The local paper for Downtown wn
WEEK OF JULY RICHARD GERSTL’S GENIUS < P.12
20-26 2017
Famed gossip columnist and nightlife chronicler Michael Musto in a familiar pose, riding what he calls his “girl’s bike” down Lexington Avenue in the East 20s. Photo: Streetfilms “Il Ciclista Dolce: Michael Musto” screen shot
Council Member Margaret Chin and Mayor Bill de Blasio at the June 21 town hall meeting at the Chinatown YMCA/University Settlement. Photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office
CHIN’S TOWN HALL EVENT SCRUTINIZED POLITICS Norman Siegel, the civil rights attorney, says police’s seizure of political literature is unprecedented BY RICHARD KHAVKINE
The confiscation of political flyers and other campaign material by police prior to a town hall meeting hosted by Council Member Margaret Chin and attended by Mayor de Blasio last month has received more scrutiny.
The prominent civil rights attorney Norman Siegel and others have since denounced events alleged to have taken place prior to the June 21 event, with Siegel calling the police action unprecedented. “It’s unheard of,” said Siegel, a former director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. “In all the years doing what I do in New York, I’ve never heard about cops confiscating political literature at a public meeting so it’s got to stop.” According to several people who attended the town hall, uniformed and plainclothes NYPD personnel at a se-
curity tent riffled through would-be attendees’ personal belongings and seized political flyers, banners and signs critical of either Chin or de Blasio or that supported opposition candidates before they allowed people into the YMCA on the Bowery. In letters to de Blasio and police Commissioner James P. O’Neill, Siegel said “Such actions by state actors raise serious constitutional concerns.” In the July 8 letters, Siegel said the confiscations raised several ques-
CALAMITY AND THE GOSSIP COLUMNIST SAFETY Michael Musto was knocked down and badly hurt by a “crazed cyclist.” Now he can’t wait to ride his own bike again BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN
Michael Musto has rather strong opinions about public transportation: “I hate subways! I hate cabs! I hate Ubers!” he says. “I don’t want to get stuck in traffic. I don’t want to be late for any of my appointments.”
CONTINUED ON PAGE 19 CONTINUED ON PAGE 15 Downtowner
OurTownDowntown
O OTDOWNTOWN.COM @OTDowntown
Crime Watch Voices NYC Now City Arts
He never is. For more than three decades, the downtown icon, nightlife columnist, celebrity chronicler and pop-culture fixture has scooted off to screenings, shows, premieres and nightclubs on his trusty bicycle. “It’s a wonderful way to see how the city is evolving — to see it up close and personal in a way that is true,” says Musto, a pioneer of the Out movement as one of the city’s first openly gay gossip columnists. That makes the former Village Voice mainstay — he penned “La Dolce Musto” from 1984 until 2013, when he was, unaccountably, laid
3 8 10 12
Restaurant Ratings Business Real Estate 15 Minutes
14 16 17 21
WEEK OF APRIL
SPRING ARTS PREVIEW < CITYARTS, P.12
FOR HIM, SETTLING SMALL CLAIMS IS A BIG DEAL presided over Arbitration Man has three decades. for informal hearings about it He’s now blogging BY RICHARD KHAVKINE
is the common Arbitration Man their jurist. least folks’ hero. Or at Man has For 30 years, Arbitration court office of the civil few sat in a satellite Centre St. every building at 111 New Yorkers’ weeks and absorbed dry cleaning, burned lost accountings of fender benders, lousy paint jobs, and the like. And security deposits then he’s decided. Arbitration Man, About a year ago, so to not afwho requested anonymity started docuhe fect future proceedings, two dozen of what menting about compelling cases considers his most blog. in an eponymous about it because “I decided to write the stories but in a I was interested about it not from wanted to write from view but rather lawyer’s point of said Arbitration view,” of a lay point lawyer since 1961. Man, a practicing what’s at issue He first writes about post, renders and then, in a separatehow he arrived his decision, detailing blog the to Visitors at his conclusion. their opinions. often weigh in with get a rap going. I to “I really want whether they unreally want to know and why I did it,” I did derstood what don’t know how to he said. “Most people ... I’d like my cases the judge thinks. and also my trereflect my personalitythe law.” for mendous respect 80, went into indiMan, Arbitration suc in 1985, settling vidual practice
9-16
MANHATTAN'S APARTMENT BOOM, > PROPERTY, P.20
2015
In Brief MORE HELP FOR SMALL BUSINESS
The effort to help small seems to businesses in the city be gathering steam. Two city councilmembers, Robert Margaret Chin and Cornegy, have introduced create legislation that wouldSmall a new “Office of the within Business Advocate” of Small the city’s Department Business Services. Chin The new post, which have up told us she’d like to would and running this year, for serve as an ombudsman city small businesses within them clear government, helping to get through the bureaucracy things done. Perhaps even more also importantly, the ombudsman and number will tally the type small business of complaints by taken in owners, the actions policy response, and somefor ways to recommendations If done well, begin to fix things. report would the ombudsman’s give us the first quantitative with taste of what’s wrong the city, an small businesses in towards important first step fixing the problem. of for deTo really make a difference, is a mere formality will have to the work process looking to complete their advocate are the chances course, velopers precinct, but rising rents, -- thanks to a find a way to tackle business’ is being done legally of after-hours projects quickly. their own hours,” which remain many While Chin “They pick out boom in the number throughout who lives on most vexing problem. said Mildred Angelo,of the Ruppert construction permits gauge what Buildings one said it’s too early tocould have the 19th floor in The Department of the city. number three years, the Houses on 92nd Street between role the advocate She Over the past on the is handing out a record work perThird avenues. permits, there, more information of Second and an ongoing all-hours number of after-hours bad thing. of after-hours work the city’s Dept. problem can’t be a said there’s with the mits granted by nearby where according to new data jumped 30 percent, This step, combinedBorough construction project noise Buildings has data provided in workers constantly make efforts by Manhattan to mediate BY DANIEL FITZSIMMONS according to DOB of Informacement from trucks. President Gale Brewer offer response to a Freedom classifies transferring they want. They knows the the rent renewal process, request. The city They 6 “They do whatever signs Every New Yorker clang, tion Act go as they please. work between some early, tangible small any construction on the weekend, can come and sound: the metal-on-metal or the piercing of progress. For many have no respect.” p.m. and 7 a.m., can’t come of these that the hollow boom, issuance reverse. owners, in business moving The increased beeps of a truck has generto a correspond and you as after-hours. soon enough. variances has led at the alarm clock The surge in permits
SLEEPS, THANKS TO THE CITY THAT NEVER UCTION A BOOM IN LATE-NIGHT CONSTR NEWS
A glance it: it’s the middle can hardly believe yet construction of the night, and carries on full-tilt. your local police or You can call 311
n OurTownDowntow
COM
Newscheck Crime Watch Voices
for dollars in fees ated millions of and left some resithe city agency, that the application dents convinced
2 City Arts 3 Top 5 8 Real Estate 10 15 Minutes
12 13 14 18
CONTINUED ON PAGE
25
We deliver! Get Our Town Downtowner sent directly to your mailbox for $49 per year. Go to OTDowntown.com or call 212-868-0190
2
JULY 20-26,2017
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR BIKE FATALITIES Referring to your reporting of the cyclist fatality (“Cyclist Killed on West Side,” July 6 - 12), it is always a real tragedy when anyone loses his/her life in a bicycle accident. The mayor and other bike proponents are disingenuous when they express surprise when such a bike fatality occurs. How can you unleash thousands of additional bikes onto city streets which repeated studies have cited as among the most congested in the country and not expect that serious injuries and deaths are going to occur from bike/auto collisions? Hundred of millions of dollars are being expended to accommodate bicycle riders, yet they pay no fees, are not required to carry insurance or to wear safety helmets. The police department as well as the Department of Transportation have done a very poor job of regulating bicycle riders. I would only encourage my worst enemy to ride a bicycle on the streets of this city. B. Wallace Cheatham Tribeca
PIZZA MEMORIES When I asked Carmine around 40 years ago why they didn’t deliver (“A
The local paper for Downtown
Slice, a Cel-Ray and a Scowl,” July 6 - 12), he said he and Sal had once had delivery service, but they were tired of the pizza delivery pranks of yore: kids calling up, ordering five pies for delivery to a bogus apartment number, and watching the frustrated delivery guy have to turn back carrying five boxes of pies. He encouraged phoning in advance and having your order ready for pick-up. Eileen Stareshefsky Upper West Side
A white bicycle is often brought to the site where cyclists have been killed. Photo: Thomas Brownell via Wikimedia Commons
LOSING NEIGHBORHOODS
In all three cases the cause was landlord greed, and, again as Ms. Dewing points out, the loss was not only of community eateries, but also the jobs of dozens of dedicated employees. And these are only the three most egregious examples: the UWS has actually lost over a dozen local eateries over the past two or three years.
Brava to Betty Dewing for her loving, if sad, piece on the loss of “neighborhoods” (“Restore Our Good – With Neighborhoods,” June 29 - July 5). What Ms. Dewing says about her beloved East Side is equally applicable to my beloved West Side. She mentions the loss of “community places to buy or break bread.” Re the latter, in 2013 we lost Big Nick’s, a local staple for over 50 years. Reasonably priced, and open 24 hours, it provided exactly the type of atmosphere Ms. Dewing notes. And just this year, we lost Restaurant Dan (open over 35 years) and Isabella’s (over 30 years).
Rosita Resnick Upper West Side
Ian Alterman Upper West Side
CONCERN ABOUT THE IDC
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE I read with great interest the article “Preventing Elder Abuse,” (The Spirit Westsider, June 22 - 28) describing the
Advertise with Our Town Downtown today! Call Vincent Gardino at 212-868-0190
important event by JASA on June 14, 2017. But there was no mention [of] the UN General Assembly 2005 Proclamation of WEAAD [World Elder Abuse Awareness Day] celebrated all over the world on June 15th, including the most recent presentation at the UN Headquarters in NYC on June 16, 2017.
New Yorkers deserve strong leadership on climate change from our state elected officials. With Donald Trump dismantling the Environmental Pro-
tection Agency and pulling out of the Paris climate agreement, it’s clear that states and local governments must be more aggressive than ever before. Sadly, New York’s state legislative session just ended with no progress on climate change, one of the the most pressing issues of our time. The reason for this is simple: Senator Marisol Alcantara and the seven other members of the Independent Democratic Conference have handed control of the State Senate to the party of Donald Trump. Just like they have across the country, New York’s Republicans blocked any action on climate change. And the IDC has made it clear that whenever the Republicans need a majority, the IDC will supply it. This is unconscionable, of course. The good news is that New Yorkers are waking up with near constant rallies calling on Senator Alcantara and the other IDC members to end their ruinous alliance with the Republicans. Simply put, it’s time for Senator Alcantara to stop playing political games and get to work moving New York off fossil fuels and on to 100 percent renewable energy. We simply cannot wait for climate justice. Daniel Marks Cohen, Corinne Constantine, Wendy Dannett, Daniele Gerard, Mary Ann Marks, Marie Lunn, Lynn Max, Steve Max, Merle McEldowney, Lois Safian, Lorraine Zamora Members, Board of Directors Three Parks Independent Democrats
ACTIVITIES FOR THE FERTILE MIND
thoughtgallery.org NEW YORK CITY
Roots, Radicals and Rockers: How Skiffle Changed the World
SATURDAY, JULY 22ND, 7PM The Strand | 828 Broadway | 212-473-1452 | strandbooks.com Musician Billy Bragg talks about his new book, on the music form skiffle’s wide-reaching impact—a little combo called The Beatles started out as a Liverpool skiffle band ($29.95 signed book or $15 gift card purchase required).
Vinyl Freak: John Corbett
MONDAY, JULY 24TH, 7PM McNally Jackson | 52 Prince St. | 212-274-1160 | mcnallyjackson.com Music writer, curator, and collector John Corbett illuminates the lengths that record collectors will go to, in addition to highlighting 200 rare and out-of-print LPs in his new book. Corbett will be in conversation with musician, composer, and writer David Grubbs (free).
Just Announced | An Evening with Senator Bernie Sanderss
FRIDAY, JULY 28TH, 7PM The Riverside Church | 490 Riverside Dr. | 212-355-6100 | trcnyc.org The most popular politician in America comes to town in support of his forthcoming book, the Bernie Sanders Guide to Political Revolution, an inspirational how-to for young adults. Ticket price includes a one-year subscription to Harper’s Magazine ($25).
otdowntown.com
For more information about lectures, readings and other intellectually stimulating events throughout NYC,
sign up for the weekly Thought Gallery newsletter at thoughtgallery.org.
JULY 20-26,2017
3
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
CRIME WATCH BY JERRY DANZIG LAW GNAW
GNARLY AND SNARLY
LATER, GATOR
At 10:10 p.m. on July 4, opposite 10 South Street, a 30-year-old woman bit a police officer on his left arm, bruising the officer. Christianna Sigliano was arrested July 4 and charged with assault on a peace officer. The officer taken to New York Downtown Hospital for treatment. The police report didn’t explain what might have occasioned the dental assault.
At 12:24 p.m. on July 4, a man carrying a skateboard walked into the Duane Reade store at 200 Water Street, knocking items of merchandise to the ground and yelling at people in the store. A police officer confronted the young man who then ran out before turning to the cop and cursing him. He then threw his skateboard, hitting the officer and threw up his fists. Charlzid Caulker, 19, was eventually subdued and arrested on an assault charge.
A Lacoste store employee paid a cost for trying to stop some shoplifters. At 2:35 p.m. on July 3, six men entered the Lacoste location at 541 Broadway and took clothing from a shelf and display rack. They left the store without paying, fleeing southbound on Broadway on foot. A female store employee told police that one of the perpetrators had pushed her to the ground as she tried to stop him, cutting her. Police managed to arrest one of the thieves, Harry M Ronald, 17, and charged him with robbery. The items stolen were seven polo shirts with a total value of $300.
NO LYCA At 5:30 a.m. on July 8, a 27-yearold Queens man on the northbound 1 train at the South Ferry station was approached by two men who demanded his belongings. He refused, and one of the pair punched him in the head, while the second one took his wallet and cell phone from his pocket. The train pulled into the Rector Street station, and the two fled to parts unknown. A search of the area failed to turn up the muggers. The items stolen included a Lycamobile Android prepaid phone valued at $400, $20 in cash, a brown leather wallet priced at $20, a MetroCard, a New York State ID and a debit card.
