Lord. Compare this with all Italy, indeed, with all the wondrous beauties that have survived from the most ancient of days ... All honor to thee, Rembrandt!” The Dutch master, the son of a miller, was only 23 when he completed the panel, which bears all the hallmarks of his later history paintings: the depiction of an emotional scene; light and shadow; dark colors; expressive faces; expressive hands, which, for Rembrandt, are like faces; exotic costumes; gleaming metals; and, perhaps most tellingly, an asymmetrical arrangement of figures, who lean in to the action.
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669), “Judas Returning the Thirty Pieces of Silver,” 1629. Oil on panel. Private collection. © Private Collection, Photography courtesy of The National Gallery, London, 2016.
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669), “SelfPortrait in a Cap, Wide-Eyed and OpenMouthed,” 1630. Etching and drypoint, state II (of II). The Morgan Library & Museum. “The viewer is being invited in,” docent Miryam Wasserman said on a recent afternoon tour. “He opens a door to a dramatic moment.” Judas has come begging for forgiveness for his kiss of betrayal and thrown the bribe money — 30 silver coins — to the floor of the temple. Look at the painting and count them. They glisten. The chief priest, flanked by elders, is disdainful of the gesture and uses his hand to repel the kneeling figure. Huygens captures the drama, writing, “that one maddened Judas … his gaze wild, his hair torn out by the roots, his garments rent, his arms contorted, his hands clenched until they bleed; a blind impulse has brought him to his knees, his whole body writhing in pitiful hideousness.” (Footnote: The grieving Judas later hangs himself for betraying Christ.) The story of the scene in the temple is only recorded in one of the four Gospels, Matthew 27:3–5; the verses are quoted on an exhibit board adjacent to the painting. What gives the show special bragging rights is the inclusion of five preparatory drawings, reunited with the painting for the first time since they were in the master’s studio. The Judas panel is one of the rare Rembrandt paintings for which so many preparatory works survive. As Holm Bevers, a curator at Berlin’s Museum of Prints and Drawings, writes in the catalog, Rembrandt’s approach to painting was “not systematic” like that of contemporary Peter Paul Rubens: “One possible explanation for this unusual and unexpected scarcity of drawings can be found in Rembrandt’s working method: technical examination of his paintings has shown little evidence of preparatory drawings beneath the paint; Rembrandt seems to have painted directly onto the prepared canvas or panel.” And, as X-ray photos and study of the
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669), “Judas Returning the Thirty Pieces of Silver” (Detail), 1629. Oil on panel. Private collection. © Private Collection, Photography courtesy of The National Gallery, London, 2016 surface of the Judas painting reveal, he revised substantially as he went along. He would even go back to his preparatory drawings while in the process of painting to “work out problems,” Wasserman said. Rembrandt may have been a miller’s son, but the family was well-to-do. Even so, he had aspirations to be a gentleman, and we see the young painter’s early efforts to reinvent himself and present a solid image to the outside world in the self-portrait prints and drawings here. The earliest ones are some of the most affecting, featuring wild, tousled hair and a serious, direct stare (see “SelfPortrait with Curly Hair and White Collar: Bust,” ca. 1630). But his clownish side shines through in the tiny “SelfPortrait in a Cap, Wide-Eyed and OpenMouthed” (1630), a playful close-up of the artist looking bug-eyed and full of wonder. Both prints were meant to circulate and enhance his reputation.
After Rembrandt moved to Amsterdam in the early 1630s, he produced the more formal “Self-Portrait in a Soft Cap” (ca. 1633-34). Featuring a stylish ruff and an arch inspired by Rubens, the picture signaled that the ambitious painter and printmaker from Leiden had “arrived” as an artist. But that could also be said about his first masterpiece.
IF YOU GO WHAT: “Rembrandt’s First Masterpiece”
WHERE: The Morgan Library & Museum, 225 Madison Ave., (at 36th Street) WHEN: through Sept. 18. www.themorgan.org
JULY 14-20,2016
DRAWING INSPIRATION Walter DeForest, a bartender, actor and playwright, taps into Vincent van Gogh BY MICKEY KRAMER
You’ll typically find Walter DeForest pouring drinks at Ryan’s Daughter, the East 85th Street pub. This Sunday he displayed another craft, as he roamed the bar using his artistic talents and sense of whimsy to make an unofficial attempt to break the Guinness Book of World Records for most portraits drawn in 12 hours. DeForest is preparing for his one-man show, “Van Gogh Find Yourself,” in which he channels the artist while drawing portraits of audience members. “Drawing for 12 hours helps me gain access to a creative process much like breathing. Breath is effortless. Acting in the show must be effortless as well and I cannot let drawing get in the way of the story,” said DeForest, also known as #VGFY and whose red beard gives him a resemblance to the troubled Dutch painter. Around noon, three young brothers visiting from Ireland wandered into the bar to watch hurling matches, but were pleased to have their portraits done. “It looks just like you,” Daniel, 15, said to middle brother Fergus.
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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
Fergus, 11, called the quick drawing “very detailed.” The youngest sibling, Michael, 5, excitedly spilled two glasses of Sprite, but fortunately not on the finished drawings. Bar regular Dennis Delisle, 69, was not surprised about the quality of the 5-minute portrait he received, raving about a drawing DeForest did for him months earlier. “He did a color work with chalk that was so good, I got it framed and paid him!” he said. As he worked the room and the faces, DeForest explained that the first incarnation of “Van Gogh Find Yourself” incorporated a different f-word than “find.” “I used to do many characters, but then was inspired to draw while in character, and the show evolved to just me as van Gogh,” he said. “It really was me ‘finding myself,’” which is when he made the title change. DeForest will perform “Van Gogh Find Yourself” four times this week (July 12-15) in New York City at 59E59 Theater’s East to Edinburgh festival, before taking the show first to London and then to the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland. On August 10, nearby the Adam Smith statue in Edinburgh, DeForest will make an official attempt to break the
most-portraits record, which is over 150. “Vincent painted and drew quickly,” DeForest said of the painter. “That is how at the end of his life he was painting three paintings a day and wrote about an out-of-body experience while painting, watching it happen but not actively doing it ... effortless, enlightened and genius.” DeForest connects to the artist in a number of ways: van Gogh was buried on July 30, which is DeForest’s birthday. And while DeForest was born with a hole in his heart, van Gogh’s life ended following a self-inflicted gunshot, yes, to the heart. John Mansfield came into the bar with some work buddies, had his portrait done, and enjoyed the diversion. ”It was a great experience ... something different and fun.” Mansfield added that it was his first time visiting Ryan’s Daughter and that it wouldn’t be his last, DeForest’s long day included 56 personalized portraits. “I took it slow, but it was a good warm-up and learning experience for my attempt next month,” he said. DeForest concluded by alluding to a partial quote from van Gogh himself: “In time to come there will be hard days, empty of inspiration, so one must strike while the iron is hot.”
Walter DeForest, aka #VGFY, wrote and performs his one-man show, “Van Gogh Find Yourself.” Photo: #VGFY
ACTIVITIES FOR THE FERTILE MIND
thoughtgallery.org NEW YORK CITY
Masters in Modern Art Lecture Series: de Chirico
SATURDAY, JULY 16TH, 2PM Mulberry Street Library | 10 Jersey St. | 212-966-3424 | nypl.org Maestro Francesco Santoro, art history scholar and world-renowned visual artist, will present the second of four free public lectures and discussions in Italian with simultaneous English translation. This week’s covers the underrated master Giorgio de Chirico. (Free)
The Myth of Women & Madness: Sylvia Plath & Zelda Fitzgerald
TUESDAY, JULY 19TH, 7:30PM The Strand | 828 Broadway | 212-473-1452 | strandbooks.com Taking a close look at women like Plath and Fitzgerald (and the roles their husbands played in the public perception of their madness), this class will touch on religion, European precedents, and the first biologists. ($20, includes one drink)
Just Announced | Defying the Nazis: The Sharps’ War Preview Screening & Conversation with Ken Burns and Artemis Joukowsky
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13TH, 7:30PM 92nd Street Y | 1395 Lexington Ave. | 212-415-5500 | 92y.org Master documentarian Ken Burns relates the story of Martha and Waitstill Sharp, an American couple who took incredible risks to save imperiled Jews and refugees during World War II. ($32)
For more information about lectures, readings and other intellectually stimulating events throughout NYC,
sign up for the weekly Thought Gallery newsletter at thoughtgallery.org. The local paper for Downtown
Advertise with Our Town Downtown today! Call Vincent Gardino at 212-868-0190
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JULY 14-20,2016
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
RESTAURANT INSPECTION RATINGS MAY 10 - JUN 8, 2016
16 Handles
178 8 Avenue
A
The following listings were collected from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s website and include the most recent inspection and grade reports listed. We have included every restaurant listed during this time within the zip codes of our neighborhoods. Some reports list numbers with their explanations; these are the number of violation points a restaurant has received. To see more information on restaurant grades, visit http://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/services/restaurant-grades.page
Coffeed
590 Avenue Of The Americas
A
Fika
180 9Th Ave
Grade Pending (47) Food Protection Certificate not held by supervisor of food operations. Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Sanitized equipment or utensil, including in-use food dispensing utensil, improperly used or stored.
Mapi
1 West 13 Street
A
Shangri-La
208 7 Avenue
Grade Pending (3)
Zagara Wine Bar
216 7Th Ave
A
Chelsea Papaya
171 West 23 Street
Grade Pending (58) Live roaches present in facility’s food and/or nonfood 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. Hand washing facility not provided in or near food preparation area and toilet room. Hot and cold running water at adequate pressure to enable cleanliness of employees not provided at facility. Soap and an acceptable hand-drying device not provided. Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred.
Pizza Italia
307 W 17Th St
Grade Pending (28) Hot food item not held at or above 140º F. 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. Sanitized equipment or utensil, including in-use food dispensing utensil, improperly used or stored.