HORRORS OF CHAMBERS At 10:30 p.m. on July 4, a 54-yearold Staten Island man got off the southbound 1 train at Chambers Street. As he was leaving the station, two men in their mid-20s followed him towards the exit. When the man reached the staircase leading to the street, one of the two youths hit him on the back of his head, and the other stomped on his feet. One of the pair then took the older man’s wallet and cellphone, while the other removed a gold ring from his finger. After the assault the victim was taken to New York Downtown Hospital. The items stolen included a gold ring with seven diamonds valued at $800, an Android Metro PCS phone priced at $400, $270 in cash, a black leather wallet worth $55, and a debit card.
STATS FOR THE WEEK Reported crimes from the 1st precinct for Week to Date
Year to Date
2017 2016
% Change
2017
2016
% Change
Murder
0
0
n/a
1
0
n/a
Rape
1
0
n/a
10
6
66.7
Robbery
3
2
50.0
36
33
9.1
Felony Assault
2
1
100.0
42
44
-4.5
Burglary
4
0
n/a
35
70
-50.0
Grand Larceny
23
16
43.8
499 556
-10.3
Grand Larceny Auto
1
4
-75.0
9
-71.0
31
Photo by Tony Webster, via flickr
GET YOUR SUMMER ON
SUMMER BLOCK PARTIES GAMES, MUSIC AND DRINKS
Check the website for featured DJs and programs. Games start on Wednesdays at 12 P.M. Drinks and music begin at 5 P.M.
JULY 12 JULY 19 JULY 26 AUGUST 2
DowntownNY.com/GameOn @DOWNTOWNNY
@DOWNTOWNNY
@DOWNISWHATSUP
FACEBOOK.COM/DOWNTOWNALLIANCE
Partners:
At Coenties Slip & Water Street 12 P.M. to 8 P.M. Rain date August 9th
4
JULY 20-26,2017
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
Useful Contacts POLICE NYPD 7th Precinct
19 ½ Pitt St.
212-477-7311
NYPD 6th Precinct
233 W. 10th St.
212-741-4811
NYPD 10th Precinct
230 W. 20th St.
212-741-8211
NYPD 13th Precinct
230 E. 21st St.
NYPD 1st Precinct
16 Ericsson Place
212-477-7411 212-334-0611
FIRE FDNY Engine 15
25 Pitt St.
311
FDNY Engine 24/Ladder 5
227 6th Ave.
311
FDNY Engine 28 Ladder 11
222 E. 2nd St.
311
FDNY Engine 4/Ladder 15
42 South St.
311
ELECTED OFFICIALS Councilmember Margaret Chin
165 Park Row #11
Councilmember Rosie Mendez
237 1st Ave. #504
212-587-3159 212-677-1077
Councilmember Corey Johnson
224 W. 30th St.
212-564-7757
State Senator Daniel Squadron
250 Broadway #2011
212-298-5565
Community Board 1
1 Centre St., Room 2202
212-669-7970
Community Board 2
3 Washington Square Village
212-979-2272
Community Board 3
59 E. 4th St.
212-533-5300
Community Board 4
330 W. 42nd St.
212-736-4536
Hudson Park
66 Leroy St.
212-243-6876
Ottendorfer
135 2nd Ave.
212-674-0947
Elmer Holmes Bobst
70 Washington Square
212-998-2500
COMMUNITY BOARDS
LIBRARIES
HOSPITALS New York-Presbyterian
170 William St.
Mount Sinai-Beth Israel
10 Union Square East
212-844-8400
212-312-5110
CON EDISON
4 Irving Place
212-460-4600
TIME WARNER
46 East 23rd
813-964-3839
US Post Office
201 Varick St.
212-645-0327
US Post Office
128 East Broadway
212-267-1543
US Post Office
93 4th Ave.
212-254-1390
POST OFFICES
HOW TO REACH US:
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:
212-868-0190 nyoffice@strausnews.com otdowntown.com
Include your full name, address and day and evening telephone numbers for verification. Letters that cannot be verified will not be published. We reserve the right to edit or condense letters for libel, good taste, grammar and punctuation. Submit your letter at otdowntown.com and click submit at the bottom of the page or email it to nyoffice@strausnews.com.
TO SUBSCRIBE: Our Town Downtown is available for free below 23rd Street in select buildings, retail locations and news boxes. To get a copy of downtown neighborhood news mailed to you weekly, you may subscribe to Our Town - Downtowner for just $49 per year. Call 212-868-0190 or go online to StrausNews.com and click on the photo of the paper or mail a check to Straus Media, 20 West Ave., Chester, NY 10918
NEWS ITEMS: To report a news story, call 212-8680190. News releases of general interest must be emailed to our offices by 12noon the Thursday prior to publication to be considered for the following week. Send to news@strausnews.com.
BLOG COMMENTS: We invite comments on stories at otdowntown.com. We do not edit those comments. We urge people to keep the discussion civil and the tone reflective of the best we each have to offer.
PLACE A CLASSIFIED AD: Call 212-868-0190. Classified ads must be in our office by 12pm the Friday before publication, except on holidays. All classified ads are payable in advance.
PREVIOUS OWNERS: Tom Allon, Isis Ventures, Ed Kayatt, Russ Smith, Bob Trentlyon, Jerry Finkelstein
CALENDAR ITEMS:
ABOUT US
Information for inclusion in the Out and About section should be emailed to hoodhappenings@strausnews.com no later than two weeks before the event.
Our Town Downtown is published weekly by Straus Media-Manhattan, LLC. Please send inquiries to 20 West Ave., Chester, NY 10918.
GREAT EXPECTATIONS BY PETER PEREIRA
JULY 20-26,2017
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
5
GIRL SCOUT TROOP 6000 RECEIVES $1 MILLION GRANT KIDS The first troop in the nation dedicated to homeless girls will expand throughout the city BY ESTELLE PYPER
Five girls donning green and brown vests dotted with stitched patches approached the podium in City Hall’s Blue Room last Wednesday. They had an exciting announcement for the news conference: their Girl Scout troop, Troop 6000, the first serving homeless girls and women, will expand far beyond their Queens shelter. Mayor Bill de Blasio granted over $1 million for the expansion, which will grow to include 14 more shelters throughout New York City in addition to the original Long Island City location. The exact locations of these shelters will be announced at a later date. The current troop is modest, but certainly not small, with 28 active members; this expansion will present at least 500 more girls the opportunity to join this national club. “It was only a few months ago that Troop 6000 stole the hearts of New Yorkers and garnered support from people around the country,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio in a statement. “Together with the Mayor’s Fund, we are proud to expand and support Troop 6000, al-
At the expansion announcement at City Hall on July 12. Photo: Office of City Council Majority Leader Jimmy Van Bramer
With City Council Majority Leader Jimmy Van Bramer at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for Troop 6000, at the Sleep Inn Hotel in Long Island City. Photo: Office of City Council Majority Leader Jimmy Van Bramer
lowing more young homeless children to participate in a program that is helping them cope and deal with the challenges they face every day.” Established last March, Troop 6000 is the first Girl Scout troop in the nation dedicated to women in the shelter system. It was made possible by an alliance between the City’s Department of Homeless Services and the Girl Scouts of Greater New York, catalyzed by a passionate single mother named Giselle Burgess. Burgess, a community engagement specialist at the Girl Scouts of Greater New York, found herself and her five children in the Long Island City shelter last year. Transitioning to her new, challenging environment, she longed to start a Girl Scout troop for the shelter and asked her employer for help. “They said, ‘Absolutely, why not?’,” recalls Burgess. “Living here is not the best feeling in the world. My first thought was, ‘What can I do to make this situation light?’” Being the first to start a troop of this nature, Burgess and her colleagues dove in blind, figuring out the details of the process as they went. By March, the chapter was official. The buzz surrounding the development of their troop has helped draw attention to the city’s homeless population: children under 17 constitute one third of the Department of Homeless Services’ shelter census, and 70
percent of the census are families. Burgess is ecstatic that they “can offer this program to the girls and give them this sense of stability and motivation and sisterhood” — something that has meant the world to her and her three young daughters over the years. Having previously participated in other Girl Scout troops and now Troop 6000, Burgess’s daughters “feel that deeper connection [with Troop 6000] and that sense of need to be a role model to the girls here,” Burgess says. The troop meets once a week and participates in various impressive activities like coding, STEM programs, community service and outdoor experiences. The Girl Scouts of Greater New York will manage the three-year expansion with funding provided by the Department of Homeless Services and the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City, led by de Blasio’s wife, Chirlane McCray (a former Girl Scout herself), with annual donations of $320,000 and $55,000 respectively. The funds will cover expenses like member fees and dues, uniforms and pins, and financial aid for activities and camps. For Burgess, it’s a step closer to a greater goal. “We’re totally trying to break the stigma of what a real homeless person is or looks like or where they’ve come from,” says Burgess. “That’s been my main goal: trying to give these girls that really, they’re no different from everybody else.”
6
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
JULY 20-26,2017
A BILLION-DOLLAR MIRAGE SCHEMES What if the West Side Stadium had been built? BY MICHAEL GAROFALO
Perhaps it would’ve become one of those bits of received transportationrelated wisdom that Manhattanites grow to take for granted. Don’t plan on driving anywhere fast on the East Side during the United Nations General Assembly. Avoid Penn Station during SantaCon (or preferably, altogether). Stay away from the West Side if the Jets have a home game on a fall Sunday afternoon. Maybe future New Yorkers would have looked back on 2012 the way some now remember the 1939-40 and 1964-65 World’s Fairs, and would one day have proudly told grandchildren: I was there when Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps won gold at the New York Olympics. We’ll never know. The West Side Stadium — a billion-plus dollar project championed by two mayors that would have served as the Jets’ home field, a massive convention hall, and the key venue for the 2012 summer Olympics — like so many other big dreams in Manhattan civic planning history, died on the vine. But despite the fact that it was never built, the stadium’s legacy will continue to be felt on the West Side for decades to come. The idea of building a stadium on Manhattan’s West Side had its roots in the early 1990s, when Gov. Mario Cuomo floated the Long Island Rail Road train storage facility that would go on to be known as Hudson Yards as the site of a potential new home for the Yankees, whose boss George
Steinbrenner was using the threat of a move to New Jersey as a bargaining chip in negotiations with the city over financing for a new stadium. As mayor, Rudolph Giuliani flirted with the idea of a new Yankee Stadium in Manhattan as well, but later, in a surprise announcement during his 1999 State of the City address, said that a new facility on the rail yard site should be built not as a baseball park, but as a football stadium for the Jets, whose lease at Giants Stadium in the New Jersey Meadowlands was set to end in 2008. Among the administration’s selling points was that a football stadium would only disrupt traffic in the neighborhood during 10 home games each year, as opposed to the 81 regular season games hosted annually by the Yankees. The Yankees ultimately chose to stay in the Bronx, but the Jets, under new owner Robert Wood “Woody” Johnson IV, went all-in on Manhattan. Soon after purchasing the franchise in 2000 for $635 million, the Johnson & Johnson heir turned his attention to getting a stadium built at the rail yard site. Johnson found an ally in Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who took office in 2002. The timing dovetailed nicely with the Olympic ambitions of Dan Doctoroff, Bloomberg’s deputy mayor for economic development. Doctoroff, previously an investment banker, had worked for years to catalyze support for a New York City bid at hosting the Games. A new stadium on the West Side could serve as the centerpiece of the Olympics; the Jets could provide a source of private funding. A plan eventually emerged for a stadium that would serve not just as a home for the Jets and Olympics, but also as an expansion of the neighbor-
A rendering of the unbuilt West Side Stadium, which supporters hoped would host the Jets and the 2012 Olympics. Credit: Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates
ing Javits Center. It called for the Jets to foot the roughly $800 million bill for the stadium’s construction, and for the city and state to contribute $300 million each to finance the platform over the rail yards that the stadium would be built upon and a retractable roof that would allow the venue to be used as a convention hall. Architects at the New York-based firm Kohn Pedersen Fox designed the stadium, which would be bounded by 11th and 12th Avenues to the east and west and 30th and 33rd Streets to the north and south. Chief among the architects’ goals was to integrate the facility into the surrounding cityscape. “Typically stadiums are standalone projects,” Lloyd Sigal, a principal at KPF who worked on the project, explained. A venue on the West Side called for a different approach than a stadium in a suburban parking lot. To meet this challenge, the stadium plans were rectangular in shape to fit into the city grid, rather than the more typical round footprint, and designers wagered that the incorporation of the High Line (then still in its precarious infancy as a park), large public plazas, retail and convention programming would make the area an attractive destination even on days when athletic events weren’t taking place. The design also featured a number of sophisticated environmental elements that would become more common in the years to come, such as solar power collectors, 40-foot tall wind turbines and a rooftop rainwater collection system. “I think it was cuttingedge from a sustainability point of view and the idea of integrating more architecture and urbanism into the building,” Sigal said. The plan was perhaps most maligned for what it lacked —plentiful parking. Planners relied on the idea that the vast majority of the 85,000 spectators traveling to the stadium for events (plans called for capacity to be reduced to 75,000 after the 2012 Olympics) would rely on public transportation. The extension of the 7 train to 34th Street in Hudson Yards was a key feature of the project, and would combine with other West Side subway lines, commuter rail service to Penn Station and ferry service from New Jersey to get fans to and from the venue. Many community groups in the area weren’t sold on the idea, and complained about anticipated gridlock in their neighborhoods on game days. “I think people, mentally, weren’t quite there yet when we were talking about these things,” Sigal said recently, looking back. “I think after Barclays [Center, the transit-centric sports arena built subsequently in Brooklyn that is also short on parking] and after seeing the 7 line extended and seeing how that works, maybe it would have
The unbuilt West Side Stadium stadium could have served not just as a home for the Jets and 2012 Olympics, but also as an expansion of the neighboring Javits Center. Credit: Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates changed people’s opinions.” Along with game-day traffic, construction-related disruptions were a key concern of groups that opposed the project. Their opposition was shared by then-Cablevision president James Dolan and his family, who owned nearby Madison Square Garden and saw the new stadium as a threat to their arena’s status as New York’s preeminent entertainment venue. (Dolan, incidentally, spoke favorably of the project years earlier when Giuliani proposed that it include the relocation of the Garden. Dolan also tried to purchase the Jets and was outbid by Johnson.) The Dolans helped bankroll an advertising campaign against the stadium that was later countered by Johnson. “The Dolan family, with their ads, helped galvanize that opposition,” Bruce Berg, a political science professor at Fordham University who has studied the stadium case, said. After years of planning, the formal submission of an Olympic bid, extensive public debate at the community level, and an ad battle to shape public opinion waged by billionaires, the stadium’s fate was ultimately sealed by three men in a room. The state’s Public Authorities Control Board, comprised of representatives of Gov. George Pataki, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and state Senate Majority Leader Jo-
seph Bruno, voted against funding the state’s $300 million share, effectively killing the deal. Pataki supported the stadium; Bruno opposed it. Silver cast the deciding vote against the stadium because he felt the plan would detract from the ongoing recovery of his Lower Manhattan district in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. New York’s Olympic bid fell short soon after, with the wind taken out of its sails by the stadium funding failure. London was awarded the 2012 Games. The unbuilt stadium’s impact, however, lives on. The development plan and Olympic bid kick started the rezoning of the district and the extension of the 7 train line that made the eventual Hudson Yards redevelopment project possible. It’s now difficult to think of Chelsea or the Hudson Yards area without the High Line, but before the stadium plans, it was a real possibility that the old freight line could have been torn down. “One of the good things about the stadium not being built is that it left the far West Side for other different kinds of development,” Berg said. “That might have been all that was there,” he added. “The housing, the office buildings wouldn’t exist. That would be a shame, since the new West Side neighborhood in 10 years should be a solid piece of the Manhattan landscape.”