Il Bambino
48 W 8Th St
A
Thai Sliders
150 8Th Ave
A
Tipsy Parson
156 9 Avenue
A
Bodega Negra
355 West 16 Street
Grade Pending (23) Food worker does not use proper utensil to eliminate bare hand contact with food that will not receive adequate additional heat treatment. Raw, cooked or prepared food is adulterated, contaminated, cross-contaminated, or not discarded in accordance with HACCP plan. Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred.
Village Natural
46 Greenwich Ave
A
Asia Kan
710 Amsterdam Avenue
Grade Pending (42) Hot food item not held at or above 140º F. Raw, cooked or prepared food is adulterated, contaminated, crosscontaminated, or not discarded in accordance with HACCP plan. 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/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. Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred.
La Ozen Asian Fusion Cuisine
760 Amsterdam Ave
A
Little Italy Pizza
214 W 92Nd St
A
Sunflower Cafe
676 Amsterdam Ave
Grade Pending (23) Food not cooled by an approved method whereby the internal product temperature is reduced from 140º F to 70º F or less within 2 hours, and from 70º F to 41º F or less within 4 additional hours.Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas.Tobacco use, eating, or drinking from open container in food preparation, food storage or dishwashing area observed.
Cafe Prague
2 West 19 Street
A
Piadina Restaurant
57 West 10 Street
A
Omar’s
21 W. 9Th St
Grade Pending (20) 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.
Yakiniku Futago
37 W 17Th St
Grade Pending (24) Hand washing facility not provided in or near food preparation area and toilet room. Hot and cold running water at adequate pressure to enable cleanliness of employees not provided at facility. Soap and an acceptable hand-drying device not provided. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service.
Malibu Diner
163 West 23 Street
A
Go Go Curry Chelsea
144 West 19 Street
A
Juban
207 10Th Ave
A
Kosaka
220 W 13Th St
A
Filaga
75 9Th Ave
A
La Carbornara
202 W 14Th St
Grade Pending (24) Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Tobacco use, eating, or drinking from open container in food preparation, food storage or dishwashing area observed. Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred.
Cafe Champignon
200 7 Avenue
Dunkin’ Donuts/Baskin Robbins
269 8 Avenue
Doughnut Plant
220 West 23 Street
Six Pans
180 7Th Ave
Jue Lan Club
49 W 20Th St
Ipanema Bar
252 West 14 Street
Grade Pending (23) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation. Wiping cloths soiled or not stored in sanitizing solution.
A
Not Yet Graded (44) Hot food item not held at or above 140º F. Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation. Filth flies or food/refuse/sewage-associated (FRSA) flies present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Filth flies include house flies, little house flies, blow flies, bottle flies and flesh flies. Food/refuse/sewageassociated flies include fruit flies, drain flies and Phorid flies. Personal cleanliness inadequate. Outer garment soiled with possible contaminant. Effective hair restraint not worn in an area where food is prepared. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service. Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred. Grade Pending (20) Food Protection Certificate not held by supervisor of food operations. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service.
Google Chelsea Market
75 9 Avenue
A
Bareburger
153 8 Avenue
A
JULY 14-20,2016
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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
IT’S NEIGHBOR AGAINST NEIGHBOR ON 71ST STREET NEWS South Pierre tenants wage fight amid sweeping renovations BY MADELEINE THOMPSON
In the South Pierre residential building at 160 W. 71st Street and Broadway, turmoil and confusion among tenants has been growing for the last year. The building began undergoing heavy renovation and construction in 2015, when the Brodsky Organization’s leadership fell to Daniel Brodsky, who is currently the chairman of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Some tenants, like Susan Schwartz, who has lived in her apartment for the last 30 years, complain of dangerous living conditions caused by the construction, but others are supportive of the changes. According to Rick Mason, executive director of management at the Brodsky Organization,
these changes include “replacing the boiler and oil tank, façade renovations required by Local Law 11, a new refuse and recycling system, installation of a new storage facility, refurbishment of common spaces and upgrading of five elevators.” But Schwartz described living next door to an apartment that was being renovated as “three months, six days a week of jackhammering, sledgehammering.” “They took the floor down to the dirt, they took the wall down to the studs … and they didn’t have a building permit,” said Schwartz, who formed a tenants’ association last summer that she says counts about a third of the building’s residents as members. She also brought City Councilmember Helen Rosenthal and Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal into the loop around that time. “I’ve been pushed to the brink,” Schwartz said. She has also been collecting rent histories for her and
Susan Schwartz on the balcony of a friend’s penthouse apartment in the building, with scaffolding and construction in the background. Photo by Madeleine Thompson her neighbors’ rent-stabilized apartments, which she believes are being targeted by the management to suffer the most invasive construction side effects. Rosenthal said she has “seen a lot of construction as harassment at that site. I think often when that is the
case the contractor knows just what they’re doing.” A stop work order was issued in November when asbestos was discovered in a room in the basement, and another was issued three weeks ago for elevator violations. According to Mason, only seven of the 59 complaints made to the Department of Buildings in the last year have resulted in violations. Three of those are still being resolved. “The elevators are subject to regular inspections by the [DOB] and have been deemed safe,” Mason said. “In addition, management has requested that its elevator maintenance company inspect each elevator every weekday to ensure they remain in good working condition and safe.” Many complaints have also been made to 311. One tenant who asked to remain anonymous due to fear of retribution from management said he has called 311 “probably 200 times in the last year.” The tenant identified the elevators as a main concern because of various malfunctions he and his neighbors have experience while riding them. The tenants association and Assemblymember Rosenthal say they have never received a response directly from Brodsky. Mason, however, said
Brodsky had “provided a detailed response” to Assemblymember Rosenthal. Some tenants say they are perfectly happy with their building and its management, creating somewhat of an awkward situation in the hallways. Last October, 33 tenants signed a letter of support for the management, which they then mailed to several elected officials. Though the letter acknowledges that the tenants’ association has been helpful in securing some improvements and repairs, its purpose was to clarify that the signees do not share the same concerns of the tenants’ association. “We are worried that our building is starting to become a nuisance to the many building inspectors and the Fire Department in particular,” the letter read. “We have been happy with the services in the building and happy with the hallway renovations.” Denise Taylor, one of the letter’s signees and a 27-year resident of the South Pierre, said she originally supported the tenants’ association but now feels it has gotten out of hand. “I think this is the best management we’ve ever had,” she said. Despite the supportive tenant letter, Assemblymember Rosenthal says she will continue to back the tenants.
Central Park
WHAT’S HAPPENING IN THE PARK SCHOOLS OUT! Many attractions and programs in Central Park were created especially with kids in mind. One of those is the free catch-and-release fishing program offered at the Harlem Meer through the Dana Discovery Center. The Discovery Center lends visitors bamboo fishing poles perfect for catching bass, catfish, bluegill sunfish, grass carp, rock perch and golden shiners in the Meer’s calm waters. For more information on this activity as well as other things to do with your kids this summer, visit: www.centralpark.com
PLACES TO COOL OFF IN CENTRAL PARK When it gets too hot to picnic out on the Great Lawn or Sheep Meadow, or when you
WHERE IN CENTRAL PARK? want to exercise but it’s too hot to run the Reservoir or the loop, you can still enjoy Central Park. Read our blog about the top 10 places to cool off: http://blog.centralpark.com/ where-to-cool-off-in-centralpark/
COMING UP THIS WEEK HIDDEN SECRETS TOUR Take a walk on the road less traveled in Central Park and discover its hidden gems on two-hour tours offered daily. See just how full of history and natural beauty that Central Park’s 843 acres really are! For more info and to book, visit: www.centralpark.com
THE YOGA TRAIL IN CENTRAL PARK Join on the grass for this relaxing Vinyasa yoga class. Great for those who want a restorative practice. Emphasis is on breathing and healthy pose alignment. Through Oct. 28. Mondays through Fridays, 6-7:15 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays, noon-1:15 p.m. Meet in front of cafe Le Pain Quotidien inside Central Park, on the north side of Sheep Meadow. For more details and to book visit: www.centralpark.com
Event listings and Where in Central Park? brought to you by CentralPark.com.
Do you know where in Central Park this photo was taken? To submit your answer, visit: centralpark.com/where-in-centralpark. The answers and names of the people who guess right will appear in the paper and online in two weeks.
ANSWER TO THE PREVIOUS QUIZ: The Heckscher Gates. August Heckscher was born in Germany and immigrated to the United States in 1867. He became a multimillionaire and a philanthropist, starting The Heckscher Foundation for Children. He created playgrounds in lower Manhattan and in Central Park. The Heckscher Playground in Central Park opened in 1926 and it remains the park’s largest and oldest playground. The gates — which are actually two standing pillars, rather
than an actual gate — lead to the Heckscher Ballfieldsl, just south of the 65th Street Transverse. Congratulations
to Gregory Holman and Joe Ornstein for answering the last quiz question correctly.
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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
In Brief
Business
NEW YORK CITY LANDLORDS HAVE BEEN OVERCHARGING RENTSTABILIZED APARTMENTS FOR YEARS In an investigation by the journalism organization ProPublica last week, many landlords in the city were found to have illegally taken thousands of apartments out of rent stabilization despite accepting a tax break in exchange for keeping them stabilized. Landlords who accept the tax break, J-51, are not allowed to convert rent stabilized apartments to market, but many have done so with little to no consequence from the state. Though landlords were sent letters from New York’s Division of Housing and Community Renewal to inform them of their legal obligation to maintain rent stabilized housing, ProPublica reported that “affected tenants were not directly informed.” This has resulted in the illegal de-stabilization of thousands of apartments. Some informed tenants who have gone to court over their rent overcharges have been awarded hundred of thousands of dollars, but few enough tenants are aware of J-51 that it is likely a risk landlords are willing to take. Many tenants will continue to be overcharged while their landlords benefit from a tax break that costs the city $266 million a year in property taxes. “The landlord has for many years been covered by a J-51 which means that he is not allowed to convert rent-stabilized apartments to market value,” an anonymous tenant on the Upper West Side told ProPublica. “He has been making such conversions for many years.”