JULY 20-26,2017
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
Nothing beats newspapers as the most reliable source of local news in print and online Recent studies show:
‘‘
Newspapers led online consumption for local news” Coda Ventures Survey August 18, 2016
‘‘
Local media users named newspapers as their “most relied on” source for deals across a range of goods and services.” Coda Ventures Survey August 18, 2016
‘‘
What accounts for print’s superiority? Print - particularly the newspaper - is an amazingly sophisticated technology for showing you a lot of it.”
‘‘
Local newspapers are still the top source of news about readers’ communities, including their branded Web sites and social media channels.” Publisher’s Daily - August 30, 2016
‘‘
Residents are eager for news about their own communities, which, increasingly, only local news organizations can provide” Editor & Publisher - June 1, 2016
Politico - September 10, 2016
STRAUSMEDIA your neighborhood news source 212-868-0190 | nypress.com
7
8
JULY 20-26,2017
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
Voices
Write to us: To share your thoughts and comments go to otdowntown.com and click on submit a letter to the editor.
FAMILY DYNAMICS GRAYING NEW YORK BY MARCIA EPSTEIN
In my women’s group, we talk a lot about our children, grandchildren and even great grandchildren. The connection between the generations is strong and really awe-inspiring. I’ve been on Ancestor.com and found that my great grandfather on my mother’s side was named Berel. Suddenly, something came alive for me. I was part of a long line of other people, stretching back for countless generations, and presumably
going to continue for many more generations. I found out that, on my mother’s side, there were 5 brothers who owned a large chain of grocery stores called Dilbert’s. I already knew that my grandfather, who died before I was born, was the only brother who didn’t buy in at the beginning, and thus we were the poor Dilberts. I didn’t know that the chain had so many stores, that there were five brothers, and what their names were. Again, awe. This was my family. And my grandchildren will carry it on. They won’t know about Berel, but he will be a part of them as is my Aunt Chana, my paternal grandfather Shmuel (who again, I never knew), and countless others. Recently, I had a talk with some women who never married and thus never had children and grandchildren. It is only now, in their old age, that they feel regret and sadness and loss. Not only the loss of the family line, but loss of the joy that
the grandchildren can bring. And the fun. One woman was sad that she didn’t have a grandchild to take to lunch, to museums, to buy clothes for. Another, a former professor, regretted not having grandchildren to buy books and educational toys for. She pictured taking her imaginary grandchildren on trips and adventures. This, of course, presupposes that the parents are willing, the grandchildren are old enough, and game to go off with grandma. It doesn’t always work that way, and the benefits of intergenerational bonding can be lost. There are family rifts, difficult or special needs grandchildren, and various other permutations of human behavior. I’ve heard all sides of the issue and at certain times attended meetings about parents being estranged from adult children. My family has had its moments of difficulty. Lesley Stahl, the renowned journalist and “60 Minutes” correspondent, was
NEW YORK: A DRAMEDY LEX AND THE CITY BY ALEXA DI BENEDETTO
I sometimes feel as though a typical day in New York is, on an emotional level, equivalent to being tossed into the plotline of a D-list romantic comedy. In the film, the swoon-worthy lover akin to James McAvoy or Ewan McGregor has been replaced by 8.5 million city-goers. Some scenes are hot and steamy, like commutes in subway cars packed tight like sardines in a tin can. Others are melancholy, like realizing your unlimited monthly MetroCard has slipped away, to be picked up and used by someone else like a lover lost. Critics might say that the climax is weak, but one could argue that the premise is more of a “character study” than a traditional narrative structure in which action rises and falls in great hurdles. It’s the little things — the joy of a buttery, fresh baked croissant from Balthazar and the woeful, gut-churn-
ing aftermath of your gluten intolerance that follows — which make the plot interesting. Considering the cast of characters remains fairly consistent and the general setting remains the same day-byday, it may be more fitting to liken this lifestyle to an episodic series. A dramedy of sorts (CC: Netflix executives). Here’s how I’d envision the pilot might go: Alexa, 25, wakes to the sound of an electric drill hacking away at the drywall just below her bedroom as a crew of builders continue their work transforming the first floor into an ice cream shop. She chuckles at the cruel irony of this, as she is severely lactose intolerant and just a few sweet bites would put her stomach into pure turmoil. Cut to: the L-train platform. Alexa commutes from Williamsburg to Midtown Manhattan each day. It’s a worthwhile trek for a job she enjoys, but each journey offers new surprises — sometimes good (finding someone’s unlimited MetroCard) but often bad (spending 20 minutes in a delayed
Photo: John Wisniewski, via flickr car with her head in a tall man’s sweatsoaked armpit). Today’s surprise isn’t great — she’s run into her ex-boyfriend. This occurs roughly once every other month. The director (Alexa) would have it differently, if only the actor would agree to the script: love reignited in a passionate scene in which he admits that she was right about everything always, and how could he possibly live without her? She eyes him from across the car. David Attenborough narrates something
changed by becoming a grandmother and wrote a book about it. She called it transforming. She said she was “infatuated” from the beginning. Not everyone has this experience. Not everyone is invited to. But no matter what the situation, having grandchildren is pretty eye-opening. It’s a bridge to the past and the future that the single older women I spoke to don’t have and long for. Yes, they have a halcyon view of what being a grandmother is. And sometimes it comes true. Sometimes it doesn’t. Some grandparents are primary caretakers of their grandchildren while their children work; some have to fly long distances to see them; some rarely see them. Family dynamics! Not every grandparent is intimately involved with their grandchildren and some can’t imagine not being so. Some say “I’ve done my part, now let them do theirs,” and others want to babysit at every opportunity. This goes along with individual person-
about animal instinct, predator and prey. She approaches with confidence. She goes in for the kill. “Hey, what a surprise!” she says through cringed teeth, followed by uncomfortable banter, followed by “Yes, great to see you, too,” and some profuse sweating. Cut to: the office. Alexa works in advertising. This scene, some viewers point out, could be cut — it’s much too long (8 hours). “That was really long and pretty boring,” one viewer noted. “It could’ve used more action — all she did was stare at her computer!” “I did like when she spilled coffee on herself, though. That was funny.” Cut to: happy hour at a bar, no name. The bar is called “No Name.” It’s meant to be cool. The casting director has collected a motley crew to fill the space, although roughly half of the male actors sport some type of man bun, a number Alexa finds to be entirely unnecessary. After two glasses of wine and one greasy plate of french fries, Alexa realizes that she had agreed to accompany a friend to a yoga class that very evening. A dramatic face-palm is followed by a “ba-dum-tiss” on the drums and forced laughter by the studio audience. Alexa throws some money on
President & Publisher, Jeanne Straus nyoffice@strausnews.com
STRAUS MEDIA your neighborhood news source
Vice President/CFO Otilia Bertolotti Vice President/CRO Vincent A. Gardino advertising@strausnews.com
Associate Publishers Seth L. Miller, Ceil Ainsworth Regional Sales Manager Tania Cade
Account Executive Fred Almonte Director of Partnership Development Barry Lewis
Director of Digital Pete Pinto
alities and family dynamics. What grandparenting is, though, is a link to generations past and future. Each of my grandchildren have some characteristic that I recognize; my mother’s and my own green eyes; my father’s sense of humor, their own father’s way of walking. It’s all thrown in a pot, mixed up and remade as a special, unique human being (and let’s not forget that they also have a paternal side in the mix). There are as many ways of being a grandparent as there are of being a person. There are also myriad ways of being a person and not being a grandparent. I’m sure many have no regrets, and that’s fine also. But when I saw the name Berel, something changed for me. I felt like a part of something bigger than myself, and my grandchildren, who of course don’t give it a thought, are also a part of that chain of people past and future. Now that’s pretty special.
the table, apologizes to the friends she double-booked, and exits. Cut to: the yoga studio. While her friend flows gracefully on the mat adjacent to her, Alexa maintains a steady child’s pose. Her attempt at downward dog has led some of the food she’d just eaten to make a brief reappearance. At the bottom of the screen, subtitles read: “Yoga is a sport of interpretation, to be adjusted to the needs of the yogi. Stronger, more advanced students enjoy a vigorous, athletic routine. Weaker class-goers may find a more meditative flow.” Cut to: Alexa’s apartment complex. As she turns the key in the lock, she wonders what she’ll find — she expects that her roommates will be awake and chatty. To her surprise, she enters to an empty home. It’s quiet — almost too quiet. She tiptoes to her room, changes into pajamas, and settles into bed, suspicious of any plot twists or cliffhangers. But they don’t come, and her lids become heavy, and she drifts off with ease. “I didn’t get the ending,” one viewer commented. “But I have a good feeling that things are about to get more interesting.”
Editor-In-Chief, Alexis Gelber editor.ot@strausnews.com Deputy Editor Staff Reporter Richard Khavkine Michael Garofalo editor.otdt@strausnews.com reporter@strausnews.com Senior Reporter Doug Feiden invreporter@strausnews.com
JULY 20-26,2017
9
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
RETHINKING PORT AUTHORITY VIEWPOINT For a two-way terminal BY RAANAN GEBERER
If there’s one thing that experts agree on about the Port Authority Bus Terminal on Eighth Avenue between 40th and 42nd Streets, it’s that the aging structure needs replacement. The original wing was opened in 1959 and designed for much smaller and lighter buses than those in use today. The north wing opened later, in 1979, but even that is now almost 40 years in the past. The terminal serves both commuter buses to New Jersey and long-distance buses to other parts of the country. Peak demand is expected to increase 35 to 51 percent by 2040, according to the Port Authority. The structure suffers from serious overcrowding during rush hours, not to mention infrastructure issues such as cracked floors and deteriorating ceiling tiles. The bus terminal does have its good points, such as the rolling-ball kinetic sculpture “42nd Street Ballroom” in the north wing and the statue of Jack-
ie Gleason’s Ralph Kramden character at the entrance to the south wing. Still, both of these can easily be relocated. For the past few years, several plans have been floated for a new facility, all of them on the far West Side. Among them were one that would put the entire terminal underground, one that would use land already owned by the Port Authority, with an elevated pedestrian plaza above Dyer Avenue; and one that would move the bus terminal to the lower level of the Javits Center. In April, Port Authority officials approved a plan, but the agency’s commissioners, representing the Authority’s highest governing body, rejected it because of the estimated $9 billion price tag. The hefty cost reflected the fact extra-heavy fabricated steel was needed to support those 30-ton buses. So now, it’s back to the drawing board. Whatever plan is finally adopted, I hope it can rectify a flaw in the design of the current terminal. This time, let there be access to cabs and other services at both the uptown and downtown avenues near the terminal — not just one. I can’t count the number of times, coming back from a bus trip with my wife, that I’ve had to get a cab on
Eighth Avenue and, because we live in Chelsea, the cab had to make an extra turn onto a crosstown street to reach either Seventh or Ninth Avenues, where traffic proceeds downtown. In a small town or city. that wouldn’t make that much of a difference. But in Midtown Manhattan, even one or two extra blocks can add five minutes and several dollars to one’s cab ride. And if that’s true for us, it’s also true that countless thousands who live further south, in the Village, in Battery Park City, and beyond that, in Brooklyn and Staten Island. Wouldn’t it just be simpler to exit onto a downtown avenue and take a cab straight home? When I once asked a community board member about why everything was concentrated on the Eighth Avenue side, she launched into a long, complicated explanation about traffic patterns. More to the point, I believe, was the explanation that a bus terminal worker gave me when I asked one day: “When this was built, what was on Ninth Avenue?” In the late 1950s, when the Port Authority Bus Terminal was being built, Ninth Avenue in Hell’s Kitchen had still not fully emerged from the shadows of the elevated line, which had been torn
Photo: Teri Tynes, via flickr down in 1940. The avenue was dominated by cheap bars, rundown tenements and street gangs. It was “West Side Story” territory. In the context of that time, it made perfect sense to have a grand entrance with light and air, shops and restaurants on Eighth Avenue, while the Ninth Avenue side has no stores and only a comparatively narrow staircase as an entrance.
Those days are long over, however, and Ninth and 10th avenues have improved dramatically. Indeed, there are so many young people going to bars and restaurants on Ninth Avenue at night that it looks like another Williamsburg. So, wherever a new bus terminal is finally built, make it a “two-way” bus terminal, with equal access to both uptown and downtown avenues.
“IF ONLY SOMEONE WOULD CLEAN UP THIS PARK.”
BE THE SOMEONE. Every day, we think to ourselves that someone should really help make this city a better place. Visit newyorkcares.org to learn about the countless ways you can volunteer and make a difference in your community.
Cat New York Cares Volunteer
10
JULY 20-26,2017
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
Acknowledge The People Who Make Your Life Better Nominate Your
More Events. Add Your Own: Go to nycnow.com
%PPSNBO t 4VQFS t 1PSUFS 0ó DF $MFBOFS t 4FDVSJUZ (VBSE Handyperson
Thu 20 Fri 21 5FMM VT XIZ UIFZ SF TQFDJBM You could win $150, just for entering! (P UP BSW-AWARDS.COM UPEBZ BOE OPNJOBUF TPNFPOF 2017
B UILDING SERVICE W O RKER
AWAR DS Sponsored By
The local paper for the U
E
Sid
The local paper for the Upper West Side
The local paper for Down
The local paper for Chelsea
EDIBLE MANHATTAN: GOOD BEER 2017
INVENTING THE CONCEPT OF RACE
28 Liberty, 28 Liberty St. 6 p.m. $65 This year, Edible Manhattan is taking Good Beer outside to the plaza. What can you expect? A breezy walk-around tasting where you’ll sample cold brews, hearty food and a mix of other delicious offerings in between, all included in the ticket price. 631-537-4637. ediblemanhattan.com
Strand Book Store, 828 Broadway 7 p.m. Free A look at the historical invention of race. 212-473-1452. strandbooks. com
▲SECRETS AND SEAWALLS South Street Seaport, 12 Fulton St. 7 p.m. $30 Inspired by hurricane Sandy and New York’s strength and susceptibility, Secrets and Seawalls is an evening of dance in two distinct acts aboard ship Wavertree. 212-748-8600. southstreetseaportmuseum.org
CHOCOLATE TASTING Vosges Haut-Chocolat, 132 Spring St. Enjoy the fusion of indigenous spices, flowers, roots, herbs and liqueurs with premium chocolate. Vosges Chocolatier will be sampling favorites. 212-625-2929. vosgeschocolate.com
Sat 22 WATERFRONT TACO FESTIVAL Pier 25, West St. & North Moore St. 12 p.m. Free Head over to Pier 25 where
30+ of the city’s best taco restaurants and purveyors will be serving up their specialties for $3 each. There will be margaritas, desserts, cooking demos, live music and more. 347-756-5813. hudsonriverpark.org
CHEESE AND CHARCUTERIE PAIRING CLASS New York Vinters, 21 Warren St. 4 p.m. $75 An educational class on cheese and charcuterie pairing. Taste your way through a flight of wines, and sample a selection of gourmet cheeses and cured meats, provided by some of New York’s best suppliers. 212-812-3999. newyorkvinters.com
Sun 23 AWAKEN WELLNESS FAIR Roger Smith Hotel, 501 Lexington Ave. 10 a.m. Free Find your center at Awaken Wellness Fair, where 50 exhibitors will be demonstrating and speaking about different alternative modalities. Learn
JULY 20-26,2017
11
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
Comfort, Security & Community Straus News’ Senior Living Guide
about the blending of Eastern and Western medicine, how to unlock your subconscious through dreams, aromatherapy and more. awakenfair.com
▲GELATO FESTA Eataly Flatiron, 200 Fifth Ave. 2 p.m. $4-$32 A special event featuring some of Eataly’s housemade classics, like fiordilatte and cioccolato gelato. 212-229-2560. eataly.com
Mon 24 NEIGHBORHOOD LEGAL CLINIC: HOUSING COURT ASSISTANCE Trinity Parish Center, 2 Rector St. 3 p.m. Free A free workshop for residents without legal representation in housing court, covering topics such as termination hearings, getting repairs, rent regulations and more. Pro-bono legal advice will be also be available. 212-602-0800. trinitywallstreet.org
ROSE AND THEIR REGIONS Le District, 225 Liberty St.
6:30 p.m. $45 Uncork your inner wine aficionado at this class led by Le District’s sommelier, Jacob Daugherty, who will explore different rose wines and their regions in France. Includes tasting of various wines. 212-981-8588. ledistrict.com
Tue 25 TAI CHI ON THE HIGH LINE The High Line at 13th St. 9:30 a.m. Free Led by professionals from the Taoist Tai Chi Society, this introductory class will practice of the different moves included in the basic tai chi set. Movements are believed to help calm the emotions, focus the mind and strengthen the immune system. 212-206-9922. thehighline. org
NEWS AND JOURNALISM IN THE AGE OF TRUMP The Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th St. 6:30 p.m. Free A confrontational administration has challenged the legitimacy of the media’s reporting. Join the Wall Street
How To Improve Your Life! Make A Better Decision with All The Right Info at Your Disposal
Journal’s editor-in-chief, Gerard Baker, and the paper’s executive Washington editor, Jerry Seib, for a review and discussion on political and civil discourse in a democratic society. 212-294-8301. cjh.org
Reaching 150,000+ loyal readers weekly in Doorman Buildings and Key Locations
Wed 26
The dominant circulation based neighborhood newspapers in Manhattan and 80,000+ visitors each month to our websites
YOGA IN THE BATTERY Woodland Lawn, The Battery 6:30 p.m. Free After two years of rejuvenation, the Woodland lawn reopens to the public. Tejal Yoga and The Battery Conservancy are celebrating with yoga. Join this week’s class to practice overlooking the Fountain, the blooming Bosque, and Lady Liberty. RSVP required. 212-344-3491. thebattery. org
BUSTLE’S AMERICAN WOMAN BOOK CLUB Strand Book Store, 828 Broadway 7:30 p.m. $17.99 Author Bonnie Pipkin and Bustle’s senior books editor, Cristina Arreola, discuss Pipkin’s novel, “Aftercare Instructions.” Admission & signed copy grants admission for one, plus one signed copy of the book. 212-473-1452. strandbooks.
Issue Date Thursday, July 27, 2017 Ad Deadline Thursday, July 20, 2017 Call NOW for more information! 212.868.0190 x407 or advertising@strausnews.com The local paper for the Upper East Side
The local paper for the Upper West Side
Eastsider Westsider
The local paper for Downtown
The local paper for Chelsea
Downtowner
Clinton
12
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
RICHARD GERSTL’S GENIUS
IF YOU GO
Neue Galerie hosts the first museum retrospective of the Viennese artist’s works in the U.S.
WHAT: “Richard Gerstl” WHERE: The Neue Galerie New York, 1048 Fifth Avenue (at 86th Street) WHEN: through September 25 www.neuegalerie.org
23 years later, in 1931, after Gerstl’s brother Alois showed them to gallerist Otto Kallir, who agreed to display a selection at his Neue Galerie in Vienna.
BY VAL CASTRONOVO
Austrian Expressionist Richard Gerstl’s life was tragically cut short in the fall of 1908, when he committed suicide in the aftermath of a love affair gone sour with composer Arnold Schönberg’s wife, Mathilde. He was only 25. Before stabbing and hanging himself, Gerstl (1883-1908) destroyed many of his art works, the majority created in a brilliant, but brief, burst of creativity from 1902 to 1908. In an effort to keep the scandal under wraps, his family put the roughly 70 surviving paintings and drawings in storage. They were only made public
Gerstl’s art had never been exhibited or sold during his lifetime. He famously refused an opportunity to participate in a show alongside well-known compatriot Gustav Klimt, whom he dismissed as a trendy “society operator,” Neue Galerie communications director Rebecca Lewis said on a private tour. The reaction to the first exhibit of Gerstl’s works at Kallir’s gallery in Vienna was overwhelmingly positive. Gerstl was pronounced “an Austrian Van Gogh,” but his reputation nonetheless grew slowly compared to that of Viennese modernists like Klimt
(1862-1918), Egon Schiele (1890-1918) and Oskar Kokoschka (1886-1980). He remains little known today outside Austria, but the organizers of the current show at the Neue Galerie in New York are looking to change that with the first museum retrospective of the artist’s oeuvre in the U.S. More than 55 works — some 45 by Gerstl with a smattering by his contemporaries, including Arnold Schönberg — line the galleries on the third floor. “He was extremely original in his style. He actually didn’t embrace a style at all,” Lewis said. “He’d move from a more Pointillist style to Symbolism to a more Expressionist style, and there’s no real clear development over time. He really rejected any ideas about style or beauty that raged during this period,” she said in an obvious allusion to Klimt’s fabulously decorative portraits of society ladies. Gerstl looked instead to Ferdinand Hodler, Edvard Munch, Édouard Vuillard and, of course, Van Gogh for inspiration. He met Schönberg in 1906 and became part of his inner circle, summering with his family and friends in Gmunden, south of Salzburg, in 1907 and 1908 and painting the landscape and their portraits. Schönberg was looking to supplement his income as a composer and had approached Gerstl to give him and Mathilde art lessons. Gerstl, for his part, preferred the society of musicians to fine artists. Soon he was accompanying Mathilde to concerts, and the two became intimate over time. In August 1908, Schönberg discovered the affair when he walked in on the couple in flagrante at Gerstl’s summer farmhouse.
Richard Gerstl, “Self-Portrait Laughing” (1907). Oil on canvas. Belvedere, Vienna
JULY 20-26,2017
The lovers fled to a suburb outside Vienna, but Mathilde quickly regretted the liaison and returned to her husband and two children, leaving Gerstl in the dust (she resumed the affair, briefly, and Gerstl allegedly painted her nude). When Schönberg shunned Gerstl and did not invite him to a major concert featuring his students on
Richard Gerstl, “Portrait of the Reserve Lieutenant Alois Gerstl,” (autumn 1906). Oil on canvas. Leopold Museum, Vienna November 4, 1908, the rejection stung. He was found dead in his studio that same day. The painter’s personal history informs the work, especially the later portraits. Gerstl had two favorite subjects: himself and Mathilde, in that order. The self-portraits on view are notable for their psychological intensity and variety. We see Gerstl suited up, naked, grinning and somber — as a painter, a dandy and a very unstable young man. The opening gallery is a showcase for his first homage to himself, “SemiNude Self-Portrait” (1902-04), an expressive Christ-like depiction of the artist with a sheet tied around his waist that looks like a loincloth. A radiant blue halo surrounds his head and suggests saintliness. But the work, which highlights his slender torso and long skinny arms, was painted after the army rejected his bid to serve as a volunteer because of “physical weakness,” Gerstl scholar Raymond Coffer writes in the catalog. Coffer argues that the canvas is “a youthful, self-confident riposte to his army medical examiners … a secular
image of his personal redemption” from disappointment. Glance down the hall and compare that modest selfie with Gerstl’s final one, “Nude Self-Portrait” (1908). Created less than two months before he took his own life and in the midst of his breakup with Mathilde, this radical full-frontal nude is one of the artist’s most gestural works — and his most explicit. Per Coffer, his head and his manhood are painted in darker tones than the rest of his anatomy to accentuate their power. The figure appears emaciated and defiant. Gerstl’s wild gestural brushwork anticipated the Abstract Expressionist painters of the mid-20th century. A blurry group portrait of the Schönberg family on summer holiday in 1908 is a forerunner of Willem de Kooning’s abstractions. “Mathilde Schönberg in the Garden” (1908), meanwhile, has a free and easy “air of spontaneity,” Coffer writes. Mathilde’s facial features lack clear definition, but Gerstl in his genius “somehow retains recognition of the subject.” Through September 25.
JULY 20-26,2017
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
13
CONCERTS IN THE CITY: NEXT UP BY OSCAR KIM BAUMAN
ing. The name of this tour “Act III: M.O.T.T.E.,” first indicates its status as G-Dragon’s third world tour, while the initialism “M.O.T.T.E.,” which stands for “Moment of Truth: The End,” indicates G-Dragon’s wish for this tour to act as a last hurrah for him, showing a more personal side of himself before he too goes off to the military.
Who: Korean rapper G-Dragon Where: Barclays Center in Brooklyn When: July 27th Though his group, the K-pop boy band Big Bang, which recently surpassed the Backstreet Boys as the best-selling boy band of all time, are on a hiatus for the foreseeable future as the members approach the age when Korean men must complete their mandatory military service, bandleader G-Dragon, born Kwon Ji-Yong, is setting off on an globetrotting arena tour. With a musical style as eclectic as his androgynous, avant-garde fashion sense, G-Dragon is known for his dynamic stage presence and vocals that range from nasal quickfire rapping to emotional croon-
Who: English emo band Moose Blood, with openers Choir Vandals and McCafferty Where: Baby’s All Right in Williamsburg When: July 28th Hailing from Canterbury, England, Moose Blood combine emotional punk sounds with solid, catchy pop songwriting. A mainstay of the alternative music scene in recent years, Moose Blood are returning to the United States this July in support of their sophomore album, “Blush.” Lead singer Eddy Brewerton’s raw vocals combine effectively with lead guitarist Mark Osbourne’s simple, evocative riffs, and bassist Kyle Todd’s solid rhythms. A fourth member, drummer
MUSIC A world of options, including a Korean rapper, an English emo band, Japanese rock and pop-punk from Baltimore
One Ok Rock’s Takahiro Moriuchi performing at Download Festival in Paris, France in 2016. Photo: mzagerp, via flickr
Glenn Harvey, was booted from the band in March over sexual misconduct allegations, with a temporary musician filling in on tour until they find a full-time replacement. Joining Moose Blood are two up-and-coming acts from the alternative scene, St. Louis indie rock band Choir Vandals and Ohio-based acoustic emo band McCafferty. Who: Japanese rock band One Ok Rock, with openers Set It Off and Palisades Where: Playstation Theater in Times Square When: July 28th and 29th After a spring spent filling stadiums in their native Japan, One Ok Rock are embarking on a North American tour in support of their latest album, “Ambitions.” One Ok Rock are known for frontman Takahiro Moriuchi’s dynamic vocals and for their energetic, anthemic music, which mixes influences ranging from the electro-metal of Linkin Park to Japanese punk icons Ellegarden. One Ok Rock have long chased the American market, but after signing to Fueled by Ramen Records, a Warner-owned label known for housing American alternative chart-toppers like Paramore, Panic! At The Disco, and Twenty One Pilots, and releasing “Ambitions,” their first record entirely in English, they seem to be closer than ever. One Ok Rock are joined on tour by the darkly upbeat Florida pop-rock act Set It Off, and the New Jersey band Palisades, which mixes hardcore punk with electronic dance music to create a high-energy sound. Who: Baltimore pop-punk band All Time Low, with openers SWMRS, Waterparks, and The Wrecks Where: Central Park Summerstage, at Rumsey Playfield When: July 31st Hailing from the suburbs of Baltimore, the four-piece pop-punk outfit All Time Low are frequently on tour, and they don’t seem to be stopping anytime soon, playing at the Central Park SummerStage at the end of July in support of their new album “Last Young Renegade.” All Time Low mixes three-chord punk guitars with personal, often juvenile lyrics about the struggles of youth, which rhythm guitarist and lead vocalist Alex Gaskarth has been singing about for over a decade, since he started the band when he was only 15 years old. On “Last Young Renegade,” All Time Low exhibit a slightly more mature sound, eschewing much of their pop-punk roots for 80s-tinged pop rock. Opening for All Time Low are three new-tothe-scene rock bands: Oakland punk band SWMRS, Texas pop-punk band Waterparks, and Los Angeles-based indie rock band The Wrecks.
All Time Low’s Alex Gaskarth performing on the Gimme Summer Ya Love Tour in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 2011. Photo: Dan Cox, via flickr
G-Dragon performing at the Act III: M.O.T.T.E. World Tour in Seoul, South Korea on June 10th. Photo: Jerry Chen, via Wikimedia Commons
Moose Blood performing at Takedown Festival in Southampton, England in 2015. Photo: Jonathan Mitchell, via flickr.
14
RESTAURANT INSPECTION RATINGS
Dizengoff
75 9Th Ave
Grade Pending (32) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation. Food worker does not use proper utensil to eliminate bare hand contact with food that will not receive adequate additional heat treatment. 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. Personal cleanliness inadequate. Outer garment soiled with possible contaminant. Effective hair restraint not worn in an area where food is prepared.
Barracuda Bar
275 West 22 Street
A
Ms. Mi’s Hotpot
6 W 14Th St
Not Yet Graded (38) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation. Food Protection Certificate not held by supervisor of food operations. 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. Wiping cloths soiled or not stored in sanitizing solution.