SMALL WIN FOR ADVOCATES OF PRESERVING HOTEL CHELSEA Despite several major losses, namely the gutting and conversion of the building into a luxury hotel, preservationists won a small victory last week with regard to Hotel Chelsea. After a nine-year fight by hotel resident Arthur Nash, the building’s management has agreed to preserve his apartment. But this is not just a case of a stubborn tenant — Nash occupies the space where poet Dylan Thomas once stayed in the 1950s, and Nash’s persistence has ensured the survival of Thomas’ bohemian spirit. Nash’s battle was incredibly hard won, as the website Curbed NY writes that he and many other former tenants allegedly endured plenty of tenant harassment. The hotel’s tangled web of owners and managers has made for bad publicity for the renovation, which according to Curbed has cost over $130 million. “As outcomes go,” Nash told Curbed, “I couldn’t imagine one rosier under the circumstances.” His apartment shares a balcony with a room where Bob Dylan once lived — another of the building’s many famous guests.
SEGREGATED CITY SCHOOLS GET ANOTHER LOOK During a week fraught with racial tension across the country, New York City’s considerably segregated school system came back into the spotlight as well. According to Chalkbeat, an education news site, top Department of Education Officials are “exploring a plan to more evenly spread low-income students and their affluent peers across a Manhattan school district. If approved, experts say it would represent the city’s first district-wide desegregation plan in decades.” District 1, which includes about 24 schools in the East Village and the Lower East Side, is seen as ripe for an experiment such as this one because it is already small and diverse, and because it families are already allowed to apply for any school in that district no matter their address. District 1 could see the new system, called “controlled choice,” rolled out as early as the 2017-2018 school year.
Restaurants face fines of $250 and up for wasting energy during the summer.
A CRACKDOWN ON SIDEWALK A/C NEWS City set to fine businesses that leave doors open while running the A/C BY JENNIFER PELTZ
Along New York City’s steamy sidewalks in the summer, there’s long been a reliable respite from the heat: waves of air-conditioned comfort wafting from open doors. Now the nation’s biggest city is pushing businesses to cool it on such wastefulness. Under an expanded law that took full effect last week, most stores and restaurants could be fined $250 or more if they keep their doors or windows open while running the A/C. But as temperatures soared into the 90s, some air-conditioned shops and eateries around Times Square still had doors propped like open arms, beckoning passers-by to come into the cold. “When the doors are open, it’s
better for business,” says William Shalders, who manages Il Forno, an Italian restaurant that had its front door open; he said he wasn’t aware of the law. It passed last fall, but first-time violators got only warnings until July 1. No violations or fines have yet been issued since the change. Some New Yorkers haven’t waited for that to happen. Resident Dee Vitale Henle has taken it upon herself to close doors when she sees shops have them open. “It still bothers me because we’re in a terrible energy crisis in this world,” she says. There’s no exact measure of how much power goes out the door with air conditioning at city shops. The Natural Resources Defense Council has pegged the costs at up to $1,000 per summer for a typical business, which already pays summertime electric bills topping $2,200 a month. City sustainability officials have said closing doors at 10,000 businesses could cut 3,600 cars’ worth of emissions of carbon dioxide, a gas that contributes to global warming.
But some business owners say the city shouldn’t dictate what they do with their doors and on their own dime. And “Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon, for one, has suggested New York’s rule smacks of nagging, casting Democrat Bill de Blasio as “not only our mayor -- he’s also our dad.” The new law expands a pioneering 2008 measure that applied only to large chain stores and inspired a similar law in Washington, D.C., which also recently extended its measure to smaller shops and is still working to implement the law. New York issued 308 warnings and 19 violation notices to chain stores last year, compared to 64 warnings and zero violations in 2014, according to Consumer Affairs Department data. Inspections, conducted in response to complaints and during regular patrols, rose from about 600 to 1,500. Both New York and Washington have found enforcement complicated because inspectors couldn’t always immediately dis-
cern whether a given store met size criteria. The new laws eliminate those thresholds, while carving out exceptions for outdoor dining areas and deliveries. Several business owners who say they make a point of closing doors have contacted the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce with concerns about being penalized for not noticing if a delivery person or customer leaves a door open. “I gotta get a ticket for that?” says Paul DiSpirito, who owns Lioni Italian Heroes, a Brooklyn sandwich shop. “It’s not the government’s place to tell me to keep my energy bills low. Me, as a businessman, to survive, I have to keep my energy bills low,” he says. To be sure, the city’s stray bursts of cool don’t go entirely unappreciated. “It does feel good, that blast of air,” Jonathan Higbee, a photographer, said as he stood in a sweaty Times Square this week. But for conservation’s sake, “I’m willing to give that up.”