Naoki
311 W 17Th St
A
Bite
337 Lafayette Street
A
Juice Generation Cafe Group
69 Prince Street
A
Atla
372 Lafayette St
Not Yet Graded (52) Food not cooled by an approved method whereby the internal product temperature is reduced from 140º F to 70º F or less within 2 hours, and from 70º F to 41º F or less within 4 additional hours. Raw, cooked or prepared food is adulterated, contaminated, crosscontaminated, or not discarded in accordance with HACCP plan. Food contact surface improperly constructed or located. Unacceptable material used. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service.
The Black Derby
310 W 4Th St
Grade Pending (2)
Mo Il Gelato
353 W 14Th St
A
Little Italy
180 Varick St
Grade Pending (27) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation. Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. No facilities available to wash, rinse and sanitize utensils and/ or equipment.
Mas (Farmhouse)
39 Downing Street
A
Blue Ribbon Bar
34 Downing Street
A
Jacks Coffee
425 West 13 Street
A
Gregory’s Coffee
350 Hudson St
A
La Loteria
29 7Th Ave S
A
La Sonrisa Empanadas
353 W 14Th St
A
Milk Bar West Village
74 Christopher St
A
P.S Burgers
35 Carmine Street
A
Crepe Sucre/The French Block
353 W 14Th St
A
Caffe Vita
124 Ludlow St
A
Wowfulls
309 E Houston St
Not Yet Graded (35) Food Protection Certificate not held by supervisor of food operations. Raw, cooked or prepared food is adulterated, contaminated, crosscontaminated, or not discarded in accordance with HACCP plan. Food contact surface improperly constructed or located. Unacceptable material used. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service.
JUL 05 - 11, 2017 The following listings were collected from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s website and include the most recent inspection and grade reports listed. We have included every restaurant listed during this time within the zip codes of our neighborhoods. Some reports list numbers with their explanations; these are the number of violation points a restaurant has received. To see more information on restaurant grades, visit www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/services/restaurant-inspection.shtml. Bareburger
535 Laguardia Place
Grade Pending (24)
Ken & Cook
19 Kenmare Street
Grade Pending (20)
Sessanta
60 Thompson St
A
Cuba
222 Thompson Street Grade Pending (20)
Creperie
112 Macdougal Street
A
The Frog’s Crown Bakery
204 Spring Street
A
Cafe Habana/Cafe Habana To Go
17 Prince Street
Grade Pending (20)
Le Zie Trattoria
172 7 Avenue
A
The Park
118122 10 Avenue
A
Sala One Nine
35 West 19 Street
A
Slice & Co. Brick Oven Pizza
527 6 Avenue
Grade Pending (19) Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Filth flies or food/refuse/sewage-associated (FRSA) flies present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Filth flies include house flies, little house flies, blow flies, bottle flies and flesh flies. Food/refuse/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.
Golden Crepes
262A West 15 Street
A
Arts And Crafts Beer Parlor 26 W 8Th St
A
Oaxaca Greenwich
48 Greenwich Ave
A
Serenata
111 W 17Th St
A
Society Cafe
52 W 13Th St
Not Yet Graded (34) Hot food item not held at or above 140º F. Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation. Food worker does not use proper utensil to eliminate bare hand contact with food that will not receive adequate additional heat treatment. Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred.
Cafe Water
Liquiteria
JULY 20-26,2017
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
519 6Th Ave
267 West 15 Street
Grade Pending (49) Hot food item not held at or above 140º F. Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation. Food not cooled by an approved method whereby the internal product temperature is reduced from 140º F to 70º F or less within 2 hours, and from 70º F to 41º F or less within 4 additional hours. Filth flies or food/refuse/sewage-associated (FRSA) flies present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Filth flies include house flies, little house flies, blow flies, bottle flies and flesh flies. Food/refuse/sewage-associated flies include fruit flies, drain flies and Phorid flies. Personal cleanliness inadequate. Outer garment soiled with possible contaminant. Effective hair restraint not worn in an area where food is prepared. A
JULY 20-26,2017
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
15
DOOM LOOMS FOR FIFTH AVENUE CHARMER
and South Midtown and dubbed the “Empire District” in the 1930s in a tip of the hat to the Empire State Building — would get a little bit exercised over its fate. “Once upon a time this was a place where even the president of the United States bought his custom-made shirts,” said Tom Miller, creator of Daytonian in Manhattan, a blog that tells the stories behind the city’s fabled buildings. “Originally, this was a very highend building that served the likes of the Vanderbilts and the Astors and other socially prominent families,” he added. Miller relates the old gag about the day eponymous haberdasher Max Kaskel was introduced to President Theodore Roosevelt: “I make your shirts!” Kaskel told his most famous customer. To which the old Rough Rider replied, “Oh, yes, Major Schurtz, I’d have known you anywhere.” Noting that the façade and show-
room spaces have been marred by tacky electronics and souvenir shops, he says Kaskel & Kaskel is still a “truly remarkable building — even though it’s been heavily abused and its ground floor has been totally brutalized.” The structure retains its twin arched openings that span three floors, ornate brackets, rusticated piers, copper dormers, mansard roof and large marble cartouches emblazoned with the carved letter “K,” Miller wrote in his blog. In 2016, Cottonwood Management LLC, a privately held, Los Angelesbased real estate development and asset management firm, shelled out $19.2 million to purchase the development site. It filed plans with the city’s Department of Buildings on July 6 to erect a slender, 40-story, 535-foot tower that will house just 27 apartments — expected to be hyper-luxury condominiums — atop three retail floors. The architect of record is Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, according to the filings. Renderings have not been made public. Demolition permits haven’t been filed yet. The building doesn’t have landmark status, so Cottonwood apparently can raze it as of right. A Cottonwood spokeswoman on July 18 declined comment. Bottom line: A once-proud BeauxArts charmer will face the wrecking ball. The city will lose another building with architectural merit, history and character. A place that once had class will vanish from the Empire District. As for its replacement, as Miller put it, “It could be the finest piece of architecture in New York City, but it still won’t fit in, it doesn’t belong there, and it will be totally out of context.”
Siegel was retained by the SoHo Alliance and its executive director, Sean Sweeney, who suggested that Chin was behind the police action. “It had to come from her,” Sweeney said. “These things don’t happen in a vacuum.” Sweeney, head of the alliance since 1995, said this was the first time he’d attended a town hall or similar meeting where documents were seized. “The mayor has had several of these,” he said. “No one gets searched.” Chin’s chief of staff, Paul Leonard, though, dismissed Sweeney’s allegations, saying that Council members do not issue directives to police. He
noted that pro-Chin campaign literature was also seized at the event. “These unfounded allegations are just more political attacks by a disgraced former community board member with a troubling record of using his public position for personal gain,” Leonard said in an email. (Sweeney, a former member of Community Board 2, was fined about $3,000 in 2015 by the city’s Conflict of Interest Board for accepting a private club membership and other gifts.) City officials, including from the mayor’s office, did not respond to inquiries. Siegel said he was not yet prepared
HISTORY A once-proud Beaux-Arts building will face the wrecking ball BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN
The old Kaskel & Kaskel Building at 316 Fifth Avenue at 32nd Street has little resonance for most New Yorkers. Its inevitable demolition will not make the headlines. And its loss, unfortunately, will not be mourned. Too bad. Built in 1902 in the BeauxArts style as a retail showroom and headquarters for Kaskel, one of the city’s premiere custom shirtmakers, it remains a treasure in white marble — and deserves a better send-off. Let’s be clear. This is a six-story anachronism that has seen better days. In fact, in many ways, it’s a mess, as the authoritative “AIA Guide to New York City” noted in this charitable description in 2010: “Crusty old Beaux Arts, in the process of being devoured by its crummy commercial occupants,” the authors wrote. “But a copper-clad mansard roof keeps a hat on what is deteriorating at street level.” So no, this is not Penn Station, whose 1964-1965 desecration followed protests by architect Philip Johnson and urbanologist Jane Jacobs and led to the creation of the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Or the Morosco and Helen Hayes theaters, whose 1982 destruction could not be halted despite efforts by theatrical luminaries like Joseph Papp, Colleen Dewhurst and Christopher Reeve to block the bulldozers. Still, it would be nice if residents and workers in the neighborhood — variously known as Koreatown, NoMad
CHIN CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 tions, including whether officials were aware of the confiscations; what the rationale might have been; whether an investigation was underway; and which steps would be taken “to ensure that the First and Fourth Amendment rights of the public are respected.” Siegel said he had yet to receive answers to his letters. “I’m not going to let this one sit,” he said. “If it is the first time, it should be the last time.”
The original Waldorf Astoria Hotel, site of today’s Empire State Building, dominates this 1903 photo. Two blocks to the south (center left, with sign on top) stands the 1902 Kaskel & Kaskel Building, at 316 Fifth Avenue. Photo: New York Public Library collection
The white marble Kaskel & Kaskel Building at 316 Fifth Avenue, built for the custom shirtmaker in 1902, could soon face demolition. Plans call for a 40-story luxury condo tower to replace the six-story Beaux-Arts structure. Photo: Beyond My Ken, via Wikimedia Commons
to go to court. “It shouldn’t take us going to court and find accountability and stop this practice,” he said. Should he not hear back from city officials, though, Siegel said “then that’s a double issue.” In late June, a challenger to Chin’s District 1 City Council seat filed a federal criminal complaint alleging that the confiscation of his campaign literature violated his right to free speech. In his complaint, Aaron Foldenauer said that uniformed and plainclothes NYPD personnel at the security tent seized political material he and his team had been handing out prior to the town hall. He said that represen-
tatives from other organizations, including the National Mobilization against SweatShops, Friends of Elizabeth Street Garden, and opponents of the Real Estate Board of New York, were also outside the YMCA passing out material critical of Chin and de Blasio. Those flyers were also taken from people entering the event. Although Foldenauer noted that flyers and literature supportive of Chin were also confiscated, that amounted to a “smokescreen” since, once inside the venue, members of Chin’s staff were passing out Chin’s spring newsletter to the community and other material.
16
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
JULY 20-26,2017
Business GOING UP An apartment’s floor height is a matter of personal preference BY FREDERICK PETERS
How high is high enough? As agents, we constantly address our various buyers’ preferences when it comes to floor height. “Absolutely no second floor!” “We have to clear the trees.” “I want to see the whole city!” “I need to be able to walk downstairs if there is a problem with the elevator.” While height preferences are extremely personal, there are a number of observations I would make about height related situations I have experienced over the course of my career. • It isn’t necessarily quieter on a higher floor. Years ago I had a fabulous 12th floor exclusive in one of the Triple A Central Park West buildings. Much of it faced the park, which meant much of it also faced the open subway grated on the park side of the street. If anything, the identical apartment on the third floor, available at the same time, was quieter. Noise is strange; it doesn’t behave in obvious ways. Sometimes it louder nine floors higher up. You just have to check and see. • Lower floors can be prettier. Many of us real estate professionals realized this many years ago about Park Avenue. From the fourth floor, you look out on the beautifully planted medians in the middle of the avenue; it feels European. Whereas from the ninth floor, all you look at is the building across the street. The same is true, in my opinion, of the buildings surrounding several of the city’s pocket
Photo: Eric Gross, via flickr parks. I much prefer the fourth or fifth floor on Gramercy, where you can actually enjoy the planting in the park. Higher up, you see empty space. Not that there’s anything wrong with an open view, but I would rather look at the plantings and the streetscape. • Second floor apartments can provide great value. It all depends on the building. Some buildings have extremely tall lobby ceilings and their second floor apartments are almost third floors. Certain views can be charming from the second floor, especially on side
streets where the traffic is less ubiquitous or in the rear of buildings with planted courtyards or gardens. • Buildings sway when they are extremely tall. The spate of new condominiums built in New York can be eighty or ninety stories high. They provide amazing, very white light and the most panoramic views imaginable of Manhattan and the surrounding boroughs, all the way to the New Jersey mountains to the west and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. They are affected by the wind, however. They
move back and forth, frequently as much as a number of yards. Many people don’t notice it. Others feel seasick. • Light changes around the 10th floor. Even with open exposures, the light on lower floors can have a denser character. As one ascends, the light gradually whitens, so that above about the 10th floor the quality of the light becomes more transparent and illuminating, conveying greater clarity. Apartment dwellers are typically high-floor people or low-floor people. The latter tend to like the connection
ON THE SIDE STREETS OF NEW YORK TERREMOTO COFFEE — 328 WEST 15TH STREET Coffee is an essential ingredient in the everyday lives of many New Yorkers, and Richard Agudelo, the owner of Terremoto, takes this very seriously. He only provides singleorigin, best-trade coffee, which
means that he knows exactly where his coffee is coming from. “We know our farmers, milk purveyors, water suppliers, everything,” says Agudelo. “We make sure that it is locally-sourced as much as possible — everything down to our grill.” Terremoto, which means earthquake in Spanish, is named in part after Agudelo. He spent his summers as a child staying with his uncles in Co-
lombia, who often called out in Spanish, “Look, the earthquake arrives” upon his entrance. “I was a handful,” Agudelo admitted, adding, “Our caffeinated drinks will wake you up, just like an earthquake.” To read more, visit Manhattan Sideways (sideways.nyc), created by Betsy Bober Polivy.
Photo: Jasphy Zheng, Manhattan Sideways
to street life and the ability to come or go via the stairs. The high-floor people like the panorama spread out before them – a bird’s eye view. And for many, the middle is just right. On the seventh through 12th floors people on the streets below don’t resemble ants, but one is also high enough above the sidewalk so that the often wonderful feeling of apartments floating in the atmosphere is fully present. It’s just a question of what you like. Frederick Peters is CEO of Warburg Realty.