JULY 14-20,2016
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
JULY 14-20,2016
U.S. TRAFFIC FATALITY RATE AMONG WORLD’S HIGHEST HEALTH High global ranking despite a drop in deaths BY MIKE STOBBE
Traffic deaths are down, but a new report shows fatalities on the road are still a bigger problem in the United States than in other affluent countries. The U.S. had by far the highest fatality rate for car crashes of the nearly 20 countries studied. The U.S. rate in 2013 was more than twice as high as in most of the other countries. And traffic deaths haven’t been dropping as fast in the U.S. The rate has fallen by nearly a third since 2000. But every other country had a steeper decline. The statistics probably reflect that Americans tend to drive more miles and for longer periods, said Dr. Guohua
Photo by Kevin Coles via flickr
Li, of Columbia University’s Center for Injury Epidemiology and Prevention. “The more you’re on the road, the more you’re exposed to the potential for a crash,” agreed Erin SauberSchatz, lead author of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report. U.S. drivers also more often speed, drive drunk and take other risks, Li said in an email. Some developing countries, not included in the report, have higher traffic death rates than the United States. But there’s not enough good data to do a global comparison, CDC officials said. Until last year, U.S. traffic deaths had been falling -- often attributed to road and car safety improvements, child car seats, and efforts to increase seat belt use and discourage drunk driving. But crash deaths have been declining more dramatically in other countries that have even stricter guidelines and
road safety measures, CDC officials said. The U.S. toll went up last year to 35,200, as drivers racked up more miles behind the wheel as a result of an improved economy and lower gas prices. The report compared rates from the U.S., Australia, Canada, Israel, Japan, New Zealand and more than a dozen European countries. The tally included drivers and passengers as well as pedestrians and bicyclists killed on the road. The U.S. traffic crash death rate was about 10 deaths per 100,000 people in 2013. Belgium was the next closest, at 6.5. Sweden was the lowest on the list, at 2.7. The researchers tried to account for the greater mileage in the U.S. by calculating traffic deaths per miles traveled. By that measure, the U.S. was still among the deadliest countries. But Japan, Belgium and Slovenia were higher.
NOT ALL FUN AND GAMES Rent increase obliges city’s oldest toy store to move BY BEN SCHNEIER
In 1931, a married couple named Mary and Arnold opened a toy store aptly named Mary Arnold Toys, which still stands today as the city’s oldest toy store. Next month, it will be moving up Lexington Avenue from between 73rd and 72nd Streets to between 80th and 81st Streets. The store has been at its current location for 19 years, but its 15-year fixedterm lease is ending and the owners bolted for a location with a 30 percent cheaper price tag, avoiding potentially falling victim to rent’s rising tide. “The [new] deal is much better than what we have here,” said Ezra Ishayik, who owns the store with his daughter Judy. He also acknowledged the higher price that the store would have paid had they stayed at their current location. “To the landlord, [the price] is fair, to us, it is not fair,” he said. “It is his job to rent it, he’s going to have his price. I wish it was lower, more reasonable, but that’s what it is, we can’t fight the reality.” Although the new space is several hundred square feet smaller with less window space, the move is a testament to the store’s ability to stay alive as its competitors, including the legendary FAO Schwarz, have fallen by the wayside. Ishayik said Mary Arnold Toys has been able to maintain its existence due to its enormous inventory and quality customer service. “Right now, retail in general is difficult, no matter what anyone says.
We possibly have a lot more than FAO Schwarz in merchandise — whatever the customer wants, we have it. From that point of view, the customer has to find something,” Ishayik said. “Service is our principle. It is the utmost most important thing we do in the store. When a customer comes in, we greet them in the front and if they accept any help, we help them.” Christine McManus, said she shops at Mary Arnold Toys for its variety, manners and location. “It’s got every choice for a child, it’s a community store, it’s not a big chain store, and they always are polite,” she said. “It will be missed right here for the convenience.” Ruby Diaz, a frequent customer of Mary Arnold Toys for her son, said she comes to this store in particular “because this store has been here for a long time. That’s the point, the convenience and the familiarity of the store. This is the only toy store that I am very familiar with.” Mary Arnold Toys is currently having a clearance sale because they cannot fit their entire inventory into the new, smaller space. Despite the decrease in size, the new store will have a large basement, which will allow for onsite storage as opposed to paying to use a separate public warehouse. In addition, one unique aspect of the store is its window displays, well known for their creativity, which Ishayik said would continue at the new location. “We have a window display man that has been with us for over 25 years, since we started,” Ishayik said, “we can’t replace him.”
Lewis Guzman wraps a toy gift for a Mary Arnold Toys customer. The shop, said to be the city’s oldest toy store, will move from its current Lexington Avenue location, between 73rd and 72nd Streets, further uptown, to between 80th and 81st Streets on the avenue.