JULY 20-26,2017
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
17
18
JULY 20-26,2017
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
JAZZ, IN THE KEY OF TWITTER RIFFS Musicians’ union panel targets marketing BY JAMES K. GALLOWAY
Talent will get you so far as a jazz musician. But fluency with social media is increasingly important in finding and developing an audience. That was one of the takeaways of a panel discussion last month hosted by a local musicians union that took up the changing approaches to success in an evolving jazz music industry. Two jazz legends led the talk, which was attended by about 40 people at the Local 802 Club Room on West 48th Street. Camille Thurman, an accomplished, in-demand singer and saxophonist, and Christian McBride, one of the best known jazz bassists in the industry — and a five-time Grammy winner — sat at the front of the room with Andre Kimo Stone Guess, McBride’s manager. The 10th installment of Jazz Mentors, which was moderated by Todd Weeks, principal business representative of the Associated Musicians of Greater New York, American Federation of Musicians Local 802, was the first discussion in the series to invite press, and touched on issues such as sustainability, social media presence and quality representation. “This is a marathon,” Guess said at the June 29 panel. “It’s about finding a lifestyle that being a musician can sustain, and then doing what it is that’s going to make you happy within it.” Guess said musicians can support themselves in that manner, but in order to take one’s career to the next level, a musician must discover and be aware of their own unique strategic advantages and play to those strengths. “This is true of anything in life,” Guess said. “What is it you can do that’s different than most people can do?” Thurman, however, initially took a different approach, and cited her own experience coming up as a saxophonist. She said women face greater scrutiny and must therefore go to greater lengths to prove themselves. She said she wanted to
From left, Andre Kimo Stone Guess, Camille Thurman, Christian McBride and moderator Todd Weeks talk about marketing jazz in a changing, and already challenging, music industry. Photo: James K. Galloway be respected first for her playing, and concealed her ability to sing for a long time, until a mentor finally heard her and asked why she would sit on such a gift. “Because I want to be able to be respected for playing,” Thurman said. “She was like ‘don’t you realize you’re sitting on a freaking land mine? The fact that you can both, and it’s not that you just sing. You sing as a horn player, and that’s unique and rare.’” Even though now Thurman is well-known as a saxophonist and singer, she made her way using traits she and the other speakers agreed is appropriate for jazz: being a capable musician, being known by fellow musicians as a reliable sideman, and being willing to play other people’s music without necessarily being the star of the show. But the music business is changing so rapidly under the pressure of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, in addition to streaming services like Spotify and Soundcloud, that a musician’s approach inevitably forks out to appease the changing landscape, if their careers were not already born out of it. One must focus on their craft but also — as Weeks pointed out and Guess confirmed — balance time spent on their musicianship with the added work of cultivating of an online audience, to grow their brand not only through album releases, but by amassing followings in places that did not matter 10 years ago, and on sites that might not have existed 10 years ago. Guess said it is important to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each social platform. And use them to create a narrative consistent with the product — in this case, the mu-
sic — being put out. “For people who don’t know you — if they come, and they hear your song — and during, they like it, well when they come to find out who you are on whatever your social platform is, the message they get when they get there needs to be consistent with the feeling they got when they heard it.” Guess added that it is better not to fixate on “Likes” which he compared to the euphoric rush of crack-cocaine, but to focus instead on creating content people will like. Many musicians do not have the luxury of dismissing the necessity of micromanaging their social media presence. Even McBride, one of the world’s most prolific jazz performers, said he avoids politics online, choosing instead to limit his presence to information, positivity and humor. Negative comments on Facebook are predictable, McBride said, but in the music business so are predatory “managers” and agents. “As much as jazz is struggling,” McBride said, “there sure are a lot of managers.” People laughed at McBride’s dry delivery. “I heard about a manager who charged for a meeting,” McBride said. “’If you want to meet with me, I charge $125 an hour.’ That’s what we’re dealing with out here!” Guess concluded by saying he would never accept payment exceeding that of his clients’ and it would be inappropriate for him to get paid for a gig, if a client does not. Weeks said another talk is being planned for September. More information will be posted to the union website, local802afm.org, as the date draws near.
The show won six Tony Awards in June. Photo: Steam Pipe Trunk Distribution Venue, via flickr
BOOK ON ‘DEAR EVAN HANSEN’ PUBLISHING New behind-the-scenes account of the hit musical to be released in November The publishers of a bestseller about the making of “Hamilton” are hoping for similar luck with another prize-w inning musical, “Dear Evan Hansen.”
?
Grand Central Publishing told The Associated Press on Tuesday that “Dear Evan Hansen: Through the Window” will be released Nov. 21. Billed as a “behind-thescenes” account, the book was written by the creative team of Steven Levenson, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. The wrenching musical about loneliness, teen angst and suicide won six Tony Awards in June, including best book
of a musical for Levenson and best score for Pasek and Paul. The book will include personal memories, photographs, unreleased lyrics and the “Dear Evan Hansen” libretto. Last year, Grand Central published “Hamilton: The Revolution,” featuring commentary from the show’s creator and star, Lin-Manuel Miranda. —The Associated Press
DO YOU HAVE SOMETHING YOU’D LIKE US TO LOOK INTO? EMAIL US AT NEWS@STRAUSNEWS.COM
JULY 20-26,2017
GOSSIP CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 off — heir to a grand, if eccentric, newspaper tradition whose practitioners used to be called “cycling scribes.” Think New York Times photographer Bill Cunningham snapping women from the back of his Biria at Fifth Avenue and 57th Street, a corner that now bears his name. Or New York Post columnist Murray Kempton gadding about the Upper West Side on his battered three-speed — and, rarity of rarities, stopping at every single red light. Both Cunningham and Kempton had their share of spills and mishaps. So has Musto. Unfortunately, his most recent excursion nearly ended in tragedy. It resulted in two bad fractures. Excruciating pain. Surgery. A fiveday hospital stay. And a recuperation that’s expected to last weeks. Happily, that’s not enough to scare him off the streets. Already, he says, he’s counting “the seconds” until he can remount. “I’m not afraid,” he says. “They’re not going to get to me!” A beloved if scratched-up, no-frills conveyance awaits his recovery: “It’s used. It’s cheap. Just $125 at Kmart. Basically, it’s a girl’s bike,” he says. As usual, Musto was on board when the accident took place. It was the evening of June 19, and it began in typical fashion when he pedaled to midtown
19
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com for an 8 p.m. screening of “Okja,” a South Korean film about corporate villainy, multinational agribusiness and an elephant-sized pig. He wasn’t in love with it. Afterwards, the 61-year-old journalist steered himself down Lexington Avenue toward his home in Murray Hill. It was rainy, he was approaching East 46th Street, near the northwest corner, and then ... Well, let Musto take over the storytelling since that’s what he does for a living: He now writes a column for Out.com — “Musto! The Musical!” — and another for Papermag.com, where he recently denounced, “The 10 Most Horrible Kinds of People in New York Nightlife.” “I was riding my bike, slowly and carefully, and then, suddenly, out of the blue, someone, a crazed cyclist, came out of nowhere and smashed into me,” Musto recounts. “I went flying ... the pain was agonizing.” He believes the errant rider was “breaking all the rules” and may have been riding northbound against traffic on southbound Lexington Avenue. But it all happened so fast that he can’t be certain. What he does know is that the bicyclist paused ever so briefly, leaned toward him on the street, where he lay helpless, unable to stand up, trying to put on a shoe that came off, and muttered something like, “Sorry, sir.” The memory of the moment is a little hazy due to the pain, but Musto believes the perpetrator sped away. “I
Bill Cunningham (with omnipresent bike) at the opening of the “Facades” exhibition at the New-York Historical Society in 2014. Photo: Don Pollard
New York Post columnist Murray Kempton put down his bicycle and picked up his typewriter in this 1964 photo, which ran in the long-defunct New York WorldTelegram & Sun. Photo: Al Ravenna / World-Telegram & Sun, via Library of Congress
was in no shape to do anything retaliatory,” he says. The crash also brought out the best in New Yorkers. A Good Samaritan eyewitness helped him hop into a cab and traveled with him to make sure he got home safely. She simply “wanted to help someone in need,” he said. “She was a wonderful woman,” he added. “A gem.” What happened next was pure coincidence. But the kind that could only happen to Musto. It turns out that Carson Kressley, a judge on “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and the former fashionsavvy style expert on “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,” was visiting friends in his building. Kressley had been one of the “Fab Five” on “Queer Eye,” and when he spotted Musto hobbling in, he sprang up to assist, getting him first into the building and then into his apartment, later applying an ice pack to his foot and leg. Why go home at all? Why not head straight to the nearest emergency room? “I’ve been hit before,” Musto explained. “Sometimes, you just lay down and hope against hope you will heal. This time, I didn’t heal.” The next day, June 20, he went to a
local medical center, learned he had broken both his left leg and ankle and was transferred to Lenox Hill Hospital, where he had an operation on June 21 and stayed for five nights. How did he like the food and accommodations? “It was like a four-star hotel,” he says. Now, Musto can be a pretty caustic critic, but he can be lavish in his praise, too, and Lenox Hill, where he had a room to himself, scored rave reviews. “It was posh and delightful,” he said. “You can order meals in advance. And they have this buzzer for help where you can buzz at 11 at night for cookies.” The most memorable hospital food? Baked whitefish. Musto was released on June 25, the Sunday of the Pride parade, which he always observes but had to miss. His cast is now off, the staples are out, he wears a knee-high boot, still can’t put pressure on his leg — and his walker, crutches and wheelchair are close at hand. But he’s never stopped working or meeting his deadlines. And he never lost his sense of humor: “Hobbling on one foot, in the aftermath of what I’ve been through,” he wrote his Facebook friends, “has been like getting crippled, then made to run a potato sack
race.” So which is more perilous for the lawabiding bicyclist, drivers or fellow cyclists? Musto says bike riders are “often the worst offenders when it comes to safety,” adding, “At least car drivers are always going the right way.” Yes, motorists will fling their doors open without looking. “But other bike riders are definitely high atop the list of dangers,” he says. “Many of them, as they barrel towards you, don’t feel the need to pull aside and give you the right of way. Some of them are all helmeted and geared up, so it seems as if they care about their own safety more than others,’” he adds. The ordeal was searing. The recovery is ongoing. But the cycling scribe who never had a driver’s license is very clear on one point: “The second I am able to get back on my bike, I will,” Musto says. “I won’t let this experience ruin it for me. Nothing could diminish my love of bicycling in New York City.” Now, it’s your turn. Have you had a harrowing encounter with a rogue cyclist on the streets of Manhattan? If so, write Douglas Feiden at invreporter@strausnews.com
20
JULY 20-26,2017
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
Don’t go out into the heat. GET YOUR LOCAL NEWS DELIVERED It’s your neighborhood. It’s your news. And now your personal copy is delivered directly to your mailbox every week!
THE M NEW ET'S MODE
CITYAR RNISM TS, P.2 > 4
2
0 1 6 OTT Y AWA
RDS
His Eminence Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan
Dr. Maura D. Frank Gustavo Goncalves
Just $49
James Grant Paul Gunther
Harris Healy
Susan H enshaw Jones
Mallory Spain Dr. David Thomas
CELEBR BEST OF ATTHING THE EAST SIDE E UPPER Bett y Cooper Wallerstein
IS THE LUX SLOWING DURY MARKET OWN?