JULY 14-20,2016
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
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TRADING ON ELEGANCE Mathilde Freund, who turns 100 next month, has had a table at an Upper West Side bazaar since 1976 BY RUI MIAO
Mathilde Freund embodies OldWorld elegance: silky ginger hair combed behind her ears, where a pair of large hoop earrings dangle and shine. Meticulously polished beige nails match a ruby-encrusted golden dome ring on her right-hand ring finger. She wears a black long-sleeve blouse, topped by a black vest embroidered with white lines that pairs well with her white slacks. Her only sartorial concession are the sneakers, for ease of walking, on her feet. A true New Yorker. Her classic looks echo her surroundings at the Grand Bazaar Market off Columbus Avenue, where she has been vending antiques and vintage wares since 1976. “The antiques speak to me. Each item has a special story,” said Freund, who turns 100 next month. She firmly believes the past can teach valuable lessons. She would know. Born to a wealthy family in Vienna in 1916, Freund grew up steeped in arts,
sports and travel. “I went all over Europe and Asia,” she said, recalling how she also collected souvenirs along her globe-trotting. “I kept them, they accumulated and now I’m selling them.” Following Hitler’s invasion of Austria in 1938, Freund, now newly married, and her family fled to Paris and, when the French capital fell to the Germans, to Lyon, in east-central France. The war years were dark. Her brother and her husband, both joined with the Allied forces and were eventually captured and killed. Her husband, Fritz, the love of her life, was captured and sent to Buchenwald. Her brother, Alfred, was shot at the Lyon Airport in 1944. Her father died of heart attack shortly after. In a photo taken in Lyon the day it was liberated from the Germans, Freund is pictured with 10 men whom she risked her life to save. She had the men brought food and water while they hid from the German occupiers. “It was August 24, 1944,” said Freund. “I was 24, full of hope that I was going to see my loved ones.” She wore a white suit and skirt, looking cheerful and full of hope. She did not yet know that her husband and brother had both been killed.
Mathilde Freund at the Grand Bazaar Market on the Upper West Side. Photo: Rui Miao
“I try not to think about the sad days anymore,” she said. She moved to New York in 1952, with her mother and daughter, Chantal Freund. They perched for two weeks at the Alvin Hotel at Broadway and 52nd Street before settling in an apartment on West 76th Street. She still lives there. She quickly fell in love with the city. “When I was a young girl in Vienna, I watched so many movies about New York, my dream was to come to 42nd Street one day,” she said. “I’m a New Yorker by heart.” She was as a medical social worker at several hospitals for more than 20 years, and retired in 1976. She started selling at the market right away. At her Grand Bazaar table these days, you can find antique jewels and articles, such as an exquisite Italian mosaic brooch or a delicate metal tea tin adorned by a Chinese-style portrait painting. What’s most precious, though, are the people who come through the market. “Luckily I speak many languages, so I’m able to communicate with people from all over the world,” said Freund. She speaks German, Viennese, French, Italian, Spanish, Yiddish and English. “They give me a
Photo: Rui Miao great pleasure, the conversations.” She’s also thrilled that the market’s profits go to public schools. “Every Sunday when she sees me, she presses her rental fee into my hand, looks me in the eye and says ‘for the children,’” said Juli Ra-Goodman, the market’s executive director. “Never, ‘here’s the rent’, or ‘what I owe you’ ... always, ‘for the children.’” She described Freund as “lively, sharp, caring, witty and loving.” Phyllis Newman, who sells antique prints and rare maps at the venue, said
Freund is an inspiration. Freund, she said, is much admired. “I feel like she’s the mayor of Columbus Avenue,” Newman said. Freund works every Sunday except when she is visiting with her grandson and his family, who live in North Carolina. She gets up at around 5 a.m., drinks a cup of coffee, catches up with world news on BBC, and reads. She eats very little and works out a good amount. She’s a fan of Brighton Beach and enjoys swimming in the ocean.
Mathilde Freund pictured in Lyon, France, on August 24, 1944, with 10 men to whom she had brought food and water every day as they hid from occupying German soldiers. Allied armies had liberated the city from German occupation that day. Photo courtesy of Mathilde Freund.
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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
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YOUR 15 MINUTES
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HE’S NOT MAILING IT IN Manhattan’s new postmaster on the Hells Angels, hurricanes and long lines BY ANGELA BARBUTI
In 1983, Kevin Crocilla became a letter carrier on the Lower East Side. As a 21-year-old from Brooklyn, it was a bit of a culture shock. “Back then, that zone went from Houston Street on the East Side, all the way up to Grammercy Park South,” he explained. “We had the Bowery, we had the Hells Angels on East Third Street. And then on another day, I might be working up in Grammercy Park with the doorman buildings and the richest of the rich people.” That job was just the beginning of a lifelong career with the postal service. After 33 years of experience, and enduring storms like Hurricane Irene and Sandy and the countless events in Manhattan that make the process of delivering mail challenging, he was recognized for his commitment and sworn in as the new postmaster of the city of New York. His role includes overseeing 4,138 employees, 68 post offices and the 1,000 trucks that travel through the city. Crocilla credits his dedicated staff for their efforts, acknowledging them whenever he can. “One of the things I try to do in my new role is get out to visit as many offices as I can during the week. I take a few minutes and talk to all the clerks, custodians, carriers and people truly appreciate it,” he said.
How did your job as a letter carrier come about? I never really knew back then that I was going to make a career out of the post office. I had a job on Wall Street; I worked in an investment bank right out of high school. The job came up and my uncle, who was actually a postmaster, he’s deceased now, called me and said, “You should put in for that job. It’s a good job with good benefits.” It was that whole civil service-minded mentality from that generation. At the time, I had a job. But I was like, “It doesn’t hurt to put in.” So I actually took the test and was on the list for a couple of years. And when I got called, the salary was decent, the benefits were great. I said, “Let me try this.” Still being a young person, there was not a lot of risk there. No family yet, no kids. I became a letter carrier and actually enjoyed it. I did that for a few years and it’s actually a great job. You get to be out and meet the customers; you get your exercise. Rain, sleet and snow, you know the whole motto.
Your first route was on the Lower East Side. What was that like? Yeah, I actually started in Cooper Station. I’ve actually done my whole career here in Manhattan, all 33 years. As a new carrier they actually expose you to a lot of different things. Some days you’re driving a truck, some days you’re collecting mail out of the blue boxes, and other days you’re delivery mail, obviously, which is our primary function as a carrier. They kind of bounce you around; you work a lot of different hours. What I remember, being a kid from Brooklyn, was that, although I worked down on Wall Street, it was a little bit of a culture shock. Back in 1983, if you know the Lower East Side, it wasn’t what it is today. It’s become a lot more gentrified and built up. The memories I have were that the people, whether they were rich or poor, were all great.
You worked through some weather emergencies. What are your memories of those events? Unfortunately, I have a lot of memories of those events, in particular, Hurricane Irene and Hurricane Sandy, which were the biggies. And then of course, we had a few snowstorms over the years. But with the hurricane events, the post office, like every other agency whether it’s city, state or federal, has emergency plans in place for such events. But, as you know, some of those storms and hurricanes were 100-year storms, so they actually became learning experiences for us. There were a lot of things we did right and obviously things we could have done better. Our biggest challenge during that time was actually getting our employees to work here in Manhattan. Besides the New York City transit system going down, at certain points, we also had issues with the gas shortages. When you don’t have the people here to do the work, it really become a challenge. How do you get the mail delivered? What a lot of people don’t realize is that a lot of our customers rely on the mail for medicine, sustenance checks, things that they really need to live. So what we do in those events is definitely prioritize and get our people together and do what we need to do to get our mail delivered to those customers. There are a lot of people who obviously can live without the mail for a day or two and it’s not as big of an impact. But when you take a step back, it’s a very important thing that we do.
What does your job as postmaster entail? I’m in charge of all the post offices in Manhattan. That includes the finance stations, the carriers, the clerks and all the mail handlers. I have about
Manhattan Postmaster Kevin Crocilla, with Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, following his swearing-in ceremony in June. Photo: Connie Chirichello, USPS 4,100 subordinate employees who are under my jurisdiction. I do have six direct report area managers who help me manage all of Manhattan. I have over 100 managers above them. Dayto-day, it’s to collect, process, transport and deliver the mail. But as you would imagine, there’s a lot of moving parts with that. Our challenge here in Manhattan is all the big events that happen. Besides all those snowstorms that we just talked about, we have dignitaries from all over the world who are here on any given day. Things like the marathon, the UN General Assembly, the pope coming to town, the president. Every time something like that happens, behind the scenes there’s a lot of planning and coordination in order for us to get our vehicles out of these areas. Because, as you know, sometimes they’ll just close down streets. Two years ago we had the Super Bowl [festivities] on Broadway and they shut down 10 blocks. Having to transport mail all over the city – I’m happy to say we do a good job and re-
act when we need to react and get the job done each day.
People think that we don’t need post offices as much because of the internet. How do you argue against that and how do you stay current? What actually is happening is letter and flat mail is decreasing and it has been over the years. But our parcel volume has been increasing at a tremendous rate. So there’s been a shift in the mail: less letters, more parcels. And what we’re doing to stay relevant is we’ve been investing money over the years into scanning technology. We’ve upgraded all the carrier scanners because what our customers tell us is that they want that visibility. They want to track that package from the time it ships to the time it gets to their mail receptacle or their front door. Over the last few years we’ve been doing that to stay current in the market.
What is one initiative you are working on now? One of the things I’m taking on very aggressively is working on some of our
retail lobbies. Sometimes you talk to customers and the image of the post office is long lines. I think we’re doing a better job than we were, but we definitely got some work to do in some of our spots. My challenge now and what I’ve been working on is trying to improve that customer experience in the lobby. And one of the ways we’re doing that is we did get some new scanners for our retail clerks where we can actually have a clerk in the lobby. We can’t do money orders or passports or things of that nature, but we can do simple transactions with a debit or credit card like buying a roll of stamps or a prepaid priority envelope. The idea is that we can take customers as soon as they walk in the door and try to keep them off that line.
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Community Forum How to Protect Yourself and Family Members Against Scams and Fraud
CATHERINE CHRISTIAN Chief of the Elder Abuse Unit Manhattan District Attorney’s Office
GEORGE MANNES Senior Editor Money magazine
MARK SICARI Staff Attorney JASA
KYLE POPE Editor in Chief Our Town, Chelsea News, The Spirit, Our Town Downtown
Come hear how to safeguard your financial future. Learn to recognize the latest scams and find out what you can do to protect yourself and family members. Get unbiased financial information and tools for helping you to reach your financial goals. Hear what local resources are available to answer your questions.
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