OUT OF GA S
IN VE ST IG
UP TH NG MET'SE TEMPL E
, ma fen t The Am lands ke up the groPark, amon ders cap g erican BY GABRIELLE Histor Hilderbr e archit up. The pro othALFIER Mu y ec O hood for is tapping seum of Na ings, wh and will tu re fir m ject’s int also att Reed ich be that wi a communit o the neightural “It en gin portionll weigh in on y working bor- wo ’s always be on March d meet4. rk with group en where of Theodo the redesignCITY the com our inten AR the TS re ob the tion to munit jectiv museu Roosevel of a wo , P.1 quartery to t uld lik2 > es of wh m at the achieve e to do posed acre of gre pla ns to Park, the mu us expan en spa ne sion. ce for e a as thi eds of the and make su seum Frien a procom re s profit ds of Roose Dan Sli project mo munity are that vel ves for met the cit that manage t Park, the ernme ppen, vice wa y’s presid rd,” said nt relati mu seu Parks De s the park non- thi ent of on nk pa wi m, s tha rtm at th all govthe mu t what with the wi ll co y sol -chair ent and the we’re seu museu the gr m. Blo we alw idifying, in doing now m. “I ou ck ass a ays int is ociation p ended.”way, efforts res, CO that NT
TRINITY COMES INTOWER FOCUS TO
idents as ites estSide paris hioners Spirit well as froinput m
Cell Phone ________________________________
Newsche Crime Wack Voices tch Out & Ab out
2 Cit y 3 Th Arts ings to Do 8
ake
GE 25
WEEK OF FE BRUARY-MAR CH
25-2 2016
to hav e is the sixthin the city. past thre been hit by a person car in the to The ee days alone. least 20New York Tim According cyclists pedestrians es, at have bee and thr accidents ee n kill more tha so far this ed in traffic VOL. 2, yea n ISSUE been inju 900 pedest r, and 08 rians hav It’s demred. e of victim oralizing. If fam s, ilies heighten a devoted mayor and a dent in ed awarenes the proble s can’t ma Amid the ke m, wh at can? New Yor carnage, Immedia kers once agathough, hit, bys tely after Da in rallied. A CASI group tanders ran to uplaise was MANH NO IN managof them, workin try to help. in hopesed to flip the carg together, A < BUSI ATTAN? of NESS, on res its cuing Unfor sid P.16 She wa tunately, it didDauplaise. e, Bellevues pronounced n’t work. The a short wh dead at citizensefforts of our ile later. fell to hearten save a str ow us, despit anger sho recklessn uld e who con ess of a danthe continued a place tinue to makegerous few THE SE of traged our street y. OFsOU COND DISG
Downt owner Our T
12
ake
SHELTER HOMELES RACE S RS
First, obvious: let’s start wit condition h the city’s hom s inside thi disgrace. eless shelte rs are as A ser one mo ies of terrible (includinre horrible tha crimes, month g the killing n the last of ear lier this daugh a woman has higters in Statenand her two hlighted Island), living con the the ma ditions for shameful cities inrgins of one ofpeople at Blasio, the world. Ma the richest wh yor o has bee Bill de his app from theroach to homn halting in has final beginning elessness proble ly begun to of his term, from thim, but years ofaddress the others, s administra neglect, tion and will take But years to correct. recent none of that exc office grandstanding uses the appareof Gov. Andrew by the Cuomo, he can’tntly sees no iss who In the try to belittl ue on which attempt governor’s late the mayor. officials at a hit job, est sta compla then pro ined te Post, abomptly to the to the city, homele ut a gang New York alleged ss shelter, purape at a city VOL. 77 had tim event before blicizing the , ISSUE pol e 04 As it turto investigate ice even ned out, it. never hap the officials pened, infuriaincident media hitwho called it ting city a ” “po aim the mayor ed at em litical . More cha barrassin counter-c rges and g THfolElow the me harges Dicken antimeA , of cou ed. In Tditrse men, wosian livingR OionF, the con in New men D kidsIM s for Yor andEN Here’s k goe s on. in shelters CITY ARTS, leadershi hoping tha t som P.2any eday our as intere p in Alb 0 as it is in sted in helpinwill become back fro agains scoring pol g them t sit itical poi 17 fee m FDR Drour ive byting mayor. nts t 16 to out of and raise
IN CEN KIDS AGTARIAL PARK, WEIGHI NST DOCNAl NG LiDnTtRo UMnP WEEK OF JA NUARY-FEBR UARY 28-3 MOVING FO R A GUIDE TO CAMP
NE W S
BUILDING, WARD ON THE DESPITE C ONCERNTSIN 3 Top Arts 8 Re 5 10 15 al Estate Minutes
Voices Out & Ab out
12 13 16 21
PAGE 9
it on the floo as red d plain, e foot uc building e the heigh as well three. from four t of the storie HAPP s to The ref urbishe would SNOWY LITTLE d sit FLAKES pier pil atop newl bu ild ing y food ma ings and restored Reme board co Transpa officia sio’s fi mber Mayo Jean-G rket overseenntain a expre ls, but rst r Bil eorge linger ov rency concer by sse me W ch Th s Vong hat a winter in his l de Blaef mbers e pr ns develop d concern dif fer redeveloper Howard Hu new years the de oposal also erichten. er ’s vis s that the ence Se ma molit ca lls a coup job? Seaport ment plans ghes’ pieapor t is be ion for th Ho ion for Hit wi kes. le of for the ing e tw use and Lin of the He ceme after th a snow ad o dil k Bu compre al instead relea sed sto tak new ma ing off ice rm shortly of in on adjacen apidated str ild ing, hensive Howa BY DAN t e in pro uc The new would yor fumble in 2014, th IEL FIT front ofto the Tin Bu tures CB1’s rd Hughes posal. d in a wa ZSIMM e co Jan. 19 ly restored me Pie ild joi ONS Re half of ing r 17. to The joi cen Tin presen South nt La nd mamet with his ter define th y that nt La nd tation Building, as by the tly announ Stree un So rk e m. to Comm fi ut fir s lle envisio ced Ho h ma Ce Po an t Seap st d. Stree nter d Ce plans poration ward Hu ned unity Bo storm Official wa tholes we t Seap rks and nter gh pla ns on Jan. 19 or t/Civic nt ’s ard 1. in Howard Hu at the for the Tin es Corfor th to unve Residen severity wernings on the a resolucomm ittee or t/Civic ghes a fou e s passe re mu ts in ne re ce iveSouth Stree Building r-s tory Tin Build il the pr tion in did dd igh d n’t led t supp structur ing bo op prov al d preli mi Seaport plaine vote for de rhoods tha . e at thelandm arke , of Howa osal, but req or t of na co d from being that their strBlasio com-t comm ry ap - Hording to the Seaport. Acd pla n for rd Hughes uested plo un ity a was lat wed -- a eets weren - ing wa rd Hu gh presentation - the Seap redevelopmmaster su ’t es ort , wo to mo tion-trucer proven spicion tha ve the is propos uld inc as a whole ent at ou t Tin Bu , wh lude the This k GPS data. t by sanitailding compa ich new detime aroun ny’s CONTINU d, ED ON ch arge Blasio seem an entirely PAGE 5 was for . Before th ed to be Sanitati e storm in ceful, Ins on bu tea , t no he d architect Dept. build closin of jumpin t panicke d. g g storm ure, is press ing, praised waited subways or the gun an ed into for d service its then ac for the storm schools, he during detectedted decisive to develop the , We do a sense of huly. We even n’t wa mor in The bu cre nt it all dit tha to give BY DEE to life ilding looks him mo . someth n is due, PTI HAJ , all re bu ELA ing can loo angles an like a mode t there about seeme rn d wa thi d nation k bluish or gra edges, with art painting New Yo to bring ou s storm tha s t rkers. t the be in any of the three. yish or wh concrete wa come On Su itish, or settin lls st of functi g, but It would be some that alpine nday, the cit an no on pounds it was cre ne more tha unusual str combiskiers vil lage. Cr y felt like an ate uc of the n rock sal d for --- sto the fairly pro ture snow plied the pa oss-cou nt ry rin t bo sai tha rks g CONTINU c tho t the cit hot ch ots and pa , people y’s De usands of ED ON ololat rkas ord in partm PAGE 29 wi es, th su ered kid ent of of sledd nburned fac s came home es after ding. There a day tent. Qu were pock ets the plo eens reside of disco nand elew trucks by nts felt th at the sch cted offici passed them, als closed ools should there sa id for ha But ov another da ve stayed %TGCVKX just en erall, consid y. G 9TKVK PI r &CPEG snows dured the secering we ha r /QVK torm in d QP 2KE lovely our his ond-biggest VWTG # litt TVU r and his le chapter tory, it was /WUKE a for the subjects r 6JG mayor CVTG r . 8KUWC
NE W S
THE SALT SPOTLIGH SHED’S T MOMENT NE W S
Email Address_________________________________________ Signature______________________________Date _______________
ART
LIVES HERE
Return Completed Form to: Straus News, 20 West Avenue, Chester, NY, 10918 or go to strausnews.com & click on Subscribe
FOR PARK REDESIGN
Bu On Sa 13 10 15 siness BY EM ILY TOW parishioturday mo Minutes 16 NER rn and low ners, comm ing, archit 19 ered in er Manhatt unity me ects, mb vision St. Paul’s Ch an residents ers for Tr ap gat el hto discu inity Ch building ss urch’s The ex . new pa the rish Place acr isting bu ild been cle oss from Tr ing, on Tr inity inity Ch ared for 1923, urc de it the chu no longer sermolition. Buh, has tower rch and the ves the ne ilt in wi com ed The we ll be built in munity. A s of new in a ser ekend me its place. eti — collabies of commu ng was the needs orative for nity “charr fifth an um ett the low d wants of s to addre es” a whole er Manhatt the church ss the and an com . “In ou munit of r y initial as about charr buildinghow we wa ettes we talked for the to be a homented th is pa hood,” homeless an for the spi rish rit fer, Tr said the Re d for the neigh ual, v. Dr. Wi ini bor“We tal ty Wall Street lliam Lu ked ’s prector What ab . they wo out minis try act look,” uld be ivi Lu marke pfer said. , how they ties. wo t underst study in ord“We condu uld cte desires and neighbo er to objec d a dream as well as rhood needtively s.” parish s and He sai hopes and sion em d the churc tality braces a ph h communit The can tha ilo ride in coming t is “open sophy for y’s viCe carouseldidate’s owne ho , flexibl .” On the ntral Park. “We wa e and spifamilia puts New Yo rship of the wela white wall next to nt it street r bind rkers in , access to be visiblP.9 > that rea placard wi the entrance a Gemm ible to e from the com and Re ds, “Trum th red letter is well, a Whitema the CONTINU p Ca munit gulat ing who we n and ind It’s y, BY DAN Engla ED ON Joel Ha re on lat icatio ions” -- rousel Ru PAGE 6 weekd e afternoon IEL FITZSIMM presid ns that Do one of the les day, nd and rode vacation uxONS ay, an on only sai the en fro nald a mi tial d lining opera bearing d they notic carousel Mo m up to pakids and tou ld winter tes the candidate, J. Trump, ed the Trum ntially ow car ris y Tr $3 for “It p’s ns an placar New Yo a qu ts are see um p’s po ousel. d ma was in my name. OurTown d rk mo lit ics ping int n, he ment: intesenDowntow wh ad o the car have be 20gav a carou weigh 16 e he en asked ,” said Wh n gu sel an aft a deep ernoo ousel, as rid n in En r pause. “H if the realiz iteOTDOW O n esc ly divisiv gla ati ers e’s NTOW like, ‘Do nd, so in my not very lik on e candid ape again N.COM st he ed I want ate. Newsche to give ad I was a bit ck money @OTD CO Cri me Wa NTINU to this owntown 2 Cit tch ED ON y
Address _______________________________ Apt. # ________ New York, NY Zip Code _____________
Our T
THE ST
PAGE 5
WESATS serID iesEof for SPIRne ums on IT.w paMh build the fro COris ing inv church’s @W m res
Name ______________________________________________
AT IO N
Accor DOB, Coding to sta STREETORY OF OU tis R agency nEd report tics provid S ed by over 20 in 2015, a ed 343 shutoff the The 40 Ruby BY DAN trend 14’s 67 shu 0 percent s to the New Yorworst and the IEL FIT ey on Mak has been ap toffs. increa ZSIMM takeo An So far pears to be Monday k were both best of ONS ut tha spending mid-d in 2016 increa d the upwa se on displa mo mo issert n acc mid a the sin re rd docto ording y town. rning on 36th mong eve re ha ation is worki Street in ng at lea , and her ne rate stude “Since to the DO ve been 157 n more: Ca rol “A lot nt B. Da shu w rice st as uplaise, toffs, noticing the spring owner cooker to eat of it is just ou hard. the a no gas, a lot of pe of last year crossingof a jewelry com 77-year-o cook at lot more,” t of pocket, op we sta going rted water either cookin le coming Street Madison Av pany, was ld steam home it’s jus said Mak. “W ,” out in ing an said Donna g gas or he that had when a during the mo enue at 36th cally.” things with t a rice cooker hen we at livery-cab rning rus it, or ma Ameri d commun Chiu, direct and hot cor . You can ner h dri ity or can La st Se and hit ke rice, her. ver turned the Chiu cal s For Equa ser vices forof housptemb The basihundred er Asian said AA led the inc lity. arresteddriver of the car no natur s of others her bu ild ing ing an FE is worki rease “freak pedest for failing to was joi ned an ins al gas, cut across the d pe off town almost a dong with Ma ish,” and been citrian, and cop yield to a Building ction blitz by Con Ed city with an ser vic d the Lowe zen others k’s buildtraffic vioed for at leasts say he had a month s that bega by the city’sison after es. 10 oth lations advocat And Ch r East Side in ChinaIt sin wa East Vil after a fat n last April, Dept. of iu, lik ce 2015. er es, ha al ga e ma to restor exp les litany ofs but the latest lage tha s t claim s explosion s than lon loitation by witnessed ny housinge that hav traffic deaths in a sad ed two bu g servic in the a lives. e interr ilding owne pattern of Mayor e lingered on, and injuries rs wh uptions curb traBill de Blasio’s despite CONTINU in an eff o proffic crashe efforts ort to ED ON Da to uplais s PA
MUSEUM T APS NEIGH BORHOOD GROUPS
Yes! Start my $49 subscription right away! Plus give it to a friend for just $10
CITY WIN FO APPLE R
2 Cit y 3 To Arts Do 24 8 Foo 25 10 15 d & Drink MinuAtes 26 surge s shu rent-stabof ga29 ilized tentoffs, particu larly for ants
NE W S
Clinton
Wests ider
3-9
Newsche Crime Wack Voices tch Out & Ab out
INUED ON
accuse capita d of overleve l. very James Beninati anraging invest lions aftCabrera, we d his partn or re BY DAN Antar er the firm sued for mier, The Ba IEL FIT es ZSIMM condo uhouse Gr assets was stripp ’s collapse, lONS and ou ed of mo in p’s 90 the lat project on A rep the late-a st of its 0-foo Sutto n Place t the Ba resentative ughts. velopmeest lux ur y res for uhouse fundin nt to suffer idential is a req Group Beninati an ue de g, fro did st for d - tim as inv ingly comm not return estors m a lack of e. wary ent by are inc of fin at the Sto press rea ler an top a surpl end of the cing projec s- Deal ne also spok outlookus in inven market du ts a notic wspaper las e to the Re tor e will ma on whether y and a tep to ap ar tmeable decre t month ab al ase out affluent terialize id lig en News buyer hted ma t sa les, whin high-end down of s the roa the 80 rke ich hig squa re avera d. -st ge nu t data tha hmb April, foot propo or y, 260,0 t apart ments er of days said the an 00 squat d sent the sa l broke las spent in new for-sa neigh and sleepy comparative t perce on the marke developme le VOL. 42 bo nt munit rhood int Sutton Pla ly and the between t increased nts , ISSUE o the y 47 en 09 tions, Board 6 vo a panic. Co ce “E very d of last yea end of 20 man ice 14 on d r. d Council e’s a its ob Kallos Stoler lit jec the bu came out str member Be - $2,50 told TRD. “W tle worri ed ilding 0 ’s heigh ongly again n lende [per square ith anything ,” plicat ions. rs are t and soc st at foo t] ver or But it Stoler ial imtold thi y cautious.” more, opposit wa sn’t jus s ne wspape house ion workingt commun CONTINU r that ED ON Mi aelprincipal Jo against Baity PAGE 5 seph u20ch Sto ne r16 at the ler, a mana Beninati. Jewish invest ging pa son Re wome me n and the wo backg alty Capital, nt firm Ma rtgirl rld by rou lighting s light up candle tares Inv nd also plasaid Beninatidis every the Sha yed bbat Friday 18 min a role. ’s Benin estment Pa eve utes bef < NEW An ati co Friday ore sun ning -foundertners, the fi schoo S, Ma set. l rm P.4 For mo rch 11 – 5:4 boast classmate thad with a pre 1 pm. re info ed $6 rm www.c billion t at one po p habadu ation visit int in ass pperea ets, wa stside.co s m.
WEEK OF MAR CH
AMNH electe d transpo working gro and pa officials, Co up rtation, park reds to focus on of Teddrk advocacy mmunity Board group y Roose esign LIGHTI 7, ers De vel
WestS ideSpirit
>
NE W S
53 Lud low Str mom, hav eet, Fitzsim e been witwhere a dozen mons hout coo ten king gas ants, includ since las ing Ruby Mak and t Septe mber. Pho her to by Dan iel
Westsider
S, P.4
Concern high en s about a glu t at the d
OurTown EastSide
Eastsider
AN EN D "BR TO WINDO OKEN WS"? NEW
2016
MORE THAN SCREATHE M
@OurT ownNYC
VOL. 2, ISSUE 10
10-16
Our To wn ha The pa s much 2016, per celebrat to be thank an OTTY d this we es its 45th ful for. ek Award anniv made ersary winnershonors its a un lat The OT ique differe , noting pe est group in ople wh of nce on You -- TY award the o ha s ha munit ve always -- short for OuUpper East ve Sid be y strong. service, an en a reflect r Town Th e. d this anks year’s ion of deep Our ho list is parti combusiness norees inc cularly owners lude co heroe mm an s. Cardi We’re also d medical anunity activi na tak fall’s wi l Timothy ing a mome d public saf sts, Franc ldly succes Dolan, who nt to recog ety is. nize sheph sful vis Kyle Po In his interv erd it iew wi to the city ed last pressi pe, Dolan by th Our ref ng Town Pope warning issues sti lects on thaCI Editor ll TYit, ARon movin s he receiv facing the t vis TS, g to Ne city,2 an>d on the w York ed from his P.1 Read nine his profile, seven years friends be the OT TY an fore ag Thom awards d the profi o. pso les of the oth We are n, in the spe by repor the wi proud to bri cial sectio ter Madelei er nners n ne part of ng it to you inside. our com , and pro ud to cal munit y. l
OURTOW O NNY.C OM
Eastsi der
WEEK OF MAR CH
N #TVU
Our T
ake
JULY 20-26,2017
21
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
To read about other people who have had their “15 Minutes” go to otdowntown.com/15 minutes
YOUR 15 MINUTES
GIVING GLORY The Salvation Army’s Times Square Corps’ Pratik Munn-Shirsath on his call to ministry BY ANGELA BARBUTI
As a fourth-generation Salvationist, Pratik Munn-Shirsath is undoubtedly making his family proud with his unwavering devotion to The Salvation Army church. A native of Mumbai, India, he came to New York in 2005 to work with at-risk youth through a program called Project 1:17. It was at his job as a youth pastor at The Salvation Army’s New York Temple Corps that he met his wife, Olivia. In 2015, they were both appointed core commanding officers and pastors of The Salvation Army’s Times Square Corps. The following year, they started The Glory Shop, which combines their shared vested interest in discipleship and the arts. It is a 10-month program for 18 to 35-year-olds, where students foster spirituality by discussing Scripture and engaging in prayer walks throughout the city, while also honing their performing arts’ talents. “We started this school because of us believing that we are called to disciple artists from all over in a setting that’s free for them to create and find themselves with keeping Jesus at the center,” Munn-Shirsath explained. “With the focus that artists don’t usually live to earn millions of dollars, but when they perform, they actually live for the applause. So we actually wanted to turn the factor of applause not towards us, but towards God because he is the giver of all our gifts and our blessing flow from him. Hence, we decided to call it The Glory Shop. Glory not to us, but glory to God.”
You came to New York to work at Project 1:17. Explain that program. It’s a program that was started in 2001, based on a book from the Bible, the Book of Isiah. It’s from Isiah 1:17 which says, “Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.” So it’s basically a program designed to raise up young leaders to step into the gap for the marginalized, for those who cannot fend for themselves. And mainly for kids who are at risk. This was a 10-month program where we got to do hands-on work with kids in inner
city settings. And it was fantastic. It was life changing.... I think I really got to understand the words “at risk” and work with children who really didn’t have much, even as simple as a role model. So I got to learn about the logistics of that side of ministry. And above all, just loved being a mentor and beacon of light to some kids who really had it hard at home.
How did The Glory Shop come about? My wife and I both attended different discipleship schools. I attended Project 1:17 and she attended a school called The War College, which is in Vancouver, Canada. She worked with people who are really struggling in life, such as drug addicts, and did a lot of street evangelism. So even before getting to this place, I think God was speaking to us about having a program that is stronger on the discipleship side of things, but also we both have a passion for art. And The Salvation Army, in the eastern territory of the United States, runs a conservatory which is called TAM, Territorial Arts Ministries, where kids from all over the eastern side of the country come to learn about God, but also hone their skills in art. They can be actors, singers, anything that has to do with performing arts. And that is run by a lady named Carol Jaudes. Olivia was so deeply impacted by that as well, so we decided we wanted to start a school for young adults.
Pratik Munn-Shirsath, a fourth-generation Salvationist, and his wife, Olivia Munn-Shirsath. Photo: Nealson Munn
What is a typical day like for your students? They go through a plan called Bible in One Year, so they read certain sections that are in this plan every day, even when they are not at the school. And after that, one of them, who we call an orderly, facilitates a discussion among the students about the portion of the scripture that they just read.... They later walk around the neighborhood and pray in the streets, because we believe that by praying on the streets, we are actually calling heaven to Earth and influencing the streets in a positive way. That’s led by Eliana Satterlee, the outreach director. Last semester as part of their outreach, they went to Rikers and worked with inmates in there, telling them about Jesus and also teaching them about theater and acting. And after that, they break into performing art classes, which could be anything from how to direct a play
to how to write a script to improv. They also meet at our house, because we live in the building, with a whole bunch of different young adults from our community and we have a small group gathering where we come together and eat and worship and dig into a portion of the Scripture.
How can people get involved and volunteer? There are a lot of ways for people to get involved. As you know, we are predominately, at our location, very much a church. But we also have social services such as a food pantry and clothing vouchers. Clothing vouchers are prepaid and given to people with low to no income. This was put into place out of the need of people applying for jobs but often not having the right attire to present themselves in an interview or a job setting. This is when
we step in and help them get clothed from one of our thrift stores. One of the beautiful things that has grown this past year is that we are putting on two musicals a year. And with that, we need a lot of help from people who can volunteer, even those who have any kind of talent and want to be a part of it can definitely audition.... We also have a café that happens on Fridays, which we started last October. It’s a time where people can come and hang out, every Friday at 7. But we also need help with that — setting up, barista help. People can get always come in and be involved in this community.
What are your future plans? If I were to be completely honest with you, I don’t have any future plans because I’m a minister, and don’t want to make plans for myself. That for me, is very selfish. And in saying this, ob-
viously I’m not judging people who make plans for themselves. All I’m saying is that I just want to be completely surrendered to God all the days of my life and just let God make plans for me.... But when you talk about plans, I would love to see our generation rise up and be a positive influence in this world and honor God for who he has made them and be in a relationship with him. www.thegloryshop.com
Know somebody who deserves their 15 Minutes of fame? Go to otdowntown.com and click on submit a press release or announcement.
VISIT OUR WEBSITE! at OTDOWNTOWN.COM
6
9
I W O R N M O R T N R V A A L
N S A L P F C J O E W M N M Y
S Y L B C M S N A A M O E Z F
S F A Q B X A T D E M A M C I
O C R E C L W C R C E P O P S
K T G I D H C H K I N N N F H
S A R D I N E S Q E J M E T K
M D B T C A B Y I O R C A S H
C Z E E D T F T U N A E E K W
The puzzle contains the names of 15 sea creatures. They may be diagonal, across, or up and down in the grid in any direction.
Y S H Q J B O S C H O O L S K
Anemone Barracuda Dolphins Fishes Greatwhites Hammerhead Humpback Jellyfish Mackerel Manta Orcas Rays Sardines Schools Tuna
ANSWERS N
E
T
S
E
I
P
51
52
53
G
D
I
U
45 42 36
U
F
D
I
E
L
P
31 26
27
T E
37
T
M A
N
I
A
R
T
14 11 1
2
3
A
R
44
B
38
A
L
B E U 4
P
A
39
S
T
O
I
O
23
S
U
A
N
5
E
C
E O 6
L
S
7
F
A L
49
H
41
E
A
S
34
L
P
12
N
40
E
48
A P
20
Y D
50
T I
30
19 15
A
Y
S
22
E
18
I
33
C
29
C
G R
56
Y
47
P
43
D
G
55
T
46
32
I
21 17
E
R 28
I
54
N
T
E Y
24
E H
35
U R
25
A O
V
16
C
A
E
13
8
R
R 9
E
L E G
10
8
5
1 7
4 8
2
9
9 5
6 1 2
3
9 6 3 5 4 7 8
4 8 1 7 2 6 3 9 5
7 5 3 9 1 4 8 2 6
9 6 2 3 5 8 1 4 7
1 2 7 8 9 3 5 6 4
5 3 4 2 6 1 7 8 9
8 9 6 5 4 7 2 3 1
24 Casual affirmation 25 Con 26 Provided that 27 Fool 28 Camera part 29 Corn holder 33 Chatter 35 Comic character: __ man 37 Chopin piece 38 Place for a DVD player 40 Opponent’s vote 41 Mark of disgrace 43 Directly 46 Exhaust 48 Winged figure 49 Reindeer herder 50 Colors one’s hair 51 Rap on a window 52 Concept of self 53 Pecan, for example 55 Girls youth org.
2 1
47 Triangular road sign 51 Gravitate 54 Band booking 56 Overcast 57 A fit of fever 58 Human resources people, abbr. 59 Sulk 60 Boiling equipment 61 Earl Grey is an example of this drink 62 Small vipers Down 1 Press down 2 Saudi Arabian coin 3 Poker bet 4 South west Indian village 5 Naval rank: abbr. 6 Ballet move 7 Ford model 8 Martin Luther King’s title: abbr. 9 Several periods 10 Gooey stuff 13 Cousin of a raccoon 18 Finish off 20 Pay___, online bank 22 Group of former Soviet republics, abbreviation
H M V K P X U K G I E G T H L
6 4
Across 1 Links hazard 5 Santa’s little helper 8 Grande, in the Starbucks world 11 Northern Japanese people 12 Bor___, big island 13 Sin___ , honest 14 Spouse 15 Strategic Air Command, for short 16 Famous office 17 Academy freshman 19 Stage in the life cycle of a moth 21 In prescriptions, milk 23 Half human half horse deity 26 Nutty 30 In ___ of (replacing) 31 Winter wear 32 Chinese condiment 34 Silver-gray color 36 ___ Piper 39 Wailer 42 Fragrant compound 44 Congratulations, of a sort 45 The U of “Law & Order: SVU”
P G L Q D Z U H M P K N Q P E
3 7
62
L B A R R A C U D A A V W V J
Y S H Q J B O S C H O O L S K
61
O E U E M A R Q Y M U Z P Y N
C Z E E D T F T U N A E E K W
60
D P N W C U N E F I S H E S C
M D B T C A B Y I O R C A S H
59
S A R D I N E S Q E J M E T K
58
5
WORD SEARCH by Myles Mellor
K T G I D H C H K I N N N F H
56
57
6
50
O C R E C L W C R C E P O P S
55
49
S F A Q B X A T D E M A M C I
54
48
S Y L B C M S N A A M O E Z F
53
47
8
N S A L P F C J O E W M N M Y
52
46
Level: Medium
7 1
I W O R N M O R T N R V A A L
51
44
6 4
H M V K P X U K G I E G T H L
45
41
P G L Q D Z U H M P K N Q P E
43
40
2
L B A R R A C U D A A V W V J
39
35
O E U E M A R Q Y M U Z P Y N
42
38
5 4
6
D P N W C U N E F I S H E S C
37
34
3
E
36
33
9
59
32
7 2
58
31
30
4
57
29
25
8
S
28
24
2
P
27
23
9
P
26
22
20
9
S
21
19
7
A
18
9
M O
17
1
7
62
16
4 7
6
A
15
5
S
14
2
E
13
Each Sudoku puzzle consists of a 9X9 grid that has been subdivided into nine smaller grids of 3X3 squares. To solve the puzzle each row, column and box must contain each of the numbers 1 to 9. Puzzles come in three grades: easy, medium and difficult.
R
12
10
T
11
9
H
8
61
7
E
6
T
5
G U
4
O
3
SUDOKU by Myles Mellor and Susan Flanagan
by Myles Mellor
P
2
CROSSWORD
A
Downtowner 1
JULY 20-26,2017
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
60
22
JULY 20-26,2017
CLASSIFIEDS PUBLIC NOTICES
23
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
Telephone: 212-868-0190 Fax: 212-868-0198 Email: classified2@strausnews.com
POLICY NOTICE: We make every eďŹ&#x20AC;ort to avoid mistakes in your classiďŹ ed ads. Check your ad the ďŹ rst week it runs. The publication will only accept responsibility for the ďŹ rst incorrect insertion. The publication assumes no ďŹ nancial responsibility for errors or omissions. We reserve the right to edit, reject, or re-classify any ad. Contact your sales rep directly for any copy changes. All classiďŹ ed ads are pre-paid.
Directory of Business & Services
PUBLIC NOTICES
To advertise in this directory Call #BSSZ (212)-868-0190 ext.4 CBSSZ MFXJT@strausnews.com
MERCHANDISE FOR SALE
Now is the perfect time WR EX\ \RXU oUVW KRPH
NEED TO RUN A LEGAL NOTICE? Quick | Easy | Economical
Call Barry Lewis today at:
212-868-0190
Buying a home may seem overwhelmingâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; especially for a oUVW WLPH KRPHEX\HU 7KDW V ZK\ ZH RIIHU VSHFLDO oUVW WLPH EX\HU DGYDQWDJHV OLNH v /RZ 'RZQ 3D\PHQWV v =HUR 3RLQW 2SWLRQ v 5HDVRQDEOH 4XDOLI\LQJ Guidelines v 621<0$ /RDQV v )L[HG DQG $GMXVWDEOH 5DWH /RDQV DYDLODEOH RQ )DPLO\ +RPHV &RQGRV DQG &R RSV
SPECIAL FIRST-TIME HOMEBUYER PROGRAMS*
:H UH KHUH WR KHOS \RX HYHU\ VWHS RI WKH ZD\ IURP SURYLGLQJ H[SHUW SUH TXDOLoFDWLRQ DQG SHUVRQDO PRUWJDJH DGYLFH WR oQGLQJ WKH SURJUDP WKDW LV WUXO\ EHVW IRU \RX &DOO WRGD\ Antonio Ciccullo (NMLS #: 4145) 516-535-8344 $&LFFXOOR#DVWRULDEDQN FRP DVWRULDEDQN FRP
Antiques Wanted
Antique, Flea & Farmers Market
TOP PRICES PAID t 1SFDJPVT $PTUVNF +FXFMSZ (PME t 4JMWFS 1BJOUJOHT t .PEFSO t &UD
(between First & York Avenues)
Entire Estates Purchased
212.751.0009
East 67th Street Market Open EVERY Saturday 6am-5pm Rain or Shine Indoor & Outdoor FREE Admission Questions? Bob 718.897.5992 Proceeds BeneďŹ t PS 183
I CAN SELL YOUR HOME OR APARTMENT QUICKLY!
N e s t S e e ke r s I N T E R N A T I O N A L
Real Estate Sales, 10+ Years Experience 587 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10017 0Gm DF t 0UIFS Email: DavidL@NestSeekers.com Social Media davelopeznynj
CALL ME NOW AND GET RESULTS!
DAVID - 917.510.6457
0(0%(5 )',&
* First-time homebuyers only. Income limits and location restrictions may apply. NMLS #411768
OFFICE SPACE
AVAILABLE IN MANHATTAN
300 to 20,000 square feet
Elliot Forest, Licensed R.E. Broker
212-447-5400 abfebf@aol.com
ITâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S NEVER TOO EARLY TO INVEST IN A GOOD THING. Introducing Better FuturesTM â&#x20AC;&#x201D;a whole new kind of investment with a greater return than money. When you invest, it helps kids go to college. Because a mind is a terrible thing to waste but a wonderful thing to invest in.TM Invest in Better Futures at UNCF.ORG/INVEST
Š2013 UNCF
SINCE 1979
:H DUH D SURXG PHPEHU RI WKH $VVRFLDWHG 3UHVV DQG WKH 1DWLRQDO 1HZVSDSHU $VVRFLDWLRQ
24
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
JULY 20-26,2017
Got an EVENT? FESTIVAL CONCERT GALLERY OPENING PLAY Get The Word Out!
Add Your Event for FREE
nycnow.com